Ch. XIII.] THE INCLINED POSITIONS OF STRATA. 289 



it is not even an easy matter, at all times, to determine the 

 fact, whether strata are or are not conformable. 



Sometimes groups of strata are found in mountain ranges, 

 so differently inclined, that it has been deemed necessary to 

 call in the aid of successive elevations, instead of one single 

 convulsion, in order to account for these occurrences : indeed, 

 they exhibit on the large scale the same intermixture of in- 

 clined and horizontal, straight and curved strata, as the 

 laminae of individual strata do, on a small scale, as detailed in 

 the preceding chapter ; and which it was attempted to show 

 may depend on the angle at which the beds have been 

 deposited, or on the structure which they have assumed 

 during consolidation. Now the known irregularity of the 

 present surface of the earth on which sedimentary rocks are 

 forming, and the variously inclined seams which occur in 

 shapeless masses of gravel and sand, would, a priori, lead us 

 to expect, that the strata in any given district would exhibit 

 different bearings and different degrees of inclination ; and if 

 these various dips be evidence of the elevation of the strata, 

 how numerous and complicated these actions must have been. 

 And thus it is, that most of the advocates of this doctrine 

 have found it necessary, whenever they extend their observa- 

 tions, to call in the aid of many convulsions, where the author 

 of the theory only laid down one anticlinal axis : Dr. Hibbert, 

 for instance, in his researches on the Basin of Neuwied, 

 ascertained that one derangement, corresponding with the 

 valley of the Rhine, would not explain all the phenomena, as 

 these require at least six or seven catastrophes for their 

 satisfactory elucidation. But we need not dwell on a topic 

 which has already been so ably handled by Boue, who has 

 satisfactorily shown that De Beaumont has founded his specu- 

 lations on too narrow a basis in this respect, since all sub- 

 sequent details concerning the bearings of mountain ranges, 

 have proved that the inclinations are much more complicated 

 than was originally supposed. It remains, therefore, for 



