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The globe which we inhabit, presents, every where, a surface, 

 more or less irregular. In some places, gentle risings and declivi- 

 ties only are found : in others, the elevations are vast and lofty ; and 

 are accompanied by proportionate vallies. In some parts, the dry 

 land, interrupted only by slight intersections, for the currents of 

 rivers, stretches into immense continental tracts ; whilst in others, 

 prodigious excavations, of the substance of the earth, serve as the 

 receptacles of immense oceans of water. These, it is allowed, ex- 

 ceed, in the sum of their extent, that of the dry land ; and bear a 

 very near proportion, in their depth, to the height of the loftiest 

 mountains. 



Mountains are with propriety, divided into primitive, or prime- 

 val ; and secondary, or epizootic. The primitive and secondary 

 mountains differ, not only in their composition, but even their 

 form. 



The primitive mountains are composed of granites, and of stones 

 of the granitic class, of porphyry, jasper, serpentine, sand-stone, 

 trap, and sometimes, but more rarely, of lime-stone, fluors, gypsum, 

 &c. These substances, sometimes, lay in strata; but, most fre- 

 quently, they are found in huge blocks ; thus a granite mountain, 

 about thirty miles from the Cape of Good Hope, called the PEARL 

 DIAMOND, rises out of the ground, to the height of about 400 feet, 

 being half a mile in circumference ; and formed of a single block 

 of granite. These mountains never cover secondary mountains, 

 but are often covered by them. They are commonly the highest 

 ridges in any chain, and terminate, generally, more narrow and 

 sharp, than the secondary. 



The most distinguishing character of these mountains, is a cir- 

 cumstance which particularly demands our attention no organic 

 remains are to be found, in the interior part of the substance of 

 the stones of which they are composed. 



