208 THE OCEAN. [Book IX. 



attention ' to a very remarkable geologic conforma- 

 tion, common to a great part of our world approach- 

 able by sea, though not so much to the far interior of 

 extensive continents : namely, gradual slope up from 

 east towards west, and comparatively precipitous 

 steeps, from summits, westward. Norway, Europe 

 generally, Africa, with its outlying islands, both 

 Americas, the Galapagos, the (elevated) Polynesian 

 islands, the ranges of Australia, China, and Asiatic 

 sea- coasts generally, when viewed extensively in 

 profile from south to north, have the wedge-like 

 outline that is familiar to Englishmen in the Bill 

 of Portland. To the physical philosopher and the 

 geologist we must turn for reasoning on this striking 

 peculiarity — one that the writer has often notice^. 

 and considered with extreme interest. His attention 

 was first drawn to it by seeing the Galapagos group, 

 from a distance, appearing like several " Bills of 

 Portland," all exactly similar in their profile outlines 

 when many miles distant. Since that time (1836), 

 many opportunities have occurred for inquiries and 

 careful comparisons, of which the result is a belief 

 that (excepting those greater east and west ranges of 

 mountains embodied within continents, or continental 

 islands, such as Australia and Borneo), the general 

 average direction of ranges or chains of mountams 

 is nearly meridional, and their section approaches 

 that of a wedge (pointing eastward). 



' This wedge-like shape is common to every little 



