178 Geological Results of the Earth’s Contraction. 
origin of mountain chains, and the same view is adopted by M. 
Omalius d’Halloy and others, who appear to consider no farther 
the results that may flow from this cause. MM. Leblanc,* 
Angelot,t Roys, and Rozet,{ reason more freely upon the — 
and derive from the theory explanations of volcanic an 
phenomena. Prevost$ has the credit of priority m many call 
ciples adduced, and of greater precision and waansebdnsienntteh 
dislocations from contraction. Prevost shows not only that the 
— should produce displacements, but points out ways in which 
these displacements should take place ; and he concludes that the 
* Leblane (Bull. de Ja Soc. Geol. de France, xii, 137, 1841) endeavors to show by 
ealculation, what are the effects of this con poeeion in depressing certain pers of 
e crust and sw os olen the swelling producing, as he argues 
h pothesis oor th existence sp su a vo d spa fs is oppose . Roys, and others. 
bid, rs 238, 2 ngelot te Bischof’s investigations, in Leonhard 
Bronn’ oN. Takouchs, 1841, 565, 566, w ‘ich show that a de eye 
Pom syne its volume on coo ling fr m a liquid state, trachyte a fifth, and basalt 4 
enth, or respectively in decimals, 0-7481, 0-8187, 08960. The leneal apogee 
or sees nite is hence one-tenth. 
t Bull. de la Soe. G eo]. de France, xii, 176, xiii, 175, 1841, 1842. Rozet agrees 
with Cordier with regard to volcanic eruptions ; but he attributes some of the great 
geological changes to a change in the éarth's axis of rotat 
revost’s views have been presented in various discuss ions before the Geo- 
logical Society of France during the twenty years past, but are most fully detailed 
i B in, 183 t 0203, March, 1840, from which we ae 
his general deductions in the last —— of this Journal » page The 
tion ry of craters, which constitutes a poe od the views opposed op het thee can 
is also discussed in the same place, sity in the volumes preceding, and 
give a more just nee tee of his views, and as he may not be a rei od with any 
modifications of them, or peculiar deductions, for which the writer alone is r 
sible, w we give here a Wsddlation ‘of wea pa hs from his memoir 
“Tf ! ich, according to the theory of Elevation, 
went ev 
(soulévement,) is supposed to hives raised the Alps or Andes, should elevate the 
bottom of the South Seas and cause a continent goa above the waters, what 
effect would this event have upon the 98 nt It is evident tl of water 
p A f the new continent would be thrown 
over the shores of America, Asia and rope, and after the oscillations had ceased, 
ged 
“« But passing from these suppositions and reasonings to actual — facts, 
do we not observe over all lands, continenté as well as islands, ient marine 
beaches and thick deposits of marine origin, which hate been left ¢ ie and still 
eserve their normal pos ? The general level of the waters has then been 
; and in order to this effect. either the waters have ee (which 
few will suppose,) or else onsequence of displacements j arth’s crust, the 
ssions formed are more considerable than the elev 6 
, nuc. 
* [f upon all shores, from New Holland to England and loclank ‘both of islands, 
continents, and on the banks of rivers, we recognize undeniable marks of a 
us water level at different heights, all nearly paraltel, it is very difficult to 
successive elevations of such extent, to an Ronee, elevation of the 
srt, th different parts of which surface retain the same relative positions as 
