^ 



I 



% 



•U 



Ik 



'S 



If 



^ 





HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



115 



for the quantity of the whole, and the magni- 

 tude of the individual fragments, muft feem in-* 

 credible to every one, who has not learned to 

 calculate the efFeds of continued aclion, and to 

 reflecfl, that length of time can convert acciden- 

 tal into fteady caufes. Hence fragments of rock, 

 from the central chain, are found to have tra- 

 velled into dillant vallies, even where many in- 

 ferior ridges intervene : hence the granite of 

 Mount Blanc is feen in the plains of Lombardy, 

 or on the fides of Jura ; and the ruins of the 

 Carpathian mountains lie fcattered over the 

 Ihores of the Baltic *. 



, J 13. Thus, with Dr Hutton, we Iliall be dlf- 

 pofed to confider thofe great chains of moun- 



^ 



tains, which traverfe the furface of the globe, 





as cut 



f mafles vaftly greate 



d 



ng 



th 



now remams. 



more 

 The 



lofty than any th 

 prefent appearances afford no data for calcula- 

 ting the original magnitude of thefe maffes, or 

 the height to which they may have been ele- 



vated 



Th 



I neareft eflimate we can form is, 

 where a chain or group of mountains, like thofe 



of Rofa 



th 



Alp 



is horizontally ftratified 



and where, of confequence, the undifturbed po 



iition 



f 



beds 



ables us to refe 



the whole of the prefent inequalities of the fur- 

 face to the operation of wafle or decay. 



Thefe 



H2 



* Note xviii 



mountains-,. 



9 



