346 RELATIVE ANTIQUITY [Ch. XXIV. 



dinavia, certain chains in Morocco, and the littoral Cordillera 

 of Brazil, were formed ! 



Not only do these speculations refer to mountains never 

 touched, as M. Boue remarks, by the hammer of the geologist, 

 but they proceed on the supposition, that in these distant chains 

 the geological and geographical axes always coincide. Now 

 we know that in Europe the strike * of the beds is not always 

 parallel to the direction of the chain. As an exception, we may 

 instance that pointed out by Von Dechen f , who states that in 

 the Hartz the direction or strike of the strata of slate and grey- 

 wacke is sometimes from E. and W. and frequently N. E.and 

 S. W.; whereas the geographical direction of the mountain- 

 chain is decidedly from E. S. E. to W. N. W. 



In addition to these uncertainties, which should, in the 

 present state of science, have deterred a geologist even from 

 speculating on the phenomena of unexplored regions, the im- 

 portant admission is made by M. de Beaumont himself, that the 

 elevating forces, whose activity must be referred to different 

 epochs, have sometimes acted in Europe in parallel lines. ' It 

 is worthy of remark, says that author, that the directions of 

 three systems of mountains, namely, first, that of the Pilas and 

 the Cote d'Or; secondly, that of the Pyrenees; and thirdly, 

 that of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, are respectively 

 parallel to three other systems, namely, first, that of West- 

 moreland and the Hunsdruck, secondly, that of the Ballons 

 (or Vosges) and the hills of the Bocage, in Calvados ; and 

 thirdly, the system of the north of England. The corre- 

 sponding directions only differ in a few degrees, and the two 

 series have succeeded each other in the same order, leading to 

 the supposition, that there has been a kind of periodical 



* The term * strike ' has been recently adopted by some of our most eminent 

 geologists from the German ' streich,' to signify what our miners call the * line of 

 bearing ' of the strata. Such a term was much wanted, and as we often speak of 

 striking off in a given direction, the expression seems sufficiently consistent with 

 analogy in our language. 



t Trans, of De la Beche's Geol. Manual, p. 41. 



