﻿Modern Attainments m Geology. 275 



supposed to have elevated the axis of the system, pushing 

 aside the secondary ranges. Thus it was that Leopold 

 von Buch pictured the operation to himself. 



Others, in particular the great French geologist filie de 

 Beaumont, considered it possible that a simple geometrical 

 law could be formulated to account for the arrangement 

 of mountain axes on the surface of the planet. It was 

 supposed that these axes corresponded to the edges of 

 a crystal inscribed in the sphere of the earth. 



All these older views which for years formed a fruitful 

 basis for research are, however, no longer in accordance 

 with the knowledge of to-day. Their most important 

 suppositions are now known to be very doubtful. In the 

 first place it has been shown that the structure of the 

 largest mountain systems is not symmetrical, but 

 unsymmetrical and one-sided, and that approach to a 

 symmetrical structure occurs only very exceptionally. 

 Thus, for instance, the mightiest of the so-called " central 

 stocks" of the western Alps, Monte Kosa, does not lie at 

 the centre of the system, but almost on its southern edge. 



The idea of Elie de Beaumont, according to which 

 the mountain ranges correspond to the projections of the 

 edges of a crystal on the surface of the earth, is for 

 one reason alone no longer tenable : the great mountain 

 chainS; with few exceptions, do not run in straight lines, 

 but take a more or less curved course. 



In order to arrive at a correct understanding, it must 

 be remembered that the form of the earth's surface 

 is materially affected by the destructive influence of frost, 

 weathering, and running water. What we see before us 

 as mountains are the more or less demolished ruins of the 

 much mightier heights which Nature first built. If one 

 has learnt to roughly reproduce in his imagination the 

 original form of these ruins, an entirely different and 

 much more magnificent picture is obtained. It is very 

 different from the picture of the landscape painter or the 



