522 Progress of Geological Science. [Nov. 



quiring a new geological sense, and anew faculty of induction ; and I cannot 

 express ray feelings of regret, that during my recent visit to the Eastern Alps I 

 did not possess this grand key to the mysteries of nature. 



" I am aware how impossible it is in a few words to give any clear notion of a 

 volume of condensed original researches. Dropping all minor details, I may, 

 however, claim your indulgence, while I point out the author's manner of induc- 

 tion in four great systems of European chains : not indeed in the wish of quench- 

 ing the curiosity of those who have not studied this question, but rather in the 

 hope of urging them to seek the fountain of original information. 



" 1. The first system includes the higher elevations, in eastern France, of the 

 C6te d'Or and Mont Pilas, and a portion of the Jura chain. It may be traced 

 towards the valley of the Rhine, where it is suddenly cut off ; but it re-appears in 

 the chain of the Erzgebirge, between Bohemia and Saxony. It never rises into 

 mountains of the first order, but is marked throughout (as may be seen on a good 

 physical map) by many longitudinal ridges and furrows, ranging nearly parallel 

 to each other, in a direction about north-east and south-west. So far the state- 

 ment is only an enumeration of certain connected facts in physical geography. 

 But it is followed by a co-ordinate series of geological phenomena. 



"A number of formations, including in the ascending order the whole oolitic se- 

 ries, enter here and there into the composition of the geographical system above 

 described ; and without exception, wherever they appear, all are in turn elevated, 

 broken, or contorted; yet in their lines of range they preserve a parallelism to 

 the general direction of the ridges. On the contrary, wherever rocks, of an age 

 not older than that of the green-sand or chalk, appear in the vicinity of any por- 

 tion of this system, they are either found at a dead level, and expanded from the 

 neighbouring mountains into horizontal planes, like the sea at the base of a lofty 

 cliff; or if, since their first deposit, they have undergone any great movement, it 

 is shown to have no relation to the bearing of the older ridges, and to have been 

 produced at a later period. 



" From all these combined facts follow three important consequences: 1st. That 

 the whole system of parallel ridges, from one end to the other, was elevated at 

 the same period of time, after the development of the oolitic series, and before 

 the deposition of the green-sand and chalk. 2ndly. That the action of elevation 

 was violent, and of short continuance ; for the inclined strata are shattered and 

 contorted, and between them and the horizontal strata there is no intermediate 

 gradation of deposits. 3rdly. That the period of elevation was followed by an 

 immediate change in many of the forms of organic life. 



*' 2. The next great system includes the whole chain of the Pyrenees — the Nor- 

 thern Apennines — the calcareous chains to the north-east of the Adriatic — nearly 

 the whole Carpathian chain— and a great series of inequalities, continued from 

 that chain through the Hartz mountains, to the plains of Northern Germany. 

 Through the whole of these vast regions the principal inequalities range nearly 

 parallel to each other, and have a mean bearing about west-north-west and east- 

 south-east. So far again the statement is purely geographical, and its truth is 

 seen at once in glancing over any good physical map of Europe ; and will be still 

 more clearly comprehended, by comparing some of the principal ranges of colour 

 on Von Buch's great geological map with the bearing of the Pyrenees. But it is 

 followed by a series of co-extensive geological phenomena. 



" Through all parts of this great system, formations of the age of the green-sand 

 and chalk have had an enormous development, and without exception, their strata 



