Feather stonhaugh^s Geological Report. 69 



In this country our investigations on this subject must be lim- 

 ited to the Alleghany series, having nothing higher than the 

 coal measures, except the tertiary beds of flat districts ; the 

 upheavings therefore of some of those secondary chains vs^hich 

 have been described by that eminent geologist, Elie de Beau- 

 mont, as forming part of the geological phenomena of trans- 

 Atlantic countries, are not exhibited here. There being no 

 evidence of other rocks having been deposited on the eastern 

 flanks of the Alleghanies since their upheaving, a very exten- 

 sive portion of this continent must probably have been up- 

 raised before the oolitic system in Europe was deposited. 



Many circumstances concur to prove that some of these 

 elevations were of a sudden and violent nature, the chains 

 coming up by paroxysmal movements through the superin- 

 cumbent ocean, and fracturing and contorting the strata 

 through which they were forced. Thus, in that system of 

 elevations which includes the Pyrenees, the northern Appe- 

 nines, and other parts of Europe, the cretaceous beds are 

 found lying in the greatest disorder on the tops of the highest 

 mountains, with the tertiary beds undisturbed and horizontal 

 in their vicinity, showing that the movement took place be- 

 tween the deposition of the chalk and the tertiary. Every 

 cubic foot too of mineral matter would displace another of 

 water. Here we have a phenomenon of another kind, pro- 

 ducing singular efl'ects, the evidence of which is constantly 

 before us : the ocean thrown out of its bed, mighty currents 

 created, the ruptured mineral matter broken into boulders, 

 rounded off into pebbles and gravel, and the whole deposited 

 in situations where their relative specific gravity and the inten- 

 sity of the moving power would carry them. Here we have 

 the origin of all the conglomerates, those indurated gravels 

 which are found even in the tin mines, low down in the 

 primary rocks, proving the great antiquity of movements of 

 this character. Hence are derived the great gravel beds in 

 which are found entombed the remains of the ancient masto- 



