526 



M. E. De Beaumont's Views of the relative Age of the 

 European Mountains, an abstract by Professor Schow.* 

 Communicated by W. M. Westermann, Esq. 



A few years ago, geology consisted only of a collection 

 of curious hypotheses; it now however occupies a place 

 amongst other sciences, since it possesses a great mass 

 of precise observations. Some of the general results de- 

 rived from these, deserve our attention in the highest de- 

 gree, because they afford us instructions as to the original 

 state of our globe, and the astonishing revolutions which 

 from time to time it has undergone. 



It is now almost a general opinion, that the mountain masses 

 have been elevated from the bosom of the earth, and that 

 there accordingly was a time, during which the surface of 

 the earth did not present any considerable unevenness. 



The adoption of this view has removed considerable diffi- 

 culties connected with many of the most striking pheno- 

 mena of fossil shells, which are found on many of the high- 

 est mountains, and which can now be satisfactorily account- 

 ed for, without supposing that the sea has stood higher 

 than these mountain masses ; because we need only to sup- 

 pose, that the mountains in being elevated, have also lifted 

 the earlier masses which were deposited by the sea, and by 

 this means brought them to a height, which often exceeds 

 12,000 feet. 



This supposition, that the mountains have been elevated 

 from the bosom of the earth, suggests a number of interesting 

 questions. Thus for instance, we may ask, if the great 

 mountain masses have all been upheaved at one time; or, 

 if this has not been the case, in what order then did their 

 upheavement take place ? This is the subject which M. Elie 



* From Poggendorff's Annalen ISter. og. 25ter B. et. 1, fornemme- 

 ligen eftei* Aragos Fremstilling's Annuaire, 1830. 



