MACKIE — EUSKIN OX THE SATOT ALPS. 
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permeating plav and motion, sometimes filled with water, sometimes 
■with vapour, with gelatinous flint, with metal-ore. AVe may have a 
crag-glacier, measurable in depth by miles instead of fathoms, 
stiff'ened with bands of agate and flexible with fibres of iron ; flexible-) 
at all events, hy its oicn molecular or fragmentary division, and assum- 
ing new dimensions or flowing into new channels through gradations 
whicli are immeasurable, and in times of which human life — we 
might almost say human history — forms no appreciable unit. 
Having dealt with the substance of the mountain, Mr. liuskin goes 
on to the formation. Taking its collective rock-strata as so many 
original sea-bottoms level and flat, he seeks to find out how the 
Alpine mountain assumed its present rugged, dislocated form. "\Ve 
do not say Alpine mountains, for such mighty monuments are not to 
be read at once ; no eagle eye could read these wonders at a glance? 
with secrets hidden by fallen debris, and records buried and wrapped 
up in the folds and bends of a gigantic earth- mantle. jMr. Euskin 
found a portion and a corner of the magnificent Alps of Savoy suf- 
ficient to task his skill and knowledge. " There are," said he, " the 
mountain which is cut by streams or by more violent forces out of 
a mass of elevated land, just as you cut a pattern in thick velvet or 
cloth ; and there is the mountain produced by the wrinkling or fold- 
ing of the land itself, as the more picturesque masses of drapery are 
produced by its folds. Be clear in separating these two conditions." 
It is somethiiig wonderful to think of such slow but perfect plas- 
ticity in rock, — to see, in the mind's eye. particle pushing particle, and 
particle after particle yielding to the pressure through ages that man's 
race cannot count, lifting, rising, surging so slowly and solemnly, that 
no eye can perceive the motion, no ear detect the slightest grating in 
its onward rush ; for rush it is, although so slow and silent. " There 
are," Mr. Ruskin continued, " two ways in which this folding of the 
hills may be eflected. You may have folds suspended or folds com- 
pressed. If underneath, a mass comes up which sustains the folds, — 
a pendant wave ; but if the force be lateral, you have a compressed 
wave. xVnd observe this further distinction : — if a portion be raised 
by a force from beneath, unless the beds be as tenacious as they are 
ductile, they will be simply torn up and dragged out of shape at that 
place, and on each side the country will be undisturbed. But if they 
are pushed laterally into shape, the force of the thrust must be com- 
municated through them to beds beyond; nay, the rock which im- 
mediately receives the shock may, if harder than those beyond it, 
