CONCLUSION. 
587 
then, and at an epoch comparatively recent, the central axis of these mountains, or 
at least its watershed, has been so modified, that all the rich and original masses of 
copper ore from which the arenaceous deposits on the west must have derived their 
cupriferous materials, are now shut out from all physical communication with them, 
and lie on the eastern flank of the Ural ridge. 
But although it has been thus demonstrated, that in a general sense (subject to 
great local deviations) these lines of disturbance, produced at different periods, 
have all, more or less, a meridian direction, such facts do not impugn the value 
of one of the leading speculations of M. Elie de Beaumont, — that relative direc- 
tions of great mountain chains are indicative of the age in which they were 
thrown up. No one can look at our general map without seeing, that it exhibits 
three grand natural features which support this portion of the theory of our emi- 
nent contemporary. Thus, the Scandinavian mountains, along which the older 
palaeozoic rocks only have been elevated, range from south-west to north-east. In 
the Ural, where the chief disturbances have taken place after the carboniferous 
and Permian deposits (neither of which formations exist in Scandinavia), the 
direction is north and south. And thirdly, in the Caucasus, in which no vestige 
of palaeozoic life has been detected, and where the mightiest upheavals have oc- 
curred posterior to the oolite and the chalk, the range is distinctly from west- 
north-west to east-south-east. These data, therefore, as established by geological 
labours, compel us to believe, that there is a connection between certain great 
lines of elevation of the earth’s surface and the periods at which they were 
produced. 
From the absence of all marine deposits of tertiary or recent age, either in their 
valleys or on their immediate eastern flank, we feel confident, that the Ural 
Mountains and the adjacent regions of Siberia had been long above the waters 
and were the habitations of the mammoths and other great quadrupeds, before the 
gold alluvia were formed and the present watershed or Ural-tau was established. 
And whilst these portions of the earth were already terrestrial surfaces, it has been 
shown, that the whole of northern Germany and Russia must have been beneath 
the sea, under which the erratic blocks and gravel were transported from Scandi- 
navia and Lapland. 
If from these mighty oscillations in the north, we turn to the consideration of the 
southern and south-eastern limits of this great empire, how are we to account for 
the grand and equable elevations of large regions and the violent disturbance of all 
