26 o 
SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND. 
Andes, the African ridge, and the grand boss which 
forms Australia and Tasmania. 
This, then, seems to me the answer to the dif- 
ficulty suggested by Mr. Galton. The principal moun- 
tain chains in the southern hemisphere running north 
and south give us when combmed with the prepon- 
derance of water the southern pointing promontories. 
No such preponderance, however, in the northern 
hemisphere would give us northern pointing promon- 
tories, because there the great folds run not from 
north to south, but from east to west. 
d hus , then , the explanation of great mountain 
ridges by lateral pressure and consequent folding, 
coupled with the necessity of approximately equivalent 
contraction along every great circle, explains the 
balance of east to west and north to south chains 
in each hemisphere; and this again, in conjunction 
with the preponderance of water in the south, ex- 
plains the tendency of land masses to taper south- 
wards, and end with an island or group of islands, 
thus throwing an interesting light on some of the 
principal features in the configuration of the Earth’s 
surface. 
