CONSTRUCTION OF OUR HILLS. 
71 
in lieu of a level surface the greatest irregularities 
occur, and the utmost latitude of variation from 
equality is universally presented. The heights 
however of the tallest hills, whether slate, sandstone, 
trapp, or other rock, are tolerably uniform, and the 
predominating stratum—slate, seems to accommo¬ 
date in a remarkable manner, the other rocks ; for, 
though the hills and ridges of the schistose formation 
are so irregular in size and de viousin course, insulated 
depositions of the others seem nicely blended with 
it in the construction of sweeps, vallies, ridges and 
simple elevations,—the outline never appears abrupt 
or broken, however complex the arrangement or 
numerous the component parts. The main line of 
limestone pursues its eastward direction unbroken 
for a great space, and throughout this course but 
little appears of interrupted surfaces, broken outline, 
or interference by other strata. 
All this is at variance with what might be ex¬ 
pected from the nonconformity on the part of the 
slate hills to regularity or rule of course, and there¬ 
fore strongly evinces the contemporaneous origin 
of the series. 
That these hills existed anteriorly to the Mosaic 
deluge there is the strongest evidence ; no deluge 
I apprehend would leave such a multiplicity of 
simple ranges and elevations, and these having 
(speaking of course independently of soil since de¬ 
posited) such well rounded sides, protruding ends, 
and intervening vallies ; no flood I conceive would 
excavate a valley such as I have here seen, where, 
at one spot, limestone rises into a hill on one side 
and sweeping across the vale, reappears opposite, 
lying in connexion with slate ; nothing but original 
deposition is equal to an explanation of the tortu¬ 
osity of the slate hills, in the arrangement of the 
component fragments of which, there is found such 
an evident tendency to turn, or round off in order 
