346 
RELATIVE ANTIQUITY 
[Ch. XXIV. 
dinavia, certain chains in Morocco, and the littoral Cordillera 
of Brazil, were formed ! 
Not only do these speculations refer to mountains never 
touched, as M. Boue remarks, by the hammer of the geologist, 
but they proceed on the supposition, that in these distant chains 
the geological and geographical axes always coincide. Now 
we know that in Europe the strike* of the beds is not always 
parallel to the direction of the chain. As an exception, we may 
instance that pointed out by Von Dechen f , who states that in 
the Hartz the direction or strike of the strata of slate and grey- 
wacke is sometimes from E. and W. and frequently N. E. and 
S. W.; whereas the geographical direction of the mountain- 
chain is decidedly from E. S. E. to W. N. W. 
In addition to these uncertainties, which should, in the 
present state of science, have deterred a geologist even from 
speculating on the phenomena of unexplored regions, the im- 
portant admission is made by M. de Beaumont himself, that the 
elevating forces, whose activity must be referred to different 
epochs, have sometimes acted in Europe in parallel lines. ' It 
is worthy of remark, says that author, that the directions of 
three systems of mountains, namely, first, that of the Pilas and 
the Cote d'Or ; secondly, that of the Pyrenees ; and thirdly, 
that of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, are respectively 
parallel to three other systems, namely, first, that of West- 
moreland and the Hunsdruck, secondly, that of the Ballons 
(or Vosges) and the hills of the Bocage, in Calvados ; and 
thirdly, the system of the north of England. The corre- 
sponding directions only differ in a few degrees, and the two 
series have succeeded each other in the same order, leading to 
the supposition, that there has been a kind of periodical 
* The term ' strike ' has heen recently adopted by some of our most eminent 
geologists from the German { streich,' to signify what our miners call the 1 line of 
bearing ' of the strata. Such a term was much wanted, and as we often speak of 
striking off in a given direction, the expression seems sufficiently consistent with 
analogy in our language. 
t Trans, of De la Beche's Geol. Manual, p. 41. 
