74 
The precepts which the author gives to 
young obfervers, are {upported by exam- 
ples, which fhew their folidity and impor- 
tance. 
ea 
, TRANSACTIONS oF rye ROYAL 
IRISH ACADEMY. 
NATURAL HISTORY AND CHEMISTRY. 
N a former volume of thefe tranfactions, 
Jt Mr. Kirwan publifhed an eflay on 
. the primitive ftate of the globe, in- which 
he afferted, in proof of the Molaic ac- 
count, that no petrifications were found 
imbedded and incorporated in mafles of 
ftone, in fuch countries as were elevated 
8,500 or 9,000 feet above the aétual level 
of the fea; for inftance, in the great 
Tartarian platform, and the elevated re: 
gions of Siberia, though in all inferior 
regions of the fame extent fuch. petri- 
factions were abundantly found. Now 
thofe writers who have denied the Mo- 
faic account, maintain-.that the keen air 
exilting in thefe elevated regions has long 
fince decompofed and’ confumed the hells 
that might have been depofited there ; they 
have alfo afferted, that in Peru, at the 
height of 14,220 feet above the level of 
the fea, petrifactions have been found. 
Thefe faéts Mr. Kirwan controverts in a 
briet illuftration and confirmation of his 
former eflay. He firtt thews, by barome- 
tical calculations, that, inftead of 14,000 
feet and upwards, the height could not 
have been more than 8,200 feet ; and then 
fecondly, that the fhells found muft have 
deen depofited by the ocean, becaufe it is 
exprefily afferted, that, in the fame rocks 
in which the fhells were found, petrified 
wood was alfo feen; but the wood mutt 
have grown on dry land, and mult have 
been floated when the fhells were depofited, 
fince both are found in the fame rocks; 
and therefore he concludes, they were 
brought together by a deluge, as it is 
known that wood will not. grow there. 
The fhells are for the moft part bivalves, 
which geologifts allow to form petrifactions 
of the moft modern date. 
In.an effay on the declivities of moun- 
teins, Mr. Kirwan fets himéelf to inquire 
into the inequality of declivity, which the 
Aides. or flanks of mountains’ exhibit in 
every part of the globe hitherto examined, 
according to the points of the compal{s to 
which they face, and are expofed. 
It is known that almoft every mountain 
or high hill, is fteeper on one fide than 
on theother. With regard to the extreme 
-ends of mountains, the ffeepeft declivity 
‘always faces that part of the country 
where the Jand is higheft ; in the fouthern 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
carbon. 
(Feb. 1, 
and eaftern parts of Sweden, for inftance, 
they face the eaft and fouth.eaft. In 
mountains that run from N. to §S, the 
weftern flank is the fteepeft, and the eaft- 
ern the gentleft ; and in thofe which ex- 
tend E. and W, the fouthern declivity is 
the fteepeft, and the northern the gentleft. 
Mr. Kirwan has colleéted a vaft variety 
of facts to prove that this is the cafe, 
with regard to the principal mountains in 
Europe, Afia, and America; and in af- 
figning the caufes of this univerfal allot- 
ment of unequal declivities to oppofite 
points, and why the greateft are direfted 
to.the weft and fouth ; he obferves that it 
is neceflary to confider (1) that all moun- 
tains were formed while covered with 
water: (2) that the earth was univerfally 
covered with water at two different eras, 
that of the creation, and that of the 
Noachian deluge: (3) that in the firft - 
era'we muft diftinguifh two different pe- 
riods, that which preceded the appearance 
of dry land; and that which fucceeded the 
creation of fifth, but before the fea had been 
reduced nearly to its prefent level; du- 
riag the former, the primeval mountains 
were formed, and during the laft moft of 
the fecondary mountains and ftrata were 
formed: (4) that all mountains extend in 
general either from E. to W. or from N. 
toS. With thefe data Mr. Kirwan ex- 
plains the caufes of this curious pheno- 
menon in natural hiftory. a 
On the fame fubje&, Mr. Kirwan has an 
an{wer to Sir James Hail’s Proofs of the 
Huttonian theory of the earth. ; 
In Mr.Kirwan’s Chemical and Minerale- 
gical Nomenclature,we have an attack upor 
the French Nomenclatures. Seme of his 
obfervations are fuccefsfuily applied, but 
others are lefs important, and will {carcely 
induce any Englith chemift to adopt the 
alterations which he has fuggefted. ‘* The 
term oxide,” fays our author, ‘is unfuited 
.to our language, in which it naturally ex- 
prefles the hide of an ox. In pronuncia- 
tion they cannot be diftinguifhed ; in its _ 
fread I would ufe oxat, or oxidat; and in- 
ftead of oxided, I would fubftitute oxi- 
dated. ‘The -application of either, of 
thefe terms to metallic fubftances in an 
oxidated ftate is generally fuperfluous, as 
‘fuch fubfances are already denoted and 
known under the name of metallic calces. ; 
Guyton has lately proved that diamonds 
are the pureft carbon ; yet furely even the 
French {chool will not attempt to fupprels 
that well known name, and exchange it for 
Neither, I fuppofe, will they 
call charcoal: an oxide of carbon, though 
proved to contain fame postions. of. oxy- 
gen; and for the fameseafon, I hall not 
exchange — 
