MOUNTAIN

MOUNTAIN (Mont), a considerable eminence of land, elevated above every thing adjoining to it, and commanding all the surrounding places: It is commonly full of inequalities, cavities more or less exposed, and strata half laid open. This name is likewise given to a chain of mountains; as when we speak of Mount Atlas in Africa; Mount Caucasus, which begins above Colchis and ends at the Caspian sea; the Pyrenean mountains, which separate France from Italy; and the Apennine mountains, which run through the whole of Italy. Those who have surveyed the earth in general, and studied Mountain. studied nature on a grand scale, have constantly been struck with admiration and astonishment at the sight of such majestic eminences, which extending in different ways, seem to rule over the rest of the globe, and which present to the beholder a spectacle equally magnificent and interesting. In them it has been supposed we must search for a solution of the important problem regarding the creation of the world. Naturalists reckon several kinds of mountains: we shall find that these elevations of the earth have not all the same origin, nor date their commencement from the same era. 1. Those mountains which form a chain, and which are covered with snow, may be considered as primitive or antediluvian. They are like majestic bulwarks scattered on the surface of the globe, and greatly exceed the other mountains in height. In general, their elevation is very sudden, and their ascent very steep and difficult. Their shape is that of a pyramid crowned with sharp and prominent rocks, on which no verdure is to be seen, but which are dry, naked, and as it were stripped of their soil, which has been washed away by the rains, and which present an awful and horrible aspect, sufficient to impress the coldest imagination with terror. These primitive mountains, which astonish the eye, and where wind only reigns, are condemned by nature to perpetual sterility. At the foot of them we frequently find paths less steep and winding than when we ascend to a greater height. They every where present thundering cascades, frightful precipices, and deep valleys. The depressions and excavations correspond with the quantity of water, the motion of which is accelerated in its fall, and which sometimes produces a total sinking or an inclination of the mountain. The wrecks to be found at the foot of most peaks, show how much they have suffered from the hand of time. Nothing meets the eye but enormous rocks, heaped in confusion on one another, which prevent the approach of the human race. On the summits of these mountains or high eminences, which are only a series of peaks frequently detached from one another, the prominent rocks are covered with eternal snow and ice, and surrounded with floating clouds which are dispersed into dew. In a word, the rugged cliffs oppose an inaccessible rampart to the intrepidity of man; and nature exhibits a picture of disorder and decay (A). No shells or other organized marine bodies are to be found in the internal part of these primitive mountains; and though search has Mountain. been made, by digging, on the tops of the Alps and the Pyrenees, no substances of this nature have yet been discovered except on the sides near the base. Nothing is to be met with but continued rocks, caverns dug by the hand of nature, and abounding in crystallizations of great beauty, with various minerals. The stone of which they consist is an immense mass of quartz, somewhat varied, which penetrates into the bowels of the earth in a direction almost perpendicular to the horizon. We find no calcareous spar but in the fissures or rents which have some extent and an evident direction; and at great depths we find new parts as it were, or, in other words, the primitive state of things. All primitive mountains furnish proofs of these assertions. Of this kind in Europe are the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the mountains of Tirol, the mountain of the giants in Silesia, the Carpathian mountains, the mountains of Saxony, those of Norway, &c. In Asia we find the Riphean mountains, Mount Caucasus, Mount Taurus, and Mount Libanus; in Africa, the mountains of the moon; and in America the Apalachian mountains, and the Andes or Cordilleras. Many of the latter have been the seats of volcanoes. 2. Another kind of mountains are those which are either detached, or surrounded with groups of little hills, the soil of which is heaped up in disorder, and the crust gravelly and confusedly arranged together. These are truncated or have a wide mouth in the shape of a funnel towards the summit, and which are composed of, or surrounded with, heaps of calcined and half vitrified bodies, lava, &c. This class of mountains appear to have been formed by different strata raised up and discharged into the air, upon occasion of the eruption of some subterranean fire. The isles of Santorin, Monte-Nuovo, Mount Etna, Adam's Peak in the island of Ceylon, the peak of Teneriffe in the Canary Islands, and many others, have been formed in this manner. When very high mountains of this kind are covered with sea-shells, we may consider their summits as having once constituted a part of the bottom of the ocean. A number of these mountains have been formed in the memory of man; and present nothing to the view but disordered ruins, confused masses, parts heaped together in the greatest irregularity, and productions formed by eruptions or by the falling in of the earth. When a mountain of this this (A) It is observed, says the Abbé Palassou, that at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains, the soil of several countries consists wholly of the mud and rubbish deposited by the rivers which descend from them. According to Herodotus, a great part of Egypt was in like manner formed by the different substances brought thither by the Nile: Aristotle calls it the work of the Nile; and on this account the Ethiopians boasted that Egypt was indebted to them for its origin. The inhabitants of the Pyrenees might say the same thing of almost the whole tract of country situated along the northern chain from the ocean to the Mediterranean, forming that kind of isthmus which separates the two seas. The surface of our globe is thus in a state of perpetual change; the plains are elevated, the mountains are levelled, and water is the principal agent employed by nature in these great revolutions. Time alone is wanting to verify the saying of Louis XIV. to his grandson: Patience will one day be able to say, "The Pyrenees are no more." The period, however, must necessarily be very distant. M. Genfanne, from observations which he thinks well-founded, concludes, that these mountains are lowered about ten inches every century. Supposing them therefore to be 1500 toises above the level of the sea, and always susceptible of being lowered in the same degree, a million of years would elapse before their total destruction. Mountain. this kind is connected with the land, and advances farther into the sea than the adjoining country, it is then termed a Cape, Head, or Promontory; such as the Cape of Good Hope at the southern extremity of Africa. Mountains of the second rank are commonly more easy of access. Dr Haller observes, that the angle formed between their base and their declivity is larger; that they have fewer springs; and that their plants are different from those of the Alps. The peasants in Switzerland, he tells us, are acquainted with the difference betwixt these two kinds of mountains. 3. Those mountains, whether arranged in a group or not, the earth or stone of which is disposed in strata more or less regular, and consisting of one or more colours and substances, are produced by the substances deposited slowly and gradually by the waters, or by soil gained at the time of great floods. We daily see little hills formed in this manner, which are always of a small height compared with those of the first order, and round in the top, or covered with soil frequently forming a pretty flat and extensive surface. We there find likewise sand and heaps of round pebbles like such as have been worn by the waters. The internal part of these mountains consists of a heap of strata almost horizontal, and containing a prodigious quantity of shells, marine bodies, and fish-bones. Although these mountains formed by strata sometimes degenerate into little hills, and even become almost flat, they always consist of an immense collection of fossils of different kinds, in great preservation, and which are pretty easily detached from their earthy bed whether harder or softer. These fossils, consisting of marine shells intermixed and confounded with heaps of organised bodies of another species, present a picture of astonishing disorder, and give indubitable indications that some extraordinary and violent current has confounded and accumulated in the greatest disorder and precipitation foreign substances and shells of various kinds. These, removed from their natural and original place, by their union form an elevation and a mountain, which are in fact nothing but a composition of the wrecks of bodies formerly organised. All these phenomena seem to prove, that most of these mountains chiefly owe their origin to the sea, which once covered some parts of our continent, now left dry by its retreat. (According to the principles of this system, Anaxarchus explained the formation of the mountains of Lampfacus). In these mountains we likewise find wood, prints of plants, strata of clay, marl, and chalk, different beds of stone succeeding one another, such as slate, marble, which is often full of sea shells, lime-stone which appears to be wholly formed from the wreck of shells, plaster-stone, entire strata of ochre, and beds of bitumen, mineral salt, and alum. The strata of mountains which are lower and of a recent date, or formed by recent accidents, sometimes appear to rest upon, or to take their rise from, the sides of primitive mountains which they surround, and of which they in some measure form the first steps in the ascent; and they end by being insensibly lost in the plains. With respect to the irregularity of some strata in recent mountains, it is owing to violent and sudden inundations, to torrents, and to local revolutions which have produced angles, leaps, and sinkings down of the strata. It is generally observed, however, that the strata in mountains are exactly parallel to each other throughout all their different windings. M. Desmarest remarks, that in two mountains which by their brows form the hollow of a valley, we find strata of earth or stone of the same kind, and disposed and arranged in the same manner. We have already shown, under the article EARTH, why the strata of recent mountains are not every where the same in number and thickness. Some strata are only a quarter of an inch thick, others are more than ten feet: in some places we find 30 or 40 beds succeeding each other, in others only three or four. In recent mountains composed of strata, M. Lehmann observes, the lowest stratum is always pit-coal; and this rests on a coarse and ferruginous gravel or sand. Above the pit-coal we find strata of slate, schistus, &c. and the upper part of the strata is constantly occupied by limestone and salt-springs. It is easy to perceive the utility of these observations, when we intend to work for these minerals; and by attending to the distinction which has been made of the different mountains of the same kind, we may know the nature of those substances which upon search we may expect to find in them. The specimens which appear without, indicate what substances are concealed within. In general, it has been observed, that when two or more mountains run parallel to each other, the facient angles correspond with the receding ones; and these angles are sharper and more striking in deep and narrow valleys. Dr Haller observes, that there are many places in the Alps and in mountains, where two chains are prolonged contrary to the axis of the valley, and join so as only to leave as much space as is necessary for the discharge of the water. In other places the mountain is continued, for instance, to the north, and discontinued to the south, where it opens into a valley. In others, the two chains retire and form a bend on each side, the concavity of which fronts the axis: hence arise valleys almost round and completely united. It is likewise worthy of observation, that primitive mountains which form vast chains are commonly connected together; that they succeed one another for a space of several hundred leagues; and cover with their principal branches, and their various collateral ramifications, the surface of continents. Father Kircher and many others have observed, that the principal chain generally runs from south to north, and from east to west. The Cordilleras in the New world, Dr Haller observes, extend from north to south; the Pyrennees have nearly the same direction; the Alps run from east to west; and there must be a chain of this kind in Africa, for the great rivers in that quarter of the world run to the east on the one side and to the west on the other. The chain of Thibet appears to be parallel to the Alps; and, from the great length of the road through the snows, it may be inferred that the mountains of Thibet have a very great elevation. Those mountains which, strictly speaking, are the principal roots, and the capital point of elevation and division, present very considerable masses, both with regard to their height and their size or extent; they commonly occupy and traverse the centre of continents. Those Mountains. Those which have a smaller elevation arise from these principal chains; they gradually diminish in proportion to their distance from their root, and at length wholly disappear either on the sea-coast or in the plains. Others are continued along the shore of the sea: their chain is interrupted only to make room for the waters of the ocean, under the bed of which the base of these mountains extends; and it again occurs in islands, which perpetuate their continuation till the whole chain re-appears. The highest mountains and the greatest number of islands are generally found between or near the tropics, and in the middle of the temperate zones; while the lowest are adjacent to the poles; though this does not always hold good without exception. M. Buache, a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, has laid down a system of physical geography concerning the structure of the terraqueous globe, considered with respect to the great chains of mountains which cross the continents and seas from pole to pole, and from east to west. According to this system, there is an uninterrupted series of mountains and high grounds which divide the earth into four declivities, from which the rivers descend. These chains of mountains are continued from one continent to another under the ocean; and the islands which are observed in it, are as it were the summits of the mountains. M. Buache's work is entitled Tables et Cartes de la Géographie physique. But that this system, with regard to the islands, must be erroneous, will appear evident from our article EARTH. In the Journal de Physique for May 1779 we are informed, that Dr Pullas, who has travelled through Siberia, and almost all the Russian empire in the north of Asia, thinks he has discovered the insufficiency of the principal systems hitherto proposed to account for the formation of mountains. This accurate observer has prosecuted the study of mountains by traversing immense regions, and visiting as it were the secret work shops of nature in almost the fourth part of our hemisphere. He has not trusted to the vague reports of others, but from observations which he himself had occasion to make for the space of ten years. He has, in a work entitled Observations on Mountains, explained both the direction of the northern chains, and the particular composition of each. He is thence led to make an ingenious conjecture concerning the formation of the principal groups of mountains, and concerning the irregular distribution and the figure of the old continent. Under the article EARTH an account is given of the different systems which have been formed concerning the formation and configuration of our globe. To establish a general system, it would perhaps be necessary to have travelled over the whole earth; and to have studied all the chains of mountains, their direction, and particular composition, for a long series of years. Thus very little attention is required to perceive, in the different systems mentioned under the article EARTH, the influence of climate and local situation. Burnet, Whilton, and Woodward, who were acquainted only with England, where very few great chains of mountains are to be seen, where they are almost all insulated or detached, and where the soil of extensive plains is formed by horizontal and pretty regular strata, naturally thought that these general and concentric strata were to be found all around the globe, and considered mountains as nothing but the wrecks Mountains. of these strata, either raised or swallowed up by the violence of the waters. Scheuchzer, who studied among the steep mountains of Switzerland, amid rocks of granite, petroflex, jasper, and hard stones, and who found nothing on the most elevated plains of the Alps but strata of similar substances, had recourse to the power of the Almighty, who broke in pieces these strata, and elevated their splinters into the form of mountains. Ray, Morro, and Stenon, who saw nothing all around them but burning mountains and traces of volcanic productions—deceived by the constitution of the hills of Italy, which are almost all formed of lava, pozzolana, and basaltic substances, and by the origin of the Monte Nuovo, which rose up almost before their eyes, have considered great mountains as formed by a cause which undoubtedly has a secondary, but to which they have ascribed a primary and principal, influence. M. de Buffon, who delineated nature at the foot of the utmost extremity of the French Alps, and who perceived them gradually attain a greater elevation as they advanced towards the southern parts of France and towards Savoy, concluded from his theory, and in support of the same theory, that the highest mountains were near the equator; that they became lower towards the poles; and that, being produced by the flux and reflux of the sea, they were formed of the substances which it deposited. We shall now lay before our readers the geographical description of the directions of the principal mountains, and of that kind of connection which subsists between them. This description differs from that of M. Buache, and may be read with a map of the world before us. M. Buache places the most elevated points of the great chains of mountains under the equatorial line: but, according to the author whom we follow in this place, the fullest and most continuous lands, and perhaps likewise the most elevated, are to be found at a distance from the equator, and towards the temperate zones. If, in fact, we survey the globe's surface, we will not be able to perceive that chain of mountains, which running from east to west, and dividing the earth into two portions, ought again to meet. On the contrary, extensive plains seem to accompany the line through almost its whole extent. In Africa, the deserts of Nigritia and those of Upper Ethiopia, are on the one side of the line; and on the other are the sandy plains of Nicoco, Caffraria, Monoemugi, and Zanguebar. From the eastern shores of Africa to the Sunda islands, is a space of 150 leagues of sea with almost no islands, except the Lacedive and Maldivé islands; most part of which have little elevation, and which run from north to south. From the Molucca islands and New Guinea, to the western borders of America, the sea occupies a space of 3000 leagues. Though Chimborazo and Pichincha in America the two highest mountains which have been measured, are near and even under the line, yet from this no conclusion can be drawn: because on one side these mountains run in a direction not parallel to the equator; the Andes or Cordilleras attain a greater elevation as they remove from the equator towards the poles; and a vast plain is found exactly under the line, between the Oronoko and the river of the Amazons. Besides, the latter river, which Mountain. which takes its rise in the province of Lima about the 17th degree of south latitude, after crossing the whole of South America from west to east, falls into the ocean exactly under the equator. This shows that there is a descent for the space of 12 degrees or 300 leagues. From the mouth of the river of the Amazons, to the western shores of Africa, the sea forms another plain of more than 50 degrees. From the few certain facts and accurate observations which we have received from well informed travellers, we might almost affirm that the most elevated land on our globe is situated without the tropics in the northern and southern hemispheres. By examining the course of the great rivers, we in fact find that they are in general discharged into three great reservoirs, the one under the line, and the other two towards the poles. This, however, we do not mean to lay down as a thing universally true; for it is allowed, that, besides the two elevated belts, the whole surface of the earth is covered with innumerable mountains, either detached from one another or in a continued chain. In America, the Orinoco and the river of the Amazons run towards the line, while the river St Lawrence runs towards the 50th degree of north latitude, and the river de la Plata towards the 40th degree of south latitude. We are still too little acquainted with Africa, which is almost all contained within the tropics, to form any accurate conclusions concerning this subject. Europe and Asia, which form only one great mass, appear to be divided by a more elevated belt, which extends from the most westerly shores of France to the most easterly of China, and to the island of Sagaleen or Anga-hata, following pretty nearly the 50th degree of north latitude. In the new continent, therefore, we may consider that chain where the Mississippi, the river St Lawrence, the Ohio, and the river de los Estrechos, take their rise, as the most elevated situation in North America; whence the Mississippi flows towards the equator, the river St Lawrence towards the north-east, and the rest towards the north-west. In the old continent, the belt formerly mentioned, and to which we may assign about 10 degrees in breadth, may be reckoned from the 45th to the 55th degree of north latitude: for in Europe the Tagus, the Danube, the Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga, and in Asia the Indus, the Ganges, the Meran, the Mecon, the Hoong-ho, and the Yang-tse-Kiang, descending as it were from this elevation, fall into the great reservoir between the tropics; whilst towards the north the Rhine, the Elbe, the Oder, the Vistula, the Obi, the Jenisei, the Lena, the Indigirka, and the Kowyma, are discharged into the northern reservoir. Judging from those mountains the height of which has been calculated, and from the immense chains with which we are acquainted, we may infer that the highest mountains are to be found in this elevated belt. The Alps of Switzerland and Savoy extend through the 45th, the 46th, and the 47th degrees. Among them we find St Gothard, Furca, Bruning, Rufs, Whiggis, Scheideck, Gunggels, Galanda, and lastly that branch of the Swiss Alps which reaches Tirol by the name of Arlenberg and Arula. In Savoy, we meet with Mount Blanc, the Peak of Argentiere, Cornero, Great and Little St Bernard, Great and Little No 231. Cenis, Coupeline, Servin, and that branch of the Mountain. Savoyard Alps which proceeds towards Italy through the duchy of Aost and Montferrat. In this vast heap of elevated peaks, Mont Blanc and St Gothard are particularly distinguished. The Alps, leaving Switzerland and Savoy, and passing through Tirol and Carniola, traverse Saltzbourg, Styria, and Austria, and extend their branches through Moravia and Bohemia, as far as Poland and Prussia. Between the 47th and 48th degrees, we meet with Grimming the highest mountain of Styria, and Priel which is the highest in Austria. Between the 46th and 47th degrees, the der Bacher and the der Reinschnecken, form two remarkable chains. The upper one, which traverses the counties of Trenchin, Arrava, Scepus, and the Kreyna, separates Upper Hungary from Silisia, Little Poland, and Red Russia; the inferior one traverses Upper Croatia, Bosnia, Servia, and Transilvania, separates Lower Hungary from Turkey in Europe, and meets the upper chain behind Moldavia, on the confines of Little Tartary. In these mountains are situated the rich mines of Schemnitz. To form a general idea of the great height of this Alpine belt, it is necessary only to remark, that the greatest depth of the wells at Schemnitz is 200 toises; and yet it appears, from the barometrical calculations of the learned M. Noda, that the greatest depth of these mines is 286 toises higher than the city of Vienna. The granito-argillous mountains of Schemnitz, and of the whole of this metallic district, are inferior, however, to the Carpathian mountains. Mount Krivany in the county of Arrava, and the Carpathian mountains between Red Russia and the Kreyna, appear by their great elevation to rule over the whole of the upper Alpine chain. In the inferior chain we likewise meet with mountains of an extraordinary height; among others, Mount Mediednik, which gives its name to a chain extending far into Bosnia; and Mount Hemus, celebrated even among the ancients. In short, this extensive chain reaches into Asia, and is there confounded with another chain no less famous, which, following exactly the 50th degree of latitude, runs through the whole of Asia. This chain of mountains is described by Dr Pallas in the work above-mentioned; and we shall now trace its course in company with this intelligent observer. This author places the head of the mountains of Oural, between the sources of the Taik and the Bielaia, about the 53d degree of latitude, and the 47th of longitude. Here the European Alps, after having traversed Europe, and sent off various branches which we shall afterwards examine, lose their name, which is changed into that of the Ouralic or Uralian mountains, and begin their course in Asia. This lofty chain, which separates Great Bulgaria from the deserts of Ischimika, proceeds through the country of the Eleuths, follows the course of the river Irtis, approaches the lake Teleksaia, and afterwards forms a part of the same system of mountains with the Altaic chain. There they give rise to the Oby, the Irtis, and the Jenisei, which begin their course about the 50th degree of north latitude, and fall into the Frozen Ocean. The Altaic chain, after having embraced and united all the rivers which supply the Jenisei, is continued under Mountain. under the name of Saianes, without the smallest interruption, as far as the Baikal lake. The extension of this chain to the south forms that immense and elevated plain which is lost in Chinese Tartary, which may be compared with the only plain in Quito, and which is called Gobi or Chamo. The Altai afterwards interposing between the source of the Tchikoi and of the rivers which supply the Amur or Sagaleen, rises towards the Lena, approaches the city Jakuck beyond the 60th degree of latitude, runs from that to the sea of Kamtchatka, turns round the Ochockoi and Penfink gulphs, joins the great marine chain of the Kurile isles near Japan, and forms the steep shores of Kamtchatka, between the 55th and 60th degrees of latitude. Such is the direct course of the high mountains constituting the belt which, we imagine, is to be found in the northern hemisphere, and which, after becoming lower, passing under the sea, and forming by means of their elevated peaks that archipelago of islands which derives its name from the unfortunate Bering, again rise and enter North America, on the western side, about the Straits of Anian. After running in the same parallel, and giving rise to the Ohio, the Riviere-Longue, the river St Lawrence, and the Mississippi, they are lost in Canada. From the eastern shores of America to the western shores of Europe, we find a vast interruption. Perhaps the chain was at first continued completely round the globe; but extraordinary revolutions, by separating the old and new continents, may have occasioned this division, and left nothing but the Azores and some detached points as a monument of what formerly existed, till we come to the British isles. Before we proceed to inquire whether a belt of a similar elevation exists in the southern hemisphere, we may remark those branches and ramifications which the great northern Alpine belt sends forth both towards the equator and the antarctic pole. These new chains, which gradually become lower as they approach the boundary towards which they tend, appear a sufficient proof that the equator is not the most elevated part of the earth. The European Alps produce three principal chains, which run towards the equator, and some smaller ones running towards the pole. The first southern chain is sent out through Dauphiné; traverses Vivais, Lyonnois, Auvergne, Cevennes, and Languedoc; and, after joining the Pyrenees, enters Spain. There it divides into two or three ramifications, one of which runs through Navarre, Biscay, Arragon, Castile, Marche, and Sierra Morena, and extends into Portugal. The other, after traversing Andalusia and the kingdom of Granada, and there forming a number of sierras, again makes its appearance, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, in Africa, and coasts along its northern shores under the name of Mount Atlas.—The second principal chain of the Alps passes out through Savoy and Piedmont; spreads its roughness over the states of Genoa and Parma; forms the belt of the Apennines; and after frequently changing its name, and dividing Italy into two parts, terminates in the kingdom of Naples and in Sicily, producing volcanoes in every part of its course. The third chain is sent off from Hungary, and scatters innumerable mountains over all Turkey in Europe; as far as the Morea and the Archipelago at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea. The northern branches, though smaller Mountain-at first, are no less clearly defined; and some of them even extend their ramifications as far as the Frozen Ocean. An Alpine branch, issuing from Savoy thro' the country of Gex, proceeds through Franche Comte, Suntgaw, Alsace, the Palatinate, and Veteravia.—Another issues from the territory of Saltzbourg, passes along Bohemia, enters Poland, sends off a ramification into Prussia towards the deserts of Waldow, and after having passed through Russia is lost in the government of Archangel. The Asiatic Alps send forth in like manner several branches both to the south and north. The Ouralic mountains, between the sources of the Bielaria and the Jaik, produce three principal branches; the first of which, including the Caspian Sea in one of its divisions, enters Circassia through the government of Afiracan, passes through Georgia under the name of Gaucaus, sends a vast number of ramifications to the west into Asiatic Turkey, and there produces the mountains Tichilder, Ararat, Taurus, Argée, and many others in the three Arabias; while the other division, passing between the Caspian Sea and the lake Aral, penetrates through Chorasan into Perfia. The second branch, taking a more easterly direction, leaves the country of the Eleuths; reaches Little Bucharia; and forms the ramparts of Gog and Magog, and the celebrated mountains formerly known by the name of Cas, which M. Bailly has made the seat of the war between the Dives and the Peris*. It traverses the kingdoms of Casgar and Turkestan, enters through that of Lahor les Atlas-tides, loc. 6. into the Mogul territory, and, after giving rise to the elevated desert of Chamo forms the western peninsula of India. While these two branches run towards the south, the third branch of the Ouralic chain rises towards the north, following almost the 79th degree of longitude, and forms a natural boundary between Europe and Asia; without, however, bounding the immense empire of Russia. This chain, after coming opposite to Nova Zembla, divides into two considerable branches. The one, running to the north-east, passes along the Arctic shores; the other, proceeding towards the north-west, meets the northern European chain, traverses Scandinavia in the shape of a horseshoe, covers the low-lands of Finland with rocks; and, as is observed by Dr Pallas, appears to be continued from the North Cape of Norway through the marine chain of Spitzbergen, scattering islands and shelves perhaps throughout the northern ocean, that, passing through the pole, it may join the northern and eastern points of Asia and North America. The Ouralic, which in the country of the Mongols becomes the Altaic chain, proceeds towards the equator. After forming the mountains and caverns wherein, as we are told, the ashes of the Mongol emperors of the race of Ghengis-Kan are deposited, together with the vast plain of Chamo, consisting of arid sand, and the frightful rocks and precipices of Thibet, which form the mysterious and desert retreats of the Grand Lama, it crosses the rivers Ava and Me-nan; contains in its subdivisions the kingdoms of Ava, Pegu, Laos, Tonquin, Cochinchina, and Siam; supports the peninsula of Malacca; and overspreads the Indian ocean with the isles of Sonda, the Moluccas, and the Philippines. From the borders of the Baikal lake and of the province of Selin-ginskoy, Mountain. ginskoy, a branch is detached, which spreads over Chinese Tartary and China, is continued into Corea, and gives rise to the islands of Japan. The great chain having extended to the north, near the city of Jakuck, upon the banks of the Lena, sends off one of its branches to the north-west, which passing between the two Tungusta, is lost in marshy grounds lying in the northern parts of the province of Jennisseikoy. The same chain, after it has reached the eastern part of Asia, is lost in the icy regions of the north about Nos-Tschalatikoy or the icy Promontory, and Cap Czuczenkoy. It will be more difficult, perhaps, to trace the elevated belt in the southern hemisphere beyond the tropic of Capricorn, than it has been to distinguish that towards the north. An immense extent of ocean seems to occupy the whole Antarctic part of the globe. The greatest latitude of the old continent is not more than 34 degrees, and South America scarcely extends to the 55 degree. In vain has the enterprising Cook attempted to discover regions towards the pole: his progress was constantly interrupted by tremendous mountains and fields of ice. Beyond the 50th degree no land and no habitation is to be found. The islands of New Zealand are the farthest land in these desert seas; and yet the south cape of Taral-Poenamoo extends only to the 48th degree: We do not mention Sandwich-land, which is situated in the 58th degree, because it is too small and too low. It must be recollected, however, that according to the declarations of travellers, the Cordilleras become higher as they advance southward to the Straits of Magellan; and that the Terra del Fuego, which lies in the latitude of 55, is nothing but a mass of rocks of prodigious elevation. America, however, exhibits to our view elevated points, whence chains of mountains are distributed in different directions over the whole surface of the new continent. There must likewise be great reservoirs, where the most remarkable rivers take their rise, and from which they necessarily descend towards their mouth. In the southern hemisphere, this elevated belt is nearer the equator; and though it does not extend to the 50th degree, it is evidently to be met with and may be accurately traced between the 20th and 30th degrees. The high mountains of Tucuman and of Paraguay, which intersect South America about the 25th degree of latitude, may be considered as the American Alps. If we look into the map of the world, we will be able to distinguish an elevated belt all along this parallel. In Africa, Monomotapa and Caffraria are covered with very high mountains, from which pretty large rivers descend. In the Pacific Ocean, we find New Holland, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and the Friendly and the Society islands, under the same parallel. We may, therefore, with sufficient propriety, distinguish this parallel by the name of the Southern Alps, as we have already distinguished the elevated belt of the 50th degree of north latitude by that of the Northern Alps. In America, the Rio de la Plata, which after a course of 500 leagues falls into the ocean at the 35th degree of south latitude; the Pavana, which rises from the mountains of the Arapés, and falls into the Plata at Corriente; the great number of rivers which flow into that of the Amazons, such as the Paraba, which receives in its course the tribute of more than 30 other rivers; the Madera, the Cuchirara, the Ucayal, &c. &c. all descend from these southern Alps. From these Alps likewise three considerable branches of mountains are detached, which go by the common name of Andes or Cordilleras.—The first branch, which extends towards the south, and passes out from Paraguay through Tucuman, separates Chili from these provinces and from Chimito, and is continued through the Terra Magellanica as far as Terra del Fuego. The second branch, directing its course towards the equator, traverses Peru, in vain endeavouring to conceal treasures which the avarice of men has taught them to discover in its bowels; bounds the Spanish Missions; enters Terra Firma thro' Popayan; and unites South and North America by the isthmus of Panama. The third division, issuing from Paraguay through Guayra and the territory of Saint-Vincent, traverses Brazil, distributes ramifications into Portuguese, French, and Dutch Guiana, crosses the Oronoko, forms the mountains of Venezuela, and near Carthagena meets the second branch coming from Popayan. We have already supposed, that the elevated belt of North America was situated about the 45th degree of north latitude; and there we imagined we recognized the continuation of the northern Alps of the old continent. This chain likewise sends forth considerable branches on both sides. One of them is detached across the sources of the Mississippi, the Belle-Rivière, and the Missouri, and at the entrance of New Mexico divides, in order to form California to the west, and the Apalachian mountains to the east.—Thence proceeding through New Biscay, the audience of Guadalajara, Old Mexico, and Guatemala, it meets at Panama the southern branch, which is part of the Alps of Paraguay. The second branch, following the course of the Mississippi, separates Louisiana from Virginia; serves as a bulwark to the United States of America; forms the Apalachian mountains in Carolina; and at last, traversing East Florida, incloses the Gulf of Mexico with the Great and Little Antilles. In the north, we can trace the branches of the elevated belt; on one side observe them proceeding towards Canada, directing their course through Labrador to Hudson's Straits, and at length confounded with the rocks of Greenland, which are covered with eternal snow and ice. On the other side, we see them rising through the country of the Assiniboines and the Kristinos, as far as Michinipis and the northern Archipelago. We have thus traced the directions of the great chains of mountains. There are certain projecting and pretty sensible points on the globe, which appear to supply every region with great rivers and high mountains. The Alps of Switzerland and Savoy in Europe, the union of the Ouralic mountains in Asia, (a) the Andes of Tucuman and Paraguay in South America, and the high countries, whence the Mississippi, (a) Those M. Bailly considers as the most elevated part of the globe. Lettres sur les Atlantides, p. 236. Mountain. flippi, the river Saint Lawrence, and the Belle Riviere descend, may be considered as some of these; though M. Busche places them much nearer the equator, and even under the line. But his object was to form a system to support his own, and to confirm another; ours is merely to state what we have observed, and what indeed must occur to every one who surveys the surface of the globe as it is delineated by our best geographers. So many observations fully show that the primitive mountains may be considered as the foundation of our globe. By their shape, elevation, direction, and continuity, they give rise to the greatest part of winds, or produce that variety which prevails among them. Primitive mountains, as we have already said, are distinguished likewise by their internal structure, by the nature of the stones of which they are composed, and by the minerals which they contain. The highest mountains are, properly speaking, nothing but peaks or cones consisting of solid rock. This pyramidal form has been supposed to be at first owing to a kind of crystallization; and the late M. Rouelle was of opinion, that the substances of which our globe is composed originally swam in a fluid. The similar parts of which the great mountains consist, according to this philosopher, approached one another and formed a crystallization, sometimes in a group, and at other times detached at the bottom of the waters. Upon this supposition, we might analyse different portions or blocks of rock taken from primitive mountains; and by making them crystallise, we would then have in miniature a part of the same economy or connection of mountains, a figurative portion, in short, of the skeleton of the earth.— We may farther presume, that those steep rocks which it now seems almost impossible to surmount even in imagination, are coeval with the existence of the world. Mountains with flat summits sometimes rest on the base of primitive mountains; and contain marble, fossils, and limestone. When mountains of the same kind possess a round and more regular shape, they consist of chalk and other calcareous and friable substances arranged in strata. Granite-argillous mountains, like those of Shemnitz, generally form metallic districts. Hills composed of brown free-stone every where present irregular points, indicating broken strata and heaps of rubbish. Dr Pallas (in the systematic part of the Memoir above mentioned, concerning the substances of which the highest mountains are composed) lays it down as an axiom, that the highest mountains of the globe forming continued chains, are composed of that rock which is called granite, the base of which is always a quartz, with a greater or smaller mixture of felt spar, mica, and small feldspars, scattered without order, and in irregular fragments of different sizes. This old rock, and the sand arising from its decomposition, form the base of all continents. Granite is found below mountains composed of strata (this observation is not applicable to the courses of mountains formed by strata); it constitutes the large protuberances, and as it were the heart, of the greatest Alps in the known world: hence we may with the greatest probability infer, that this rock forms the principal ingredient in the internal composition of our globe. It is never found in regular strata, but in huge masses and in shapeless blocks; its origin is prior to that of all animated beings; it exhibits not the smallest traces of petrification, and seems not to have received the least impression from any organised substance. High eminences, whether in continued chains or in the form of steep peaks, are never covered with clayey or calcareous strata, deriving their origin from the sea; but appear to have been from their very first formation elevated above the level of the ocean. The sides of these great chains are for the most part covered with schistous belts, and surrounded with mountains of the second and third orders. This is proved by the Ouralic and Altaic chains, which have been traced by Dr Pallas. Such is the system proposed by this author. The high or primitive and ancient mountains, which have existed from the beginning of time, are granitic; the schistous mountains, which he gives the name of secondary, have arisen on the sides of the primitive by the decomposition of the granite; and those which he calls tertiary mountains, or mountains of the third order, are nothing but substances deposited by the sea, and raised up by volcanoes, or swept away by a violent eruption, a powerful inundation, or an universal deluge. This hypothesis concerning the formation of mountains is borrowed from nature itself, and appears to be confirmed by many facts in natural history. We shall now proceed to state the height of most of the primitive mountains; an object no less worthy of attention than their structure and variety. According to M. Pontoppidan, the highest mountains in Norway are 3000 toises in height. According to M. Brovallis, the highest mountains in Sweden are 2333 toises. It is supposed, however, that both these calculations are erroneous. From the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, it appears, that the mountains in France most elevated above the surface of the Mediterranean are the Puy-de-Dôme, which is 817 toises, and the Mont d'Or, which is 1048 toises. These two mountains are in Auvergne, and are supposed to be extinguished volcanoes. Mount Cantal is 993 toises high; Mount Ventoux is 1036; the south peak of Canigou in the Pyrenees, according to M. de Rocheblave, is 1442; and according to M. de Plantade, 1453; and Saint Barthélemy is 1184. M. Needham observes, that the highest Alps in Savoy are the convent of the great Saint Bernard, at the point of the rock to the south-west of that mountain, which is 1274 toises; Mount Séréné, which is 1283; and Mount Tourné, which is 1683. According to the measurement of the English observers, the peak or needle of Argentière is 2094 toises high. M. Facio de Duiller and M. Duluc make the ridge of Mont Blanc 2213 toises; but according to the observation of M. Shuckburgh, its elevation is 2447 toises one foot (by M. de Saussure's measurement 2426 toises) above the level of the Mediterranean. The principal mountains of the Alps are among the most elevated in the world; and particularly Mont-Blanc, that enormous mass of granite, which is situated in the centre of the Alps, and the access to which is rendered so difficult by the sharp peaks, walls of ice, and everlasting snows wherewith it is covered, is the Mountain, highest mountain which has been measured either in Europe, Asia, or Africa. The altitude of the Alps of Switzerland has been ascertained by different philosophers: We shall content ourselves with mentioning the most remarkable of those mountains covered with snow, which in Switzerland are called Gletschers or Glaciers. St Gothard, according to Scheuchzer, is 1650 toises; and Lignon, near the lake of Como, north-east, is, according to Pini, 1486 toises in height. M. Pasumot, engineer to the king of the French, justly observes, that the heights assigned by Mikheli to the mountains of Switzerland appear rather to be ideal computations than founded on observations. An opinion of them may be formed from the following: According to this author, Mount Pilate or Frakmont, in the district of Lucerne, is 1403 toises in height; Mount Cenis, 1445; Raukhlok, 1760; the Nolle ridge of Titlisberg, 2001; Ghemi, 2421; Grimselberg, in the canton of Berne, 2539; the Cornera, part of Loukmanier, 2654; Fourke, 2669; Schreckhorn, 2724; and St Gothard, at its most elevated point, 2750. Mikheli likewise reckons 20 other mountains, the height of which exceeds 2000 toises. The reader may consult the Table comparative des hauteurs des principales montagnes, by M. Pasumot (Journal de Physique, September 1783.) Throughout the globe we will not perhaps meet with higher mountains than those of Peru, which go by the name of Cordilleras de los Andes. According to the observations of the academicians sent to South America in 1735 by the Spanish and French courts to measure a degree of the meridian and to ascertain the true figure of the earth, the principal summits of these extraordinary mountains, which are situated near Quito, and which are constantly covered with snow though they lie under the equator, have the following geometrical elevations above the level of the sea: Quito-Capilate, 1707 toises; El-Corafon, 2470 (c); Cotacatche, 2570; Ek-Atlas, 2730; and Noyamble-oreu, under the line, 3030. All the other mountains have been, or still are, volcanoes. The following is an enumeration of them, together with their several heights: Pichincha, 2430; Cargavi-rafio, 2450; Sinchonalagon or Sinchoulagooa, 2570; Sangai, 2680; Illinika, 2717; Kotopaxi, 2950; Antifana, 3020; Cagambeorcon, situated under the line, 3030; Cimborafo or Chimborafo, 3220. The last mentioned mountain, which forms part of the Cordilleras in Peru, is one of the largest and probably the highest in the world. It is seen at sea from the gulph of Guayaquil, which is more than 60 leagues distant. Other very elevated mountains are Mount Sinai in Japan; Mount Caucasus in Asia; the southern peak of the Pyrenees; the peak of Teneriffe in one of the Canary islands, which according to M. Bouguer is 2000 toises (according to later observations, made by M. M. de Verdun, de Borda, and Pingré, French academicians, in 1754, the peak of Teyde, more commonly known by the name of the peak of Teneriffe, is only 1904 toises perpendicular height above the level of the sea); Mount Gibel or Etna in Sicily is 1672 toises; St George's peak in the Azores; Adam's peak in Ceylon; the mountains of the Moon; Mounts Athos, Olympus, Taurus, and Etna; Mount Cenis in the Alps on the road from France to Italy, is 1460 toises; the Great and Little Atlas; and many others, on the top of which we feel, even in the middle of summer, a more piercing cold than that of the severest frosts of our climates. After this, it cannot appear wonderful that the vapours which reach so great heights are there congealed; and that the summits of these mountains, even in the warmest climates, are constantly covered with snow, while the inhabitants of the plain enjoy a temperate atmosphere, or are subject to extreme heat. The height of these mountains, added to their being placed on the most elevated parts of the globe, is the chief cause of the phenomena peculiar to them. In that part of Asia which is separated by the chain of mountains called the Ghauts, there are two very different seasons at one and the same time. While it is winter on the Malabar coast, for instance, the Coromandel coast, which has the same degree of elevation, and in some places is only 20 leagues distant, enjoys an agreeable spring or the temperature of autumn. The traveller in the Alps generally experiences, even in summer, the four seasons of the year. In the Andes we meet with a change of temperature no less curious; for as we descend from their summit to their base, we experience all the varieties of heat and cold which are felt in every climate of the earth, at whatever season (b). There are many other mountainous countries in which we pass at once from a serene sky to dreadful (c) This is the greatest height to which any person is known to have ascended in America: the greatest elevation which has been reached in the Alps is the top of Mont-Blanc, which is 2426 toises, and which Dr Paccard ascended on the 8th of August 1786. M. de Saussure arrived there likewise on the 3d of August 1787, accompanied by 17 persons. (b) The more we are elevated above the surface of the earth, it becomes the colder; and accordingly the tops of the highest mountains are always covered with snow. At the height of about 2300 toises above the level of the sea no plant whatever is found to grow: and it appears from the observations of M. M. de la Condamine, Bouguer, Godin, Dom George Juan, and Dom Antonio de Ulloa, the academicians sent to Quito in 1735, that at the height of 2434 the snow is perpetual, and never melts at any time of the year even under the equator. The congelation begins and continues in all the mountains of the Cordilleras at the same height above the level of the sea, which is determined by an equal elevation of the mercury in the barometer. But from experiments which have been made, Sir Isaac Newton concludes, that the density of the atmosphere at any height is as the weight of the incumbent air, that is, as the height of the mercury in the barometer; and consequently the density of the air is the same in the whole region of the atmosphere, where the congelation is continual, and where that perpetual cold commences which is felt on all mountains. Above this constant height the density of the air continues to diminish, and the cold becomes greater and greater till Mountain. dreadful storms and tempests. It cannot therefore be doubted, that mountains have a great influence on the temperature of the countries to which they belong, by stopping the course of certain winds, by forming barriers to the clouds, by reflecting the sun's rays, and by serving as elevated conductors to the electricity of the atmosphere. It was formerly said by travellers, that on the peak of Teneriffe they found that brandy lost its strength; that spirit of wine became almost insipid; that pepper, ginger, and salt, had little or no taste when applied to the tongue; but, it was alleged, that Canary wines still retained their taste on that mountain. These stories appeared too marvellous not to require new experiments; and M.M. de Lamanon and Mongez, who visited this peak in 1785, tell us, that the flavour and taste of liquors appeared to have sustained no loss at that height: (See the experiments made on the Pic du Midi in the Pyrenes by M. Darcet, in the Journal de Physique for November 1776; and a journey to the peak of Teneriffe, in the same Journal for August 1785.) At the foot, and sometimes at the middle, of those lofty mountains, the tops of which are always covered with snow, we frequently find springs which begin to run in May and dry up in September. When the sun approaches near enough to the tropic to warm the summits of these mountains, the snow with which they are covered melts, filtrates through their interior part, and issues forth at their base. The only trees which grow on mountains of this kind are firs, pines, and other resinous trees; and the grass becomes shorter towards their summit. Mountains were not formed to be an useless load upon the earth, but evidently answer very important purposes; and we cannot enough admire their form and that kind of harmony which is discernible in their arrangement. Some of them, vomiting out fire or smoke, lava, and sulphur, indicate that they in some measure answer the purpose of a chimney to something within the earth, which, if confined, would burst it in pieces: (See VOLCANO.) Of this kind are Mount Hecla in Iceland, Mount Etna in Sicily, Mount Vesuvius in the kingdom of Naples, Pichincha and Cotopaxi in America, &c. Others, the summits of which reach into the clouds, attract and absorb the vapours of the sea, &c. which float in the air. It is observed by M. l'Abbé Palasson, that storms are most frequent at the foot of those high mountains which form extensive chains. Their enormous masses, which seem to support the heavens on their shoulders, arrest and fix the different meteors as they are formed. The clouds, in like manner, driven by the winds from different points of the horizon, there meet with impenetrable barriers, are there accumulated in great quantity, and remain suspended on these bulwarks of the globe's surface, till the agitation of the atmosphere succeeding the calm, produces storms, which are so much the more terrible that they cannot expand and be dispersed but with great difficulty. They are commonly repelled from the mountains; and are then observed to spread over whole countries, to dissolve with peals of thunder, and to fall down in destructive hail-storms fatal to the harvest and to the whole produce of the fields. This scourge is peculiarly dreadful during the seasons of spring and summer, when a sufficient quantity of snow remains on the mountains to cool the atmosphere. Some chains of mountains have openings; in others they are wanting: of the former kind are the straits of Thermopylæ, the Caspian straits, the pass of the Cordilleras, &c. Those spaces which separate the tops of mountains are so many basins destined for the reception of the condensed mists, and of the clouds precipitated into rain. The bowels of mountains appear to be great and inexhaustible reservoirs, and to contain subterraneous canals and lateral openings formed by the hand of nature, that the several species of animals may be supplied with drink, that the earth may be fertilised, and that nourishment may be afforded for the growth of vegetables. The streams and rivers descend from the ridges of mountains, the declivities of which form so many inclined plains: Thus we find the Alps give rise to the Rhine, the Danube, the Rhone, and the Po. With regard to the wonderful structure, by means of which so many advantages are obtained, see the articles EARTH, SPRINGS, &c. Mountains of the first order form vast solitudes and horrid deserts, where the habitations of men are not to be seen, and their footsteps are seldom to be traced. By their grandeur, their elevation, the variety of their positions, the sublime and awful exhibition of wonders which they contain, they elevate the mind and fire the imagination of the observer. But these majestic eminences have other advantages which deserve our attention. They form the common retreat of a multitude of wild beasts, which are subservient to our use: there the bear, the lynx, the ermine, the martin, the fox, and many other animals, the skin of which we employ for furs, take up their abode; and thither the eagle and the vulture resort in safety. Mountains likewise afford nourishment to rein-deer, buffaloes, fallow-deer, roe-deer, and chamois; and they are visited by birds of passage which, under the guidance of instinct, follow the shortest road to the place of their destination. They produce medicinal plants, which almost never grow elsewhere. In Switzerland they are also covered with deep forests, which, by the great height of the trees, announce their antiquity. They afford both timber and fuel, and supply the inhabitants with abundance of excellent pasture for their bestial during the whole summer. The most precious stones, both for brilliancy and hardness, acquire their forms and colours in the fissures of the rocks: the internal rents of mountains are filled and in a manner cemented by different metallic substances; while the grottos are furnished with numerous congelations, shining we reach the summits of the mountains, which present to our view all the horrors of winter as they are felt in the polar regions. But below this height, as the density of the air becomes greater in consequence of being constantly pressed upon by a great superincumbent weight, the sun's heat increases, so that those who inhabit the plains at the foot of the mountain are exposed to all the inconveniences of the torrid zone. Mountains. shining crystals, and substances of an extraordinary nature and figure. In short, every thing concurs to show, that the existence of mountains is absolutely necessary; and that in order to acquire a proper knowledge of them, they must be considered in many different points of view. Their position, their direction, their elevation, the extent of their base, their figure, their various external windings, their internal structure; in a word, every thing relating to the theory of the globe, and to the different temperatures of the atmosphere, must engage the observer's attention; and by studying and carefully examining the general constitution of mountains, the particular facts which they present to our view, their influence, their action on the atmosphere, the different substances of which they are composed, together with the arrangement and mixture of these substances, we may at length discover the true mechanism of the earth. The reader may consult the Essai Sur l'étude des Montagnes; Journal de M. l'Abbé Rozier, November 1773. The difficulty and danger of ascending to the tops of mountains proceeds not from the thinness of the air, as has been commonly reported; but the reason is, that they rise with such a rugged and precipitate ascent, that they are utterly inaccessible. In some places they appear like a great wall of 600 or 700 feet high; in others, there stick out enormous rocks, that hang upon the brow of the steep, and every moment threaten destruction to the traveller below. In this manner almost all the tops of the highest mountains are bare and pointed; and this naturally proceeds from their being so continually assaulted by thunders and tempests. All the earthy substances with which they might have been once covered, have for ages been washed away from their summits; and nothing is left remaining but immense rocks, which no tempest has hitherto been able to destroy. Nevertheless, time is every day and every hour making depredations; and huge fragments are seen tumbling down the precipice, either loosened from the summit by the frost or rains, or struck down by lightning. Nothing can exhibit a more terrible picture than one of these enormous rocks, commonly larger than an house, falling from its height with a noise louder than thunder, and rolling down the side of the mountain. Dr Plot tells us of one in particular, which being loosened from its bed, tumbled down the precipice, and was partly shattered into a thousand pieces. Notwithstanding, one of the largest fragments of the same, still preserving its motion, travelled over the plain below, crossed a rivulet in the midst, and at last stopped on the other side of the bank! These fragments, as was said, are often struck off by lightning and sometimes undermined by rains; but the most usual manner in which they are disunited from the mountain is by frost: the rains insinuating between the interstices of the mountain, continue there until there comes a frost; and then, when converted into ice, the water swells with an irresistible force, and produces the same effect as gun-powder, splitting the most solid rocks, and thus shattering the summits of the mountain. But not rocks alone, but whole mountains, are, by various causes, disunited from each other. We see, in many parts of the Alps, amazing clefts, the sides of which so exactly correspond with the opposite, that no doubt can be entertained of their having been once joined together. At Cajeta in Italy, a mountain was split in this manner by an earthquake; and there is a passage opened through it, that appears as if elaborately done by the industry of man. In the Andes these breaches are frequently seen. That at Thermopylæ in Greece has been long famous. The mountain of the Troglodytes in Arabia has thus a passage through it; and that in Savoy, which nature began and which Victor Amadeus completed, is an instance of the same kind. We have accounts of some of these disruptions immediately after their happening. "In the month of June, in the year 1714, a part of the mountain of Diableret, in the district of Valais in France, suddenly fell down, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, the weather being very calm and serene. It was of a conical figure, and destroyed 55 cottages in the fall. Fifteen persons, together with about 100 beasts, were also crushed beneath its ruins, which covered an extent of a good league square. The dust it occasioned instantly covered all the neighbourhood in darkness. The heaps of rubbish were more than 300 feet high. They stopped the current of a river that ran along the plain, which now is formed into several new and deep lakes. There appeared, through the whole of this rubbish, none of those substances that seemed to indicate that this disruption had been made by means of subterraneous fires. Most probably, the base of this rocky mountain was rotted and decayed; and thus fell, without any extraneous violence." In the same manner, in the year 1618, the town of Pleurs in France was buried beneath a rocky mountain, at the foot of which it was situated. These accidents, and many more that might be enumerated of the same kind, have been produced by various causes: by earthquakes, as in the mountain at Cajeta; or by being decayed at the bottom, as at Diableret. But the most general way is, by the foundation of one part of the mountain being hollowed by waters, and, thus wanting a support, breaking from the other. Thus it generally has been found in the great chasms in the Alps; and thus it almost always is known in those disruptions of hills which are known by the name of land-slips. These are nothing more than the sliding down of an higher piece of ground, disrooted from its situation by subterraneous inundations, and settling itself upon the plain below. There is not an appearance in all nature that so much astonished our ancestors as these land-slips. In fact, to behold a large upland, with its houses, its corn, and cattle, at once loosened from its place, and floating as it were upon the subjacent water; to behold it quitting its ancient situation, and travelling forward like a ship, in quest of new adventures; this is certainly one of the most extraordinary appearances that can be imagined; and, to a people ignorant of the powers of nature, might well be considered as a prodigy. Accordingly, we find all our old historians mentioning it as an omen of approaching calamities. In this more enlightened age, however, its cause is very well known; and, instead of exciting ominous apprehensions in the populace, it only gives rise to Mountain. some very ridiculous law-suits among them, about whose property shall be; whether the land which has thus slipped shall belong to the original possessor or to him upon whose grounds it has encroached and settled. What has been the determination of the judges is not so well known; but the circumstances of the slips themselves have been minutely enough and exactly described. In the lands of Slatberg, in the kingdom of Ireland, there stood a declivity gradually ascending for near half a mile. In the year 1718, and on the 10th of March, the inhabitants perceived a crack on its side, somewhat like a furrow made with a plough, which they imputed to the effects of lightning, as there had been thunder the night before. However, on the evening of the same day, they were surprised to hear an hideous confused noise issuing all round from the side of the hill; and their curiosity being raised, they returned to the place. There, to their amazement, they found the earth for near five acres all in gentle motion, and sliding down the hill upon the subjacent plain. This motion continued the remaining part of the day and the whole night: nor did the noise cease during the whole time; proceeding, probably, from the attrition of the ground beneath. The day following, however, this strange journey down the hill ceased entirely; and above an acre of the meadow below was found covered with what before composed a part of the declivity. However, these slips, when a whole mountain's side seems to descend, happen but very rarely. There are some of another kind, however, much more common; and, as they are always sudden, much more dangerous. These are snow-slips, well-known, and greatly dreaded by travellers. It often happens, that when snow has long been accumulated on the tops and on the sides of mountains, it is borne down the precipice either by means of tempests or its own melting. At first, when loosened, the volume in motion is but small; but it gathers as it continues to roll; and by the time it has reached the habitable parts of the mountain, it is generally grown of enormous bulk. Wherever it rolls, it levels all things in its way, or buries them in unavoidable destruction. Instead of rolling, it sometimes is found to slide along from the top; yet even thus it is generally as fatal as before. Nevertheless, we have had an instance, a few years ago, of a small family in Germany that lived for above a fortnight beneath one of these snow-slips. Although they were buried during that whole time in utter darkness, and under a bed of some hundred feet deep, yet they were luckily taken out alive, the weight of the snow being supported by a beam that kept up the roof, and nourishment supplied them by the milk of a she-goat that was buried under the same ruin. Attraction of Mountains. This is a late discovery, and a very considerable confirmation of Sir Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravity. According to the Newtonian system, an attractive power is not only exerted between those large masses of matter which constitute the sun and planets, but likewise between all comparatively smaller bodies, and even between the Mountain smallest particles of which they are composed. Agreeably to this hypothesis, a heavy body, which ought to gravitate or tend toward the centre of the earth, in a direction perpendicular to its surface, supposing the said surface to be perfectly even and spherical, ought likewise, though in a less degree, to be attracted and tend towards a mountain placed on the earth's surface; so that a plumb-line, for instance, of a quadrant, hanging in the neighbourhood of such a mountain, ought to be drawn from a perpendicular situation, in consequence of the attractive power of the quantity of matter of which it is composed acting in a direction different from that exerted by the whole mass of matter in the earth, and with a proportionably inferior degree of force. Though Sir Isaac Newton had long ago hinted at an experiment of this kind, and had remarked, that "a mountain of an hemispherical figure, three miles high and six broad, would not, by its attraction, draw the plumb-line two minutes out of the perpendicular (x):" yet no attempt to ascertain this matter by actual experiment was made till about the year 1738; when the French academicians, particularly Messrs Bouguer and Condamine, who were sent to Peru to measure a degree under the equator, attempted to discover the attractive power of Chimborazo, a mountain in the province of Quito. According to their observations, which were however made under circumstances by no means favourable to an accurate solution of so nice and difficult a problem, the mountain Chimborazo exerted an attraction equal to eight seconds. Though this experiment was not perhaps sufficient to prove satisfactorily even the reality of an attraction, much less the precise quantity of it; yet it does not appear that any steps had been since taken to repeat it. Through the munificence of his Britannic majesty, the royal society were enabled to undertake the execution of this delicate and important experiment; the astronomer-royal was chosen to conduct it. After various inquiries, the mountain Schaalien, situated nearly in the centre of Scotland, was pitched upon as the most proper for the purpose that could be found in this island. The observations were made by taking the meridian zenith distances of different fixed stars, near the zenith, by means of a zenith sector of ten feet radius; first on the south, and afterwards on the north side of the hill, the greatest length of which extended in an east and west direction. It is evident, that if the mass of matter in the hill exerted any sensible attraction, it would cause the plumb-line of the sector, through which an observer viewed a star in the meridian, to deviate from its perpendicular situation, and would attract it contrary-wise at the two stations, thereby doubling the effect. On the south side the plummet would be drawn to the northward, by the attractive power of the hill placed to the northward of it; and on the north side, a contrary and equal deflection of the plumb-line would take (x) By a very easy calculation it is found that such a mountain would attract the plumb-line 1' 18" from the perpendicular. Mountain take place, in consequence of the attraction of the hill, now to the southward of it. The apparent zenith distances of the stars would be affected contrarywise; those being increased at the one station which were diminished at the other: and the correspondent quantities of the deflection of the plumb-line would give the observer the sum of the contrary attractions of the hill, acting on the plummet at the two stations; the half of which will of course indicate the attractive power of the hill. The various operations requisite for this experiment lasted about four months; and from them it appears, that the sum of the two contrary attractions of the mountain Schehallien, in the two temporary observations which were successively fixed half-way up the hill (where the effect of its attraction would be greatest), was equal to 11'' 6.—From a rough computation, founded on the known law of gravitation, and on an assumption that the density of the hill is equal to the mean density of the earth, it appears that the attraction of the hill should amount to about the double of this quantity. From thence it was inferred, that the density of the hill is only about half the mean density of the earth. It does not appear, however, that the mountain Schehallien has ever been a volcano, or is hollow; as it is extremely solid and dense, and seemingly composed of an entire rock. The inference drawn from these experiments may be reduced to the following: "1. It appears, that the mountain Schehallien exerts a sensible attraction; therefore, from the rules of philosophizing, we are to conclude, that every mountain, and indeed every particle of the earth, is endowed with the same property, in proportion to its quantity of matter. "2. The law of the variation of this force, in the inverse ratio of the squares of the distances, as laid down by Sir Isaac Newton, is also confirmed by this experiment. For if the force of attraction of the hill had been only to that of the earth as the matter in the hill to that of the earth, and had not been greatly increased by the near approach to its centre, the attraction thereof must have been wholly insensible. But now, by only supposing the mean density of the earth to be double to that of the hill, which seems very probable from other considerations, the attraction of the hill will be reconciled to the general law of the variation of attraction in the inverse duplicate ratio of the distances, as deduced by Sir Isaac Newton from the comparison of the motion of the heavenly bodies with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth; and the analogy of nature will be preserved. "3. We may now, therefore, be allowed to admit this law, and to acknowledge, that the mean density of the earth is at least double of that at the surface; and consequently that the density of the internal parts of the earth is much greater than near the surface. Hence also, the whole quantity of matter in the earth will be at least as great again as if it had been all composed of matter of the same density with that at the surface; or will be about four or five times as great as if it were all composed of water.—This conclusion, Mr. Maskelyne adds, is totally contrary to the hypothesis of some naturalists, who suppose the earth to be only a great hollow shell of matter; supporting itself from Mountain, the property of an arch, with an immense vacuity in the midst of it.' But, were that the case, the attraction of mountains, and even smaller inequalities in the earth's surface, would be very great, contrary to experiment, and would affect the measures of the degrees of the meridian much more than we find they do; and the variation of gravity, in different latitudes, in going from the equator to the poles, as found by pendulums, would not be near so regular as it has been found by experiment to be. "4. As mountains are by these experiments found capable of producing sensible deflections of the plumb-lines of astronomical instruments; it becomes a matter of great importance, in the mensuration of degrees in the meridian, either to choose places where the irregular attractions of the elevated parts may be small; or where, by their situation, they may compensate or counteract the effects of each other." For measuring the heights of mountains, see the article BAROMETER.