that Mont Blanc is nearly on an extreme border of this mass of primitive mountains *. "Mont Rosa, which is situated at the upper extremity of the Vallais, and appears to have been so named from the circular arrangement of its numerous peaks, disposed somewhat in the manner of the leaves of a rose, has an arrangement unlike all the elevated summits Saussure had ever seen: for such elevated summits usually are insulated like Etna, or ranged in right lines as Mont Blanc and its collateral peaks. Mont Rosa, on the contrary, composed of an uninterrupted suit of nearly equal peaks, forms a vast circus, which incloses within its area several hamlets, numerous pastures, and glaciers bordering on those pastures, and steep acclivities, which are continued to the very summits of these stupendous peaks +. The foregoing description corresponds partially with the description of the valley of Mexico. This valley, which is about 18 leagues in length and 12 in breadth, is situated on the summit of porphyritic and amygdaloid basaltic rocks, surrounded by a circular crest of mountains 67 leagues in circumference ‡. "In comparing the Alps on the Italian or Piedmontese side with those on the side of Savoy, Switzerland, and Dauphiny, there are great differences observable both with respect to the height and nature of the mountains. On the side of Piedmont they terminate more abruptly; forming a wall, as it were, and rising suddenly from the termination of the plain of Piedmont f. Nor does this appear to be, entirely at least, the effect of an actual removal of a part of the group; since even in the case of Mont Blanc, which is flanked by exterior chains on the side of Italy, and protected therefore from the action of any removing cause in that direction, the escarpments are much more abrupt on that side than in any other direction ||. "The nature of the strata is often as capricious as their arrangement: thus the most elevated and central parts of the chain of Mont Cenis are calcareo-micaceous schists; while granite forms the secondary ridges: and the central and highest rocks are nearly horizontal in their stratification, while the exterior ridges are nearly vertical. On the south-east side of the Alps the granite descends nearly into the plain, and there are scarcely any calcareous strata till you approach Genoa or Venice; and there is serpentine in abundance: but the converse of this holds on the north-west side: and Saussure adds, that Pallas has also noticed in Russia and Siberia a marked difference between opposite sides of the same chain **. The opposite sides of the chain which the passage of the Simplon traverses are very different: the northern Saussure, tom. vii. p. 300." "Humboldt, tom. ii. p. 106.*** Saussure, tom. v. p. 173." ** ** Ibid. tom. iv. p. 215, 216.” دو "+Ibid. tom. viii. p. 54.' "Ibid. tom. v. p. 170.” ›› “qIbid. tom. v. p. 174.” side, looking to the Vallais, consists almost entirely of vertical beds of micaceous limestone: the southern side, looking to Italy, consists of quartzose micaceous schist, of gneiss, and of a schistose granite, in strata either horizontal or inclined at an angle not greater than from thirty to forty *" P. 138. We are not aware that the principles, upon which the Wernerians explain the formation of the primitive mountains, would lead us, a priori, to expect the regularity and subordination which are supposed to appear in their arrangement. At all events, if we take into consideration the tremendous disruptions, uplifting, and overturnings to which the whole outer crust of the earth has been subjected, we shall no longer be surprised at the want of uniformity in the collocation of mountain masses. A more extensive and careful examination of particulars will, we have no doubt, bring many things to light calculated to arrest the premature generalization to which we are now alluding; and surely when we advert to the almost boundless field in which observation must be carried on-the most elevated mountains and the deepest ravines, the excava tions of the miner, and the natural cavern, the shores of Lapland, of New Holland and of China, the burning continent and the frozen island,-it will not be thought astonishing should new discoveries occasionally demand a little modification of theory. But we repeat once more, that the fundamental doc trines of Werner are not involved in any of the apparent anomalies which Professor Kidd has brought forward. In enumerating the agents which appear to have been employed in the production of geological phenomena, it may seem strange to pass without noticing the Mosaical deluge. It may be replied, in excuse of the omission, that the waters which were brought upon the earth to punish the sins of men are not only comparatively recent, but, except some beds of gravel and rolled masses of rocks, there are no appearances which can be certainly ascribed to their operation. The great works of nature were already past; the chaotic waters had long ago deposited the materials which they held suspended in solution; the mountains were consolidated, and the stratified rocks had assumed their places at their respective levels, long before the iniquity of men waxed great on the earth. The flood, therefore, has left no traces of its presence but in the devastation it produced; and setting aside all authority but that of science, the most determined sceptic must admit, that a powerful rush of waters has passed over many parts of the earth's sur "* Saussure, tom. viii. p. 29,” face, face, since it was first laid dry. The most unequivocal proof of this, in our opinion, are those huge insulated masses of stone which are found in every part of the globe; for, as Dr. Kidd observes, they are evidently water-worn, and, judging from the identity of their internal character, have as evidently once formed a portion of some of the native strata. "It was Saussure's opinion that the waters of the ocean, in which he supposes mountains to have been formed, were still in part covering those mountains, when a violent earthquake all at once opened numerous subterranean cavities, and rent asunder many of the strata. The waters then rushing towards those cavities, with a violence proportioned to the height of their level, excavated deep vallies, and carried with them immense quantities of earth, sand, and fragments of all kinds of rocks. This half liquid accumulation, hurried on by the weight of the water, lodged itself at those heights where we still see many of the scattered fragments. The waters afterwards continuing to run, but with a rapidity gradually lessening in proportion to the diminution of their height, carried away by little and little the lightest particles; and cleared the vallies of the heaps of mud by which they had been clogged, leaving behind either the heavier masses only, or those also, which accidental position or an unusually settled lodgment protected from their action *. "A rush of water, like that just described, Saussure calls a débacle; and the sudden eruption of a mass of water from any barrier which had previously confined it, would represent the effects of a debacle on a small scale. The great debacle, to which in his writings he so often alludes, is supposed to have been occasioned by the sudden retreat of the waters of the chaotic ocean, as above described: and he thinks it probable, that the beds of the principal Alpine vallies have in many instances been formed by sand and gravel brought by the great debacle +: and that rivers, (as in the. valley of the Durance which rises in high Dauphiny,) by washing away the earth and sand mixed with the pebbles that have been formerly deposited, bring these pebbles to view ‡." P. 168. This debacle of the French philosopher would correspond sufficiently in its effects with the Mosaic deluge, provided there were found in the immense gravel depositions which every. where occur, any fossil remains of the human species. It: seems unanimously agreed among antiquaries and anatomists that, except the specimen lately sent from Guadaloupe by Sir Alexander Cochrane, no human skeleton has ever been found, even in alluvial formation. Various accounts indeed have been "Saussure, tom. i. P. 205." "+Ibid. tom. ii. p. 208.” "‡ Ibid. tom. vi. p. 77.” published of such fossil bones, and the fact must be very generally known that Plater, professor of anatomy at Basil, described with great seriousness, the petrified remains of an elephant found at Lucerne, which he converted into a giant at least nineteen feet high. The Lucernese, we are told, were so perfectly satisfied with this discovery, that they caused a painting to be made of the giant as he must have appeared when alive, assumed two such giants as the supporters of the city arms, and had the portraits hung up in their public hall. The Landvoight Engel, however, not so easily convinced as to the origin of these bulky fossils, maintained that our planet, before the creation of the present race of men, was inhabited by the fallen angels, and that these bones were parts of the skeletons of those miserable beings. Scheuchzer's "homo diluvii testis" turned out, as every body knows, to be a proteus or salamander; and Spallanzani's hill of human bones, has been found, upon minute examination, not to contain one fragment. With all these facts before us, we are nevertheless inclined to believe that the gravel and alluvial depositions, in Alpine regions, may be ascribed to the Mosaical deluge; and we would account for the absence of human bones in a fossil state, by alledging that those parts of the earth in which man has taken up his principal residence, have not yet been minutely examined. May there not be, in the plains of Kurdistan, some basins of mineral deposits hitherto unvisited by the prying geologist, where the remains of Noah's contemporaries, and the monuments of their genius, repose deep in the soil? In this opinion, however, we do not enjoy the support of Professor Kidd, who reasons against it in the following manner : "It is very commonly supposed also that depositions of gravel are the consequence of the Mosaic deluge; against which supposition, I think, the following is a strong argument. The period which intervened between Adam and Noah is as long as between Noah and the building of Rome; but at the time that Rome was built it appears from historical evidence that a great part of Europe was peopled, and that even our own island was inhabited. Reasoning then on that datum, the same parts were probably peopled at the time of the flood (especially as human life extended to a longer period before than after that catastrophe); and consequently we might expect to find the remains of human bodies, and of instruments of art, in such situations as we find the remains of other animals; if these last mentioned remains are the monu-> ments of the Mosaic deluge: or, if not the remains of human bodies, at least we might expect to find the remains of existing as well as of extinct species: for we learn from Scripture, that the flood was only intended to destroy individuals; the species having been been miraculously preserved. It may be said, that the absence of human remains is a negative argument, which may be overturned the next moment by the discovery of the remains of human bodies in beds of true gravel. This is however not likely; and at all events it is evident, that the history of gravel beds is accompanied with facts as inexplicable as are found in the history of the regular strata. But, whatever were the cause of the deposition of gravel beds, it appears pretty certain that no process of that kind took place at any period between the formation of the earliest and the latest of the regular strata: for I cannot find that any thing resembling a true gravel bed is interposed between any of the series of any formation: yet if stratification were now to be resumed, it is clear that the existing beds of gravel would be covered as well as the uppermost of the regular strata." P. 163. Before we conclude our remarks on this interesting little volume, we shall take notice of a fact quoted by Dr. Kidd, from Humboldt, relative to the lakes which are still seen in the valley of Mexico. Nothing startled us so much in the various descriptions which we perused of the celebrated floetz formation, in the neighbourhood of Paris, as the alternation of beds containing respectively salt-water and fresh-water shells. It is a sufficient stretch of imagination to suppose, that the sea would advance and recede so as repeatedly to cover and leave dry that immense basin; but to assert that it was alternately overflowed from the land and from the ocean, appears to exceed all the bounds of probability. The valley in which the city of Mexico is situated, says Humboldt, though more than five thousand feet above the level of the sea, is literally encircled by a chain of mountains; and it seems evident that this valley was formerly an immense lake, of which the five comparatively small lakes, now occupying portions of it, some of fresh and some of salt-water, are the remains. In 1520, Cortez described two great lakes as existing in this valley, the one of salt-water, the other of fresh; and whatever difficulty we may find in accounting for the fact, it comes from such unquestionable and unsuspicious authority, that we must implicitly admit its reality. If, then, the valley of Mexico shall, at any future period, be thrown open and examined with the same minute attention which has been bestowed upon the environs of Paris, there is every reason to expect that similar appearances will be exhibited. There will be some strata characterized by marine exuviæ, and other strata having the remains of shell-fish peculiar to fresh-water; and when the philosopher shall infer from these facts, that salt-water, as well as fresh, has contributed to the formation of the mineral deposits, in the basin of Mexico, he will only have to refer to the writings of Cuvier and Brongniart |