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be traced along their basset edges to the
distance of a league, where they are covered
by earth; They are succeeded by
sandstone and slate. That these beds of
puddingstone contain the true fragments
of other rocks, cannot be doubted ; had
they been all of quartz, we might perhaps
have supposed them cotemporaneous with
the bed in which they occur ; but it would
be contrary to all probability to believe
that rounded pebbles, and holders of gneiss
and mica slate, together with angular fragments
-o f other rocks, were originally
formed in a bed of soft schist, and whilst
it was in a vertical position. Indeed, such
a mode of formation appears impossible;
we have therefore a satisfactory proof, that
these beds have been raised from an horizontal
position, or nearly so, to their present
vertical one ; and as all the othei beds
in the same mountain, even the lower slate
and granitic rocks, have the same range
affd position, we are compelled to admit,
that they have all been elevated at the same
time, and by the same cause. The mountains
on the opposite side of the valley,
present also the same vertical beds, and
Saussure observes, that it would be absurd
to deny, that they owe their elevation to a
similar cause.
The range of the beds in the whole chain
of Alps in Savoy and the Haut Valíais, is
generally conformable to th at of the beds
in the Col de Balme and the Valorsine; I
therefore think we should not extend the
inference too far, were we to admit that
the vertical, or highly-inclined beds, in the
whole of this range, owe their elevation to
the same cause, whose operation is so manifest
in the position of the strata of the
Col de Balme. It is true we find nothing
analogous to such a cause in present operation,
except the very extended, but less
intense agency of earthquakes. We have
however only to conceive a similar force to
that which shook the mountains, the earth,
and the sea, over one-third o f the surface
of the globe, in 1754 and 1755, to be more
concentrated in its action ; and we cannot
doubt but that it would be adequate to
break a portion of the crust of our planet,
and elevate its beds to the height o f the
loftiest mountains in the Alps.
Perhaps the numerous thermal springs
existing at the feet of the Pennine and
Grecian Alps, may, as I have elsewhere
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