seeing the structure of those mountains. For, if we shall find the same
principles, here prevailing in the formation of those supposed primitive
mountains as are found over all the earth in general, and as are
employed in fashioning or shaping every species of material, it will be
allowed us to conclude, that, in this situation of things, we have
what is general in the formation of land, notwithstanding imaginary
distinctions of certain parts which had been formed one way, and of
others which are supposed to be operations of an opposite nature.

This question therefore will be properly decided in our author's journey
to the Alps; for, if we shall there find calcareous strata perfectly
consolidated, as they should be by the extreme operation of subterranean
heat and fusion; if we find materials of every species formed after the
manner of stratification; and if all those different strata variously
consolidated shall be found in all positions, similar to those which
we have now seen in the examination of the Jura and Saleve, with this
difference, that the deplacement and contorsion may be more violent in
those highly consolidated strata, we shall then generalise an operation
by which the present state of things must have been produced; and in
those regular appearances, we shall acknowledge the operation of an
internal heat, and of an elevating power.

«§ 287. Les pentes rapides des bancs dont est formé le mole, les
directions variées de ces mêmes bancs sont aussi conformes à une
observation générale et importante, que le montagnes secondaires sont
d'autant plus irrégulières et plus inclinées qu'elles s'approchent plus
des primitives.

«A la verité, quelque montagnes calcaires même à de grandes distances
des primitives ont ça et là des couches inclinées et même quelquefois