the great alps of the Earth such
peaceful and elevated thoughts, and such rest to our souls, that
it is to those very solitudes we turn to heal the wounds of ife.
It is difficult to explain the cause of this very different point
of view. It is probably, in part, to be referred to that cloud of
superstitious horror which, throughout the Middle Ages, peopled
the solitudes with unknown terrors; and, in part, to the
asceticism which led the pious to regard the beauty and joy of
life as snares to the soul's well-being. In those eternal
solitudes where the overwhelming forces of Nature are most in
evidence, an evil principle must dwell or a dragon's dreadful
brood must find a home.

But while in our time the aesthetic aspect of the hills appeals
to all, there remains in the physical history of the mountains
much that is lost to those who have not shared in the scientific
studies of alpine structure and genesis. They lose a past history
which for interest com-

116

petes with anything science has to tell of the changes of the
Earth.

Great as are the physical features of the mountains compared with
the works of Man, and great as are the forces involved compared
with those we can originate or control, the loftiest ranges are
small contrasted with the dimensions of the Earth. It is well to
bear this in mind. I give here (Pl. XV.) a measured drawing
showing a sector cut from a sphere of 50 cms. radius; so much of
it as to exhibit the convergence of its radial boundaries which
if prolonged will meet at the centre. On the same scale as the
radius the diagram shows the highest mountains and the deepest
ocean. The average height of the land and the average depth of
the ocean are also exhibited. We see how small a movement of the
crust the loftiest elevation of the Himalaya represents and what
a little depression holds the ocean.

Nevertheless, it is not by any means easy to explain the genesis
of those small elevations and depressions. It would lead us far
from our immediate subject to discuss the various theoretical
views which have been advanced to account for the facts. The idea
that mountain folds, and the lesser rugosities of the Earth's
surface, arose in a wrinkling of the crust under the influence of
cooling and skrinkage of the subcrustal materials, is held by
many eminent geologists, but not without dissent from others.

The most striking observational fact connected with mountain
structure is that, without exce