_Concerning the Mountains of the Earth, their Greatness and
irregular Form, their Situation, Causes, and Origin._
WE have been in the Hollows of the Earth, and the Chambers of the Deep,
amongst the Damps and Steams of those lower Regions; let us now go air
our selves on the Tops of the Mountains, where we shall have a more free
and large Horizon, and quite another Face of Things will present it self
to our Observation.
THE greatest Objects of Nature are, methinks, the most pleasing to
behold; and next to the great Concave of the Heavens, and those
boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit, there is nothing that I look
upon with more Pleasure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the
Earth. There is something august and stately in the Air of these things,
that inspires the Mind with great Thoughts and Passions; we do
naturally, upon such Occasions, think of God and his Greatness: And
whatsoever hath but the Shadow and Appearance of INFINITE, as all Things
have that are too big for our Comprehension, they fill and over-bear the
Mind with their Excess, and cast it into a pleasing kind of Stupor and
Admiration.
AND yet these Mountains we are speaking of, to confess the Truth, are
nothing but great Ruins; but such as shew a certain Magnificence in
Nature; as from old Temples and broken Amphitheatres of the _Romans_ we
collect the Greatness of that People. But the Grandeur of a Nation is
less sensible to those that never see the Remains and Monuments they
have left; and those who never see the mountainous Parts of the Earth
scarce ever reflect upon the Causes of them, or what Power in Nature
could be sufficient to produce them. The Truth is, the Generality of
People have not Sense and Curiosity enough to raise a Question
concerning these things, or concerning the Original of them. You may
tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls, or that
there are Monsters under Ground, that throw up Mountains as Moles do
Mole-hills; they will scarce raise one Objection against your Doctrine.
Or if you would appear more Learned, tell them that the Earth is a great
Animal, and these are Wens that grow upon its Body; this would pass
current for Philosophy; so much is the World drown’d in Stupidity and
sensual Pleasures, and so little inquisitive into the Works of God and
Nature.
THERE is nothing doth more awaken our Thoughts, or excite our Minds to
enquire into the Causes of such Things, than the actual View of them; as
I have had Experience my self, when it was my Fortune to cross the
_Alps_ and _Apennine_ Mountains; for the Sight of those wild, vast, and
indigested Heaps of Stones and Earth did so deeply strike my Fancy, that
I was not easy ’till I could give my self some tolerable Account how
that Confusion came in Nature, ’Tis true, the Height of Mountains
compar’d with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable, but the
Extent of them and the Ground they stand upon bears a considerable
Proportion to the Surface of the Earth; and if from _Europe_ we may take
our Measures for the rest, I easily believe, that the Mountains do at
least take up the Tenth Part of the dry Land. The Geographers are not
very careful to describe or note in their Charts the Multitude or
Situation of Mountains; They mark the Bounds of Countries, the Site of
Cities and Towns, and the Course of Rivers, because these are Things of
chief Use to Civil Affairs and Commerce, and that they design to serve,
and not Philosophy or natural History. But _Cluverius_, in his
Description of _Ancient Germany_, _Switzerland_, and _Italy_, hath given
Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural Face of them,
and we have drawn (at the end of this Chapter) such a Map of either
Hemisphere, without marking Countries or Towns, or any such artificial
Things; distinguishing only Land and Sea, Islands and Continents,
Mountains and not Mountains; and ’tis very useful to imagine the Earth
in this Manner, and to look often upon such bare Draughts, as shew us
_Nature_ undrest; for then we are best able to judge what her true
Shapes and Proportions are.
’TIS certain that we naturally imagine the Surface of the Earth much
more regular than it is; for unless we be in some mountainous Parts,
there seldom occur any great Inequalities within so much Compass of
Ground as we can at once reach with our Eye; and to conceive the rest,
we multiply the same _Idea_, and extend it to those Parts of the Earth
that we do not see, and so fancy the whole Globe much more smooth and
uniform than it is. But suppose a Man was carried asleep out of a plain
Country amongst the _Alps_, and left there upon the Top of one of the
highest Mountains, when he wak’d and look’d about him, he wou’d think
himself in an inchanted Country, or carried into another World; every
Thing wou’d appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or
imagin’d before. To see on every Hand of him a Multitude of vast Bodies
thrown together in Confusion, as those Mountains are; Rocks standing
naked round about him; and the hollow Valleys gaping under him; and at
his Feet, it may be, an Heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer. He
would hear the Thunder come from below, and see the black Clouds hanging
beneath him; upon such a Prospect it would not be easy to him to
persuade himself that he was still upon the same Earth; but if he did,
he would be convinc’d, at least, that there are some Regions of it
strangely rude, and ruin-like, and very different from what he had ever
thought of before. But the Inhabitants of these wild Places are even
with us; for those that live amongst the _Alps_, and the great
Mountains, think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country,
all broken into Mountains, and Valleys, and Precipices; they never see
other, and most People think of nothing but what they have seen at one
time or an other.
THESE _Alps_ we are speaking of are the greatest Range of Mountains in
_Europe_; and ’tis prodigious to see and to consider of what extent
these Heaps of Stones and Rubbish are; one way they over-spread _Savoy_
and _Dauphine_, and reach thro’ _France_ to the _Pyrenean_ Mountains,
and so to the Ocean. The other way they run along the Skirts of
_Germany_, thro’ _Styria_, _Pannonia_, and _Dalmatia_, as far as
_Thrace_ and the Black Sea. Then backwards they cover _Switzerland_ and
the Parts adjacent; and that Branch of them which we call the
_Apennines_ strikes thro’ _Italy_, and is, as it were, the Back-bone of
that Country. This must needs be a large Space of Ground which they
stand upon; yet ’tis not this Part of _Europe_ only that is laden with
Mountains, the Northern Part is as rough and rude in the Face of the
Country, as in the Manners of the People; _Bohemia_, _Silesia_,
_Denmark_, _Norway_, _Sweedland_, _Lapland_, and _Iseland_, and all the
Coasts of the _Baltick Sea_, are full of Clifts, and Rocks, and Crags of
Mountains: Besides the _Riphean_ Mountains in _Muscovy_, which the
Inhabitants there use to call the _Stone-girdle_, and believe that it
girds the Earth round about.
NOR are the other Parts of our Continent more free from Mountains than
_Europe_, nor other Parts of the Earth than our Continent; They are in
the New World as well as the Old; and if they could discover two or
three New Worlds or Continents more, they would still find them there.
Neither is there any Original Island upon the Earth, but is either all a
Rock, or hath Rocks of Mountains in it. And all the dry Land, and every
Continent, is but a kind of Mountain; tho’ that Mountain hath a
Multitude of lesser ones, and Valleys, and Plains, and Lakes, and
Marshes, and all Variety of Grounds.
IN _America_, the _Andes_, or a Ridge of Mountains so call’d, are
reported to be higher than any we have, reaching above a Thousand
Leagues in Length, and Twenty in Breadth, where they are the narrowest.
In _Africk_ the Mountain _Atlas_, that for its height was said to bear
the Heavens on its Back, runs all along from the Western Sea to the
Borders of _Ægypt_, parallel with the _Mediterranean_. There also are
the Mountains of the _Moon_, and many more, whereof we have but an
imperfect Account, as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and
inner Parts of it. _Asia_ is better known, and the Mountains thereof
better describ’d: _Taurus_, which is the principal, was adjudg’d by the
Ancient Geographers the greatest in the World. It divides _Asia_ into
two Parts, which have their Denomination from it: And there is an
_Anti-Taurus_ the greater and the less, which accordingly divide
_Armenia_ into greater and less. Then the _Cruciform_ Mountains of
_Imaus_, the famous _Caucasus_, the long Chains of _Tartary_ and
_China_, and the rocky and mountainous _Arabia_. If one could at once
have a Prospect of all these together, one would be easily satisfied,
that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than ’tis
commonly imagin’d; if one could see, I say, all the Kingdoms and Regions
of the Earth at one view, how they lie in broken Heaps; the Sea hath
overwhelmed one half of them, and what remains are but the taller Parts
of a Ruin. Look upon those great Ranges of Mountains in _Europe_ or in
_Asia_, whereof we have given a short Survey; in what Confusion do they
lie? They have neither Form nor Beauty, nor Shape, nor Order, no more
than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren, how desolate, how naked are
they? How they stand neglected by Nature? Neither the Rains can soften
them, nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful.
I have given this short Account of the Mountains of the Earth, to help
to remove that Prejudice we are apt to have, or that Conceit, that the
present Earth _is regularly form’d_. And to this Purpose I do not doubt
but that it would be of very good Use to have _natural_ Maps of the
Earth, as we noted before, as well as _civil_; and done with the same
Care and Judgment.
Our common Maps I call _Civil_, which note the Distinction of Countries
and of Cities, and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and
cultivated: But Natural Maps leave out all that, and represent the Earth
as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it, nor ever had
been; the Skeleton of the Earth, as I may so say, with the sight of all
its Parts. Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his
own Country and Dominions, to see how the Ground lies in the several
Parts of them, which highest, which lowest; what respect they have to
one another, and to the Sea; how the Rivers flow, and why; how the
Mountains stand; how the Heaths and how the Marshes are plac’d. Such a
Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace, and many
good Observations might be made by it, not only as to natural History
and Philosophy, but also in order to the perfect Improvement of a
Country. But to return to our Mountains.
AND this View of the Multitude and Greatness of them, may help to
rectify our Mistakes about the Form of the Earth; so before we proceed
to examine their Causes it will be good to observe further, that these
Mountains are plac’d in no Order one with another, that can either
respect Use or Beauty; and if you consider them singly, they do not
consist of any Proportion of Parts that is referable to any Design, or
that hath the least Footsteps of Art or Counsel. There is nothing in
Nature more shapeless and ill-figur’d than an old Rock or a Mountain,
and all that Variety that is among them, is but the various Modes of
Irregularity; so as you cannot make a better Character of them, in
short, than to say they are of all Forms and Figures except regular.
Then if you would go within these Mountains (for they are generally
hollow) you would find all things there more rude, if possible, than
without: And lastly, if you look upon an Heap of them together, or a
mountainous Country, they are the greatest Examples of Confusion that we
know in Nature; no Tempest or Earthquake puts Things into more Disorder.
’Tis true, they cannot look so ill now as they did at first; a Ruin that
is fresh, looks much worse than afterwards, when the Earth grows
discolour’d and skinn’d over. But I fancy, if we had seen the Mountains
when they were new born and raw, when the Earth was fresh broken, and
the Waters of the Deluge newly retir’d, the Fractions and Confusions of
them would have appear’d very ghastly and frightful.
AFTER this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their
Properties, let us now reflect upon the Causes of them. There is a
double Pleasure in Philosophy; first, that of Admiration, whilst we
contemplate Things that are great and wonderful, and do not yet
understand their Causes; for tho’ Admiration proceeds from Ignorance,
yet there is a certain Charm and Sweetness in that Passion. Then the
second Pleasure is greater and more intellectual, which is that of
distinct Knowledge and Comprehension, when we come to have the Key that
unlocks those Secrets, and see the Methods wherein those Things come to
pass that we admir’d before: The Reasons why the World is so or so, and
from what Causes Nature, or any Part of Nature, came into such a State;
and this we are now to enquire after, as to the Mountains of the Earth,
what their Original was, how and when the Earth came into this strange
Frame and Structure? In the Beginning of our World, when the Earth rose
from a Chaos, ’twas impossible it should come immediately into this
mountainous Form; because a Mass that is fluid, as a Chaos is, cannot
lie in any other Figure than what is regular; for the constant Laws of
Nature do certainly bring all Liquors into that Form: And a Chaos is not
call’d so from any Confusion or Brokenness in the Form of it, but from a
Confusion and Mixture of all sorts of Ingredients in the Composition of
it. So we have already produc’d in the precedent Chapters, a double
Argument that the Earth was not originally in this Form, both because it
rose from a Chaos, which could not of it self, or by any immediate
Concretion, settle into a Form of this Nature, as hath been shewn in the
fourth and fifth Chapters; as also because if it had been originally
made thus, it could never have undergone a Deluge, as hath been prov’d
in the second and third Chapters. If this be then a secondary and
succedaneous Form, the great Question is, from what Causes it arises.
SOME have thought that Mountains, and all other Irregularities in the
Earth, have Rise from Earthquakes, and such like Causes; others have
thought that they came from the universal Deluge; yet not from any
Dissolution of the Earth that was then, but only from the great
Agitation of the Waters, which broke the Ground into this rude and
unequal Form. Both these Causes seem to me very incompetent and
insufficient. Earthquakes seldom make Mountains, they often take them
away, and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them; besides,
Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are; for
as we have observ’d more than once, there is neither Island that is
Original, nor Continent any where in the Earth, in what Latitude soever,
but hath Mountains and Rocks in it. And lastly, what Probability is
there, or how is it credible, that those vast Tracks of Land which we
see fill’d with Mountains both in _Europe_, _Asia_ and _Africa_, were
rais’d by Earthquakes, or any Eruptions from below? In what Age of the
World was this done, and why not continu’d? As for the Deluge, which
they alledge as another Cause, I doubt not but Mountains were made in
the Time of the general Deluge, that great Change and Transformation of
the Earth happen’d then, but not from such Causes as are pretended, that
is, the bare rolling and agitation of the Waters; for if the Earth was
smooth and plain before the Flood, as they seem to suppose as well as we
do, the Waters could have little or no Power over a smooth Surface to
tear it any way in Pieces, no more than they do a Meadow or low Ground
when they lie upon it; for that which makes Torrents and Land floods
violent, is their Fall from the Mountains and high Lands, which our
Earth is now full of; but if the Rain fell upon even and level Ground,
it would only sodden and compress it; there is no possibility how it
should raise Mountains in it. And if we could imagine an universal
Deluge as the Earth is now constituted, it would rather throw down the
Hills and Mountains, than raise new ones; or by beating down their Tops
and loose Parts, help to fill the Valleys, and bring the Earth nearer to
Evenness and Plainness.
SEEING then there are no Hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains,
either from particular Earthquakes, or from the general Deluge,
according to the common Notion and Explication of it; these not being
Causes answerable to such vast Effects: Let us try our _Hypothesis_
again; which hath made us a Channel large enough for the Sea, and Room
for all subterraneous Cavities, and I think will find us Materials
enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth. We suppose the great
Arch or Circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss
at the Deluge, and seeing that was larger than the Surface it fell upon,
’tis absolutely certain, that it could not all fall flat, or lie under
the Water: Now as all those Parts that stood above the Water made dry
Land, or the present habitable Earth, so such Parts of the dry Land as
stood higher than the rest, made Hills and Mountains; and this is the
first and general Account of them, and of all the Inequalities of the
Earth. But to consider these Things a little more particularly: There is
a double Cause and Necessity of Mountains, first this now mention’d,
because the exterior Orb of the Earth was greater than the interior,
which it fell upon, and therefore it could not all fall flat; and
secondly, because this exterior Orb did not fall so flat and large as it
might, or did not cover all the Bottom of the Abyss, as it was very
capable to do; but as we shew’d before in explaining the Channel of the
Ocean, it left a gaping in the Middle, or an _Abyss-channel_, as I
should call it; and the broader this Abyss-channel was, the more
Mountains there would be upon the dry Land; for there would be more
Earth, or more of the falling Orb left, and less Room to place it in,
and therefore it must stand more in Heaps.
IN what Parts of the Earth these Heaps would lie, and in what particular
manner, it cannot be expected that we should tell; but all that we have
hitherto observ’d concerning Mountains, how strange soever, and
otherwise unaccountable, may easily be explain’d and deduc’d from this
Original; we shall not wonder at their Greatness and Vastness, seeing
they are the Ruins of a broken World; and they would take up more or
less of the dry Land, according as the Ocean took up more or less Space
of our Globe: Then as to their Figure and Form, whether external or
internal, ’tis just such as answers our Expectation, and no more than
what the _Hypothesis_ leads us to; for you would easily believe that
these Heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways, whether consider’d
apart, or in their Situation to one another. And they would lie commonly
in Clusters and in Ridges, for those are two of the most general
Postures of the Parts of a Ruin, when they fall inwards. Lastly, We
cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow; for great
Bodies falling together in Confusion, or bearing and leaning against one
another, must needs make a great many Hollownesses in them, and by their
unequal Applications empty Spaces will be intercepted. We see also from
the same Reason why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes;
and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie
under them; their Joints and Props being decayed and worn, they become
unable to bear their Weight. And all these Properties you see hang upon
one and the same String, and are just Consequences from our Supposition
concerning the Dissolution of the first Earth. And there is no surer
Mark of a good _Hypothesis_, than when it doth not only hit luckily in
one or two Particulars, but answers all that it is to be apply’d to, and
is adequate to Nature in her whole Extent.
But how fully or easily soever these things may answer Nature, you will
say, it may be, that all this is but an _Hypothesis_; that is, a kind of
Fiction or Supposition that Things were so and so at first, and by the
Coherence and Agreement of the Effects with such a Supposition, you
would argue and prove that they were really so. This I confess is true,
this is the Method, and if we would know any Thing in Nature further
than our Senses go, we can know it no otherwise than by an _Hypothesis_.
When Things are either too little for our Senses, or too remote and
inaccessible, we have no Way to know the inward Nature, and the Causes
of their sensible Properties, but by reasoning upon an _Hypothesis_. If
you would know, for Example, of what Parts Water, or any other Liquor
consists, they are too little to be discern’d by the Eye; you must
therefore take a Supposition concerning their invisible Figure and Form,
and if that agrees and gives the Reason of all their sensible Qualities,
you understand the Nature of Water. In like manner, if you would know
the Nature of a Comet, or of what Matter the Sun consists, which are
Things inaccessible to us, you can do this no otherwise than by an
_Hypothesis_; and if that _Hypothesis_ be easy and intelligible, and
answers all the _Phænomena_ of those two Bodies, you have done as much
as a _Philosopher_ or as _human Reason_ can do. And this is what we have
attempted concerning the Earth and concerning the Deluge. We have laid
down an _Hypothesis_ that is easy and perspicuous, consisting of a few
things, and those very intelligible, and from this we have given an
Account how the old World was destroy’d by a Deluge of Water, and how
the Earth came into this present Form, so distinguish’d and interrupted
with Sea and Land, Mountains and Valleys, and so broken in the Surface
and inward Parts of it.
BUT to speak the Truth, this Theory is something more than a bare
_Hypothesis_; because we are assured that the general Ground that we go
upon is true, namely, That the Earth rose at first from a Chaos; for
besides Reason and Antiquity, Scripture it self doth assure us of that;
and that one Point being granted, we have deduc’d from it all the rest
by a direct Chain of Consequences, which I think cannot be broken easily
in any Part or Link of it. Besides, the great Hinge of this Theory, upon
which all the rest turns, is the Distinction we make of the antediluvian
Earth and Heavens from the Postdiluvian, as to their Form and
Constitution. And it will never be beaten out of my Head, but that St.
_Peter_, _2 Epist. chap. iii. 5, 6._ hath made the same Distinction
sixteen hundred Years since, and to the very same purpose; so that we
have sure footing here again, and the Theory riseth above the Character
of a bare _Hypothesis_. And whereas an _Hypothesis_ that is clear and
proportion’d to Nature in every Respect, is accounted morally certain,
we must in Equity give more than a moral Certitude to this Theory. But I
mean this only as to the general Parts of it; for as to Particularities,
I look upon them only as problematical, and accordingly I affirm nothing
therein but with a Power of Revocation, and a Liberty to change my
Opinion when I shall be better inform’d. Neither do I know any Author
that hath treated a Matter new, remote, and consisting of a Multitude of
Particulars, who would not have had occasion, if he had liv’d to have
seen his _Hypothesis_ fully examin’d, to have chang’d his Mind and
Manner of explaining Things in many material Instances.
TO conclude both this Chapter and this Section, we have here added a Map
or Draught of the Earth, according to the natural Face of it, as it
would appear from the Moon, if we were a little nearer to her; or as it
was at first after the Deluge, before Cities were built, Distinctions of
Countries made, or any Alterations by human Industry. ’Tis chiefly to
expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth, and the Proportions of
Sea and Land; to shew it as it lies in itself, and as a Naturalist ought
to conceive and consider it. ’Tis true, there are far more Mountains
upon the Earth than what are here represented, for more could not
conveniently be plac’d in this narrow Scheme; but the best and most
effectual Way of representing the Body of the Earth as it is by Nature,
would be, not in plain Tables, but by a _rough Globe_, expressing all
the considerable Inequalities that are upon the Earth. The smooth Globes
that we use, do but nourish in us the Conceit of the Earth’s Regularity;
and tho’ they may be convenient enough for geographical Purposes, they
are not so proper for natural Science, nothing would be more useful in
this Respect, than a rough Globe of the largest Dimensions, wherein the
Channel of the Sea should be really hollow, as it is in Nature, with all
its unequal Depths according to the best Soundings, and the Shores
express’d both according to Matter and Form, little Rocks standing where
there are Rocks, and Sands and Beaches in the Places where they are
found; and all the Islands planted in the Sea-channel in a due Form, and
in their solid Dimensions. Then upon the Land should stand all the
Ranges of Mountains, in the same Order or Disorder that Nature hath set
them there: And the in-land Seas, and great Lakes, or rather the Beds
they lie in, should be duly represented; as also the vast Desarts of
Sand as they lie upon the Earth. And this being done with Care and due
Art, would be a true Epitome, or true Model of our Earth. Where we
should see, besides other Instructions, what a rude Lump our World is,
which we are so apt to dote upon.
[Illustration: The Eastern Hemisphere.]
[Illustration: The Western Hemisphere.]