It depicts the eruptive rocks as principles of movement, acting
upon the sedimentary rocks by traversing, uplifting, and inclining them at
various angles; it
p 60
considers volcanoes either as isolated, or ranged in single or in double
series, and extending their sphere of action to various distances, either by
raising long and narrow lines of rocks, or by means of circles of commotion,
which expand or diminish in diameter in the course of ages. This
terrestrial portion of the science of the Cosmos describes the strife of the
liquid element with the solid land; it indicates the features possessed in
common by all great rivers in the upper and lower portion of their course,
and in their mode of bifurcation when their basins are unclosed; and shows
us rivers breaking through the highest mountain chains, or following for a
long time a course parallel to them, either at their base, or at a
considerable distance, where the elevation of the strata of the mountain
system and the direction of their inclination correspond to the
configuration of the table-land. It is only the general results of
comparative orography and hydrography that belong to the science whose true
limits I am desirous of determining, and not the special enumeration of the
greatest elevations of our globe, of active volcanoes, of rivers, and the
number of their tributaries, these details falliing rather within the domain
of geography, properly so called.
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