Abstract
FEW problems in physical geology are more fascinating than that which deals with the origin of mountains. At the same time few present greater difficulties. In the first place it is absolutely necessary to ascertain the facts of mountain structure before proceeding to frame any theory to account for them. Yet to do this involves an amount of mere physical toil which of itself raises a formidable impediment to progress. For the mountains cannot be understood from a distance. One may not intuitively interpret them by merely looking at them from below. They must be climbed and scrutinised in detail from crest to crest and valley to valley. But to be able to understand what one sees in these elevated regions, one must have an eye that has been well trained in the observation of geological structure, and which, while losing sight of no essential detail, can yet detect the dominant lines amid the apparent disarray of crag and scar, slope and pinnacle. In the next place, having elicited the fundamental facts, it is needful to find for them some explanation which, while connecting them harmoniously and luminously, shall be in strict accordance with the laws of physics, and from the point of view of geological dynamics may be regarded as not only possible but probable.
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G., A. Mountain Building 1 . Nature 21, 325–326 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021325e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021325e0