( 2Z )

emerged continent consisting of mountainsand plains was gradually laid bare and dried,and by drying, consolidated.

The disclosure of the actual continents,as I have just hinted, appears to have beengradual. The tracts at first uncovered werethose whose height over the present seasamounts to 8500 or 9000 feet, or more.This height comprehends most of theEastern heights of Siberia, between lati-tude 49 0 and 35 0 , and of the extensive re-gions of Great Tartary, Thibet, the desertos Coby or Chamo, and China, reaching insome places to latitude 33 0 , and extendingin the Northern parts from the sources ofthe Irtisti, long. 95 °, and in the moreSouthern from the heads of the Ganges andBourampooter, long. 8o°, Hohanho andPorentlho to long. 190° at the least, and,perhaps, still farther into the unknownparts of Eastern America.

In Europe, only, the summits of theAlps, Pyrenees, and of a few other moun-tains, were uncovered, but in America thenarrow but long chain of the Cordeliersmust have raised its summits far above the

ocean;