of the valleys are 1000 feet at least below the tops of the mountains,
and some of the hollows in question are a mile in width. Now, the
amount of rock worn away from this one little island by sub-aërial
erosion cannot be less than that of a mass measuring 10 miles in
length by 6 miles in breadth, and 800 feet in thickness. And yet the
Faröe Islands are composed of rocks which had no existence when the
soft clays, etc., of the London Basin were being accumulated. All the
erosion referred to has taken place since the great upheaval of the
Eocene strata of the Swiss Alps.
But if the evidence of erosion be so conspicuous in regions composed
of horizontal strata, it is not less so in countries where the rocks
are inclined at various angles to the horizon. Indeed, the very fact
that inclined strata crop out at the surface is sufficient evidence of
erosion. For it is obvious that these outcrops are merely the truncated
ends of beds which must formerly have had a wider extension. But while
the effects produced by the erosion of horizontal strata are readily
perceived by the least-informed observer, it requires some knowledge
of geological structure to appreciate the denudation of curved or
undulating strata. And yet there is really no mystery in the matter.
All we have to do is by careful observation to ascertain the mode of
arrangement of the rocks--this accomplished, we have no difficulty
in estimating the minimum erosion which any set of strata may have
experienced. An illustration may serve to make this plain. Here, for
example, is a section across a region of undulating strata (Fig. 2).
Let the line _A B_ represent the surface of the ground, and _C D_ be
any datum line--say, the sea-level. An observer at _A_, who should
walk in the direction of _B_, would cross successively eight outcrops
of coal; and, were he incapable of reading the geological structure
of the ground, he might imagine that he had come upon eight separate
coal-seams. A glance at the section, however, shows that in reality he
had met with only two coals, and that the deceptive appearances, which
might be misread by an incautious observer, are simply the result of
denudation. In this case the tops of a series of curved or arched beds
have been removed (as at _E_), and, by protracting the lines of the
truncated beds until they meet, we can estimate the minimum amount of
erosion they have sustained. Thus, if the strata between _o_ and _p_
be 300 feet thick, it is self-evident that a somewhat greater thickness
of rock must have been removed from the top of the anticlinal arch or
"saddleback" at _E_.
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