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I.—On the Origin of Valleys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

G. Poulett Scrope
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Extract

A Controversy apperas to be carried on between geologists as to the causes of the excavation of valleys, and the degree in which marine denudation on the one hand, or the eroding power of rain and rivers on the other, have been concerned in the process. To this controversy Mr. D. Mackintosh has contributed two papers, in recent numbers of this Magazine. I am desirous of recalling to the recollection of its readers certain facts which demonstrate, beyond the possibility of doubt, how vast is the error of those writers who, like Mr. Mackintosh, speak of “the impotence of rain as a denuding agent.”

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 3 , Issue 23 , May 1866 , pp. 193 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1866

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References

page 193 note 1 Vol. iii., p. 63, No. 20, for 02, 1866;Google Scholar and ib., p. 155, No.22, for 04, 1866.Google Scholar

page 193 note 2 Page 155, supra, .Google Scholar

page 194 note 1 On the Excavation of certain Vallyes in Auvergne. Phil. Mag. for 04, 1829.Google Scholar

page 198 note 1 See Dr. Rubidge's paper on the Denudation of South Africa. Geol. Mag., vol. iii. p. 88.Google Scholar

page 198 note 2 And, I may add, Raised Beaches in the plough-worn lynchets of our downs. As well see them in the vine-terraces of the banks of Rhine or Moselle! see Mackintosh,Geol. Mag., vol. iii. pp. 69and 155.Google Scholar

page 198 note 3 Geology of Centrl France. Ed. 1827. It is very statisfactory to me to find (See the last number, 04, 1866, of the Journal of Science, p. 208) that my old friend and felloew labourer in the Volcanic department of Geology, Dr. Danbeney, has acknowledged at last the correctness of the views I was led to entertain upon, this question, which views he had previously disputed, “From the description,” he says, “ givea by Mr. Scrope, Sir C. Lyell, Sir E. Murchison, and other competent authorities, it plainly appears that the valleys of Auvergne were excavated not at one, but at several successive periods—or, more correctly speaking, that although water was instrumental in their formation, yet that they must have been scooped out, not by any violent movement or sudden passage of a flood over the country, but by the long-continued action of the rivers nou in existence.”Google Scholar