Modern Painters by. John Ruskin

This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. OF THE INFERIOR MOUNTAINS. We have next to investigate the character of those inter- % 1. The inferior mediate masses which constitute the greater uMed "f£m part of all hill scenery, forming the outworks to! "iMdedtato of the high ranges, and being almost the sole hed". constituents of such lower groups as those of Cumberland, Scotland, or South Italy. All mountains whatever, not composed of the granite or gneiss rocks described in the preceding chapter, nor volcanic, (these latter being comparatively rare,) are composed of beds, not of homogeneous, heaped materials, but of accumulated layers, whether of rock or soil. It may be slate, sandstone, limestone, gravel, or clay ; but whatever the substance, it is laid in layers, 7iot in a mass. These layers are scarcely ever horizontal, and may slope to any degree, often occurring vertical, the boldness of the hill outline commonly depending in a great degree on their inclina