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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12861 ***
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME I
+
+With Proofs and Illustrations, in Four Parts
+
+By
+
+JAMES HUTTON, M.D. & F.R.S.E.
+
+1795.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; with the Examination of different Opinions on
+that Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe.
+
+SECT. I.--Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+SECT. II.--An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in
+consolidating the Strata of the Globe.
+
+SECT. III.--Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the
+Production of Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+SECT. IV.--System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN's Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land, illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata 421.
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct view of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH;
+
+WITH THE
+
+EXAMINATION
+
+OF
+
+DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THAT SUBJECT.
+
+
+
+
+IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THEORY of the EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration, of Land upon the Globe.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+When we trace the parts of which this terrestrial system is composed,
+and when we view the general connection of those several parts, the
+whole presents a machine of a peculiar construction by which it is
+adapted to a certain end. We perceive a fabric, erected in wisdom, to
+obtain a purpose worthy of the power that is apparent in the production
+of it.
+
+We know little of the earth's internal parts, or of the materials which
+compose it at any considerable depth below the surface. But upon the
+surface of this globe, the more inert matter is replenished with plants,
+and with animal and intellectual beings.
+
+Where so many living creatures are to ply their respective powers, in
+pursuing the end for which they were intended, we are not to look for
+nature in a quiescent state; matter itself must be in motion, and the
+scenes of life a continued or repeated series of agitations and events.
+
+This globe of the earth is a habitable world; and on its fitness for
+this purpose, our sense of wisdom in its formation must depend. To judge
+of this point, we must keep in view, not only the end, but the means
+also by which that end is obtained. These are, the form of the whole,
+the materials of which it is composed, and the several powers which
+concur, counteract, or balance one another, in procuring the general
+result.
+
+The form and constitution of the mass are not more evidently calculated
+for the purpose of this earth as a habitable world, than are the various
+substances of which that complicated body is composed. Soft and hard
+parts variously combine to form a medium consistence, adapted to the use
+of plants and animals; wet and dry are properly mixed for nutrition,
+or the support of those growing bodies; and hot and cold produce a
+temperature or climate no less required than a soil: Insomuch, that
+there is not any particular, respecting either the qualities of the
+materials, or the construction of the machine, more obvious to
+our perception, than are the presence and efficacy of design and
+intelligence in the power that conducts the work.
+
+In taking this view of things, where ends and means are made the object
+of attention, we may hope to find a principle upon which the comparative
+importance of parts in the system of nature may be estimated, and also
+a rule for selecting the object of our inquiries. Under this direction,
+science may find a fit subject of investigation in every particular,
+whether of _form_, _quality_, or _active power_, that presents itself in
+this system of motion and of life; and which, without a proper
+attention to this character of the system, might appear anomalous and
+incomprehensible.
+
+It is not only by seeing those general operations of the globe which
+depend upon its peculiar construction as a machine, but also by
+perceiving how far the particulars, in the construction of that machine,
+depend upon the general operations of the globe, that we are enabled to
+understand the constitution of this earth as a thing formed by design.
+We shall thus also be led to acknowledge an order, not unworthy of
+Divine wisdom, in a subject which, in another view, has appeared as the
+work of chance, or as absolute disorder and confusion.
+
+To acquire a general or comprehensive view of this mechanism of the
+globe, by which it is adapted to the purpose of being a habitable world,
+it is necessary to distinguish three different bodies which compose the
+whole. These are, a solid body of earth, an aqueous body of sea, and an
+elastic fluid of air.
+
+It is the proper shape and disposition of these three bodies that form
+this globe into a habitable world; and it is the manner in which these
+constituent bodies are adjusted to each other, and the laws of action
+by which they are maintained in their proper qualities and respective
+departments, that form the Theory of the machine which we are now to
+examine.
+
+Let us begin with some general sketch of the particulars now mentioned.
+
+_1st_, There is a central body in the globe. This body supports those
+parts which come to be more immediately exposed to our view, or which
+may be examined by our sense and observation. This first part is
+commonly supposed to be solid and inert; but such a conclusion is only
+mere conjecture; and we shall afterwards find occasion, perhaps, to form
+another judgment in relation to this subject, after we have examined
+strictly, upon scientific principles, what appears upon the surface, and
+have formed conclusions concerning that which must have been transacted
+in some more central part.
+
+_2dly_, We find a fluid body of water. This, by gravitation, is reduced
+to a spherical form, and by the centrifugal force of the earth's
+rotation, is become oblate. The purpose of this fluid body is essential
+in the constitution of the world; for, besides affording the means of
+life and motion to a multifarious race of animals, it is the source of
+growth and circulation to the organized bodies of this earth, in being
+the receptacle of the rivers, and the fountain of our vapours.
+
+_3dly_, We have an irregular body of land raised above the level of the
+ocean. This, no doubt, is the smallest portion of the globe; but it is
+the part to us by far most interesting. It is upon the surface of this
+part that plants are made to grow; consequently, it is by virtue of
+this land that animal life, as well as vegetation, is sustained in this
+world.
+
+_Lastly_, We have a surrounding body of atmosphere, which completes the
+globe. This vital fluid is no less necessary, in the constitution of the
+world, than are the other parts; for there is hardly an operation upon
+the surface of the earth, that is not conducted or promoted by its
+means. It is a necessary condition for the sustenance of fire; it is the
+breath of life to animals; it is at least an instrument in vegetation;
+and, while it contributes to give fertility and health to things that
+grow, it is employed in preventing noxious effects from such as go into
+corruption. In short, it is the proper means of circulation for the
+matter of this world, by raising up the water of the ocean, and pouring
+it forth upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Such is the mechanism of the globe: Let us now mention some of those
+powers by which motion is produced, and activity procured to the mere
+machine.
+
+First, There is the progressive force, or moving power, by which this
+planetary body, if solely actuated, would depart continually from the
+path which it now pursues, and thus be for ever removed from its end,
+whether as a planetary body, or as a globe sustaining plants and
+animals, which may be termed a living world.
+
+But this moving body is also actuated by gravitation, which inclines
+it directly to the central body of the sun. Thus it is made to revolve
+about that luminary, and to preserve its path.
+
+It is also upon the same principles, that each particular part upon the
+surface of this globe, is alternately exposed to the influence of light
+and darkness, in the diurnal rotation of the earth, as well as in its
+annual revolution. In this manner are produced the vicissitudes of night
+and day, so variable in the different latitudes from the equator to the
+pole, and so beautifully calculated to equalise the benefits of light,
+so variously distributed in the different regions of the globe.
+
+Gravitation, and the _vis infita_ of matter, thus form the first two
+powers distinguishable in the operations of our system, and wisely
+adapted to the purpose for which they are employed.
+
+We next observe the influence of light and heat, of cold and
+condensation. It is by means of these two powers that the various
+operations of this living world are more immediately transacted;
+although the other powers are no less required, in order to produce or
+modify these great agents in the economy of life, and system of our
+changing things.
+
+We do not now inquire into the nature of those powers, or investigate
+the laws of light and heat, of cold and condemnation, by which the
+various purposes of this world are accomplished; we are only to mention
+those effects which are made sensible to the common understanding of
+mankind, and which necessarily imply a power that is employed. Thus,
+it is by the operation of those powers that the varieties of season
+in spring and autumn are obtained, that we are blessed with the
+vicissitudes of summer's heat and winter's cold, and that we possess the
+benefit of artificial light and culinary fire.
+
+We are thus bountifully provided with the necessaries of life; we are
+supplied with things conducive to the growth and preservation of our
+animal nature, and with fit subjects to employ and to nourish our
+intellectual powers.
+
+There are other actuating powers employed in the operations of this
+globe, which we are little more than able to enumerate; such are those
+of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous heat or mineral fire.
+
+Powers of such magnitude or force, are not to be supposed useless in a
+machine contrived surely not without wisdom; but they are mentioned here
+chiefly on account of their general effect; and it is sufficient to have
+named powers, of which the actual existence is well known, but of which
+the proper use in the constitution of the world is still obscure.
+The laws of electricity and magnetism have been well examined by
+philosophers; but the purposes of those powers in the economy of the
+globe have not been discovered. Subterraneous fire, again, although the
+most conspicuous in the operations of this world, and often examined by
+philosophers, is a power which has been still less understood, whether
+with regard to its efficient or final cause. It has hitherto appeared
+more like the accident of natural things, than the inherent property of
+the mineral region. It is in this last light, however, that I wish to
+exhibit it, as a great power acting a material part in the operations of
+the globe, and as an essential part in the constitution of this world.
+
+We have thus surveyed the machine in general, with those moving powers,
+by which its operations, diversified almost _ad infinitum_, are
+performed. Let us now confine our view, more particularly, to that part
+of the machine on which we dwell, that so we may consider the natural
+consequences of those operations which, being within our view, we are
+better qualified to examine.
+
+This subject is important to the human race, to the possessor of this
+world, to the intelligent being Man, who foresees events to come, and
+who, in contemplating his future interest, is led to inquire concerning
+causes, in order that he may judge of events which otherwise he could
+not know.
+
+If, in pursuing this object, we employ our skill in research, not in
+forming vain conjectures; and if _data_ are to be found, on which
+Science may form just conclusions, we should not long remain in
+ignorance with respect to the natural history of this earth, a subject
+on which hitherto opinion only, and not evidence, has decided: For in no
+subject, perhaps, is there naturally less defect of evidence, although
+philosophers, led by prejudice, or misguided by false theory, may have
+neglected to employ that light by which they should have seen the system
+of this world.
+
+But to proceed in pursuing a little farther our general or preparatory
+ideas. A solid body of land could not have answered the purpose of a
+habitable world; for, a soil is necessary to the growth of plants; and a
+soil is nothing but the materials collected from the destruction of the
+solid land. Therefore, the surface of this land, inhabited by man,
+and covered with plants and animals, is made by nature to decay, in
+dissolving from that hard and, compact state in which it is found below
+the soil; and this soil is necessarily washed away, by the continual
+circulation of the water, running from the summits of the mountains
+towards the general receptacle of that fluid. The heights of our land
+are thus levelled with the shores; our fertile plains are formed from the
+ruins of the mountains; and those travelling materials are still pursued
+by the moving water, and propelled along the inclined surface of the
+earth[1] These moveable materials, delivered into the sea, cannot, for
+a long continuance, rest upon the shore; for, by the agitation of the
+winds, the tides and currents, every moveable thing is carried
+farther and farther along the shelving bottom of the sea, towards the
+unfathomable regions of the ocean.
+
+[Note 1: M. de Luc, in his second letter to me, published in the Monthly
+Review for 1790, says, "You ought to have proved that both gravel and
+sand are carried from our continents to the sea; which, on the contrary,
+I shall prove not to be the case." He then endeavours to prove his
+assertion, by observing, that, in certain places where there is not
+either sufficient declivity in the surface, or force in the running
+water, gravel and sand are made to rest, and do not travel to the sea.
+This surely is a fact to which I most readily assent; but, on the other
+hand, I hope he will acknowledge, that, where there is sufficient
+declivity in the surface, or force in the running water, sand, gravel,
+and stones, are travelled upon the land, and are thus carried into the
+sea--at last. This is all that my theory requires, and this is what I
+believe will be admitted, without any farther proof on my part.]
+
+If the vegetable soil is thus constantly removed from the surface of the
+land, and if its place is thus to be supplied from the dissolution of
+the solid earth, as here represented, we may perceive an end to this
+beautiful machine; an end, arising from no error in its constitution as
+a world, but from that destructibility of its land which is so necessary
+in the system of the globe, in the economy of life and vegetation.
+
+The immense time necessarily required for this total destruction of
+the land, must not be opposed to that view of future events, which is
+indicated by the surest facts, and most approved principles. Time, which
+measures every thing in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes,
+is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
+it had existence; and, as the natural course of time, which to us seems
+infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end, the
+progress of things upon this globe, that is, the course of nature,
+cannot be limited by time, which must proceed in a continual succession.
+We are, therefore, to consider as inevitable the deduction of our land,
+so far as effected by those operations which are necessary in the
+purpose of the globe, considered as a habitable world; and, so far as
+we have not examined any other part of the economy of nature, in which
+other operations and a different intention might appear.
+
+We have now considered the globe of this earth as a machine, constructed
+upon chemical as well as mechanical principles, by which its different
+parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, and in quantity, to a
+certain end; an end attained with certainty or success; and an end from
+which we may perceive wisdom, in contemplating the means employed.
+
+But is this world to be considered thus merely as a machine, to last no
+longer than its parts retain their present position, their proper forms
+and qualities? Or may it not be also considered as an organized body?
+such as has a constitution in which the necessary decay of the machine
+is naturally repaired, in the exertion of those productive powers by
+which it had been formed.
+
+This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe; to see if
+there be, in the constitution of this world, a reproductive operation,
+by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired, and a duration or
+stability thus procured to the machine, considered as a world sustaining
+plants and animals.
+
+If no such reproductive power, or reforming operation, after due
+inquiry, is to be found in the constitution of this world, we should
+have reason to conclude, that the system of this earth has either been
+intentionally made imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite power
+and wisdom.
+
+Here is an important question, therefore, with regard to the
+constitution of this globe; a question which, perhaps, it is in
+the power of man's sagacity to resolve; and a question which, if
+satisfactorily resolved, might add some lustre to science and the human
+intellect.
+
+Animated with this great, this interesting view, let us strictly examine
+our principles, in order to avoid fallacy in our reasoning; and let us
+endeavour to support our attention, in developing a subject that is
+vast in its extent, as well as intricate in the relation of parts to be
+stated.
+
+The globe of this earth is evidently made for man. He alone, of all the
+beings which have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and every part;
+he alone is capable of knowing the nature of this world, which he thus
+possesses in virtue of his proper right; and he alone can make the
+knowledge of this system a source of pleasure, and the means of
+happiness.
+
+Man alone, of all the animated beings which enjoy the benefits of this
+earth, employs the knowledge which he there receives, in leading him to
+judge of the intention of things, as well as of the means by which they
+are brought about; and he alone is thus made to enjoy, in contemplation
+as well as sensual pleasure, all the good that may be observed in the
+constitution of this world; he, therefore, should be made the first
+subject of inquiry.
+
+Now, if we are to take the written history of man for the rule by which
+we should judge of the time when the species first began, that period
+would be but little removed from the present state of things. The Mosaic
+history places this beginning of man at no great distance; and there
+has not been found, in natural history, any document by which a high
+antiquity might be attributed to the human race. But this is not the
+case with regard to the inferior species of animals, particularly those
+which inhabit the ocean and its shores. We find, in natural history,
+monuments which prove that those animals had long existed; and we thus
+procure a measure for the computation of a period of time extremely
+remote, though far from being precisely ascertained.
+
+In examining things present, we have data from which to reason with
+regard to what has been; and, from what has actually been, we have
+data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen hereafter.
+Therefore, upon the supposition that the operations of nature are
+equable and steady, we find, in natural appearances, means for
+concluding a certain portion of time to have necessarily elapsed, in the
+production of those events of which we see the effects.
+
+It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals of every kind
+in the solid body of our earth, a natural history of those animals
+is formed, which includes a certain portion of time; and, for the
+ascertaining this portion of time, we must again have recourse to the
+regular operations of this world. We shall thus arrive at facts which
+indicate a period to which no other species of chronology is able to
+remount.
+
+In what follows, therefore, we are to examine the construction of the
+present earth, in order to understand the natural operations of time
+past; to acquire principles, by which we may conclude with regard to the
+future course of things, or judge of those operations, by which a world,
+so wisely ordered, goes into decay; and to learn, by what means such a
+decayed world may be renovated, or the waste of habitable land upon the
+globe repaired.
+
+This, therefore, is the object which we are to have in view during this
+physical investigation; this is the end to which are to be directed all
+the steps in our cosmological pursuit.
+
+The solid parts of the globe are, in general, composed of sand, of
+gravel, of argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of the various
+compositions of these with some other substances, which it is not
+necessary now to mention. Sand is separated and sized by streams and
+currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition of stones agitated
+in water; and marly, or argillaceous strata, have been collected, by
+subsiding in water with which those earthy substances had been floated.
+Thus, so far as the earth is formed of these materials, that solid body
+would appear to have been the production of water, winds, and tides.
+
+But that which renders the original of our land clear and evident,
+is the immense quantities of calcareous bodies which had belonged
+to animals, and the intimate connection of these masses of animal
+production with the other strata of the land. For it is to be proved,
+that all these calcareous bodies, from the collection of which the
+strata were formed, have belonged to the sea, and were produced in it.
+
+We find the marks of marine animals in the most solid parts of the
+earth; consequently, those solid parts have been formed after the ocean
+was inhabited by those animals which are proper to that fluid medium.
+If, therefore, we knew the natural history of those solid parts, and
+could trace the operations of the globe, by which they had been formed,
+we would have some means for computing the time through which those
+species of animals have continued to live. But how shall we describe a
+process which nobody has seen performed, and of which no written
+history gives any account? This is only to be investigated, _first_, in
+examining the nature of those solid bodies, the history of which we want
+to know; and, 2_dly_, In examining the natural operations of the globe,
+in order to see if there now actually exist such operations, as, from
+the nature of the solid bodies, appear to have been necessary to their
+formation.
+
+But, before entering more particularly into those points of discussion,
+by which the question is to be resolved, let us take a general view of
+the subject, in order to see what it is which science and observation
+must decide.
+
+In all the regions of the globe, immense masses are found, which, though
+at present in the most solid state, appear to have been formed by the
+collection of the calcareous _exuviae_ of marine animals. The question
+at present is not, in what manner those collections of calcareous relics
+have become a perfect solid body, and have been changed from an animal
+to a mineral substance; for this is a subject that will be afterwards
+considered; we are now only inquiring, if such is truly the origin of
+those mineral masses.
+
+That all the masses of marble or limestone are composed of the
+calcareous matter of marine bodies, may be concluded from the following
+facts:
+
+1_st_, There are few beds of marble or limestone, in which may not be
+found some of those objects which indicate the marine origin of the
+mass. If, for example, in a mass of marble, taken from a quarry upon the
+top of the Alps or Andes[2], there shall be found one cockle-shell, or
+piece of coral, it must be concluded, that this bed of stone had been
+originally formed at the bottom of the sea, as much as another bed which
+is evidently composed almost altogether of cockle-shells and coral. If
+one bed of limestone is thus found to have been of a marine origin,
+every concomitant bed of the same kind must be also concluded to have
+been formed in the same Manner.
+
+[Note 2: "Cette sommité élevée de 984 toises au dessus de notre lac, et
+par conséquent de 1172 au dessus de la mer, est remarquable en ce que
+l'on y voit des fragmens d'huîtres pétrifiés.--Cette montagne est
+dominée par un rocher escarpé, qui s'il n'est pas inaccessible, est du
+moins d'un bien difficile accès; il paroît presqu'entièrement composé
+de coquillages pétrifiés, renfermés dans un roc calcaire, ou marbre
+grossier noirâtre. Les fragmens qui s'en détachent, et que l'on
+rencontre en montant à la Croix de fer, sont remplis de _turbinites_ de
+différentes espèces." M. DE SAUSSURE, _Voyage dans les Alpes_, p. 394.]
+
+We thus shall find the greatest part of the calcareous masses upon this
+globe to have originated from marine calcareous bodies; for whether
+we examine marbles, limestones, or such solid masses as are perfectly
+changed from the state of earth, and are become compact and hard, or
+whether we examine the soft, earthy, chalky or marly strata, of which so
+much of this earth is composed, we still find evident proofs, that those
+beds had their origin from materials deposited at the bottom of the sea;
+and that they have the calcareous substance which they contain, from the
+same source as the marbles or the limestones.
+
+2_dly_, In those calcareous strata, which are evidently of marine
+origin, there are many parts that are of a sparry structure, that is
+to say, the original texture of those beds, in such places, has been
+dissolved, and a new structure has been assumed, which is peculiar to
+a certain state of the calcareous earth. This change is produced by
+crystallisation, in consequence of a previous state of fluidity, which
+has so disposed the concreting parts, as to allow them to assume a
+regular shape and structure proper to that substance. A body, whose
+external form has been modified by this process, is called a _crystal_;
+one whose internal arrangement of parts is determined by it, is said to
+be of a _sparry structure_; and this is known from its fracture.
+
+3_dly_, There are, in all the regions of the earth, huge masses of
+calcareous matter, in that crystalline form of sparry state, in
+which perhaps no vestige can be found of any organised body, nor any
+indication that such calcareous matter had belonged to animals; but
+as, in other masses, this sparry structure, or crystalline state, is
+evidently assumed by the marine calcareous substances, in operations
+which are natural to the globe, and which are necessary to the
+consolidation of the strata, it does not appear, that the sparry masses,
+in which no figured body is formed, have been originally different from
+other masses, which, being only crystallised in part, and in part still
+retaining their original form, leave ample evidence of their marine
+origin[3].
+
+[Note 3: M. de Saussure, describing the marble of Aigle, says, "Les
+tables polies de ce marbre présentent fréquemment des coquillages, dont
+la plupart sont des peignes striés, et de très-beaux madrépores. Tous
+ces corps marins on pris entierement la nature et le grain même
+du marbre, on n'y voit presque jamais la coquille sous sa forme
+originaire."]
+
+We are led, in this manner, to conclude, that all the strata of the
+earth, not only those consisting of such calcareous masses, but others
+superincumbent upon these, have had their origin at the bottom of the
+sea, by the collection of sand and gravel, of shells, of coralline
+and crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays, variously mixed,
+or separated and accumulated. Here is a general conclusion, well
+authenticated in the appearances of nature, and highly important in the
+natural history of the earth.
+
+The general amount of our reasoning is this, that nine-tenths, perhaps,
+or ninety-nine hundredths of this earth, so far as we see, have
+been formed by natural operations of the globe, in collecting loose
+materials, and depositing them at the bottom of the sea; consolidating
+those collections in various degrees, and either elevating those
+consolidated masses above the level on which they were formed, or
+lowering the level of that sea.
+
+There is a part of the solid earth which we may at present neglect, not
+as being persuaded that this part may not also be found to come under
+the general rule of formation with the rest, but as considering this
+part to be of no consequence in forming a general rule, which shall
+comprehend almost the whole, without doing it absolutely. This excluded
+part consists of certain mountains and masses of granite. These are
+thought to be still older in their formation, and are said never to
+be found superincumbent on strata which must be acknowledged as the
+productions of the sea.
+
+Having thus found the greater part, if not the whole, of the solid land
+to have been originally composed at the bottom of the sea, we may now,
+in order to form a proper idea of these operations, suppose the whole of
+this seaborn land to be again dispersed along the bottom of the ocean,
+the surface of which would rise proportionally over the globe. We would
+thus have a spheroid of water, with granite rocks and islands scattered
+here and there. But this would not be the world which we inhabit;
+therefore, the question now is, how such continents, as we actually have
+upon the globe, could be erected above the level of the sea.
+
+It must be evident, that no motion of the sea, caused by this earth
+revolving in the solar system, could bring about that end; for let us
+suppose the axis of the earth to be changed from the present poles, and
+placed in the equinoctial line, the consequence of this might, indeed,
+be the formation of a continent of land about each new pole, from whence
+the sea would run towards the new equator; but all the rest of the globe
+would remain an ocean. Some new points might be discovered, and others,
+which before appeared above the surface of the sea, would be sunk by
+the rising of the water; but, on the whole, land could only be gained
+substantially at the poles. Such a supposition, as this, if applied to
+the present state of things, would be destitute of every support, as
+being incapable of explaining what appears.
+
+But even allowing that, by the changed axis of the earth, or any other
+operation of the globe, as a planetary body revolving in the solar
+system, great continents of land could have been erected from the place
+of their formation, the bottom of the sea, and placed in a higher
+elevation, compared with the surface of that water, yet such a continent
+as this could not have continued stationary for many thousand years; nor
+could a continent of this kind have presented to us, every where within
+its body, masses of consolidated marble, and other mineral substances,
+in a state as different as possible from that in which they were, when
+originally collected together in the sea.
+
+Consequently, besides an operation, by which the earth at the bottom of
+the sea should be converted into an elevated land, or placed high above
+the level of the ocean, there is required, in the operations of the
+globe, a consolidating power, by which the loose materials that had
+subsided from water, should be formed into masses of the most perfect
+solidity, having neither water nor vacuity between their various
+constituent parts, nor in the pores of those constituent parts
+themselves.
+
+Here is an operation of the globe, whether chemical or mechanical, which
+is necessarily connected with the formation of our present continents:
+Therefore, had we a proper understanding of this secret operation, we
+might thereby be enabled to form an opinion, with regard to the nature
+of that unknown power, by which the continents have been placed above
+the surface of that water wherein they had their birth.
+
+If this consolidating operation be performed at the bottom of the
+ocean, or under great depths of the earth, of which our continents are
+composed, we cannot be witnesses to this mineral process, or acquire the
+knowledge of natural causes, by immediately observing the changes which
+they produce; but though we have not this immediate observation of those
+changes of bodies, we have, in science, the means of reasoning from
+distant events; consequently, of discovering, in the general powers of
+nature, causes for those events of which we see the effects.
+
+That the consolidating operation, in general, lies out of the reach of
+our immediate observation, will appear from the following truth: All the
+consolidated masses, of which we now inquire into the cause, are, upon
+the surface of the earth, in a state of general decay, although the
+various natures of those bodies admit of that dissolution in very
+different degrees[4]
+
+From every view of the subject, therefore, we are directed to look into
+those consolidated masses themselves, in order to find principles from
+whence to judge of those operations by which they had attained their
+hardness or consolidated state.
+
+It must be evident, that nothing but the most general acquaintance with
+the laws of acting substances, and with those of bodies changing by the
+powers of nature, can enable us to set about this undertaking with any
+reasonable prospect of success; and here the science of Chemistry must
+be brought particularly to our aid; for this science, having for its
+object the changes produced upon the sensible qualities, as they are
+called, of bodies, by its means we may be enabled to judge of that which
+is possible according to the laws of nature, and of that which, in like
+manner, we must consider as impossible.
+
+[Note 4: Stalactical and certain ferruginous concretions may seem
+to form an exception to the generality of this proposition. But an
+objection of this kind could only arise from a partial view of things;
+for the concretion here is only temporary; it is in consequence of a
+solution, and it is to be followed by a dissolution, which will be
+treated of in its proper place.]
+
+Whatever conclusions, therefore, by means of this science, shall be
+attained, in just reasoning from natural appearances, this must be held
+as evidence, where more immediate proof cannot be obtained; and, in
+a physical subject, where things actual are concerned, and not the
+imaginations of the human mind, this proof will be considered as
+amounting to a demonstration.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in consolidating
+the Strata of the Globe.
+
+We are now about to investigate those mineral operations of the globe by
+which the qualities of hardness and solidity, consequently of strength
+and durability, are procured to great bodies of this earth.
+
+That those qualities are not original to such bodies, but actually
+superinduced in the natural operations of the earth, will appear from
+the examination of some of the hardest and most solid of those mineral
+bodies. In such masses, (for example of flint and agate,) we find
+included shells and coralline bodies. Consequently, there must be a
+natural operation in the globe for consolidating and hardening its soft
+and loose materials. It is concerning the nature of this consolidating
+operation that we are now to inquire.
+
+There are just two ways in which porous or spongy bodies can be
+consolidated, and by which substances may be formed into masses of
+a natural shape and regular structure; the one of these is simple
+_congelation_ from a fluid state, by means of cold; the other is
+_accretion_; and this includes a separatory operation, as well as that
+by which the solid body is to be produced. But in whichever of these
+ways solidity shall be procured, it must be brought about by first
+inducing fluidity, either immediately by the action of heat, or
+mediately with the assistance of a solvent, that is, by the operation
+of solution. Therefore, fire and water may be considered as the general
+agents in this operation, which we would explore.
+
+Heat has been already mentioned as a general power, and as acting in all
+the different parts of the globe; I would now wish more particularly to
+call the attention of the reader to subterraneous fire, or heat, as
+a powerful agent in the mineral regions, and as a cause necessarily
+belonging to the internal constitution of this earth.
+
+It is not our purpose at present to inquire into the particular nature
+of this power of subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
+and analogy of the internal fire with that which is so necessary to our
+life, and which acts so great a part upon the surface of the earth, this
+being reserved for the last part. Our intention in here mentioning it,
+is only to dispose the mind to look for active powers or efficient
+causes, in that part of the earth which has been commonly considered as
+passive and inert, but which will be found extremely active, and the
+source of mighty revolutions in the fate of land.
+
+There may, indeed, be some difficulty in conceiving all the
+modifications of this mineral power; but as, on the one hand, we are not
+arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose of explaining events, or
+certain appearances which are not understood; so, on the other, we must
+not refuse to admit the action of a known power, when this is properly
+suggested in the appearances of things; and, though we may not
+understand all the modifications, or the whole capacity and regulation
+of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect the appropriating to it,
+as a cause, those effects which are natural to it, and which, so far as
+we know, cannot belong to any other. On all occasions, we are to judge
+from what we know; and, we are only to avoid concluding from our
+suppositions, in cases where evidence or real information is necessarily
+required. The subject now considered, subterraneous fire, will afford an
+example of that truth; and, a general view of this great natural power
+will here find a proper place, before the application of it for the
+explanation of natural appearances.
+
+No event is more the object of our notice, or more interesting as a
+subject for our study, than is the burning of a fire: But, the more that
+philosophers have studied this subject, the more they seem to differ
+as to the manner in which that conspicuous event is to be explained.
+Therefore, being so ignorant with regard to that fire of which we see
+the origin as well as the more immediate effects, how cautious should
+we be in judging the nature of subterraneous fire from the burning of
+bodies, a subject which we so little understand.
+
+But, though the cause of fire in general, or the operations of that
+power in its extreme degrees, be for us a subject involved in much
+obscurity, this is not the case with regard to the more common effects
+of heat; and, tho' the actual existence of subterraneous fire, as the
+cause of light and heat, might be a thing altogether problematical in
+our opinion; yet, as to other effects, there are some of these from
+which the action of that liquefying power may be certainly concluded as
+having taken place within the mineral region, although the cause should
+be in every other respect a thing to us unknown. In that case, where the
+operation or effect is evident, and cannot be disputed, to refuse to
+admit the power in question, merely because we had not seen it act, or
+because we know not every rule which it may observe in acting, would
+be only to found an argument upon our ignorance; it would be to
+misunderstand the nature of investigating physical truths, which must
+proceed by reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+Our knowledge is extremely limited with regard to the effects of heat in
+bodies, while acting under different conditions, and in various degrees.
+But though our knowledge in these respects is limited, our judgment with
+regard to the efficacy of this power of heat is in its nature positive,
+and contains not any thing that is doubtful or uncertain. All mankind,
+who have the opportunity, know that the hard substance of ice is by heat
+converted into water, wherein no hardness remains; and the profound
+philosophy of Dr Black, in relation to the subject of _latent heat_, as
+that of Sir Isaac Newton, in relation to the weight of bodies, is not
+necessary to convince the world that in the one case ice will melt, and
+in the other, that heavy bodies will move when unsupported.
+
+But though, in the abstract doctrine of _latent heat_, the ingenuity
+of man has discovered a certain measure for the quantity of those
+commutable effects which are perceived; and though this be a progress of
+science far above the apprehension of the vulgar, yet still, that solid
+bodies are changed into fluids, by the power of heat, is the same
+unalterable judgment, which the savage forms as well as the philosopher.
+Here, therefore, are evident effects, which mankind in general attribute
+to the power of heat; and it is from those known effects that we are to
+investigate subterraneous fire, or to generalise the power of heat, as
+acting in the interior parts, as well as on the surface of this earth.
+
+If, indeed, there were any other cause for fluidity besides the
+operation of fire or the power of heat, in that case the most evident
+proof, with regard to the flowing, or former fluidity, of mineral
+bodies, would draw to no conclusion in proving the existence of mineral
+fire; but when we have not the smallest reason for conjecturing any
+other cause, or the least doubt with regard to that which, in the
+doctrine of latent heat, has been properly investigated, the proofs
+which we shall bring, of fusion in all the minerals of this earth,
+must be held as proofs of mineral fire, in like manner as the proof of
+subterraneous fire would necessarily imply mineral fusion as its natural
+effect.
+
+Thus we have, in our physical investigation, several points in view.
+First, from the present state of things, to infer a former state of
+fusion among mineral bodies. Secondly, from that former fusion, to infer
+the actual existence of mineral fire in the system of the earth. And,
+lastly, from the acknowledged fact of subterraneous fire as a cause, to
+reason with regard to the effects of that power in mineral bodies.
+
+But besides the power or effect of subterraneous heat in bodies which
+are unorganised, and without system, in the construction of their
+different parts, we have to investigate the proper purpose of this great
+agent in the system of this world, which may be considered as a species
+of organised body. Here, therefore, final causes are to be brought into
+view, as well as those which are efficient. Now, in a subject involved
+with so much obscurity, as must be for us the internal regions of the
+globe, the consideration of efficient and final causes may contribute
+mutually to each others evidence, when separately the investigation of
+either might be thought unsatisfactory or insufficient.
+
+So far it seemed necessary to premise with regard to the great mineral
+power which we are to employ as an agent in the system of this earth;
+and it may be now observed, that it is in the proper relation of this
+power of heat and the fluidity or softness of bodies, as cause and
+effect, that we are to find a physical principle or argument for
+detecting those false theories of the earth that have been only
+imagined, and not properly founded on fact or observation. It is also by
+means of this principle, that we shall be enabled to form a true theory
+of the mineral region, in generalising particular effects to a common
+cause.
+
+Let us now proceed in endeavouring to decide this important question,
+viz. By what active principle is it, that the present state of things,
+which we observe in the strata of the earth, a state so very different
+from that in which those bodies had been formed originally, has been
+brought about?
+
+Two causes have been now proposed for the consolidating of loose
+materials which had been in an incoherent state; these are, on the one
+hand, fire; or, on the other, water, as the means of bringing about that
+event. We are, therefore, to consider well, what may be the consequences
+of consolidation by the one or other of those agents; and what may be
+the respective powers of those agents with respect to this operation.
+
+If we are not informed in this branch of science, we may gaze without
+instruction upon the most convincing proofs of what we want to attain.
+If our knowledge is imperfect, we may form erroneous principles, and
+deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to those works of nature,
+which are wisely calculated for our instruction.
+
+The strata, formed at the bottom of the sea, are to be considered
+as having been consolidated, either by aqueous solution and
+crystallization, or by the effect of heat and fusion. If it is in the
+first of these two ways that the solid strata of the globe have attained
+to their present state, there will be a certain uniformity observable
+in the effects; and there will be general laws, by which this operation
+must have been conducted. Therefore, knowing those general laws, and
+making just observations with regard to the natural appearances of those
+consolidated masses, a philosopher, in his closet, should be able to
+determine, what may, and what may not have been transacted in the bowels
+of the earth, or below the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Let us now endeavour to ascertain what may have been the power of water,
+acting under fixed circumstances, operating upon known substances, and
+conducting to a certain end.
+
+The action of water upon all different substances is an operation
+with which we are familiar. We have it in our power to apply water in
+different degrees of heat for the solution of bodies, and under various
+degrees of compression; consequently, there is no reason to conclude
+any thing mysterious in the operations of the globe, which are to be
+performed by means of water, unless an immense compressing power should
+alter the nature of those operations. But compression alters the
+relation of evaporation only with regard to heat, or it changes the
+degree of heat which water may be made to sustain; consequently, we are
+to look for no occult quality in water acting upon bodies at the bottom
+of the deepest ocean, more than what can be observed in experiments
+which we have it in our power to try.
+
+With regard again to the effect of time: Though the continuance of time
+may do much in those operations which are extremely slow, where no
+change, to our observation, had appeared to take place, yet, where it
+is not in the nature of things to produce the change in question, the
+unlimited course of time would be no more effectual, than the moment by
+which we measure events in our observations.
+
+Water being the general medium in which bodies collected at the bottom
+of the sea are always contained, if those masses of collected matter are
+to be consolidated by solution, it must be by the dissolution of
+those bodies in that water as a menstruum, and by the concretion or
+crystallization of this dissolved matter, that the spaces, first
+occupied by water in those masses, are afterwards to be filled with a
+hard and solid substance; but without some other power, by which the
+water contained in those cavities and endless labyrinths of the strata,
+should be separated in proportion as it had performed its task, it is
+inconceivable how those masses, however changed from the state of their
+first subsidence, should be absolutely consolidated, without any visible
+or fluid water in their composition.
+
+Besides this difficulty of having the water separated from the porous
+masses which are to be consolidated, there is another with which, upon
+this supposition, we have to struggle. This is, From whence should come
+the matter with which the numberless cavities in those masses are to be
+filled?
+
+The water in the cavities and interstices of those bodies composing
+strata, must be in a stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
+upon the surfaces of those cavities which are to be filled up. But
+with what are they to be filled? Not with water; they are full of that
+already: Not with the substance of the bodies which contain that water;
+this would be only to make one cavity in order to fill up another.
+If, therefore, the cavities of the strata are to be filled with solid
+matter, by means of water, there must be made to pass through those
+porous masses, water impregnated with some other substances in a
+dissolved state; and the aqueous menstruum must be made to separate
+from the dissolved substance, and to deposit the same in those cavities
+through which the solution moves.
+
+By such a supposition as this, we might perhaps explain a partial
+consolidation of those strata; but this is a supposition, of which the
+case under consideration does not admit; for in the present case, which
+is that of materials accumulated at the bottom of the ocean, there is
+not proper means for separating the dissolved matter from the water
+included in those enormous masses; nor are there any means by which a
+circulation in those masses may be formed. In this case, therefore,
+where the means are not naturally in the supposition, a philosopher, who
+is to explain the phenomenon by the natural operation of water in this
+situation, must not have recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
+to assist his supposition which cannot be admitted.
+
+Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate strata formed at the bottom
+of the sea, in the manner now considered, operations are required
+unnatural to this place; consequently, not to be supposed, in order to
+support a hypothesis.
+
+But now, instead of inquiring how far water may be supposed instrumental
+in the consolidation of strata which were originally of a loose
+texture, we are to consider how far there may be appearances in those
+consolidated bodies, by which it might be concluded, whether or not the
+present state of their consolidation has been actually brought about by
+means of that agent.
+
+If water had been the menstruum by which the consolidating matter was
+introduced into the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies could
+only be found consolidated with such substances as water is capable of
+dissolving; and these substances would be found only in such a state as
+the simple separation of the solvent water might produce.
+
+In this case, the consolidation of strata would be extremely limited;
+for we cannot allow more power to water than we find it has in nature;
+nor are we to imagine to ourselves unlimited powers in bodies, on
+purpose to explain those appearances by which we should be made to know
+the powers of nature. Let us, therefore, attend, with every possible
+circumspection, to the appearances of those bodies, by means of which we
+are to investigate the principles of mineralogy, and know the laws of
+nature.
+
+The question now before us concerns the consolidating substances of
+strata. Are these such as will correspond to the dissolving power of
+water, and to the state in which these substances might be left by the
+separation of their menstruum? No; far, far from this supposition is the
+conclusion that necessarily follows from natural appearances.
+
+We have strata consolidated by calcareous spar, a thing perfectly
+distinguishable from the stalactical concretion of calcareous earth,
+in consequence of aqueous solution. We have strata made solid by the
+formation of fluor, a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
+water. We have strata consolidated with sulphureous and bituminous
+substances, which do not correspond to the solution of water. We have
+strata consolidated with siliceous matter, in a state different from
+that under which it has been observed, on certain occasions, to be
+deposited by water. We have strata consolidated by feld-spar, a
+substance insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated by almost all
+the various metallic substances, with their almost endless mixtures
+and sulphureous compositions; that is to say, we find, perhaps, every
+different substance introduced into the interstices of strata which had
+been formed by subsidence at the bottom of the sea.
+
+If it is by means of water that those interstices have been filled with
+those materials, water must be, like fire, an universal solvent, or
+cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely our opinion of water in
+relation to its chemical character. But there is no necessity thus to
+violate our chemical principles, in order to explain certain natural
+appearances; more especially if those appearances may be explained in
+another manner, consistently with the known laws of nature.
+
+If, again, it is by means of heat and fusion that the loose and porous
+structure of strata shall be supposed to have been consolidated, then
+every difficulty which had occurred in reasoning upon the power or
+agency of water is at once removed. The loose and discontinuous body of
+a stratum may be closed by means of softness and compression; the porous
+structure of the materials may be consolidated, in a similar manner, by
+the fusion of their substance; and foreign matter may be introduced into
+the open structure of strata, in form of steam or exhalation, as well as
+in the fluid state of fusion; consequently, heat is an agent competent
+for the consolidation of strata, which water alone is not. If,
+therefore, such an agent could be found acting in the natural place of
+strata, we must pronounce it proper to bring about that end.
+
+The examination of nature gives countenance to this supposition, so far
+as strata are found consolidated by every species of substance,
+and almost every possible mixture of those different substances;
+consequently, however difficult it may appear to have this application
+of heat, for the purpose of consolidating strata formed at the bottom of
+the ocean, we cannot, from natural appearances, suppose any other cause,
+as having actually produced the effects which are now examined.
+
+This question, with regard to the means of consolidating the strata of
+the globe, is, to natural history, of the greatest importance; and it is
+essential in the theory now proposed to be given of the mineral system.
+It would, therefore, require to be discussed with some degree of
+precision in examining the particulars; but of these, there is so great
+a field, and the subject is so complicated in its nature, that volumes
+might be written upon particular branches only, without exhausting what
+might be laid upon the subject; because the evidence, though strong in
+many particulars, is chiefly to be enforced by a multitude of facts,
+conspiring, in a diversity of ways, to point out one truth, and by the
+impossibility of reconciling all these facts, except by means of one
+supposition.
+
+But, as it is necessary to give some proof of that which is to be
+a principle in our reasoning afterwards, I shall now endeavour to
+generalise the subject as much as possible, in order to answer that end,
+and, at the same time, to point out the particular method of inquiry.
+
+There are to be found, among the various strata of the globe, bodies
+formed of two different kinds of substances, _siliceous_ bodies, and
+those which may be termed _sulphureous_ or _phlogistic_. With one or
+other, or both of those we substances, every different consolidated
+stratum of the globe will be found so intimately mixed, or closely
+connected, that it must be concluded, by whatever cause those bodies
+of siliceous and sulphureous matter had been changed from a fluid to a
+concreted state, the strata must have been similarly affected by the
+same cause.
+
+These two species of bodies, therefore, the siliceous and the
+sulphureous, may now be examined, in relation to the causes of their
+concretion, with a view to determine, what has been the general
+concreting or consolidating power, which has operated universally in the
+globe; and particularly to show, it has not been by means of any fluid
+solution, that strata in general have been consolidated, or that those
+particular substances have been crystallized and concreted.
+
+Siliceous matter, physically speaking, is not soluble in water; that is
+to say, in no manner of way have we been enabled to learn, that water
+has the power of dissolving this matter.
+
+Many other substances, which are so little soluble in water, that their
+solubility could not be otherwise detected of themselves, are made to
+appear soluble by means of siliceous matter; such is feld-spar, one of
+the component parts of rock-granite.
+
+Feld-spar is a compound of siliceous, argillaceous, and calcareous
+earth, intimately united together. This compound siliceous body
+being, for ages, exposed to the weather, the calcareous part of it is
+dissolved, and the siliceous part is left in form of a soft white earth.
+But whether this dissolution is performed by pure water, or by means
+also of an acid, may perhaps be questioned. This, however, is certain,
+that we must consider siliceous substances as insoluble in water.
+
+The water of Glezer in Iceland undoubtedly contains this substance in
+solution; but there is no reason to believe, that it is here dissolved
+by any other than the natural means; that is, an alkaline substance, by
+which siliceous bodies may be rendered soluble in water[5].
+
+[Note 5: This conjecture, which I had thus formed, has been fully
+confirmed by the accurate analysis of those waters. See vol. 3d. of the
+Phil. Trans. of Edin.]
+
+It may be, therefore, asserted, that no siliceous body having the
+hardness of flint, nor any crystallization of that substance, has ever
+been formed, except by fusion. If, by any art, this substance shall be
+dissolved in simple water, or made to crystallise from any solution, in
+that case, the assertion which has been here made may be denied.
+But where there is not the vestige of any proof, to authorise the
+supposition of flinty matter being dissolved by water, or crystallized
+from that solution, such an hypothesis cannot be admitted, in opposition
+to general and evident appearances[6].
+
+[Note 6: The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious theory for
+the solution of siliceous substances in water [Journal de Physique, Mai
+1792.]. This theory has not been taken up merely at a venture, but
+is founded upon very accurate and interesting chemical experiments.
+Hitherto, however, the nature of the siliceous substance is not
+sufficiently known, to enable us to found, upon chemical principles, the
+mineral operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be dissolved,
+or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline salt, and that it may
+be also volatilised by means of the fluor acid, is almost all that we
+know upon the subject. But this is saying no more in relation to the
+mineral operations employed upon the siliceous substance, than it would
+be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this metal is dissolved
+by aqua regia.
+
+It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may have its
+menstruum, by means of which it may be retained with water in a
+dissolved state; but from this it does not follow, that it is by the
+means of aqueous solutions of all those mineral bodies, that nature
+operates the consolidation of bodies, which we find actually
+accomplished with all those different substances. It is the business of
+this work to show, that from all appearances in the mineral regions, as
+well as those upon the surface in the atmosphere, the supposition, of
+that manner of consolidating bodies by solution, is inconsistent both
+with natural appearances, and also with chemical principles.
+
+Our ingenious author, who has, with, great diligence as well as an
+enlightened mind, observed the operations of nature upon the surface
+of the earth, here says, "ce n'est pas sans étonnement que je remarque
+depuis long-temps que jamais aucune eau qui coule à la surface de la
+terre n'attaque le quartz, aucune n'en tient en dissolution, pendant que
+celles qui circulent intérieurement le corrodent aussi souvent qu'elles
+le déposent."--How dangerous it is in science for ingenious men to allow
+themselves to form conclusions, which the principles on which they
+reason do not strictly warrant, we have a remarkable example in the
+present case.
+
+M. de Dolomieu sees no corrosion of quartz, or solution of that
+substance, upon the surface of the earth; from this, then, he concludes,
+that siliceous substance is not dissolved in that situation of things.
+On the other hand, he finds siliceous bodies variously concreted among
+the solid strata of the earth; and, from this he concludes, that
+siliceous substance has been both dissolved by water in the strata, and
+also there again concreted and crystallised in having been separated
+from the water. This is certainly what we all perceive; but we do not
+all allow ourselves to draw such inconclusive inferences from our
+premises. Notwithstanding the greatest accuracy of our observations,
+quartz may be dissolvable in a minute degree by water, upon the surface
+of this earth; and, all the appearances of siliceous bodies, in the
+mineral regions, where we cannot immediately see the operation, may be
+better explained by fusion than by aqueous solution.
+
+But, from his chemical experiments, our author has conjectured that
+there may be a phlogistic substance, by means of which the siliceous
+earth is dissolved when in darkness; and that this solvent loses its
+power, if exposed to the light of day. I have one observation to oppose
+to this ingenious theory. Under deep black mosses, through which no ray
+of light can penetrate, every condition for dissolving siliceous bodies
+should be found, according to the supposition in question; neither will
+sufficient time be found wanting, in those deep mosses, upon the summits
+of our mountains; yet, examine the matter of fact? not the smallest
+solution is to be perceived in the siliceous parts of the stones which
+are found under those mosses, but every particle of iron is dissolved,
+so that the surface of every stone is white, and nothing but the
+siliceous earth of the feld-spar, and perhaps the argillaceous, is left.
+
+Here we have in this author an instructive example: No person, in my
+opinion, has made such enlightened or scientific experiments, or such
+judicious observations with regard to the nature of siliceous substance,
+as a compound thing; no person reasons more distinctly in general, or
+sees more clearly the importance of his principles; yet, with regard to
+mineral concretions, how often has he been drawn thus inadvertently
+into improper generalization! I appeal to the analogy which, in this
+treatise, he has formed, between the stalactical concretions upon
+the surface of the earth, and the mineral concretions of siliceous
+substance. As an example of the great lights, and penetrating genius, of
+this assiduous studier of nature, I refer to the judicious observations
+which he has made upon the subject of aluminous earth, in this
+dissertation.
+
+I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking, in the
+origin of this globe of our earth, a general principle of fluidity or
+solution in water, like the alkahest of the alchymists, by means of
+which the different substances in the chemical constitution of precious
+stones might have been united as well as crystallised. One would
+have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the operations of
+subterraneous fire, would have perceived, that there is but one general
+principle of fluidity or dissolution, and that this is heat.]
+
+Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous bodies, which is
+indirect, arising from the in dissolubility of that substance in water,
+there is another, which is more direct, being founded upon appearances
+which are plainly inconsistent with any other supposition, except that
+of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof I mean is, the penetration
+of many bodies with a flinty substance, which, according to every
+collateral circumstance, must have been performed by the flinty matter
+in a simply fluid state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.
+
+These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in strata both of chalk and
+sand. It requires but inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
+that flinty matter could be conveyed into the middle of those strata, by
+a menstruum in which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in that place,
+without the smallest trace of deposition in the surrounding parts.
+
+But, besides this argument taken from what does not appear, the actual
+form in which those flinty masses are found, demonstrates, _first_,
+That they have been introduced among those strata in a fluid state, by
+injection from some other place. 2_dly_, That they have been dispersed
+in a variety of ways among those strata, then deeply immersed at the
+bottom of the sea; and, _lastly_, That they have been there congealed
+from the state of fusion, and have remained in that situation, while
+those strata have been removed from the bottom of the ocean to the
+surface of the present land.
+
+To describe those particular appearances would draw this paper beyond
+the bounds of an essay. We must, therefore, refer those who would
+inquire more minutely into the subject, to examine the chalk-countries
+of France and England, in which the flint is found variously formed; the
+land-hills interspersed among those chalk-countries, which have been
+also injected by melted flint; and the pudding-stone of England, which
+I have not seen in its natural situation. More particularly, I would
+recommend an examination of the insulated masses of stone, found in
+the sand-hills by the city of Brussels; a stone which is formed by an
+injection of flint among sand, similar to that which, in a body of
+gravel, had formed the pudding-stone of England[7].
+
+[Note 7: Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
+would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.]
+
+All these examples would require to be examined upon the spot, as a
+great part of the proof for the fusion of the flinty substance, arises,
+in my opinion, from the form in which those bodies are found, and the
+state of the surrounding parts. But there are specimens brought from
+many different places, which contain, in themselves, the most evident
+marks of this injection of the flinty substance in a fluid state. These
+are pieces of fossil wood, penetrated with a siliceous substance, which
+are brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh in Ireland.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that there has sometimes been a prior
+penetration of the body of wood, either with irony matter, or calcareous
+substance. Sometimes, again, which is the case with that of Lochneagh,
+there does not seem to have been any penetration of those two
+substances. The injected flint appears to have penetrated the body
+of this wood, immersed at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
+compression of water. This appears from the wood being penetrated
+partially, some parts not being penetrated at all.
+
+Now, in the limits between those two parts, we have the most convincing
+proofs, that it had been flint in a simple fluid state which had
+penetrated the wood, and not in a state of solution.
+
+_First_, Because, however little of the wood is left unpenetrated, the
+division is always distinct between the injected part and that which is
+not penetrated by the fluid flint. In this case, the flinty matter has
+proceeded a certain length, which is marked, and no farther; and, beyond
+this boundary, there is no partial impregnation, nor a gradation of the
+flintifying operation, as must have been the case if siliceous matter
+had been deposited from a solution. 2_dly_, The termination of the
+flinty impregnation has assumed such a form, precisely, as would
+naturally happen from a fluid flint penetrating that body.
+
+In other specimens of this mineralising operation, fossil wood,
+penetrated, more or less, with ferruginous and calcareous substances,
+has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty substance. In this case,
+with whatever different substances the woody body shall be supposed
+to have been penetrated in a state of solution by water, the regular
+structure of the plant would still have remained, with its vacuities,
+variously filled with the petrifying substances, separated from the
+aqueous menstruum, and deposited in the vascular structure of the wood.
+There cannot be a doubt with regard to the truth of this proposition;
+for, as it is, we frequently find parts of the consolidated wood, with
+the vascular structure remaining perfectly in its natural shape and
+situation; but if it had been by aqueous solution that the wood had been
+penetrated and consolidated, all the parts of that body would be found
+in the same natural shape and situation.
+
+This, however, is far from being the case; for while, in some parts, the
+vascular structure is preserved entire, it is also evident, that, in
+general, the woody structure is variously broken and dissolved by the
+fusion and crystallization of the flint. There are so many and such
+various convincing examples of this, that, to attempt to describe them,
+would be to exceed the bounds prescribed for this dissertation; but such
+specimens are in my possession, ready for the inspection of any person
+who may desire to study the subject.
+
+We may now proceed to consider sulphureous substances, with regard to
+their solubility in water, and to the part which these bodies have acted
+in consolidating the strata of the globe.
+
+The sulphureous substances here meant to be considered, are substances
+not soluble in, water, so far as we know, but fusible by heat, and
+inflammable or combustible by means of heat and vital air. These
+substances are of two kinds; the one more simple, the other more
+compound.
+
+The most simple kind is composed of two different substances, viz.
+phlogiston, with certain specific substances; from which result, on the
+one hand, sulphur, and, on the other, proper coal and metals. The more
+compound sort, again, is oily matter, produced by vegetables, and
+forming bituminous bodies.
+
+The _first_ of these is found naturally combined with almost all
+metallic substances, which are then said to be mineralised with sulphur.
+Now, it is well known, that this mineralising operation is performed by
+means of heat or fusion; and there is no person skilled in chemistry
+that will pretend to say, this may be done by aqueous solution. The
+combination of iron and sulphur, for example, may easily be performed by
+fusion; but, by aqueous solution, this particular combination is again
+resolved, and forms an acido-metallic, that is, a vitriolic substance,
+after the phlogiston (by means of which it is insoluble in water) has
+been separated from the composition, by the assistance of vital air.
+
+The variety of these sulphureo-metallic substances, in point of
+composition, is almost indefinite; but, unless they were all soluble in
+water, this could not have happened by the action of that solvent. If we
+shall allow any one of those bodies to have been formed by the fluidity
+of heat, they must all have been formed in the same manner; for there is
+such a chain of connection among those bodies in the mineral regions,
+that they must all have been composed, either, on the one hand, by
+aqueous solution, or, on the other, by means of heat and fusion.
+
+Here, for example, are crystallised together in one mass, 1_st,
+Pyrites_, containing sulphur, iron, copper; 2_dly, Blend_, a composition
+of iron, sulphur, and calamine; 3_dly, Galena_, consisting of lead
+and sulphur; 4_thly, Marmor metallicum_, being the terra ponderosa,
+saturated with the vitriolic acid; a substance insoluble in water;
+5_thly, Fluor_, a saturation of calcareous earth, with a peculiar acid,
+called the _acid of spar_, also insoluble in water; 6_thly, Calcareous
+spar_, of different kinds, being calcareous earth saturated with fixed
+air, and something besides, which forms a variety in this substance;
+_lastly, Siliceous substance_, or _Quartz crystals_. All these bodies,
+each possessing its proper shape, are mixed in such a manner as it would
+be endless to describe, but which may be expressed in general by saying,
+that they are mutually contained in, and contain each other.
+
+Unless, therefore; every one of these different substances may be
+dissolved in water, and crystallised from it, it is in vain to look for
+the explanation of these appearances in the operations of nature, by the
+means of aqueous solution.
+
+On the other hand, heat being capable of rendering all these substances
+fluid, they may be, with the greatest simplicity, transported from one
+place to another; and they may be made to concrete altogether at
+the same time, and distinctly separate in any place. Hence, for the
+explanation of those natural appearances, which are so general, no
+further conditions are required, than the supposition of a sufficient
+intensity of subterraneous fire or heat, and a sufficient degree of
+compression upon those bodies, which are to be subjected to that violent
+heat, without calcination or change. But, so far as this supposition is
+not gratuitous, the appearances of nature will be thus explained.
+
+I shall only mention one specimen, which must appear most decisive
+of the question. It is, I believe, from an Hungarian mine. In this
+specimen, petro-silex, pyrites, and cinnabar, are so mixed together, and
+crystallised upon each other, that it is impossible to conceive any one
+of those bodies to have had its fluidity and concretion from a cause
+which had not affected the other two. Now, let those who would deny the
+fusion of this siliceous body explain how water could dissolve these
+three different bodies, and deposit them in their present shape. If,
+on the contrary, they have not the least shadow of reason for such a
+gratuitous supposition, the present argument must be admitted in its
+full force.
+
+Sulphur and metals are commonly found combined in the mineral regions.
+But this rule is not universal; for they are also frequently in a
+separate state. There is not, perhaps, a metal, among the great number
+which are now discovered, that may not be found native, as they are
+called, or in their metallic state.
+
+Metallic substances are also thus found in some proportion to the
+disposition of the particular metals, to resist the mineralising
+operations, and to their facility of being metallised by fire and
+fusion. Gold, which refuses to be mineralised with sulphur, is found
+generally in its native state. Iron, again, which is so easily
+mineralised and scorified, is seldom found in its malleable state. The
+other metals are all found more or less mineralised, though some of them
+but rarely in the native state.
+
+Besides being found with circumstances thus corresponding to the natural
+facility, or to the impediments attending the metallization of those
+different calces, the native metals are also found in such a shape, and
+with such marks, as can only agree with the fusion of those bodies;
+that is to say, those appearances are perfectly irreconcilable with any
+manner of solution and precipitation.
+
+For the truth of this assertion, among a thousand other examples, I
+appeal to that famous mass of native iron discovered by Mr Pallas in
+Siberia. This mass being so well known to all the mineralists of Europe,
+any comment upon its shape and structure will be unnecessary[8].
+
+[Note 8: Since this Dissertation was written, M. de la Peyrouse has
+discovered a native manganese. The circumstances of this mineral are so
+well adapted for illustrating the present doctrine, and so well related
+by M. de la Peyrouse, that I should be wanting to the interest of
+mineral knowledge, were I not to give here that part of his Memoir.
+
+"Lorsque je fis insérer dans le journal de physique de l'année 1780, au
+mois de Janvier, une Dissertation contenant la classification des mines
+de manganèse, je ne connoissois point, à cette époque, la mine de
+manganèse native. Elle a la couleur de son régule: Elle salit les doigts
+de la même teinte. Son tissu parait aussi lamelleux, et les lames
+semblent affecter une sorte de divergence. Elle a ainsi que lui, l'éclat
+métallique; comme lui elle se laisse aplatir sous le marteau, et
+s'exfolie si l'on redouble les coups; mais une circonstance qui est trop
+frappante pour que je l'omette, c'est la figure de la manganèse native,
+si prodigieusement conforme à celle du régule, qu'on s'y laisseroit
+tromper, si la mine n'étoit encore dans sa gangue: Figure
+très-essentielle à observer ici, parce qu'elle est due à la nature même
+de la manganèse. En effet, pour réduire toutes les mines en général, il
+faut employer divers flux appropriés. Pour la réduction de la manganèse,
+bien loin d'user de ce moyen, il faut, au contraire, éloigner tout flux,
+produire la fusion, par la seule violence et la promptitude du feu. Et
+telle est la propension naturelle et prodigieuse de la manganèse à la
+vitrification, qu'on n'a pu parvenir encore à réduire son régule en un
+seul culot; on trouve dans le creuset plusieurs petits boutons, qui
+forment autant de culots séparés. Dans la mine de manganèse native, elle
+n'est point en une seule masse; elle est disposée également en plusieurs
+culots séparés, et un peu aplatis, comme ceux que l'art produit;
+beaucoup plus gros, à la vérité, parce que les agens de la nature
+doivent avoir une autre énergie, que ceux de nos laboratoires; et cette
+ressemblance si exacte, semble devoir vous faire penser que la mine
+native à été produite par le feu, tout comme son régule. La présence
+de la chaux argentée de la manganèse, me permettroit de croire que la
+nature n'a fait que réduire cette chaux. Du reste, cette mine native
+est très-pure, et ne contient aucune partie attirable à l'aimant. Cette
+mine, unique jusqu'à ce moment, vient, tout comme les autres manganèse
+que j'ai décrites, des mines de fer de _Sem_, dans la vallée de
+_Viedersos_, en Comté de Foix."--_Journal de Physique, Janvier 1786_.]
+
+We come now to the _second_ species of inflammable bodies called oily or
+bituminous. These substances are also found variously mixed with mineral
+bodies, as well as forming strata of themselves; they are, therefore, a
+proper subject for a particular examination.
+
+In the process of vegetation, there are produced oily and resinous
+substances; and, from the collection of these substances at the bottom
+of the ocean, there are formed strata, which have afterwards undergone
+various degrees of beat, and have been variously changed, in consequence
+of the effects of that heat, according as the distillation of the more
+volatile parts of those bodies has been suffered to proceed.
+
+In order to understand this, it must be considered, that, while immersed
+in water, and under insuperable compression, the vegetable, oily, and
+resinous substances, would appear to be unalterable by heat; and it is
+only in proportion as certain chemical separations take place, that
+these inflammable bodies are changed in their substance by the
+application of heat. Now, the most general change of this kind is in
+consequence of evaporation, or the distillation of their more volatile
+parts, by which oily substances become bituminous, and bituminous
+substances become coaly.
+
+There is here a gradation which may be best understood, by comparing the
+extremes.
+
+On the one hand, we know by experiment, that oily and bituminous
+substances can be melted and partly changed into vapour by heat, and
+that they become harder and denser, in proportion as the more volatile
+parts have evaporated from them. On the other hand, coaly substances are
+destitute of fusibility and volatility, in proportion as they have
+been exposed to greater degrees of heat, and to other circumstances
+favourable to the dissipation of their more volatile and fluid parts.
+
+If, therefore, in mineral bodies, we find the two extreme states of this
+combustible substance, and also the intermediate states, we must either
+conclude, that this particular operation of heat has been thus actually
+employed in nature, or we must explain those appearances by some other
+means, in as satisfactory a manner, and so as shall be consistent with
+other appearances.
+
+In this case, it will avail nothing to have recourse to the false
+analogy of water dissolving and crystallising salts, which has been so
+much employed for the explanation of other mineral appearances. The
+operation here in question is of a different nature, and necessarily
+requires both the powers of heat and proper conditions for evaporation.
+
+Therefore, in order to decide the point, with regard to what is the
+power in nature by which mineral bodies have become solid, we have
+but to find bituminous substance in the most complete state of coal,
+intimately connected with some other substance, which is more generally
+found consolidating the strata, and assisting in the concretion of
+mineral substances. But I have in my possession the most undoubted proof
+of this kind. It is a mineral vein, or cavity, in which are blended
+together coal of the most fixed kind, quartz and marmor metallicum. Nor
+is this all; for the specimen now referred to is contained in a rock
+of this kind, which every naturalist now-a-days will allow to have
+congealed from a fluid state of fusion. I have also similar specimens
+from the same place, in which the coal is not of that fixed and
+infusible kind which burns without flame or smoke, but is bituminous or
+inflammable coal.
+
+We have hitherto been resting the argument upon a single point, for the
+sake of simplicity or clearness, not for want of those circumstances
+which shall be found to corroborate the theory. The strata of fossil
+coal are found in almost every intermediate state, as well as in those
+of bitumen and charcoal. Of the one kind is that fossil coal which melts
+or becomes fluid upon receiving heat; of the other, is that species of
+coal, found both in Wales and Scotland, which is perfectly infusible in
+the fire, and burns like coals, without flame or smoke. The one species
+abounds in oily matter, the other has been distilled by heat, until it
+has become a _caput mortuum_, or perfect coal.
+
+The more volatile parts of these bituminous bodies are found in their
+separate state on some occasions. There is a stratum of limestone in
+Fifeshire, near Raith, which, though but slightly tinged with a black
+colour, contains bituminous matter, like pitch, in many cavities, which
+are lined with calcareous spar crystallised. I have a specimen of such
+a cavity, in which the bitumen is in sphericles, or rounded drops,
+immersed in the calcareous spar.
+
+Now, it is to be observed, that, if the cavity in the solid limestone or
+marble, which is lined with calcareous crystals containing pyrites, had
+been thus encrusted by means of the filtration of water, this water must
+have dissolved calcareous spar, pyrites, and bitumen. But these natural
+appearances would not even be explained by this dissolution and supposed
+filtration of those substances. There is also required, _first_, A
+cause for the separation of those different substances from the aqueous
+menstruum in which they had been dissolved; _2dly_, An explanation of
+the way in which a dissolved bitumen should be formed into round hard
+bodies of the most solid structure; and, _lastly_, Some probable means
+for this complicated operation being performed, below the bottom of the
+ocean, in the close cavity of a marble stratum.
+
+Thus, the additional proof, from the facts relating to the bituminous
+substances, conspiring with that from the phenomena of other bodies,
+affords the strongest corroboration of this opinion, that the various
+concretions found in the internal parts of strata have not been
+occasioned by means of aqueous solution, but by the power of heat and
+operation of simple fusion, preparing those different substances to
+concrete and crystallise in cooling.
+
+The arguments which have been now employed for proving that strata have
+been consolidated by the power of heat, or by the means of fusion, have
+been drawn chiefly from the insoluble nature of those consolidating
+substances in relation to water, which is the only general menstruum
+that can be allowed for the mineral regions. But there are found, in
+the mineral kingdom, many solid masses of saltgem, which is a soluble
+substance. It may be now inquired, How far these masses, which are not
+infrequent in the earth, tend either to confirm the present theory, or,
+on the contrary, to give countenance to that which supposes water the
+chief instrument in consolidating strata.
+
+The formation of salt at the bottom of the sea, without the assistance
+of subterranean fire, is not a thing unsupposable, as at first sight
+it might appear. Let us but suppose a rock placed across the gut
+of Gibraltar, (a case nowise unnatural), and the bottom of the
+Mediterranean would be certainly filled with salt, because the
+evaporation from the surface of that sea exceeds the measure of its
+supply.
+
+But strata of salt, formed in this manner at the bottom of the sea, are
+as far from being consolidated by means of aqueous solution, as a bed of
+sand in the same situation; and we cannot explain the consolidation of
+such a stratum of salt by means of water, without supposing subterranean
+heat employed, to evaporate the brine which would successively occupy
+the interstices of the saline crystals. But this, it may be observed, is
+equally departing from the natural operation of water, as the means for
+consolidating the sediment of the ocean, as if we were to suppose
+the same thing done by heat and fusion. For the question is not,
+If subterranean heat be of sufficient intensity for the purpose of
+consolidating strata by the fusion of their substances; the question is,
+Whether it be by means of this agent, subterranean heat, or by water
+alone, without the operation of a melting heat, that those materials
+have been variously consolidated.
+
+The example now under consideration, consolidated mineral salt, will
+serve to throw some light upon the subject; for, as it is to be shown,
+that this body of salt had been consolidated by perfect fusion, and
+not by means of aqueous solution, the consolidation of strata of
+indissoluble substances, by the operation of a melting heat, will meet
+with all that confirmation which the consistency of natural appearances
+can give.
+
+The salt rock in Cheshire lies in strata of red marl. It is horizontal
+in its direction. I do not know its thickness, but it is dug thirty or
+forty feet deep. The body of this rock is perfectly solid, and the salt,
+in many places, pure, colourless, and transparent, breaking with a
+sparry cubical structure. But the greatest part is tinged by the
+admixture of the marl, and that in various degrees, from the slightest
+tinge of red, to the most perfect opacity. Thus, the rock appears as if
+it had been a mass of fluid salt, in which had been floating a quantity
+of marly substance, not uniformly mixed, but every where separating and
+subsiding from the pure saline substance.
+
+There is also to be observed a certain regularity in this separation of
+the tinging from the colourless substance, which, at a proper distance,
+gives to the perpendicular section of the rock a distinguishable figure
+in its structure. When looking at this appearance near the bottom of
+the rock, it, at first, presented me with the figure of regular
+stratification; but, upon examining the whole mass of rock, I found,
+that it was only towards the bottom that this stratified appearance took
+place; and that, at the top of the rock, the most beautiful and regular
+figure was to be observed; but a figure the most opposite to that of
+stratification. It was all composed of concentric circles; and these
+appeared to be the section of a mass, composed altogether of concentric
+spheres, like those beautiful systems of configuration which agates so
+frequently present us with in miniature. In about eight or ten feet from
+the top, the circles growing large, were blended together, and gradually
+lost their regular appearance, until, at a greater depth, they again
+appeared in resemblance of a stratification.
+
+This regular arrangement of the floating marly substance in the body
+of salt, which is that of the structure of a coated pebble, or that
+of concentric spheres, is altogether inexplicable upon any other
+supposition, than the perfect fluidity or fusion of the salt, and the
+attractions and repulsions of the contained substances. It is in vain
+to look, in the operations of solution and evaporation, for that which
+nothing but perfect fluidity or fusion can explain.
+
+This example of a mineral salt congealed from a melted state, may be
+confirmed from another which I have from Dr Black, who suggested it to
+me. It is an alkaline salt, found in a mineral state, and described in
+the Philosophical Transactions, _anno_ 1771. But to understand this
+specimen, something must be premised with regard to the nature of fossil
+alkali.
+
+The fossil alkali crystallises from a dissolved state, in combining
+itself with a large portion of the water, in the manner of alum; and,
+in this case, the water is essential to the constitution of that
+transparent crystalline body; for, upon the evaporation of the water,
+the transparent salt loses its solidity, and becomes a white powder. If,
+instead of being gently dried, the crystalline salt is suddenly exposed
+to a sufficient degree of heat, that is, somewhat more than boiling
+water, it enters into the state of aqueous fusion, and it boils, in
+emitting the water by means of which it had been crystallised in the
+cold, and rendered fluid in that heated state. It is not possible to
+crystallise this alkaline salt from a dissolved state, without the
+combination of that quantity of water, nor to separate that water
+without destroying its crystalline state.
+
+But in this mineral specimen, we have a solid crystalline salt, with
+a structure which, upon fracture, appears to be sparry and radiated,
+something resembling that of zeolite. It contains no water in its
+crystallization, but melts in a sufficient heat, without any aqueous
+fusion. Therefore, this salt must have been in a fluid state of fusion,
+immediately before its congelation and crystallization.
+
+It would be endless to give examples of particular facts, so many are
+the different natural appearances that occur, attended with a variety of
+different circumstances.
+
+There is one, however, which is peculiarly distinct, admits of
+sufficiently accurate description, and contains circumstances from which
+conclusions may be drawn with clearness. This is the ironstone, which
+is commonly found among the argillaceous strata, attendant upon fossil
+coal, both in Scotland and in England.
+
+This stone is generally found among the bituminous schistus, or black
+argillaceous strata, either in separate masses of various shapes and
+sizes, or forming of itself strata which are more or less continuous in
+their direction among the schistous or argillaceous beds.
+
+This mineral contains, in general, from 40 to 50 _per cent._ of iron,
+and it loses near one third of its weight in calcination. Before
+calcination it is of a grey colour, is not penetrable by water, and
+takes a polish. In this state, therefore, it is perfectly solid; but
+being calcined, it becomes red, porous, and tender.
+
+The fact to be proved with regard to these iron-stones is this, That
+they have acquired their solid state from fusion, and not in concreting
+from any aqueous solution.
+
+To abridge this disquisition, no argument is to be taken from contingent
+circumstances, (which, however, are often found here as well as in the
+case of marbles); such only are to be employed as are general to the
+subject, and arise necessarily from the nature of the operation.
+
+It will be proper to describe a species of these stones, which is
+remarkably regular in its form. It is that found at Aberlady, in East
+Lothian.
+
+The form of these iron-stones is that of an oblate or much compressed
+sphere, and the size from two or three inches diameter to more than
+a foot. In the circular or horizontal section, they present the most
+elegant septarium[9]; and, from the examination of this particular
+structure, the following conclusions may be drawn.
+
+_First_, That, the septa have been formed by the uniform contraction
+of the internal parts of the stone, the volume of the central parts
+diminishing more than that of the circumference; by this means, the
+separations of the stone diminish, in a progression from the center
+towards the circumference.
+
+_2d_, That there are only two ways in which the septa must have received
+the spar or spatthose ore with which they are filled, more or less,
+either, _first_ By insinuation into the cavity of the septa after these
+were formed; or, _2dly_, By separation from the substance of the stone,
+at the same time that the septa were forming.
+
+[Note 9: Plate I.]
+
+Were the first supposition true, appearances would be observable,
+showing that the sparry substance had been admitted, either through the
+porous structure of the stone, or through proper apertures communicating
+from without. Now, if either one or other of these had been the case,
+and that the stone had been consolidated from no other cause than
+concretion from a dissolved state, that particular structure of the
+stone, by means of which the spar had been admitted, must appear at
+present upon an accurate examination.
+
+This, however, is not the case, and we may rest the argument here. The
+septa reach not the circumference; the surface of the stone is solid and
+uniform in every part; and there is not any appearance of the spar in
+the argillaceous bed around the stone.
+
+It, therefore, necessarily follows, that the contraction of the
+iron-stone, in order to form septa, and the filling of these cavities
+with spar, had proceeded _pari passu_; and that this operation must have
+been brought about by means of fusion, or by congelation from a state of
+simple fluidity and expansion.
+
+It is only further to be observed, that all the arguments which have
+been already employed, concerning mineral concretions from a simply
+fluid state, or that of fusion, here take place. I have septaria of this
+kind, in which, besides pyrites, iron-ore, calcareous spar, and another
+that is ferruginous and compound, there is contained siliceous
+crystals; a case which is not so common. I have them also attended with
+circumstances of concretion and crystallization, which, besides being
+extremely rare, are equally curious and interesting.
+
+There is one fact more which is well worth our attention, being one
+of those which are so general in the mineral regions. It is the
+crystallizations which are found in close cavities of the most solid
+bodies.
+
+Nothing is more common than this appearance. Cavities are every where
+found closely lined with crystallizations, of every different substance
+which may be supposed in those places. These concretions are well known
+to naturalists, and form part of the beautiful specimens which
+are preserved in the cabinets of collectors, and which the German
+mineralists have termed _Drusen_. I shall only particularise one
+species, which may be described upon principle, and therefore may be
+a proper subject on which to reason, for ascertaining the order of
+production in certain bodies. This body, which we are now to examine, is
+of the agate species.
+
+We have now been considering the means employed by nature in
+consolidating strata which were originally of an open structure; but in
+perfectly solid strata we find bodies of agate, which have evidently
+been formed in that place where they now are found. This fact, however,
+is not still that of which we are now particularly to inquire; for this,
+of which we are to treat, concerns only a cavity within this agate; now,
+whatever may have been the origin of the agate itself, we are to show,
+from what appears within its cavity, that the crystallizations which are
+found in this place had arisen from a simply fluid state, and not from
+that of any manner of solution.
+
+The agates now in question are those of the coated kind, so frequent in
+this country, called pebbles. Many of these are filled with a siliceous
+crystallization, which evidently proceeds from the circumference
+towards the centre. Many of them, again, are hollow. Those cavities are
+variously lined with crystallized substances; and these are the object
+of the present examination.
+
+But before describing what is found within, it is necessary to attend to
+this particular circumstance, that the cavity is perfectly inclosed with
+many solid coats, impervious to air or water, but particularly with
+the external cortical part, which is extremely hard, takes the highest
+polish, and is of the most perfect solidity, admitting the passage of
+nothing but light and heat.
+
+Within these cavities, we find, _1st_, The coat of crystals with which
+this cavity is always lined; and this is general to all substances
+concreting, in similar circumstances, from a state of fusion; for when
+thus at liberty they naturally crystallise. _2dly_, We have frequently
+a subsequent crystallization, resting on the first, and more or less
+immersed in it. _3dly_, There is also sometimes a third crystallization,
+superincumbent on the second, in like manner as the second was on the
+first. I shall mention some particulars.
+
+I have one specimen, in which the primary crystals are siliceous, the
+secondary thin foliaceous crystals of deep red but transparent iron-ore,
+forming elegant figures, that have the form of roses. The tertiary
+crystallization is a frosting of small siliceous crystals upon the edges
+of the foliaceous crystals.
+
+In other specimens, there is first a lining of colourless siliceous
+crystals, then another lining of amethystine crystals, and sometimes
+within that, fuliginous crystals. Upon these fuliginous and amethystine
+crystals are many sphericles or hemispheres of red compact iron-ore,
+like haematites.
+
+In others, again, the primary crystals are siliceous, and the secondary
+calcareous. Of this kind, I have one which has, upon the calcareous
+crystals, beautiful transparent siliceous crystals, and iron sphericles
+both upon all these crystals, and within them.
+
+_Lastly_, I have an agate formed of various red and white coats, and
+beautifully figured. The cavity within the coated part of the pebble is
+filled up without vacuity, first, with colourless siliceous crystals;
+secondly, with fuliginous crystals; and, lastly, with white or
+colourless calcareous spar. But between the spar and crystals there are
+many sphericles, seemingly of iron, half sunk into each of these two
+different substances.
+
+From these facts, I may now be allowed to draw the following
+conclusions:
+
+1_st_, That concretion had proceeded from the surface of the agate body
+inwards. This necessarily follows from the nature of those figured
+bodies, the figures of the external coats always determining the shape
+of those within, and never, contrarily, those within affecting those
+without.
+
+2_dly_, That when the agate was formed, the cavity then contained every
+thing which now is found within it, and nothing more.
+
+3_dly_, That the contained substances must have been in a fluid state,
+in order to their crystallizing.
+
+_Lastly_, That as this fluid state had not been the effect of solution
+in a menstruum, it must have been fluidity from heat and fusion.
+
+Let us now make one general observation and argument with regard to
+the formation of those various coated, concreted, crystallized, and
+configured bodies. Were the crystallization and configuration found
+to proceed from a central body, and to be directed from that centre
+outwards, then, without inquiring into collateral appearances, and other
+proofs with regard to the natural concretion of those substances, we
+might suppose that these concretions might have proceeded from that
+central body gradually by accretion, and that the concreting and
+crystallizing substances might have been supplied from a fluid which had
+before retained the concreting substance in solution; in like manner as
+the crystallizations of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
+that saccharine substance, and are termed candies, are formed upon the
+threads which are extended in the crystallizing vessel for that purpose.
+But if, on the contrary, we are to consider those mineral bodies as
+spheres of alternate coats, composed of agate, crystal, spars, etc.; and
+if all those crystallizations have their _bases_ upon the uncrystallized
+coat which is immediately external to it, and their _apices_ turned
+inwards into the next internal solid coat, it is not possible to
+conceive that a structure of this kind could have been formed in
+any manner from a solution. But this last manner is the way without
+exception in which those mineral bodies are found; therefore we are to
+conclude, that the concretion of those bodies had proceeded immediately
+from a state of fusion or simple fluidity.
+
+In granite these cavities are commonly lined with the crystal
+corresponding to the constituent substances of the stone, viz. quartz,
+feld-spar, and mica or talk. M. de Saussure, (Voyages dans les Alpes,
+tom. ii. §722.), says, "On trouve fréquemment des amas considérables de
+spath calcaire, crystallisé dans les grottes ou se forme le crystal de
+roche; quoique ces grottes soient renfermées dans le coeur des montagnes
+d'un granit vif, & qu'on ne voie aucun roc calcaire au dessus de ces
+montagnes."
+
+So accurate an observer, and so complete a naturalist, must have
+observed how the extraneous substance had been introduced into this
+cavity, had they not been formed together the cavity and the calcareous
+crystals. That M. de Saussure perceived no means for that introduction,
+will appear from what immediately follows in that paragraph. "Ces rocs
+auroient-ils été détruits, ou bien ce spath n'est il que le produit
+d'une sécrétion des parties calcaires que l'on fait êtres dispersées
+entre les divers élémens du granit?"
+
+Had M. de Saussure allowed himself to suppose all those substances in
+fusion, of which there cannot be a doubt, he would soon have resolved
+both this difficulty, and also that of finding molybdena crystallized
+along with feld-spar, in a cavity of this kind. §718.
+
+To this argument, taken from the close cavities in our agates, I am now
+to add another demonstration. It is the case of the calcedony agate,
+containing a body of calcareous spar; here it is to be shown, that,
+while the calcareous body was altogether inclosed within the calcedony
+nodular body, these two substances had been perfectly soft, and had
+mutually affected each others shape, in concreting from a fluid state.
+In order to see this, we are to consider that both those substances have
+specific shapes in which they concrete from the third state; the
+sparry structure of the one is well known; the spherical or mammelated
+crystallization of the calcedony, is no less conspicuous; this last
+is, in the present case, spherical figures, which are some of
+them hemispheres, or even more. The figures which we have now in
+contemplation are so distinctly different as cannot be mistaken; the
+one is a rhombic figure bounded by planes; the other is a most perfect
+spherical form; and both these are specific figures, belonging
+respectively to the crystallization of those two substances.
+
+The argument now to be employed for proving that those two bodies had
+concreted from the fluid state of fusion, and not from any manner of
+solution, is this: That, were the one of those bodies to be found
+impressing the other with its specific figure, we must conclude that the
+impressing body had concreted or crystallized while the impressed body
+was in a soft or fluid state; and that, if they are both found mutually
+impressing and impressed by each other, they must have both been in
+the fluid and concreting state together. Now the fact is, that the
+calcareous body is perfectly inclosed within the solid calcedony, and
+that they are mutually impressed by each others specific figure, the
+sparry structure of the calcareous body impressing the calcedony with
+its type of planes and angles, at the same time that, in other parts,
+the spherical figures of the calcedony enter the solid body of the
+spar, and thus impress their mammelated figures into that part which is
+contiguous. It is therefore inconceivable, that these appearances
+could have been produced in any other manner than by those two bodies
+concreting from a simply fluid state.
+
+There are in jaspers and agates many other appearances, from whence the
+fusion of those substances may be concluded with great certainty and
+precision; but it is hoped, that what has been now given may suffice for
+establishing that proposition without any doubt.
+
+It must not be here objected, That there are frequently found siliceous
+crystals and amethysts containing water; and that it is impossible
+to confine water even in melted glass. It is true, that here, at the
+surface of the earth, melted glass cannot, in ordinary circumstances, be
+made to receive and inclose condensed water; but let us only suppose a
+sufficient degree of compression in the body of melted glass, and we
+can easily imagine it to receive and confine water as well as any
+other substance. But if, even in our operations, water, by means of
+compression, may be made to endure the heat of red hot iron without
+being converted into vapour, what may not the power of nature be able to
+perform? The place of mineral operations is not on the surface of the
+earth; and we are not to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
+the powers of nature by the measure of our own.[10]
+
+[Note 10: This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
+the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral substances, that I beg
+the particular attention of the reader to that subject. The effect of
+compression upon compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
+heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established principle
+in natural philosophy. This, like every other physical principle, is
+founded upon matter of fact or experience; we find, that many compound
+substances may with heat be easily changed, by having their more
+volatile parts separated when under a small compression; but these
+substances are preserved without change when sufficiently compressed.
+Our experiments of this kind are necessarily extremely limited; they
+are not, however, for that reason, the less conclusive. The effects of
+increasing degrees of heat are certainly prevented by increasing degrees
+of compression; but the rate at which the different effects of those
+powers proceed, or the measure of those different degrees of increase
+that may be made without changing the constitution of the compound
+substance, are not known; nor is there any limit to be set to that
+operation, so far as we know. Consequently, it is a physical principle,
+That the evaporation of volatile substances by heat, or the reparation
+of them from a compound substance, consequently the effect of fire in
+changing that compound substance, may be absolutely prevented by means
+of compression.
+
+It now remains to be considered, how far there is reason to conclude
+that there had been sufficient degrees of compression in the mineral
+regions, for the purpose of melting the various substances with which we
+find strata consolidated, without changing the chemical constitution of
+those compound substances.
+
+Had I, in reasoning _a priori_, asserted, That all mineral bodies might
+have been melted without change, when under sufficient compression,
+there might have arisen, in the minds of reasoning men, some doubt with
+regard to the certainty of that proposition, however probable it were to
+be esteemed: But when, in reasoning _a posteriori_, it is found that all
+mineral bodies have been actually melted, then, all that is required to
+establish the proposition on which I have founded my theory, is to
+see that there must have been immense degrees of compression upon the
+subjects in question; for we neither know the degree of heat which had
+been employed, nor that of compression by which the effect of the heat
+must have been modified.
+
+Now, in order to see that there had been immense compression, we have
+but to consider that the formation of the strata, which are to be
+consolidated, was at the bottom of the ocean, and that this place is to
+us unfathomable. If it be farther necessary to show that it had been at
+such unfathomable depth strata were consolidated, it will be sufficient
+to observe, it is not upon the surface of the earth, or above the level
+of the sea, that this mineral operation can take place; for, it is there
+that those consolidated bodies are redissolved, or necessarily going
+into decay, which is the opposite to that operation which we are now
+inquiring after; therefore, if they were consolidated in any other place
+than at the bottom of the sea, it must have been between that place of
+their formation and the surface of the sea; but that is a supposition
+which we have not any reason to make; therefore, we must conclude that
+it was at the bottom of the ocean those stratified bodies had been
+consolidated.]
+
+To conclude this long chemico-mineral disquisition, I have specimens in
+which the mixture of calcareous, siliceous, and metallic substances,
+in almost every species of concretion which is to be found in mineral
+bodies, may be observed, and in which there is exhibited, in miniature,
+almost every species of mineral transaction, which, in nature, is found
+upon a scale of grandeur and magnificence. They are nodules contained in
+the whin-stone, porphyry, or basaltes of the Calton-hill, by Edinburgh;
+a body which is to be afterwards examined, when it will be found to have
+flowed, and to have been in fusion, by the operation of subterraneous
+heat.
+
+This evidence, though most conclusive with regard to the application of
+subterraneous heat, as the means employed in bringing into fusion all
+the different substances with which strata may be found consolidated, is
+not directly a proof that strata had been consolidated by the fusion of
+their proper substance. It was necessary to see the general nature of
+the evidence, for the universal application of subterraneous heat, in
+the fusion of every kind of mineral body. Now, that this has been done,
+we may give examples of strata consolidated without the introduction
+of foreign matter, merely by the softening or fusion of their own
+materials.
+
+For this purpose, we may consider two different species of strata,
+such as are perfectly simple in their nature, of the most distinct
+substances, and whose origin is perfectly understood, consequently,
+whose subsequent changes may be reasoned upon with certainty and
+clearness. These are the siliceous and calcareous strata; and these
+are the two prevailing substances of the globe, all the rest being, in
+comparison of these, as nothing; for unless it be the bituminous or coal
+strata, there is hardly any other which does not necessarily contain
+more or less of one or other of these two substances. If, therefore,
+it can be shown, that both of those two general strata have been
+consolidated by the simple fusion of their substance, no _desideratum_
+or doubt will remain, with regard to the nature of that operation which
+has been transacted at great depths of the earth, places to which all
+access is denied to mortal eyes.
+
+We are now to prove, _first_, That those strata have been consolidated
+by simple fusion; and, _2dly_, That this operation is universal, in
+relation to the strata of the earth, as having produced the various
+degrees of solidity or hardness in these bodies.
+
+I shall first remark, that a fortuitous collection of hard bodies, such
+as gravel and sand, can only touch in points, and cannot, while in that
+hard state, be made to correspond so precisely to each others shape as
+to consolidate the mass. But if these hard bodies should be softened in
+their substance, or brought into a certain degree of fusion, they
+might be adapted mutually to each other, and thus consolidate the open
+structure of the mass. Therefore, to prove the present point, we have
+but to exhibit specimens of siliceous and calcareous strata which have
+been evidently consolidated in this manner.
+
+Of the first kind, great varieties occur in this country. It is,
+therefore, needless to describe these particularly. They are the
+consolidated strata of gravel and sand, often containing abundance of
+feld-spar, and thus graduating into granite; a body, in this respect,
+perfectly similar to the more regular strata which we now examine.
+
+The second kind, again, are not so common in this country, unless
+we consider the shells and coralline bodies in our lime-stones, as
+exhibiting the same example, which indeed they do. But I have a specimen
+of marble from Spain, which may be described, and which will afford the
+most satisfactory evidence of the fact in question.
+
+This Spanish marble may be considered as a species of pudding-stone,
+being formed of calcareous gravel; a species of marble which, from Mr
+Bowles' Natural History, appears to be very common in Spain. The gravel
+of which this marble is composed, consists of fragments of other marbles
+of different kinds. Among these, are different species of _oolites_
+marble, some shell marbles, and some composed of a chalky substance, or
+of undistinguishable parts. But it appears, that all these different
+marbles had been consolidated or made hard, then broken into fragments,
+rolled and worn by attrition, and thus collected together, along with
+some sand or small siliceous bodies, into one mass. Lastly, This
+compound body is consolidated in such a manner as to give the most
+distinct evidence, that this had been executed by the operation of heat
+or simple fusion.
+
+The proof I give is this, That besides the general conformation of those
+hard bodies, so as to be perfectly adapted to each other's shape, there
+is, in some places, a mutual indentation of the different pieces of
+gravel into each other; an indentation which resembles perfectly that
+junction of the different bones of the _cranium_, called sutures, and
+which must have necessarily required a mixture of those bodies while in
+a soft or fluid state.
+
+This appearance of indentation is by no means singular, or limited to
+one particular specimen. I have several specimens of different marbles,
+in which fine examples of this species of mixture may be perceived. But
+in this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone, where the mutual
+indentation is made between two pieces of hard stone, worn round by
+attrition, the softening or fusion of these two bodies is not simply
+rendered probable, but demonstrated.
+
+Having thus proved, that those strata had been consolidated by simple
+fusion, as proposed, we now proceed to show, that this mineral operation
+had been not only general, as being found in all the regions of the
+globe, but universal, in consolidating our earth in all the various
+degrees, from loose and incoherent shells and sand, to the most solid
+bodies of the siliceous and calcareous substances.
+
+To exemplify this in the various collections and mixtures of sands,
+gravels, shells, and corals, were endless and superfluous. I shall only
+take, for an example, one simple homogeneous body, in order to exhibit
+it in the various degrees of consolidation, from the state of simple
+incoherent earth to that of the most solid marble. It must be evident
+that this is chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but which may be
+also found consolidated in every different degree.
+
+Through the middle of the Isle of Wight, there runs a ridge of hills of
+indurated chalk. This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly west
+into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle towards Dorchester, perhaps
+beyond that place. The sea has broke through this ridge at the west
+end of the Isle of Wight, where columns of the indurated chalk remain,
+called the Needles; the same appearance being found upon the opposite
+shore in Dorsetshire.
+
+In this field of chalk, we find every gradation of that soft earthy
+substance to the most consolidated body of this indurated ridge, which
+is not solid marble, but which has lost its chalky property, and has
+acquired a kind of stony hardness.
+
+We want only further to see this cretaceous substance in its most
+indurated and consolidated state; and this we have in the north of
+Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway. I have examined cargoes of
+this lime-stone brought to the west of Scotland, and find the most
+perfect evidence of this body having been once a mass of chalk, which is
+now a solid marble.
+
+Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the strata of the earth have
+been, in many places, consolidated, we must conclude, that all the
+degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite, have been brought about
+by the same means.
+
+Now, that all the strata of the mineral regions, which are those only
+now examined, have been consolidated in some degree, is a fact for which
+no proof can be offered here, but must be submitted to experience and
+inquiry; so far, however, as they shall be considered as consolidated in
+any degree, which they certainly are in general, we have investigated
+the means which had been employed in that mineral operation.
+
+We have now considered the concretions of particular bodies, and the
+general consolidation of strata; but it may be alleged, that there is
+a great part of the solid mass of this earth not properly comprehended
+among those bodies which have been thus proved to be consolidated by
+means of fusion. The body here alluded to is granite; a mass which is
+not generally stratified, and which, being a body perfectly solid,
+and forming some part in the structure of this earth, deserves to be
+considered.
+
+The nature of granite, as a part of the structure of the earth, is too
+intricate a subject to be here considered, where we only seek to prove
+the fusion of a substance from the evident marks which are to be
+observed in a body. We shall, therefore, only now consider one
+particular species of granite; and if this shall appear to have been in
+a fluid state of fusion, we may be allowed to extend this property to
+all the kind.
+
+The species now to be examined comes from the north country, about four
+or five miles west from Portfoy, on the road to Huntly. I have not been
+upon the spot, but am informed that this rock is immediately connected
+or continuous with the common granite of the country. This indeed
+appears in the specimens which I have got; for, in some of these, there
+is to be perceived a gradation from the regular to the irregular sort.
+
+This rock may indeed be considered, in some respects, as a porphyry; for
+it has an evident ground, which is feld-spar, in its sparry state;
+and it is, in one view, distinctly maculated with quartz, which is
+transparent, but somewhat dark-coloured[11].
+
+[Note 11: Plate II. fig. 1. 2. 3.]
+
+Considered as a porphyry, this specimen is no less singular than as a
+granite. For, instead of a siliceous ground, maculated with the rhombic
+feld-spar, which is the common state of porphyry, the ground is
+uniformly crystallised, or a homogeneous regular feld-spar, maculated
+with the transparent siliceous substance. But as, besides the feld-spar
+and quartz, which are the constituent parts of the stone, there is also
+mica, in some places, it may, with propriety, be termed a granite.
+
+The singularity of this specimen consists, not in the nature or
+proportions of its constituent parts, but in the uniformity of the
+sparry ground, and the regular shape of the quartz mixture. This
+siliceous substance, viewed in one direction, or longitudinally, may
+be considered as columnar, prismatical, or continued in lines running
+nearly parallel. These columnar bodies of quartz are beautifully
+impressed with a figure on the sides, where they are in contact with the
+spar. This figure is that of furrows or channels, which are perfectly
+parallel, and run across the longitudinal direction of the quartz. This
+is represented in fig. 4. This striated figure is only seen when, by
+fracture, the quartz is separated from the contiguous spar.
+
+But what I would here more particularly represent is, the transverse
+section of those longitudinal siliceous bodies These are seen in fig. 1.
+2. and 3. They have not only separately the forms of certain typographic
+characters, but collectively give the regular lineal appearance of types
+set in writing.
+
+It is evident from the inspection of this fossil, that the sparry and
+siliceous substances had been mixed together in a fluid state; and that
+the crystallization of the sparry substance, which is rhombic, had
+determined the regular structure of the quartz, at least in some
+directions.
+
+Thus, the siliceous substance is to be considered as included in the
+spar, and as figured, according to the laws of crystallization proper
+to the sparry ground; but the spar is also to be found included in the
+quartz. It is not, indeed, always perfectly included or inclosed on all
+sides; but this is sometimes the case, or it appears so in the section.
+Fig. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. and 10. are those cases magnified, and represent the
+different figured quartz inclosing the feld-spar. In one of them, the
+feld-spar, which is contained within the quartz, contains also a small
+triangle of quartz, which it incloses. Now, it is not possible to
+conceive any other way in which those two substances, quartz and
+feld-spar, could be thus concreted, except by congelation from a fluid
+state, in which they had been mixed.
+
+There is one thing more to be observed with regard to this curious
+species of granite. It is the different order or arrangement of the
+crystallization or internal structure of the feld-spar ground, in two
+contiguous parts of the same mass. This is to be perceived in the
+polished surface of the stone, by means of the reflection of light.
+
+There is a certain direction in which, viewing the stone, when the light
+falls with a proper obliquity, we see a luminous reflection from the
+internal parts of the stone. This arises from the reflecting surfaces
+of the sparry structure or minute cracks, all turned in one direction,
+consequently, giving that luminous appearance only in one point of view.
+
+Now, all the parts of the stone in which the figured quartz is directed
+in the same manner, or regularly placed in relation to each other,
+present that shining appearance to the eye at one time, or in the same
+point of direction. But there are parts of the mass, which, though
+immediately contiguous and properly continuous, have a different
+disposition of the figured quartz; and these two distinguished masses,
+in the same surface of the polished stone, give to the eye their shining
+appearance in very different directions. Fig. 3. shows two of those
+figured and shining masses, in the same plane or polished surface.
+
+It must be evident, that, as the crystallization of the sparry structure
+is the figuring cause of the quartz bodies, there must be observed a
+certain correspondency between those two things, the alinement (if I may
+be allowed the expression) of the quartz, and the shining of the sparry
+ground. It must also appear, that at the time of congelation of the
+fluid spar, those two contiguous portions had been differently disposed
+in the crystallization of their substance. This is an observation which
+I have had frequent opportunities of making, with respect to masses of
+calcareous spar.
+
+Upon the whole, therefore, whether we shall consider granite as a
+stratum or as an irregular mass, whether as a collection of several
+materials, or as the separation of substances which had been mixed,
+there is sufficient evidence of this body having been consolidated by
+means of fusion, and in no other manner.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that the power of heat and operation
+of fusion must have been employed in consolidating strata of loose
+materials, which had been collected together and amassed at the bottom
+of the ocean. It will, therefore, be proper to consider, what are the
+appearances in consolidated strata that naturally should follow, on the
+one hand, from fluidity having been, in this manner, introduced by means
+of heat, and, on the other, from the interstices being filled by means
+of solution; that so we may compare appearances with the one and other
+of those two suppositions, in order to know that with which they may be
+only found consistent.
+
+The consolidation of strata with every different kind of substance was
+found to be inconsistent with the supposition, that aqueous solution
+had been the means employed for this purpose. This appearance, on the
+contrary, is perfectly consistent with the idea, that the fluidity of
+these bodies had been the effect of heat; for, whether we suppose the
+introduction of foreign matter into the porous mass of a stratum for its
+consolidation, or whether we shall suppose the materials of the mass
+acquiring a degree of softness, by means of which, together with an
+immense compression, the porous body might be rendered solid; the power
+of heat, as the cause of fluidity and vapour, is equally proper and
+perfectly competent. Here, therefore, appearances are as decidedly in
+favour of the last supposition, as they had been inconsistent with the
+first.
+
+But if strata have been consolidated by means of aqueous solution, these
+masses should be found precisely in the same state as when they were
+originally deposited from the water. The perpendicular section of those
+masses might show the compression of the bodies included in them, or of
+which they are composed; but the horizontal section could not contain
+any separation of the parts of the stratum from one another.
+
+If, again, strata have been consolidated by means of heat, acting in
+such a manner as to soften their substance, then, in cooling, they must
+have formed rents or separations of their substance, by the unequal
+degrees of contraction which the contiguous strata may have suffered.
+Here is a most decisive mark by which the present question must be
+determined.
+
+There is not in nature any appearance more distinct than this of the
+perpendicular fissures and separations in strata. These are generally
+known to workmen by the terms of veins or backs and cutters; and there
+is no consolidated stratum that wants these appearances. Here is,
+therefore, a clear decision of the question, Whether it has been by
+means of heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that collections of
+loose bodies at the bottom of the sea have been consolidated into the
+hardest rocks and most perfect marbles[12].
+
+[Note 12: This subject is extremely interesting, both to the theory of
+the earth, and to the science cf the mining art; I will now illustrate
+that theory, with an authority which I received after giving this
+dissertation to the Royal Society. It is in the second volume of M. de
+Saussure's _voyages dans les Alpes_. Here I find proper examples for
+illustrating that subject of mineralogy; and I am happy to have this
+opportunity of giving the reasoning of a man of science upon the
+subject, and the opinion of a person who is in every respect so well
+qualified to judge upon a point of this kind.
+
+The first example is of a marble in the Alps, (_voyages dans les
+Alpes._) tom. 2. page 271.
+
+"La pâte de ces brèches est tantôt blanche, tantôt grise, et les
+fragmens qui y font renfermés font, les uns blancs, les autres gris,
+d'autres roux, et presque toujours d'une couleur différente de celle de
+la pâte qui les lit. Ils sont tous de nature calcaire; tels étaient au
+moins tous ceux que j'ai pus observer; et ce qu'il-y-a de remarquable,
+c'est qu'ils sont tous posés dans le sens des feuillets de la pierre; on
+diroit en les voyant, qu'ils ont tous été comprimés et écrasés dans
+le même sens. Cette même pierre est mêlée de mica, sur-tout dans les
+interstices des couches et entre les fragmens et la pâte qui les réunit;
+mais on ne voit point de mica dans les fragmens eux-mêmes. On trouve
+aussi dans ces brèches des infiltrations de quartz. Cette pierre est
+coupée par des fréquentes fissures perpendiculaires aux plans des
+couches. On voit clairement que ces fentes out été formées par l'inégal
+affaissement des couches, et non par une retraite spontanée: car les
+morceaux ou fragmens étrangers sont tous partagés et coupés net par ces
+fissures au lieu que dans les divisions naturelles des couches, ces
+mêmes fragmens sont entiers et saillans au dehors de la surface. Les
+noeuds de quartz et les divers crystaux, que renferment les roches
+feuilletées, présentent le même phénomène, et l'on peut en tirer la même
+conséquence; ils font partagés dans les fentes, et entiers dans les
+séparations des couches."
+
+He finds those particular strata in the other side of the mountain _col
+de la Seigne_, and gives us the following observations:
+
+"Plus bas on passe entre deux bancs de ces mêmes brèches, entre lesquels
+sont interposées des couches d'ardoises noires et de grès feuilletés
+micacés, dont la situation est la même.
+
+"On retrouve encore ces brèches vers le has de la descente, au pied de
+pyramides calcaires dont j'ai parlé plus haut. Je trouvai en 1774 de
+très-jolis crystaux de roche qui s'étaient formés dans les fentes de
+cette brèche. Il y avoit même un mélange de quartz et de mica qui
+s'étoit moulé dans quelques-une de ces fentes. C'étoit donc une roche
+semblable aux primitives, et pourtant d'une formation postérieure à
+celle de la pierre calcaire. Et quel système pourroit nous persuader que
+la nature ne puisse encore produire ce qu'elle a produit autrefois!"
+
+M. de Saussure has here given us an example of a calcareous Braccia,
+as he calls it, but which is rather a pudding stone, with veins or
+contractions of the mass. He does not seem to understand these as
+consequences of the consolidation of those strata; this, however, is
+the only light in which these appearances may be explained, when those
+bodies are thus divided without any other separation in the mass.
+
+The second example is found in the vertical strata of those mountains
+through which the Rhône has made its way in running from the great
+valley of the _Vallais_ towards the lake of Geneva. (Chapitre xlviii.)
+
+"C'est une espèce de pétrosilex gris, dur, sonore, un peu transparent,
+qui se débite en feuillets minces parfaitement plans et réguliers. Ces
+feuillets, ou plutôt ces couches, courent à 35 degrés du nord par est,
+en montant du coté de l'ouest sous un angle de 80 degrés. Ces couches
+sont coupées par des fentes qui leur sont à-peu-près perpendiculaires et
+qui le sont aussi à l'horizon. Cette pierre s'emploie aux mêmes usage
+que l'ardoise, mais elle est beaucoup plus forte et plus durable, parce
+qu'elle est plus dure et moins accessible aux impressions de l'eau et de
+l'air.
+
+§ 1047. "Ces pétrosilex feuilletés changent peu-à-peu de nature, en
+admettant dans les interstices de leurs feuillets des parties de
+feldspath. Ils out alors l'apparence d'une roche feuilletée, quartzeuse
+et micacée, (_quartzum fornacum W._). Mais cette apparence est
+trompeuse; car on n'y trouve pas un atome de quartz: toutes les parties
+blanches qui donnent du feu contre l'acier, font du feldspath; et les
+parties grise écailleuses ne font point du mica, ce sont de lames minces
+du pétrosilex dont j'ai déjà parlé."
+
+Here is evidently what I would call petuntze strata, or porcelane stone,
+that is, strata formed by the deposits of such materials as might come
+from the _detritus_ of granite, arranged at the bottom of the sea, and
+consolidated by heat in the mineral regions. We have precisely such
+stratified masses in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh. I have also a
+specimen of the same kind, brought from the East Indies, in which there
+is the print of an organized body. I believe it to be of some coralline
+or zoophite.
+
+§ 1048. "Cette roche mélangée continue jusqu'à ce que le rocher
+s'éloigne un peu du grand chemin. Là, ce rocher se présente coupé à
+pic dans une grande étendue, et divisé par de grandes fentes obliques,
+à-peu-près parallèles entr'elles. Ces fentes partagent la montagne en
+grandes tranches de 50 à 60 pieds d'épaisseur, que de loin semblent être
+des couches. Mais lorsqu'on s'en approche, on voit, par le tissu même
+de la pierre feuilletée, que ses vraies couches font avec l'horizon des
+angles de 70 à 75 degré, et que ces grandes divisions sont de vraies
+fentes par lesquelles un grand nombre de couches consécutives sont
+coupées presque perpendiculairement à leurs plans. Les masses de rocher,
+comprises entre ces grandes fentes, sont encore divisées par d'autres
+fentes plus petites, dont la plupart sont paralleles aux grandes,
+d'autres leur sont obliques; mais toutes sont à très-peu-près
+perpendiculaires aux plans des couchés dont la montagne est composée."
+
+Here is a distinct view of that which may be found to take place in all
+consolidated strata, whatever be the composition of the stratum; and
+it is this appearance which is here maintained to be a physical
+demonstration, that those strata had been consolidated by means of
+heat softening their materials. In that case, those stratified
+bodies, contracting in cooling, form veins and fissures traversing
+perpendicularly their planes; and these veins are afterwards filled with
+mineral substances. These are what I have here distinguished as the
+_particular_ veins of mineral masses; things perfectly different from
+proper mineral or metallic veins, which are more general, as belonging
+to immense masses of those strata; and which had been formed, not from
+the contraction, but from the disrupture of those masses, and by the
+forcible injection of fluid mineral substances from below. Now these two
+species of veins, the particular and the general, although occasionally
+connected, must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one, we
+see the means which had been employed for the consolidation of the
+strata; in the other, we see that power by which the strata have been
+raised from the bottom of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.]
+
+Error never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from
+the accurate examination of every circumstance. It is not enough to
+have found appearances decisive of the question, with regard to the
+two suppositions which have been now considered, we may farther seek
+confirmation of that supposition which has been found alone consistent
+with appearances.
+
+If it be by means of heat and fusion that strata have been consolidated,
+then, in proportion to the degree of consolidation they have undergone
+from their original state, they should, _caeteris paribus_, abound more
+with separations in their mass. But this conclusion is found consistent
+with appearances. A stratum of porous sand-stone does not abound so much
+with veins and cutters as a similar stratum of marble, or even a
+similar stratum of sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
+therefore, as strata have been consolidated, they are in general
+intersected with veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata are
+deep in their perpendicular section, the veins are wide, and placed at
+greater distances. In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins are
+many, but proportionally narrow.
+
+It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be demonstrated, That all the
+solid strata of the globe have been condensed by means of heat, and
+hardened from a state of fusion. But this proposition is equally to
+be maintained from principles which are mechanical. The strata of the
+globe, besides being formed of earths, are composed of sand, of gravel,
+and fragments of hard bodies, all which may be considered as, in their
+nature, simple; but these strata are also found composed of bodies which
+are not simple, but are fragments of former strata, which had been
+consolidated, and afterwards were broken and worn by attrition, so as
+to be made gravel. Strata composed in this manner have been again
+consolidated; and now the question is, By what means?
+
+If strata composed of such various bodies had been consolidated, by any
+manner of concretion, from the fluidity of a dissolution, the hard and
+solid bodies must be found in their entire state, while the interstices
+between those constituent parts of the stratum are filled up. No partial
+fracture can be conceived as introduced into the middle of a solid mass
+of hard matter, without having been communicated from the surrounding
+parts. But such partial separations are found in the middle of those
+hard and solid masses; therefore, this compound body must have been
+consolidated by other means than that of concretion from a state of a
+solution.
+
+The Spanish marble already described, as well as many consolidated
+strata of siliceous gravel, of which I have specimens, afford the
+clearest evidence of this fact. These hard bodies are perfectly united
+together, in forming the most solid mass; the contiguous parts of some
+of the rounded fragments are interlaced together, as has already been
+observed; and there are partial shrinkings of the mass forming veins,
+traversing several fragments, but perfectly filled with the sparry
+substance of the mass, and sometimes with parts of the stone distinctly
+floating in the transparent body of spar. Now, there is not, besides
+heat or fusion, any known power in nature by which these effects might
+be produced. But such effects are general to all consolidated masses,
+although not always so well illustrated in a cabinet specimen.
+
+Thus we have discovered a truth that is confirmed by every appearance,
+so far as the nature of the subject now examined admits. We now return
+to the general operation, of forming continents of those materials which
+had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of
+Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+We seek to know that operation by means of which masses of loose
+materials, collected at the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
+surface, and transformed into solid land.
+
+We have found, that there is not in this globe (as a planet revolving
+in the solar system) any power or motion adapted to the purpose now in
+view; nor, were there such a power, could a mass of simply collected
+materials have continued any considerable time to resist the waves and
+currents natural to the sea, but must have been quickly carried away,
+and again deposited at the bottom of the ocean. But we have found, that
+there had been operations, natural to the bowels of this earth; by which
+those loose and unconnected materials have been cemented together, and
+consolidated into masses of great strength and hardness; those bodies
+are thus enabled to resist the force of waves and currents, and to
+preserve themselves, for a sufficient time, in their proper shape and
+place, as land above the general surface of the ocean.
+
+We now desire to know, how far those internal operations of the globe,
+by which solidity and stability are procured to the beds of loose
+materials, may have been also employed in raising up a continent of
+land, to remain above the surface of the sea.
+
+There is nothing so proper for the erection of land above the level of
+the ocean, as an expansive power of sufficient force, applied directly
+under materials in the bottom of the sea, under a mass that is proper
+for the formation of land when thus erected. The question is not, how
+such a power may be procured; such a power has probably been employed.
+If, therefore, such a power should be consistent with that which we
+found had actually been employed in preparing the erected mass; or,
+if such a power is to be reasonably concluded as accompanying those
+operations which we have found natural to the globe, and situated in the
+very place where this expansive power appears to be required, we should
+thus be led to perceive, in the natural operations of the globe, a power
+as efficacious for the elevation of what had been at the bottom of the
+sea into the place of land, as it is perfect for the preparation of
+those materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.
+
+In opposition to this conclusion, it will not be allowed to allege; that
+we are ignorant how such a power might be exerted under the bottom of
+the ocean; for, the present question is not, what had been the cause of
+heat, which has appeared to have been produced in that place, but if
+this power of heat, which has certainly been exerted at the bottom of
+the ocean for consolidating strata, had been employed also for another
+purpose, that is, for raising those strata into the place of land.
+
+We may, perhaps, account for the elevation of land, by the same cause
+with that of the consolidation of strata, already investigated, without
+explaining the means employed by nature in procuring the power of heat,
+or showing from what general source of action this particular power had
+been derived; but, by finding in subterranean heat a cause for any other
+change, besides the consolidation of porous or incoherent bodies, we
+shall generalise a fact, or extend our knowledge in the explanation of
+natural appearances.
+
+The power of heat for the expansion of bodies, is, so far as we know,
+unlimited; but, by the expansion of bodies placed under the strata at
+the bottom of the sea, the elevation of those strata may be effected;
+and the question now to be resolved regards the actual exertion of
+this power of expansion. How far it is to be concluded as having been
+employed in the production of this earth above the level of the sea.
+
+Before attempting to resolve that question, it may be proper to observe,
+there has been exerted an extreme degree of heat below the strata formed
+at the bottom of the sea; and this is precisely the action of a power
+required for the elevation of those heated bodies into a higher place.
+Therefore, if there is no other way in which we may conceive this event
+to have been brought about, consistent with the present state of things,
+or what actually appears, we shall have a right to conclude, that such
+had been the order of procedure in natural things, and that the
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
+consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.
+
+The consolidation of strata by means of fusion or the power of heat, has
+been concluded from the examination of nature, and from finding, that
+the present state of things is inconsistent with any other supposition.
+Now, again, we are considering the only power that may be conceived as
+capable of elevating strata from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
+a mass above the surface of the water. It is a truth unquestionable,
+that what had been originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
+the highest of our land. In explaining this appearance, therefore, no
+other alternative is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by the
+power of heat above the level of the present sea, or the surface of the
+ocean reduced many miles below the height at which it had subsisted
+during the collection and induration of the land which we inhabit.
+
+Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose no general power of
+subterraneous fire or heat, we leave to our theory no means for the
+retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its surface; if, on the other
+hand, we are to allow the general power of subterraneous heat, we cannot
+have much difficulty in supposing, either the surface of the sea to have
+subsided, or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts, to have been
+raised by a subterranean power above the level of its surface, according
+as appearances shall be found to require the one or other of those
+conclusions. Here, therefore, we are again remitted to the history of
+nature, in order to find matter of fact by which this question may be
+properly decided.
+
+If the present land had been discovered by the subsiding of the waters,
+there has not been a former land, from whence materials had been
+procured for the construction of the present, when at the bottom of the
+sea; for, there is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole land of
+the present earth having been formed evidently at the bottom of the sea.
+Neither could the natural productions of the sea have been accumulated,
+in the shape in which we now find them, on the surface of this earth;
+for, How should the Alps and Andes have been formed within the sea
+from the natural productions of the water? Consequently, this is a
+supposition inconsistent with every natural appearance.
+
+The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence of the former ocean,
+for the purpose of discovering the present land, is beset with more
+difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom of the former ocean;
+for, _first_, There is a place to provide for the retirement of the
+waters of the ocean; and, _2dly_, There is required a work of equal
+magnitude; this is, the swallowing up of that former continent, which
+had procured the materials of the present land.
+
+On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface of the ocean would but
+make the former land appear the higher; and, on the other, the sinking
+the body of the former land into the solid globe, so as to swallow up
+the greater part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
+would be at least a superfluous exertion of the power of nature. Such an
+operation as this would discover as little wisdom in the end elected, as
+in the means appropriated to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
+and worn away in the natural operations of the globe, Why make such a
+convulsion in the world in order to renew the land? If, again, the land
+naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary a power, in order to hide
+a former continent of land, and puzzle man?
+
+Let us now consider how far the other proposition, of strata being
+elevated by the power of heat above the level of the sea, may be
+confirmed from the examination of natural appearances.
+
+The strata formed at the bottom of the ocean are necessarily horizontal
+in their position, or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
+direction or extent. They may change, and gradually assume the nature of
+each other, so far as concerns the materials of which they are formed;
+but there cannot be any sudden change, fracture, or displacement,
+naturally in the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are cemented by
+the heat of fusion, and erected with an expansive power acting below,
+we may expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and
+contortion, in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a
+horizontal towards a vertical position.
+
+The strata of the globe are actually found in every possible position:
+For, from horizontal, they are frequently found vertical; from
+continuous, they are broken and separated in every possible direction;
+and, from a plane, they are bent and doubled. It is impossible that they
+could have originally been formed, by the known laws of nature, in their
+present state and position; and the power that has been necessarily
+required for their change, has not been inferior to that which might
+have been required for their elevation from the place in which they had
+been formed.
+
+In this cafe, natural appearances are not anomalous. They are, indeed,
+infinitely various, as they ought to be, according to the rule; but all
+those varieties in appearances conspire to prove one general truth, viz.
+That all which we see had been originally composed according to certain
+principles, established in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
+and that those regular compositions had been afterwards greatly changed
+by the operations of another power, which had introduced apparent
+confusion among things first formed in order and by rule.
+
+It is concerning the operation of this second power that we are now
+inquiring; and here the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
+mineral regions are as instructive, with regard to what had been
+transacted in a former period of time, as the order and regularity of
+those same regions are conclusive, in relation to the place in which a
+former state of things had produced that which, in its changed state, we
+now perceive.
+
+We are now to conclude, that the land on which we dwell had been
+elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which had been
+employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and
+preparing them for the purpose of the living world. This agent is matter
+actuated by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing force.
+
+If this has been the case, it will be reasonable to expect, that some of
+the expanded matter might be found condensed in the bodies which have
+been heated by that igneous vapour; and that matter, foreign to the
+strata, may have been thus introduced into the fractures and separations
+of those indurated masses.
+
+We have but to open our eyes to be convinced of this truth. Look into
+the sources of our mineral treasures; ask the miner, from whence has
+come the metal into his vein? Not from the earth or air above,--not from
+the strata which the vein traverses; these do not contain one atom of
+the minerals now considered. There is but one place from whence these
+minerals may have come; this is the bowels of the earth, the place of
+power and expansion, the place from whence must have proceeded that
+intense heat by which loose materials have been consolidated into rocks,
+as well as that enormous force by which the regular strata have been
+broken and displaced.
+
+Our attention is here peculiarly called upon, where we have the
+opportunity of examining those mineral bodies, which have immediately
+proceeded from the unknown region, that place of power and energy which
+we want to explore; for, if such is the system of the earth, that
+materials are first deposited at the bottom of the ocean, there to be
+prepared in a certain manner, in order to acquire solidity, and then to
+be elevated into the proper place of land, these mineral veins, which
+contain matter absolutely foreign to the surface of the earth, afford
+the most authentic information with regard to the operations which we
+want to understand. It is these veins which we are to consider as,
+in some measure, the continuation of that mineral region, which lies
+necessarily out of all possible reach of our examination. It is,
+therefore, peculiarly interesting to know the state in which things
+are to be found in this place, which may be considered as intermediate
+between the solid land, upon the one hand, and the unknown regions of
+the earth, upon the other.
+
+We are now to examine those mineral veins; and these may be considered,
+first, in relation to their form, independent of their substance or
+particular contents; and, secondly, in relation to the contained bodies,
+independent of their form.
+
+In examining consolidated strata, we remarked veins and cutters as a
+proof of the means by which those bodies had been consolidated. In that
+case, the formation of these veins is a regulated process, determined
+by the degree of fusion, and the circumstances of condensation or
+refrigeration. In respect of these, the mineral veins now to be examined
+are anomalous. They are; but we know not why or how. We see the effect;
+but, in that effect, we do not see the cause. We can say, negatively,
+that the cause of mineral veins is not that by which the veins and
+fissures of consolidated strata have been formed; consequently, that
+it is not the measured contraction and regulated condensation of the
+consolidated land which has formed those general mineral veins; however,
+veins, similar in many respects, have been formed by the cooperation of
+this cause.
+
+Having thus taken a view of the evident distinction between the veins or
+contractions that are particular to the consolidated body in which they
+are found, and those more general veins which are not limited to that
+cause, we may now consider what is general in the subject, or what is
+universal in these effects of which we wish to investigate the cause.
+
+The event of highest generalization or universality, in the form of
+those mineral veins, is fracture and dislocation. It is not, like that
+of the veins of strata, simple separation and measured contraction; it
+is violent fracture and unlimited dislocation. In the one case, the
+forming cause is in the body which is separated; for, after the body had
+been actuated by heat, it is by the reaction of the proper matter of the
+body, that the chasm which constitutes the vein is formed. In the other
+case, again, the cause is extrinsic in relation to the body in which the
+chasm is formed. There has been the most violent fracture and divulsion;
+but the cause is still to seek; and it appears not in the vein; for it
+is not every fracture and dislocation of the solid body of our earth, in
+which minerals, or the proper substances of mineral veins, are found.
+
+We are now examining matter of fact, real effects, from whence we would
+investigate the nature of certain events which do not now appear. Of
+these, two kinds occur; one which has relation to the hardness and
+solidity, or the natural constitution of the body; the other, to its
+shape or local situation. The first has been already considered; the
+last is now the subject of inquiry.
+
+But, in examining those natural appearances, we find two different kinds
+of veins; the one necessarily connected with the consolidating cause;
+the other with that cause of which we now particularly inquire. For,
+in those great mineral veins, violent fracture and dislocation is the
+principle; but there is no other principle upon which strata, or masses
+formed at the bottom of the sea, can be placed at a height above its
+surface. Hence, in those two different operations, of forming mineral
+veins, and erecting strata from a lower to a higher place, the principle
+is the same; for, neither can be done without violent fracture and
+dislocation.
+
+We now only want to know, how far it is by the same power, as well as
+upon the same principle, that these two operations have been made.
+An expansive force, acting from below, is the power most proper for
+erecting masses; but whether it is a power of the same nature with that
+which has been employed in forming mineral veins, will best appear in
+knowing the nature of their contents. These, therefore, may be now
+considered.
+
+Every species of fracture, and every degree of dislocation and
+contortion, may be perceived in the form of mineral veins; and there is
+no other general principle to be observed in examining their form. But,
+in examining their contents, some other principle may appear, so far as,
+to the dislocating power or force, there may be superadded matter, by
+which something in relation to the nature of the power may be known.
+If, for example, a tree or a rock shall be found simply split asunder,
+although there be no doubt with regard to some power having been applied
+in order to produce the effect, yet we are left merely to conjecture at
+the power. But when wedges of wood or iron, or frozen water, should be
+found lodged in the cleft, we might be enabled, from this appearance, to
+form a certain judgment with regard to the nature of the power which
+had been applied. This is the case with mineral veins. We find them
+containing matter, which indicates a cause; and every information in
+this case is interesting to the theory.
+
+The substances contained in mineral veins are precisely the same with
+those which, in the former section, we have considered as being made
+instrumental in the consolidation of strata; and they are found mixed
+and concreted in every manner possible.
+
+But, besides this evidence for the exertion of extreme heat, in that
+process by which those veins were filled, there is another important
+observation to be gathered from the inspection of this subject. There
+appears to have been a great mechanical power employed in the filling of
+these veins, as well as that necessarily required in making the first
+fracture and divulsion.
+
+This appears from the order of the contents, or filling of these veins,
+which is a thing often observed to be various and successive. But what
+it is chiefly now in view to illustrate, is that immense force which is
+manifested in the fracture and dispersion of the solid contents which
+had formerly filled those veins. Here we find fragments of rock and spar
+floating in the body of a vein filled with metallic substances; there,
+again, we see the various fragments of metallic masses floating in the
+sparry and siliceous contents.
+
+One thing is demonstrable from the inspection of the veins and their
+contents; this is, the successive irruptions of those fluid substances
+breaking the solid bodies which they meet, and floating those fragments
+of the broken bodies in the vein. It is very common to see three
+successive series of those operations; and all this may be perceived in
+a small fragment of stone, which a man of science may examine in his
+closet, often better than descending to the mine, where all the examples
+are found on an enlarged scale.
+
+Let us now consider what power would be required to force up, from the
+most unfathomable depth of the ocean, to the Andes or the Alps, a column
+of fluid metal and of stone. This power cannot be much less than that
+required to elevate the highest land upon the globe. Whether, therefore,
+we shall consider the general veins as having been filled by mineral
+steams, or by fluid minerals, an elevating power of immense force is
+still required, in order to form as well as fill those veins. But such a
+power acting under the consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea, is
+the only natural means for making those masses land.
+
+If such have been the operations that are necessary for the production
+of this land; and if these operations are natural to the globe of this
+earth, as being the effect of wisdom in its contrivance, we shall
+have reason to look for the actual manifestation of this truth in the
+phaenomena of nature, or those appearances which more immediately
+discover the actual cause in the perceived effect.
+
+To see the evidence of marble, a body that is solid, having been formed
+of loose materials collected at the bottom of the sea, is not always
+easy, although it may be made abundantly plain; and to be convinced that
+this calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in our fires, should
+have been brought into fusion by subterraneous heat, without suffering
+calcination, must require a chain of reasoning which every one is not
+able to attain[13]. But when fire bursts forth from the bottom of the
+sea, and when the land is heaved up and down, so as to demolish cities
+in an instant, and split asunder rocks and solid mountains, there
+is nobody but must see in this a power, which may be sufficient to
+accomplish every view of nature in erecting land, as it is situated in
+the place most advantageous for that purpose.
+
+[Note 13: Mr le Chevalier de Dolomieu, in considering the different
+effects of heat, has made the following observation; Journal de
+Physique, Mai 1792.
+
+"Je dis _le feu tel que nous l'employons_ pour distinguer le feu naturel
+des volcans, du feu de nos fourneaux et de celui de nos chalumeaux. Nous
+sommes obligés de donner une grande activité à son action pour suppléer
+et au volume qui ne seroit pas à notre disposition et au tems que nous
+sommes forcés de ménager, et cette manière d'appliquer une chaleur
+très-active, communique le mouvement et le désordre jusques dans les
+molécules constituantes. Agrégation et composition, tout est troublé.
+Dans les volcans la grand masse du feu supplée à son intensité, le
+tems remplace son activité, de manière qu'il tourmente moins les corps
+fournis à son action; il ménage leur composition en relâchant leur
+agrégation, et les pierres qui eut été rendues fluides par l'embrasement
+volcanique peuvent reprendre leur état primitif; la plupart des
+substances qu'un feu plus actif auroit expulsées y restent encore. Voilà
+pourquoi les laves ressemblent tellement aux pierres naturelles des
+espèces analogues, qu'elles ne peuvent en être distinguées; voilà
+également pourquoi les verres volcaniques eux-même renferment encore des
+substances élastiques qui les font boursoufler lorsque nous les fondons
+de nouveau, et pourquoi ces verres blanchissent aussi, pour lors, par
+la dissipation, d'une substance grasse qui a résisté à la chaleur des
+volcans, et que volatilise la chaleur par laquelle nous obtenons leur
+second fusion."
+
+No doubt, the long application of heat may produce changes in bodies
+very different from those which are occasioned by the sudden application
+of a more intense heat; but still there must be sufficient intensity in
+that power, so as to cause fluidity, without which no chemical change
+can be produced in bodies. The essential difference, however, between
+the natural heat of the mineral regions, and that which we excite upon
+the surface of the earth, consists in this; that nature applies heat
+under circumstances which we are not able to imitate, that is, under
+such compression as shall prevent the decomposition of the constituent
+substances, by the separation of the more volatile from the more fixed
+parts. This is a circumstance which, so far as I know, no chemist
+or naturalist has hitherto considered; and it is that by which the
+operations of the mineral regions must certainly be explained. Without
+attending to this great principle in the mineralizing operations
+of subterraneous fire, it is impossible to conceive the fusion and
+concretion of those various bodies, which we examine when brought up to
+the surface of the earth.]
+
+The only question, therefore, which it concerns us to decide at present,
+is, Whether those operations of extreme heat, and violent mechanic
+force, be only in the system as a matter of accident; or if, on the
+contrary, they are operations natural to the globe, and necessary in the
+production of such land as this which we inhabit? The answer to this is
+plain: These operations of the globe remain at present with undiminished
+activity, or in the fullness of their power.
+
+A stream of melted lava flows from the sides of Mount Aetna. Here is a
+column of weighty matter raised from a great depth below, to an immense
+height above, the level of the sea, and rocks of an enormous size
+are projected from its orifice some miles into the air. Every one
+acknowledges that here is the liquefying power and expansive force of
+subterranean fire, or violent heat. But, that Sicily itself had been
+raised from the bottom of the ocean, and that the marble called Sicilian
+Jasper, had its solidity upon the same principle with the lava, would
+stumble many a naturalist to acknowledge. Nevertheless, I have in my
+possession a table of this marble, from which it is demonstrable, that
+this calcareous stone had flowed, and been in such a state of fusion and
+fluidity as lava.
+
+Here is a comparison formed of two mineral substances, to which it is of
+the highest importance to attend. The solidity and present state of the
+one of these is commonly thought to be the operation of fire; of the
+other, again, it is thought to be that of water. This, however, is not
+the case. The immediate state and condition of both these bodies is now
+to be considered as equally the effect of fire or heat. The reason of
+our forming such a different judgment with regard to these two subjects
+is this; we see, in the one case, the more immediate connection of the
+cause and the effect, while, in the other, we have only the effects from
+whence we are in science to investigate the cause.
+
+But, if it were necessary always to see this immediate connection, in
+order to acknowledge the operation of a power which, at present, is
+extinguished in the effect, we should lose the benefit of science, or
+general principles, from whence particulars may be deduced, and we
+should be able to reason no better than the brute. Man is made for
+science; he reasons from effects to causes, and from causes to effects;
+but he does not always reason without error. In reasoning, therefore,
+from appearances which are particular, care must be taken how we
+generalise; we should be cautious not to attribute to nature, laws which
+may perhaps be only of our own invention.
+
+The immediate question now before us is not, If the subterraneous fire,
+or elevating power, which we perceive sometimes as operating with such
+energy, be the consolidating cause of strata formed at the bottom of the
+sea; nor, if that power be the means of making land appear above the
+general surface of the water? for, though this be the end we want to
+arrive at ultimately, the question at present in agitation respects the
+laws of nature, or the generality of particular appearances.
+
+Has the globe within it such an active power as fits it for the
+renovation of that part of its constitution which may be subject to
+decay? Are those powerful operations of fire, or subterraneous heat,
+which so often have filled us with terror and astonishment, to be
+considered as having always been? Are they to be concluded as proper to
+every part upon the globe, and as continual in the system of this earth?
+If these points in question shall be decided in the affirmative, we can
+be at no loss in ascertaining the power which has consolidated strata,
+nor in explaining the present situation of those bodies, which had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea. This, therefore, should be the object
+of our pursuit; and in order to have demonstration in a case of physical
+inquiry, we must again have recourse to the book of nature.
+
+The general tendency of heat is to produce fluidity and softness; as
+that of cold is, on the contrary, to harden soft and fluid bodies. But
+this softening power of heat is not uniform in its nature; it is made to
+act with very different effect, according to the nature of the substance
+to which it is applied. We are but limited in the art of increasing the
+heat or the cold of bodies; we find, however, extreme difference in
+their substances with respect to fusibility.
+
+A fusible substance, or mineral composition in a fluid state, is emitted
+from those places of the earth at which subterraneous fire and expansive
+force are manifested in those eruptive operations. In examining these
+emitted bodies, men of science find a character for such productions, in
+generalising the substance, and understanding the natural constitution
+of those bodies. It is in this manner that such a person, finding a
+piece of lava in any place of the earth, says with certainty, Here is a
+stone which had congealed from a melted state.
+
+Having thus found a distinguishing character for those fused substances
+called, in general, Lavas, and having the most visible marks for that
+which had been actually a volcano, naturalists, in examining different
+countries, have discovered the most undoubted proofs of many ancient
+volcanos, which had not been before suspected. Thus, volcanos will
+appear to be not a matter of accident, or as only happening in a
+particular place, they are general to the globe, so far as there is
+no place upon the earth that may not have an eruption of this kind;
+although it is by no means necessary for every place to have had those
+eruptions.
+
+Volcanos are natural to the globe, as general operations; but we are
+not to consider nature as having a burning mountain for an end in her
+intention, or as a principal purpose in the general system of this
+world. The end of nature in placing an internal fire or power of heat,
+and a force of irresistible expansion, in the body of this earth, is to
+consolidate the sediment collected at the bottom of the sea, and to form
+thereof a mass of permanent land above the level of the ocean, for the
+purpose of maintaining plants and animals. The power appointed for this
+purpose is, as on all other occasions, where the operation is important,
+and where there is any danger of a shortcoming, wisely provided
+in abundance; and there are contrived means for disposing of the
+redundancy. These, in the present case, are our volcanos.
+
+A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten superstitious people
+into fits of piety and devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities with
+destruction; a volcano should be considered as a spiracle to the
+subterranean furnace, in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation of
+land, and fatal effects of earthquakes; and we may rest assured, that
+they, in general, wisely answer the end of their intention, without
+being in themselves an end, for which nature had exerted such amazing
+power and excellent contrivance.
+
+Let us take a view of the most elevated places of the earth; if the
+present theory is just, it is there that we should find volcanos. But is
+not this the case? There are volcanos in the Andes; and round the Alps
+we find many volcanos, which are in France upon the one side, and in
+Germany upon the other, as well as upon the Italian side, where Vesuvius
+still continues to exhibit violent eruptions.
+
+It is not meant to allege, that it is only upon the summit of a
+continent volcanos should appear. Subterraneous fire has sometimes made
+its appearance in bursting from the bottom of the sea. But, even in
+this last case, land was raised from the bottom of the sea, before the
+eruption made its exit into the atmosphere. It must also be evident,
+that, in this case of the new island near Santorini, had the expansive
+power been retained, instead of being discharged, much more land might
+have been raised above the level of the ocean.
+
+Now, the eruption of that elastic force through the bottom of the sea,
+may be considered as a waste of power in the operations of the globe,
+where the elevation of indurated strata is an object in the exertion of
+that power; whereas, in the centre of a continent sufficiently elevated
+above the level of the sea, the eruption of that fiery vapour calculated
+to elevate the land, while it may occasionally destroy the habitations
+of a few, provides for the security and quiet possession of the many.
+
+In order to see the wisdom of this contrivance, let us consider the
+two extreme places at which this eruption of ignited matter may be
+performed. These are, on the one hand, within a continent of land, and,
+on the other, at the bottom of the ocean. In the one case, the free
+eruption of the expanding power should be permitted; because the purpose
+for which it had been calculated to exist has been accomplished. In
+the other, again, the free eruption of that powerful matter should be
+repressed; because there is reserved for that power much of another
+operation in that place. But, according to the wise constitution of
+things, this must necessarily happen. The eruption of the fiery
+vapour from volcanos on the continent or land, is interrupted only
+occasionally, by the melted bodies flowing in the subterraneous
+chimney; whereas, at the bottom of the ocean, the contact of the water
+necessarily tends to close the orifice, by accumulating condensed matter
+upon the weakest place.
+
+If this be a just theory of the natural operations of the globe, we
+shall have reason to expect, that great quantities of this melted
+matter, or fusible substance, may be found in form of lava, among the
+strata of the earth, where there are no visible marks of any volcano, or
+burning mountain, having existed. Here, therefore, is an important point
+to be determined; for, if it shall appear that much of this melted
+matter, analogous to lava, has been forced to flow among the strata
+which had been formed at the bottom of the sea, and now are found
+forming dry land above its surface, it will be allowed, that we have
+discovered the secret operations of nature concocting future land, as
+well as those by which the present habitable earth had been produced
+from the bottom of the abyss. Here, therefore, we shall at present rest
+the argument, with endeavouring to show that such is actually the case.
+
+It appears from Cronstedt's Mineralogy, that the rock-stone, called trap
+by the Swedes, the amygdaloides and the schwarts-stein of the Germans,
+are the same with the whin-stone of this country. This is also fully
+confirmed by specimens from Sweden, sent me by my friend Dr Gahn.
+Whatever, therefore, shall be ascertained with regard to our whin-stone,
+may be so far generalized or extended to the countries of Norway,
+Sweden, and Germany.
+
+The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same with the toad-stone of
+Derbyshire, which is of the amygdaloides species; it is also the same
+with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire, which is a simple
+whin-stone, or perfect trap. England, therefore, must be included in
+this great space of land, the mineral operations of which we explore;
+and also Ireland, of which the Giant's Causeway, and many others, are
+sufficient proof.
+
+In the south of Scotland, there is a ridge of hills, which extends
+from the west side of the island in Galloway to the east side in
+Berwickshire, composed of granite, of schistus, and of siliceous strata.
+The Grampians on the north, again, form another range of mountains of
+the same kind; and between these two great fields of broken, tumbled,
+and distorted strata, there lies a field of lesser hardness and
+consolidation, in general; but a field in which there is a great
+manifestation of subterraneous fire, and of exerted force.
+
+The strata in this space consist, in general, of sand-stone, coal,
+lime-stone or marble, iron-stone, and marl or argillaceous strata, with
+strata of analogous bodies, and the various compositions of these. But
+what is to the present purpose is this, that, through all this space,
+there are interspersed immense quantities of whinstone; a body which is
+to be distinguished as very different from lava; and now the disposition
+of this whin-stone is to be considered.
+
+Sometimes it is found in an irregular mass or mountain, as Mr Cronstedt
+has properly observed; but he has also said, that this is not the case
+in general. His words are: "It is oftener found in form of veins in
+mountains of another kind, running commonly in a serpentine manner,
+contrary or across to the direction of the rock itself."
+
+The origin of this form, in which the trap or whin-stone appears, is
+most evident to inspection, when we consider that this solid body had
+been in a fluid state, and introduced, in that state, among strata,
+which preserved their proper form. The strata appear to have been
+broken, and the two correspondent parts of those strata are separated to
+admit the flowing mass of whin-stone.
+
+A fine example of this kind may be seen upon the south side of the
+Earn, on the road to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands
+perpendicular, and appears many feet above the surface of the ground. It
+runs from that eastward, and would seem to be the same with that which
+crosses the river Tay, in forming Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser
+one of the same kind does below it. I have seen it at Lednoc upon the
+Ammon, where it forms a cascade in that river, about five or six
+miles west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from the Tay east through
+Strathmore, so that it may be considered as having been traced for
+twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to Drummond castle, perhaps much
+farther.
+
+Two small veins of the same kind, only two or three feet wide, may be
+seen in the bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the horizontal strata,
+the one is above St Bernard's well, the other immediately below it. But,
+more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the north of Irvine, there
+are to be seen upon the coast, between that and Scarmorly, in the space
+of about twenty miles, more than twenty or thirty such dykes (as they
+are called) of whin-stone. Some of them are of a great thickness; and,
+in some places, there is perceived a short one, running at right angles,
+and communicating with other two that run parallel.
+
+There is in this country, and in Derbyshire[14], another regular
+appearance of this stone, which Cronstedt has not mentioned. In this
+case, the strata are not broken in order to have the whin-stone
+introduced, they are separated, and the whin-stone is interjected in
+form of strata, having various degrees of regularity, and being of
+different thickness. On the south side of Edinburgh, I have seen, in
+little more than the space of a mile from east to west, nine or ten
+masses of whin-stone interjected among the strata. These masses of
+whin-stone are from three or four to an hundred feet thick, running
+parallel in planes inclined to the horizon, and forming with it an angle
+of about twenty or thirty degrees, as may be seen at all times in the
+hill of Salisbury Craggs.
+
+[Note 14: See Mr Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth.]
+
+Having thus described these masses, which have flowed by means of
+heat among the strata of the globe, strata which had been formed by
+subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will now be proper to examine
+the difference that subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as they
+may be termed, and the analogous bodies which are proper lavas, in
+having issued out of a volcano.[15]
+
+[Note 15: The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination of
+Aetna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed the distinction of
+these two different species of lavas; but without seeming to know the
+principle upon which this essential difference depends. No bias of
+system, therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's
+view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting to the
+present theory, as corresponding perfectly with the facts from whence it
+has been formed. It will be proper to give the account of these in his
+own words.
+
+La zéolite est très-commune dans certains laves de l'Ethna; il seroit
+peut-être possible d'y en rencontrer des morceaux aussi gros que ceux
+que fournit l'isle de Ferroé. Quoique cette substance semble ici
+appartenir aux laves, je ne dirai cependant point que toutes les
+zéolites soient volcaniques, ou unies à des matières volcaniques; celles
+que l'on trouve en Allemagne sont, dit-on, dans des circonstances
+différentes; mais je doit annoncer que je n'ai trouvé cette substance en
+Sicile, que dans les seules laves qui évidemment ont coulé dans la mer,
+et qui out été recouvertes par ses eaux. La zéolite des laves n'est
+point une déjection volcanique, ni une production du feu, ni même un
+matière que les laves aient enveloppée lorsqu'elles étoient fluides;
+elle est le résultat d'une opération et d'une combinaison postérieure,
+auxquelles les eaux de la mer ont concouru. Les laves qui n'ont pas été
+submergées, n'en contiennent jamais. J'ai trouvé ces observations si
+constantes, que par-tout où je rencontrois de la zéolite, j'étois sûr
+de trouver d'autres preuves de submersion, et partout où je voyois des
+laves recouvertes des dépôts de l'eau, j'étois sûr de trouver de la
+zéolite, et un de ces faits m'a toujours indiqué l'autre. Je me suis
+servi avec succès de cette observation pour diriger mes recherches, et
+pour connoître l'antiquité des laves. _Minéralogie de Volcans, par
+M. Faujas de Saint-Fond_. Here would appear to be the distinction of
+subterraneous lava, in which zeolite and calcareous spar may be found,
+and that which has flowed from a volcano, in which neither of these are
+ever observed.]
+
+There can be no doubt that these two different species of bodies have
+had the same origin, and that they are composed of the same materials
+nearly; but from the different circumstances Of their production, there
+is formed a character to these bodies, by which, they may be perfectly
+distinguished. The difference of those circumstances consists in this;
+the one has been emitted to the atmosphere in its fluid state the other
+only came to be exposed to the light in a long course of time, after it
+had congealed under the compression of an immense load of earth, and
+after certain operations, proper to the mineral regions, had been
+exercised upon the indurated mass. This is the cause of the difference
+between those erupted lavas, and our whin-stone, toad-stone, and the
+Swedish trap, which may be termed subterraneous lava. The visible
+effects of those different operations may now be mentioned.
+
+In the erupted lavas, those substances which are subject to calcine and
+vitrify in our fires, suffer similar changes, when delivered from a
+compression which had rendered them fixed, though in an extremely heated
+state. Thus, a lava in which there is much calcareous spar, when it
+comes to be exposed to the atmosphere, or delivered from the compressing
+force of its confinement, effervesces by the explosion of its fixed
+air; the calcareous earth, at the same time, vitrifies with the other
+substances. Hence such violent ebullition in volcanos, and hence the
+emission of so much pumice-stone and ashes, which are of the same
+nature.
+
+In the body of our whin-stone, on the contrary, there is no mark of
+calcination or vitrification. We frequently find in it much calcareous
+spar, or the _terra calcarea aerata_, which had been in a melted state
+by heat, and had been crystallized by congelation into a sparry form.
+Such is the _lapis amygdaloides_, and many of our whin-stone rocks,
+which contain pebbles crystallized and variously figured, both
+calcareous, siliceous, and of a mixture in which both these substances
+form distinct parts. The specimens of this kind, which I have from the
+whin-stone or porphyry rock of the Calton-hill, exhibit every species
+of mineral operation, in forming jasper, figured agate, and marble; and
+they demonstrate, that this had been performed by heat or fusion.
+
+I do not mean to say, that this demonstration is direct; it is
+conditional, and proceeds upon the supposition, that the basaltic or
+porphyry rock, in which those specimens are found, is a body which had
+been in a melted state. Now, this is a supposition for which I have
+abundance of evidence, were it required; but naturalists are now
+sufficiently disposed to admit that proposition; they even draw
+conclusions from this fact, which, I think, they are not sufficiently
+warranted in doing; that is, from this appearance, they infer the former
+existence of volcanos in those places. For my part, though I have made
+the most strict examination, I never saw any vestige of such an event.
+That there are, in other countries, evident marks of volcanos which
+have been long extinguished, is unquestionably true; but naturalists,
+imagining that there are no other marks of subterraneous fire and
+fusion, except in the production of a lava, attribute to a volcano, as
+a cause, these effects, which only indicate the exertion of that power
+which might have been the cause of a volcano.
+
+If the theory now given be just, a rock of marble is no less a mark
+of subterraneous fire and fusion, than that of the basaltes; and the
+flowing of basaltic streams among strata broken and displaced, affords
+the most satisfactory evidence of those operations by which the body of
+our land had been elevated above the surface of the sea; but it gives no
+proof that the eruptive force of mineral vapours had been discharged in
+a burning mountain. Now, this discharge is essential in the proper idea
+of a volcano.
+
+Besides this internal mark of an unerupted lava in the substance of the
+stone or body of the flowing mass, there are others which belong to it
+in common with all other mineral strata, consolidated by subterraneous
+fire, and changed from the place of their original formation; this is,
+the being broken and dislocated, and having veins of foreign matter
+formed in their separations and contractions.
+
+If these are mineral operations, proper to the lower regions of the
+earth, and exerted upon bodies under immense compression, such things
+will be sometimes found in the unerupted lavas, as well as in the
+contiguous bodies with which they are associated. If, on the contrary,
+these are operations proper to the surface of the earth, where the
+dissolving power of water and air take place, and where certain
+stalactical and ferruginous concretions are produced by these means;
+then, in erupted lavas, we should find mineral concretions, which
+concretions should be denied to bodies which had been consolidated at
+the bottom of the sea; that is to say, where, without the operation of
+subterraneous fire, no changes of that kind could have taken place, as
+has already been observed. But in the unerupted species of lava, that
+is to say, in our whin-stone, every species of mineral appearance is
+occasionally to be found. Let those who have the opportunity to examine,
+say, what arc to be found in proper lavas, that is, those of the erupted
+kind. Sir William Hamilton informed me, when I showed him those mineral
+veins and spars in our whin-stone, that he had never observed the like,
+in lavas We have now formed some conclusions with regard to the nature
+and production of those parts of the land of this globe which we
+have had the means of examining perfectly; but; from the accounts of
+travellers, and from, the specimens which are brought to us from distant
+parts, we have reason to believe, that all the rest of the earth is
+of the same nature with that which has been now considered. The great
+masses of the earth are the same every where; and all the different
+species of earths, of rocks or stone, which have as yet appeared, are to
+be found in the little space of this our island.
+
+It is true, that there are peculiar productions in the mineral kingdom
+which are rare, as being found only in few places; but these things are
+merely accidental in relation to the land, for they belong in property
+to those parts of the mineral region which we never see. Such are, the
+diamond of the east, the platina of the west, and the tin of Cornwall,
+Germany, and Sumatra. Gold and silver, though found in many countries,
+do not appear to be immediately necessary in the production of a
+habitable country. Iron, again, is universal in the operations of the
+globe, and is found often in that profusion which equals its utility.
+Between these two extremes, we find all other minerals, that is to say,
+here and there in moderate quantity, and apparently in some proportion
+to their use. But all these substances are to be considered as the
+vapours of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally in the crevices
+of the land; and it is only the rocks and strata (in which those mineral
+veins are found) that are now examined with regard to their original
+composition, at the bottom of the sea, as well as to that, operation by
+which those bodies had been indurated in their substance, and elevated
+from the place in which they had been formed.
+
+Thus, we have sufficient reason to believe, that, in knowing the
+construction of the land in Europe, we know the constitution of the land
+in every part of the globe. Therefore, we may proceed to form general
+conclusions, from the knowledge of the mineral region, thus acquired in
+studying those parts which are seen.
+
+Having thus found, _first_, That the consolidated and indurated masses
+of our strata had suffered the effects of violent heat and fusion;
+_2dly_, That those strata, which had been formed in a regular manner at
+the bottom of the sea, have been violently bended, broken, and removed
+from their original place and situation; and, _lastly_, Having now found
+the most indubitable proof, that the melting, breaking, and removing
+power of subterraneous fire, has been actually exerted upon this land
+which we examine, we cannot hesitate in ascribing these operations as a
+cause to those effects which are exposed to our view. Now, these may be
+considered as consisting in the solid state and present situation of
+those stratified bodies, originally formed by subsidence in the ocean;
+appearances which cannot, in reason, be ascribed to any other cause, and
+which, upon this principle, are perfectly explained.
+
+It is not meant to specify every particular in the means employed by
+nature for the elevation of our land. It is sufficient to have shown,
+that there is, in nature, means employed for the consolidating of
+strata, formed originally of loose and incoherent materials; and that
+those same means have also been employed in changing the place and
+situation of those strata. But how describe an operation which man
+cannot have any opportunity of perceiving? Or how imagine that, for
+which, perhaps, there are not proper data to be found? We only know,
+that the land is raised by a power which has for principle subterraneous
+heat; but, how that land is preserved in its elevated station, is a
+subject in which we have not even the means to form conjecture; at
+least, we ought to be cautious how we indulge conjecture in a subject
+where no means occur for trying that which is but supposition.
+
+We now proceed, from the facts which have been properly established, to
+reason with regard to the duration of this globe, or the general view of
+its operations, as a living world, maintaining plants and animals.
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+Philosophers observing an apparent disorder and confusion in the solid
+parts of this globe, have been led to conclude, that there formerly
+existed a more regular and uniform state, in the constitution of this
+earth; that there had happened some destructive change; and that the
+original structure of the earth had been broken and disturbed by some
+violent operation, whether natural, or from a super-natural cause. Now,
+all these appearances, from which conclusions of this kind have been
+formed, find the most perfect explanation in the theory which we have
+been endeavouring to establish; for they are the facts from whence we
+have reasoned, in discovering the nature and constitution of this earth:
+Therefore, there is no occasion for having recourse to any unnatural
+supposition of evil, to any destructive accident in nature, or to the
+agency of any preternatural cause, in explaining that which actually
+appears.
+
+It is necessary for a living or inhabited world, that this should
+consist of land and water. It is also necessary, that the land should be
+solid and stable, refilling, with great power, the violent efforts
+of the ocean; and, at the same time, that this solid land should be
+resolved by the influence of the sun and atmosphere, so as to decay,
+and thus become a soil for vegetation. But these general intentions are
+perfectly fulfilled in the constitution of our earth, which has been now
+investigated. This great body being formed of different mixed masses,
+having various degrees of hardness and solubility, proper soil for
+plants is supplied from the gradual resolution of the solid parts;
+fertility in those soils arises from the mixture of different elementary
+substances; and stability is procured to that vegetable world, by the
+induration of certain bodies, those rocks and stones, which protect the
+softer masses of clay and soil.
+
+In this manner, also, will easily be explained those natural appearances
+which diversify the surface of the earth for the use of plants and
+animals, and those objects which beautify the face of nature for the
+contemplation of mankind. Such are, the distinctions of mountains and
+valleys, of lakes and rivers, of dry barren deserts and rich watered
+plains, of rocks which stand apparently unimpaired by the lapse of time,
+and sands which fluctuate with the winds and tides. All these are the
+effects of steady causes; each of these has its proper purpose in the
+system of the earth; and in that system is contained another, which is
+that of living growing bodies, and of animated beings.
+
+But, besides this, man, the intellectual being, has, in this subject of
+the mineral kingdom, the means of gratifying the desire of knowledge, a
+faculty by which he is distinguished from the animal, and by which he
+improves his mind in knowing causes. Man is not satisfied, like the
+brute, in seeing things which are; he seeks to know how things have
+been, and what they are to be. It is with pleasure that he observes
+order and regularity in the works of nature, instead of being disgusted
+with disorder and confusion; and he is made happy from the appearance of
+wisdom and benevolence in the design, instead of being left to suspect
+in the Author of nature, any of that imperfection which he finds in
+himself.
+
+Let us now take a view of that system of mineral economy, in which may
+be perceived every mark of order and design, of provident wisdom and
+benevolence.
+
+We have been endeavouring to prove, that all the continents and islands
+of this globe had been raised above the surface of the ocean; we have
+also aimed at pointing out the cause of this translation of matter, as
+well as of the general solidity of that which is raised to our view;
+but however this theory shall be received, no person of observation can
+entertain a doubt, that all, or almost all we see of this earth, had
+been originally formed at the bottom of the sea. We have now another
+object in our view; this is to investigate the operations of the globe,
+at the time that the foundation of this land was laying in the waters of
+the ocean, and to trace the existence and the nature of things, before
+the present land appeared above the surface of the waters. We should
+thus acquire some knowledge of the system according to which this world
+is ruled, both in its preservation and production; and we might be thus
+enabled to judge, how far the mineral system of the world shall appear
+to be contrived with all the wisdom, which is so manifest in what are
+termed the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
+
+It must not be imagined that this undertaking is a thing unreasonable
+in its nature; or that it is a work necessarily beset with any
+unsurmountable difficulty; for, however imperfectly we may fulfill this
+end proposed, yet, so far as it is to natural causes that are to be
+ascribed the operations of former time, and so far as, from the present
+state of things, or knowledge of natural history, we have it in our
+power to reason from effect to cause, there are, in the constitution of
+the world, which we now examine, certain means to read the annals of a
+former earth.
+
+The object of inquiry being the operations of the globe, during the time
+that the present earth was forming at the bottom of the sea, we are now
+to take a very general view of nature, without descending into those
+particulars which so often occupy the speculations of naturalists, about
+the present state of things. We are not at present to enter into any
+discussion with regard to what are the primary and secondary mountains
+of the earth; we are not to consider what is the first, and what the
+last, in those things which now are seen; whatever is most ancient in
+the strata which we now examine, is supposed to be collecting at the
+bottom of the sea, during the period concerning which we are now to
+inquire.
+
+We have already considered those operations which had been necessary
+in forming our solid land, a body consisting of materials originally
+deposited at the bottom of the ocean; we are now to investigate the
+source from whence had come all those materials, from the collection of
+which the present land is formed; and from knowing the state in
+which those materials had existed, previously to their entering the
+composition of our strata, we shall learn something concerning the
+natural history of this world, while the present earth was forming in
+the sea.
+
+We have already observed, that all the strata of the earth are composed
+either from the calcareous relicts of sea animals, or from the
+collection of such materials as we find upon our shores. At a gross
+computation, there may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land, which
+is composed from the matter that had belonged to those animals. Now,
+what a multitude of living creatures, what a quantity of animal economy
+must have been required for producing a body of calcareous matter
+which is interspersed throughout all the land of the globe, and which
+certainly forms a very considerable part of that mass! Therefore, in
+knowing how those animals had lived, or with what they had been fed, we
+shall have learned a most interesting part of the natural history of
+this earth; a part which it is necessary to have ascertained, in order
+to see the former operations of the globe, while preparing the materials
+of the present land. But, before entering upon this subject, let us
+examine the other materials of which our land is formed.
+
+Gravel forms a part of those materials which compose our solid land; but
+gravel is no other than a collection of the fragments of solid stones
+worn round, or having their angular form destroyed by agitation in
+water, and the attrition upon each other, or upon similar hard bodies.
+Consequently, in finding masses of gravel in the composition of our
+land, we must conclude, that there had existed a former land, on which
+there had been transacted certain operations of wind and water, similar
+to those which are natural to the globe at present, and by which new
+gravel is continually prepared, as well as old gravel consumed or
+diminished by attrition upon our shores.
+
+Sand is the material which enters, perhaps in greatest quantity, the
+composition of our land. But sand, in general, is no other than small
+fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn or rounded more or less by
+attrition; consequently, the same natural history of the earth, which
+is investigated from the masses of gravel, is also applicable to those
+masses of sand which we find forming so large a portion of our present
+land throughout all the earth[16].
+
+[Note 16: Sand is a term that denotes no particular substance; although
+by it is commonly meant a siliceous substance, as being by far the most
+prevalent. Sand is one of the modifications, of size and shape, in a
+hard body or solid substance, which may be infinitely diversified. The
+next modification to be distinguished in mineral bodies is that of
+gravel; and this differs in no respect from sand, except in point of
+size. Next after gravel, in the order of ascent, come stones; and these
+bear nearly the same relation to gravel as gravel does to sand. Now,
+by stones is to be understood the fragments of rocks or solid mineral
+bodies; and there is a perfect gradation from those stones to sand.
+I have already endeavoured to explain the formation of those stony
+substances; and now I am treating of a certain system of circulation,
+which is to be found among minerals.
+
+M. de Luc censures me for not giving the origin of sand, of which I form
+the strata of the earth. He seems to have misunderstood my treatise. I
+do not pretend, as he does in his theory, to describe the beginning of
+things; I take things such as I find them at present, and from these
+I reason with regard to that which must have been. When, from a thing
+which is well known, we explain another which is less so, we then
+investigate nature; but when we imagine things without a pattern or
+example in nature, then, instead of natural history, we write only
+fable.
+
+M. de Luc, in the letter already mentioned, says, "that sand may be, and
+I think it is, a substance which has formed _strata_ by _precipitation
+in a liquid_." This is but an opinion, which may be either true or
+false. If it be true, it is an operation of the mineral kingdom of which
+I am ignorant. In all the sand which I have ever examined, I have never
+seen any that might not be referred to the species of mineral substance
+from which it had been formed. When this author shall have given us
+any kind of information with regard to the production of sand _by
+precipitation in a liquid_, it will then be time enough to think of
+forming the strata of the earth with that sand.]
+
+Clay is now to be considered as the last of those materials of which
+our strata are composed; but, in order to understand the nature of this
+ingredient, something must be premised.
+
+Clay is a mixture of different earths or hard substances, in an
+impalpable state. Those substances are chiefly the siliceous and
+aluminous earths. Other earths are occasionally mixed in clays, or
+perhaps always to be found in some small portion. But this does not
+affect the general character of clay; it only forms a special variety in
+the subject. A sensible or considerable portion of calcareous earth, in
+the composition of clay, constitutes a marl, and a sufficient admixture
+of sand, a loam.
+
+An indefinite variety of those compositions of clay form a large portion
+of the present strata, all indurated and consolidated in various
+degrees; but this great quantity of siliceous, argillaceous, and
+other compound substances, in form of earth or impalpable sediment,
+corresponds perfectly with that quantity of those same substances which
+must have been prepared in the formation of so much gravel and sand, by
+the attrition of those bodies in the moving waters.
+
+Therefore, from the consideration of those materials which compose the
+present land, we have reason to conclude, that, during the time this
+land was forming, by the collection of its materials at the bottom of
+the sea, there had been a former land containing materials similar to
+those which we find at present in examining the earth. We may also
+conclude, that there had been operations similar to those which we
+now find natural to the globe, and necessarily exerted in the actual
+formation of gravel, sand, and clay. But what we have now chiefly in
+view to illustrate is this, that there had then been in the ocean a
+system of animated beings, which propagated their species, and which
+have thus continued their several races to this day.
+
+In order to be convinced of that truth, we have but to examine the
+strata of our earth, in which we find the remains of animals. In this
+examination, we not only discover every genus of animal which at present
+exists in the sea, but probably every species, and perhaps some species
+with which at present we are not acquainted. There are, indeed,
+varieties in those species, compared with the present animals which we
+examine, but no greater varieties than may perhaps be found among the
+same species in the different quarters of the globe. Therefore, the
+system of animal life, which had been maintained in the ancient sea, had
+not been different from that which now subsists, and of which it belongs
+to naturalists to know the history.
+
+It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately supported from matter
+of vegetable production. Inflammable matter may be considered as the
+_pabulum_ of life. This is prepared in the bodies of living plants,
+particularly in their leaves exposed to the sun and light. This
+inflammable matter, on the contrary, is consumed in animal bodies, where
+it produces heat or light, or both. Therefore, however animal matter, or
+the pabulum of life, may circulate through a series of digesting powers,
+it is constantly impaired or diminishing in the course of this economy,
+and, without the productive power of plants, it would finally be
+extinguished.[17]
+
+[Note 17: See Dissertations on different subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part II.]
+
+The animals of the former world must have been sustained during
+indefinite successions of ages. The mean quantity of animal matter,
+therefore, must have been preserved by vegetable production, and the
+natural waste of inflammable substance repaired with continual addition;
+that is to say, the quantity of inflammable matter necessary to the
+animal consumption, must have been provided by means of vegetation.
+Hence we must conclude, that there had been a world of plants, as well
+as an ocean replenished with living animals.
+
+We are now, in reasoning from principles, come to a point decisive of
+the question, and which will either confirm the theory, if it be just,
+or confute our reasoning, if we have erred. Let us, therefore, open
+the book of Nature, and read in her records, if there had been a world
+bearing plants, at the time when this present world was forming at the
+bottom of the sea.
+
+Here the cabinets of the curious are to be examined; but here some
+caution is required, in order to distinguish things perfectly different,
+which sometimes are confounded.
+
+Fossil wood, to naturalists in general, is wood dug up from under
+ground, without inquiring whether this had been the production of the
+present earth, or that which had preceded it in the circulation of land
+and water. The question is important, and the solution of it is, in
+general, easy. The vegetable productions of the present earth, however
+deep they may be found buried beneath its surface, and however ancient
+they may appear, compared with the records of our known times, are new,
+compared with the solid land on which they grew; and they are only
+covered with the produce of a vegetable soil, or the alluvion of the
+present land on which we dwell, and on which they had grown. But the
+fossil bodies which form the present subject of inquiry, belonged to
+former land, and are found only in the sea-born strata of our present
+earth. It is to these alone that we appeal, in order to prove the
+certainty of former events.
+
+Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object now inquired after; that wood
+which had been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and there composed part
+of a stratum, which hitherto we have considered as only formed of the
+materials proper to the ocean. Now, what a profusion of this species of
+fossil wood is to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and even in
+the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers of polished stones! In some
+places, it would seem to be as common as the agate.
+
+I shall only mention a specimen in my own collection. It is wood
+petrified with calcareous earth, and mineralised with pyrites. This
+specimen of wood contains in itself, even without the stratum of stone
+in which it is embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
+It had been eaten or perforated by those sea worms which destroy the
+bottoms of our ships. There is the clearest evidence of this truth.
+Therefore, this wood had grown upon land which flood above the level of
+sea, while the present land was only forming at the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Wood is the most substantial part of plants, as shells are the more
+permanent part of marine animals. It is not, however, the woody part
+alone of the ancient vegetable world that is transmitted to us in
+the record of our mineral pages. We have the type of many species
+of foliage, and even of the most delicate flower; for, in this way,
+naturalists have determined, according to the Linnaean system, the
+species, or at least the genus, of the plant. Thus, the existence of a
+vegetable system at the period now in contemplation, so far from being
+doubtful, is a matter of physical demonstration.
+
+The profusion of this vegetable matter, delivered into the ocean, which
+then generated land, is also evidenced in the amazing quantities of
+mineral coal which is to be found in perhaps every region of the earth.
+
+Nothing can be more certain, than that all the coaly or bituminous
+strata have had their origin from the substance of vegetable bodies
+that grew upon the land. Those strata, tho', in general, perfectly
+consolidated, often separate horizontally in certain places; and there
+we find the fibrous or vascular structure of the vegetable bodies.
+Consequently, there is no doubt of fossil coal being a substance
+of vegetable production, however animal substances also may have
+contributed in forming this collection of oleaginous or inflammable
+matter.
+
+Having thus ascertained the state of a former earth, in which plants
+and animals had lived, as well as the gradual production of the present
+earth, composed from the materials of a former world, it must be
+evident, that here are two operations which are necessarily consecutive.
+The formation of the present earth necessarily involves the destruction
+of continents in the ancient world; and, by pursuing in our mind the
+natural operations of a former earth, we clearly see the origin of that
+land, by the fertility of which, we, and all the animated bodies of the
+sea, are fed. It is in like manner, that, contemplating the present
+operations of the globe, we may perceive the actual existence of those
+productive causes, which are now laying the foundation of land in the
+unfathomable regions of the sea, and which will, in time, give birth to
+future continents.
+
+But though, in generalising the operations of nature, we have arrived at
+those great events, which, at first sight, may fill the mind with
+wonder and with doubt, we are not to suppose, that there is any violent
+exertion of power, such as is required in order to produce a great event
+in little time; in nature, we find no deficiency in respect of time, nor
+any limitation with regard to power. But time is not made to flow in
+vain; nor does there ever appear the exertion of superfluous power, or
+the manifestation of design, not calculated in wisdom to effect some
+general end.
+
+The events now under consideration may be examined with a view to see
+this truth; for it may be inquired, Why destroy one continent in order
+to erect another? The answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a
+continent from having wearied of a subject which had given pleasure, or
+changed her purpose, whether for a better or a worse; neither does she
+erect a continent of land among the clouds, to show her power, or to
+amaze the vulgar man; Nature has contrived the productions of vegetable
+bodies, and the sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the gradual
+but sure destruction of a continent; that is to say, these two
+operations necessarily go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has nature
+ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one
+continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in
+the production of another; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for
+which the world above the surface of the sea is leveled with its bottom,
+are among the means employed in those operations, as well as the
+sustenance of those living beings is the proper end in view.
+
+Thus, in understanding the proper constitution of the present earth, we
+are led to know the source from whence had come all the materials which
+nature had employed in the construction of the world which appears; a
+world contrived in consummate wisdom for the growth and habitation of a
+great diversity of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly adapted
+to the purposes of man, who inhabits all its climates, who measures its
+extent, and determines its productions at his pleasure.
+
+The whole of a great object or event fills us with wonder and
+astonishment, when all the particulars, in the succession of which the
+whole had been produced, may be considered without the least emotion.
+When, for example, we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our mind is agitated
+with a crowd of ideas that highly entertains the person who understands
+the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone up to the top of a hill or
+mountain would give that person little pleasure or concern. We wonder at
+the whole operation of the pyramid, but not at any one particular part.
+
+The raising up of a continent of land from the bottom of the sea, is an
+idea that is too great to be conceived easily in all the parts of its
+operations, many of which are perhaps unknown to us; and, without being
+properly understood, so great an idea may appear like a thing that is
+imaginary. In like manner, the co-relative, or corresponding operation,
+the destruction of the land, is an idea that does not easily enter into
+the mind of man in its totality, although he is daily witness to part of
+the operation. We never see a river in a flood, but we must acknowledge
+the carrying away of part of our land, to be sunk at the bottom of the
+sea; we never see a storm upon the coast, but we are informed of a
+hostile attack of the sea upon our country; attacks which must, in time,
+wear away the bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations of our
+dwellings. Thus, great things are not understood without the analysing
+of many operations, and the combination of time with many events
+happening in succession.
+
+Let us now consider what is to be the subject of examination, and where
+it is that we are to observe those operations which must determine
+either the stability or the instability of this land on which we live.
+
+Our land has two extremities; the tops of the mountains, on the one
+hand, and the sea-shores, on the other: It is the intermediate space
+between these two, that forms the habitation of plants and animals.
+While there is a sea-shore and a higher ground there is that which is
+required in the system of the world: Take these away, and there would
+remain an aqueous globe, in which the world would perish. But, in the
+natural operations of the world, the land is perishing continually; and
+this is that which now we want to understand.
+
+Upon the one extremity of our land, there is no increase, or there is no
+accession of any mineral substance. That place is the mountain-top, on
+which nothing is observed but continual decay. The fragments of the
+mountain are removed in a gradual succession from the highest station to
+the lowest. Being arrived at the shore, and having entered the dominion
+of the waves, in which they find perpetual agitation, these hard
+fragments, which had eluded the resolving powers natural to the surface
+of the earth, are incapable of resisting the powers here employed for
+the destruction of the land. By the attrition of one hard body upon
+another, the moving stones and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
+that solid mass, which of itself had potential liability against the
+violence of the waves, affords the instruments of its own destruction,
+and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.
+
+In order to understand the system of the heavens, it is necessary to
+connect together periods of measured time, and the distinguished places
+of revolving bodies. It is thus that system may be observed, or wisdom,
+in the proper adapting of powers to an intention. In like manner, we
+cannot understand the system of the globe, without seeing that progress
+of things which is brought about in time, thus measuring the natural
+operations of the earth with those of the heavens. This is properly the
+business of the present undertaking.
+
+Our object is to know the time which had elapsed since the foundation of
+the present continent had been laid at the bottom of the ocean, to the
+present moment in which we speculate on these operations. The space is
+long; the data for the calculations are, perhaps, deficient: No matter;
+so far as we know our error, or the deficiency in our operation, we
+proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason. It is not given to man
+to know what things are truly in themselves, but only what those things
+are in his thought. We seek not to know the precise measure of any
+thing; we only understand the limits of a thing, in knowing what it is
+not, either on the one side or the other.
+
+We are investigating the age of the present earth, from the beginning of
+that body which was in the bottom of the sea, to the perfection of its
+nature, which we consider as in the moment of our existence; and we have
+necessarily another aera, which is collateral, or correspondent, in the
+progress of those natural events. This is the time required, in the
+natural operations of this globe, for the destruction of a former
+earth; an earth equally perfect with the present and an earth equally
+productive of growing plants and living animals. Now, it must appear,
+that, if we had a measure for the one of those corresponding operations,
+we would have an equal knowledge of the other.
+
+The formation of a future earth being in the bottom of the ocean, at
+depths unfathomable to man, and in regions far beyond the reach of his
+observation, here is a part of the process which cannot be taken as a
+principle in forming an estimate of the whole. But, in the destruction
+of the present earth, we have a process that is performed within the
+limits of our observation; therefore, in knowing the measure of this
+operation, we shall find the means of calculating what had passed on a
+former occasion, as well as what will happen in the composition of a
+future earth. Let us, therefore, now attempt to make this estimate of
+time and labour.
+
+The highest mountain may be levelled with the plain from whence it
+springs, without the loss of real territory in the land; but when the
+ocean makes encroachment on the basis of our earth, the mountain,
+unsupported, tumbles with its weight; and with the accession of hard
+bodies, moveable with the agitation of the waves, gives to the sea the
+power of undermining farther and farther into the solid basis of our
+land. This is the operation which is to be measured; this is the mean
+proportional by which we are to estimate the age of worlds that have
+terminated, and the duration of those that are but beginning.
+
+But how shall we measure the decrease of our land? Every revolution of
+the globe wears away some part of some rock upon some coast; but the
+quantity of that decrease, in that measured time, is not a measurable
+thing. Instead of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age. The age
+of man does no more in this estimate than a single year. He sees,
+that the natural course of things is to wear away the coast, with the
+attrition of the sand and stones upon the shore; but he cannot find a
+measure for this quantity which shall correspond to time, in order to
+form an estimate of the rate of this decrease.
+
+But man is not confined to what he sees; he has the experience of former
+men. Let us then go to the Romans and the Greeks in search of a measure
+of our coasts, which we may compare with the present state of things.
+Here, again, we are disappointed; their descriptions of the shores of
+Greece and of Italy, and their works upon the coast, either give no
+measure of a decrease, or are not accurate enough for such a purpose.
+
+It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity which escapes our notice,
+and which history cannot ascertain; and we might just as well attempt to
+measure the distance of the stars without a parallax, as to calculate
+the destruction of the solid land without a measure corresponding to the
+whole.
+
+The description which Polybius has given of the Pontus Euxinus, with
+the two opposite Bosphori, the Meotis, the Propontis, and the Port of
+Byzantium, are as applicable to the present state of things as they were
+at the writing of that history. The filling up of the bed of the
+Meotis, an event which, to Polybius, appeared not far off, must also be
+considered as removed to a very distant period, though the causes still
+continue to operate as before.
+
+But there is a thing in which history and the present state of things do
+not agree. It is upon the coast of Spain, where Polybius says there was
+an island in the mouth of the harbour of New Carthage. At present, in
+place of the island, there is only a rock under the surface of the
+water. It must be evident, however, that the loss of this small island
+affords no proper ground of calculation for the measure or rate of
+wasting which could correspond to the coast in general; as neither
+the quantity of what is now lost had been measured, nor its quality
+ascertained.
+
+Let us examine places much more exposed to the fury of the waves and
+currents than the coast of Carthagena, the narrow fretum, for example,
+between Italy and Sicily. It does not appear, that this passage is
+sensibly wider than when the Romans first had known it. The Isthmus of
+Corinth is also apparently the same at present as it had been two or
+three thousand years ago. Scilla and Charibdis remain now, as they had
+been in ancient times, rocks hazardous for coasting vessels which had to
+pass that strait.
+
+It is not meant by this to say, these rocks have not been wasted by the
+sea, and worn by the attrition of moving bodies, during that space of
+time; were this true, and that those rocks, the bulwarks of the land
+upon those coasts, had not been at all impaired from that period, they
+might remain for ever, and thus the system of interchanging the place of
+sea and land upon this globe might be frustrated. It is only meant
+to affirm, that the quantity which those rocks, or that coast, have
+diminished from the period of our history, has either been too small
+a thing for human observation, or, which is more probable, that no
+accurate measurement of the subject, by which this quantity of decrease
+might have been ascertained, had been taken and recorded. It must be
+also evident, that a very small operation of an earthquake would be
+sufficient to render every means of information, in this manner of
+mensuration, unsatisfactory or precarious.
+
+Pliny says Italy was distant from Sicily a mile and a half; but we
+cannot suppose that this measure was taken any otherwise than by
+computation, and such a measure is but little calculated to afford us
+the just means of a comparison with the present distance. He also says,
+indeed, that Sicily had been once joined with Italy. His words are:
+"Quondam Brutio agro cohaerens, mox interfuso mari avulsa.[18]" But all
+that we can conclude from this history of Pliny is, that, in all times,
+to people considering the appearances of those two approached coasts,
+it had seemed probable, that the sea formed a passage between the two
+countries which had been once united; in like manner as is still more
+immediately perceived, in that smaller disjunction which is made between
+the island of Anglesey and the continent of Wales.
+
+[Note 18: Lib. 3. cap. 8.]
+
+The port of Syracuse, with the island which forms the greater and
+lesser, and the fountain of Arethusa, the water of which the ancients
+divided from the sea with a wall, do not seem to be altered. From Sicily
+to the coast of Egypt, there is an uninterrupted course of sea for a
+thousand miles; consequently, the wind, in such a stretch of sea, should
+bring powerful waves against those coasts: But, on this coast of Egypt,
+we find the rock on which was formerly built the famous tower of Pharos;
+and also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste, the sea-bath,
+cut in the solid rock upon the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted
+immediately with the waves of the Mediterranean sea, are, to all
+appearance, the same at this day as they were in ancient times.[19]
+
+[Note 19: Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. Savary.]
+
+Many other such proofs will certainly occur, where the different parts
+of those coasts are examined by people of observation and intelligence.
+But it is enough for our present purpose, that this decrease of the
+coasts in general has not been observed; and that it is as generally
+thought, that the land is gaining upon the sea, as that the sea is
+gaining upon the land.
+
+To sum up the argument, we are certain, that all the coasts of the
+present continents are wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing away
+upon the whole; but this operation is so extremely slow, that we cannot
+find a measure of the quantity in order to form an estimate: Therefore,
+the present continents of the earth, which we consider as in a state of
+perfection, would, in the natural operations of the globe, require a
+time indefinite for their destruction.
+
+But, in order to produce the present continents, the destruction of a
+former vegetable world was necessary; consequently, the production of
+our present continents must have required a time which is indefinite.
+In like manner, if the former continents were of the same nature as the
+present, it must have required another space of time, which also is
+indefinite, before they had come to their perfection as a vegetable
+world.
+
+We have been representing the system of this earth as proceeding with
+a certain regularity, which is not perhaps in nature, but which is
+necessary for our clear conception of the system of nature. The
+system of nature is certainly in rule, although we may not know every
+circumstance of its regulation. We are under a necessity, therefore, of
+making regular suppositions, in order to come at certain conclusions
+which may be compared with the present state of things.
+
+It is not necessary that the present land should be worn away and
+wasted, exactly in proportion as new land shall appear; or, conversely,
+that an equal proportion of new land should always be produced as the
+old is made to disappear. It is only required, that at all times, there
+should be a just proportion of land and water upon the surface of the
+globe, for the purpose of a habitable world.
+
+Neither is it required in the actual system of this earth, that every
+part of the land should be dissolved in its structure, and worn away by
+attrition, so as to be floated in the sea. Parts of the land may often
+sink in a body below the level of the sea, and parts again may be
+restored, without waiting for the general circulation of land and water,
+which proceeds with all the certainty of nature, but which advances with
+an imperceptible progression. Many of such apparent irregularities may
+appear without the least infringement on the general system. That system
+is comprehended in the preparation of future land at the bottom of the
+ocean, from those materials which the dissolution and attrition of
+the present land may have provided, and from those which the natural
+operations of the sea afford.
+
+In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are not to limit nature with the
+uniformity of an equable progression, although it be necessary in our
+computations to proceed upon equalities. Thus also, in the use of means,
+we are not to prescribe to nature those alone which we think suitable
+for the purpose, in our narrow view. It is our business to learn of
+nature (that is by observation) the ways and means, which in her wisdom
+are adopted; and we are to imagine these only in order to find means for
+further information, and to increase our knowledge from the examination
+of things which actually have been. It is in this manner, that intention
+may be found in nature; but this intention is not to be supposed, or
+vainly imagined, from what we may conceive to be.
+
+We have been now supposing, that the beginning of our present earth had
+been laid in the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of the former
+land; but this was only for the sake of distinctness. The just view is
+this, that when the former land of the globe had been complete, so as
+to begin to waste and be impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the
+present land began to appear above the surface of the ocean. In this
+manner we suppose a due proportion to be always preserved of land and
+water upon the surface of the globe, for the purpose of a habitable
+world, such as this which we possess. We thus, also, allow time and
+opportunity for the translation of animals and plants to occupy the
+earth.
+
+But, if the earth on which we live, began to appear in the ocean at
+the time when the last began to be resolved, it could not be from the
+materials of the continent immediately preceding this which we examine,
+that the present earth had been constructed; for the bottom of the ocean
+must have been filled with materials before land could be made to appear
+above its surface.
+
+Let us suppose that the continent, which is to succeed our land, is at
+present beginning to appear above the water in the middle of the Pacific
+Ocean, it must be evident, that the materials of this great body, which
+is formed and ready to be brought forth, must have been collected from
+the destruction of an earth, which does not now appear. Consequently,
+in this true statement of the case, there is necessarily required the
+destruction of an animal and vegetable earth prior to the former land;
+and the materials of that earth which is first in our account, must have
+been collected at the bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted for
+the production of the present earth, when the land immediately preceding
+the present had arrived at its full extent.
+
+This, however, alters nothing with regard to the nature of those
+operations of the globe. The system is still the same. It only protracts
+the indefinite space of time in its existence, while it gives us a view
+of another distinct period of the living world; that is to say, the
+world which we inhabit is composed of the materials, not of the earth
+which was the immediate predecessor of the present, but of the earth
+which, in ascending from the present, we consider as the third, and
+which had preceded the land that was above the surface of the sea, while
+our present land was yet beneath the water of the ocean. Here are three
+distinct successive periods of existence, and each of these is, in our
+measurement of time, a thing of indefinite duration.
+
+We have now got to the end of our reasoning; we have no data further
+to conclude immediately from that which actually is: But we have got
+enough; we have the satisfaction to find, that in nature there is
+wisdom, system, and consistency. For having, in the natural history of
+this earth, seen a succession of worlds, we may from this conclude that
+there is a system in nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions
+of the planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they
+are intended to continue those revolutions. But if the succession of
+worlds is established in the system of nature, it is in vain to look for
+any thing higher in the origin of the earth. The result, therefore, of
+this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,--no
+prospect of an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN'S Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+A theory which is founded on a new principle, a theory which has to make
+its way in the public mind by overturning the opinions commonly received
+by philosophising men, and one which has nothing to recommend it but the
+truth of its principles, and the view of wisdom or design to which it
+leads, neither of which may perhaps be perceived by the generality of
+people, such a theory, I say, must meet with the strongest opposition
+from the prejudices of the learned, and from the superstition of those
+who judge not for themselves in forming their notions, but look up to
+men of science for authority. Such is the case with some part of the
+Theory of the Earth, which I have given, and which will probably give
+offence to naturalists who have espoused an opposite opinion. In order,
+then, to obtain the approbation of the public, it may not be enough to
+give a theory that should be true, or altogether unexceptionable it may
+be necessary to defend every point that shall be thought exceptionable
+by other theorists, and to show the fallacy of every learned objection
+that may be made against it. It is thus, in general, that truth and
+error are forced to struggle together, in the progress of science; and
+it is only in proportion as science removes erroneous conceptions, which
+are necessarily in the constitution of human knowledge, that truth will
+find itself established in natural philosophy.
+
+Mr Kirwan has written a dissertation, entitled, _Examination of the
+Supposed Igneous Origin of Stony Substances_, which was read in the
+Royal Irish Academy. The object of that dissertation is to state certain
+objections, which have occurred to him, against the Theory of the Earth
+published in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society; and he has
+attacked that theory in all the points where it appears to him to be
+vulnerable. It is to these objections that I am now to give an answer.
+The authority given to this dissertation, by the Royal Irish Academy,
+as well as the reputation of the author, make it necessary for me
+to endeavour to put in their true light the facts alleged in that
+performance, and to analyse the arguments employed, in order to judge of
+the reasoning by which the theory of mineral fusion is refuted in this
+Examination.
+
+A theory founded on truth, and formed according to the proper rules of
+science, can ever suffer from a strict examination, by which it would
+be but the more and more confirmed. But, where causes are to be traced
+through a chain of various complicated effects, an examination not
+properly conducted upon accurate analytical principles, instead of
+giving light upon a subject in which there had been obscurity and doubt,
+may only serve to perplex the understanding, and bring confusion into a
+subject which was before sufficiently distinct. To redress that evil,
+then, must require more labour and some address; and this is an
+inconveniency that may be looked for, more or less, in every
+controversial discussion.
+
+I do not mean to enter any farther into the defence of my theory in
+this chapter, than what is necessary to answer a man of science and
+respectability, who has stated his objections. The observations which
+he has made appear to me to be founded on nothing more than common
+prejudice, and misconceived notions of the subject. I am therefore
+to point out that erroneous train of reasoning, into which a hasty
+superficial view of things, perhaps, has led the patron of an opposite
+opinion to see my theory in an unfavourable light. This, however, is not
+all; for, that train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial with
+the crude and inconsiderate notion generally entertained, of solid
+mineral bodies having been formed by the infiltration of water into
+the earth, that no opportunity should be lost of exposing an erroneous
+manner of reasoning, which is employed in supporting a hypothesis
+founded upon certain operations of the surface of this earth that cannot
+be properly applied to the formation of mineral bodies. This object,
+therefore, so far as it may come in the way, will be attended to in
+this discussion, although I shall have another opportunity of farther
+enlarging upon that subject.
+
+Our author begins by examining a geological operation, the very opposite
+to that of mineral consolidation, and which would seem to have little
+connection with the subject of this dissertation. In my theory, I
+advanced two propositions with regard to the economy of this world:
+First, That the solid masses of this earth, when exposed to the
+atmosphere, decay, and are resolved into loose materials, of which the
+vegetable soil upon the surface is in part composed; and, secondly, That
+these loose materials are washed away by the currents of water, and
+thus carried at last into the sea. Our author says "Here are two
+suppositions, neither of which is grounded on facts;" and yet he has
+but the moment before made the following confession: "That the soil,
+however, receives an increase from some species of stones that moulder
+by exposition to the air cannot be denied, but there is no proof that
+all soil has arisen from decomposition."--Surely _all soil_, that
+is made from the _hard and compact_ body of the land, which is my
+proposition, must have arisen from _decomposition_; and I have no where
+said, that _all_ the soil of this earth is made from the decomposition
+or detritus of those stony substances; for, masses of looser sand and
+softer substances contribute still more to the formation of vegetable
+soils.
+
+With regard to the other proposition, our author says, "Soil is not
+constantly carried away by the water, even from mountains."--I have not
+said that it is _constantly_ washed away; for, while it is soil in which
+plants grow, it is not travelling to the sea, although it be on the road,
+and must there arrive in time. I have said, that it is _necessarily_
+washed away, that is, occasionally. M. de Luc's authority is then
+referred to, as refuting this operation of water and time upon the soil.
+Now, I cannot help here observing, that our author seems to have as
+much misapprehended M. de Luc's argument as he has done mine. That
+philosopher, in his letters to the Queen, has described most accurately
+the decay of the rocks and solid mountains of the Alps and Jura, and the
+travelling of their materials by water, although he does not carry them
+to the sea. It is true, indeed, that this author, who supposes the
+present earth on which we dwell very young, is anxious to make an earth,
+_in time_, that shall not decay nor be washed away at all; but that time
+is not come yet; therefore the authority, here given against my
+theory, is the speculative supposition, or mere opinion, of a natural
+philosopher, with regard to an event which may never come to pass, and
+which I shall have occasion to consider fully in another place.
+
+Our author had just now said, that I have advanced two suppositions,
+_neither of which is grounded on facts_: Now, with regard to the one, he
+has acknowledged, that the mouldering of stones takes place, which is
+the fact on which that proposition is grounded; and with regard to the
+other, the only authority given against it is founded expressly upon
+the moving of soil by means of the rain water, in order to make sloping
+plains of mountains. Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
+upon facts; and our author has founded his objections, first, upon a
+difficulty which he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon nothing but
+a visionary opinion, with regard to an earth which is not yet made, and
+which, when once made, is never more to change.
+
+After making some unimportant observations,--of all water not flowing
+into the sea,--and of the travelled materials being also deposited upon
+the plains, etc. our author thus proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our
+author relative to the imperfect constitution of the globe falls to the
+ground; and the pains he takes to learn, _by what means a decayed world
+may be renovated_, are superfluous."--The object of my theory is
+to show, that this decaying nature of the solid earth is the very
+_perfection_ of its constitution, as a living world; therefore, it
+was most proper that I should _take pains to learn_ by what means the
+decayed parts might be renovated. It is true, indeed, that this will be
+superfluous, when once that constitution of the earth, which M. de Luc
+thinks is preparing, shall be finished; but, in the mean time, while
+rivers carry the materials of our land, and while the sea impairs the
+coast, I may be allowed to suppose that this is the actual constitution
+of the earth.
+
+I cannot help here animadverting upon what seems to be our author's
+plan, in making these objections, which have nothing to do with his
+examination. He accuses me of giving this world a false or imperfect
+constitution, (in which the solid land is considered as resolvable, and
+the materials of that land as being washed away into the sea,) for no
+other reason, that I can see, but because this may imply the formation
+of a future earth, which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is now to
+deny the stratified construction of this present earth to have been made
+by the deposits of materials at the bottom of the sea, because that
+would prove the existence of a former earth, which is repugnant to his
+notion of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he says, to reason,
+and the tenor of the Mosaic history. Let me observe, in passing, that M.
+de Luc, of whose opinions our author expresses much approbation, thinks
+that he proves, from the express words and tenor of the Mosaic history,
+that the present earth was at the bottom of the sea not many years ago,
+and that the former earth had then disappeared.
+
+But, what does our author propose to himself, in refusing to admit my
+view of the operations which are daily transacting upon the surface of
+this earth, where there is nothing dark or in the least mysterious, as
+there may be in the mineral regions? Does he mean to say, that it is not
+the purpose of this world to provide soil for plants to grow in? Does
+he suppose that this soil is not moveable with the running water of the
+surface? and, Does he think that it is not necessary to replace that
+soil which is removed? This is all that I required in that constitution
+of the world which he has thus attacked; and I wish that he or any
+person would point out, in what respect I had demanded any thing
+unreasonable, or any thing that is not actually to be observed every
+day.
+
+Thus I have endeavoured to show, that our author has attacked my theory
+in a part where I believe it must be thought invulnerable; but this is
+only, I presume, in order that he may make an attack with more advantage
+upon another part, viz. the composition of strata from the materials of
+an earth thus worn out in the service of vegetation,--materials which
+are necessarily removed in order to make way for that change of things
+in which consists the active and living system of this world. If he
+succeed in this attempt to refute my theory of the original formation
+of strata, he would then doubtless find it more easy to persuade
+philosophers that the means which I employ in bringing those materials
+again to light, when transformed into such solid masses as the system of
+this earth requires, are extravagant, unnatural, and unnecessary. Let us
+then see how he sets about this undertaking.
+
+With regard to the composition of the earth, it is quoted from my
+theory, that _the solid parts of the globe are in general composed
+of sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of various
+compositions of these with other substances_; our author then adds,
+"This certainly cannot be affirmed as a fact, but rather the contrary;
+it holds only true of the surface, the basis of the greater part of
+Scotland is evidently a granitic rock, to say nothing of the continents,
+both of the Old and New World, according to the testimony of all
+mineralogists." This proposition, with regard to the general composition
+of the earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have maintained it as a
+fact, after the most scrupulous examination of all that, with the most
+diligent search, I have been able to see, and of all that authors
+have wrote intelligibly upon the subject. If, therefore, I have so
+misrepresented this great geological fact on which my theory is
+absolutely founded, I must have erred with open eyes; and my theory
+of the earth, like others which have gone before it, will, upon close
+examination, appear to be unfounded, as the dissertation now before us
+is endeavouring to represent it.
+
+Our author here, I think, alleges that the contrary to this, my
+fundamental proposition, is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
+an example in which his assertion (founded upon the testimony of all
+mineralogists), is illustrated. Now my geological proposition should
+certainly be applicable to Scotland, which is the country that I ought
+to be best acquainted with; consequently, if what our author here
+asserts be true, I would have deserved that blame which he is willing to
+throw on me. Let me then beg the readers attention for a moment, that I
+may justify myself from that charge, and place in its proper light this
+authority, upon so material a point in geology.
+
+I had examined Scotland from the one end to the other before I saw one
+stone of granite in its native place, I have moreover examined almost
+all England and Wales, (excepting Devonshire and Cornwall) without
+seeing more of granite than one spot, not many hundred yards of extent;
+this is at Chap; and I know, from information, that there is another
+small spot in the middle of England where it is just seen. But, let me
+be more particular with regard to Scotland, the example given in proof.
+
+I had travelled every road from the borders of Northumberland and
+Westmoreland to Edinburgh; from Edinburgh, I had travelled to
+Port-Patrick, and from that along the coast of Galloway and Airshire
+to Inverary in Argyleshire, and I had examined every spot between the
+Grampians and the Tweedale mountains from sea to sea, without seeing
+granite in its place. I had also travelled from Edinburgh by Grief,
+Rannock, Dalwhiny, Fort Augustus, Inverness, through east Ross and
+Caithness, to the Pentland-Frith or Orkney islands, without seeing one
+block of granite in its place. It is true, I met with it on my return
+by the east coast, when I just saw it, and no more, at Peterhead and
+Aberdeen; but that was all the granite I had ever seen when I wrote
+my Theory of the Earth. I have, since that time, seen it in different
+places; because I went on purpose to examine it, as I shall have
+occasion to describe in the course of this work.
+
+I may now with some confidence affirm, from my own observation, and from
+good information with regard to those places where I have not been,
+except the northwest corner, I may affirm, I say, that instead of the
+basis of the greatest part of Scotland being a granitic rock, which our
+author has maintained as an evident thing, there is very little of it
+that is so; not perhaps one five hundred part. So far also as I am to
+judge from my knowledge of the mineral construction of England and
+Wales, which I have examined with the greatest care, and from the
+mineral chart which my friend Mr Watt made for me from his knowledge of
+Cornwall, I would say that there is scarcely one five hundred part
+of Britain that has granite for its basis. All the rest, except the
+porphyry and basaltes, consists of stratified bodies, which are composed
+more or less of the materials which I mentioned, generally, in the above
+quotation, and which our author would dispute.
+
+But do not let me take the advantage of this error of our author with
+regard to the mineralogy of Scotland, and thus draw what may be thought
+an undue conclusion in favour of my general theory; let us go over and
+examine the continent of Europe, and see if it is any otherwise there
+than in Britain. From the granite of the Ural mountains, to that which
+we find in the Pyrenees, there is no reason, so far as I have been able
+to learn, to conclude that things are formed either upon any other
+principle, or upon a different scale. But, instead of one five hundred
+part, let us suppose there to be one fiftieth part of the earth in
+general resting upon granite, I could not have expressed myself
+otherwise than I have done; for, when I maintained that the earth in
+general consisted of stratified bodies, I said that this was only _nine
+tenths, or perhaps ninety-nine hundredths_ of the whole, and I mentioned
+that there were other masses of a different origin, which should be
+considered separately. Our author, on the contrary, asserts that the Old
+and New Worlds, as well as Scotland, are placed upon granite as a basis,
+which he says is according to the testimony of all mineralogists.
+I shall have occasion to examine this opinion of mineralogists, in
+comparing it with those masses of granite which appear to us; and I hope
+fully to refute the geological, as well as mineralogical notions with
+regard to that body. In the mean time, let me make the following
+reflection, which here naturally occurs.
+
+My Theory of the Earth is here examined,--not with the system of
+nature, or actual state of things, to which it certainly should have
+corresponded,--but with the systematic views of a person, who has formed
+his notions of geology from the vague opinion of others, and not from
+what he has seen. Had the question been, How far my theory agreed with
+other theories, our author might very properly have informed his readers
+that it was diametrically opposite to the opinions of mineralogists;
+but, this was no reason for concluding it to be erroneous; on the
+contrary, it is rather a presumption that I may have corrected the error
+of mineralogists who have gone before me, in like manner as it is most
+reasonable to presume that our author may have corrected mine. Let us
+then proceed to examine how far this shall appear to be the case.
+
+Our author has stated very fairly from the Theory, viz. _That all the
+strata of the earth, not only those consisting of calcareous masses, but
+others superincumbent on these, have had their origin at the bottom
+of the sea, by the collection of sand, gravel, shells, coralline, and
+crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays variously mixed, separated,
+and accumulated._ He then adds, "Various geological observations
+contradict this conclusion. There are many stratified mountains of
+argillaceous slate, gneiss, serpentine, jasper, and even marble, in
+which either sand, gravel, shells, coralline, or crustaceous bodies are
+never, or scarce ever found."
+
+Here our author seems to have deceived himself, by taking a very partial
+view of things which should be fully examined, and well understood,
+before general conclusions are to be drawn from those appearances; for,
+although those particular objects may not be visible in the strata which
+he has enumerated, or many others, they are found in those strata which
+are either immediately connected and alternated with them, or with
+similar strata; something to that purpose I think I have said; and, if
+I had not, it certainly requires no deep penetration to have seen this
+clear solution of that appearance of those objects not being found in
+every particular stratum. He says that those marks of known materials
+are never or scarce ever found;--by _scarce ever_ he surely means that
+they are sometimes found; but if they shall only _once_ be found, his
+argument is lost. I have not drawn my geological conclusion from every
+particle in strata being distinguishable, but from there being certain
+distinguishable particles in strata, and from our knowing what had been
+the former state and circumstances of those distinguished parts.
+
+If every stone or part of a stratum, in which those known objects are
+not immediately visible, must be considered as so _many geological
+observations that contradict my theory_, (of strata being formed from
+the materials of a former earth), then, surely every stone and every
+stratum which visibly contains any of those materials, must prove my
+theory. But if every stratum, where these are found in any part of it,
+is to be concluded as having had its origin at the bottom of the sea;
+and, if every concomitant stratum, though not having those objects
+visible or sufficiently distinct, must be considered as having had the
+same or a similar origin, that pretended contradiction of my theory
+comes to no more than this, that every individual stone does not bear
+in it the same or equal evidence of that general proposition which
+necessarily results from the attentive consideration of the whole,
+including every part.
+
+But to see how necessary it is to judge in this manner, not partially,
+but upon the whole, we may observe, that there are two ways by which the
+visible materials or distinguishable bodies of a former earth, not only
+_may_ be rendered invisible in the composition of our present earth,
+but _must_ be so upon many occasions. These are, _first_, by mechanical
+comminution, which necessarily happens, more or less, in that operation
+by which bodies are moved against one another, and thus transported from
+the land to the bottom of the deepest seas; _secondly_, by chemical
+operations, (whatever these may be, whether the action of water or of
+fire, or both), which are also necessarily employed for consolidating
+those loose materials, that are to form the rocks and stones of
+this earth, and by means of which those materials are to have their
+distinguishable shapes affected in all degrees and obliterated.
+Therefore, to demand the visible appearance of those materials in every
+stratum of the earth, or in every part of a stratum, is no other than to
+misunderstand the subject altogether. The geological observations,
+which have been thus alleged as contradicting my theory, are stratified
+bodies, containing proofs of the general origin which I attribute to the
+earth, but proofs which may not always be seen with equal facility as
+those which even convince the vulgar.
+
+Our author has surely perplexed himself with what writers of late have
+said concerning primitive mountains as they are called, a subject of
+deeper search, than is commonly imagined, as I hope to show in the
+course of this work. It is an interesting subject of investigation,
+as giving us the actual view of those operations of nature which, in
+forming my Theory of the Earth, more general principles had led me to
+conclude _might be_. But, it is a subject which, I am afraid, will lead
+me to give farther offence to our author, however innocent I may be in
+giving nothing but what I have from nature.
+
+The reason for saying so is this; I am blamed for having endeavoured
+to trace back the operations of this world to a remote period, by the
+examination of that which actually appears, contrary, as is alleged,
+"to reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic history, thus leading to an
+abyss, from which human reason recoils, etc." In a word, (says our
+author), "to make use of his own expression, _We find no vestige of
+a beginning._ Then this system of successive worlds must have been
+eternal." Such is the logic by which, I suppose, I am to be accused of
+atheism. Our author might have added, that I have also said--_we see
+no prospect of an end_; but what has all this to do with the idea of
+eternity? Are we, with our ideas of _time_, (or mere succession), to
+measure that of eternity, which never succeeded any thing, and which
+will never be succeeded? Are we thus to measure eternity, that boundless
+thought, with those physical notions of ours which necessarily limit
+both space and time? and, because we see not the beginning of created
+things, Are we to conclude that those things which we see have always
+been, or been without a cause? Our author would thus, inadvertently
+indeed, lead himself into that gulf of irreligion and absurdity into
+which, he alleges, I have _boldly plunged_.
+
+In examining this present earth, we find that it must have had its
+origin at the bottom of the sea, although our author seems willing to
+deny that proposition. Farther, in examining the internal construction
+of this stratified and sea-born mass, we find that it had been composed
+of the moved materials of a former earth; and, from the most accurate
+and extensive examination of those materials, which in many places are
+indeed much disguised, we are led necessarily to conclude, that there
+had been a world existing, and containing an animal, a vegetable, and a
+mineral system. But, in thus tracing back the natural operations which
+have succeeded each other, and mark to us the course of time past, we
+come to a period in which we cannot see any farther. This, however,
+is not the beginning of those operations which proceed in time and
+according to the wise economy of this world; nor is it the establishing
+of that, which, in the course of time, had no beginning; it is only the
+limit of our retrospective view of those operations which have come to
+pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme intelligence.
+
+My principal anxiety was to show how the constitution of this world
+had been wisely contrived; and this I endeavoured to do, not from
+supposition or conjecture, but from its answering so effectually the end
+of its intention, viz. the preserving of animal life, which we cannot
+doubt of being its purpose. Here then is a world that is not eternal,
+but which has been the effect of wisdom or design.
+
+With regard again to the prospective view of the creation, How are we to
+see the end of that wise system of things which so properly fulfils the
+benevolent intention of its maker,--in giving sustenance to the animal
+part, and information to intellectual beings, who, in these works of
+nature, read what much concerns their peace of mind,--their intellectual
+happiness? What then does our author mean, in condemning that
+comprehensive view which I have endeavoured to take of nature? Would he
+deny that there is to be perceived wisdom in the system of this world,
+or that a philosopher, who looks into the operations of nature, may not
+plainly read the power and wisdom of the Creator, without recoiling, as
+he says, from the abyss? The abyss, from which a man of science should
+recoil, is that of ignorance and error.
+
+I have thus shown, that, from not perceiving the wise disposition of
+things upon the surface of this earth for the preservation of vegetable
+bodies, our author has been led to deny the necessary waste of the
+present earth, and the consequent preparation of materials for the
+construction of another; I have also shown, that he denies the origin
+which I had attributed to the stratified parts of this earth, as having
+been the collection of moving materials from a former earth; and now
+I am come to consider the professed purpose of this paper, viz. the
+examination of solid stony substances which we find in those strata
+of our earth, as well as in more irregular masses. Here, no doubt, my
+theory would have been attacked with greater success, had our author
+succeeded in pointing out its error with regard to the original
+composition of those indurated bodies, to which I ascribe fusion as the
+cause of their solidity. For, if we should, according to our author's
+proposition, consider those consolidated bodies as having been
+originally formed in that solid state, here the door might be shut
+against any farther investigation;--But to what purpose?--Surely not to
+refute my theory, but to explode every physical inquiry farther on the
+subject, and thus to lead us back into the science of darkness and of
+scepticism. But let us proceed to see our author's sentiments on this
+subject.
+
+As I had proved from matter of fact, or the actual appearances of
+nature, that all the strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
+of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials which either come from
+the decaying land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
+that I should consider in what manner those spongy or porous bodies of
+loose materials, gathered together at the bottom of the sea, could have
+acquired that consolidated state in which we find them, now that they
+are brought up to our examination. Upon this occasion, our author says,
+"The particles which now form the solid parts of the globe need not be
+supposed to have originally been either spongy or porous, the interior
+parts at the depth of a few miles might have been originally, as at
+present, a solid mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition, we
+may then save ourselves the trouble of considering either how the strata
+of the earth have been formed or consolidated; for, they might have been
+so originally. But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen a piece of
+Derbyshire marble, or any other shell limestone, make that supposition?
+Here are, to the satisfaction of every body of common understanding who
+looks at them, bodies which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
+have evidently been formed at the bottom of the sea, and therefore which
+were not originally a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true, wrote a book
+to prove that those appearances were nothing but a _lusus naturae_; and,
+I suppose he meant, with our author, that those strata had been also
+originally, as at present, a solid mass.
+
+With regard to the consolidation of strata, that cardinal point for
+discussion, our author gives the following answer: "Abstracting from his
+own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very easy to satisfy our author on this
+head; the concreting and consolidating power in most cases arises from
+the mutual attraction of the component particles of stones to each
+other." This is an answer with regard to the _concreting power_, a
+subject about which we certainly are not here inquiring. Our author,
+indeed, has mentioned a _consolidating power_; but that is an improper
+expression; we are here inquiring, How the interstices, between the
+collected materials of strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, have
+been filled with a hard substance, instead of the fluid water which had
+originally occupied those spaces. Our author then continues; "If these
+particles leave any interstices, these are filled with water, which no
+ways obstructs their solidity when the points of contact are numerous;
+hence the decrepitation of many species of stones when heated."
+
+If I understand our author's argument, the particles of stone are, by
+their mutual attractions, to leave those hard and solid bodies which
+compose the strata, that is to say, those hard bodies are to dissolve
+themselves; but, To what purpose? This must be to fill up the
+interstices, which we must suppose occupied by the water. In that case,
+we should find the original interstices filled with the substances which
+had composed the strata, and we should find the water translated into
+the places of those bodies; here would be properly a transmutation, but
+no consolidation of the strata, such as we are here to look for, and
+such as we actually find among those strata. It may be very easy for
+our author to form those explanations of natural phenomena; it costs
+no tedious observation of facts, which are to be gathered with labour,
+patience, and attention; he has but to look into his own fancy, as
+philosophers did in former times, when they saw the abhorrence of a
+vacuum and explained the pump. It is thus that we are here told the
+consolidation of strata _arises from the mutual attraction of the
+component particles of stones to each other_; the power, by which the
+particles of solid stony bodies retain their places in relation to each
+other, and resist separation from the mass, may, no doubt, be properly
+enough termed their mutual attractions; but we are not here inquiring
+after that power; we are to investigate the power by which the particles
+of hard and stony bodies had been separated, contrary to their mutual
+attractions, in order to form new concretions, by being again brought
+within the spheres of action in which their mutual attractions might
+take place, and make them one solid body. Now, to say that this is by
+their mutual attraction, is either to misunderstand the proper question,
+or to give a most preposterous answer.
+
+It is not every one who is fit to reason with regard to abstract general
+propositions; I will now, therefore, state a particular case, in
+illustration of that proposition which has been here so improperly
+answered. The strata of Derbyshire marbles were originally immense
+collections at the bottom of the sea, of calcareous bodies consisting
+almost wholly of various fragments of the _entrochi_; and they were then
+covered with an indefinite number of other strata under which these
+_entrochi_ must have been buried. In this original state of those
+strata, I suppose the interstices between the fragments of the coralline
+bodies to have been left full of sea-water; at present we find those
+interstices completely filled with a most perfectly solid body of
+marble; and the question is, whether that consolidating operation
+has been the work of water and solution, by our naturalist's termed
+infiltration; or if it has been performed, as I have maintained, by the
+softening power or heat, or introduction of matter in the fluid state
+of fusion. Our author does not propose any other method for the
+consolidation of those loose and incoherent bodies, but he speaks of the
+_mutual attraction of the component particles of stone to each other_;
+Will that fill the interstices between the coralline bodies with solid
+marble, as well as consolidate the coralline bodies themselves? or, if
+it should, How are those interstices to be thus filled with a substance
+perfectly different from the deposited bodies, which is also frequently
+the case? But, how reason with a person who, with this consolidation of
+strata, confounds the well known operation by which the mortar, made
+with caustic lime and sand, becomes a hard body! One would imagine
+that he were writing to people of the last age, and not to chemical
+philosophers who know so well how that mortar is concreted.
+
+To my argument, That these porous strata are found _consolidated with
+every different species of mineral substance_, our author makes the
+following observation: "Here the difficulties to the supposition of an
+aqueous solution are placed in the strongest light; yet it must be owned
+that they partly arise from the author's own gratuitous supposition,
+that strata existed at the bottom of the sea previous to their
+consolidation;"--gratuitous supposition!--so far from being a
+supposition of any kind, it is a self evident proposition; the terms
+necessarily imply the conclusion. I beg the readers attention for a
+moment to this part of our author's animadversion, before proceeding to
+consider the whole; for, this is a point so essential in my theory,
+that if it be a gratuitous supposition, as is here asserted, it would
+certainly be in vain to attempt to build upon it the system of a world.
+
+That strata may exist, whether at the bottom of the sea, or any other
+where, without being consolidated, will hardly be disputed; for, they
+are actually found consolidated in every different degree. But, when
+strata are found consolidated, at what time is it that we are to suppose
+this event to have taken place, or this accident to have happened to
+them?--Strata are formed at the bottom of water, by the subsidence or
+successive deposits of certain materials; it could not therefore
+be during their formation that such strata had been consolidated;
+consequently, we must necessarily _conclude_, without any degree of
+_supposition_, that _strata had existed at the bottom of the sea
+previous to their consolidation_, unless our author can show how they
+may have been consolidated previous to their existing.
+
+This then is what our author has termed a gratuitous supposition of
+mine, and which, he adds, "is a circumstance which will not be allowed
+by the patrons of the aqueous origin of stony substances, as we have
+already seen."--I am perfectly at a loss to guess at what is here
+alluded to _by having been already seen_, unless it be that which I have
+already quoted, concerning things which have been never seen, that
+is, _those interior parts of the earth which were originally a solid
+mass_.--I have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;--a reasoning
+which is not founded upon any principle, which holds up nothing
+but chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing that is
+intelligible;--but, others, perhaps, may see this dissertation of our
+author's in a different light; therefore, it is my duty to analyse the
+argument, however insignificant it may seem to me.
+
+I have minutely examined all the stratified bodies which I have been
+able, during a lifetime, to procure, both in this country of Britain,
+and from all the quarters of the globe; and the result of my inquiry has
+been to conclude, that there is nothing among them in an original state,
+as the reader will see in the preceding chapter. With regard again to
+the masses which are not stratified, I have also given proof that they
+are not in their original state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine,
+and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction, I hope, upon that
+head, in the course of this work. I have therefore concluded, That there
+is nothing to be found in an original state, so far as we see, in the
+construction of this earth. But, our author answers, That the interior
+parts _might have been in an original state of solidity_.--So might
+they have been upon the surface of the earth, or on the summits of our
+mountains; but, we are not inquiring What they _might have been_, but
+What they truly _are_. It is from this actual state in which the solid
+parts of the earth are found, that I have endeavoured to trace back the
+different states in which they must have been; and, by generalising
+facts, I have formed a theory of the earth. If this be a wrong principle
+or manner of proceeding in a physical investigation, or if, proceeding
+upon that principle, I have made the induction by reasoning improperly
+on any occasion, let this be corrected by philosophers, who may reason
+more accurately upon the subject. But to oppose a physical investigation
+with this proposition, _that things might have been otherwise_, is to
+proceed upon a very different principle,--a principle which, instead of
+tending to bring light out of darkness, is only calculated to extinguish
+that light which we may have acquired.
+
+I shall afterwards have occasion to examine how far the philosophers,
+who attribute to aqueous solution the origin of stony substances, have
+proceeded in the same inductive manner of reasoning from effect to
+cause, as they ought to do in physical subjects, and not by feigning
+causes, or following a false analogy; in the mean time, I am to answer
+the objections which have been made to the theory of the earth.
+
+In opposition to the theory of consolidating bodies by fusion, our
+author has taken great pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
+for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find the means to make it
+burn had I those materials. Had our author read attentively my theory he
+would have observed, that I give myself little or no trouble about that
+fire, or take no charge with regard to the procuring of that power, as I
+have not founded my theory on the _supposition_ of subterraneous
+fire, however that fire properly follows as a conclusion from those
+appearances on which the theory is founded. My theory is founded upon
+the general appearances of mineral bodies, and upon this, that mineral
+bodies must necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I do not pretend
+to prove, demonstratively, that they had been even hot, however that
+conclusion also naturally follows from their having been in fusion. It
+is sufficient for me to demonstrate, That those bodies must have been,
+more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity, without any species
+of solution. I do not say that this fluidity had been without heat;
+but, if that had been the case, it would have answered equally well the
+purpose of my theory, so far as this went to explain the consolidation
+of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still repeat, must have been
+by simple fluidity, and not by any species of solution, or any other
+solvent than that universal one which permeates all bodies, and which
+makes them fluid.
+
+Our author has justly remarked the difficulty of fire burning below the
+earth and sea. It is not my purpose here to endeavour to remove those
+difficulties, which perhaps only exist in those suppositions which are
+made on this occasion; my purpose is to show, that he had no immediate
+concern with that question, in discussing the subject of the
+consolidation which we actually find in the strata of the earth, unless
+my theory, with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, had
+proceeded upon the supposition of a subterraneous fire. It is surely one
+thing to employ fire and heat to melt mineral bodies, in supposing this
+to be the cause of their consolidation, and another thing to acknowledge
+fire or heat as having been exerted upon mineral bodies, when it is
+clearly proved, from actual appearances, that those bodies had been in
+a melted state, or that of simple fluidity. Here are distinctions which
+would be thrown away upon the vulgar; but, to a man of science, who
+analyses arguments, and reasons strictly from effect to cause, this is,
+I believe, the proper way of coming at the truth. If the patrons of
+the aqueous origin of stony substances can give us any manner of
+scientifical, _i.e._ intelligible investigation of that process, it
+shall be attended to with the most rigid impartiality, even by a patron
+of the igneous origin of those substances, as he wishes above all things
+to distinguish, in the mineral operations, those which, on the one hand,
+had been the effect of water, from those which, on the other hand, had
+been the immediate effect of fire or fusion;--this has been my greatest
+study. But, while mineralists or geologists give us only mere opinions,
+What is science profited by such inconsequential observations, as are
+founded upon nothing but our vulgar notions? Is the figure of the
+earth, _e.g._ to be doubted, because, according to the common notion of
+mankind, the existence of an antipod is certainly to be denied?
+
+I am not avoiding to meet that question with regard to the providing
+of materials for such a mineral fire as may be required; no question I
+desire more to be asked to resolve; but it must not be in the manner
+that our author has put that question. He has included this supposed
+difficulty among a string of other arguments by which he would refute my
+theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, as if I
+had made that fire a necessary condition or a principle in forming my
+theory of consolidation. Now, it is precisely the reverse; and this is
+what I beg that mineral philosophers will particularly attend to, and
+not give themselves so much unnecessary trouble, and me so disagreeable
+a talk. I have proved that those stony substances have been in the fluid
+state of fusion; and from this, I have inferred the former existence of
+an internal heat, a subterraneous fire, or a certain cause of fusion by
+whatever name it shall be called, and by whatever means it shall have
+been procured. The nature of that operation by which strata had been
+consolidated, like that by which they had been composed, must, according
+to my philosophy, be decided by ocular demonstration; from examining the
+internal evidence which is to be found in those bodies as we see them in
+the earth; because the consolidating operation is not performed in our
+sight, no more than their stratification which our author has also
+denied to have been made, as I have said, by the deposits of materials
+at the bottom of the sea. Now, with regard to the means of procuring
+subterraneous fire, if the consolidating operation shall be thus decided
+to have been that of fusion, as I think I have fully shown, and for
+which I have as many witnesses, perhaps as there are mineral bodies,
+then our author's question, (how I am to procure a fire) in the way that
+he has put it, as an argument against the fusion, would be at least
+useless; for, though I should here confess my ignorance with regard to
+the means of procuring fire, the evidence of the melting operation, or
+former fluidity of those mineral bodies, would not be thereby in the
+least diminished. If again no such evidence for the fusion of those
+bodies shall appear, and it be concluded that they had been consolidated
+by the action of water alone, as our author seems inclined to maintain,
+he would have no occasion to start difficulties about the procuring of
+fire, in order to refute a theory which then would fall of itself as
+having no foundation.
+
+But in order to see this author's notion of the theory which he is here
+examining, it may be proper to give a specimen of his reasoning upon
+this subject of heat. He says, "That my supposition of heat necessary
+for consolidating strata is _gratuitous_, not only because it is
+unnecessary, as we have already shown, but also because it is
+inconsistent with our author's own theory." Let us now consider those
+two propositions. _First_, it is unnecessary, _as we have already
+shown_;--I have already taken particular notice of what we have been
+shown on this occasion, viz. That the earth at a certain depth _may
+have been originally in a solid state_; and, that, where it is to be
+consolidated, this is done by the _mutual attraction of the stony
+particles_. Here is all that we have been shown to make subterraneous
+heat, for the consolidation of strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly
+submit, if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral heat is a
+gratuitous supposition.
+
+Secondly, "_it is inconsistent with our author's own theory._" Here
+I would beg the readers attention to the reasoning employed on
+this occasion. He says, "according to him these strata, which were
+consolidated by heat, were composed of materials gradually worn from a
+preceding continent, casually and successively deposited in the sea;
+Where then will he find, and how will he suppose, to have been formed
+those enormous masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen, necessary to produce
+that immense heat necessary for the fusion of those vast mountains of
+stone now existing? All the coal, sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
+not form the 100,000 part of the materials deposited within one quarter
+of a mile under the surface of the earth; if, therefore, they were, as
+his hypothesis demands, carried off and mixed with the other materials,
+and not formed in vast and separate collections, they could never
+occasion, by their combustion, a heat capable of producing the smallest
+effect, much less those gigantic effects which he requires."
+
+Here is a comparative estimate formed between two things which have not
+any necessary relation; these are, the quantity of combustible materials
+found in the earth, on the one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
+necessary for hardening and consolidating strata, on the other. If this
+earth has been consolidated by the burning of combustible materials,
+there must have been a superfluity, so far as there is a certain
+quantity of these actually found unconsumed in the strata of the earth.
+Our author's conclusion is the very opposite; let us then see how he
+is to form his argument, by which he proves that the supposition of
+subterraneous heat for hardening bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary,
+as being inconsistent with my theory.
+
+According to my theory, the strata of this earth are composed of the
+materials which came from a former earth; particularly these combustible
+strata that contain plants which must have grown upon the land. Let
+us then suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with its combustible
+materials from this source, the vegetable bodies growing upon the
+surface of the land. Here is a source provided for the supplying of
+mineral fire, a source which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless
+we are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and the necessary
+ingredients; such as the matter of light, carbonic matter, and the
+hydrogenous principle. But it is not upon any deficiency of this kind
+that our author founds his estimate; it is upon the superfluity of
+combustible materials which is actually found in this earth, after it
+had been properly consolidated and raised above the surface of the sea.
+This is a method of reasoning calculated to convince only those who do
+not understand it; it is as if we should conclude that a person had died
+of want, because he had left provision behind him. Our author certainly
+means to employ nothing but the combustible minerals of the present
+earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire which is to concoct a future
+earth; in that case, I will allow that his provision is deficient; but
+this is not my theory.
+
+I am not here to enter into any argument concerning subterraneous
+fire; the reader will find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
+concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed previous to, and ever
+since, the formation of this earth,--that it exists in all its vigour
+at this day,--that there is, in the constitution of this earth, a
+superfluity of subterranean heat,--and that there is wisely provided a
+proper remedy against any destructive effect to the system, that might
+arise from that superabundant provision of this necessary agent. Had our
+author attended to the ocular proof that we have of the actual existence
+of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations which I have
+given of the effects of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must have
+seen that those arguments of his, with regard to the difficulty or
+impossibility of procuring that fire, can only show the error of his
+reasoning. I am far from supposing that my theory may be free from
+inconsistency or error; I am only maintaining that, in all his confident
+assertions, this author has not hitherto pointed any of these out.
+
+So far I have answered our author's objections as to consolidation, and
+I have given a specimen of his reasoning upon that subject; but with
+regard to my Theory of the Earth, although simple fluidity, without
+heat, would have answered the purpose of consolidating strata that had
+been formed at the bottom of the sea, it was necessary to provide a
+power for raising those consolidated strata from that low place to the
+summits of the continents; now, in supposing heat to be the cause of
+that fluidity which had been employed in the consolidation of those
+submarine masses, we find a power capable of erecting continents, and
+the only power, so far as I see, which natural philosophy can employ
+for that purpose. Thus I was led, from the consolidation of strata, to
+understand the nature of the elevating power, and, from the nature of
+that power, again to understand the cause of fluidity by which the rocks
+and stones of this earth had been consolidated.
+
+Having thus, without employing the evidence of any fire or _burning_,
+been necessarily led to conclude an extreme degree of heat exerted in
+the mineral regions, I next inquire how far there are any appearances
+from whence we might conclude whether that active subterraneous power
+still subsists, and what may be the nature of that power. When first I
+conceived my theory, naturalists were far from suspecting that basaltic
+rocks were of volcanic origin; I could not then have employed an
+argument from these rocks as I may do now, for proving that the fires,
+which we see almost daily issuing with such force from volcanos, are a
+continuation of that active cause which has so evidently been exerted
+in all times, and in all places, so far as have been examined of this
+earth.
+
+With regard to the degree of heat in that subterraneous fire, our
+author, after proving that combustible materials would not burn in the
+mineral regions, then says, that suppose they were to burn, this would
+be "incapable of forming a heat even equal to that of our common
+furnaces, as Mr Dolomieu has clearly shown to be the case with respect
+to volcanic heat." The place to which he alludes, I believe to be that
+which I have quoted from the Journal de Physique (Part I. page 139) to
+which I here beg leave to refer the reader. After what I have already
+said, this subject will appear to be of little concern to me; but, it
+must be considered, that my object, in these answers, is not so much to
+justify the theory which I have given, as it is to remove that prejudice
+which, to those who are not master of chemical and mineral subjects,
+will naturally arise from the opinion or authority of a scientific man,
+and a chemist; therefore, I think it my business to show how much he
+has misconceived the matter which he treats of, and how much he
+misunderstands the subject of my theory.
+
+Mr Dolomieu alleges that the volcanic fire operates in the melting of
+bodies, not by the intensity of its heat, which is the means employed by
+us in our operations, but in the long continuance of its action. But in
+that proposition, this philosopher is merely giving us his opinion; and,
+this opinion our author mistakes, I suppose, for the fact on which that
+opinion had been (perhaps reasonably) founded. The reader will see, in
+the place quoted, or in the _avant-propos_ to his _Mémoire sur les Iles
+Ponces_, the fact to be this; That the Chevalier Dolomieu finds those
+bodies which we either cannot melt in our fires, or which we cannot melt
+without changing them by calcination and vitrification, he finds, I say,
+these substances had actually been melted with his lavas; he also finds
+those substances, which are necessarily dissipated in our fires, to have
+been retained in those melted mineral substances. Had our author quoted
+the text, instead of giving us his own interpretation, he could not have
+offered a stronger confirmation of my theory; which certainly is not
+concerned with the particular intensity of volcanic fire, and far less
+with what may be the opinion of any naturalist with regard to that
+intensity, but only with the efficacy of that volcanic heat for the
+melting of mineral substances. Now this efficacy of volcanic fire, so
+far as we are to found upon the authority given on this occasion, is
+clearly confirmed by the observations of a most intelligent mineralist,
+and one who is actually a patron of the opposite theory to that which I
+have given. This being the state of the case, Must I not conclude, that
+our author has misunderstood the subject, and that he has been led to
+give a mutilated opinion of Mr Dolomieu, in order to refute my theory,
+when either the entire opinion, or the facts on which the opinion had
+been founded, would have confirmed it?
+
+I have thus endeavoured to put in its true light a species of reasoning,
+which, while it assumes the air and form of that inductive train of
+thought employed by men of science for the investigation of nature, is
+only fit to mislead the unwary, and, when closely examined, will appear
+to be inconsequential or unfounded. How mortifying then to find, that
+one may be employed almost a lifetime in generalising the phenomena of
+nature, or in gathering an infinity of evidence for the forming of a
+theory, and that the consequence of this shall only be to give offence,
+and to receive reproach from those who see not things in the same
+light!--While man has to learn, mankind must have different opinions.
+It is the prerogative of man to form opinions; these indeed are often,
+commonly I may say, erroneous; but they are commonly corrected, and it
+is thus that truth in general is made to appear.
+
+I wrote a general Theory for the inspection of philosophers, who
+doubtless will point out its errors; but this requires the study of
+nature, which is not the work of a day; and, in this political age, the
+study of nature seems to be but little pursued by our philosophers. In
+the mean time, there are, on the one hand, sceptical philosophers, who
+think there is nothing certain in nature, because there is misconception
+in the mind of man; on the other hand, there are many credulous
+amateurs, who go to nature to be entertained as we go to see a
+pantomime: But there are also superficial reasoning men, who think
+themselves qualified to write on subjects on which they may have read
+in books,--subjects which they may have seen in cabinets, and which,
+perhaps, they have just learned to name; without truly knowing what they
+see, they think they know those regions of the earth which never can be
+seen; and they judge of the great operations of the mineral kingdom,
+from having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom of a little
+crucible.
+
+In the Theory of the Earth which was published, I was anxious to warn
+the reader against the notion that subterraneous heat and fusion could
+be compared with that which we induce by our chemical operations
+on mineral substances here upon the surface of the earth; yet,
+notwithstanding all the precaution I had taken, our author has bestowed
+four quarto pages in proving to me, that our fires have an effect upon
+mineral substances different from that of the subterraneous power which
+I would employ.
+
+He then sets about combining metals with sulphur in the moist way, as if
+that were any more to his purpose than is the making of a stalactite for
+the explanation of marble. Silver and lead may be sulphurated, as he
+says, with hepatic gas; but, Has the sulphurated solid ores of those
+metals, and that of iron, been formed in the moist way, as in some
+measure they may be by the fusion of our fires? But, even suppose that
+this were the case, Could that explain a thousand other appearances
+which are inconsistent with the operation of water? We see aerated lead
+dissolved in the excavations of our mines, and again concreted by the
+separation of the evaporated solvent, in like manner as stalactical
+concretions are made of calcareous earth; but, so far from explaining
+mineral appearances, as having had their concretions formed in the same
+manner, here is the most convincing argument against it; for, among the
+infinite variety of mineral productions which we find in nature, Why
+does no other example of aqueous concretion ever occur upon the surface
+of the earth except those which we understand so well, and which we
+therefore know cannot be performed in the bodies of strata not exposed
+to the evaporation of the solvent, a circumstance which is necessary.
+
+I have given a very remarkable example of mineral fusion, in reguline
+manganese, (as the reader will see in page 68.) It is not that this
+example is more to the purpose of my theory than what may be found in
+every species of stone; but this example speaks so immediately to
+the common sense of mankind, (who are often convinced by a general
+resemblance of things, when they may not see the force of demonstration
+from an abstract principle) that I thought it deserved a place on that
+account, as well as being a curious example, But more particularly to my
+antagonist, who has been pleased (very improperly indeed) to try some
+part of my theory in the fire, here is an example which should have
+been absolutely in point, and without any manner of exception:--Has he
+acknowledged this?--No; he has, on the contrary, endeavoured to set this
+very example aside.
+
+On this occasion, he says, "Manganese has been found in a reguline state
+by M. de la Peyrouse, and in small grains, as when produced by fire.
+True; but it was mixed with a large quantity of iron, which is often,
+found in that form without any suspicion of fusion. A fire capable of
+melting quartz might surely produce it in larger masses." We have here
+a kind of two arguments, for removing the effect of this example; and I
+shall consider them separately.
+
+The first of these is, the not being suspected of having been in fusion;
+now, if this were to be admitted as an argument against the igneous
+origin of stony substances, it might have superseded the adducing of any
+other, for it is applicable perhaps to every mineral; but we must here
+examine the case more minutely.
+
+This argument, of the manganese being in a mine of iron, if I understand
+it rightly, amounts to this, that, as iron ore is not suspected of
+having been melted, therefore, we should doubt the manganese having been
+so. If this be our author's meaning, it is not the fair conclusion which
+the case admits of; for, so far as the manganese appears evidently to
+have been in a melted state, the iron ore should be _suspected_ of
+having been also in fusion, were there no other evidence of that fact.
+In science, however, it is not suspicion that should be employed in
+physical investigation; the question at present is; If the phenomena of
+the case correspond to the conclusion which the intelligent mineralist,
+who examined them, has formed? and, to this question, our author gives
+no direct answer. He says, _iron is often found in that form without any
+suspicion of fusion_. This is what I am now to answer.
+
+The form in which the manganese appears is one of the strongest proofs
+of those masses having been in fusion; and, if iron should ever be found
+in that form, it must give the same proof of mineral fusion as this
+example of manganese; let us then see the nature of this evidence. The
+form of the manganese is that of a fluid body collecting itself into a
+spherical figure by the cohesion or attraction of its particles, so far
+as may be admitted by other circumstances; but, being here refilled by
+the solid part on which it rests, this spherical body is flattened by
+the gravitation of its substance. Now here is a regular form, which
+demonstrates the masses to have been in the state of fusion; for, there
+is no other way in which that form of those reguline masses could have
+been induced.
+
+There now remains to be considered what our author has observed
+respecting the intensity of the fire and size of the masses. "A
+fire capable of melting quartz might surely produce it (meaning the
+manganese) in larger masses." M. de la Peyrouse says, that those masses
+were in all respects as if formed by art, only much larger, as the
+powers of nature exceed those of our laboratories. What then is it that
+is here meant to be disputed? We are comparing the operation of nature
+and that of art, and these are to be judged of by the product which we
+examine; but the quantity, in this case, or the size of the masses,
+makes no part of the evidence, and therefore is here most improperly
+mentioned by our author. With regard again to the nature of the fire by
+which the fusion had been produced, he is much mistaken if he imagines
+that the reduction of the reguline or metallic manganese depends upon
+the intensity of the heat; it depends upon circumstances proper for the
+separation of the oxygenating principle from the calx, in like manner as
+the calcination of calcareous spar must depend upon circumstances proper
+for allowing the separation of the carbonic acid or fixed air.
+
+But do not let us lose sight of our proper subject, by examining things
+foreign or not so immediately to the purpose. We are only inquiring if
+those flattened spheres of native manganese had been formed by water, or
+if it were by fusion; for, our author agrees that there is no other way.
+Why then does he endeavour to evade giving a direct answer, and fly away
+to consider the quantity of the product, as if that had any thing to do
+with, the question, or as if that quantity were not sufficient, neither
+of which is the case. In short, our author's whole observation, on this
+occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy, by insinuation, the
+force of an argument which proves the theory of mineral fusion; and that
+he wishes to render doubtful, by a species of sophistry, what in fair
+reasoning he cannot deny.
+
+Our author has written upon the subject of phlogiston; one would suppose
+that he should be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at least; let
+us see then what he has to observe upon that subject. He quotes from
+my Theory, that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon or near each
+other, and adhering to coal, or mixed with bitumen, etc. are found;
+circumstances that cannot be explained in the hypothesis of solution
+in the moist way.--He then answers;--"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
+which is not wonderful: But they are still less explicable in the
+hypothesis of dry solution, as must be apparent from what has been
+already said. How coal, an infusible substance, could be spread into
+strata by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."--It is only upon the
+last sentence that I am here to remark: This, I believe, will be a
+sufficient specimen of our author's understanding, with regard at least
+to my Theory which he is here examining.
+
+The reader will see what I have said upon the subject of coal, by
+turning back to the second section of the preceding chapter. I had given
+almost three quarto pages upon that subject, endeavouring to explain how
+all the different degrees of _infusibility_ were produced, by means of
+heat and distillation, in strata which had been originally more or less
+oily, bituminous, and _fusible_; and now our author says, that it is
+incomprehensible to him, how coal, _an infusible substance_, could be
+spread into strata by mere heat.--So it truly may, either to him or to
+any other person; but, it appears to me almost as incomprehensible, how
+a person of common understanding should read my Dissertation, and impute
+to it a thing so contrary to its doctrine.
+
+Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived view that our author
+seems to have taken of the two opposite theories, (_i. e_. of
+consolidation by means of heat, and by means of water alone,) than
+his observation upon the case of mineral alkali. To that irrefragable
+argument (which Dr Black suggested) in proof of this substance having
+been in a state of fusion in the mineral regions, our author makes the
+following reply; "What then will our author say of the vast masses
+of this salt which are found with their full quantity of water of
+crystallization?"--There is in this proposition, insignificant as it may
+seem, a confusion of ideas, which it certainly cannot be thought worth
+while to investigate; but, so far as the doctrine of the aqueous theory
+may be considered as here concerned, it will be proper that I should
+give some answer to the question so triumphantly put to me.
+
+Our author is in a mistake in supposing that Dr Black had written any
+thing upon the subject; he had only suggested the argument of this
+example of mineral alkali to me, as I have mentioned; and, the use I
+made of that argument was to corroborate the example I had given of sal
+gem. If, therefore, our author does not deny the inference from the
+state of that mineral alkali, his observation upon it must refer to
+something which this other example of his is to prove on the opposite
+side, or to support the aqueous instead of the igneous theory; and, this
+is a subject which I am always willing to examine in the most impartial
+manner, having a desire to know the true effect of aqueous solution in
+the consolidation of mineral bodies, and having no objection to allow it
+any thing which it can possibly produce, although denying that it can do
+every thing, as many mineralists seem to think.
+
+The question, with regard to this example of our author's of a mineral
+alkali with its water of crystallization, must be this, Whether those
+saline bodies had been concreted by the evaporation of the aqueous
+solvent with which they had been introduced, or by the congelation of
+that saline substance from a fluid state of fusion; for, surely, we are
+not to suppose those bodies to have been created in the place and state
+in which we find them. With regard to the evaporation or separation
+of the aqueous solvent, this may be easily conceived according to the
+igneous theory; but, the aqueous theory has not any means for the
+producing of that effect in the mineral regions, which is the only place
+we are here concerned with. Therefore, this example of a concreted body
+of salt, whatever it may prove in other respects, can neither diminish
+the evidence of my Theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony
+substances, nor can it contribute to support the opposite supposition of
+an aqueous origin to them.
+
+But to show how little reason our author had for exulting in that
+question which he so confidently proposed in order to defeat my
+argument, let us consider this matter a little farther. I will for a
+moment allow the aqueous theory to have the means for separating
+the water from the saline solution, and thus to concrete the saline
+substance in the bowels of the earth; this concretion then is to be
+examined with a view to investigate the last state of this body, which
+is to inform us with regard to those mineral operations. But, our author
+has not mentioned whether those masses appear to have been crystallised
+from the aqueous solution, or if they appear to have been congealed from
+the melted state of their _aqueous fusion_.--Has he ever thought of
+this? Now this is so material a point in the view with which that
+example has been held out to us, that, without showing that this salt
+had crystallised from the solution, he has no right to employ it as an
+example; and if, on the other hand, it should appear to have simply
+congealed from the state of aqueous fusion, then, instead of answering
+the purpose for which our author gave it, it would refute his
+supposition, as certainly as the example which I have given.
+
+So far I have reasoned upon the supposition of this alkali, with its
+water of crystallization, being truly a mineral concretion; but, I see
+no authority for such a supposition: It certainly may be otherwise;
+and, in that case, our author would have no more right to give it as an
+example in opposition to Dr Black's argument, than he would have to give
+the crystallization of sea-salt, on Turk's Island, in opposition to the
+example which I had given, of the salt rock, at Northwych in Cheshire,
+having been in the state of fusion.
+
+It certainly was incumbent on our author to have informed us, if those
+masses of salt were found in, what may be properly termed, their mineral
+state; or, if the state in which they are found at present had been
+produced by the influences of the atmosphere, transforming that saline
+substance from its mineral state, as happens upon so many other
+occasions; I am inclined to suspect that this last is truly the case.
+It may be thought illiberal in me to suppose a natural philosopher thus
+holding out an example that could only serve to lead us into error, or
+to mislead our judgment with regard to those two theories which is the
+subject of consideration. This certainly would be the case, almost
+on any other occasion; but, when I find every argument and example,
+employed in this dissertation, to be either unfounded or misjudged,
+Whether am I to conclude our author, on this occasion, to be consistent
+with himself, or not?
+
+I have but one article more to observe upon. I had given, as I thought,
+a kind of demonstration, from the internal evidence of the stone, that
+granite had been in the fluid state of fusion, and had concreted by
+crystallization and congelation from that melted state. This no doubt
+must be a stumbling block to those who maintain that granite mountains
+are the primitive parts of our earth; and who, like our author, suppose
+that "things may have been originally, as at present, in a solid state."
+It must also be a great, if not an invincible obstacle in the way of the
+aqueous theory, which thus endeavours to explain those granite veins
+that are found traversing strata, and therefore necessarily of a
+posterior formation.
+
+To remove that obstacle in the way of the aqueous theory, or to carry
+that theory over the obstacle which he cannot remove, our author
+undertakes to refute my theory with regard to the igneous origin of
+stony substances, by giving an example of granite formed upon the
+surface of the earth by means of water, or in what is called the
+moist way; and he closes his Dissertation with this example as an
+_experimentum crucis_. It is therefore necessary that I take this
+demonstration of our author into particular consideration; for, surely,
+independent of our controversy, which is perhaps of little moment, here
+is the most interesting experiment, as it is announced, that mineralogy
+could be enriched with.
+
+"To close this controversy," says our author, "I shall only add,
+that granite, recently formed in the moist way, has been frequently
+found."--Of that remarkable event, however, he has selected only one
+example. This is to be found upon the Oder; and the authority upon which
+our author has given it, is that of Lasius Hartz.
+
+The formation of a granite stone, from granite sand, by means of water,
+is inconsistent with our chemical knowledge of those mineral substances
+which constitute that stone; it is repugnant to the phenomena which
+appear from the inspection of the natural bodies of this kind; and it
+is directly contrary to the universal experience in granite countries,
+where, instead of any thing concreting, every thing is going into
+decay, from the loose stones and sand of granite, to the solid rock and
+mountains which are always in a state of degradation. Therefore, to have
+any credit given to such a story, would require the most scientific
+evidence in its favour. Now, in order that others may judge whether this
+has been the case in this example, I will transcribe what our author has
+said upon the subject; and then I will give the view in which it appears
+to me.
+
+He says, "a mole having been constructed in the Oder in the year 1723,
+350 feet long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at bottom, and 54 at
+the top, its sides only were granite, without any other cement than
+moss; the middle space was entirely filled with granite sand. In a short
+time this concreted into a substance so compact as to be impenetrable by
+water."--Here is an example, according to our author, of _granite formed
+in the moist way_. But now, I must ask to see the evidence of that fact;
+for, from what our author has told us, I do not even see reason to
+conclude that there was the least concretion, or any stone formed at
+all. A body of sand will be _so compacted as to be impenetrable by
+water_, with the introduction of a very little mud, and without any
+degree of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot be made to pass
+through such a body without compacting it so; and this every body finds,
+to their cost, who have attempted to make a filter of that kind.
+
+But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our author that there had been
+a petrifaction in this case; and, before I admit this example of the
+formation of granite, I must ask what sort of a granite it was;--whether
+of two, three, or four ingredients; and, how these were disposed. If,
+again, it were not properly a granite, but a stone formed of granite
+sand, What is the cementing substance?--Is it quartz, felt-spar, mica,
+or schorl?--or, Was it calcareous? If our author knows any thing about
+these necessary questions, Why has he not informed us, as minutely as
+he has done with regard to the dimensions of the mole, with which we
+certainly are less concerned? If, again, he knows no more about the
+matter than what he has informed us of, he must have strangely imposed
+upon himself, to suppose that he was giving us an example of the
+_formation of granite in the moist way_, when he has only described an
+effectual way of retaining water, by means of sand and mud.
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+In the first chapter I have given a general theory of the earth,
+with such proofs as I thought were sufficient for the information of
+intelligent men, who might satisfy themselves by examining the facts on
+which the reasoning in that theory had been founded.
+
+In the second chapter, I have endeavoured to remove the objections which
+have been made to that theory, by a strenuous patron of the commonly
+received opinion of mineralogists and geologists,--an opinion which, if
+not diametrically opposite, differs essentially from mine. But now I am
+to examine nature more particularly, in order to compare those different
+opinions with the actual state of things, on which every physical theory
+must be founded. Therefore, the opinions of other geologists should be
+clearly stated, that so a fair comparison may be made of theories which
+are to represent the system of this earth.
+
+Now, if I am to compare that which I have given as a theory of the
+earth, with the theories given by others under that denomination, I
+find so little similarity, in the things to be compared, that no other
+judgment could hence be formed, perhaps, than that they had little or no
+resemblance. I see certain treatises named Theories of the Earth; but, I
+find not any thing that entitles them to be considered as such, unless
+it be their endeavouring to explain certain appearances which are
+observed in the earth. That a proper theory of the earth should explain
+all those appearances is true; but, it does not hold, conversely, that
+the explanation of an appearance should constitute a theory of the
+earth. So far as the theory of the earth shall be considered as the
+philosophy or physical knowledge of this world, that is to say, a
+general view of the means by which the end or purpose is attained,
+nothing can be properly esteemed such a theory unless it lead, in some
+degree, to the forming of that general view of things. But now, let us
+see what we have to examine in that respect.
+
+We have, first, Burnet's Theory of the Earth. This surely cannot be
+considered in any other light than as a dream, formed upon the poetic
+fiction of a golden age, and that of iron which had succeeded it; at the
+same time, there are certain appearances in the earth which would, in a
+partial view of things, seem to justify that imagination. In Telliamed,
+again, we have a very ingenious theory, with regard to the production of
+the earth above the surface of the sea, and of the origin of those
+land animals which now inhabit that earth. This is a theory which has
+something in it like a regular system, such as we might expect to find
+in nature; but, it is only a physical romance, and cannot be considered
+in a serious view, although apparently better founded than most of that
+which has been wrote upon the subject.
+
+We have then a theory of a very different kind; this is that of the
+Count de Buffon. Here is a theory, not founded on any regular system,
+but upon an irregularity of nature, or an accident supposed to have
+happened to the sun. But, are we to consider as a theory of the earth,
+an accident by which a planetary body had been made to increase the
+number of these in the solar system? The circumvolution of a planetary
+body (allowing it to have happened in that manner) cannot form the
+system of a world, such as our earth exhibits; and, in forming a theory
+of the earth, it is required to see the aptitude of every part of this
+complicated machine to fulfil the purpose of its intention, and not to
+suppose the wise system of this world to have arisen from, the cooling
+of a lump of melted matter which had belonged to another body. When
+we consider the power and wisdom that must have been exerted in the
+contriving, creating, and maintaining this living world which sustains
+such a variety of plants and animals, the revolution of a mass of dead
+matter according to the laws of projectiles, although in perfect wisdom,
+is but like a unite among an infinite series of ascending numbers.
+
+After the theory of that eloquent writer, founded on a mere accident, or
+rather the error of a comet which produced the beautiful system of this
+world, M. de Luc, in his Theory of the earth, has given us the history
+of a disaster which befell this well contrived world;--a disaster which
+caused the general deluge, and which, without a miracle, must have
+undone a system of living beings that are so well adapted to the present
+state of things. But, surely, general deluges form no part of the theory
+of the earth; for, the purpose of this earth is evidently to maintain
+vegetable and animal life, and not to destroy them.
+
+Besides these imaginary great operations in the natural history of this
+earth, we have also certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists
+with regard to the effect of water, for explaining to us the
+consolidation of the loose materials of which the strata of the earth
+had been composed, and also for producing every other appearance, or any
+which shall happen to occur in the examination of the earth, and require
+to be explained. That this is no exaggerated representation, and
+that this is all we have as a theory, in the suppositions of those
+geologists, will appear from the following state of the case.
+
+They suppose water the agent employed in forming the solid bodies of the
+earth, and in producing those crystallised bodies which appear in
+the mineral kingdom. That this is a mere supposition will appear by
+considering; first, that they do not know how this agent water is to
+operate in producing those effects; nor have they any direct proof
+of the fact which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy; and,
+secondly, that they cannot tell us where this operation is to be
+performed. They cannot say that it is in the earth above the level of
+the sea: for, the same appearances are found as deep as we can examine
+below that level; besides, we see that water has the opposite effect
+upon the surface of the earth, through which it percolates dissolving
+soluble substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in preparing soil
+for plants. If, again, it be below the level of the sea, that strata of
+the earth are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration of that
+water which falls from the heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
+whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that place, must have been always
+full of water, consequently cannot admit of that supposed infiltration.
+
+But allowing those suppositions to be true, there is nothing in them
+like a theory of the earth,--a theory that should bring the operations
+of the world into the regularity of ends and means, and, by generalizing
+these regular events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
+forming a design; they are only an attempt to show how certain things,
+which we see, have happened without any perceivable design, or without
+any farther design than this particular effect which we perceive. If we
+believe that there is almighty power, and supreme wisdom employed for
+sustaining that beautiful system of plants and animals which is so
+interesting to us, we must certainly conclude, that the earth, on which
+this system of living things depends, has been constructed on principles
+that are adequate to the end proposed, and procure it a perfection which
+it is our business to explore. Therefore, a proper system of the earth
+should lead us to see that wise contraction, by which this earth is made
+to answer the purpose of its intention and to preserve itself from every
+accident by which the design of this living world might be frustrated as
+this world is an active scene, or a material machine moving in all its
+parts, we must see how this machine is so contrived, as either to have
+those parts to move without wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
+which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.
+
+A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a
+philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those
+hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency
+of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means
+wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as
+well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this
+manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of
+this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move
+perpetually in their orbits. It is not, therefore, simply by seeing the
+concretion of mineral bodies that a philosopher is to be gratified in
+his his intellectual pursuit, but by the contemplation of that system in
+which the necessary resolution of this earth, while at present it serves
+the purpose of vegetation, or the fertility of our soil, is the very
+means employed in furnishing the materials of future land.
+
+It is such a view as this that I have endeavoured to represent in the
+theory which I have given. I have there stated the present situation of
+things, by which we are led to perceive a former state; and, from that
+necessary progress of actual things, I have concluded a certain system
+according to which things will be changed, without any accident or
+error. It is by tracing this regular system in nature that a philosopher
+is to perceive the wisdom with which this world has been contrived; but,
+he must see that wisdom founded upon the aptitude of all the parts to
+fulfil the intention of the design; and that intention is to be deduced
+from the end which is known to be attained. Thus we are first to reason
+from effect to cause, in seeing the order of that which has already
+happened; and then, from those known causes, to reason forwards, so as
+to conceive that which is to come to pass in time. Such would be the
+philosophy of this earth, formed by the highest generalisation
+of phenomena, a generalisation which had required the particular
+investigation of inductive reasoning.
+
+That no such theory as this, founded upon water as an agent operating in
+the changes of this earth, has yet appeared, will, I believe be easily
+allowed. With regard again to fire as an agent in the mineral operations
+of this earth, geologists have formed no consistent theory. They see
+volcanoes in all the quarters of the globe, and from those burning
+mountains, they conjecture other mountains have been formed. But a
+burning mountain is only a matter of fact; and, they have not on this
+formed any general principle, for establishing what may be called a
+theory of the earth. Those who have considered subterraneous fires as
+producing certain effects, neither know how these have been procured,
+nor do they see the proper purpose for which they are employed in the
+system of this world. In this case, the agent fire is only seen as
+a destructive element, in like manner as deluges of water have been
+attributed by others to changes which have happened in the natural state
+of things. These operations are seen only as the accidents of nature,
+and not as part of that design by which the earth, which is necessarily
+wasted in the operations of the world, is to be repaired.
+
+So far from employing heat or subterraneous fire as an agent in the
+mineral operations of the earth, the volcanic philosophers do not
+even attempt to explain upon that principle the frequent nodules of
+calcareous, zeolite, and other spatose and agaty substances, in those
+basaltic bodies which they consider as lavas. Instead then of learning
+to see the operation of heat as a general principle of mineral
+consolidation and crystallization, the volcanic philosophers endeavour
+to explain those particular appearances, which they think inconsistent
+with fusion, by aqueous infiltration, no otherwise than other
+mineralists who do not admit the igneous origin of those basaltic
+bodies. Thus, that great agent, subterraneous heat, has never been
+employed by geologists, as a general principle in the theory of the
+earth; it has been only considered as an occasional circumstance, or as
+the accident of having certain mineral bodies, which are inflammable,
+kindled in the earth, without so much as seeing how that may be done.
+
+This agent heat, then, is a new principle to be employed in forming a
+theory of the earth; a principle that must have been in the constitution
+of this globe, when contrived to subsist as a world, and to maintain
+a system of living bodies perpetuating their species. It is therefore
+necessary to connect this great mineral principle, subterraneous fire
+or heat, with the other operations of the world, in forming a general
+theory. For, whether we are to consider those great and constant
+explosions of mineral fire as a principal agent in the design, or only
+as a casual event depending upon circumstances which give occasion to an
+operation of such magnitude, here is an object that must surely have its
+place in every general theory of the earth.
+
+In examining things which actually exist, and which have proceeded in a
+certain order, it is natural to look for that which had been first; man
+desires to know what had been the beginning of those things which now
+appear. But when, in forming a theory of the earth, a geologist shall
+indulge his fancy in framing, without evidence, that which had preceded
+the present order of things, he then either misleads himself, or writes
+a fable for the amusement of his reader. A theory of the earth, which
+has for object truth, can have no retrospect to that which had preceded
+the present order of this world; for, this order alone is what we have
+to reason upon; and to reason without data is nothing but delusion. A
+theory, therefore, which is limited to the actual constitution of this
+earth, cannot be allowed to proceed one step beyond the present order of
+things.
+
+But, having surveyed the order of this living world, and having
+investigated the progress of this active scene of life, death and
+circulation, we find ample data on which to found a train of the most
+conclusive reasoning with regard to a general design. It is thus that
+there is to be perceived another system of active things for the
+contemplation of our mind;--things which, though not immediately within
+our view, are not the less certain in being out of our sight; and things
+which must necessarily be comprehended in the theory of the earth, if we
+are to give stability to it as a world sustaining plants and animals.
+This is a mineral system, by which the decayed constitution of an earth,
+or fruitful surface of habitable land, may be continually renewed in
+proportion as it is wasted in the operations of this world.
+
+It is in this mineral system that I have occasion to compare the
+explanations, which I give of certain natural appearances, with the
+theories or explanations which have been given by others, and which are
+generally received as the proper theory of those mineral operations. I
+am, therefore, to examine those different opinions, respecting the
+means employed by nature for producing particular appearances in the
+construction of our land, appearances which must be explained in some
+consistent mineral theory.
+
+These appearances may all be comprehended under two heads, which are now
+to be mentioned, in order to see the importance of their explanation, or
+purpose which such an explanation is to serve in a theory of the earth.
+The first kind of these appearances is that of known bodies which we
+find composing part of the masses of our land, bodies whose natural
+history we know, as having existed in another state previous to the
+composition of this earth where they now are found; these are the
+relicts or parts of animal and vegetable bodies, and various stony
+substances broken and worn by attrition, all which had belonged to a
+former earth. By means of these known objects, we are to learn a great
+deal of the natural history of this earth; and, it is in tracing that
+history, from where we first perceive it, to the present state of
+things, that forms the subject of a geological and mineralogical theory
+of this earth. But, we are more especially enabled to trace those
+operations of the earth, by means of the second kind of appearances,
+which are now to be mentioned.
+
+These again are the evident changes which those known bodies have
+undergone, and which have been induced upon such collected masses of
+which those bodies constitute a part. These changes are of three sorts;
+_first_, the solid state, and various degrees of it, in which we now
+find those masses which had been originally formed by the collection of
+loose and incoherent materials; _secondly_, the subsequent changes which
+have evidently happened to those consolidated masses which have been
+broken and displaced, and which have had other mineral substances
+introduced into those broken and disordered parts; and, _lastly_, that
+great change of situation which has happened to this compound mass
+formed originally at the bottom of the sea, a mass which, after being
+consolidated in the mineral region, is now situated in the atmosphere
+above the surface of the sea.
+
+In this manner we are led to the system of the world, or theory of the
+earth in general; for, that great change of situation, which our land
+has undergone, cannot be considered as the work of accident, or any
+other than an essential part in the system of this world. It is
+therefore a proper view of the necessary connection and mutual
+dependence of all those different systems of changing things that forms
+the theory of this earth as a world, or as that active part of nature
+which the philosophy of this earth has to explore. The animal system is
+the first or last of these; next comes the vegetable system, on which
+the life of animals depends; then comes the system of this earth,
+composed of atmosphere, sea, and land, and comprehending the various
+chemical, mechanical, and meteorologically operations which take place
+upon that surface where vegetation must proceed; and, lastly, we have
+the mineral system to contemplate, a system in which the wasting surface
+of the earth is employed in laying the foundation of future land within
+the sea, and a system in which the mineral operations are employed in
+concocting that future land.
+
+Now, such must surely be the theory of this earth, if the land is
+continually wasting in the operations of this world; for, to acknowledge
+the perfection of those systems of plants and animals perpetuating their
+species, and to suppose the system of this earth on which they must
+depend, to be imperfect, and in time to perish, would be to reason
+inconsistently or absurdly. This is the view of nature that I would wish
+philosophers to take; but, there are certain prejudices of education or
+prepossession of opinion among them to be overcome, before they can be
+brought to see those fundamental propositions,--the wasting of the land,
+and the necessity of its renovation by the co-operation of the mineral
+system. Let us then consider how men of science, in examining the
+mineral state of things, and reasoning from those appearances by which
+we are to learn the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves
+with regard to physical causes, and formed certain mineralogical and
+geological theories, by which their judgment is so perverted, in
+examining nature, as to exclude them from the proper means of correcting
+their first erroneous notions, or render them blind to the clearest
+evidence of any other theory that is proposed.
+
+When men of science reason upon subjects where the ideas are distinct
+and definite, with terms appropriated to the ideas, they come to
+conclusions in which there is no difference of opinion. It is otherwise
+in physical subjects, where things are to be assimilated, in being
+properly compared; there, things are not always compared in similar and
+equal circumstances or conditions; and there, philosophers often draw
+conclusions beyond the analogy of the things compared, and thus judge
+without data. When, for example, they would form the physical induction,
+with regard to the effect of fire or water upon certain substances in
+the mineral regions, from the analogy of such events as may be observed
+upon the surface of the earth, they are apt to judge of things acting
+under different circumstances or conditions, consequently not producing
+similar effects; in which case, they are judging without reason, that
+is, instead of inductive reasoning from actual data or physical truth,
+they are forming data to themselves purely by supposition, consequently,
+so far as these, imagined data may be wrong, the physical conclusion, of
+these philosophers may be erroneous.
+
+It is thus that philosophers have judged, with regard to the effects of
+fire and water upon mineral substances below the bottom of the sea,
+from what their chemistry had taught them to believe concerning bodies
+exposed to those agents in the atmosphere or on the surface of the
+earth. If in those two cases the circumstances were the same, or
+similar, consequently the conditions of the action not changed, then,
+the inductive reasoning, which they employ in that comparison, would be
+just; but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have employed that
+inductive conclusion for the explanation of mineral appearances, without
+having reason to believe that those changed circumstances of the case
+should not make any difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
+have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning; consequently,
+instead of being a proper physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
+reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing things not properly analysed
+or distinguished, is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
+therefore, cannot be admitted as a part of any geological or mineral
+theory. Now I here maintain, that philosophers have judged in no other
+manner than by this false analogy, when they conclude that water is the
+agent by which mineral concretions have been formed. But it will be
+proper to state more particularly the case of that misunderstanding
+among mineral philosophers.
+
+In forming a geological theory, the general construction of this earth,
+and the materials of which it is composed, are such visible objects, and
+so evident to those who will take the pains to examine nature, that
+here is a subject in which there cannot be any doubt or difference of
+opinion. Neither can there be any dispute concerning the place and
+situation of mass when it was first formed or composed; for, this is
+clearly proved, from every concomitant circumstance, to have been at the
+bottom of the sea. The only question in this case, that can be made, is,
+How that mass comes now to be a solid body, and above the surface of the
+sea in which it had been formed?
+
+With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers have been so
+dissonant, so vague, and so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
+Some suppose the land to be discovered by the gradual retreat of the
+ocean, without proposing to explain to us from whence had come the known
+materials of a former earth, which compose the highest summits of the
+mountains in the highest continents of the earth. Others suppose the
+whole of a former earth to have subsided below the bottom even of the
+present sea, and together with it all the water of the former sea, from
+above the summits of the present mountains, which had then been at the
+bottom of the former sea. The placing of the bottom of the sea, or any
+part of it, in the atmosphere so as to be dry land, is no doubt a great
+operation to be performed, and a difficult task to be explained; but
+this is only an argument the more for philosophers to agree in adopting
+the most reasonable means.
+
+But though philosophers differ so widely in that point, this is not the
+case with regard to the concretion of mineral bodies; here mineralists
+seem to be almost all of one mind, at the same time without any reason,
+at least, without any other reason than that false analogy which they
+have inconsiderately formed from the operations of the surface of this
+earth. This great misunderstanding of mineralists has such an extensive
+and baneful effect in the judging of geological theories, that it
+will be proper here to explain how that has happened, and to shew the
+necessity of correcting that erroneous principle before any just opinion
+can be formed upon the subject.
+
+Fire and water are two great agents in the system of this earth; it is
+therefore most natural to look for the operation of those agents in the
+changes which are made on bodies in the mineral regions; and as the
+consolidated state of those bodies, which had been collected at the
+bottom of the sea, may have been supposed to be induced either by
+fusion, or by the concretion from a solution, we are to consider how far
+natural appearance lead to the conclusion of the one or other of those
+two different operations. Here, no doubt, we are to reason analogically
+from the known power and effects of those great agents; but, we must
+take care not to reason from a false analogy, by misunderstanding the
+circumstances of the case, or not attending to the necessary conditions
+in which those agents act.--We must not conclude that fire cannot burn
+in the mineral regions because our fires require the ventilation of the
+atmosphere; for, besides the actual exigence of mineral fire being a
+notorious matter of fact, we know that much more powerful means _may_
+be employed by nature, for that mineral purpose of exciting heat, than
+those which we practise.--We must not conclude that mineral marble is
+formed in the same manner as we see a similar stony substance produced
+upon the surface of the earth, unless we should have reason to suppose
+the analogy to be complete. But, this is the very error into which
+mineral philosophers have fallen; and this is the subject which I am now
+to endeavour to illustrate.
+
+The manner in which those philosophers have deceived themselves when
+reasoning upon the subject of mineral concretion, is this: They see,
+that by means of water a stony substance is produced; and, this stony
+body so much resembles mineral marble as to be hardly distinguishable in
+certain cases. These mineral philosophers then, reasoning in the manner
+of the vulgar, or without analysing the subject to its principle,
+naturally attribute the formation of the mineral marble to a cause
+of the same sort; and, the mineral marble being found so intimately
+connected with all other mineral bodies, we must necessarily conclude,
+in reasoning according to the soundest principles, that all those
+different substances had been concreted in the same manner. Thus, having
+once departed one step from the path of just investigation, our physical
+science is necessarily bewildered in the labyrinth of error. Let us
+then, in re-examining our data, point out where lies that first devious
+step which had been impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic acid gas,
+(as it is called), dissolves a certain portion of mild calcareous
+earth or marble; consequently such acidulated water, that is, water
+impregnated with this gas, will, by filtrating through calcareous
+substances, become saturated with that solution of marble; and, this
+solution is what is called a _petrifying water_. When this solution is
+exposed to the action of the atmosphere, the acid gas, by means of which
+the stony substance is dissolved, evaporates from the solution, in
+having a stronger attraction for the atmospheric air; it is then that
+the marble, or calcareous substance, concretes and crystallises,
+separating from the water in a sparry state, and forming a very solid
+stone by the successive accretion from the solution, as it comes to
+be exposed to the influence of the atmosphere in flowing over the
+accumulating body. Here is the source of their delusion; for, they do
+not distinguish properly the case of this solution of a stony substance
+concreting by means of the separation of its solvent, and the case of
+such a solution being in a place where that necessary condition cannot
+be supposed to exist; such as, e.g., the interstices among the particles
+of sand, clay, etc. deposited at the bottom of the sea, and accumulated
+in immense stratified masses.
+
+No example can better illustrate how pernicious it is to science to have
+admitted a false principle, on which a chain of reasoning is to proceed
+in forming a theory. Mineral philosophers have founded their theory upon
+that deceitful analogy, which they had concluded between the stalactical
+concretions of petrifying waters and the marble formed in the mineral
+regions; thus, blinded by prejudice, they shut the door against the
+clearest evidence; and it is most difficult to make them see the error
+of their principle. But this is not to be wondered at, when we consider
+how few among philosophising men remount to the first principles of
+their theory; and, unless they shall thus remount to that first step,
+in which the concreting operation of a dissolved stony substance
+is supposed to take place without the necessary conditions for the
+petrifying operation, it is impossible to be convinced that their
+theory, thus formed with regard to mineral concretion, is merely
+supposition, and has no foundation in matter of fact from whence it
+should proceed.
+
+But this is not all; for, even supposing their theory to be well founded
+and just, it is plainly contradicted by natural appearances. According
+to that theory of aqueous consolidation, all the stratified bodies, of
+which this earth in general consists, should be found in the natural
+order of their regular formation; but, instead of this, they are found
+every where disturbed in that order more or less; in many places this
+order and regularity is so disturbed as hardly to be acknowledged; in
+most places we find those stratified bodies broken, dislocated, and
+contorted, and this aqueous theory of mineralists has neither the means
+for attaining that end, were it required in their theory, nor have they
+any such purpose in their theory, were that end attainable by the means
+which they employ. Thus blinded by the prejudice of a false analogy,
+they do not even endeavour to gratify the human understanding (which
+naturally goes in quest of wisdom and design) by forming a hypothetical
+or specious theory of the mineral system; and they only amuse themselves
+with the supposition of an unknown operation of water for the
+explanation of their cabinet specimens, a supposition altogether
+ineffectual for the purpose of forming a habitable earth, and a
+supposition which is certainly contradicted by every natural appearance.
+
+Thus, in examining geological and mineralogical theories, I am laid
+under the disagreeable necessity of pointing out the errors of physical
+principles which are assumed, the prejudices of theoretical opinions
+which have been received, and the misconceived notions which
+philosophers entertain with regard to the system of nature, in which may
+be perceived no ineffectual operation, nor any destructive intention,
+but the wise and benevolent purpose of preserving the present order of
+this world. But, though thus misled with regard to the cause of things,
+naturalists are every where making interesting observations in the
+mineral kingdom, I shall therefore avail myself of that instructive
+information, for the confirmation of my theory.
+
+It may now be proper to consider what must be required, in order to have
+a geological and mineral theory established upon scientific principles,
+or on such grounds as must give conviction to those who will examine
+the subject; for, unless we may clearly see that there are means for
+attaining that desirable end, few philosophers will be persuaded to
+pursue this branch of knowledge.
+
+A theory is nothing but the generalization of particular facts; and, in
+a theory of the earth, those facts must be taken from the observations
+of natural history. Nature is considered as absolutely true; no error or
+contradiction can be found in nature. For, if such contradiction were
+truly found, if the stone, for example, which fell to day were to rise
+again to-morrow, there would be an end of natural philosophy, our
+principles would fail, and we would no longer investigate the rules of
+nature from our observations.
+
+Every natural appearance, therefore, which is explained, _i.e._ which is
+made to come into the order of things that happen, must so far confirm
+the theory to which it then belongs. But is it necessary, that every
+particular appearance, among minerals, should be thus explained in
+a general theory of the earth? And, is any appearance, which is not
+explained by it, to be considered as sufficient to discredit or confute
+a theory which corresponded with every other appearance? Here is a
+question which it would require some accuracy to resolve.
+
+If we knew all the powers of nature, and all the different conditions in
+which those powers may have their action varied, that is to say, if we
+were acquainted with every physical cause, then every natural effect, or
+all appearances upon the surface of this earth, might be explained in a
+theory that were just. But, seeing that this is far from being the case,
+and that there may be many causes of which we are as yet ignorant, as
+well as certain conditions in which the known action of powers may be
+varied, it must be evident, that a theory of the earth is not to be
+confuted by this argument alone, That there are, among natural bodies,
+certain appearances which are not explained by the theory. We must
+admit, that, not having all the data which natural philosophy requires,
+we cannot pretend to explain every thing which appears; and that our
+theories, which necessarily are imperfect, are not to be considered as
+erroneous when not explaining every thing which is in nature, but only
+when they are found contrary to or inconsistent with the laws of nature,
+which are known, and with which the case in question may be properly
+compared.
+
+But we may have different theories to compare with nature; and, in that
+case, the question is not, How far any of those theories should explain
+all natural appearances? but, How far any one particular theory might
+explain a phenomenon better than another? In this case of comparison, it
+will be evident, that if one theory explains natural appearances, then
+the opposite to that theory cannot be supposed to explain the same
+appearances. If for example, granite, porphyry, or basaltes, should be
+found naturally formed by fusion, the formation of those stones could
+not be supposed in any case as formed by water, although it could not
+be demonstrated that water is incapable of forming those mineral
+productions.
+
+In like manner, if those three bodies were proved to have been actually
+formed by water alone, then, in other cases where we should have no
+proof, they could not be supposed as having been formed by fire or
+fusion. It must be evident, that an equal degree of proof of those two
+different propositions would leave our judgment in suspence, unless that
+proof were perfect, in which case, we would have two different causes
+producing similar effects. But, if we shall have a sufficient proof
+upon the one side, and only a presumptive proof or probability upon the
+other, we must reject that probability or presumption, when opposed by
+a proof, although that proof were only an induction by reasoning from
+similar effects as following similar causes. _A fortiori_, if there be
+on one side a fair induction, without the least suspicion of error,
+and on the other nothing but a mere presumption founded upon a distant
+analogy, which could not even properly apply, then, the inductive proof
+would be as satisfactory as if there had not been any supposition on the
+opposite side.
+
+So far as a theory is formed in the generalization of natural
+appearances, that theory must be just, although it may not be perfect,
+as having comprehended every appearance; that is to say, a theory is
+not perfect until it be founded upon every natural appearance; in which
+case, those appearances will be explained by the theory. The theory of
+gravitation, though no ways doubtful, was not so perfect before the
+shape of this globe had been determined by actual measurement, and
+before the direction of the plummet had been tried upon Shihallion, as
+after those observations had been made. But a theory which should be
+merely hypothetical, or founded upon a few appearances, can only be
+received as a theory, after it has been found to correspond properly
+with nature; it would then be held a proper explanation of those natural
+appearances with which it corresponded; and, the more of those phenomena
+that were thus explained by the theory, the more would that, which had
+been first conjectural, be converted into a theory legitimately founded
+upon natural appearances.
+
+Matter of fact is that upon which science proceeds, by generalization,
+to form theory, for the purpose of philosophy, or the knowledge of all
+natural causes; and it is by the companion of these matters of fact with
+any theory, that such a theory will be tried. But, in judging of matter
+of fact, let us be cautious of deceiving ourselves, by substituting
+speculative reasoning in place of actual events.
+
+Nature, as the subject of our observation, consists of two sorts of
+objects; for, things are either active, when we perceive change to take
+place in consequence of such action, or they are quiescent, when we
+perceive no change to take place. Now, it is evident, that in judging
+of the active powers of nature from the quiescent objects of our
+information, we are liable to error, in misinterpreting the objects
+which we see; we thus form to ourselves false or erroneous opinion
+concerning the general laws of action, and the powers of nature. In
+comparing, therefore, generalised facts, or theory, with particular
+observations, there is required the greatest care, neither, on the one
+hand, to strain the appearances, so as to bring in to the theory a fact
+belonging to another class of things; nor, on the other, to condemn a
+proper theory, merely because that theory has not been extended to the
+explanation of every natural appearance.
+
+But, besides the misinterpretation of matters of fact, we are also to
+guard against the misrepresentation of natural appearances. Whether
+warped by the prejudice of partial and erroneous theory, or deceived by
+the inaccuracy of superficial observation, naturalists are apt to see
+things in an improper light, and thus to reason from principles which
+cannot be admitted, and, which often lead to false conclusions. A
+naturalist, for example, comes to examine a cavity in the mines, he
+there finds water dropping down all around him, and he sees the cavity
+all hung with siliceous crystals; he then concludes, without hesitation,
+that here is to be perceived cause and effect, or that he actually sees
+the formation of those crystallizations from the operation of water. It
+is thus that I have been told by men of great mineral knowledge, men who
+must have had the best education upon that subject of mineralogy, and
+who have the superintendance of great mineral concerns in Germany, that
+they had actually seen nature at work in that operation of forming
+rock-crystal;--they saw what I have now described; they could see no
+more; but, they saw what had convinced them of that which, there is
+every reason to believe, never happened. With regard to my theory,
+I wish for the most rigorous examination; and do not ask for any
+indulgence whatever, whether with regard to the principles on which the
+theory is built, or for the application of the theory to the explanation
+of natural appearances. But, let not geologists judge my theory by their
+imperfect notions of nature, or by those narrow views which they take of
+the present state of things;--let not mineralogists condemn my theory,
+for no other reason but because it does not correspond with their false
+principles, and those gratuitous suppositions by which they had been
+pleased to explain to themselves every thing before. First let them look
+into their own theory, and correct that erroneous principle, with regard
+to the action of water, or the assumption of unknown causes, upon which
+they have reasoned in forming their vague notions of the mineral region,
+before they can be properly qualified to examine, impartially, a theory
+which employs another principle. Every thing which has come under my
+observation shall be, as far as I can, faithfully related; nor shall I
+withhold those which neither the present theory, nor any other that I am
+acquainted with, can, I think, explain.
+
+Appearances cannot well be described except in relation to some theory
+or general arrangement of the subject; because the particular detail,
+of every part in a complicated appearance, would be endless and
+insignificant. When, however, any question in a theory depends upon the
+nature of an appearance, we cannot be too particular in describing that
+by which the question is to be decided. But though it be sometimes
+proper to be minute in a particular, it is always, and above all things,
+necessary to be distinct; and not to confound together things which are
+of different natures. For, though it be by finding similarity, in things
+which at first sight may seem different, that science is promoted and
+philosophy attained, yet, we must have a distinct view of those things
+which are to be assimilated; and surely the lowest state of knowledge
+in any subject, is the not distinguishing things which, though not to
+common observation different, are not truly the same.
+
+To confound, for example one stone with another, because they were both
+hard, friable, and heavy, would be to describe, with the superficial
+views of vulgar observation; whereas science specifies the weight and
+hardness, and thus accurately distinguishes the stone.
+
+Before naturalists had learned to distinguish what they saw, and to
+describe, in known terms, those natural appearances, a theorist must
+have generalised only from his proper observation. This has been my
+case. When I first conceived my theory, few naturalists could write
+intelligibly upon the subject; but that is long ago, and things are much
+altered since; now there are most enlightened men making observations,
+and communicating natural knowledge. I have the satisfaction, almost
+every day, to compare the theory, which I had formed from my proper
+observations, with the actual state of things in almost every quarter of
+the globe.
+
+Whether, therefore, we mean to try a theory by its application to
+such phenomena as are well understood, or to learn something from the
+application of particular phenomena to a well established theory,
+we shall always find it interesting to have appearances described;
+particularly such as may be referred to some general rule, as
+circumscribing it to certain conditions, or as finding rule in rule,
+that is to say, discovering those particular conditions in which the
+general laws of action may be affected.
+
+Instead, for example, of the rule which we find in the application of
+heat for the fusion and evaporation of mineral substances upon the
+surface of this earth, we may find it necessary to consider the effect
+which changed circumstances produce in the mineral regions, and occasion
+a change of that rule of action which we have learned from experience,
+when melting and evaporating those substances in the atmosphere or on
+the surface of the earth.
+
+It is in this manner that a theory, which was formed by the
+generalization of particular facts, comes to be a source of information,
+by explaining to us certain appearances which otherwise we could not
+understand. Thus, it was not the appearance of the tides that taught the
+theory of gravitation; it was the theory of gravitation that made us
+understand the appearance of the tides. In like manner, the law of
+gravitation, which was demonstrated from the motion of the moon in her
+orbit round this earth, when applied to the paths of comets, explained
+that appearance. Our theory, of a central fire, has been formed upon
+the consolidation of the strata of this earth; but this theory is to be
+applied for the explanation of various different appearances. In this
+manner, two different purposes will be served; the trying of the theory
+by its application to phenomena; and the explanation of phenomena by the
+principles laid open in the theory.
+
+I may repeat it; a theory of the earth must ultimately depend upon
+matter of fact or particular observation; but those observations must be
+distinct, and those distinguished things must be generalised. We have
+just now given for an example, a distinction among stones, in knowing
+them by their sensible qualities. But, besides distinguishing those
+objects, we are also to inquire into the origin and cause of those
+things which are distinguished. Here, again, we take into our aid the
+chemical as well as the mechanical properties of these several things;
+and hence learn to know on what their natural form and constitution may
+depend. Having thus attained the natural philosophy of stones, we next
+inquire into the place and application of those things in nature; and
+in this manner we acquire some knowledge with regard to the natural
+constitution of this earth. We find this earth composed of known things;
+it is therefore the operations, required in these compositions, which
+form the natural philosophy of this earth, considered as a body of solid
+land. But, the solid land is only one part of the globe; therefore,
+the philosophy of the globe proceeds still farther by knowing the
+constitution of this planetary body, as consisting of different parts
+united for a purpose, which is that of a world.
+
+The general theory of this earth as a world, will thus appear to be a
+complex thing, which however founded upon simple principles, contains
+many subjects of discussion, and requires attention to a variety of
+particulars. For, not only the great features of this earth are to be
+explained by the theory, but also the most minute appearance, such as
+are to be found, even with microscopic observation, in every particular
+part.
+
+Thus the nature, constitution, and cause of every particular appearance
+in the construction of this earth, are to be investigated in a
+geological theory, as well as that general constitution of the world in
+which all the particular parts are to be employed for a purpose.
+
+If the subject here examined shall be found properly explained, there
+will remain little doubt with regard to the justness of the theory,
+which will then be applicable to other appearances that may occur;
+although every appearance is not to be explained, in a manner equally
+satisfactory, by any theory which is not perfect.
+
+The first subject to be examined is the modern theory of primitive
+mountains. I have written several chapters upon that subject, having
+successively acquired more light in this interesting part of the theory,
+by observations of my own in several places of this country, as well as
+from the natural history of other countries. I shall give these nearly
+in the order in which they occurred, or had been written.
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+In the theory now given, the earth has been represented as a composition
+of different materials, which had existed in another form, and as the
+effect of natural operations; therefore, however various may be found
+the structure of our earth, and however dissimilar some parts of
+its composition may be in comparison with others, no part should be
+considered as original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive, in
+relation to second causes, _i.e._ physical operations by which those
+parts should have been formed. But it is pretended by naturalists, that
+there are certain primitive mountains in the earth, bodies which have
+had another origin than that of the general strata of the globe and
+subsequent masses; an origin, therefore, which cannot be considered as
+having been produced from natural operations, or as effected in the
+course of known causes. Now, if it can be made to appear, that there is
+no solid ground for this distinction; and if it can be shown, that there
+is truly no mineral body in this earth which may not have been produced
+by operations natural to the globe, we should thus procure a certain
+confirmation of the doctrine. This also will be the more interesting,
+in being deduced from a part of natural appearances, which seemed to be
+inconsistent with the theory.
+
+Certain masses or mountains of granite, are the only bodies of this
+earth which have apparently a certain pretension to this species
+of originality. These, therefore, must be now the subject of our
+examination.
+
+Granite, considered by itself, does not appear to have any claim to
+originality in its nature. It is composed of bodies which are capable of
+being analyzed; and these are then found to be compositions of different
+substances, which are also sometimes variously proportioned. The
+feldspar and the mica, for example, as well as the schorl, are found
+variously coloured in different granites, and coloured in various
+proportions. Besides the variety in the composition, or chemical mixture
+of the different bodies which compose granite, this rock admits of a
+great diversity, from the variety of its mechanical mixture, or from
+the different species of bodies which are its constituent parts. M. de
+Saussure, who has examined this subject perhaps more than any other
+person, and who has had the very best opportunities for this purpose,
+says, that this composition may be found in all the different
+combinations which may be produced by every possible composition of 7
+or 8 different kinds of stone, (page 108, Voyage dans les Alpes, etc.).
+Neither does this fill up the measure of its variety; for, another
+source of change is found in the grain of this rock stone; I have a
+specimen of this variety from the size almost of sand to that of some
+inches.
+
+Were granite, therefore, to be supposed as in the original state of its
+creation, nature would be considered as having operated in an indefinite
+diversity of ways, without that order and wisdom which we find in all
+her works; for here would be change without a principle, and variety
+without a purpose. There is no reason, however, to suppose granite
+original, more than any other composite rock, although we may be
+ignorant of the particular process in which it is formed, and although,
+comparatively in relation to certain other rocks, granite, or certain
+masses of this composition, may be found of a more ancient date.
+
+If granite be truly stratified, and those strata connected with the
+other strata of the earth, it can have no claim to originality; and
+the idea of primitive mountains, of late so much employed by natural
+philosophers, must vanish, in a more extensive view of the operations of
+the globe; but it is certain that granite, or a species of the same kind
+of stone, is thus found stratified. It is the _granit feuilletée_ of
+M. de Saussure, and, if I mistake not, what is called _gneis_ by the
+Germans. We have it also in our north alpine country of Scotland; of
+this I have specimens, but have not seen it in its place.
+
+Granite being thus found stratified, the masses of this stone cannot be
+allowed to have any right of priority over the schistus, its companion
+in the alpine countries, although M. de Saussure, whose authority I
+would revere, has given it for the following reason; that it is found
+the most centrical in the chains of high mountains, or in alpine
+countries. Now, supposing this fact to be general, as he has found it in
+the Alps, no argument for the priority of those masses can be founded
+either upon the height or the situation of those granite mountains; for
+the height of the mountain depends upon the solidity and strength of the
+stone. Now though it is not to be here maintained that granite is the
+most durable of those alpine rocks, yet as a mountain, either granite in
+general, or in particular, certain species of it, may be esteemed such,
+consequently, this massy stone, remaining highest in the mountainous
+region, will naturally be considered as the centre, and according to
+this rule, as having the pre-eminence in point of seniority.
+
+The rock which stands in competition with granite for the title of
+primitive in the order of mountains, is that micaceous stratified stone
+which is formed chiefly of quartz, but which admits of great variety
+like the granite. The difference between those two bodies does not
+consist in the materials of which they are composed, for, in their
+varieties, they may be in this respect the same, but in a certain
+regularity of composition, in this alpine stone, which evidently arises
+from stratification or subsidence in water.
+
+If we shall thus consider all the varieties of this alpine stone as
+being of one kind, and call it granite, then we shall distinguish in
+this body two different species, from whence perhaps some interesting
+conclusion may be formed with regard to the operations of the globe.
+These two species are, _first_, granite regular in its composition, or
+stratified in its construction; and, _secondly_, granite in mass, or
+irregular in its construction. Let us now endeavour to make use of these
+generalizations and distinctions.
+
+In examining the great diversity of our whinstone, trap, or basaltes, it
+is found at last to granulate into granite; at the same time those two
+different species of rock-stone may be distinguished. A perfect granite
+has not in its composition necessarily any argillaceous earth, farther
+than may be in the natural constitution of its distinct parts; whereas,
+a perfect basalt may have abundance of this substance, without any
+quartz or any siliceous body. A perfect granite, is, therefore, an
+extremely hard stone, having quartz and feldspar for its basis; but a
+perfect whin or basaltes may be extremely soft, so as to cut easily with
+a knife. In like manner granite is a composition which graduates into
+porphyry; but porphyry is only whinstone of a harder species. Therefore,
+though perfectly distinct, those three things graduate into each other,
+and may be considered as the same.
+
+Granite and whinstone, or basaltes, though distinct compositions, thus
+graduating into each other; and whinstone, as well as porphyry, being
+without doubt a species of lava, we may consider the granite which is
+found in mass without stratification, in like manner as we do the masses
+of whinstone, basaltes, or Swedish trap, as having flowed in the bowels
+of the earth, and thus been produced by the chance of place, without any
+proper form of its own, or in an irregular shape and construction. In
+this manner would be explained the irregular shape or structure of those
+granite masses; and thus great light would be thrown upon the waved
+structure of the stratified alpine stone, which, though it has not been
+made to flow, has been brought to a great degree of softness, so as to
+have the original straight lines of its stratification changed to
+those undulated or waving lines which are in some cases extremely much
+incurvated.
+
+It remains only to confirm this reasoning, upon our principles, by
+bringing actual observation to its support; and this we shall do from
+two of the best authorities. The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in describing
+the volcanic productions of Etna, mentions a lava which had flowed from
+that mountain, and which may be considered as a granite. But M. de
+Saussure has put this matter out of doubt by describing most accurately
+what he had seen both in the Alps and at the city of Lyons. These are
+veins of granite which have flowed from the contiguous mass into the
+stratified stone, and leave no doubt with regard to this proposition,
+that the granite had flowed in form of subterranean lava, although M. de
+Saussure has drawn a very different conclusion from this appearance. I
+have also a specimen from this country of a vein of granite in a granite
+stone, the vein being of a smaller grain than that of the rock which it
+traverses.[20]
+
+[Note 20: This is what I had wrote upon, the subject of granite, before
+I had acquired such ample testimony from my own observations upon
+that species of rock. I have given some notice, in the 3d vol. of the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh R.S. concerning the general result of
+those observations, which will be given particularly in the course of
+this work.]
+
+It will thus appear, that the doctrine which of late has prevailed, of
+primitive mountains, or something which should be considered as original
+in the construction of this earth, must be given up as a false view of
+nature, which has formed the granite upon the same principle with that
+of any other consolidated stratum; so far as the collection of different
+materials, and the subsequent fusion of the compound mass, are necessary
+operations in the preparation of all the solid masses of the earth.
+Whatever operations of the globe, therefore, may be concluded from the
+composition of granite masses, as well as of the alpine strata, these
+must be considered as giving us information with regard to the natural
+history of this earth; and they will be considered as important, in
+proportion as they disclose to us truths, which from other strata might
+not be so evident, or at all made known.
+
+Let us now examine the arguments, which, may be employed in favour of
+that supposition of primitive mountains.
+
+The observations, on which naturalists have founded that opinion of
+originality in some of the component parts of our earth, are these;
+_first_, They observe certain great masses of granite in which
+stratification is not to be perceived; this then they say is an original
+mass, and it is not to be derived from any natural operation of the
+globe; _secondly_, They observe considerable tracts of the earth
+composed of matter in the order of stratification as to its general
+composition, but not as to its particular position, the vertical
+position here prevailing, instead of the horizontal which is proper to
+strata formed in water; this, therefore, they also term primitive, and
+suppose it to be from another origin than that of the subsidence of
+materials moved in the waters of the globe; _lastly_, They observe both
+strata and masses of calcareous matter in which they cannot distinguish
+any marine body as is usual in other strata of the same substance; and
+these calcareous masses being generally connected with their primitive
+mountains, they have also included these collections of calcareous
+matter, in which marine bodies are not observed, among the primitive
+parts which they suppose to be the original construction of this globe.
+
+It may be proper to see the description of a calcareous alpine mountain.
+M. de Saussure gives us the following observations concerning a mountain
+of this kind in the middle of the Alps, where the water divides in
+running different ways towards the sea. It is in describing the passage
+of the Bon-Homme, (Tom. 2. V. dans les Alpes).
+
+"§ 759. Sur la droite ou au couchant de ces rochers, on voit une
+montagne calcaire étonnante dans ce genre par la hardiesse avec laquelle
+elle élève contre le ciel ses cimes aigues et tranchantes, taillées
+à angles vifs dans le costume des hautes cimes de granit. Elle est
+pourtant bien sûrement calcaire, je l'ai observée de près, et on
+rencontre sur cette route les blocs qui s'en détachent.
+
+"Cette pierre porte les caractères des calcaires les plus anciennes; sa
+couleur est grise, son grain assez fin, on n'y apperçoit aucun vestige
+de corps organisés; ses couches sont peu épaisses, ondées et coupées
+fréquemment par des fentes parallèles entr'elles et perpendiculaires à
+leurs plans. On trouve aussi parmi ces fragmens des brèches calcaires
+grises."
+
+Here is a mountain which will rank with the most primitive of the earth;
+But why? only because it is extremely consolidated without any mark of
+organised body. Had there been in this mountain but one single shell, we
+should not then have scrupled to conclude that the origin of this lofty
+mountain had been the same with every marble or limestone in the earth.
+But though, from the structure of this stone, there is no mark of its
+having been formed immediately of the calcareous parts of animals, there
+is every mark of those calcareous strata having been formed like other
+marbles by deposit in the waters of the globe.
+
+These two things are also homologated by the equal or perfect
+consolidation of their substance; for, as it is to be proved that
+all stratified marbles have been consolidated by the fusion of their
+substance, we must attribute the same consolidating cause to those
+alpine masses; the frequent veins that divide those calcareous strata
+which M. de Saussure has here described, also prove the nature of the
+consolidating cause, (see Chap. 1. page 111.).
+
+This mountain, considered by itself, may perhaps afford no data by which
+a naturalist might read the circumstances of its origin. But, Is a
+theory of the earth to be formed upon such a negative observation? and,
+Is there any particular in this mountain, that may not be shown in
+others of which the origin is not in any degree doubtful?
+
+It is not to be disputed, that there are parts of the solid body of our
+earth which may be considered as primary or prior, compared with others
+that are posterior, in relation to the time of their formation, and much
+less changed with regard to the state in which they had been originally
+formed:--But it is here denied, that there are any parts of the earth
+which do not appear to have had the same origin with all the rest, so
+far as this consists in the collection of materials deposited at the
+bottom of the waters[21]; for there is no solid mass of land that may
+not be traced to this origin, either from its composition, or from its
+local connection with other masses, the nature of which in this respect
+are known. We have already given examples of this from sufficient
+authority. The evidence, therefore, of those primary masses being
+original in relation to the natural operations of the globe, is reduced
+to this assertion, that there are no vestiges of organised bodies to be
+found in those primary masses. Let us now examine how far this testimony
+for the originality of those masses is to be admitted in fact and sound
+reasoning.
+
+[Note 21: There are no collection of those alpine masses in which may
+not be found in some of them sand, mica, and gravel; but these materials
+prove the existence of an earth, on which those fragments of greater
+masses had been formed, and more or less worn by attrition.]
+
+The matter in question at present is this, that there are certain tracts
+of countries in which no vestige of organised bodies are found; now, let
+us suppose the fact to be true or well grounded, Can we conclude
+from this that there had been originally no organised bodies in the
+composition of those masses?--Such a conclusion could only be formed in
+making a supposition, that every organised body deposited in a mass
+of matter, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, should be preserved
+without change, while the collected mass, in which it had been
+deposited, changes as much as possible by the operation both of fire and
+water. But this supposition is erroneous, and cannot be admitted; and
+the study of marbles will demonstrate this truth, that the calcareous
+relics of organised bodies are changed, in the consolidating operations
+of the globe, in every degree, from the smallest alteration to the
+greatest, when they become indistinguishable any farther to our sight.
+
+Therefore, from the supposition of no appearance of marine bodies in the
+pretended primitive masses, there is no sufficient evidence or reason to
+conclude, that those masses have not had a marine origin; because, the
+traces of organised bodies may be obliterated by the many subsequent
+operations of the mineral region; and which operations, the present
+state of those masses certify beyond dispute.
+
+We are now to examine the fact, how far the ground on which that false
+reasoning had been founded is strictly true.
+
+In the first place, then, it must be considered, that the alledged fact
+is nothing but a negative assertion, importing that no mark of organised
+bodies had been observed, in certain stones and strata which some
+naturalists have examined with that view. But, though many naturalists
+have looked for them without success, it does not follow that such marks
+may not be found; it indeed proves that such a task is difficult, and
+the success of it, to a particular, most precarious; accident, however,
+may bring about what the greatest industry has not been able to attain.
+Secondly, there is good reason to believe that this asserted negation
+is not absolutely true; for I have in my possession what I consider as
+proof of the contrary; I found it in Wales, and I think it is in what
+may be considered as primitive mountains;--it is the mark of shells in a
+stone of that kind.
+
+Thus, I had formed my opinion with regard to this alleged fact, long
+before I had seen any description either of the Alps or Pyrennean
+mountains; and now I have no reason to change that opinion. It may
+indeed be alleged, that the strata of marble or limestone, containing
+marine bodies found in those mountains, are secondary strata, and not
+the primitive. To this I can give no reply, as the descriptions given of
+those strata do not enable me to decide this point.
+
+At the village of Mat, under the Mont Blatten for example, there is a
+quarry of schistus or black slate, in which are often found the print
+and the bones of fishes. (Discours sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la
+Suisse, page 225.). If this may be considered as an alpine or primitive
+schistus, it would be decisive of the question: But it would require to
+have it well ascertained that this schistus is truly one of those which
+are esteemed primitive, or that it is properly connected with them.
+
+But though I cannot find in those interesting descriptions which we now
+have got, any one which is demonstrative of this truth, that calcareous
+marine objects are found in the primitive strata, this is not the
+case with regard to another object equally important in deciding this
+question, Whether the primitive strata are found containing the marks of
+organised bodies?
+
+M. de Dellancourt, in his _Observations Minéralogiques_, Journal de
+Physique Juillet 1786, in describing the mountains of Dauphiné, gives us
+the following fact with regard to those alpine vertical strata.
+
+"La pierre constituante de la montagne d'Oris est en général le _Kneifs_
+ou la roche feuilletée mica et quartz à couches plus ou moins ferrées
+quelquefois le schorl en roche pénétré de stéatite. Les couches varient
+infiniment quant à leur direction et à leur inclinaisons. Cette montagne
+est cultivée et riche dans certain cantons, surtout autour du village
+d'Oris, mais elle est très-escarpée dans beaucoup d'autres. Entre le
+village d'Oris et celui du Tresnay est une espèce de combe assez creuse
+formée par la chute des eaux des cimes supérieures des rochers. Cette
+combe offre beaucoup de schiste dont les couches font ou très-inclinées
+ou perpendiculaires. Entre ces couches il s'en est trouvé de plus noires
+que les autres et capable de brûler, mais difficilement. Les habitans
+ont extrait beaucoup de cette matière terreuse, et lui ont donné le nom
+de charbon de terre. Ils viennent même à bout de la faire brûler, et
+de s'en servir l'hiver en la mêlant avec du bois. Ce schiste noir
+particulier m'a paru exister principalement dans les endroits ou les
+eaux se sont infiltrées entre les couches perpendiculaires, et y ont
+entraîné diverse matières, et sur-tout des débris de végétaux que
+j'ai encore retrouvés à demi-noirs, pulvérulens et comme dans un état
+charbonneux."
+
+This formation of coal, by the infiltration of water and carrying in of
+vegetable bodies, certainly cannot be admitted of; consequently, from
+this description, there would seem to be strata of coal alternated with
+the alpine schisti. But the formation of mineral coal requires vegetable
+matter to have been deposited along with those earthy substances, at the
+bottom of the sea. The production of vegetable bodies, again, requires
+the constitution of sea and land, and the system of a living world,
+sustaining plants at least, if not animals.
+
+In this natural history of the alpine schisti, therefore, we have a
+most interesting fact, an example which is extremely rare. Seldom are
+calcareous organised bodies found among those alpine strata, but still
+more rarely, I believe, are the marks of vegetable bodies having
+contributed in the formation of those masses. But however rare this
+example, it is equally decisive of the question, Whether the alpine
+schisti have had a similar origin as the other strata of the globe,
+in which are found abundance of animal and vegetable bodies, or their
+relics? and we are authorised to say, that since those perfect alpine
+strata of Dauphiné have had that origin, all the alpine schisti of the
+globe have been originally formed in a similar manner. But to put this
+matter out of doubt:
+
+In this summer 1788, coming from the Isle of Man, Mr Clerk and I
+traveled through the alpine schistus country of Cumberland and
+Westmoreland. We found a limestone quarry upon the banks of Windermere,
+near the Low-wood Inn. I examined this limestone closely, but despaired
+of finding any vestige of organised body. The strata of limestone
+seem to graduate into the slate or schistus strata, between which the
+calcareous are placed. Fortunately, however, I at last found a fragment
+in which I thought to perceive the works of organised bodies in a
+sparry state; I told Mr Clerk so, and our landlord Mr Wright, who had
+accompanied us. I have brought home this specimen, which I have now
+ground and polished; and now it is most evidently full of fragments of
+entrochi. Mr Wright then told me he had seen evident impressions of
+marine objects, as I understood from the description, in the slate of
+those mountains; and he was to send me specimens so soon as he could
+procure them.
+
+Here is one specimen which at once overturns all the speculations formed
+upon that negative proposition. The schistus mountains of Cumberland
+were, in this respect, as perfect primitive mountains as any upon the
+earth, before this observation; now they have no claim upon that score,
+no more than any limestone formed of shells.
+
+When I first announced my belief that such objects in natural history
+might be found, I little thought to have seen it realised, to such a
+degree as has now happened in the little circle of my knowledge. In the
+summer 1791,
+
+Professor Playfair was to pass through Cumberland. I begged that he
+would inquire of Mr Wright, at the Low-wood Inn, for those objects which
+he was to endeavour to procure for me, and to examine the limestone
+quarry in which I had found the specimen with entrochi. He went through
+another part of those primary mountains, and has found examples of this
+kind in the schisti; concerning which he has written me the following
+account.
+
+"In a visit which I made to the Lakes of Cumberland in September 1791,
+in company with the Hon. Francis Charteris, I met with a limestone
+full of marine objects, though from its position it is certainly to be
+reckoned among the primary strata. The place where we found this stone
+was in the district of Lancashire, that is west of Windermere Lake, on
+the road from Ambleside to the north end of Coniston Lake, and not far
+from the point when you come in sight of the latter. Just about this
+spot we happened to meet with one of those people who serve as guides
+to travelers in those parts, and who told us, among other things, that
+stones with shells in them were often found not far from where we were
+then walking. We immediately began to look about for specimens of that
+kind, and soon met with several; the most remarkable of which was in a
+rock that rose a little above the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to
+the right of the road. It was a part of a limestone stratum, nearly
+vertical, and was full of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
+in a common secondary limestone. The strata on both sides had the same
+inclination, and were decidedly primary, consisting of the ordinary
+micaceous schistus. This however I need not remark to you, who know so
+well from your own observations that the whole of the country I am now
+speaking of has every character of a primary one. I, only mention it,
+that it may not be supposed that the rock in question was some fragment
+of a secondary stratum that remained, after the rest was washed away,
+superincumbent on the primary.
+
+"After I had seen this rock, I recollected that you had told me of
+something of the same kind that you saw in a quarry at Low-wood Inn; and
+it may be that both belonged to the same stratum or body of strata; for
+the direction of the strata, as nearly as I could observe, was from S.W.
+to N.E.; and this also is nearly the bearing of Low-wood from the place
+where we now were. I send you a specimen, which you can compare with
+those you brought from the lime quarry at Low-wood."
+
+I have examined this specimen, and find it to be the common schistus
+of that country, only containing many bivalve shells and fragments of
+entrochi and madrapore bodies, and mixed with pyrites.
+
+I have already observed that one single example of a shell, or of its
+print, in a schistus, or in a stone stratified among those vertical or
+erected masses, suffices to prove the origin of those bodies to have
+been, what I had maintained them to be, water formed strata erected from
+the bottom of the sea, like every other consolidated stratum of the
+earth. But now, I think, I may affirm, that there is not, or rarely, any
+considerable extent of country of that primary kind, in which some mark
+of this origin will not be found, upon careful examination; and now I
+will give my reason for this assertion. I have been examining the south
+alpine country of Scotland, occasionally, for more than forty years
+back, and I never could find any mark of an organised body in the
+schistus of those mountains. It is true that I know of only one place
+where limestone is found among the strata; this is upon Tweed-side near
+the Crook. This quarry I had carefully examined long ago, but could find
+no mark of any organised body in it. I suppose they now are working some
+other of the vertical strata near those which I had examined; for, in
+the summer 1792, I received a letter from Sir James Hall, which I shall
+now transcribe. It is dated at Moffat, June 2. 1792.
+
+"As I was riding yesterday between Noble-house and Crook, on the road to
+this place, I fell in with a quarry of alpine limestone; it consists of
+four or five strata, about three feet thick, one of them single, and the
+rest contiguous; they all stand between the strata of slate and schist
+that are at the place nearly vertical. In the neighbourhood, a slate
+quarry is worked of a pure blue slate; several of the strata of slate
+near the limestone are filled with fragments of limestone scattered
+about like the fragments of schist in the sandstone in the neighbourhood
+of the junction on our coast.[22]
+
+[Note 22: This has a reference to very curious observations which we
+made upon the east coast where these mountains terminate, and which I am
+to describe in the course of this work.]
+
+"Among the masses of limestone lately broken off for use, and having the
+fractures fresh, I found the forms of cockles quite distinct; and in
+great abundance.--I send you three pieces of this kind," etc.
+
+It may perhaps be alleged that those mountains of Cumberland and
+Tweedale are not the primary mountains, but composed of the secondary
+schistus, which is every where known to contain those objects belonging
+to a former earth. Naturalists who have not the opportunity of
+convincing themselves by their proper examination, must judge with
+regard to that geological fact by the description of others. Now it is
+most fortunate for natural history, that it has been in this range of
+mountains that we have discovered those marks of a marine origin; for,
+I shall afterwards have occasion to give the clearest light into this
+subject, from observations made in other parts of those same mountains
+of schist, by which it will be proved that they are the primary
+strata; and thus no manner of doubt will then remain in the minds
+of naturalists, who might otherwise suspect that we were deceiving
+ourselves, by mistaking the secondary for the primitive schistus.
+
+I have only farther to observe, that those schisti mountains of Wales,
+of Cumberland, and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where these
+marine objects have been found, consist, of that species of stone which
+in some places makes the most admirable slate for covering houses; and,
+in other parts, it breaks into blocks that so much resemble wood in
+appearance, that, without narrow inspection, it might pass for petrified
+wood.
+
+We are therefore to conclude that the marks of organised bodies in those
+primary mountains are certainly found; at the same time the general
+observation of naturalists has some foundation, so far as the marks of
+organised bodies are both rarely to be met with in those masses, and not
+easily distinguished as such when they are found.
+
+But this scarcity of marine objects is not confined to those primary
+mountains, as they are called; for among the most horizontal strata, or
+those of the latest production, there are many in which, it is commonly
+thought, no marine calcareous objects are to be found; and this is a
+subject that deserves to be more particularly considered, as the theory
+may thus receive some illustration.
+
+Sandstone, coal, and their accompanying strata, are thought to be
+destitute of calcareous marine productions, although many vestiges of
+plants or vegetable productions are there perceived. But this general
+opinion is neither accurate nor true; for though it be true that in the
+coal and sandstone strata it is most common to find marks of vegetable
+production, and rarely those calcareous bodies which are so frequent in
+the limestone, yet it is not unusual for coal to be accompanied
+with limestone formed of shells and corals, and also with ironstone
+containing many of those marine objects as well as wood. Besides,
+sandstone frequently contains objects which have been organised bodies,
+but which do not belong to the vegetable kingdom, at least to no plant
+which grows upon the land, but would seem to have been some species of
+zoophite perhaps unknown.
+
+I have also frequently seen the vestige of shells in sandstone, although
+in these strata the calcareous bodies are in general not perceived.
+The reason of this is evident. When there is a small proportion of the
+calcareous matter in the mass of sand which is pervious to steam and to
+the percolation of water, the calcareous bodies may be easily dissolved,
+and either carried away or dispersed in the mass; or even without being
+thus dispersed by means of solution, the calcareous matter may be
+absorbed by the siliceous substance of the stratum by means of fusion,
+or by heat and cementation. The fact is, that I have seen in sandstone
+the empty mould of marine shells with some siliceous crystallization,
+so far as I remember, which corresponded perfectly with that idea. The
+place I saw this was in a fine white sandstone accompanying the coal,
+upon the sea side at Brora in Sutherland.
+
+Mineralogy is much indebted to Mr Pallas for the valuable observations
+which he has given of countries so distant from the habitations of
+learned men. The physiology of the globe has also been enriched with
+some interesting observations from the labours of this learned traveller.
+But besides giving us facts, Mr Pallas has also reasoned upon the
+subject, and thus entered deep into the science of Cosmogeny; here it
+is that I am afraid he has introduced some confusion into the natural
+history of the earth, in not properly distinguishing the mineral
+operations of the globe, and those again which belong entirely to the
+surface of the earth; perhaps also in confounding the natural effects of
+water upon the surface of the earth, with those convulsions of the sea
+which may be properly considered as the accidental operations of the
+globe. This subject being strictly connected with the opinions of that
+philosopher with regard to primitive mountains, I am obliged to examine
+in this place matters which otherwise might have come more properly to
+be considered in another.
+
+M. Pallas in his _Observations sur la formation des montagnes_, (page
+48) makes the following observations.
+
+"J'ai déjà dit que _la bande de montagnes primitives schisteuses_
+hétérogènes, qui, par toute la terre, accompagne les chaînes
+granitiques, et comprend les roches quartzeuses et talceuses mixtes,
+trapézoïdes, serpentines, le schiste corne, les roches spathiques et
+cornées, les grais purs, le porphyre et le jaspre, tous rocs fêlés
+en couches, ou presque perpendiculaires, ou du moins très-rapidement
+inclinées, (les plus favorables à la filtration des eaux), semble
+aussi-bien que le granit, antérieure à la création organisée. Une raison
+très-forte pour appuyer cette supposition, c'est que la plupart de ces
+roches, quoique lamelleuse en façon d'ardoise, n'a jamais produit
+aux curieux la moindre trace de pétrifactions ou empreintes de corps
+organisés. S'il s'en est trouvé, c'est apparemment dans des fentes de
+ces roches où ces corps ont été apportés par un deluge, et encastrées
+apres dans une matière infiltrée, de même qu'on a trouvé des restes
+d'Eléphans dans le filon de la mine d'argent du Schlangenberg.[23] Les
+caractères par lesquels plusieurs de ces roches semblent avoir souffert
+des effets d'un feu-très-violent, les puissantes veines et amas des
+minéraux les plus riches qui se trouvent principalement dans la bande
+qui en est composée, leur position immédiate sur le granit, et même le
+passage, par lequel on voit souvent en grand, changer le granit en une
+des autres espèces; tout cela indique une origine bien plus ancienne,
+et des causes bien différentes de celles qui ont produit les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+[Note 23: This is a very natural way of reasoning when a philosopher
+finds a fact, related by some naturalists, that does not correspond with
+his theory or systematic view of things. Here our author follows the
+general opinion in concluding that no organised body should be found in
+their primitive strata; when, therefore, such an object is said to have
+been observed, it is supposed that there may have been some mistake with
+regard to the case, and that all the circumstances may not have been
+considered. This caution with regard to the inaccurate representation of
+facts, in natural history, is certainly extremely necessary; the relicts
+of an elephant found in a mineral vein, is certainly a fact of that
+kind, which should not be given as an example in geology without the
+most accurate scientifical examination of the subject.]
+
+Here M. Pallas gives his reason for supposing those mountains primitive
+or anterior to the operations of this globe as a living world; _first_,
+because they have not, in general, marks of animals or plants; and that
+it is doubtful if they ever properly contain those marks of organised
+bodies; _secondly_, because many of those rocks have the appearance of
+having suffered the effects of the most violent fire. Now, What are
+those effects? Is it in their having been brought into a fluid state of
+fusion. In that case, no doubt, they may have been much changed from the
+original state of their formation; but this is a very good reason why,
+in this changed state, the marks of organised bodies, which may have
+been in their original constitution, should be now effaced.
+
+The _third_ reason for supposing those mountains primitive, is taken
+from the metallic veins, which are found so plentifully in these masses.
+Now, had these masses been the only bodies in this earth in which those
+mineral veins were found, there might be some species of reason for
+drawing the conclusion, which is here formed by our philosopher. But
+nothing is so common (at least in England) as mineral veins in the
+strata of the latest formation, and in those which are principally
+formed of marine productions; consequently so far from serving the
+purpose for which this argument was employed, the mineral veins in the
+primitive mountains tend to destroy their originality, by assimilating
+them in some respect with every other mass of strata or mountain upon
+the globe.
+
+_Lastly_, M. Pallas here employs an argument taken from an appearance
+for which we are particularly indebted to him, and by which the
+arguments which have been already employed in denying the originality
+of granite is abundantly confirmed. It has been already alleged, that
+granite, porphyry, and whinstone, or trap, graduate into each other; but
+here M. Pallas informs us that he has found the granite not only changed
+into porphyry, but also into the other alpine compositions. How an
+argument for the originality of these mountains can be established upon
+those facts, I am not a little at a loss to conceive.
+
+The general mineralogical view of the Russian dominions, which we have,
+in this treatise, may now be considered with regard to that distinction
+made by naturalists, of primitive, secondary, and tertiary mountains, in
+order to see how far the observations of this well informed naturalist
+shall be found to confirm the theory of the earth which has been already
+given, or not.
+
+The Oural mountains form a very long chain, which makes the natural
+division betwixt Europe and Asia, to the north of the Caspian. If in
+this ridge, as a centre of elevation, and of mineral operations, we
+shall find the greatest manifestation of the violent exertion of
+subterraneous fire, or of consolidating and elevating operations; and if
+we shall perceive a regular appearance of diminution in the violence or
+magnitude of those operations, as the places gradually recede from
+this centre of active force; we may find some explanation of those
+appearances, without having recourse to conjectures which carry no
+scientific meaning, and which are more calculated to confound our
+acquired knowledge, than to form any valuable distinction of things. Let
+us consult M. Pallas how far this is the case, or not.
+
+After having told us that all those various alpine schisti, jaspers,
+porphyries, serpentines, etc. in those mountains, are found mutually
+convertible with granite, or graduating into each other, our author thus
+continues, (p. 50).
+
+"On entrevoit de certaines loix a l'égard de l'arrangement respectif
+de cet ordre secondaire d'anciennes roches, par tous les systèmes de
+montagnes qui appartiennent à l'Empire Russe. La chaîne Ouralique, par
+exemple, a du côté de l'Orient sur tout sa longueur, une très-grande
+abondance de schistes cornés, serpentins et talceux, riches en filons
+de cuivre, qui forment le principal accompagnement du granite, et en
+jaspres de diverses couleurs plus extérieurs et souvent comme entrelacés
+avec les premiers, mais formant des suites de montagnes entières, et
+occupant de très-grands espaces. De ce même côté, il y paraît beaucoup
+de quartz en grandes roches toutes pures, tant dans la principale chaîne
+que dans le noyau des montagnes de jaspre, et jusques dans la plaine.
+Les marbres spateux et veinés, percent en beaucoup d'endroits. La
+plupart de ces espèces ne paraissent point du tout à la lisière
+occidentale de la chaîne, qui n'est presque que de roche mélangée de
+schistes argileux, alumineux, phlogistique, etc. Les filons des mines
+d'or mêlées, les riches mines de cuivre en veines et chambrées, les
+mines de fer et d'aimant par amas et montagnes entières, sont l'apanage
+de la bande schisteuse orientale; tandis que l'occidentale n'a pour elle
+que des mines de fer de dépôts, et se montre généralement très-pauvre en
+métaux. Le granit de la chaîne qui borde la Sibérie, est recouvert du
+côté que nous connaissons de roches cornées de la nature des pierres à
+fusil, quelquefois tendant à la nature d'un grais fin et de schistes
+très-métallières de différente composition. Le jaspre n'y est qu'en
+filons, ou plans obliques, ce qui est très-rare pour la chaîne
+Ouralique, et s'observe dans la plus grande partie de la Sibérie, à
+l'exception de cette partie de sa chaîne qui passe près de la mer
+d'Okhotsk, ou le jaspre forme derechef des suites de montagnes, ainsi
+que nous venons de le dire des monts Ourals; mais comme cette roche
+tient ici le côté méridionale de la chaîne Sibérienne, et que nous
+ne lui connaissons point ce côté sur le reste de sa longueur, il se
+pourrait que le jaspre y fût aussi abondant. Il faudrait, au reste, bien
+plus de fouilles et d observations pour établir quelque chose de certain
+sur l'ordre respectif qu'observent ces roches."
+
+I would now ask, if in all this account of the gradation of rock from
+the Oural mountains to the sandy coast of the Baltic, there is to be
+observed any clear and distinctive mark of primitive, secondary, and
+tertiary, mountains, farther than as one stratum may be considered as
+either prior or posterior to another stratum, according to the order of
+superposition in which they are found. We have every where evident marks
+of the formation of strata by materials deposited originally in water;
+for the most part, there is sufficient proof that this water in which
+those materials had been deposited was the sea; we are likewise assured
+that the operations of this living world producing animals, must
+have, for a course of time, altogether inconceivably been exerted,
+in preparing materials for this mass; and, lastly, from the changed
+constitution of those masses, we may infer certain mineral operations
+that melt the substance and alter the position of those horizontal
+bodies. Such is the information which we may collect from this mineral
+description of the Russian Dominions.
+
+If we compare some of the Oural mountains with the general strata of
+the Russian plains, then, as to the contained minerals, we may find a
+certain diversity in those two places; at the same time, no greater
+perhaps than may be found betwixt two different bodies in those same
+plains, for example, chalk and flint. But when we consider those bodies
+of the earth, or solid strata of the globe, in relation to their proper
+structure and formation, we surely can find in this description nothing
+on which may be founded any solid opinion with regard to a different
+original, however important conclusions may perhaps be formed with
+regard to the operations of the globe, from the peculiar appearances
+found in alpine.
+
+From this detail of what is found in the Oural mountains, and in the
+gradation of country from those mountains to the plains of Russia, we
+have several facts that are worthy of observation. First extensive
+mountains of jasper. I have a specimen of this stone; it is striped red
+and green like some of our marly strata. It has evidently been formed of
+such argillaceous and siliceous materials, not only indurated, so as to
+lose its character, as an argillaceous stone, but to have been brought
+into that degree of fusion which produces perfect solidity. Of the same
+kind are those hornstein rocks of the nature of flint, sometimes tending
+to the nature of a fine sandstone. Here is the same induration of
+sandstone by means of fusion, that in the argillaceous strata has
+produced jasper. But oblique veins of jasper are represented as
+traversing these last strata; now this is a fact which is not
+conceivable in any other way, than by the injection or transfusion of
+the fluid jasper among those masses of indurated strata.
+
+All this belongs to the east side of the mountains. On the west, again,
+we find the same species of strata; only these are not changed to such a
+degree as to lose their original character or construction, and thus to
+be termed differently in mineralogy.
+
+Our author then proceeds. (p. 53.)
+
+"Nous pourrons parler plus décisivement sur les _montagnes secondaires
+et tertiaires_ de l'Empire, et c'est de celles-là, de la nature, de
+l'arrangement et du contenu de leurs couches, des grandes inégalités et
+de la forme du continent d'Europe et d'Asie, que l'on peut tirer avec
+plus de confiance quelques lumières sur les changemens arrivés aux
+terres habitables. Ces deux ordres de montagnes présentent la chronique
+de notre globe la plus ancienne, la moins sujette aux falsifications, et
+en même-tems plus lisible que le caractère des chaînes primitives;
+ce font les archives de la nature, antérieures aux lettres et aux
+traditions les plus reculées, qu'il étoit réservé à notre siècle
+observateur de feuiller, de commenter, et de mettre au jour, mais que
+plusieurs siècles après le nôtre n'épuiseront pas.
+
+"Dans toute l'étendue de vastes dominations Russes, aussi bien que
+dans l'Europe entière, les observateurs attentifs ont remarqué
+que généralement la band schisteuse des grandes chaînes se trouve
+immédiatement recouverte ou cottée par la _bande calcaire_. Celle-ci
+forme deux ordres de montagnes, très-différentes par la hauteur, la
+situation de leurs couches, et la composition de la pierre calcaire qui
+les compose; différence qui est très-évidente dans cette bande calcaire
+qui forme la lisière occidentale de toute la chaîne Ouralique, et dont
+le plan s'étend par tout le plat pays de la Russie. L'on observerait
+la même chose à l'orient de la chaîne, et dans toute l'étendue de la
+Sibérie, si les couches calcaires horizontales n'y étaient recouvertes
+par les dépôts postérieures, de façon qu'il ne paraît à la surface que
+les parties les plus faillantes de la bande, et si ce pays n'étoit trop
+nouvellement cultivé et trop peu exploité par des fouilles et autres
+opérations, que des hommes industrieux ont pratiqué dans les pays
+anciennement habités. Ce que je vais exposer sur les deux ordres de
+montagnes calcaires, se rapportera donc principalement à celles qui sont
+à l'occident de la chaîne Ouralique.
+
+"Ce côté de la dite chaîne consiste sur cinquante à cent verstes de
+largeur, de roche calcaire solide, d'un grain uni, qui tantôt ne
+contient aucune trace de productions marines, tantôt n'en conserve
+que des empreintes aussi légères qu'éparses. Cette roche s'élève en
+montagnes d'une hauteur très-considérable, irrégulières, rapides, et
+coupées de vallons escarpés. Ses couches, généralement épaisses, ne sont
+point de niveau, mais très-inclinées à l'horizon, paralleles, pour la
+plupart, à la direction de la chaîne, qui est aussi ordinairement celle
+de la bande schisteuse;--au lieu que du côté de l'orient les couches
+calcaires sont au sens de la chaîne en direction plus ou moins
+approchante de l'angle droite. L'on trouve dans ces hautes montagnes
+calcaires de fréquentes grottes et cavernes très-remarquables, tant
+par leur grandeur que par les belles congélations et crystallizations
+stalactiques dont elles s'ornent. Quelques-unes de ces grottes ne
+peuvent être attribuées qu'à quelque bouleversement des couches;
+d'autres semblent devoir leur origine à l'écoulement des sources
+souterraines qui ont amolli, rongé et charrié une partie de la roche qui
+en étoit susceptible.
+
+"En s'éloignant de la chaîne, on voit les couches calcaires s'aplanir
+assez rapidement, prendre une position horizontale, et devenir
+abondantes en toute forte de coquillages, de madrépores, et d'autres
+dépouilles marines. Telles on les voit par-tout dans les vallées les
+plus basses qui se trouvent aux pieds des montagnes (comme aux environs
+de la rivière d'Oufa); telles aussi, elles occupent tout l'étendue de la
+grande Russie, tant en collines qu'en plat pays; solides tantôt et comme
+semées de productions marines; tantôt toutes composées de coquilles et
+madrépores brisées, et de ce gravier calcaire qui se trouve toujours sur
+les parages ou la mer abonde en pareilles productions; tantôt, enfin,
+dissoutes en craie et en marines, et souvent entremêlées de couches de
+gravier et de cailloux roulés."
+
+How valuable for science to have naturalists who can distinguish
+properly what they see, and describe intelligibly that which they
+distinguish. In this description of the strata, from the chain of
+mountains here considered as primitive, to the plains of Russia, which
+are supposed to be of a tertiary formation, our naturalist presents us
+with another species of strata, which he has distinguished, on the one
+hand, in relation to the mountains at present in question, and on the
+other, with regard to the strata in the plains, concerning which there
+is at present no question at all. Now, let us see how these three things
+are so connected in their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
+links of the same chain.
+
+The primary and tertiary masses are bodies perfectly disconnected;
+and, without a medium by which they might be approached, they would be
+considered as things differing in all respects, consequently as having
+their origins of as opposite a nature as are their appearances. But the
+nature and formation of those bodies are not left in this obscurity;
+for, the secondary masses, which are interposed, participate so
+precisely of what is truly opposite and characteristic in the primary
+and tertiary masses, that it requires nothing more than to see this
+distinction of things in its true light, to be persuaded, that in those
+three different things we may perceive a certain gradation, which
+here takes place among the works of nature, and forms three steps
+distinguishable by a naturalist, although in reality nothing but the
+variable measure of similar operations.
+
+We are now to assimilate the primary and tertiary masses, which are so
+extremely different, by means of the secondary masses, which is the
+mean. The primary and tertiary differ in the following respects: The one
+of these contains the relicts of organised bodies which are not observed
+in the other. But in the species containing these distinguishable
+bodies, the natural structure and position of the mass is little
+affected, or not so much as to be called into doubt. This, however, is
+not the case with the other; the species in which organised bodies do
+not appear, is in general so indurated or consolidated in its structure,
+and changed in its position, that this common origin of those masses is
+by good naturalists, who have also carefully examined them, actually
+denied. Now, the secondary masses may be considered, not only as
+intermediate with respect to its actual place, as M. Pallas has
+represented it, but as uniting together the primary and tertiary, or as
+participating of the distinguishing characters of the other two. It
+is homologated with the primitive mountains, in the solidity of its
+substance and in the position of its strata; with the tertiary species,
+again, in its containing marks of organised bodies. How far this view
+of things is consistent with the theory of the earth now given, is
+submitted to the consideration of the unprejudiced.
+
+Let us see what our learned author has said farther on this subject,
+(page 65).
+
+"Je dois parler d'un ordre de montagnes très-certainement postérieur aux
+couches marines, puisque celles-ci, généralement lui servent de base.
+On n'a point jusqu'ici observé une suite de ces _montagnes tertiaires_,
+effet des catastrophes les plus modernes de notre globe, si marquée
+et si puissante, que celle qui accompagne la chaine Ouralique ou côté
+occidentale fur tout la longueur. Cette suite de montagnes, pour la
+plupart composées de grais, de marnes rougeâtres, entremêlées de couches
+diversement mixtes, forme une chaîne par-tout séparée par une vallée
+plus ou moins large de la bande de roche calcaire, dont nous avons
+parlé. Sillonnée et entrecoupée de fréquens vallons, elles s'élève
+souvent à plus de cent toises perpendiculaires, se répand vers les
+plaines de la Russie en traînées de collines, qui séparent les rivières,
+en accompagnant généralement la rive boréale ou occidentale, et dégénère
+enfin en déserts sableux qui occupent de grands espaces, et s'étendent
+surtout par longues bandes parallèles aux principales traces qui suivent
+les cours des rivieres. La principale force de ces montagnes tertiaires
+est plus près de la chaîne primitive par-tout le gouvernement
+d'Orenbourg et la Permie, ou elle consiste principalement en grais, et
+contient un fond inépuisable de mines de cuivre sableuses, argileuses,
+et autres qui se voient ordinairement dans les couches horizontales.
+Plus loin, vers la plaine, sont des suites de collines toutes marneuses,
+qui abondent autant en pierres gypseuses, que les autres en minerais
+cuivreux. Je n'entre pas dans le détail de celles-ci, qui indiquent
+sur-tout les sources salines; mais je dois dire des premières, qui
+abondent le plus et dont les plus hautes élévations des plaines, même
+celle de Moscou, sont formées, qu'elles contiennent très-peu de traces
+de productions marines, et jamais des amas entiers de ces corps, tels
+qu'une mer reposée pendant des siècles de suite a pu les accumuler dans
+les bancs calcaires. Rien, au contraire, de plus abondant dans ces
+montagnes de grais stratifié sur l'ancien plan calcaire, que des troncs
+d'arbres entières et des fragmens de bois pétrifié, souvent minéralisé
+par le cuivre ou le fer; des impressions de troncs de palmires, de
+tiges de plantes, de roseau, et de quelques fruits étrangers; enfin des
+ossemens d'animaux terrestres, si rares dans les couches calcaires. Les
+bois pétrifiés se trouvent jusques dans les collines de sable de la
+plaine; l'on en tire, entr'autres, des hauteurs sablonneuses aux
+environs de Sysran sur la Volga, changés en queux très-fin, qui a
+conservé jusqu'à la texture organique du bois, et remarquables sur-tout
+par les traces très-évidentes de ces vers rongeurs qui attaquent les
+vaisseaux, les pilotis et autres bois trempés dans la mer, et qui sont
+proprement originaires de la mer des Indes."
+
+This philosopher has now given us a view of what, according to the
+present fashion of mineral philosophy, he has termed _montagnes
+primitives, secondaires, et tertiaires_. The first consists in masses
+and strata, much indurated and consolidated, and greatly displaced in
+their position; but the character of which is chiefly taken from this,
+that they contain not any visible mark of animal or vegetable bodies.
+
+The second are formed in a great measure of marine productions, are
+often no less consolidated than those of the first class, and frequently
+no less changed in their natural shape and situation.
+
+The third again have for character, according to this learned theorist,
+the containing of those organised bodies which are proper to the earth,
+instead of those which in the second class had belonged to the sea;
+in other respects, surely there is no essential difference. It is not
+pretended that these tertiary strata had any other origin, than that of
+having been deposited in water; it is not so much as suspected, that
+this water had been any other than that of the sea; the few marine
+bodies which M. Pallas here acknowledges, goes at least to prove this
+fact: and with regard to the mineral operations which had been employed
+in consolidating those water formed strata, it is impossible not to be
+convinced that every effect visible in the other two are here also to be
+perceived.
+
+From this view of mineral bodies, taken from the extensive observations
+of the Russian dominions, and from the suppositions of geologists in
+relation to those appearances, we should be led to conclude that the
+globe of this earth had been originally nothing but an ocean, a world
+containing neither plant nor animal to live, to grow and propagate its
+species. In following a system founded on those appearances, we must
+next suppose, that to the sterile unorganised world there had succeeded
+an ocean stored with fish of every species. Here it would be proper to
+inquire what sustained those aquatic animals; for, in such a system as
+this, there is no provision made for continuing the life even of the
+individuals, far less of feeding the species while, in an almost
+infinite succession of individuals, they should form a continent of land
+almost composed of their _exuviae_.
+
+If fish can be fed upon water and stone; if siliceous bodies can, by
+the digesting powers of animals, be converted into argillaceous and
+calcareous earths; and if inflammable matter can be prepared without the
+intervention of vegetable bodies, we might erect a system in which this
+should be the natural order of things. But to form a system in direct
+opposition to every order of nature that we know, merely because we may
+suppose another order of things different from the laws of nature which
+we observe, would be as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in
+science, by which the speculations of philosophy are directed, as it
+would be contrary to common sense, by which the affairs of mankind are
+conducted.
+
+Still, however, to pursue our visionary system, after a continent had
+been formed from the relicts of those animals, living, growing, and
+propagating, during an indefinite series of ages, plants at last are
+formed; and, what is no less wonderful, those animals which had formed
+the earth then disappear; but, in compensation, we are to suppose, I
+presume, that terrestrial animals began. Let us now reason from those
+facts, without either constraining nature, which we know, or forming
+visionary systems, with regard to things which are unknown. It would
+appear, that at one period of time, or in one place, the matter of the
+globe may be deposited, in strata, without containing any organised
+bodies; at another time, or in another place, much animal matter may be
+deposited in strata, without any vegetable substance there appearing;
+but at another period, or at another time, strata may be formed with
+much vegetable matter, while there is hardly to be observed any animal
+body. What then are we to conclude upon the whole? That nature, forming
+strata, is subject to vicissitudes; and that it is not always the same
+regular operation with respect to the materials, although always forming
+strata upon the same principles. Consequently, upon the same spot in
+the sea, different materials may be accumulated at different periods of
+time, and, conversely, the same or similar materials may be collected in
+different places at the same time. Nothing more follows strictly from
+the facts on which we now are reasoning; and this is a conclusion which
+will be verified by every appearance, so far as I know.
+
+Of this I am certain, that in a very little space of this country, in
+many places, such a course of things is to be perceived. Nothing so
+common as to find alternated, over and over again, beds of sand-stone
+without animal bodies, beds of coal and schistus abounding with
+vegetable bodies, beds of lime-stone formed of shells and corals, and
+beds or particular strata of iron-stone containing sometimes vegetable
+sometimes animal bodies, or both. Here, indeed, the strata are most
+commonly inclined; it is seldom they are horizontal; consequently, as
+across the whole country, all the strata come up to the day, and may be
+seen in the beds of our rivers, we have an opportunity of observing that
+great variety which is in nature, and which we are not able to explain.
+This only is certain, from what we see, that there is nothing formed
+in one epoch of nature, but what has been repeated in another, however
+dissimilar may be the operations which had intervened between those
+several epochs.
+
+It must not be alleged, that the heights of the Oural mountains, or the
+hardness of their rocks, make an essential distinction between them
+and the argillaceous or arenaceous strata of the plains; solidity and
+hardness, as well as changes in their height and natural position, has
+been superinduced in operations posterior to the collection of those
+masses,--operations which may be formed in various degrees, even in the
+different parts of the same mass. If this is the case, there can be no
+difficulty in conceiving a stratum, which appears to be argillaceous
+or marly in the plains, to be found jasper in the Oural mountains. But
+there is nothing in the Oural mountains, that may not be found some
+where or other in the plains, although the soft and easily decomposing
+argillaceous strata be not found upon the Oural mountains, or the Alps,
+for this reason, that had those mountains been formed of such materials,
+there had not been a mountain there at this day.
+
+But surely the greatest possible error, with regard to the philosophy of
+this earth, would be to confound the sediment of a river with the strata
+of the globe; bodies deposited upon the surface of the earth, with those
+sunk at the bottom of the sea; and things which only form the travelled
+or transported soil, with those which constitute the substratum or the
+solid earth. How far M. Pallas has committed this oversight, I leave
+others to determine. After mentioning those strata in which wood is
+found petrified, and metallic minerals formed, he thus proceeds, (page
+69).
+
+"Dans ces mêmes dépôts sableux et souvent limoneux, gisent les restes
+des grands animaux de l'Inde: ces ossemens d'éléphans, de rhinocéros, de
+buffles monstrueux, dont on déterre tous les jours un si grand nombre,
+et qui font l'admiration des curieux. En Sibérie, où l'on à découvert le
+long de presque toutes les rivières ces restes d'animaux étrangers,
+et l'ivoire même bien conservé en si grande abondance, qu'il forme un
+article de commerce, en Sibérie, dis je, c'est aussi la couche la plus
+moderne de limon sablonneux qui leur sert de sépulture, et nulle part
+ces monumens étrangers sont si frequens, qu'aux endroits où la grande
+chaine, qui domine surtout la frontière méridionale de la Sibérie, offre
+quelque dépression, quelque ouverture considérable.
+
+"Ces grands ossemens, tantôt épars tantôt entassés par squelettes,
+et même par hécatombes, considérée dans leurs sites naturels, m'ont
+sur-tout convaincu de la réalité d'un déluge arrivé sur notre terre,
+d'une catastrophe, dont j'avoue n'avoir pu concevoir la vraisemblance
+avant d'avoir parcouru ces places, et vu, par moi-même, tout ce qui peut
+y servir de preuve à cet évènement mémorable[24]. Une infinité de ces
+ossemens couchés dans des lits mêlés de petites tellines calcinées, d'os
+de poissons, de glossopètres, de bois chargés d'ocre, etc. prouve déjà
+qu'ils ont été transportés par des inondations. Mais la carcasse d'un
+rhinocéros, trouvé avec sa peau entière, des restes de tendons, de
+ligamens, et de cartilages, dans les terres glacées des bords du
+Viloûi, dont j'ai déposé les parties les mieux conservées au cabinet de
+l'Académie, forme encore une preuve convaincante que ce devait être
+un mouvement d'inondation des plus violens et des plus rapides, qui
+entraîna jadis ces cadavres vers nos climats glacés, avant que la
+corruption eût le tems, d'en détruire les parties molles. Il seroit à
+souhaiter qu'un observateur parvint aux montagnes qui occupent l'espace
+entre les fleuves Indighirka et Koylma où selon le rapport des
+chasseurs, de semblables carcasses d'éléphans et d'autres animaux
+gigantesques encore revêtues de leurs peaux, ont été remarquées à
+plusieurs reprises."
+
+[Note 24: Voyez le Mémoire, imprimé dans le XVII. volume des nouveaux
+Commentaires de l'Académie Imperiale de Petersbourgh.]
+
+The question here turns upon this, Are the sea shells and glossopetrae,
+which are thus found deposited along with those skeletons, in their
+natural state, or are they petrified and mineralised. If the productions
+of the sea shall here be found collected along with bodies belonging to
+the surface of the earth, and which had never been within the limits of
+the sea, this would surely announce to us some strange catastrophe,
+of which it would be difficult, perhaps, to form a notion; if, on the
+contrary, those marine productions belong to the solid strata of the
+earth, in the resolution or decay of which they had been set at liberty,
+and were transported in the floods, our author would have no reason from
+those appearances to conclude, there had existed any other deluge than
+those produced by the waters of the land[25].
+
+[Note 25: Since writing this, I find my doubts in a great measure
+resolved, in reading M. Pallas's Journal, translated from the German by
+M. Gauthier de la Peyronie. What I had suspected is, I think, confirmed
+in the distinct account which M. Pallas has given of those occasions
+in which the bones of land animals and marine objects are found buried
+together. The marine objects are mineralised; consequently, they have
+proceeded from the decomposition of the solid strata; and, having been
+travelled in the running water of the surface of the earth, they must
+have been deposited in those beds of rivers, which now are dry, alongst
+with the bones, or the entire bodies of terrestrial animals, the remains
+of which are now found there. This argument, from the state of those
+marine bodies will not be allowed, perhaps by the generality of
+mineralists, who attribute to the operations of water every species of
+petrifaction or mineralisation; but, until some species of proof be
+given with regard to the truth of that theory, which vulgar error first
+suggested, I must reason from a theory, in proof of which I have given
+clear examples, and, I think, irrefragable arguments, which shall be
+more and more illustrated. Thus may be removed the necessity of a
+general deluge, or any great catastrophe, in order to bring together
+things so foreign to each other; but at the same time we would ascertain
+this fact, That formerly the Elephant and Rhinoceros had lived in
+Siberia. (See Voyage de Pallas, Tom. II. p. 377 and 403.)]
+
+Having thus endeavoured to remove this prevailing prejudice, of there
+being primitive parts in this earth, parts of which the composition and
+constitution are not to be explained upon the principles of natural
+philosophy, it will be proper to inquire, how far there may be in the
+theory, which has now been given, principles by which may be explained
+those appearances that have led natural philosophers to form
+conclusions, of there being in this earth parts whose origin may not be
+traced; and of there being parts whose origin may not be explained upon
+the same principles which apply so well to all the rest.
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+In the present theory, it is maintained, that there is no part of the
+earth which has not had the same origin, so far as this consists in that
+earth being collected at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards produced,
+as land, along with masses of melted substances, by the operation of
+mineral causes. But, though all those things be similar, or equal, as to
+the manner of their production, they are far from being so with regard
+to the periods of their original composition, or to the subsequent
+operations which they may have undergone.
+
+There is a certain order established for the progress of nature, for the
+succession of things, and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
+of this globe; and, the order of time is associated with this change of
+things. But it is not in equal portions that time is thus combined with
+dissimilar things, nor always found, in our estimation, as equally
+accompanying those which we reckon similar. The succession of light and
+darkness is that which, in those operations, appears to us most steady;
+the alternation of heat and cold comes next, but not with equal
+regularity in its periods. The succession of wet and dry upon the
+surface of the earth, though equally the work of nature and the effect
+of regular causes, is often to us irregular, when we look for equal
+periods in the course of things which are unequal. It is by equalities
+that we find order in things, and we wish to find order every where.
+
+The present object of our contemplation is the alternation of land
+and water upon the surface of this globe. It is only in knowing this
+succession of things, that natural appearances can be explained; and
+it is only from the examination of those appearances, that any certain
+knowledge of this operation is to be obtained. But how shall we acquire
+the knowledge of a system calculated for millions, not of years only,
+nor of the ages of man, but of the races of men, and the successions of
+empires? There is no question here with regard to the memory of man, of
+any human record, which continues the memory of man from age to age; we
+must read the transactions of time past, in the present state of natural
+bodies; and, for the reading of this character, we have nothing but
+the laws of nature, established in the science of man by his inductive
+reasoning.
+
+It has been in reasoning after this manner, that I have endeavoured to
+prove, that every thing which we now behold, of the solid parts of this
+earth, had been formerly at the bottom of the sea; and that there is, in
+the constitution of this globe, a power for interchanging sea and land.
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the system of this globe,
+we may next examine, how far there are to be found any marks of certain
+parts of our earth having more than once undergone that change of
+posture, or vicissitude of things, and of having had reiterated
+operations of the mineral kingdom changing their substance, as well as
+altering their positions in relation to the atmosphere and sea.
+
+Besides the gradual decay of solid land, exposed to the silent
+influences of the atmosphere, and to the violent operations of the
+waters moving upon the surface of the earth, there is a more sudden
+destruction that may be supposed to happen sometimes to our continents
+of land. In order to see this, it must be considered, that the
+continents of our earth are only raised above the level of the sea by
+the expansion of matter, placed below that land, and rarified in that
+place: We may thus consider our land as placed upon pillars, which may
+break, and thus restore the ancient situation of things when this land
+had been originally collected at the bottom of the ocean. It is not here
+inquired by what mechanism this operation is to be performed; it is
+certainly by the exertion of a subterranean power that the land is
+elevated from the place in which it had been formed; and nothing is more
+natural than to suppose the supports of the land in time to fail, or be
+destroyed in the course of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
+In that case, whatever were remaining of that land, which had for
+millions of ages past sustained plants and animals, would again be
+placed at the bottom of the sea; and strata of every different species
+might be deposited again upon that mass, which, from an atmospheric
+situation, is now supposed to be lower than the surface of the sea.
+
+Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated, or restored with the
+new superincumbent strata, consolidated in their texture and inclined in
+their position. In that case, the inferior mass must have undergone a
+double course of mineral changes and displacement; consequently, the
+effect of subterranean heat or fusion must be more apparent in this
+mass, and the marks of its original formation more and more obliterated.
+
+If, in examining our land, we shall find a mass of matter which had been
+evidently formed originally in the ordinary manner of stratification,
+but which is now extremely distorted in its structure, and displaced in
+its position,--which is also extremely consolidated in its mass, and
+variously changed in its composition,--which therefore has the marks
+of its original or marine composition extremely obliterated, and many
+subsequent veins of melted mineral matter interjected; we should then
+reason to suppose that here were masses of matter which, though not
+different in their origin from those that are gradually deposited at the
+bottom of the ocean, have been more acted upon by subterranean heat and
+the expanding power, that is to say, have been changed in a greater
+degree by the operations of the mineral region. If this conclusion shall
+be thought reasonable, then here is an explanation of all the peculiar
+appearances of the alpine schistus masses of our land, those parts which
+have been erroneously considered as primitive in the constitution of the
+earth.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that some parts of our earth may have
+undergone the vicissitudes of sea and land more than once, having been
+changed from the summit of a continent to the bottom of the sea, and
+again erected, with the rest of that bottom, into the place of land. In
+that case, appearances might be found to induce natural philosophers to
+conclude that there were in our land primary parts, which had not the
+marine origin which is generally to be acknowledged in the structure
+of this earth; and, by finding other masses, of marine origin,
+superincumbent upon those primary mountains, they might make strange
+suppositions in order to explain those natural appearances.
+
+Let us now see what has been advanced by those philosophers who, though
+they term these parts of the earth _primordial_, and not _primitive_, at
+the same time appear to deny to those parts an origin analogous to that
+of their secondary mountains, or strata that are aquiform in their
+construction.
+
+M. de Luc, after having long believed that the strata of the Alps had
+been formed like those of the low countries, at the bottom of the sea,
+gives an account of the occasion by which he was first confirmed in the
+opposite opinion.[26] Like a true philosopher, he gives us the reason of
+this change.
+
+[Note 26: Lettres Physique et Morales sur l'Histoire de la Terre, tom.
+2. pag. 206.]
+
+"Ce fut une espèce de _montagne_ très commune, et que j'avois souvent
+examinée qui dessilla mes yeux. La pierre qui la compose est de
+la classe appellée _schiste_; son caractère générique est d'être
+_feuilletée_; elle renferme _l'ardoise_ dont on couvre les toits. Ces
+_feuillets_ minces, qu'on peut prendre pour des _couches_, et qui le
+font en effet dans quelques pierres de ce genre, rappelloient toujours
+l'idée vague de dépôts des eaux. Mais il y a des masses dont la
+composition est plutôt par fibres que par feuillets, et dont le moëllon
+ressemble aux copeaux de bois d'un chantier. Le plus souvent aussi les
+feuillets sont situés en toute suite de sens dans une même _montagne_,
+et quelquefois même verticalement, Enfin il s'en trouve de si tortillés,
+qu'il est impossible de les regarder comme des dépôts de l'eau.
+
+"Ce fut donc cette espèce de montagne qui me persuada la première
+que toutes les montagnes n'avoient pas une même origine. Le lieu où
+j'abjurai mon erreur, étoit un de ces grands _chantiers_ pétrifiés, qui,
+par la variété du tortillement, et des zig-zags des fibres du moëllon
+qui le composoit, attira singulièrement mon attention. C'étoit un sort
+grand talus qui venoit d'une face escarpée; j'y montai pour m'approcher
+du rocher, et je remarquai, avec étonnement, des multitudes de paquets
+enchevêtrés les uns dans les autres, sans ordre ni direction fixe; les
+uns presqu'en rouleaux; les autres en zig-zag; et même ce qui, séparé de
+la montagne, eût peu être pris pour des _couches_, le trouvoit incliné
+de toute manière dans cette même face de rocher. _Non_, me dis-je alors
+à moi-même; _non, l'eau n'a pu faire cette montagne.... Ni celle-là
+donc_, ajoutai-je en regardant ailleurs.... _Et pourquoi mieux celle-là?
+Pourquoi toutes les montagnes devroient-elles être le produit des eaux,
+seulement parce qu'il y en a quelques-unes qui annoncent cette origine_?
+En effet, puis qu'on n'a songé aux eaux, comme cause des montagnes,
+que par les preuves évidentes que quelques-unes offroient de cette
+formation; pourquoi étendre cette conséquence à toutes, s'il y en
+a beaucoup qui manquent de ces caractères? C'est comme le dit Mr.
+d'Alembert, qu'on généralise ses premières remarques l'instant d'apres
+qu'on ne remarquoit rien."
+
+Science is indebted to this author for giving us so clear a picture
+of natural appearances, and of his own reasoning upon those facts, in
+forming his opinion; he thus leads astray no person of sound judgment,
+although he may be in error. The disposition of things in the present
+case are such, that, reasoning from his principles, this author could
+not see the truth; because he had not been persuaded, that aquiform
+strata could have been so changed by the chemical power of fusion, and
+the mechanical force of bending while in a certain state of softness.
+
+But though, in this case, the reasoning of this philosopher is to be
+justified, so far as he proceeded upon principles which could not lead
+him to the truth, his conduct is not so irreproachable in applying them
+to cases by which their fallacy might have been detected. This author
+acknowledges calcareous strata to be aquiform in their original; but,
+in those mountains which he has so much examined, he will find those
+aquiform bodies have undergone the same species of changes, which made
+him conclude that those schistus mountains had not been truly aquiform,
+as he at first had thought them. This would have led him to reason back
+upon his principles, and to say, _If one species of strata may be thus
+changed in its texture, and its shape, may not another be equally so?
+Therefore, may not the origin of both be similar_?
+
+But least I should do injustice to this author, to whom we are indebted
+for many valuable observations in natural history, I shall transcribe
+what he has said upon the subject, being persuaded that my readers will
+not think this improper in me, or impertinent to the argument.
+
+"Quand nous fumes une fois persuadés que la mer n'avoit pas fait
+toutes les _montagnes_, nous entreprîmes de découvrir les caractères
+distinctifs de celles qui lui devoient leur origine; et s'il étoit, par
+exemple, des matières qui leur fussent propres. Mais nous y trouvâmes
+les mêmes difficultés qu'on rencontre dans tout ce qu'on veut classer
+dans la nature. On peut bien distinguer entr'elles les choses qui
+ont fortement l'empreinte de leur classe; mais les confins échappent
+toujours.
+
+"C'est là, pour le dire en passant, ce qui a pu conduire quelques
+philosophes à imaginer cette _chaîne des êtres_ où ils supposent,
+que, de la pierre à l'homme et plus haut, les nuances sont réellement
+imperceptibles. Comme si, quoique les limites soyent cachées à nos sens,
+notre intelligence ne nous disoit pas, qu'il y a un _saut_, une distance
+même infinie, entre le plus petit degré d'organization _propageante_,
+et la matière unie par la simple cohésion: entre le plus petit degré de
+_sensibilité_, et la matière insensible: entre la plus petite capacité
+d'observer et de transmettre ses observations, et l'instinct constamment
+le même dans l'espèce. Toutes ces différences tranchées existent dans la
+nature; mais notre incapacité de rien connoître à fond, et la necessité
+où nous sommes de juger de tout sur des apparences, nous fait perdre
+presque toutes les limites, parce que sur ces bords, la plupart des
+phénomènes sont équivoques. Ainsi la plante nous paroît se rapprocher de
+la pierre, mais n'en approche jamais réellement.
+
+"On éprouve la même difficulté à classer les montagnes; et quoique
+depuis quelque tems plusieurs naturalistes ayent aussi observé qu'elles
+n'ont pas toutes la même origine, je ne vois pas qu'on soit parvenu à
+fixer des caractères infaillibles, pour les placer sûrement toutes dans
+leurs classes particulières.
+
+"Après avoir examiné attentivement cet objet, d'après les phénomènes que
+j'ai moi-même observés, et ce que j'ai appris par les observations des
+autres; j'ai vu que c'étoit là un champ très vaste, quand on vouloit
+l'embrasser en entier, et trop vaste pour moi, qui n'étoit pas libre d'y
+consacrer tout le tems qu'il exige. Je me suis donc replié sur mon objet
+principal, savoir _la cause qui a laissé des dépouilles marines dans nos
+continens_, et l'examen des hypothèses sur cette matière.
+
+"Les phénomènes ainsi limités, se réduisent à ceci: qu'il y a dans nos
+continens des montagnes visiblement formées par des _dépôts successifs
+de la mer_ et a l'égard des quelles il n'y a besoin de rien imaginer, si
+ce n'est la manière dont elles en sont sorties: qu'il y en a d'autres au
+contraire, qui ne portent aucun des caractères de cette cause, et qui,
+si elles ont été produites dans la _mer_, doivent être l'effet de toute
+autre cause que de simples dépôts successifs, et avoir même précédé
+l'existence des animaux marins. J'abandonne donc les classes confuses
+où ces caractères sont équivoques, jusqu'à ce qu'elles servent à fonder
+quelque hypothèse; ayant assez de ces deux classes très distinctes pour
+examiner d'apres elles tous les systèmes qui me sont connus.
+
+"Là où ces deux classes de montagnes sont mêlées, on remarque que celles
+qui sont formées par _couches_, et qui renferment des _corps marins_,
+recouvrent souvent celles de l'autre classe, mais n'en sont jamais
+recouvertes. On a donc naturellement conclu, que lors même que la _mer_
+auroit en quelque part à la formation des montagnes où l'on ne reconnoît
+pas son caractère, celles auxquelles elle a travaillé seule, en enlevant
+des matières dans certaines parties de son fond et les déposant dans
+d'autres, font au moins les dernières formées. On les a donc nommées
+_secondaires_, et les autres _primitives_.
+
+"J'adopterai la première de ces expressions; car c'est la même qui nous
+étoit venu à l'esprit à mon frère, et à moi longtemps avant que nous
+l'eussions vue employer; mais je substituerai celle de _primordiales à_
+_primitives_ pour l'autre classe de _montagnes_, afin de ne rien décider
+sur leur origine. Il est des _montagnes_, dont jusqu'à present on n'a pu
+démêler la cause: voila le fait. Je ne dirai donc pas qu'elles ont
+été créées ainsi, parce qu'en physique je ne dois pas employer des
+expressions sur lesquelles on ne s'entend pas. Sans doute cependant,
+que l'histoire naturelle ni la physique ne nous conduisent nullement à
+croire que notre globe ait existé de toute éternité; et lorsqu'il prit
+naissance, il fallut bien que la matière qui le composa fut de quelque
+nature, ou sous quelque première forme intégrante. Rien donc jusqu'ici
+n'empêche d'admettre que ces _montagnes_ que je nommerai _primordiales_,
+ne soient réellement _primitives_; je penche même pour cette opinion
+à l'égard de quelques unes. Mais il y a une très grande variété
+entr'elles; et quoiqu'elles soyent toutes également exclues de la classe
+_secondaire_, elles ne sont pas toutes semblables: il y en a même un
+grand nombre dont les matières ont une certaine configuration qui semble
+annoncer qu'elles ayent été molles et durcies ensuite, quoique par
+une toute autre cause que celle qui a agi pour former les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+Here I would beg leave to call the attention of philosophers to this
+observation of a naturalist who explains all petrification, and the
+consolidation of strata by aqueous infiltration. If he has here found
+reason to conclude that, in those primordial parts of the earth, there
+are a great number which, from their present configuration, must have
+been in a soft state and then hardened, and this by a quite different
+cause from that which he supposes had produced the consolidation and
+hardness of the secondary parts; this is entering precisely into my
+views of the subject, in ascribing all the consolidation of the earth,
+whether primary or secondary, to one general cause, and in tracing this
+cause, from its effects, to be no other than the fusion of those bodies.
+It must be evident, that if this philosopher has seen good reason for
+concluding such a softening cause, which had operated upon the primary
+parts, to be quite different from that which he ascribes to the
+consolidation of the secondary, which is the effect of water, it must
+then, I say, be evident that the softening cause of the primary parts,
+if not heat, by which every degree of fusion may be produced, must be an
+occult cause, one which cannot be admitted into natural philosophy.
+
+By thus choosing to consider mountains as of two distinct kinds, one
+aquiform which is understood, and the other primordial which is not to
+be known, we supersede the necessity of reconciling a theory with many
+appearances in nature which otherwise might be extremely inconvenient
+to our explanation, if not inconsistent with our system. Our author no
+doubt has thus relieved himself from a considerable difficulty in the
+philosophy of this earth, by saying here is a great part which is not
+to be explained. But I would beg leave to observe, that this form of
+discussion, with regard to a physical subject, is but a mere confession
+of our ignorance, and has no tendency to clear up another part of the
+subject of which one treats, however it may impress us with a favourable
+opinion of the theorist, in allowing him all the candour of the
+acknowledgement.
+
+The general result of the reasoning which we now have quoted, and what
+follows in his examination, seems to terminate in this; that there are
+various different compositions of mountains which this author cannot
+allow to be the production of the sea; but it is not upon account of
+the matter of which they are formed, or of the particular mixture and
+composition of those species of matter, of which the variety is almost
+indefinite. According to this philosopher, the distinction that we are
+to make of those primordial and secondary competitions, consists in
+this, that the first are in such a shape and structure as cannot be
+conceived to be formed by subsidence in water.
+
+M. de Saussure has carefully examined those same objects; and he seems
+inclined to think that they must have been the operation of the ocean;
+not in the common manner of depositing strata, but in some other way by
+crystallization. The present theory supposes all those masses formed
+originally in the ordinary manner, by the deposits or subsidence
+of materials transported in the waters, and that those strata were
+afterwards changed by operations proper to the mineral regions.
+
+But the subject of the present investigation goes farther, by inquiring
+if, in the operations of the globe, a primary and secondary class of
+bodies may be distinguished, so far as the one may have undergone the
+operations of the globe, or the vicissitudes of sea and land, oftener
+than the other, consequently must be anterior to the later productions
+both in time and operation, although the original of all those bodies
+be the same, and the operations of the earth, so far as we see in the
+effects, always proceed upon the same principles. This is an extensive
+view of nature to which few have turned their thoughts. But this is
+a subject to which the observations described by this author have
+evidently a reference.
+
+In his 113th letter, he has given us a view of one of those parts of the
+earth that are proper to be examined in determining this question so
+important in the genealogy of land, although no ways concerned in
+altering the principles upon which nature in forming continents must
+proceed.
+
+It is in describing the nature of the mountains about _Elbingerode_; and
+he begins in ascending from Hefeld.
+
+"Cette partie extérieure de la chaîne est _primordiale_: c'est du
+_granit_ à _Hereld_ et au commencement de la route; puis quand on passe
+dans d'autres vallées, on trouve les _schistes_ et la _roche grise_ dans
+tout le pied des montagnes: mais des qu'on est arrivé à une certain
+hauteur, on voit de la _pierre à chaux_ par couches étendue sur ces
+matières; et c'est elle qui forme le sommet de ces mêmes montagnes;
+tellement que la plaine élevée, qui conduit à _Elbingerode_, est
+entièrement de _pierre à chaux_, excepté dans sa partie la plus haute ou
+cette pierre est recouverte des mêmes _grès_ et sables _vitrescibles_
+qui sont sur le schiste du Bruchberg et sur la _pierre à chaux_ dans la
+_Hesse_ et le pays de Gottingue.
+
+"Les environs d'Elbingerode étant plus bas que ces parties recouvertes
+de matières vitrescibles, montrent la _pierre à chaux_ à nud; et l'on y
+trouve de très beaux marbres, dont les nuances jaunes, rouges et vertes
+sont souvent très vives, et embellies par les coupes des _corps marins_.
+
+"Cependant le schiste n'est pas enseveli partout sous ces dépôts de la
+mer; on le retrouve en quelques endroits, et même avec de _filons_.
+
+"Ainsi au milieu de ces matières _calcaires_ qui forment le sol montueux
+des environs _d'Elbingerode_, paroît encore le _schiste_ sur lequel
+elles ont été déposées: Et en montant à la partie la plus élevée de
+ces mêmes environs, on trouve que la _pierre à chaux_ est recouverte
+elle-même d'une _pierre sableuse_ grise par couches, dans laquelle on
+voit quantité de petits fragmens de _schiste_ posés de plat. C'est la
+que se trouve une des mines de _fer_ dont le minerai va en partie à la
+_Koningshutte_, mais en plus grande partie à la _Rothechutte_, qui n'est
+qu'à une lieue de distance. On perce d'abord la couche sableuse; sous
+elle se trouve de la _pierre à chaux_ grise; puis une couche de
+_pierre à chaux ferrugineuse_, remplie de _corps marins_, et surtout
+_d'entroques_: C'est cette _couche_ qui est ici le _minerai_; et elle
+appartient à la formation de cette éminence comme toutes les autres
+_couches_. Cette mine se nomme _bomshey_: elle n'est pas riche; mais
+elle sert de _fondant_ aux matières ferrugineuses tirées des filons des
+montagnes primordiales en même tems qu'elle leur ajoute son _fer_ dans
+la fonte. A quelque distance de là on a percé un autre puits; qui a
+transversé d'abord une sorte de pierre, que je ne saurois nommer, mais
+qui ressemble fort à une _lave_ poreuse. Au dessous de cette couche on a
+retrouvé la _pierre à chaux_ ordinaire; puis la _couche ferrugineuse_ y
+continue; mais elle diffère un peu de ce qu'elle est dans l'autre mine,
+une partie de sa substance étant convertie en _jaspe_.
+
+"Mais ce qui est digne de la plus grande attention dans cette contrée,
+est un filon peu distant nomme _Buchenberg_, qui appartient en partie au
+Roi, et en partie à Mr. le Comte de _Wernigerode_. La montagne en cette
+endroit montre une vallée artificielle de 70 à 80 pieds de profondeur,
+de 20 à 30 de largeur dans le haut, et de 400 toises en étendue. C'est
+le creusement qu'on a déjà fait en suivant ce _filon_ de _fer_, que l'on
+continue à exploiter de la même manière sur les terres de Mr. le Comte
+de _Wernigerode_. La matière propre de la montagne _est_ de _schiste_;
+et la vallée qui se forme de nouveau à mesure qu'on enlève la _gangue_
+du _filon_, a sûrement déjà existé dans la mer sous la forme d'une
+_fente_, qui a été remplie, et en particulier des ingrédiens dont on
+fait aujourd'hui le _fer_."
+
+Here is a supposition of our author that corresponds to nothing which
+has yet been observed any where else, so far as I know. It is concerning
+a mineral vein, one which does not appear to differ in any respect from
+other mineral veins, except in being worked in that open manner which
+has given our author an idea of its being a valley. He then supposes
+that valley (or rather empty vein) to have been in this mountain when at
+the bottom of the sea, and that this mineral vein had then been filled
+with those materials which now are found in that space between the two
+sides of the separated rock. This is a very different operation from
+that of infiltration, which is commonly supposed to be the method of
+filling mineral veins; but, we shall soon see the reason why our author
+has here deserted the common hypothesis, and has adopted another to
+serve the occasion, without appearing to have considered how perfectly
+inconsistent those two suppositions are to each other. That mineral
+veins have been filled with matter in a fluid state, is acknowledged by
+every body who has either looked at a mineral vein in the earth, or in a
+cabinet specimen; mineralists and geologists, in general, suppose this
+to have been done by means of solutions and concretions, a supposition
+by no means warranted by appearances, which, on the contrary, in general
+demonstrate that the materials of those veins had been introduced in the
+fluid state of fusion. But here is a new idea with regard to the filling
+of those veins; and, I would now beg the reader's attention to the facts
+which follow in this interesting description, and which have suggested
+that idea to our author.
+
+"Quand cette matière accidentelle est enlevée, on voit la coupe du
+_schiste_ des deux côtes de la _fente_, faisant un _toit_ et un _mur_,
+parce que la _fente_ n'est pas absolument verticale: des qu'il y a
+un peu d'inclinaison, on distingue un _toit_ et un mur, comme j'ai
+l'honneur de l'expliquer à V.M. On ne connoît point encore l'étendue de
+ce filon, ni dans sa profondeur, où l'on ne peut pas s'enfoncer beaucoup
+de cette manière, ni dans la longueur, selon laquelle on continue à
+l'exploiter.
+
+"Voilà donc un _filon_, à la rigueur de la définition que j'en ai donné
+à V.M. c'est à dire, une _fente_ dans la montagne naturelle, _comblée_
+de _matière_ étrangère. Mais ce qu'il y a d'extraordinaire ici, c'est
+que cette _matière_ vient de la _mer_: ce sont différentes _couches
+aquiformes_, dont quelques unes sont remplies de _corps marins_. Il y
+a des _couches_ d'une _terre martiale_ fort brune et sans liaison:
+d'autres, au contraire toujours _martiales_, sont très dures et
+renferment de très beau jaspe sanguin: d'autres enfin sont de vrai
+_marbre_ gris veinées de rouge. C'est dans ce marbre que font les _corps
+marins_, savoir des coquillages et des spongites; et il est lui-même
+martial comme tout le reste: les mineurs le nomment _Kubrimen_, et ne
+l'employent que comme un _fondant_ pour d'autres _minéraux de fer_.
+
+"A ce _filon_, s'en joignent d'autres plus embarrassans. Ils viennent du
+_toit_, qu'ils divisent par de larges _fentes_ comblées, aboutissantes
+au _filon_ principale. Ils font de même _calcaires_ et marins faits par
+_couches_; mais ces _couches_ ont une si grande inclinaison, que je ne
+puis les comprendre: il faut qu'il y ait eu d'étranges bouleversemens
+dans ces endroits-là[27].
+
+[Note 27: Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible to
+explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling of mineral
+veins, and their branches or ramifications, with marble containing marks
+of marine objects. But, if we shall suppose this marble to have been in
+the fluid state of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may
+easily conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its branches.
+The description here given of those appearances is by no means such as
+to enable us to judge particularly of this case, which surely merits the
+most accurate investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical
+demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances. I know that
+shells have been found within the body of veins in Germany; but, a
+stratification of those materials in a vein was never heard of before,
+so far as I know.]
+
+"Ces _fentes_ se sont faites, et ont été remplies, dans la _mer_;
+puisque les matières qui les remplissent sont de la classe de ses dépôts
+très connoissables, et qu'il contiennent des _dépouilles marines_. Mais
+ce qui embarrasse alors c'est que les autres _filons_ ne soyent pas dans
+le même cas. N'est ce point là encore un indice, que ces _fentes_ out
+été d'abord et principalement remplies de matières, poussées du fond par
+la même force qui secouoit les montagnes[28].
+
+[Note 28: But what is this power by which matter is to be forced from
+the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountains? For, unless we can
+form some idea of that power which, as a cause, we ascribe to the
+perceived effect, we either say nothing to the purpose, or we employ a
+preternatural cause. It is not sufficient to imagine a power capable of
+raising from the bottom of the sea the materials deposited in the abyss;
+it is also necessary to find a power capable of softening bodies which
+are hard, and of thus consolidating those masses which are formed of
+loose or unconnected materials. Such a power, indeed, the present theory
+assumes; and, so far as this shall be implied in the supposition of our
+author, it will thus have received a certain conformation.]
+
+"Ce _filon_ n'est pas le seul dans le _Hartz_ qui donne des signes
+_marins_. Il y en a un autre, qui même se rapproche davantage de
+la nature du commun des _filons_, et où l'on trouve aussi des
+_coquillages_. C'est celui de _Haus-Hartzbergerzug_, pres de
+_Clausthal_, où, dans les _Halles_ de quelques mines de plomb
+abandonnées, et dans une forte _d'ardoise_, on trouve de petites
+_moules_ ou _tellines_ striées, d'une espèce particulière que j'ai vue
+dans des _ardoises secondaires d'Arotzen_ en _Waldek_ et de _Sombernon_
+en _Bourgogne_. Il y a donc certainement quelques _filons_ faits par les
+dépôts de la _mer_ dans les _fentes_ de montagnes _primordiales_; comme
+au contraire il y a des _filons_ métalliques sans indices _marins_,
+dans des montagnes évidemment _secondaires_, telles que celles de
+_Derbyshire_, ou les _filons_ de _plomb_ traversent des couches de
+_pierre à chaux_."
+
+Here again our author seems to me to refute his own supposition, That a
+chasm in the schistus rock may have existed at the bottom of the sea,
+and been then filled from above with such materials as were transported
+by the moving water to that place, is not impossible; but nobody, who
+knows the nature of a common metallic vein, can ever suppose it to have
+been filled in that manner. Our author then adds, "On ne fait réellement
+que commencer dans ce genre d'observations, considérées quant à la
+Cosmologie; ainsi il ne faut point désespérer que tout cela ne se
+dévoile un jour, et que nous n'acquerrions ainsi un peu plus de
+connoissance sur ce qui se passoit dans la _mer ancienne_.
+
+"En revenant vers _Elbingerode_, nous retrouvâmes ces _schistes_, qui
+paroissent au travers des _marbres:_ ils sont donc la continuation de la
+masse _schisteuse_ à laquelle appartient le _filon_, dont je viens de
+parler. Ce _filon_ à été formé dans une _fente_, restée ouverte et vide:
+les dépôts de la _mer_ l'ont comblée, en même tems qu'ils formoient
+les couches de _marbre_, qui sont à l'extérieur. En effet, ce _filon_
+contient des _couches marines ferrugineuses_, de la même nature que
+celles des collines calcaires voisines formées sur le schiste.
+
+"Nous partîmes _d'Elbingerode_ dans l'après midi pour nous rapprocher
+de Clausthal. Notre chemin fut encore quelque tems sur des sommités
+_calcaires_; et avant que d'en sortir, nous trouvâmes une autre mine
+singulière à _Arenfeld_. C'est encore un vrai _filon_; mais dans une
+montagne de _pierre à chaux:_ C'est à-dire, que cette montagne a aussi
+été _fendue_, et que la _fente_ a été remplie d'une _gangue_. La matière
+de ce _filon_ est encore _calcaire_ en plus grande partie; mais
+cette _pierre à chaux_ distincte est _ferrugineuse_, et parsemée de
+concrétions de _jaspe_ comme celles _d'Elbingerode:_ on y trouve aussi
+une matière verdâtre, qui, comme le _jaspe_, ne fait pas effervescence
+avec l'eau forte."
+
+Here is a phenomenon which is altogether incompatible with the theory
+that this author has given us for the explanation of those appearances.
+He supposes empty crevices in the schistus mountains at the bottom of
+the sea; these crevices he supposes filled by the deposits of the sea,
+at the same time, and with the same materials with which the lime-stone
+strata were formed above the schistus mountains; but we find one of
+those same veins in these secondary calcareous strata. Now, tho' we
+should be disposed to allow, that, in the primordial mountain, of which
+we are supposed not to know the origin, there might have been empty
+crevices which were afterwards filled with materials transported by the
+sea, this cannot be admitted as taking place in the loose or incoherent
+materials deposited above the schistus. Consequently, this theory of our
+author, which is evidently erroneous with regard to the veins in the
+lime-stone, must, in the other case, be at least examined with a jealous
+eye.
+
+"Le haut de cette partie des montagnes _calcaires_ étoit encore
+recouvert de _sable_ et de grès _vitrescibles_: et continuant à marcher,
+sans aucune inflexion sensible, nous nous trouvâmes subitement sur les
+_schistes_; d'où nous montâmes plus rapidement. Puis traversant quelques
+petites vallées nous arrivâmes sur les montagnes qui appartiennent au
+prolongement du _Brocken_ ou _Blocksberg_. La matière dominante est
+alors le _granit_; mais il est tout en blocs le long de cette route, et
+ces blocs se trouvent à une telle distance de tout sommité intacte de
+cette pierre, qui est aisé de juger non seulement qu'ils ne sont pas
+dans leur place originaire, mais encore qu'il ne sont arrivés là par
+aucune des causes naturelles qui agissent dans les montagnes; savoir,
+la pesanteur, la pente, et le cours des eaux. Ce sont donc de violentes
+explosions qui ont dispersé ces blocs; et alors ils deviennent un
+nouveau trait cosmologique de quelque importance: car rien ne se meut,
+ni ne paroît s'être mu depuis bien des siècles, dans ces lieux qui
+montrent tant de désordre: un tapis de verdure couvre tout, en
+conservant les contours baroques du sol. Le bétail ne sauroit pâturer
+dans de telles prairies; mais l'industrieux montagnard fait y
+faucher[29].
+
+[Note 29: M. de Saussure endeavours to explain those appearances of
+transported blocks of granite by another cause; this is a certain
+_debacle_ of the waters of the earth, which I do not understand. M. de
+Luc again attempts to explain it by violent explosions; I suppose he
+means those of a volcano. But he has not given us the evidence upon
+which such an opinion may be founded, farther than by saying that those
+blocks could not have come there by the natural operations of the
+surface. By this must be meant, that, from the nearest summit of
+granite, there is not, at present, any natural means by which these
+blocks might be transported to that place. But it is not with the
+present state of things that we are concerned, in explaining the
+operations of a distant period. If the natural operations of the surface
+change the shape of things, as is clearly proved by every natural
+appearance, Why form an argument against a former transaction, upon the
+circumstances of the present state of things? Our author does not
+seem to perceive, that, from this mode of reasoning, there is is an
+insuperable objection to his violent explosions having been employed in
+producing those effects. For, had there been such a cause, the evidence
+of this must have remained; if the surface of the earth does not undergo
+great changes: If, again, this surface be in time much changed, How can
+we judge from the present shape, what might have been the former posture
+of things?
+
+This author, indeed, does not allow much time for the natural operations
+of the globe to change its surface; but, if things be not greatly
+removed from the state in which the violent operations of the globe had
+placed them, Why does he not point out to us the source of this great
+disorder which he there perceives? From what explosion will be explained
+the blocks of granite which are found upon the Jura, and which must have
+come from the mass of _Mont Blanc_? If these dispersed blocks of
+stone are to be explained by explosion, there must: have been similar
+explosions in other countries where there is not the smallest appearance
+of volcanic eruptions; for, around all our granite mountains, and I
+believe all others, there are found many blocks of granite, traveled at
+a great distance, and in all directions.]
+
+"_Oberbruck_, ou nous avions été la précédente fois, se trouva sur notre
+route, et nous y passames aussi la nuit, dans l'espérance de pouvoir
+monter le lendemain sur le _Brocken_; mais il fut encore enveloppé de
+nuages; ainsi nous continuâmes à marcher vers _Clausthal_, passant de
+nouveau par le _Bruchberg_, où le _sable_ et ses gres recouvrent le
+_schiste_; puis arrivant à une autre sommité, nous y trouvâmes la même
+pierre _sableuse_ par couches, mêlée de parcelles de _schiste_, que nous
+avions vue sur les montagnes _calcaires d'Elbingerode_. Il est donc
+toujours plus certain que le sol primordial de toutes ces montagnes
+existoit sous les eaux de l'ancienne mer; puisqu'il est recouvert de
+diverses fortes de dépôts, connus pour appartenir à la _mer_; et que les
+_fentes_ des _filons_ existoient dans cette _mer ancienne_; puisqu'elle
+en a rempli elle-même quelques unes, et qu'elle a recouvert de ses
+dépôts quelques autres _filons_ tout formés. Quant à celles des matières
+de ces _filons_, qui ne paroissent pas être _marines_ (et c'est de
+beaucoup la plus grande quantité), j'ai toujours plus de penchant d'en
+attribuer une partie à l'opération des _feux souterreins_, à mesure que
+je vois diminuer la probabilité de les assigner entièrement à _l'eau_.
+Mais quoi-qu'il en soit, ces gangues ne font pas de même date que les
+montagnes[30].
+
+[Note 30: I most willingly admit the justness of our author's view, if
+he thus perceives the operation of fire in the solids of our earth; but
+it is not for the reasons he has given us for discovering it here more
+than in other places; for there is not a mineral vein, (so far at least
+as I have seen), in which the appearances may be explained by any thing
+else besides the operation of fire or fusion. It is not easy to conceive
+in what manner our author had conceived the opinions which he has
+displayed in these letters. He had no opinion of this kind, or rather he
+was persuaded that subterraneous fire had no hand in the formation of
+this earth before he came to this place of the Hartz; here he finds
+certain appearances, by which he is confirmed in his former opinion,
+that water had operated in forming mineral veins; and then he forms the
+idea that subterraneous fire may have operated also. But, before the
+discovery of the chasms in the schistus mountains having been filled
+with the stratified materials of the sea, How had he supposed veins to
+be filled? If this philosopher had before no opinion of subterraneous
+fire, as instrumental in that operation, How comes he now to change that
+former opinion? For, unless it be the extraordinary manner of filling
+these open crevices in the mountains by matter deposited immediately
+from the sea, there is certainly no other appearance in this mineral
+country of the Hartz, that may not be found in any other, only perhaps
+upon a smaller scale.]
+
+"Le lendemain de notre arrivée a _Clausthal_, qui étoit le 13e, nous
+allâmes visiter d'autres mines de _fer_ en montagnes secondaires,
+situées au côté opposé du Hartz. Elles sont auprès de _Grund_ l'une
+des _villes de mines_, et près du lieu ou sortira la nouvelle _galerie
+d'écoulement_ à laquelle on travaille, etc.
+
+"Arrivés à _Grund_ les officiers mineurs vinrent, comme à l'ordinaire,
+accompagner Mons. de _Reden_ aux _mines_ de leur département. Celles-ci,
+sans être plus extraordinaires que celles qui nous avions vues à
+_Elbingerod_, ou sans aider mieux jusqu'ici à expliquer ce qu'elles ont
+toutes d'extraordinaire, nous donnent au moins des indices probables
+de grands accidens. Ces montagnes de _Grund_ sont encore de l'espèce
+remarquable, dont la base est de _schiste_, et le haut de _pierre à
+chaux_. Les mines qu'on y exploit sont de _fer_, et se trouvent dans
+cette matière _calcaire_; mais elles y sont sous des apparences
+tout-à-fait étranges. La montagne où nous les vîmes principalement le
+nomme _Iberg_. On y poursuit des masses de _pierre à fer_, de l'ensemble
+desquelles les mineurs ne peuvent encore se rendre compte d'une manière
+claire. Ils ont trouvé dans cette montagne des _ca__vernes_, qui
+ressemblent à l'encaissement de _sillons_ déjà exploités, ou non formés;
+c'est-à-dire, que ce sont des _fentes_ presque verticales, et vides, Le
+_minerai_ qu'ils poursuivent est en _Rognons_; c'est à dire, en grandes
+masses sans continuité décidée. Cependant ces masses semblent se
+succéder dans la montagne suivant une certaine direction; tellement que
+les mineurs savent déjà les chercher, par des indices d'habitude.
+La substance de cette _pierre à fer_ particulière renferme des
+crystallizations de diverses espèces. Il y a des _druses de quartz_, ou
+de petits cristaux de quartz qui tapissent des cavités; il y a aussi du
+_spath_ commun, et de celui qu'on nomme pesant; on y trouve enfin une
+forte de crystallization nommée _Eisenman_ (_homme de fer_) par les
+mineurs; se sont des amas de cristaux noir-âtres, qui ressemblent à
+des groupes de grandes lentilles plattes, et ces cristaux sont
+_ferrugineux_.
+
+"Entre les signes de bouleversement que renferme ce lieu, est un
+rocher nommé _Gebichensten_, qui est en _pierre à chaux_, ce que
+_l'Ebrenbreitstein_ de _Coblentz_ est en pierre sableuse: c'est-à-dire,
+que ses _couches_, remplies de _corps marins_, sont presque verticales;
+ceux de ces corps qu'on y trouve en plus grande quantité, sont des
+_madrépores_. Ce rocher s'élève comme un grand obélisque, au-dessus des
+_cavernes_, dont j'ai parlé; montrant par le côté ses _couches_, qui se
+trouvent, comme je l'ai dit, dans une situation presque verticale. Sa
+base est déjà bien minée, tant par les _cavernes_, que par la _pierre
+à fer_ qu'on en tire; et je ne me hasardai dessus, que parce que je me
+dis, qu'il y a des millions contre un à parier, que ce n'est pas le
+moment où il s'enfoncerait. Mais je n'en dirois pas autant, s'il
+s'agissoit de m'y loger à demeure.
+
+"Quoique tout ce lieu là soit fort remarquable, il se pourrait que ce
+ne fut qu'un phénomène particulier. Les _cavernes_ peuvent devoir leur
+origine à la même cause que celle de Schartzfeld; et le dérangement des
+rochers supérieurs à des enfoncemens occasionnés par ces _cavernes_.
+Rien n'est si difficile que de retracer aujourd'hui ces fortes
+d'accidens à cause des changemens que le tems y a opérés. S'ils sont
+arrivés sous les eaux de la _mer_, on conçoit aisément les altérations
+qui ont dû succéder; et si c'est depuis que nos continens sont à sec,
+les eaux encore, tant intérieures qu'extérieures, et la végétation, en
+ont beaucoup changé l'aspect."
+
+This author has a theory by which he explains to himself the former
+residence of the sea, above the summits of our mountains; this,
+however, is not the theory by which we are now endeavouring to explain
+appearances; we must therefore be allowed to reason from our own
+principles, in considering the facts here set forth by our author.
+
+Nothing, I think, is more evident, than that in this mineral country of
+the Hartz, we may find the clearest marks of fracture, elevation, and
+dislocation of the strata, and of the introduction of foreign matter
+among those separated bodies. All those appearances, our author would
+have to be nothing but some particular accident, which is not to enter
+into the physiology of the earth. I wish again to generalise these
+facts, by finding them universal in relation to the globe, and
+necessarily to be found in all the consolidated parts of our land.
+
+It was not to refute our author's reasoning that I have here introduced
+so much of his observations, but to give an extensive view of the
+mineral structure of this interesting country. This therefore being
+done, we now proceed to what is more peculiarly our business in this
+place, or the immediate subject of investigation, viz. the distinction
+of primary and secondary strata.
+
+"Dans le voisinage de cette montagne, il y a une autre fort
+intéressante, que je vis le jour suivant. Quoiqu'en traitant des
+volcans, j'aie démontré que la formation des montagnes, par soulèvement,
+étoit sans exemple dans les faits, et sans fondement dans la théorie, je
+ne laisseroi pas de m'arrêter au phénomène que présente cette montagne;
+parce qu'il prouvera directement que les _couches calcaires_ au moins,
+ont été formées _à la hauteur ou elles sont_; c'est-a-dire qu'elles
+n'ont pas été soulevées.
+
+"Voulant prendre l'occasion de mon retour à _Hanovre_, pour traverser
+les avant-corps du _Hartz_, dans quelque nouvelle direction; je résolus
+de faire ce voyage à cheval, et de prendre ma route droite vers
+_Hanovre_, au-travers des collines; ce qui me conduisit encore à _Grund_
+puis à _Münchehof Brunshausen, Engelade, Winsenburg_ et _Alfeld_, où
+enfin, traversant la _Leine_ j'entrai dans la grande route.
+
+"Je quittai donc _Clausthal_ (et avec bien du regret) le 14 au matin;
+et revenant d'abord à _Grund_, je le laissai sur ma droite, ainsi
+que _l'Iberg_; et plus loin, du même côté, une autre montagne nommée
+_Winterberg_ dont la base est _schiste_, et le sommet plus haut que
+Clausthal, entièrement composé de _couches calcaires_. De _Grund_ je
+montai vers une montagne nommée _Ost Kamp_; et je commençai là à donner
+une attention particulière au sol. Le long de mon chemin, je ne trouvai
+longtemps que des schistes, qui montroient leurs points en haut, comme à
+l'ordinaire, et avec tous leurs tortillemens de feuillets. Mais arrivé
+au haut de la montagne, j'y vis des carrières de _pierre à chaux_, où
+les couches absolument régulières, et qui ont peu d'épaisseur sur le
+_schiste_ suivent parfaitement les contours du _sommet_. Ces lits de
+_pierre à chaux_ n'ont certainement pas été soulevés du fond de la _mer_
+sur le dos des schistes; lors même qu'à cause de la grande inclinaison
+des feuillets de ceux-ci on voudroit le attribuer à quelque révolution
+telle que le _soulèvement_; (ce que je n'admettrois point). Car si ces
+lits _calcaires_, ayant été faits au fond de la _mer_, avoyent été
+soulevés avec les schistes, ne feroient-ils pas brisés et bouleversés
+comme eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il soi arrivé au schiste qui
+les porte, ces lits, et tous les autres de même genre qui sont au haut
+de ces montagnes, ont été déposées au niveau où ils sont; et que
+par conséquent la _mer_ les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le système de
+soulèvement perd son but, s'il tend à expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
+_couches_, formées par la mer, qui se trouvent maintenant si fort au
+dessus de son niveau. Il est évident que ces _couches_ n'ont pas été
+soulevées; mais que la _mer_ s'est _abaissée_. Or c'est là le grand
+point cosmologique à expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent à la
+structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles, n'appartiendront qu'à
+_l'histoire naturelle_, tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec celui-la."
+
+Here are two things to be considered; the interesting facts described
+by our author, and the inference that he would have us draw from those
+facts. It would appear from the facts, that the body of schistus below,
+and that of lime-stone above, had not undergone the same disordering
+operations, or by no means in the same degree. But our author has formed
+another conclusion; he says, that these lime-stone strata must have been
+formed precisely in the place and order in which they lie at present;
+and the reason for this is, because these strata appeared to him to
+follow perfectly the contour of the summit of this mountain. Now, had
+there been in the top of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed about
+with the schistus rock; and had this cavity been now found filled with
+horizontal strata, there might have been some shadow of reason for
+supposing those strata to have been deposited upon the top of the
+mountain. But to suppose, _first_, that shells and corals should be
+deposited upon the convex summit of a mountain which was then covered by
+the sea; _secondly_, that these moveable materials should remain upon
+the summit, while the sea had changed its place; and, _lastly_, that
+those shells and corals left by the sea upon the top of a mountain
+should become strata of solid limestone, and have also metallic veins
+in it, certainly holds of no principle of natural philosophy that I am
+acquainted with. If, therefore, such an appearance as this were to be
+employed either in illustration or confirmation of a theory, it
+would itself require to be explained; but this is a task that this
+cosmologists does not seem willing to undertake.
+
+He has formed a hypothesis for explaining the general appearance of that
+which was once the bottom of the sea being now found forming the summits
+of our mountains; but surely this philosopher will acknowledge, that
+those natural appearances, in any particular place, will be the same,
+whether we suppose the bottom of the sea to have been raised, as in the
+present theory, or the surface of the sea to have sunk according to his
+hypothesis. For, it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the earth
+to have been raised all this height, as to suppose all the rest of the
+surface of the globe to have sunk an equal space, while a small portion
+of the bottom of the sea, remaining here and there fixed in its place,
+became the highest portion of the globe. Consequently, whatever evidence
+this philosopher shall find in support of his theory of the present
+earth, (a subject which it is not our purpose to examine) it cannot be
+allowed that he has here brought any argument capable of disproving the
+elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition which other theories
+may require.
+
+I would now observe, in relation to the present theory, that so far
+as this author has reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
+conclusions will be found to confirm the present supposition, that there
+is to be perceived the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
+in the masses of this earth, without altering the general theory either
+with respect to the original formation of those masses, or to their
+posterior production.
+
+Here one of two things must be allowed; either that those strata
+of schistus had been broken and distorted under a mass of other
+superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent strata had been
+deposited upon the broken and distorted strata at the bottom of the sea.
+Our author, who has examined the subject, inclines to think, that this
+last has been the case. If, therefore, strata had been deposited upon
+broken and bare rocks of schistus, it is probable that these had been
+sunk in the sea after having been exposed to the atmosphere, and served
+the purpose of land upon the globe.[31]
+
+[Note 31: This is also supported by another very interesting observation
+contained in this letter. M. de Luc observes, that in this country the
+schistus is generally covered by strata of lime-stone, and that these
+lime-stone strata are again covered with those of sand-stone, in which
+are found a great many fragments of schistus lying flat. Therefore,
+while those sand-stone strata were collecting at the bottom of the sea,
+there had been rocks of schistus in some other place, from whence those
+fragments bad been detached.]
+
+An example of the same kind also occurs in the _Discours sur l'Histoire
+Naturelle de la Suisse_; and this author of the _Tableaux de la Suisse_
+has given a very distinct description of that appearance, which is
+perhaps the more to be valued as a piece of natural history, as this
+intelligent author does not pretend to any geological theory, but simply
+narrates what he has seen, with such pertinent observations on
+the subject as naturally must occur to a thinking person on the
+spot.--(Discours, etc. page 228. Entrée au pays de Grisons).
+
+"Du village d'Elen on continue à monter le reste du petit vallon pendant
+une lieue et demie parmi les mêmes espèces de pierres qu'on vient de
+décrire; en passant au travers de bois et de forêts de sapins et de
+quelques pâturages dont ce haut est couvert, on parvient au pied du
+Bundnerberg, montagne des grisons, qui forme la tête du vallon. On
+laisse à droite un fond ou espèce d'entonnoir, entouré de très-hautes
+montagnes inaccessibles, pour s'enfourrer à gauche entre des rochers qui
+font fort resserrés, où coule un torrent. Ce lieu seroit horreur si
+on ne se trouvoit accoutumé, par degrés, à voir de ces positions
+effrayantes: tout y est aride, il n'y a plus d'arbres ni de végétaux ce
+sont des rochers entassés les un sur les autres; ce lieu paroit d'autant
+plus affreux que le passage a été subit, et qu'en sortant de bois et des
+forêts, on se trouve tout-à-coup parmi ces rochers qui s'élèvent comme
+des murailles, et dont on ne voit pas la cime; cette gorge ou cette
+entrée qui se nomme Jetz, est la communication du Canton du Glaris aux
+Gritons; on a dit précédemment qu'il y en avoit une plus aisée par
+le Gros-Thal ou le grand vallon. Ce passage est très-curieux pour la
+Lithogeognosie, il est rare de trouver autant de phénomènes intéressans
+rassemblés, et des substances aussi variées par rapport à leurs
+positions; c'est le local qui mérite le plus d'être examiné en Suisse,
+et la plus difficile que nous ayons parcouru. On se souviendra que nous
+avons continuellement monté depuis Glaris, et que nous nous trouvons au
+pied de ces montagnes ou de ces pics étonnans qui dominent les hautes
+Alpes; on trouve ici la facilité peu commune de pouvoir examiner, et
+voir le pied ou les fondemens de ces colosses qui couronnent le globe,
+parce qu'ils sont ordinairement entourés de leurs débris et de leurs
+éboulemens qui en cachent le pied. Ici c'est une roche de schiste
+bleuâtre, dure et compact, traversée de filons de quartz blanc, et
+quelquefois jaunâtre, dans laquelle on a taillé un sentier pour pouvoir
+en franchir le pied. Cette roche s'élève à une hauteur prodigieuse,
+est presque verticale, et ces couches sont à quatre-vingt degrés
+d'inclinaison. L'imagination est effrayée de voir que de pareilles
+masses ayent pu être ébranlées et déplacées au point d'avoir fait
+presque un quart de conversion. Après avoir monté et suivi cette roche
+parmi les pierres et les décombres, une heure et demie, on trouve
+cette roche de schiste surmontée d'autres rochers fort hauts qui sont
+calcaires, et dont les lits sont fort horizontaux. Les schistes,
+qui sont directement sous les roches calcaires, conservent la même
+inclinaison qu'elles ont à leur pied."
+
+Here is an observation which certainly agrees with that given by M. de
+Luc, and would seem to confirm this conclusion, that strata had been
+deposited upon those _schisti_ after they had been changed from their
+natural or horizontal position, and become vertical; at the same time,
+this conclusion is not of necessary consequence, without examining
+concomitant appearances, and finding particular marks by which this
+operation might be traced; for the simply finding horizontal strata,
+placed above vertical or much inclined schiste, is not sufficient, of
+itself, to constitute that fact, while it is acknowledged that every
+species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion, is to be found among
+the displaced strata of the globe.
+
+Since writing this chapter, I am enabled to speak more decisively upon
+that point, having acquired more light upon the subject, as will appear
+in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct View of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+Having given a view of what seems to be the primary and secondary
+strata, from the observations of authors, and having given what was
+my opinion when I first wrote that chapter, I am now to treat of this
+subject from observations of my own, which I made since forming that
+opinion.
+
+From Portpatrick, on the west coast, to St Abb's Head, on the east,
+there is a tract of schistus mountains, in which the strata are
+generally much inclined, or approaching to the vertical situation; and
+it is in these inclined strata that geologists allege that there is not
+to be found any vestige of organised body. This opinion, however, I have
+now proved to be erroneous.
+
+There cannot be any doubt with regard to the original formation of those
+stratified bodies, as having been formed of the materials that are
+natural to this earth, viz. the detritus of former bodies; and as having
+been deposited in water, like the horizontal strata: For the substances
+and bodies of which they are visibly composed are no other than those
+which form the most regular horizontal strata, and which are continually
+traveling, or transported at the bottom of the sea, such as gravel, and
+sand, argillaceous and micaceous bodies.
+
+On each side of this ridge of mountains, which towards the east end is
+but narrow, there is a lower country composed of strata in general more
+horizontal; and among which strata, besides coal, there are also found
+the relics of organised bodies.
+
+Abstracting at present from any consideration of organised bodies among
+the materials of those strata, it may be affirmed, that the materials
+which form the strata in the mountains and in the low country, are
+similar, or of the same nature; that they have, in both places, been
+consolidated by the same means, viz. heat and fusion; and that the same
+or similar accidents have happened to them, such as change from their
+original position, and mineral veins traversing them in various shapes.
+Yet still there is a distinctive character for those two bodies, the
+alpine and the horizontal strata; for, while the horizontal position
+appears natural to the one, and the changes from that particular state
+to be only an accident, the vertical position appears to be more natural
+to the other, which is seldom found horizontal.
+
+Therefore, altho' it is unquestionable that the strata in the alpine and
+low countries had the same or a similar original, yet, as the vertical
+position, which is the greatest possible change in that respect, is more
+natural to the alpine strata, or only necessary in the natural order of
+those bodies, we are to consider this great disorder or change from the
+natural state of their original formation, as the proper character of
+those alpine strata. But then it is also necessary to include in this
+character a general hardness and solidity in those vertical strata,
+otherwise they would not have been properly alpine, or have resisted the
+wearing and washing powers of the globe, so as to have remained higher
+than the others; for, the vertical position, or great inclination of
+those strata, should rather have disposed them the more to dissolution
+and decay. Let us now see how far we shall be justified in that general
+conclusion, by the examination of those bodies.
+
+The fact is certain, that those alpine bodies are much harder, or less
+subject to dissolution and decay, than the horizontal strata. But this
+must be taken in the general, and will by no means apply to particular
+cases which might be compared. Nothing, for example, more solid than the
+lime-stones, or marbles, and iron-stones; nothing more hard or solid
+than the chirt or flint; and all these are found among the horizontal
+strata. But, while some strata among those horizontal beds are
+thus perfectly solid, others are found with so slight degrees of
+consolidation, that we should not be able to ascribe it to the proper
+cause, without that gradation of the effect, which leads us to impute
+the slightest degree of consolidation to the same operations that have
+produced the complete solidity. While, therefore, the most perfect
+solidity is found in certain strata, or occasionally among the
+horizontal bodies, this forms no part of their character in general, or
+cannot be considered as a distinctive mark, as it truly is with
+regard to the alpine strata. These last have a general character of
+consolidation and indissolubility, which is in a manner universal. We
+are, therefore, now to inquire into the cause of this distinction, and
+to form some hypothesis that may be tried by the actual state of things,
+in being compared with natural appearances.
+
+As the general cause of consolidation among mineral bodies, formed
+originally of loose materials, has been found to consist in certain
+degrees of fusion or cementation of those materials by means of heat;
+and as, in the examination of the horizontal strata we actually
+find very different degrees of consolidation in the several strata,
+independent of their positions in relation to height or depth, we have
+reason to believe that the heat, or consolidating operation, has not
+been equally employed in relation to them all.
+
+We are not now inquiring how an inferior stratum should have been heated
+in a lesser degree, or not consolidated, while a superior stratum had
+been consolidated in the most perfect manner; we are to reason upon a
+fact, which is, that the horizontal strata in general appear not to have
+been equally or universally consolidated; and this we must attribute to
+an insufficient exertion of the consolidating cause. But, so far as the
+erecting cause is considered as the same with that by which the elevated
+bodies were consolidated, and so far as the vertical situation is a
+proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous power, the strata
+which are most erected, should in general be found most consolidated.
+
+Nothing more certain than that there have been several repeated
+operations of the mineralising power exerted upon the strata
+in particular places; and all those mineral operations tend to
+consolidation: Therefore, the more the operations have been repeated in
+any place, the more we should find the strata consolidated, or changed
+from their natural state. Vertical strata have every appearance from
+whence we should be led to conclude, that much of the mineral power
+had been exerted upon them, in changing their original constitution or
+appearance. But the question now to be considered is this, How far
+it may appear that these masses of matter, which now seem to be so
+different from the ordinary strata of the globe, had been twice
+subjected to the mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
+and erected into the place of land, and afterwards sunk below the
+bottom of the sea, in order a second time to undergo the process of
+subterraneous heat, and again be elevated into the place where they now
+are found.
+
+It must be evident, here is a question that may not be easy to decide.
+It is not to the degree of any change to which bodies may be subject,
+that we are to appeal, in order to clear up the point in question,
+but to a regular course of operations, which must appear to have been
+successively transacted, and by which the different circumstances or
+situations of those masses are to be discovered in their present state.
+Now, though it does not concern the present theory that this question be
+decided, as it is nothing but a repetition of the same operations that
+we look for; nevertheless, it would be an interesting fact in the
+natural history of this earth; and it would add great lustre to a theory
+by which so great, so many operations were to be explained. I am far
+from being sanguine in my expectations of giving all the satisfaction
+in relation to this subject that I could wish; but it will be proper to
+state what I have lately learned with regard to so curious a question,
+that others, who shall have the opportunity, may be led to inquire, and
+that thus the natural history of the earth may be enlarged, by a proper
+investigation of its mineral operations.
+
+With this view I have often considered our schistus mountains, both in
+the north and south; but I never found any satisfactory appearance from
+whence conclusions could be formed, whether for the question or against
+it. The places I examined were those between the alpine countries and
+the horizontal strata; here, indeed, I have frequently found a confused
+mass, formed of the fragments of those alpine strata mixed with the
+materials of the horizontal bodies; but not having seen the proper shape
+and connection of those several deposits, I always suspended my judgment
+with regard to the particular operations which might have been employed
+in producing those appearances.
+
+I had long looked for the immediate junction of the secondary or low
+country strata with the alpine schistus, without finding it; the first
+place in which I observed it was at the north end of the island of
+Arran, at the mouth of Loch Ranza; it was upon the shore, where the
+inclined strata appeared bare, being; washed by the sea. It was but a
+very small part that I could see; but what appeared was most distinct.
+Here the schistus and the sandstone strata both rise inclined at an
+angle of about 45°; but these primary and secondary strata were inclined
+in almost opposite directions; and thus they met together like the
+two sides of a _lambda_, or the rigging of a house, being a little in
+disorder at the angle of their junction. From this situation of those
+two different masses of strata, it is evidently impossible that either
+of them could have been formed originally in that position; therefore, I
+could not here learn in what state the schistus strata had been in when
+those of the sand-stone, &c, had been superinduced.
+
+Such was the state of my mind, in relation to that subject:, when at
+Jedburgh upon a visit to a friend, after I had returned from Arran, and
+wrote the history of that journey; I there considered myself as among
+the horizontal strata which had first appeared after passing the Tweed,
+and before arriving at the Tiviot. The strata there, as in Berwickshire,
+which is their continuation to the east, are remarkably horizontal for
+Scotland; and they consist of alternated beds of sand-stone and marl, or
+argillaceous and micaceous strata. These horizontal strata are traversed
+in places with small veins of whin-stone, as well as greater masses
+forming rocks and hills of that material; but, except it be these, (of
+which there are some curious examples), I thought there could be nothing
+more of an interesting nature to observe. Chance, however, discovered to
+me what I could not have expected or foreseen.
+
+The river Tweed, below Melrose, discovers in its bed the vertical strata
+of the schistus mountains, and though here these indurated bodies are
+not veined with quartz as in many places of the mountains, I did not
+hesitate to consider them as the same species, that is to say, the marly
+materials indurated and consolidated in those operations by which they
+had been so much changed in their place and natural position. Afterwards
+in travelling south, and seeing the horizontal softer strata, I concluded
+that I had got out of the alpine country, and supposed that no more of
+the vertical strata were to be observed.
+
+The river Tiviot has made a wide valley as might have been expected, in
+running over thole horizontal strata of marly or decaying substances;
+and the banks of this river declining gradually are covered with gravel
+and soil, and show little of the solid strata of the country. This,
+however, is not the case with the Jed, which is to the southward of the
+Tiviot; that river, in many places, runs upon the horizontal strata, and
+undermines steep banks, which falling shows high and beautiful sections
+of the regular horizontal strata. The little rivulets also which fall
+into the Jed have hollowed out deep gullies in the land, and show the
+uniformity of the horizontal strata.
+
+In this manner I was disposed to look for nothing more than what I had
+seen among those mineral bodies, when one day, walking in the beautiful
+valley above the town of Jedburgh, I was surprised with the appearance
+of vertical strata in the bed of the river, where I was certain that
+the banks were composed of horizontal strata. I was soon satisfied with
+regard to this phenomenon, and rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling
+upon an object so interesting to the natural history of the earth, and
+which I had been long looking for in vain.
+
+Here the vertical strata, similar to those that are in the bed of
+the Tweed, appear; and above those vertical strata, are placed the
+horizontal beds, which extend along the whole country.
+
+The question which we would wish to have solved is this; if the vertical
+strata had been broken and erected under the superincumbent horizontal
+strata; or if, after the vertical strata had been broken and erected,
+the horizontal strata had been deposited upon the vertical strata,
+then forming the bottom of the sea. That strata, which are regular and
+horizontal in one place, should be found bended, broken, or disordered
+at another, is not uncommon; it is always found more or less in all our
+horizontal strata. Now, to what length this disordering operation might
+have been carried, among strata under others, without disturbing the
+order and continuity of those above, may perhaps be difficult to
+determine; but here, in this present case, is the greatest disturbance
+of the under strata, and a very great regularity among those above. Here
+at least is the most difficult case of this kind to conceive, if we are
+to suppose that the upper strata had been deposited before those below
+had been broken and erected.
+
+Let us now suppose that the under strata had been disordered at the
+bottom of the sea, before the superincumbent bodies were deposited; it
+is not to be well conceived, that the vertical strata should in that
+case appear to be cut off abruptly, and present their regular edges
+immediately under the uniformly deposited substances above. But, in the
+case now under consideration, there appears the most uniform section
+of the vertical strata, their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
+deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the vertical strata had been in
+at the time of this event, we can hardly suppose that they could have
+been so perfectly cut off, without any relict being left to trace that
+operation. It is much more probable to suppose, that the sea had washed
+away the relics of the broken and disordered strata, before those that
+are now superincumbent had been begun to be deposited. But we cannot
+suppose two such contrary operations in the same place, as that of
+carrying away the relics of those broken strata, and the depositing of
+sand and subtile earth in such a regular order. We are therefore led
+to conclude, that the bottom of the sea, or surface of those erected
+strata, had been in very different situations at those two periods, when
+the relics of the disordered strata had been carried away, and when the
+new materials had been deposited.
+
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the subject, it will be fair
+to suppose, that the disordered strata had been raised more or less
+above the surface of the ocean; that, by the effects of either rivers,
+winds, or tides, the surface of the vertical strata had been washed
+bare; and that this surface had been afterwards sunk below the influence
+of those destructive operations, and thus placed in a situation proper
+for the opposite effect, the accumulation of matter prepared and put in
+motion by the destroying causes.
+
+I will not pretend to say that this has all the evidence that should be
+required, in order to constitute a physical truth, or principle from
+whence we were to reason farther in our theory; but, as a simple fact,
+there is more probability for the thing having happened in that manner
+than in any other; and perhaps this is all that may be attained, though
+not all that were to be wished on the occasion. Let us now see how
+far any confirmation may be obtained from the examination of all the
+attending circumstances in those operations.
+
+I have already mentioned, that I had long observed great masses of
+_debris_, or an extremely coarse species of pudding-stone, situated on
+the south as well as north sides of those schistus mountains, where the
+alpine strata terminate in our view, and where I had been looking for
+the connection of those with the softer strata of the low country.
+It has surely been such appearances as these which have often led
+naturalists to see the formation of secondary and tertiary strata formed
+by the simple congestion of _debris_ from the mountains, and to suppose
+those masses consolidated by the operation of that very element by which
+they had been torn off from one place and deposited in another. I never
+before had data from whence to reason with regard to the natural history
+of those masses of gravel and sand which always appeared to me in an
+irregular shape, and not attended with such circumstances as might give
+light into their natural history; but now I have found what I think
+sufficient to explain those obscure appearances, and which at the same
+time will in some respect illustrate or confirm the conjecture which
+has now been formed with regard to the operations of the globe in those
+regions.
+
+In describing the vertical and horizontal strata of the Jed, no mention
+has been made of a certain pudding-stone, which is interposed between
+the two, lying immediately upon the one and under the other. This
+puddingstone corresponds entirely to that which I had found along
+the skirt of the schistus mountains upon the south side, in different
+places, almost from one end to the other. It is a confused mass of
+stones, gravel, and sand, with red marly earth; these are consolidated
+or cemented in a considerable degree, and thus form a stratum extremely
+unlike any thing which is to be found either above or below.
+
+When we examine the stones and gravel of which it is composed, these
+appear to have belonged to the vertical strata or schistus mountains.
+They are in general the hard and solid parts of those indurated
+strata, worn and rounded by attrition; particularly sand or marl-stone
+consolidated and veined with quartz, and many fragments of quartz, all
+rounded by attrition. In this pudding-stone of the Jed, I find also
+rounded lumps of porphyry, but have not perceived any of granite.[32]
+This however is not the case in the pudding-stone of the schistus
+mountains, for, where there is granite in the neighbourhood, there is
+also granite in the pudding-stone.
+
+[Note 32: A view of this object is seen in plate 3d. It is from a
+drawing taken by Mr Clerk of Eldin.]
+
+From this it will appear, that the schistus mountains or the vertical
+strata of indurated bodies had been formed, and had been wasted and worn
+in the natural operations of the globe, before the horizontal strata
+were begun to be deposited in those places; the gravel formed of those
+indurated broken bodies worn round by attrition evince that fact. But
+it also appears that the mineral operations of the globe, melting and
+consolidating bodies, had been exerted upon those deposited strata above
+the vertical bodies.
+
+This appears evidently from the examination of our pudding-stone. The
+vertical strata under it are much broken and injected with ferruginous
+spar; and this same spar has greatly penetrated the pudding-stone above,
+in which are found the various mineral appearances of that spar and iron
+ore.
+
+But those injecting operations reach no farther up among the marl strata
+in this place; and then would appear to have been confined to the
+pudding-stone. But in another place, about half a mile farther up the
+river, where a very deep section of the strata is discovered, there
+are two injections from below; the one is a thin vein of whin-stone or
+basaltes, full of round particles of steatites impregnated with copper;
+it is but a few inches wide, and proceeds in a kind of zigzag. The other
+appears to have been calcareous spar, but the greatest part of it is now
+dissolved out. The strata here descend to the bottom of the river, which
+is above the place of the pudding-stone and vertical strata. Neither are
+these last discoverable below the town of Jedburgh, at least so far as
+I have seen; and the line of division, or plane of junction of the
+vertical and horizontal strata, appears to decline more than the bed of
+the river.
+
+But it may be asked, how the horizontal strata above, among which are
+many very strong beds, have been consolidated. The answer to this
+question is plain. Those strata have been indurated or consolidated
+in no other manner than the general strata of the earth; these being
+actually the common strata of the globe; while the vertical or schistus
+strata are the ordinary strata still farther manufactured, (if we may be
+allowed the expression) in the vicissitude of things, and by the mineral
+operations of the globe. That those operations have been performed by
+subterraneous heat has been already proved; but I would now mention some
+particular appearances which are common or general to those strata, and
+which can only be explained upon that principle.
+
+The red marly earth is prevalent among those strata; and it is with this
+red ferruginous substance that many of the sand-stone strata are tinged.
+It is plain that there had been an uniform, deposits of that sand and
+tinging earth; and that, however different matter might be successively
+deposited, yet that each individual stratum should be nearly of the same
+colour or appearance, so far as it had been formed uniformly of the same
+subsiding matter. But, in the most uniform strata of red sand-stone,
+the fracture of the stone presents us with circular spots of a white or
+bluish colour; those little spheres are in all respects the same with
+the rest of the stone, they only want the tinging matter; and now it may
+be inquired how this has come about.
+
+To say that sphericles of white sand should have been formed by
+subsiding along with the red sand and earth which composed the uniform
+stratum whether of sand-stone or marl, (for it happens equally in both,)
+is plainly impossible, according to our notion of that operation in
+which there is nothing mysterious. Those foliated strata, which are of
+the most uniform nature, must have been gradually accumulated from the
+subsiding sand and earth; and the white or colourless places must have
+had their colour destroyed in the subsequent cementing operations. It
+is often apparent, that the discharging operation had proceeded from a
+centre, as some small matter may be perceived in that place. I know not
+what species of substance this has been, whether saline or phlogistic,
+but it must have had the power of either volatilising or changing the
+ferruginous or red tinging substance so as to make it lose its colour.
+
+I have only mentioned spherical spots for distinctness sake; but this
+discharging operation is found diversifying those strata in various
+ways, but always referable to the same or similar causes. Thus, in many
+of the veins or natural cracks of those strata, we find the colour
+discharged for a certain space within the strata; and we often see
+several of those spots united, each of them having proceeded from its
+own centre, and uniting where they approached. In the two veins above
+mentioned, of whin-stone and spar traversing the strata, the colour of
+the strata is, discharged more or less in the places contiguous with the
+veins.
+
+I am now to mention another appearance of a different kind. Those strata
+of marl are in general not much consolidated; but among, them there
+are sometimes found thin calcareous strata extremely consolidated,
+consequently much divided by veins. It is in the solid parts of those
+strata, perfectly disconnected from the veins, that there are frequent
+cavities curiously lined with crystals of different sorts, generally
+calcareous, sometimes containing also those that are siliceous, and
+often accompanied with pyrites. I am persuaded that the origin of those
+cavities may have been some hollow shells, such as _echini_ or some
+marine object; but that calcareous body has been so changed, that it is
+not now distinguishable; therefore, at present, I hold this opinion only
+as conjecture.
+
+Having, in my return to Edinburgh, traveled up the Tiviot, with a view
+to investigate this subject of primary and secondary operations of the
+earth, I found the vertical strata, or alpine schistus, in the bed of
+the river about two miles below Hawick. This was the third time I had
+seen those vertical bodies after leaving the mountains of Lauderdale.
+The first place was the bed of the river Tweed, at the new bridge below
+Melrose; but here no other covering is to be seen above those vertical
+strata besides the soil or traveled earth which conceals every thing
+except the rock in the bed of the river. The second place was Jedburgh,
+where I found the vertical strata covered with the horizontal sandstone
+and marl, as has been now described. The third place was the Tiviot, and
+this is that which now remains to be considered.
+
+Seeing the vertical strata in the bed of the river, I was desirous to
+know if those were immediately covered with the horizontal strata. This
+could not be discovered in the bed of the river where the rock was
+covered upon the banks with travelled earth. I therefore left the river,
+and followed the course of a brook which comes from the south side. I
+had not gone far up the bank, or former boundary of the Tiviot, when
+I had the satisfaction to find the vertical strata covered with the
+pudding-stone and marly beds as in the valley of the Jed.
+
+It will now be reasonable to suppose that all the schistus which we
+perceive, whether in the mountains or in the valleys, exposed to our
+view had been once covered with those horizontal strata which are
+observed in Berwickshire and Tiviotdale; and that, below all those
+horizontal strata in the level country, there is at present a body or
+basis of vertical or inclined schistus, on which the horizontal strata
+of a secondary order had been deposited. This is the conclusion that I
+had formed at Jedburgh, before I had seen the confirmation of it in the
+Tiviot; it is the only one that can be formed according to this view of
+things; and it must remain in the present state until more evidence be
+found by which the probability may be either increased or diminished.
+
+Since writing this, I have read, in the Esprit de Journaux, an abstract
+of a memoir of M. Voigt, upon the same subject, which I shall now
+transcribe.
+
+"La mer a commencé par miner les montagnes primitives dont les débris se
+sont précipités au fond. Ces débris forment la premiere couche qui est
+posée immédiatement sur les montagnes primitives. D'après l'ancien
+langage de mineurs, nous avons jusqu'aujourd'hui appellé cette couche
+_le sol mort rouge_, parce qu'il y a beaucoup de rouge dans son mélange,
+qu'elle forme le sol ou la base d'autres couches, et peut-être de
+toutes, qu'elle est entierement inutile et, en quelque facon, morte pour
+l'exploitation des mines. Plusieurs se sont efforcés de lui donner un
+nom harmonieux; mais ils ne l'ont pu sans occasionner des équivoques.
+Les mots _Brèche Puddinstone Conglomérations_, &_c_. désignent toujours
+des substances autres que cette espèce de pierre.
+
+"Il est très agréable de l'examiner dans les endroits où elle forme des
+montagnes entières. Cette couche est composée d'une quantité prodigieuse
+de pierres arrondies, agglutinées ensemble par une substance argileuse
+rouge et même grise, et le toute a acquis assez de dureté. On ne trouve
+dans sa composition aucune espèce de pierre qui, à en juger par les
+meilleures observations, puisse avoir été formée plus tard qu'elle;
+on n'y voit par-tout que des parties et des produit des montagnes
+primitives principalement de celles qui abondent le plus dans ces
+contrées. Le sol mort, par exemple, qui compose les montagnes des
+environs de Walbourg, près d'Eisenach, contient une quantité de gros
+morceaux de granit et de schiste micacé; c'est vraisemblablement parce
+que les montagnes primitives les plus voisines de Rhula, etc. sont,
+pour la plus part, formées de ces deux espèces de pierres. Près de
+Goldlauter, le sol mort consiste presque tout en porphyre, substance
+dont sont formées les montagnes primitives qui y dominent; et le
+Kiffauserberg dans la Thuringe a probablement reçu ces morceaux arrondis
+de schiste argileux des montagnes voisine du Hartz. Vous trouverez
+ici que le schiste argileux existoit déjà lorsque la mer a jetté les
+premiers fondemens de nos montagnes stratifiées. Je serois fort étonné
+que quelqu'un me montrât un sol mort qui contînt un morceaux de gypse,
+de marne, de pierre puante et autres. Quoiqu'il en soit il n'est pas
+aisé d'expliquer pourquoi on ne trouve point de corps marins pétrifiés
+dans cette espèce de pierre. C'est peut-être que, par l'immense quantité
+de pierres dures roulées dans le fond de la mer, ils ont été brisés
+avant qu'ils aient commencé de s'agglutiner ensemble. Mais on rencontre
+sur-tout au Kiffhauserberg des troncs d'arbres entiers pétrifiés; preuve
+qu'il y avoit déjà ou de la végétation avant que l'océan destructeur se
+fût emparé de ces cantons, ou du moins que quelques isles avoient existé
+au-dessus de la surface."
+
+Here we find the same observations in the mountains of Germany that
+I have been making with regard to those of Scotland. I have formerly
+observed masses of the same kind in the west of England, to the east of
+the Severn; but I could not discover any proper connection of that mass
+with the regular strata. I have also long observed it in many parts of
+Scotland, without being able to attain a sufficiently satisfactory idea
+with regard to those particulars by which the alternation of land and
+water, of the superficial and internal mineral operations of the globe,
+might be investigated.
+
+It will be very remarkable if similar appearances are always found upon
+the junction of the alpine with the level countries. Such an appearance,
+I am inclined to think, may be found in the Val d'Aoste, near Yvrée. M.
+de Saussure describes such a stone as having been employed in building
+the triumphal arch erected in honour of Augustus. "Cet arc qui étoit
+anciennement revêtu de marbre, est construit de grands quartiers d'une
+espèce assez singulière de poudingue ou de grès à gros grains. C'est une
+assemblage de fragmens, presque touts angulaires, de toutes sortes de
+roches primitives feuilletées, quartzeuses, micacées; les plus gros de
+ces fragmens n'atteignent pas le volume, d'une noisette. La plupart des
+édifices antiques de la cité l'Aoste et de ses environs, sont construits
+de cette matière; et les gens du pays sont persuadés que c'est une
+composition; mais j'en ai trouvé des rochers en place dans les montagnes
+au nord et au-dessus de la route d'Yvrée."
+
+We may now come to this general conclusion, that, in this example of
+horizontal and posterior strata placed upon the vertical _schisti_ which
+are prior in relation to the former, we obtain a further view into the
+natural history of this earth, more than what appears in the simple
+succession of one stratum above another. We know, in general, that all
+the solid parts of this earth, which come to our view, have either
+been formed originally by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, or been
+transfused in a melted state from the mineral regions among those solid
+bodies; but here we further learn, that the indurated and erected
+strata, after being broken and washed by the moving waters, had again
+been sunk below the sea, and had served as a bottom or basis on which to
+form a new structure of strata; and also, that those new or posterior
+strata had been indurated or cemented by the consolidating operations
+of the mineral region, and elevated from the bottom of the sea into the
+place of land, or considerably above the general surface of the waters.
+It is thus that we may investigate particular operations in the general
+progress of nature, which has for object to renovate the surface of the
+earth necessarily wasted in the operation of a world sustaining plants
+and animals.
+
+It is necessary to compare together every thing of this kind which
+occurs; it is first necessary to ascertain the fact of their being a
+prior and posterior formation of strata, with the mineral operations
+for consolidating those bodies formed by collection of the moveable
+materials; and, secondly, it is interesting to acquire all the data we
+can in order to form a distinct judgment of that progress of nature in
+which the solid body of our land is alternately removed from the bottom
+of the sea into the atmosphere, and sunk again at the bottom of the sea.
+
+I shall now transcribe what M. Schreiber has wrote in relation to
+this subject. It is in a memoir concerning the gold mine of Gardette,
+published in the Journal de Physique.
+
+"Avant de quitter la montagne de la Gardette qu'il me soit permis de
+rapporter une observation qui peut-être n'est pas dénuée de tout
+intérêt pour les naturalistes; je l'ai faite dans une galerie à environ
+cinquante-trois toises à l'ouest du principal puit laquelle a été
+poussée sur la ligne de réunion de la pierre calcaire, et du granit
+feuilleté ou gneiss pour fonder le filon dans cet endroit. Ce filon
+a six pouces d'épaisseur, et consiste en quartz entre-mêlé d'ochre
+martiale, de pyrite cuivreuse et galène. Cette dernière est souvent
+recouverte de chaux de plomb grise, et de petits cristaux de mine de
+plomb jaune donnant dans l'analyse un indice d'or. Ce filon finit à la
+réunion de la pierre calcaire au gneiss. Cette réunion se fait ici dans
+la direction d'une heure 6/8 de la boussole de raineur, et sous un
+inclinaison, occidentale de 26 degrés.
+
+"Mais ce qu'il y a de remarquable, c'est que le gneis ne participe en
+rien de la pierre calcaire quoiqu'il n'en soit séparé que par une couche
+d'une pouce d'épaisseur de terre argileuse et calcaire, tandis que le
+rocher calcaire renferme beaucoup de fragmens de granit et de gneis,
+dans le voisinage de cette réunion.
+
+"Cette observation prouve incontestablement que le granit et le gneis
+avoient déjà acquis une dureté capable de résister aux infiltration
+des parties calcaire, et qu'ils existoient à-peu-près tels qu'ils sont
+aujourd'hui lorsque la pierre calcaire commença à se former; autrement
+elle n'auroit pu saisir et envelopper des morceaux détachés de ces
+rochers auxquels on donne avec raison l'épithète de primitif ou de
+première formation."
+
+M. Schreiber continues his reasoning upon those mineral appearances, in
+adducing another argument, which I do not think equally conclusive. He
+says, "Le filon de la Gardette devoit pareillement exister avant la
+montagne calcaire, car s'il s'étoit formé apres, je ne voit pas la
+raison pour laquelle il s'y seroit arrêté court, et pourquoi il ne se
+seroit pas prolongé dans cette espèce de rocher." It is not necessary,
+in the formation of a vein, that it should proceed in traversing all the
+strata which then are superincumbent; it is reasonable to suppose, and
+consistent with observation to find them stop short in proceeding from
+one stratum to another. Had M. Schreiber found any pieces of the vein
+contained in the calcareous rock, he would have had good reason for
+that assertion; but, to conclude that fact from grounds which do not
+necessarily imply it, is not to be permitted in sound reasoning, if
+certainty is the object, and not mere probability.
+
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the subject.
+
+Having got a distinct view of the primary and secondary mineral bodies
+or strata of the globe, and having thus acquired a particular object to
+inquire after, with a view to investigate or illustrate this piece of
+natural history, I was considering where we might most probably succeed
+in finding the junction of the low country strata and alpine schistus.
+I inquired of Mr Hall of Whitehall, who had frequent opportunities of
+traversing those mountains which lie between his house in the Merse and
+Edinburgh; and I particularly entreated him to examine the bed of the
+Whittater, which he executed to my satisfaction.
+
+Mr Hall having had occasion to examine the Pease and Tour burns, in
+planning and superintending the great improvement of the post road upon
+Sir James Hall's estate while Sir James was abroad, he informed me that
+the junction of the schistus and sand-stone strata was to be found in
+the Tour burn. Professor Playfair and I had been intending a visit to
+Sir James Hall at Dunglass; and this was a motive, not so much to hasten
+our visit, as to chose the most proper time for a mineral expedition
+both upon the hills and along the sea shore.
+
+It was late in the spring 1788 when Sir James left town, and Mr Playfair
+and I went to Dunglass about the beginning of June. We had exceeding
+favourable weather during the most part of our expedition; and I now
+propose to give an account of the result of our observations.
+
+Dunglass burn is the boundary between the counties of East Lothian and
+Berwickshire; and it is almost the boundary between the vertical and
+horizontal strata. To the north-west of this burn and beautiful dean are
+situated the coal, lime-stone, marl, and sand-stone strata; they are
+found stretching away along the shore in a very horizontal direction
+for some time, but become more and more inclined as they approach the
+schistus of which the hills of Lammermuir to the south are composed.
+
+Though the boundary between the two things here in question be easily
+perceivable from the nature of the country at the first inspection, by
+the rising of the hills, yet this does not lead one precisely to the
+junction; and in the extensive common boundary of those two things, the
+junction itself is only to be perceived in few places, where the rock is
+washed bare by the rivers or the sea, and where this junction is exposed
+naked to our view. The sea is here wearing away the coast; and the bank,
+about 200 feet high, is gradually falling down, making in some places a
+steep declivity, in others a perpendicular cliff. St Abb's Head and Fast
+Castle are head lands projecting into the sea, and are the bulwarks of
+this shore, which is embayed to the westward, where the sea preys upon
+the horizontal strata. The solid strata are every where exposed either
+in the cliff or on the shore; we were therefore certain of meeting with
+the junction in going from Dunglass to Fast Castle, which is upon the
+schistus. But this journey can only be made by sea; and we first set out
+to examine the junction in the Tour and Pease burns, where we had been
+informed it was to be found.
+
+In the bottom of those rivulets the sand-stone and marly strata appear
+pretty much inclined, rising towards the schistus country. The two burns
+unite before they come to the shore; and it is about midway between this
+junction and the bridges which are thrown over those two hollows, that
+the junction is to be found.
+
+The schistus strata here approach towards vertical; and the sand-stone
+strata are greatly inclined. But this inclination of those two different
+strata are in opposite directions; neither does the horizontal section
+of those two different strata run parallel to the junction; that is to
+say, the intersection of those two different strata is a line inclined
+to the horizon.
+
+At Jedburgh the schistus was vertical, and the strata horizontal; and
+there was interposed a compound bed of pudding-stone, formed of various
+water-worn bodies, the gravel of the schistus strata, and porphyries.
+Here again, though we have not a regular pudding-stone, we have
+that which corresponds to it, as having been the effect of similar
+circumstances. These are the fracture and detritus of the schistus,
+while the strata were deposited upon the broken ends of the schistus at
+the bottom of the sea. Most of the fragments of the schistus have their
+angles sharp; consequently, they had not travelled far, or been much
+worn by attrition. But more or less does not alter the nature of an
+operation; and the pudding-stone, which at Jedburgh is interposed
+between the vertical schistus and horizontal strata, is here properly
+represented by the included fragments of schistus in the inclined
+strata.
+
+The line of this junction running, on the one hand, towards Fast Castle
+eastward, and, on the other, towards the head of Dunglass burn
+westward, our business was to pursue this object in those two different
+directions. But it was chiefly in the sea coast that was placed our
+expectations, having recollection of the great banks of gravel under
+which the strata are buried about Oldhamstocks, near which, from all
+appearances, the junction was to be expected.
+
+Having taken boat at Dunglass burn, we set out to explore the coast;
+and, we observed the horizontal sand-stone turn up near the Pease burn,
+lifting towards the schistus. We found the junction of that schistus
+with the red sand-stone and marly strata on the shore and sea bank, at
+St. Helens, corresponding in general with what we had observed in the
+burns to the westward. But, at Siccar Point, we found a beautiful
+picture of this junction washed bare by the sea. The sand-stone strata
+are partly washed away, and partly remaining upon the ends of the
+vertical schistus; and, in many places, points of the schistus strata
+are seen standing up through among the sand-stone, the greatest part of
+which is worn away. Behind this again we have a natural section of those
+sand-stone strata, containing fragments of the schistus.
+
+After this nothing appears but the schistus rocks, until sand-stone and
+marl again are found at Red-heugh above the vertical strata. From that
+bay to Fast Castle we had nothing to observe but the schistus, which is
+continued without interruption to St Abb's Head. Beyond this, indeed,
+there appears to be something above the schistus; and great blocks of a
+red whin-stone or basaltes come down from the height and lie upon the
+shore; but we could not perceive distinctly how the upper mass is
+connected with the vertical schistus which is continued below.
+
+Our attention was now directed to what we could observe with respect
+to the schisti, of which we had most beautiful views and most perfect
+sections. Here are two objects to be held in view, in making those
+observations; the original formation or stratification of the schisti,
+and the posterior operations by which the present state of things has
+been procured. We had remarkable examples for the illustration of both
+those subjects.
+
+With regard to the first, we have every where among the rocks many
+surfaces of the erected strata laid bare, in being separated. Here we
+found the most distinct marks of strata of sand modified by moving
+water. It is no other than that which we every day observe upon the
+sands of our own shore, when the sea has ebbed and left them in a waved
+figure, which cannot be mistaken. Such figures as these are extremely
+common in our sand-stone strata; but this is an object which I never had
+distinctly observed in the alpine schisti; although, considering that
+the original of those schisti was strata of sand, and formed in water,
+there was no reason to doubt of such a thing being found. But here the
+examples are so many and so distinct, that it could not fail to give us
+great satisfaction.
+
+We were no less gratified in our views with respect to the other object,
+the mineral operations by which soft strata, regularly formed in
+horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea, had been hardened and
+displaced. Fig. 4. represents one of those examples; it was drawn by Sir
+James Hall from a perfect section in the perpendicular cliff at Lumesden
+burn. Here is not only a fine example of the bendings of the strata, but
+also of a horizontal shift or hitch of those erected strata.
+
+St Abb's Head is a promontory which, at a distance, one would naturally
+conclude to be composed of the schisti, as is all the shore to that
+place; but, as we approached it, there was some difference to be
+perceived in the external appearance, it having a more rounded and
+irregular aspect. Accordingly, upon our arrival, we found this head-land
+composed of a different substance. It is a great mass of red whin-stone,
+of a very irregular structure and composition. Some of it is full of
+small pebbles of calcareous spar, surrounded with a coat of a coloured
+substance, different both from the whin-stone ground and the inclosed
+pebble. Here ended our expedition by water.
+
+Having thus found the junction of the sand-stone with the schistus
+or alpine strata to run in a line directed from Fast Castle to
+Oldhamstocks, or the heads of Dunglass burn, we set out to trace this
+burn, not only with a view to observe the junction, if it should there
+appear, but particularly to discover the source of many blocks of
+whin-stone, of all sizes, with which the bed of this burn abounds.
+
+The sand-stone and coal strata, which are nearly horizontal at the mouth
+of this burn, or on the coast, become inclined as we go up the course of
+the rivulet; and of this we have fine sections in the bank. The Dean of
+Dunglass is formed of precipitous and perpendicular rocks, through which
+the running water has worn its way more than a hundred feet deep; above
+this Dean the banks are steep and very high, but covered with
+soil, which here is a deep gravel. The burn runs all the way up to
+Oldhamstocks upon the sand-stone strata; but there, these are traversed
+by a high whin-stone dyke, which crosses the burn obliquely, as we found
+it on both banks though not in the bed of the burn; it is in the south
+bank below the village, and on the north above it. Here is the source
+of the whin-stone which we were looking for; it is the common blue
+basaltes, of the same nature with the Giant's Causeway, but with no
+regular columner appearance.
+
+Above Oldhamstocks we again found the sand-stone in the bank, but it
+soon disappeared under a deep cover of gravel, and the burn then divided
+into several rivulets which come from the hills. We traced the one which
+led most directly up to the mountains, in expectation of meeting with
+the schistus, at least, if not the junction of it with the sandstone.
+But in this we were disappointed. We did not however lose our labour;
+for, though the junction which we pursued be not here visible, we met
+with what made it sufficiently evident, and was at the same time an
+object far more interesting in our eyes.
+
+I have already quoted Mr Voigt's description of the _sol mort rouge_; he
+says, that in places it forms entire mountains; here we have a perfect
+example of the same thing; and the moment we saw it, we said, here is
+the _sol mort rouge_. We ascended to the top of the mountain through
+a gully of solid pudding-stone going into decay, and furnishing the
+country below with that great covering of gravel, soil, and water worn
+stones. We were now well acquainted with the pudding-stone, which is
+interposed between the horizontal and alpine strata; but from what we
+had seen to the eastward, we never should have dreamed of meeting with
+what we now perceived. What we had hitherto seen of this pudding-stone
+was but a few fragments of the schistus in the lower beds of sand-stone;
+here a mountain of water-worn schisti, imbedded in a red earth and
+consolidated, presented itself to our view. It was evident that the
+schisti mountains, from whence those fragments had come, had been prior
+to this secondary mass; but here is a secondary mountain equal in height
+to the primary, or schisti mountains, at the basis of which we had seen
+the strata superinduced on the shore. Still, however, every thing here
+is formed upon the same principle, and nothing here is altered except
+the scale on which the operation had been performed.
+
+Upon the coast, we have but a specimen of the pudding-stone; most of
+the fragments had their angles entire; and few of them are rounded by
+attrition. Here, on the contrary, the mountain is one pudding-stone;
+and most of the fragments are stones much rounded by attrition. But the
+difference is only in degree, and not in kind; the stones are the same,
+and the nature of the composition similar. Had we seen the mass of which
+this mountain is only a relict, (having been degraded by the hands of
+time), we should have found this pudding-stone at the bottom of
+our sand-stone strata; could we have penetrated below this mass of
+pudding-stone, we should have found our schistus which we left on the
+shore at St. Helens and in the Tour burn. In Tiviotdale the vertical
+schisti are covered with a bed of pudding-stone, the gravel of which had
+been much worn by attrition, but the thickness of that bed is small;
+here again the wearing operation has been great, and the quantity of
+those materials even more than in proportion to those operations. We
+returned perfectly satisfied; and Sir James Hall is to pursue this
+subject farther when he shall be in those mountains shooting muir game.
+
+We had now only one object more to pursue; this was to examine the south
+side of those mountains of Lammermuir upon the sea shore, in order
+to see the junction of the primary schistus with the coal strata
+of Berwickshire. Mr Hall was to meet us at the Press, and we were
+afterwards to go with him to Whitehall. We met accordingly; but the
+weather was rainy; and we went directly to Whitehall. I had often seen
+the pudding-stone in great masse; in the banks of the Whiteader, as
+it comes out of the mountains, but then I had not seen its connection
+neither, on the one hand, with the schisti, nor, on the other, with the
+sand-stone strata. We knew that at Lammerton upon the sea coast there
+was coal, and consequently the sand-stone strata; and reasoning upon
+those data we were sure that our proper course of investigation was to
+trace the river Ey to the shore, and then go south the coast in search
+of the junction of the schistus with the horizontal strata. This we
+executed as well as the weather would permit; but had it to regret,
+that the rainy season was not so favourable for our views, as it was
+agreeable to the country which had been suffering with the drought.
+
+It is needless now to enlarge upon this subject. I shall only mention
+that we found the red marly strata above the pudding-stone in the bed of
+the Ey and its branches; we then traced the schistus down the Ey, and
+found a mass of the most consolidated pudding-stone upon the coast to
+the north of the harbour of Eymouth. But this mass did not rest on the
+schistus; it is immediately upon a mass of whin-stone; and the schistus
+is in the harbour, so that this whin-stone mass seems to be here
+interposed between the pudding-stone and schistus. We then pursued
+the coast southwards until we found the junction of the schistus and
+sand-stone strata about two miles from Eymouth; but here the junction
+was not attended with any pudding-stone that we could perceive.
+
+Having found the same or similar appearances from the one end to the
+other, and on both sides of that range of mountains which run from sea
+to sea in the south of Scotland, we may now extend our view of this
+mineral operation in comprehending every thing of the same kind which we
+meet with in our island or any other distant country.
+
+Thus perhaps the pudding-stone of the south of England will be
+considered in the same light as having been formed of the _débri_ and
+_détritus_ of the flinty bodies.
+
+In the island of Arran, there is also a pudding-stone, even in some
+of the summits of the island, exactly upon the border of the schistus
+district, as will be described in the natural history of that island.
+This pudding-stone is composed of gravel formed of the hardest parts
+of the schistus and granite or porphyry mountains. That compound
+parasitical stone has been also again cemented by heat and fusion; I
+have a specimen in which there is a clear demonstration of that fact.
+One of the water-worn stones which had been rounded by attrition, has in
+this pudding-stone been broken and shifted, the one half slipping over
+the other, three quarters of an inch, besides other smaller slips in
+the same stone. But the two pieces are again cemented; or they had been
+shifted when the stone was in that soft state, by which the two pieces
+are made perfectly to cohere. Those shifts and veins, in this species of
+stone, are extremely instructive, illustrating the mineral operations of
+the globe.
+
+In like manner to the north of the Grampians, along the south side of
+Loch Ness, there are mountains formed of the debris of schistus and
+granite mountains, first manufactured into sand and gravel, and then
+consolidated into a pudding-stone, which is always formed upon the same
+principle. The same is also found upon the south side of those mountains
+in the shire of Angus.
+
+I may also give for example the African _Brechia_, which is a
+pudding-stone of the same nature. This stone is composed of granites or
+porphyries, serpentines and schisti, extremely indurated and perfectly
+consolidated. It is also demonstrable from the appearance in this stone
+that it has been in a softened state, from the shape and application
+of its constituent parts; and in a specimen of it which I have in my
+cabinet, there is also a demonstration of calcareous spar flowing among
+the gravel of the consolidated rock.
+
+This fact therefore of pudding-stone mountains, is a general fact, so
+far as it is founded upon observations that are made in Africa, Germany,
+and Britain. We may now reason upon this general fact, in order to see
+how far it countenances the idea of primitive mountains, on the one
+hand, or on the other supports the present theory, which admits of
+nothing primitive in the visible or examinable parts of the earth.
+
+To a person who examines accurately the composition of our mountains,
+which occupy the south of Scotland, no argument needs be used to
+persuade him that the bodies in question are not primitive; the thing
+is evident from inspection, as much as would be the ruins of an ancient
+city, although there were no record of its history. The visible
+materials, which compose for the most part the strata of our south
+alpine schisti, are so distinctly the _debris_ and _detritus_ of a
+former earth, and so similar in their nature with those which for the
+most part compose the strata on all hands acknowledged as secondary,
+that there can remain no question upon that head. The consolidation,
+again, of those strata, and the erection of them from their original
+position, and from the place in which they had been formed, is another
+question.
+
+But the acknowledging strata, which had been formed in the sea of loose
+materials, to be consolidated and raised into the place of land, is
+plainly giving up the idea of primitive mountains. The only question,
+therefore, which remains to be solved, must respect the order of things,
+in comparing the alpine schisti with the secondary strata; and this
+indeed forms a curious subject of investigation.
+
+It is plain that the schisti had been indurated, elevated, broken, and
+worn by attrition in water, before the secondary strata, which form the
+most fertile parts of our earth, had existed. It is also certain that
+the tops of our schistus mountains had been in the bottom of the sea
+at the time when our secondary strata had begun to be formed; for the
+pudding-stone on the top of our Lammermuir mountains, as well as the
+secondary strata upon the vertical schisti of the Alps and German
+mountains, affords the most irrefragable evidence of that fact.
+
+It is further to be affirmed, that this whole mass of water-formed
+materials, as well as the basis on which it rested, had been subjected
+to the mineral operations of the globe, operations by which the loose
+and incoherent materials are consolidated, and that which was the bottom
+of the sea made to occupy the station of land, and serve the purpose for
+which it is destined in the world. This also will appear evident, when
+it is considered that it has been from the appearances in this very
+land, independent of those of the alpine schisti, that the present
+theory has been established.
+
+By thus admitting a primary and secondary in the formation of our land,
+the present theory will be confirmed in all its parts. For, nothing but
+those vicissitudes, in which the old is worn and destroyed, and new
+land formed to supply its place, can explain that order which is to be
+perceived in all the works of nature; or give us any satisfactory
+idea with regard to that apparent disorder and confusion, which would
+disgrace an agent possessed of wisdom and working with design.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+The ideas of naturalists with regard to petrifaction are so vague and
+indistinct, that no proper answer can be given to them. They in general
+suppose water to be the solvent of bodies, and the vehicle of petrifying
+substances; but they neither say whether water be an universal
+menstruum, nor do they show in what manner a solid body has been formed
+in the bowels of the earth, from that solution. It may now be proper to
+examine this subject, not with a view to explain all those petrifactions
+of bodies which is performed in the mineral regions of the earth, those
+regions that are inaccessible to man, but to show that what has been
+wrote by naturalists, upon this subject, has only a tendency to corrupt
+science, by admitting the grossest supposition in place of just
+principle or truth, and to darken natural history by introducing an ill
+conceived theory in place of matter of fact.
+
+M. le Comte de Buffon has attempted to explain the crystallization
+of bodies, or production of mineral forms, by the accretion or
+juxtaposition of elementary bodies, which have only form in two
+dimensions, length and breadth; that is to say, that mineral concretions
+are composed of surfaces alone, and not of bodies. This however is only
+an attempt to explain, what we do not understand, by a proposition which
+is either evidently contradictory, or plainly inconceivable. It is
+true that this eloquent and ingenious author endeavours to correct the
+palpable absurdity of the proposition, by representing the constituent
+parts of the mineral bodies as "_de lames infiniment minces_;" but who
+is it does not see, that these infinitely thin plates are no other than
+bodies of three dimensions, contrary to the supposition; for, infinitely
+thin, means a certain thickness; but the smallest possible or assignable
+thickness differs as much from a perfect superficies as the greatest.
+
+M. de Luc has given us his ideas of petrifaction with sufficient
+precision of term and clearness of expression; his opinion, therefore,
+deserves to be examined; and, as his theory of petrifaction is equally
+applicable to every species of substance, it is necessary again to
+examine this subject, notwithstanding of what has been already said,
+in the first part of this work, concerning consolidation and mineral
+concretion from the fluid state of fusion.
+
+This author has perhaps properly exposed Woodward's Theory of
+Petrification in saying[33], "Son erreur à cet égard vient de ce qu'il
+n'a point réfléchi sur la manière dont se fait la _pétrifaction_. Il
+ramollit d'abord les _pierres_ pour y faire entrer les coquilles, sans
+bien connoître l'agent qu'il y employe; et il les duroit ensuite, sans
+réfléchir au comment." To avoid this error or defect, M. de Luc, in his
+Theory of Petrifaction, sets out with the acknowledged principle of
+cohesion; and, in order to consolidate strata of a porous texture, he
+supposes water carrying minute bodies of all shapes and sizes, and
+depositing them in such close contact as to produce solidity and
+concretion. Now, if Dr Woodward softened stones without a proper
+cause, M. de Luc, in employing the specious principle of cohesion, has
+consolidated them upon no better grounds; for, the application of this
+principle is as foreign to his purpose, as is that of magnetism. Bodies,
+it is true, cohere when their surfaces are closely applied to each
+other; But how apply this principle to consolidation?--only by supposing
+all the separate bodies, of which the solid is to be composed, to be
+in perfect contact in all their surfaces. But this, in other words,
+is supposing the body to be solid; and, to suppose the agent, water,
+capable of thus making hard bodies solid, is no other than having
+recourse to the fortuitous concourse of atoms to make a world; a thought
+which this author would surely hold in great contempt.
+
+[Note 33: Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+He then illustrates this operation of nature by those of art, in
+building walls which certainly become hard, and which, as our author
+seems to think, become solid. But this is only an imperfect or erroneous
+representation of this subject; for, mortar does not become hard upon
+the principle of petrification adopted by our author. Mortar, made of
+clay, instead of lime, will not acquire a stony hardness, nor ever, by
+means of water, will it be more indurated than by simply drying; neither
+will the most subtile powder of chalk, with water and sand, form any
+solid body, or a proper mortar. The induration of mortar arises from the
+solution of a stony substance, and the subsequent concretion of that
+dissolved matter, operations purely chemical. Now, if this philosopher,
+in his Theory of Petrifaction, means only to explain a chemical
+operation upon mechanical principles, why have recourse, for an example
+in this subject, to mineral bodies, the origin of which is questioned?
+Why does he not rather explain, upon this principle, the known
+concretion of some body, from a fluid state, or, conversely, the
+known solution of some concreted body? If again he means to explain
+petrifaction in the usual way, by a chemical operation, in that case,
+the application of his polished surfaces, so as to cohere, cannot take
+place until the dissolved body be separated from the fluid, by means of
+which it is transported from place to place in the mineral regions. But
+it is in this preliminary step that lies all the difficulty; for, could
+we see how every different substance might be dissolved, and every
+dissolved substance separated from its solvent at our pleasure, we
+should find no difficulty in admitting the cohesion of hard bodies,
+whether by means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or by the
+principle of general attraction, a principle which surely comprehends
+this particular, termed a cohesive power.
+
+It must not be alleged, that seeing we know not how water dissolves
+saline bodies, therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we know, may
+also dissolve crystal; and, if water thus dissolves a mineral substance
+in a manner unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit it, although
+we may not be able to imagine how. This kind of reasoning is only
+calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the same time, the reasoning of
+philosophers, concerning petrifaction, does not in general appear to be
+founded on any principle that is more sound. That water dissolves salt
+is a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not a fact; therefore, those
+two propositions, with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
+removed, and cannot be assimilated in sound physical reasoning. It is
+no more a truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than that we never
+have been able to detect the smallest disposition in water to dissolve
+crystal, flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege the possibility
+of water being capable of dissolving those bodies in the mineral
+regions, and of thus changing the substance of one body into another, as
+naturalists have supposed, contrary to their knowledge, or in order to
+explain appearances, is so far from tending to increase our science,
+that it is abandoning the human intellect to be bewildered in an error;
+it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep the scientific conscience,
+and making the soul of man insensible to the natural distress of
+conscious ignorance.
+
+But besides that negative argument concerning the insolubility of
+crystal, by which the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
+be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly concreted in the
+cavities of the most solid rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
+in the midst of granite mountains. But these masses of granite were
+formed by fusion; I hope that I shall give the most satisfactory proof
+of that truth: Consequently, here at least there is no occasion for the
+action of water in dissolving siliceous substances in one place, in
+order to concrete and crystallise it in another.
+
+In these cavities of the solid granite rock, where crystal is found
+regularly shooting from a basis which is the internal surface of the
+cavity, we find the other constituent substances of the granite also
+crystallised. I have those small cavities, in this rock, from the island
+of Arran, containing crystal, felt-spar, and mica, all crystallised in
+the same cavity[34]. But this is nothing to the _druzen_ or crystalline
+concretions, which are found in a similar manner among metallic and
+mineral substances in the veins and mines; there, every species of
+mineral and metallic substance, with every variety of mixture and
+composition, are found both concreted and crystallised together in every
+imaginable shape and situation.
+
+[Note 34: The Chevalier Dolomieu makes the following observation.
+Journal de Physique, Juillet 1791.
+
+"J'ai été étonné de trouver au centre d'un énorme massif de granit, que
+l'on avoit ouvert avec la poudre pour pratiquer un chemin, des
+morceaux, gros comme le poing et au dessous, de spath calcaire blanc,
+très-effervescent, en grandes écailles, ou lames entrecroisées. Il
+n'occupoit point des cavités particulières, il n'y paroissoit le
+produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des cavités, mais il étoit
+incorporé avec les feld-spath, le mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse
+avec eux, et ne pouvoit se rompre sans les entraîner avec lui."
+
+This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not been here
+introduced by infiltration, although that is the very method which he
+employs to form concretions, not only of spar but of crystal, zeolite,
+and pyrites, in the closest cavities of the most solid rocks of
+basaltes. These four substances in this stone were so mixed together
+that nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain the state in
+which they appeared; but, thinking that such a supposition could not
+be allowed, this naturalist, like a man of science when his data fail,
+leaves the matter without any interpretation of his own. This however is
+what he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he mistakes
+for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.]
+
+Here is an infinite operation, but an operation which is easily
+performed by the natural arrangement of substances acting freely in
+a fluid state, and concreting together, each substance, whether more
+simple or more compound, directing itself by its internal principle of
+attraction, and affecting mechanically those that are concreting around
+it.
+
+We see the very same thing happen under our eye, and precisely in the
+same manner. When a fluid mass of any mineral or metallic substance is
+made to congeal by sudden cooling on the outside, while the mass within
+is fluid, a cavity is thus sometimes formed by the contraction of the
+contained fluid; and in this cavity are found artificial _druzen_, as
+they may be called, being crystallizations similar to those which the
+mineral cavities exhibit in such beauty and perfection.
+
+Petrification and consolidation, in some degree, may doubtless be
+performed, in certain circumstances, by means of the solution of
+calcareous earth; but the examples given by M. de Luc, of those bodies
+of lime-stone and agate petrified in the middle of strata of loose or
+sandy materials, are certainly inexplicable upon any other principle
+except the fusion of those substances with which the bodies are
+petrified[35].
+
+[Note 35: Vid. Lettre 28 et Lettre 103. Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+This subject deserves the strictest attention; I propose it as a
+touchstone for every theory of petrification or perfect consolidation.
+First, There are found, among argillaceous strata, insulated bodies of
+iron-stone, perfectly consolidated; secondly, There are found, in strata
+of chalk and lime-stone, masses of insulated flints; thirdly, There
+are found, in strata of sea sand, masses of that sand cemented by a
+siliceous substance; fourthly, In the midst of blocks of sand-stone,
+there are found masses of loose or pure sand inclosed in crystallised
+cavities; and in this sand are found insulated masses of crystallised
+spar, including within them the sand, but without having the sparry
+or calcareous crystallization disturbed by it. There are also other
+globular masses of the same kind, where the sparry crystallization is
+either not to be observed, or appears only partially[36]: And now,
+lastly, In strata of shell-sand, there are found masses of consolidated
+lime-stone or marble. In all those cases, the consolidated bodies are
+perfectly insulated in the middle of strata, in which they must of
+necessity have been petrified or consolidated; the stratum around the
+bodies has not been affected by the petrifying substance, as there
+is not any vestige of it there; and here are examples of different
+substances, all conspiring to prove one uniform truth. Therefore, a
+general theory of petrification or consolidation of mineral bodies must
+explain this distinct fact, and not suffer it any longer to remain a
+_lusus naturae_.
+
+[Note 36: Mem. de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, an. 1775.]
+
+Let us now consider what it is that we have to explain, upon the
+supposition of those concretions being formed from a solution. We have,
+first, To understand what sort of a solution had been employed for the
+introducing of those various substances; secondly, How those concretions
+had been formed from such solutions within those bodies of strata; and,
+lastly, How such concretions could have been formed, without any vestige
+appearing of the same substance, or of the same operation, in the
+surrounding part of the stratum. Whatever may be the difficulty
+of explaining those particular appearances by means of fusion and
+mechanical force, it is plainly impossible to conceive those bodies
+formed in those places by infiltration, or any manner of concretion from
+a state of solution.
+
+Naturalists, in explaining the formation of stones, often use a chemical
+language which either has no proper meaning, or which will not apply to
+the subject of mineral operations. We know the chemical process by which
+one or two stony concretions may be formed among bodies passing from
+one state to another. When, therefore, a change from a former state of
+things in mineral bodies is judged by naturalists to have happened, the
+present state is commonly explained, or the change is supposed to have
+been made by means of a similar process, without inquiring if this had
+truly been the case or not. Thus their knowledge of chemistry has led
+naturalists to reason erroneously, in explaining things upon false
+principles. It would be needless to give an example of any one
+particular author in this respect; for, so far as I have seen, it
+appears to be almost general, every one copying the language of another,
+and no one understanding that language which has been employed.
+
+These naturalists suppose every thing done by means of solution in the
+mineral kingdom, and yet they are ignorant of those solvents. They
+conceive or they imagine concretions and crystallizations to be formed
+of every different substance, and in every place within the solid body
+of the earth, without considering how far the thing is possible which
+they suppose. They are constantly talking of operations which could only
+take place in the cavities of the earth above the level of the sea, and
+where the influence of the atmosphere were felt; and yet this is the
+very place which we have it in our power to examine, and where, besides
+the stalactite, and one or two more of the same kind, or formed on the
+same principle, they have never been able to discover one of the many
+which, according to their theory, ought always to be in action or
+effect. So far from knowing that general consolidating operation, which
+they suppose to be exerted in filling up the veins and cavities of the
+earth by means of the infiltrating water of the surface, they do not
+seem fully to understand the only operation of this kind which they see.
+The concretion of calcareous matter upon the surface of the earth is
+perhaps the only example upon which their theory is founded; and
+yet nothing can be more against it than the general history of this
+transaction.
+
+Calcareous matter, the great _vinculum_ of many mineral bodies, is in
+a perpetual state of dissolution and decay, in every place where the
+influences of air and water may pervade. The general tendency of this
+is to dissolve calcareous matter out of the earth, and deliver that
+solution into the sea. Were it possible to deny that truth, the
+very formation of stalactite, that operation which has bewildered
+naturalists, would prove it; for it is upon the general solubility of
+calcareous matter exposed to water that those cavities are formed, in
+which may be found such collections of stalactical concretion; and the
+general tendency of those operations is to waste the calcareous bodies
+through which water percolates. But how is the general petrifaction or
+consolidation of strata, below the surface of the sea, to be explained
+by the general dissolution of that consolidating substance in the
+earth above that level? Instead of finding a general petrifying or
+consolidating operation in the part of the earth which we are able to
+examine, we find the contrary operation, so far at least as relates to
+calcareous spar, and many other mineral bodies which are decomposed and
+dissolved upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Thus in the surface of the earth, above the level of the sea, no
+petrifying operation of a durable nature is found; and, were such an
+operation there found, it could not be general, as affecting every kind
+of substance. But, even suppose that such a general operation were found
+to take place in the earth above the level of the sea, where there might
+be a circulation of air and percolation of water, How could the strata
+of the earth below the level of the sea be petrified? This is a question
+that does not seem to have entered into the heads of our naturalists
+who attempt to explain petrifaction or mineral concretion from aqueous
+solutions. But the consolidation of loose and incoherent things,
+gathered together at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards raised
+into rocks of various sorts, forms by far the greatest example of
+petrification or mineral operation of this globe. It is this that must
+be explained in a mineral theory; and it is this great process of
+petrifaction to which the doctrine of infiltration, whether for the
+mechanical purpose of applying cohesive surfaces, or the chemical one of
+forming crystallizations and concretions, will not by any means apply.
+
+Nothing shows more how little true science has been employed for the
+explanation of phenomena, than the language of modern naturalists, who
+attribute, to stalactical and stalagmical operations, every superficial
+or distant resemblance to those calcareous bodies, the origin of which
+we know so well. It is not a mere resemblance that should homologate
+different things; there should be a specific character in every thing
+that is to be generalised. It will be our business to show that, in the
+false stalactites, there is not the distinctive character of those water
+formed bodies to be found.
+
+In the formation of stalactical concretions, besides the incrustation as
+well as crystallization of the stony substance from the aqueous vehicle
+by which it had been carried in the dissolved state, we have the other
+necessary accompanyments of the operation, or collateral circumstances
+of the case. Such, for example, is that tubular construction of the
+stalactite, first formed by the concretion of the calcareous substance
+upon the outside of the pendant gut of water exposed to the evaporation
+of the atmosphere; we then see the gradual filling up of that pervious
+tube through which the petrifying water had passed for a certain time;
+and, lastly, we see the continual accretion which this conducting body
+had received from the water running successively over every part of
+it. But among the infinite number of siliceous concretions and
+crystallizations, as well as those of an almost indefinite variety of
+other substances, all of which are attributed to solution, there is not
+the least vestige of any collateral operation, by which the nature of
+that concretion might be ascertained in the same manner. In all
+those cases, we see nothing but the concreted substances or their
+crystallizations; but, no mark of any solvent or incrusting process is
+to be perceived. On the contrary, almost all, or the greatest part
+of them, are so situated, and attended with such circumstances, as
+demonstrate the physical impossibility of that being the manner in which
+they had been concreted; for, they are situated within close cavities,
+through which nothing can pervade but heat, electricity, magnetism,
+etc.; and they fill those cavities more or less, from the thinnest
+incrustation of crystals to the full content of those cavities with
+various substances, all regularly concreted or crystallised according to
+an order which cannot apply to the concretion of any manner of solution.
+
+That there is, in the mineral system, an operation of water which may
+with great propriety be termed _infiltration_, I make no doubt. But this
+operation of water, that may be employed in consolidating the strata
+in the mineral regions, is essentially different from that which is
+inconsiderately employed or supposed by mineralists when they talk
+of infiltration; these two operations have nothing in common except
+employing the water of the surface of the earth to percolate a porous
+body. Now, the percolation of water may increase the porousness of that
+body which it pervades, but never can thus change it from a porous to a
+perfect solid body. But even the percolation of water through the strata
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, necessarily required, according to
+the supposition of naturalists, must be refused; for, the interstices of
+those strata are, from the supposition of the case, already filled with
+water; consequently, without first removing that stagnant water, it is
+in vain to propose the infiltration of any fluid from the surface.
+
+This is a difficulty which does not occur in our theory, where the
+strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, are to be afterwards heated
+by the internal fires of the earth. The natural consequence of those
+heating operations may be considered as the converting of the water
+contained in the strata into steam, and the expulsion of steam or
+vapour, by raising it up against the power of gravity, to be delivered
+upon the surface of the earth and again condensed to the state of water.
+
+Let us now conceive the strata, which had been deposited at the bottom
+of the sea, as exhausted of their water, and as communicating with the
+surface of the earth impregnated with water. Here again we have the
+power of gravity to operate in carrying down water to that place which
+had been before exhausted by the power of heat; and in this manner, by
+alternately employing those two great physical agents, we cannot doubt
+that nature may convey soluble substances from above, and deposit them
+below for the purpose of consolidating porous bodies, or of filling with
+saline and earthy matter those interstices which had been originally
+filled with water, when the strata were deposited at the bottom of the
+sea. How far any marks of this operation may be perceived, by carefully
+examining our mines and minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
+the contrary, whenever those examined objects were clear and distinct,
+with the concomitant circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
+always found the most certain marks of the solid bodies having concreted
+from the fluid state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude the case
+of infiltration having been previously employed; and I would intreat
+mineralists, who have the opportunity of examining the solid parts of
+the earth, to attend particularly to this distinction. But do not let
+them suppose that infiltration can be made to fill either the pores or
+veins of strata without the operation of mineral heat, or some such
+process by which the aqueous vehicle may be discharged.
+
+Not only are mineral philosophers so inconsiderate, in forming
+geological theories upon a mere supposition or false analogy, they
+have even proceeded, upon that erroneous theory, to form a geological
+supposition for explaining the appearances of strata and other stony
+masses in employing a particular physical operation, which is, that
+of _crystallization_[37]. Now crystallization may be considered as a
+species of elective concretion, by which every particular substance, in
+passing from a fluid to a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar
+external shape and internal arrangement of its parts, by which it is
+often distinguished. But, to suppose the solid mineral structure of the
+earth explained, like an enigma, by the word _crystallization_, is to
+misunderstand the science by which we would explain the subject of
+research; and, to form a general mineral theory thus upon that term,
+is an attempt to generalise without a reason. For, when it were even
+admitted that every solid body is crystallised, we thus know no more of
+the geology of this earth, or understand as little of the general theory
+of mineral concretion, as we did before;--we cannot, from that, say
+whether it be by the operation of solution or of fusion which had
+produced the perceived effect.
+
+[Note 37: Journal de Physique; Avril 1753.]
+
+M. de Carosi has wrote a treatise upon certain petrifactions[38]. In the
+doctrine of this treatise there is something new or extraordinary. It
+will therefore be proper to make some observations on it.
+
+[Note 38: Sur la Génération du Silex et du Quartz en partie.
+Observations faites en Pologne 1783, à Cracovie.]
+
+The object of this treatise is to describe the generation of silex and
+quartz, with their modifications or compositions, formed within mineral
+bodies of a different substance. The natural history contained in this
+little treatise is well described and sufficiently interesting. But It
+is chiefly in order to examine the means which, according to the theory
+of this treatise, are employed in petrifying bodies, that I consider it
+in this place.
+
+The first section of this treatise has for title, _Génération du Caillou
+et du Quartz de la terre calcaire pure_. It may be worth while to
+compare the natural history of this part of the earth with the flint and
+chert found in our chalk and lime-stone countries. I shall therefore
+transcribe what is worth observing upon that subject (p. 5.).
+
+"Nous rencontrons chez nous dans les parties le plus montagneuses, et
+les moins couvertes de terreau, ou tout-au plus de sable, entre de purs
+rochers calcaires une quantité incroyable de cailloux (silex) tant en
+boules, que veines, couches, et débris. Au premier coup d'oeil l'on
+s'imagine que ce font des débris de montagnes éloignées, qui y furent
+amenés par les eaux, mais, en examinant la chose de plus pres, on est
+convaincu, que ce sont tout au contraire, des parties détachées des
+montagnes de la contrée. Car il y a sur presque toute l'étendue de nos
+montagnes calcaires une couche, ou pour mieux dire, un banc composé
+de plusieurs couches de base calcaire, mais qui ou sont parsemées
+irrégulièrement de boules, de rognons, de veines, et de petits filons
+de silex, ou qui contiennent cette pierre en filon, veines, et couches
+parallèles, et régulièrement disposées. Les boules et rognons de silex
+y font depuis moins de la grandeur d'une petite noisette, jusqu'au
+diamètre de plus de six pouces de nôtre mesure. La plupart de ces boules
+tant qu'elles sont dans l'intérieur caché de la roche vive, et qu'elles
+n'ont rien souffert de l'impression de l'air, ont, pour l'ordinaire, une
+croûte de spath calcaire, au moyen de la quelle elles sont accrues à
+la roche mere; ou pour mieux dire la croûte spatheuse fait l'intermède
+entre le silex, et la roche calcaire, par où se fait le passage de l'une
+à l'autre. Mais ceci ne vaut que de boules de silex entièrement formées.
+C'est dont on peut même se convaincre à la vue, par beaucoup de pierres
+dont le pavé de la ville de Cracovie est composé. Mais là, ou le silex
+n'est pas encore entièrement achevé, la croûte spatheuse manque, en
+revanche on y voit évidemment le passage par degrés successifs de la
+roche calcaire au silex qui y est contenu, et les nuances de ce passage
+sont souvent si peu marquées que même les acides minéraux ne suffisent
+pas à les déterminer, ce n'est que le briquet, qui nous aide à les
+découvrir. On voit bien ou la pierre calcaire s'enfonce en couleur, l'on
+s'apperçoit, où sa dureté, ses cassures changent, mais, comme elle y
+souffre encore quelque impression des acides, l'on ne sauroit déterminer
+au juste le point, ou elle a déjà plus de la nature du silex, que de
+celle de la chaux, qu'en la frappant du briquet.
+
+"Tels sont les cailloux en boules et rognons avant leur état de
+perfection, il y aura même au milieu une partie de pierre calcaire non
+changée.
+
+"Ceux au contraire, ou la nature à achevé son ouvrage, ont une croûte de
+chaux endurcie, et sont purement du silex fini, mais de toutes couleurs,
+d'un grain et d'une texture plus ou moins fine, qui passe assez souvent
+par degrés dans les différentes variétés du noble silex. Ils ont, pour
+l'ordinaire, dans leur intérieur une cavité, mais pas toujours au
+centre, et qui vient apparemment de la consommation de cette partie
+calcaire qui y resta la dernière, et n'en fut changée ou dissolute et
+séparée, que lorsque le reste du silex étoit déjà entièrement fini. Ces
+cavités sont toujours, ou enduites de calcédoine en couche concentriques
+recouverte de petits cristaux fort brillans et durs de quartz, ou bien
+seulement de ces derniers-ci. Par-fois il y a aussi du spath calcaire
+crystallisé, mais cela est extrêmement rare. Quelque-fois enfin ces
+cavités sont remplies d'une noix de calcédoine. Je n'ai réussi qu'une
+seule fois en cassant un pareil silex en boule d'y trouver encore le
+reste de l'eau de crystallisation."
+
+The only remark that I would here make is this, that, if the
+crystallization of those close cavities in the _silex_ had at any time
+required water of solution, it must always have required it. But, if
+there had been water of solution contained in those close cavities, for
+the crystallization of the various things which are often found within
+them, How comes it that this water is almost never found? I have good
+reason to believe that water contained within a solid flint will not
+make its escape, as does that contained in the _anhydrites_ of Mount
+_Berico_, which are composed of a porous calcedony. But the siliceous
+crystallizations within close cavities is a curious subject, which we
+shall have occasion to examine more particularly in treating of agates.
+We now proceed to the next section, which is the generation of silex and
+quartz in marl, (p. 19.)
+
+"Il y a des contrées, chez nous, qui out des étendus assez considérables
+en long et en large, de montagnes de pierre de marne calcaire, dans
+lesquelles on rencontre le même phénomène que dans celles de chaux pure;
+c. a. d. nous y trouvons du silex de différentes variétés, et dans tous
+les degrés successifs de leur formation, et de leur perfection. Outre
+cela, nous y voyons encore quelque chose, qui semble nous conduire à
+la découverte des moyens, dont se sort la nature pour effecteur cette
+opération, et qui nous étoit caché dans les montagnes de chaux pure: ces
+bancs de pierre marnesilicieuse, contiennent une partie considérable de
+pyrites sulfureuses, qui non seulement y forment une grande quantité
+de petits sillons, mais toute la masse de la montagne est rempli de
+parcelles souvent presqu'imperceptibles de ce minéral. Ces pyrites sont
+évidemment des productions du phlogistique et de l'acide contenu dans la
+montagne.
+
+"L'eau, qui s'y trouve ordinairement en assez grande abondance, en
+détacha, extraha d'un et l'autre, et les combina après tous les deux
+ensemble. Cette même eau les dissout derechef, et en fait de nouvelles
+combinaisons. C'est ce qu'on voit évidemment là, ou la nature, ayant
+commencé ses opérations, il n'y est resté de la pyrite, qu'une portion
+de la partie inflammable liée à une base terrestre. Dans ces endroits
+la marne n'est que fort peu sensible aux acides, et de blanche qu'elle
+étoit, sa couleur est devenue presque noire. C'est là qu'on observe les
+différens degrés du changement de la marne en silex, contenant, même
+encore, par fois, de parties pyritéiques non détruites dans son
+intérieur. Et comme la nature forme ici, de même, que dans la chaux pure
+les silex, la plupart en boules ou rognons; comme les différent degrés
+de métamorphoses de la marne en silex, sont ici beaucoup plus nombreuses
+que là, de sorte qu'il y a des bandes entières, qui mériteroient plutôt
+d'être appellés bandes silicieuses, que marneuses; comme il y a, enfin,
+une grande quantité de pyrites, qu'ailleurs, il est très probable
+qu'elle se serve là du même moyen qu'ici pour opérer la métamorphose en
+question.
+
+"Ne nous précipitons, cependant, pas à en tirer plus de conséquences;
+poursuivons plutôt le fil de notre récit.
+
+"Le silex, qui se trouve ici, est non seulement de différents degrés de
+perfection, il est de plus d'une espèce. Il y a de la pierre à feu, 2 de
+la calcédoine, 3 des agathes, et 4 différentes nuances et passages des
+espèces ordinaires aux fines du silex.
+
+"La pierre à feu, est, ordinairement dans son état de perfection d'un
+grain assez fin, d'une couleur grise plus ou moins foncée, et même
+donnant, dans le noirâtre, plus ou moins diaphane; ses cassures sont
+concentriques ou coquillées, et sa masse est assez compacte. Outre sa
+conformation ordinaire en boules et rognons, elle fait presque toujours
+la noix de ursins marins, qui y font en grand nombre, et dont la
+coquille est le plus souvent, et presque toujours de spath calcaire,
+même au milieu d'une boule de silex parfait.
+
+"Les calcédoines et agathes de ces couches sont toujours (au moins, je
+ne les ai pas encore vues autrement) de coraux et autres corps marins
+pétrifiés. Donc, il faut que les couches de pierres roulées, d'où j'ai
+tiré ma collection citée plus haut, soyent des débris de montagne»
+détruites de cette espèce. Il y en a qui sont très parfaites comme
+celles qui composent ma collection, d'autres méritent plutôt d'être
+rangées parmi les passages du silex ordinaire, et ses espèces plus
+fines; d'autres encore sont, en effet, de vraies agathes, mais qui
+renferment dans leur intérieur plus ou moins de parties non parfaites
+presque calcaires, qui s'annoncent d'abord par leur couleur blanche,
+par leur gros grains relativement au reste, par leur opacité, par leur
+mollesse respective, et souvent même par leur sensibilité pour les
+acides minéraux. Mais celles, qui sont finies, quoiqu'elles ayent, pour
+la plupart, une couleur presque noire, ne laissent, cependant, pas
+d'avoir aussi des teintes plus claires comme brunâtres, verdâtres,
+rougeâtres, jaunâtres, bleuâtres, tachetées, veinées, etc. Leur clarté
+n'est pas moins variable, que leur couleur, il y en a de presqu'opaques,
+comme aussi de presque transparentes, sur tout là, ou la calcédoine
+prédomine.
+
+"Le quartz s'y trouve comme dans les pierres de la première section, c,
+a, d, crystallisé, en groupes dans de petites cavités; quelquefois aussi
+en veines. La calcédoine y est de même, ou bien en mamelons, ou bien en
+stalactites, lorsqu'elle a de la place pour s'y déposer.
+
+"Un phénomène encore plus curieux que cela est cette belle pyrite
+sulphureuse jaune, comme de l'or, qui est quelquefois parsemée par tout
+la substance de pétrifications agathisées, et qui apparemment y fut
+déposée après la dite métamorphose à la faveur des petits pores, qui y
+étoient restés ouverts."
+
+I would beg that mineralists, who use such language as this, would
+consider if it contains a distinct idea of the operation which they
+would thereby describe, or if it does not contain either a contradiction
+or an inconceivable proposition. It supposes a calcareous body to be
+metamorphosed, somehow by means of the mountain acid, into a siliceous
+body. But, finding many bodies of pyrites contained within that solid
+flint, it is said, that, when the calcareous body was flintified, there
+were left in it cavities which were afterwards filled with pyrites. Let
+us reflect a moment upon this doctrine. These cavities were first open
+to the outside of the flinty body; but now the pyrites with which they
+had been filled is insulated in the solid flint. Here three things are
+required; first, The calcareous body is to be flintified, at the same
+time leaving the body full of small cavities open to the outside;
+secondly, These cavities are to be filled with pyrites; lastly, These
+mineral bodies are to be so inclosed within the flint, as to leave no
+vestige of the former processes. This marly mountain itself, which had
+been formed of loose materials gathered together at the bottom of the
+sea, was first to be filled with pyrites, in various shapes, by means of
+the phlogistic and the acid of the mountain. Here is proposed to us an
+operation which is totally unknown, or of which we have no kind of
+idea. But, let us suppose pyrites formed in this mountain, (of whatever
+chemical substances), by means of water; Why should water again undo
+that pyrites, in order to form other concretions? And, Why should the
+flint be formed first with cavities, and then made solid, after pyrites
+had been introduced into those cavities of the agate, and, as our author
+expresses it, _parsemée pour toute la substance?_ Here are suppositions
+which are not only perfectly gratuitous, but are also inconsistent with
+any thing that we understand. This is not explaining nature; it is only
+feigning causes[39].
+
+[Note 39: The description of those insulated siliceous bodies,
+containing in their closed cavities all the usual concretions of
+calcedony and crystals, as well as full of small pyrites floating in the
+solid flint, are extremely interesting to a mineral system, or such a
+geological theory as should explain the present state of things in those
+strata that had been formed by deposits of known materials at the bottom
+of the sea; they are indeed such appearances as may be found, more or
+less, in all consolidated strata. But it is this author's explanation of
+that petrifaction which is our present object to consider; and, as he is
+so particular in giving us his theory upon the subject, it is easy to
+detect the error of his reasoning. Were those naturalists who explain
+things only in general, by saying that water is the agent, and
+infiltration the means employed by nature;--were these naturalists, I
+say, to give us as particular a description of their process, it would
+appear as inconsistent with the nature of things as that which we have
+from this author, who examines nature very minutely, and who sees
+distinctly that the infiltrating theory is inapplicable for the
+explanation of those petrifactions.]
+
+The third section has for title, "_Generation du Silex et Quartz de la
+Pierre Puante_." Here we find an example worthy of being recorded,
+as contributing to throw great light upon those mineral operations;
+however, the opinion of our author and mine, upon this subject, differ
+widely. He proceeds thus:
+
+"Cette pierre n'est, comme chacun le sçait, qu'une pierre calcaire
+contenant du bitume.
+
+"Nos montagnes n'en contiennent seulement pas de simples couches, mais
+il y en a même de grandes bancs fort épais.
+
+"Le caillou, ou silex qui s'y génère, forme, tantôt de gros blocs
+informes, qui occupent des cavités dans l'intérieure des montagnes,
+tantôt, enfin, en forme de filons.
+
+"J'ai remarqué cette métamorphose sur trois endroits différens, dans
+chacun des quels la nature a autrement opéré.
+
+"Sur l'un, la pierre puante fait un banc horizontal dans une montagne de
+pierre calcaire crystalline, ou d'une espèce de marbre, qui contient
+des couches et filons de métal. Ce banc de pierre puante y fait le toit
+d'une couche de galène de plomb et de pierre calaminaire, et dans ses
+cavités et fentes il y a non seulement des blocs de grandeur différente,
+mais aussi des veines et petites bandes courtes de silex, tant
+ordinaire, que noble c, a, d, de la pierre à feu, de calcédoine,
+d'agathes, et même d'une espèce de cornaline jaune et rouge pâle. Je ne
+m'arrêterai pas à en détailler les variétés, parce qu'elles sont trop
+accidentelles. Je ne les connois pas même toutes, il s'en faut de
+beaucoup, parce qu'elles se trouvent dans des anciennes mines négligées,
+peut être depuis plus d'un siècle, et par conséquent peu accessibles. Je
+ne doute, cependant pas, que, si l'on pouvoit mieux sonder le terrain,
+on y trouveroit bien plus encore du peu que j'ai cité. Parmi ce silex,
+il y a aussi de petites groupes et de petites veines de quartz solide et
+crystallisé.
+
+"Au second endroit la pierre puante fait un filon, ou si l'on veut,
+une couche ou bande verticale, qui partage la montagne en deux parties
+presqu'égales de l'épaisseur de trois aunes à peu près. La montagne,
+ou cela se voit est aussi une ancienne mine de cuivre et de plomb,
+consistant en plusieurs variétés de marbre, différent en couleur et en
+grain, déposées par couches les unes sur les autres. Le filon de silex
+est formé de feuilles alternatives de pierre puante et de silex, tous
+les deux de couleur brun de bois à peu prés; mais le silex est plus
+foncé que sa compagne. Ces feuilles alternatives, consistent d'autres
+bien plus minces encore, qui souvent n'ont pas l'épaisseur d'une ligne,
+mais ce qu'il y a de plus curieux, c'est que la même feuille est d'un
+but de pierre porque, qui, vers le milieu, passe successivement en
+silex, qui, à son tour, vers l'autre but, qui étoit exposé à l'air
+repasse par les mêmes gradations en une espèce de tuffe calcaire. Ce qui
+nous fait voir évidemment la génération et la destruction du silex, même
+avec une partie des moyens par lesquels elle s'opère. Comme l'endroit de
+cette découverte n'est accessible qu'à la superficie, je ne saurois dire
+s'il y a d'autres variétés de silex outre la dite. Il l'est à supposer
+autant par analogie, que par quelques morceaux qui ont de petites veines
+transversales d'une espèce de calcédoine, et qui sont, même, sur leur
+fentes, garnis de petits cristaux de roche. Mais ce qu'il y a de sur
+c'est que ce filon, parvenu à une certaine profondeur, s'ennoblit et
+contient du métal, c. a. d. de la galène de plomb, et de la pyrite
+cuivreuse, j'y en ai trouvés de morceaux, qui en font de preuves
+incontestables. Le caillou d'ici est un grain fin d'une texture forte,
+peu transparent, donne beaucoup d'étincelles au briquet, mais ses
+cassures sont écailleuses.
+
+"La montagne calcaire du troisième lieu a une couche de pierre puante
+épaisse de plusieurs aunes, qui, derechef contient de petites couches
+irrégulières et des bandes transversales de silex, qui ont jusques â
+six pouces passés d'épaisseur. La pierre puante est d'une couleur
+gris-brune, d'un grain assez fin, et d'un tissu assez dur; ses cassures
+sont irrégulières, mais plus la pierre s'approche du silex, plus elles
+donnent dans le coquillé. Le silex ordinaire est d'un brun de bois, d'un
+grain assez fin, et d'un tissu résistant, et ses cassures sont égales à
+la pierre porque. Ce n'est pas là la seule variété, il y a, aussi, de la
+calcédoine et des agathes de couleurs différentes. Même la pierre à
+feu est assez souvent traversée de veines de calcédoine, de quartz
+crystallisé, et de spath calcaire blanc en feuilles et en crystaux. Il
+arrive que la même veine est composée de ces trois espèces de pierres à
+la fois, de sorte que l'une semble passer dans l'autre, parce que les
+limites réciproques sont, souvent, assez indistinctes. Il est évident,
+que le silex est formé de la pierre puante, parce qu'on remarque ici
+les mêmes phénomènes dont j'ai parlé plus haut, c. a. d. les passages
+successifs de l'une dans l'autre pierre, tant en montant qu'en
+descendant."
+
+There is nothing particular in the siliceous mixture in this species of
+lime-stone, except the vein of that substance. It is evident that this
+vein, traversing the mountain, had been introduced in the fluid state
+of fusion. I do not mean to say, that, in this particular case now
+described, the evidence of that truth peculiarly appears; but that, from
+the general nature of mineral veins breaking and traversing the solid
+strata of the globe, no other conclusion can be formed; and that in
+the particulars of this example there is nothing that could lead us to
+suppose any other origin to the petrifactions contained in this vein
+of stinking lime-stone. It is plain, that our author has imagined to
+himself an unknown manner of executing his mineral metamorphoses. He
+sees plainly that the common notion of infiltration will not at all
+explain the evident confusion of those calcareous and siliceous bodies
+which appear to him to be metamorphosing into each other. Nothing,
+indeed, can explain those phenomena but a general cause of fluidity; and
+there is no such general cause besides that of heat or fusion.
+
+But to show how mineralists of great merit, gentlemen who have examined
+systematically and with some accuracy, may impose upon themselves in
+reasoning for the explanation of mineral appearances from limited
+notions of things, and from the supposition of these having been formed
+where they now are found, that is, upon the surface of the earth, I
+would beg leave to transcribe what this author has said upon this
+species of petrifaction. It is not that he is ignorant of what
+mineralists have already said upon the subject; it is because he sees
+the incompetency of their explanations in those particular cases; and
+that he would employ some other more effectual means. (p. 50.)
+
+"Toute terre calcaire à changer dans une autre doit, avant toute chose,
+être rendue réfractaire ce qui ne peut se faire qu'en la saturant avec
+un acide. Mais une terre simplement, saturée d'un acide, est d'une
+réduction fort aisée, vu que l'acide n'y tient pas trop fort, d'ailleurs
+ce n'est qu'un sel neutre terreux fort facile â dissoudre dans une
+quantité suffisante d'eau. Or pour rendre cette union plus constante, il
+faut que la terre alcaline s'assimile intimement à l'acide, ce qui ne
+se sera jamais sans un intermedeliant, qui homogène les parties de ce
+nouveau corps, et pour que cela ce fasse il est indispensable, qu'il
+s'opère une dissolution foncière des parties terrestres de la chaux, qui
+facilite l'ingress à l'acide, et à l'intermède pour qu'ils s'y lie bien
+fortement. Supposons qu'il se forme une liqueur savonneuse de l'acide et
+du phlogistique, que l'air fixe, mis en liberté, ouvre les interstices
+des parties qui constituent la terre alcaline, qu'apres cela cette
+liqueur savonneuse ayant l'entrée libre s'assimile à la terre en
+proportion requise, que l'eau, qui servoit de véhicule dans cette
+operation, s'évapore successivement, et emporte le superflu des
+ingrediens, pour qu'il se puisse opérer le rapprochement le plus exacte
+des parcelles ou molécules homogénées de nouveau corps qu'enfin les
+molécules les plus pures et les mieux affinées soyent réunies en forme
+liquide dans des cavités, et que par l'évaporation et séparation de
+l'eau, ou elles nageoient, il s'en forme des crystaux n'aurons-nous
+pas une boule de silex, avec de crystaux de quartz dans ses creux
+intérieurs."
+
+The supposed case is this; a calcareous body is to be metamorphosed
+into a siliceous nodule, having a cavity within it lined with quartz,
+crystals, etc. M. de Carosi means to inform us how this may be done.
+Now, as this process requires no other conditions than those that may
+be found upon the surface of this earth, the proper way to prove this
+hypothetical theory, would be to exhibit such a mineral body produced
+by those means. But, even supposing that such a process were to be
+exhibited, still it would remain to be explained, how this process,
+which requires conditions certainly not be found at the bottom of the
+sea, could be accomplished in that place, where the strata of the earth
+had been deposited, accumulated, consolidated, and metamorphosed.
+
+This mineral process, which has been now described, will no doubt revolt
+the opinions of many of our chemists as well as naturalists; and I
+should not have thought of transcribing it, but as an example of that
+inconclusive reasoning which prevails in mineralogical writings upon
+this subject.
+
+But this is not all. We have, upon this occasion, a most remarkable
+example of the fallaceous views that may be taken of things; and of the
+danger to science when men of sense and observation form suppositions
+for the explanation of appearances without that strict conformity with
+the principles of natural philosophy which is requited on all occasions.
+Both M. de Carosi, and also M. Macquart[40], to whom our author
+communicated his ideas and proper specimens, assert, that from their
+accurate experience, they find calcedony growing daily, not only in the
+solid body of gypsum, etc. while in the mine, but also in the solid
+stone when taktn out of the mine, and preserved in their cabinet.
+
+[Note 40: Vid. Essais de Minéralogie par M. Macquart.]
+
+What answer can be made to this positive testimony of these gentlemen,
+by a person who has not seen any such a thing, and who has not the
+opportunity of examining the cases in which those naturalists may have
+perhaps been led into some delusion? Were I however to conjecture upon a
+subject in which I have not any positive information, I should suppose
+that some part of the calcedony, like the _oculus mundi_ when dipped in
+water, may be so transparent, while containing some portion of humidity,
+that it is not easily distinguishable from the gypsum in which it is
+concreted; but that in having the humidity evaporated, by being taken
+out of the mine and exposed to the dry air, those portions of calcedony,
+which did not before appear, may be perceived by becoming more
+opaque[41].
+
+[Note 41: From the description given in this treatise, and from the
+drawings both of M. de Carosi and M. Macquart, I find a very valuable
+inference to be made, so much the more interesting, as I have not found
+any example of the like before. This arises from the intimate connection
+which is here to be perceived between agate and gypsum. Now, upon this
+principle, that the agate-calcedony had been formed by fusion, a truth
+which, from the general testimony of minerals, I must presume, it is
+plain, that those nodules of gypsum had been in the fluid state of
+fusion among those marly strata, and that the gypseous bodies had been
+penetrated variously with the siliceous substance of the calcedony.
+
+The description of those siliceous penetrations of gypsum is followed by
+this conclusion: "En voila assez, je crois pour faire voir que le silex
+ci-décrit est effectivement une émanation du gypse, et non pas une
+matière hétérogène amenée d'autre part et déposée, ou nous la voyons."
+In this instance our author had convinced himself that the calcedony
+concretions had not been formed, as he and other mineralists had before
+supposed, by means of infiltration; he has not, however, substituted
+any thing more intelligible in its stead. I do not pretend that we
+understand mineral fusion; but only that such mineral fusion is a thing
+demonstrable upon a thousand occasions; and that thus is to be explained
+the petrification and consolidation of the porous and naturally
+incoherent strata of the earth.]
+
+There is, however, a subject in which I can more freely accuse this
+author of being deceived. This naturalist says, that calcareous stones
+become silex by a certain chemical operation; and that those flinty
+bodies, in being exposed upon the surface of the earth, out of their
+natural bed, are again, by a contrary chemical operation, changed from
+flint to a calcareous substance. I will give it in his own words, (p.
+56.)
+
+"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progénéré de chaux, détaché de son
+lieu natal, et exposé aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit, reçoit de
+crevasses, perd sa transparence, devient, enfin, tout-à-fait opaque, le
+phlogistique s'en évapore, l'acide en est détaché, lavé, et de
+terre vitrescible, qu'il étoit, il redevient chaux, comme il étoit
+auparavant."
+
+Here is no question with regard to mere opinion, but to matter of fact;
+and, in this case, nothing is more evident, than that upon the surface
+of this earth, that is, in the examinable parts above the level of the
+sea, there is no transition either of calcareous bodies into flint,
+nor of flinty bodies into calcareous substance. Calcareous matter is
+constantly dissolved by water, when it is exposed to the washing of
+that fluid; and it is even dissolved out of the most perfect union or
+combination with siliceous substance, and the most solid composition of
+an insoluble body, as may be perceived in the decaying of feld-spar. A
+superficial view of flints, which have come out of a body of chalk, may
+have created such an opinion, which will not either bear the light of
+chemical or mineral investigation. The subject of these chalk flints
+will be minutely examined in its proper place.
+
+Our author has carefully examined the subject of flintification; and the
+country where he makes his observations would seem to be well disposed
+for such a research. He has had great opportunity and inclination to
+examine the subject which he writes upon; and he has given a distinct
+account of what be has seen. His description of the flintification of
+sand-stone is extremely interesting. I will therefore transcribe it,
+both as a valuable portion of natural history, and also in order to
+contrast this author's opinion, with regard to the means employed by
+nature in petrifying bodies, and that which I maintain to be the general
+consolidating operation of the globe. It is Section V. _Generation du
+Caillou du Silex du Grès, ou Pierre Sablonneuse_.
+
+"Tout grès est susceptible de cette métamorphose quant au grain et quant
+à la couleur; depuis la bréccia quartzeuse jusqu'à la pierre à rasoir;
+et depuis le grès blanc jusqu'au brun et presque noirâtre, tient ou non
+tient, dur, ou presque friable, c'est indifférent, toutes ces variétés
+donnent du silex, et surtout de la calcédoine, de la cornaline, et des
+agathes. Quant au ciment je l'y ai toujours remarqué calcaire et faisant
+effervescence avec les acides dans les endroits de la pierre qui
+n'étoient point encore changés; et jamais je n'ai vu ce changement dans
+du grès dont le ciment fut ou quartzeux ou argileux et réfractaire.
+Ainsi le ciment entre pour quelque chose dans ce changement.
+
+"Le commencement de cette métamorphose paroit (autant que j'ai pu
+l'observer dans mes débris roulés) se faire par le ciment, qui dissout
+là, où les agens eurent l'accès libre, rend les grains en quartz
+mobiles, les emporte, les mêle avec sa masse dense-liquide, les dissout,
+même en partie, et forme, dans cet état, des veines et de masses
+calcédonieuse, carneoliques, ou d'une autre espèce de silex, au milieu
+du grés peu, ou pas du tout, changé. Car autant que je puis voir, ce
+n'est pas par couches ou veines qu'elle s'opère, mais par boules et
+masses rond-oblongues. Au commencement ces veines et tâches sont fort
+minces, et le reste du grés n'est point du tout, ou à peine sensiblement
+changé hormis qu'il gagne, plus de consistence, à proportion du
+changement souffert. Mais à mesure que le silex y augmente et se
+perfectionne, on y apperçoit les degrés par lesquels a passé cette
+operation. Les nuance du passage d'une pierre à l'autre deviennent plus
+visibles, les veines et masses de silex grandissent au point, même,
+qu'il y a jusqu'aux trois quart du grés changé en silex clair comme de
+l'eau n'ayant que fort peu de grains de sable nageants dans sa masse.
+Des morceaux de cette espèce sont rares à la vérité, mais j'en ai,
+cependant, trouvé quelques uns. Ordinairement, dans les beaux morceaux,
+le silex fait la base, et le sable y est, comme nageant tantôt en grains
+séparés tantôt en parties et flocons. Dans les pieces moins belles, le
+sable fait la base, et le silex sert à la fois de ciment, et forme aussi
+plus ou moins de veines, qui traversent la masse en maintes et maintes
+directions. Mais si c'est un grès à gros grains, ou de la bréccia, alors
+le reste prend la nature silicieuse mêlé de sable fin, et les gros
+grains de quartz restent tels, qu'ils étoient, sans changer. J'ai
+déjà remarqué que cette métamorphose semble s'opérer, comme celle des
+cailloux d'origine calcaire en forme approchans la sphérique, il faut
+encore y a jouter, que j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle se fasse aussi du
+dedans en dehors, tout, comme la décomposition se fait du dehors au
+dedans.
+
+"Il arrive dans cette pierre, comme dans toute autre, qu'il se forme
+des crystallisations dans les cavités. Lorsqu'elles sont de silex, leur
+figure est toujours mamelonnée, mais leur eau ou pureté, leur grandeur
+et leur couleur n'est pas par tout égale. Il y en a qui sont grands, et
+de la plus pure calcédoine, d'autres sont petits et chaque goutte ou
+mamelon contient un grain de sable, de facon que cela a l'air d'un grès
+crystallisé en mamelons ou stalagmitique. D'autres encore sont, de
+calcédoine, mais recouverts d'une croûte, tantôt blanche qui fait
+effervescence avec l'acide minéral, et qui est, par conséquent, de
+nature calcaire; tantôt cette croûte est bleue foncée nuancée de
+bleu-celeste; tantôt, enfin, elle est noire, mais toutes les deux
+réfractaires. Outre ces crystallisations silicieuses, il y en a, quoique
+rarement, de quartzeuses, qui ou forment de petites veines de crystal,
+ou bien des groupes de crystaux quartzeux, ou qui enfin, enduisent les
+mamelons de silex."
+
+Our author then makes a specification of the different varieties; after
+which he continues, p. 69.
+
+"Après tout ceci, l'on conviendra j'espère, que nôtre grais est une
+pierre bien singulière, et surpassant, à bien des égards, le grais,
+faussement dit crystallisé, de Fontainebleau. La raison de la figure du
+grais François est fort évidente, c'est le spath calcaire, qui lui
+sert de ciment, qui la lui fit prendre; mais qu'est-ce qui opère les
+métamorphoses racontées dans notre grais siliceux? Seroit-ce son ciment
+calcaire ou marneux par les mêmes raisons, qui font changer la marne en
+silex? La chose est très-probable, et je n'en saurois pas même, deviner
+d'autre. En ce cas la nature auroit un moyen d'opérer par la voie
+humide, ce que nous faisons dans nos laboratoires en quelque façon, par
+la voie sèche, c, a, d, de fondre et liquéfier la terre vitrescible, au
+moyen des alcalis; secret que nous lui avons déjà arraché en partie, en
+faisant la liqueur silicieuse."
+
+"Je n'ose, cependant, décider pas même hypothétiquement, sur cette
+matière, pour n'avoir pu observer la nature dans ses ateliers, et parce
+que je ne possède que des pièces, qui détachées de leur lieu natal,
+depuis un très long-tems, furent exposées aux intempéries des saisons,
+où elles peuvent avoir souffert bien de changemens."
+
+There cannot be a more fair exposition of facts; and it is only our
+author's opinion of this mineral transmutation that I would controvert.
+I do not pretend to understand the manner of operating that our author
+here supposes nature to take. I only maintain, that here, as every where
+in general, the loose and incoherent strata of the globe have been
+petrified, that is, consolidated, by means of the fusion of their
+substances; and this I think is confirmed from the accurate description
+here given of the flintification of sand-stone. Here is described very
+distinctly an appearance which is very common or general on those
+occasions; this is the parts or particles of stone floating in the fluid
+siliceous substance, and there dissolving more or less.
+
+M. de Carosi describes very systematically the generation of silex,
+calcedony, onyx, and quartz, in calcareous earth, marl, gypsum,
+sand-stone, and also what he terms _terre glaise, ou de l'Argile_. It is
+in this last that we find a perfect analogy with what is so frequent in
+this country of Scotland. These are the agates, calcedonies, calcareous
+and zeolite nodules, which are found produced in our whin-stone
+or subterraneous lavas, that is, the amygdaloides of Crondstedt.
+Naturalists explain the formation of those nodular bodies differently.
+The Chevalier de Dolomieu supposes these rocks to have been erupted
+lavas, originally containing cavities; and that these cavities in the
+solid rock had been afterwards filled and crystallised, by means of
+infiltration, with the different substances which are found variously
+concreted and crystallised within the solid rocks. Our author, on the
+contrary, supposes these formed by a species of chemical transmutation
+of calcareous and argillaceous earths, which, if not altogether
+incomprehensible, is at least not in any degree, so far as I know, a
+thing to be understood.
+
+This is not the place where that subject of these particular rocks,
+which is extremely interesting, is to be examined. We shall afterwards
+have occasion to treat of that matter at large. It is sufficient here to
+observe, that our author finds occasion to generalise the formation of
+those petrifactions with the flintifications in calcareous and gypseous
+bodies. When, therefore, the formation of any of them shall be
+demonstrated, as having taken its origin in the fusion of those
+substances, this mode of operation, which is generalised in the
+consolidation of strata, will be properly inferred in all the rest.
+
+Petrifaction is a subject in which mineralogists have perhaps wandered
+more widely from the truth than in any other part of natural history;
+and the reason is plain. The mineral operations of nature lie in a part
+of the globe which is necessarily inaccessible to man, and where the
+powers of nature act under very different conditions from those which we
+find take place in the only situation where we can live. Naturalists,
+therefore, finding in stalactical incrustation a cause for the formation
+of stone, in many respects analogous to what is found in the strata of
+the earth, and which had come from the mineral region in a consolidated
+state, have, without due consideration, attributed to this cause all the
+appearances of petrifaction or mineral concretion. It has been one of
+the objects of this work to show that this operation of incrustation,
+or petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether ineffectual for
+producing mineral concretions; and that, even were it capable of forming
+those mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of this earth, formed
+by a deposit of travelled materials at the bottom of the sea, the
+conditions necessary to this incrustating process do not take place.
+
+Those enlightened naturalists who have of late been employed in
+carefully examining the evidences of mineral operations, are often
+staggered in finding appearances inconsistent with the received doctrine
+of infiltration; they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions, in
+order to explain that enigma. In giving examples of this kind. I have in
+view both to represent the natural history these mineralists furnish
+us with, which is extremely interesting, and also to show the various
+shapes in which error will proceed, when ingenious men are obliged to
+reason without some necessary principle in their science. We have just
+now had an example in Europe; I will next present the reader with one
+from Asia.
+
+M. Patrin, in his _Notice Minéralogique de la Daourie_, (Journal de
+Physique, Mars 1791) gives us a very distinct account of what he met
+with in that region. Describing the country of Doutchersk upon the river
+Argun, in Siberia, he proceeds thus:
+
+"Ces colines sont formées d'un hornstein gris qui paroit se convertir en
+pierre calcaire par l'action des météores; car tout celui qu'on prend
+hors du contact de l'air donne les plus vives étincelles, et ne fait pas
+la moindre effervescence avec les acides, même après avoir été calciné;
+et l'on observe celui qui est à découvert, passer, par nuances
+insensibles, jusqu'à l'état de pierre calcaire parfaite de couleur
+blanchâtre."
+
+Here M. Patrin has persuaded himself, probably from an imperfect
+examination of the subject, that there takes place a mineral
+metamorphosis, which certainly is not found in any other part of the
+earth, and for which he does not find any particular cause. The natural
+effect of the meteors, in other parts of the earth, is to dissolve the
+calcareous substance out of bodies exposed to those agents; and the
+gradation from the one of those two things to the other, which seems to
+be the data on which he had proceeded in forming his conclusion, is not
+sufficient to prove the metamorphosis, even were there not so strong a
+physical objection to it; for, it is by no means unusual for mineral
+bodies to graduate thus from one substance to another. However that be,
+this is not the principal object of the example[42].
+
+[Note 42: Here we have well informed naturalists reasoning with all the
+light of our present mineralogy, and maintaining, on the one hand, that
+gypsum is transformed into calcedony, by the operation of the meteors,
+or some such cause; and, on the other, that a siliceous substance is by
+the same means converted into lime-stone. What should we now conclude
+from this?--That calcareous and siliceous substances were mutually
+convertible. But then this is only in certain districts of Poland and
+Siberia. Every where, indeed, we find strange mixtures of calcareous and
+siliceous bodies; but neither mineralists nor chemists have, from these
+examples, ventured to affirm a metamorphosis, which might have spared
+them much difficulty in explaining those appearances.
+
+This is a subject that may be taken in very different lights. In one
+view, no doubt, there would appear to be absurdity in the doctrine of
+metamorphosis, as there is now a days acknowledged to be in that of
+_lusus naturae_; and those reasoning mineralists might thus, in the
+opinion of some philosophers, expose their theory to contempt and
+ridicule. This is not the light in which I view the subject. I give
+those gentlemen credit for diligently observing nature; and I applaud
+them for having the merit to reason for themselves, which would seem to
+be the case with few of the many naturalists who now speak and write
+upon the subject.
+
+Let us now draw an inference, with regard to this, in judging of the
+different theories. Either the received system concerning mineral
+operations is just, in which case those gentlemen, who employ a secret
+metamorphosis, may be to blame in laying it aside; or it is erroneous
+and deficient; and, in that case, they have the merit of distinguishing
+the error or deficiency of the prevailing system. How far they have seen
+the system of nature, in those examples which they have described,
+is another question. In the mean time, I am to avail myself of the
+testimony of those gentlemen of observation, by which the insufficiency
+at least of the received mineral system is acknowledged.]
+
+After speculating upon the effect of the ancient ocean upon the
+mountains of that country, he proceeds as follows:
+
+"Je laisse ces conjectures pour remarquer un fait singulier: la colline,
+qui est au nord de l'église de la fonderie, a son arrête composée de ce
+hornstein qui se décompose en pierre calcaire; mais ici, les parties,
+qui sont ainsi décomposées, offrent une substance calcédonieuse
+disposées par zones concentriques, comme on l'observe dans les agates
+d'oberstein; mais ce ne sont point ici des corps parasites formés par
+infiltration dans des cavités pré-existantes comme les agates; on voit
+que ce sont les parties constituantes de la roche qui, _par un
+travail interne_, et par une sorte de crystallisation, out pris cette
+disposition régulière (que ce mot de _crystallisation_ ne révolte point,
+j'appelle ainsi toute tendance à prendre une forme constante, polyèdre
+ou non polyèdre.) Les couches les plus voisine du centre sont nettes et
+distinctes; peu-à-peu elles le sont moins, et enfin elles s'évanouissent
+et se confondent avec le fond de la roche. Chaque assemblage de ces
+zones a une forme ronde ou ovale plus ou moins régulière de sept à huit
+pouces de diamètre.
+
+"Cela ressemble en grand à ce qu'on observe dans les pierres oeillées,
+et la cause est vraisemblablement la même. Je le répète, je regarde
+cette disposition régulière comme une véritable cristallisation, qui
+peut s'opérer et qui s'opère en effet dans l'intérieur des corp les plus
+solide, tant qu'ils sont fournis à l'action des agens de la nature.
+
+"Tous ceux qui visitent l'intérieur de la terre savent que les roches
+mêmes le plus compactes y sont intimement pénétrées d'humidité, et ce
+fluide n'est certainement pas l'eau pure; c'est l'agent qui opère toutes
+les agrégations, toutes les cristallisations, tous les travaux de la
+nature dans le règne minéral. On peut donc aisément concevoir qu'à la
+faveur de ce fluide, il règne, dans les parties les plus intimes des
+corps souterrains, une circulation qui fait continuellement changer de
+place aux élémens de la matière, jusqu'a ce que réunis par la force des
+affinités, les corpuscules similaires prennent la forme que la nature
+leur a assignée."
+
+Those nodular bodies or figured parts which are here inclosed in the
+rock, are evidently what may be called calcedony agates. M. Patrin is
+persuaded, from the examination of them, that they had not been formed
+in the manner of German agates, which he supposes is by mean of
+infiltration; and he has endeavoured to conceive another manner of
+operating, still however by means of water, which I suppose, according
+to this hypothesis, is to dissolve substances in one part, and deposits
+them in another, There must certainly be some great _desideratum_ in
+that mineral philosophy which is obliged to have recourse to such
+violent suppositions. First, water is not an universal solvent, as it
+would require to be, upon this supposition; secondly, were water allowed
+to be an universal menstruum, here is to be established a circulation
+that does not naturally arise from the mixture of water and earth; and,
+lastly, were this circulation to be allowed, it would not explain the
+variety which is found in the consolidation and concretion of mineral
+bodies.
+
+So long, therefore, as we are to explain natural appearances by
+reasoning from known principles, and not by ascribing those effects to
+preternatural causes, we cannot allow of this regular operation which
+M. Patrin alleges to be acting in the interior parts of the most solid
+bodies. This is indeed evident, that there has been a cause operating
+in the internal parts of the most solid bodies, a cause by which the
+elements, or constituent parts of those solid bodies, have been moved
+and regularly disposed, as this author very well observes must have been
+the case in our agates or eyed stones; but to ascribe to water this
+effect, or to employ either an ineffectual or an unknown cause, is not
+to reason philosophically with regard to the history of nature; it is to
+reason phantastically, and to imagine fable.
+
+M. Monnet has imagined a petrifying power in water very different
+from any that has hitherto been conceived, I believe, by natural
+philosophers, and I also believe, altogether inconsistent with
+experience or matter of fact; but as it is not without good reason that
+this naturalist has been induced to look out for a petrifying cause
+different from any hitherto supposed, and as he has endeavoured very
+properly to refute the systems of petrification hitherto received,
+I would beg leave to transcribe his reasoning upon the subject in
+corroboration of the present theory of consolidation by the means of
+fusion.
+
+It is upon occasion of describing one of the species of alpine stone
+or schistus which contains quartzy particles. _Nouveau voyage
+minéralogique, etc._ Journal de Physique Aoust 1784.
+
+"Il y a loin de cette pierre, que je regarde comme une variété de roches
+ardoisées, aux véritable ardoises. La composition de toutes ces pierres
+est due aux terres quartzeuses et argileuses, et à la terre talqueuse,
+que je démontrerai un jour être une espèce particulière et distincte des
+autres, qui constitue les bonnes ardoises, et fait, ainsi que le quartz,
+qu'elles résistent aux injures de l'air, sans s'effleurir, comme je
+ferai voir que cette terre, qu'on désignera sous la dénomination de
+terre talqueuse, si l'on veut, résiste au grand feu sans se fondre. Les
+différences de toutes ces pierres, quoique composées des mêmes matières,
+mais dans des proportions différentes, sont frappantes, et pourroient
+faire croire qu'elles n'appartiennent pas à ce genre. Mais qui ne voit
+ici que toutes ces différences, ou ces variétés, ne sont dues qu'aux
+modifications de la matière première, qu'elle a éprouvées, soit en se
+mêlant avec des matières hétérogènes, prévenantes du débris des êtres
+qui ont existé, comme l'argile, par exemple, qui, de l'aveu de presque
+tous les naturalistes, est le produit de l'organization des plantes, ou
+soit en se mêlant avec de la matière déjà solidifiée depuis long-temps?
+Or nous ne craignons pas de dire, ce que nous avons dit plusieurs fois
+quand l'occasion s'en est présentée, que cette matière unique, que
+se modifie selon les occasions et les circonstances, et qui prend
+un caractère analogue au matières qu'elle rencontre, est l'eau, que
+beaucoup de naturalistes cherchent vainement ailleurs. Ils ne peuvent
+comprendre, malgré les exemples frappans qui pourroient les porter à
+adopter cette opinion, que ce fluide général soit l'élément des corps
+solides du règne minéral, comme il est de ceux du règne végétal et du
+règne animal. L'on cherche sérieusement, par des expériences chimiques,
+à découvrir si l'eau est susceptible de se convertir en terre comme
+si la nature n'avoit pas d'autre moyen que nous de la faire passer de
+l'état fluide à l'état solide. Voyez le spath calcaire et le quartz
+transparens; est il à présumer qu'ils ne sont que le résultat du dépôt
+des matières terreuses fait par les eaux? Mais, dans ce ca-là encore,
+il faut supposer que l'eau qui est restée entre ces partie s'est
+solidifiée; car, qu'est-elle donc devenue, et quel est donc le lien qui
+a uni ces parties et leur a fait prendre une forme régulière? Il est
+vrai qu'on nous parle d'un suc lapidifique; mais c'est-la un être de
+raison, dont il seroit bien plus difficile d'établir l'existence, que de
+croire à la solidification de l'eau. On nous donne cependant comme un
+principe certain que l'eau charie d'un lieu à un autre les matières
+qu'il a dissoutes, et qu'elle les dépose à la maniere des sels. Mais
+c'est supposer une chose démentie par l'experience; savoir, que l'eau
+ait la propriété de dissoudre les matières terreuses, telles que la
+quartzeuse. A la vérité, M. Auchard de Berlin y joint de l'air fixe;
+mais cet air fixe ne sauroit tenir en dissolution un atome de quartz
+dans l'eau; et quelle qu'ait été l'exactitude de ceux qui ont répété
+les expériences de M. Auchard, on n'a pu réussir à imiter la nature,
+c'est-à-dire, à former des cristaux quartzeux, comme il a annoncé. Que
+l'eau ait la faculté de tenir en dissolution quelques petites parties
+de terre calcaire, au moyen de cet air fixe, il n'en faut pas conclure
+qu'elle puisse former de cette maniere tous les cristaux calcaires, sans
+que l'eau elle-même y concoure pour sa part; car ce seroit conclure
+quelque fois que la partie seroit égale au tout. Voyez ces géodes
+calcaire et argileuses, qui renferment des cristaux nombreux de quartz
+ou de spath calcaire; ne sont ils que le résultat du dépôt de l'eau
+qui y a été renfermée, ou que la cristallization pure et simple des
+molécules que vous supposez avoir été tenues en dissolution par cette
+eau? Il naîtroit de cette opinion une foule d'objections qu'il seroit
+impossible de résoudre. Cependant M. Guettard, dans la minéralogie du
+Dauphiné, qui vient de paroître, ouvrage très-estimable à beaucoup
+d'égards, explique, selon cette maniere de penser, la formation de
+cristallizations quartzeuses qu'on trouve dans certaines géodes de
+cette province, et celle des mines de cristal des hautes montagnes. En
+supposant même comme vraie l'explication qu'il en donne, on trouveroit
+en cela un des plus grands problème, et des plus difficiles à résoudre
+qu'il y ait en minéralogie; car d'abord il faudroit expliquer comment un
+si petite quantité d'eau que celle qui a été renfermée dans les géodes,
+et celle qui est parvenue dans les fentes des rochers, ont pu fournir
+un si grande quantité de matière que celle qui constitue ces
+cristallisations, et ce qui n'est pas le moins difficile à concevoir,
+comment l'eau a pu charrier cette matière à travers tant de matières
+différentes, et la conserver précisément pour cette destination;
+comment, par exemple, l'eau est venue déposer de la terre quartzeuse
+dans les masses énormes de pierres calcaires, qui forment la côté qui
+domine le village de Champigny, à quatre lieues de Paris, au delà de
+Saint-maur; car s'il nous faut citer un exemple frappant de cette
+singularité, et à portée d'être vue des naturalistes qui sont dans la
+capitale, je ne puis mieux faire que de citer cette côté, une des plus
+curieuses de la France, et que je me propose de fair connoître en détail
+dans la troisième partie de la minéralogie de la France. On verra,
+dis-je, dans cette bonne pierre à chaux, et une de plus pure des
+environs de Paris, de très-abondantes cristallisations de quartz
+transparent, et quelque fois de belle eau, que les ouvriers sont forcés
+de séparer de la partie calcaire, à laquelle elles adhèrent fortement.
+Mais c'est trop nous arrêter à combattre une opinion qui doit son
+origine aux premières idées qu'ont eues les premiers observateurs en
+minéralogie, qui se détruira d'elle même comme tant d'autres dont il
+nous reste à peine le souvenir."
+
+We find here an accurate naturalist, and a diligent observer, who, in
+conformity with what my sentiments are upon the subject, thinks it
+impossible that the crystallizations in close cavities, and concretions
+of different solid substances within each other, which so frequently
+occur in the mineral regions, could have been produced, by means of
+solution and crystallization, from a fluid vehicle. But what has he
+now substituted in place of this solution, in order to explain
+appearances?--a mere supposition, viz. that nature may have the power
+of converting water, in those secret places, into some other thing; or
+rather that the substance of water is here converted into every other
+thing; for, though he has only mentioned quartz and calcareous spar,
+what mineral substance is there that may not be found in those close
+cavities? They are actually almost all, not even excepting gold; for,
+small grains of gold are inclosed within the cavities of a porous stone,
+in the Siberian mine. Now, for what purpose should nature, (to the power
+of which we are not to set a limit) have such an object in view as
+to convert water into every thing, unless it were to confound human
+understanding? For, so far as human experience has been as yet able to
+reach, there would appear to be certain elementary substances; and among
+these is water, or the principles of that fluid[43]. But because water
+is so generally found in bodies, and so necessarily in most of the
+operations of this world, why convert it into every other thing? Surely,
+for no better reason than that there has not occurred to this mineralist
+any other way of explaining certain natural appearances which aqueous
+solution could not produce. Here is no dispute about a matter of fact;
+it is on all hands allowed, that in certain cavities, inaccessible to
+any thing but heat and cold, we find mineral concretions, which contain
+no water, and which, according to the known operations of nature, water
+could not have produced; must we therefore have recourse to water acting
+according to no known principle, that is to say, are we to explain
+nature by a preternatural cause?
+
+[Note 43: Water is now considered by men of science, as a compound
+substance; this doctrine, which seems to follow so necessarily from the
+experiments of the French philosophers, must be tried by the growing
+light of chemical science. In the oxygenating operation of inflammable
+and combustible bodies when burning, those ingenious chemists overlooked
+the operation of _phlogistic matter_, which has no weight, and
+which escapes on that occasion, as I have had occasion to show in a
+dissertation upon phlogiston, and in the Philosophy of Light, Heat,
+and Fire. How far this view, which I have given of those interesting
+experiments, may lead to the explanation of other collateral phenomena,
+such as that of the water produced, I will not pretend to conjecture.
+One thing is evident, that if the weight of the water, procured in
+burning inflammable and vital air, be equal to that of those two gasses,
+we would then have reason to conclude, either that water were a compound
+substance, or that vital air, and inflammable vapour were compounds of
+water and the matter of light, or solar substance.]
+
+I dare say that this is not the view that M. Monnet takes of the
+subject, when he thinks to explain to himself the concretion of
+those different substances by means of water; but, according to my
+apprehension of the matter, his theory, when sifted to the bottom, will
+bear no other construction; and, unless he shall consider water like the
+matter of heat, as capable of producing the fluidity of fusion, and of
+being also again abstracted from the fluid, by pervading the most solid
+body, which would then be a substance different from water, he must
+employ this aqueous substance as a menstruum or solvent for solid
+bodies, in the same manner as has been done by those naturalists whom
+he he justly censure, and conform to those erroneous ideas which first
+observations, or inaccurate knowledge of minerals, may have suggested to
+former naturalists.
+
+It is the dissolution and concretion of siliceous substance, no
+doubt, that gives such difficulty to our naturalists in explaining
+petrifaction: they have, however, something apparently in their favour,
+which it may be proper now to mention.
+
+In the _first_ place, although siliceous substance is not soluble, so
+far as we know, by simple water, it is soluble by means of alkaline
+substance; consequently, it is possible that it may be dissolved in the
+earth.
+
+_Secondly_, The water of Giezer in Iceland, actually petrifies bodies
+which are alternately imbibed with that hot water and exposed to the
+air. This water, therefore, not only contains siliceous substance in a
+dissolved state, but deposits this again, either by means of cooling,
+or being aerated, or of evaporating. Consequently, without knowing the
+principle upon which it proceeds, we here perceive a natural operation
+by which siliceous petrifaction may be performed.
+
+_Lastly_, We have another principle for the dissolution of siliceous
+substance. This is the fluor acid which volatilises the siliceous
+substance. This, however, requires certain conditions, which cannot be
+found as a general cause in the mineral regions.
+
+Thus we would seem to have every thing necessary for explaining the
+concretion and crystallization of siliceous bodies, provided we could
+find the proper conditions requisite for that operation; for whether it
+shall be by means of acid or alkaline substances that siliceous matter
+is to be dissolved, volatilised, and transported from one place to
+another, it is necessary that those dissolving substances should be
+present upon those occasions. Nor is it sufficient only to dissolve the
+siliceous substance which is to be transported; the necessary conditions
+for the concretion again of the dissolved substances, whatever these may
+be, are also absolutely required for this operation. Now, though those
+requisite conditions may be, upon many occasions, allowed in the earth,
+it is not according to the theory of our modern naturalists, who explain
+petrifaction upon the principles of simple infiltration of water,
+that any advantage can be taken of those conditions; nor are natural
+appearances to be explained without employing more complicated chemical
+agents in the mineral regions.
+
+To this subject of the petrifactions of Giezier, I may now add the
+information which we have received in consequence of a new voyage from
+this country to Iceland.
+
+When Sir Joseph Banks returned from his expedition to Iceland, he landed
+at this place; and, having brought specimens of the petrifications of
+Giezer, Dr Black and I first discovered that these were of a siliceous
+substance. I have always conjectured that the water of Giezer must be
+impregnated with flinty matter by means of an alkaline substance, and
+so expressed my opinion in the Theory of the Earth published in the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society. We have therefore been very
+desirous of procuring some of that water, in order to have it analysed.
+
+An opportunity favourable to our views has occurred this summer. Mr
+Stanley set out from this place with the same purpose of examining
+Iceland. He was so good as to ask of Dr Black and I what inquiries we
+would incline that he should make. We have now, by the favour of this
+gentleman, obtained specimens of the petrifactions of Giezer; and, what
+is still more interesting, we have procured some of the water of those
+petrifying boiling springs.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that the boiling water which is ejected
+from those aqueous volcanoes, if we may use the expression, is endued
+with the quality of forming two different species of petrifaction or
+incrustation; for, besides the siliceous bodies, of which we had before
+received specimens, the same stream of water incrustates its channel
+with a calcareous substance. All the specimens which I have seen consist
+of incrustation, some purely siliceous, some calcareous, and others
+mixed of those two, more or less.
+
+Dr Black has been analysing the water; and he finds in it siliceous
+matter dissolved by an alkaline substance, in the manner of liquor
+silicum[44]. My conjecture has thus been verified.
+
+[Note 44: See Trans. of the Edin. Royal Society.]
+
+It must not be alleged that nature may operate in the mineral regions,
+as she does here upon the surface in the case of Giezer. Such an
+argument as this, however sound it may be in general, will not apply to
+the subject of which we treat at present. There is no question about
+the limiting the powers of nature; we are only considering nature as
+operating in a certain determined manner, viz. by water acting simply
+upon the loose materials of the land deposited at the bottom of the
+sea, and accumulated in regular strata, one upon another, to the most
+enormous depth or thickness. This is the situation and condition of
+things in which nature is to operate; and we are to find the means of
+consolidating those strata, and concreting every species of substance
+in almost every possible composition, according to some known physical
+principle. Here is an operation which is limited; for, we must reason
+strictly, according to the laws of nature, in the case which we have
+under consideration; and we cannot suppose nature as ever transgressing
+those laws.
+
+It is acknowledged, that, by means sometimes of an aeriform, sometimes
+of an alkaline, perhaps also of an acid substance, calcareous matter is
+dissolved in the earth, and certain metallic substances, such as lead
+and iron. This solution also, upon particular occasions, (where the
+proper conditions for separating the solvent from the dissolved
+substance exist), forms certain concretions; these are sometimes a mere
+incrustation, as in the case of the siliceous incrustation of Giezer,
+sometimes again in a crystallised or sparry form, as in the case of
+stalactical concretions. But here is no question of those cases where
+the proper conditions may be found; first, of dissolving the substance
+which is afterwards to be concreted; secondly, of separating the
+menstruum from the dissolved substance; and, lastly, of removing the
+fluid deprived of its solution, and of supplying a new solution in its
+room; the question is, how far those concretions are formed where those
+conditions do not take place. Now, this last case is that of almost all
+mineral concretions.
+
+It must not be here alleged that certain concretions have been found in
+mines posterior to these having been worked by man; consequently, that
+those concretions have been formed by nothing but the infiltration of
+water. In those cases, where such concretions are truly found, I am
+persuaded that all the conditions proper to that operation will also
+be found; and it is only, I believe, in those cases where such proper
+conditions may be found, that this aqueous concretion ever appears. Now,
+if we shall except calcareous stalactite, and the bog ore of iron, How
+seldom is it that any appearance of those aqueous mineral concretion
+ever is found? Those very few cases in which they are found, afford the
+strongest proof against these being operations general to the globe, or
+proper mineral concretions; because it is only where all the necessary
+conditions conspire in each contributing its part, that the effect is
+accomplished; and this is a thing which cannot possibly take place in
+the aquiform strata below the surface of the sea. But, without attending
+to this clear distinction of things perfectly different, naturalists are
+apt to see false analogies, and thus in generalising to form the most
+erroneous theories.
+
+I shall now give an example of this fallaceous manner of reasoning; it
+is in the case of certain mineral appearances which are erroneously
+considered as stalactical concretions.
+
+The only true stalactical bodies are of a calcareous substance; they are
+formed by water containing this substance in a dissolved state; and the
+principles upon which this particular concretion is formed are well
+known. It is therefore easy to compare other concretions, which may have
+some superficial resemblance to these stalactical bodies, in order to
+see if they have proceeded upon the same principle of concretion from
+a dissolved state, or by water depositing its dissolved substance in a
+similar manner.
+
+There are two different mineral substances which give appearances of
+this sort. These are certain concretions of calcedony, and also of
+iron-ore, which are thought to have such resemblance to stalactical
+concretions as, by some superficial observers, to be reckoned of the
+same kind. It is now proposed to show that those conclusions are not
+well founded; and that, in this case of calcedony and iron-ore, it could
+not be upon the principle of stalactical concretion that the bodies now
+in question had their forms.
+
+The principle upon which calcareous substance is dissolved in water, and
+made to concrete by the evaporation of the acid substance, or fixed
+air by which it had been dissolved, is too well known to require any
+explanation in this place; we are only to consider the sensible effects
+of those operations of which we know so well the proper conditions.
+
+There are just two distinct views under which we may consider all
+stalactical concretions formed; these are the incrustation of
+the calcareous substance concreting upon a foreign body, and the
+incrustation of the same substance upon itself. By the first any manner
+of shape may be formed, provided there be a solid body, upon the surface
+of which the calcareous solution is made to pass. By the second, again,
+we have various forms; but we know the principles upon which they had
+been made. These are the shape and motions of the fluid which gives the
+calcareous concretion. Now, these principles are always to be perceived,
+more or less, in all the bizarre or fantastical, as well as regular
+shapes which are produced by stalactical concretions. At present, we
+shall confine our views to one particular shape, which is simple,
+regular, and perfectly understood wherever it is formed.
+
+Drops of water falling from a roof, and forming stalactite, produce
+first tubular bodies, and then gradually consolidate and increase those
+pendulous bodies by incrustation. These appearances are thought to be
+observed in the calcedony and ferruginous concretions, which has led
+some mineralists to conclude, that those concretions had been formed
+in the same manner, by means of water. We are now to show that these
+mineral appearances are not analogous to stalactites in their formation,
+and that they have evidently been formed in a different manner.
+
+It must be evident, that, in the formation of those pendulous bodies,
+each distinct stalactite must be formed by a separate drop of water;
+consequently, that no more stalactites can be formed in a given space,
+than there could have subsisted separate drops of water. Now, a drop of
+water is a very determined thing; and thus we have a principle by which
+to judge of those mistaken appearances.
+
+Let us suppose the gut of water to be but one eighth of an inch,
+although it is a great deal more, we should have no stalactites formed
+nearer to each other than that measure of space. But those mineral
+concretions, which are supposed to be stalactical, are contained in half
+that space, or are nearer to each other than the tenth or twentieth of
+an inch. I have them like needles, and in every degree of proximity or
+contiguity, at the same time that they are perfectly solid. Therefore,
+it is plainly impossible that they could have been formed upon this
+principle of calcareous stalactite. But, it is only by this false
+resemblance, that any argument can be formed for the concretion of those
+bodies from an aqueous solution; in every other respect they are true
+mineral concretions; and, that these have had a very different origin,
+has been already the subject of investigation, and will be more
+particularly examined in the course of this work.
+
+The term _infiltration_, which has been much employed for explaining
+mineral appearances, is too vague, imperfect, or unexplicit, for
+science, whether as the means of knowing nature, or the subject of
+confutation. This is not the case with that of stalactite; here is
+a term that implies a certain natural operation, or a most distinct
+process for attaining a certain end; and we know the principles upon
+which it proceeds, as well as the several steps that may be traced in
+the general result. It is an operation which has not only been analysed
+to its principles; it is also a process which is performed by man,
+proceeding on his acquired knowledge. Now, were this operation common to
+the mineral regions, as it is proper to the surface of this earth; we
+could not remain in any degree of suspense with regard to the origin of
+those mineral bodies; for, having the true clue of knowledge, we should
+be able to unravel the most intricate and mysterious appearance. But, so
+far from this being the case, the more we come to inquire into nature,
+and employ this principle, the less we find it applicable, and the more
+involved in darkness is our science.
+
+The places where these false appearances of stalactite are found, are
+precisely those in which, from the nature of things, all possibility for
+such an operation is excluded. For, How can this take place within a
+closs cavity in the mineral regions? The term _vegetation_ may as well
+be employed for the explanation of those appearances: But what would
+now be said of such an explication? It is high time that science were
+properly applied to the natural history of this earth, and mineralists
+not allowed to impose upon themselves with false reasoning, or to please
+themselves with the vain attempt of explaining visible effects by
+unknown causes.
+
+Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting petrifaction or mineral
+concretion, as I have now exposed, opinions that are not founded on any
+sound physical principle, authorise me to conclude that they are all
+erroneous. If this be admitted, it will follow that we have no proof
+of any proper mineral concretion except that which had proceeded by
+congelation from the fluid state of fusion. This has been the doctrine
+which I have held out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will be more
+and more confirmed as we come to examine particular mineral appearances.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+In the first chapter, I have given a perfect mark by which to judge,
+of every consolidated stratum, how far that had been the operation or
+effect of water alone, or if it had been that of heat and fusion. This
+is the particular veins or divisions of the consolidated stratum,
+arising from the contraction of the mass, distended by heat, and
+contracted in cooling. It is not an argument of greater or lesser
+probability; it is a physical demonstration; but, so far as I see, it
+would appear to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.
+Time, however, will open the eyes of men; science will some day find
+admittance into the cabinet of the curious. I will therefore now give
+another proof,--not of the consolidation of mineral bodies by means
+of fusion, for there is no mineral body in which that proof is not
+found,--but of the inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the
+appearances of bodies, where not only fusion had been employed for the
+consolidation, but where the application of heat is necessary, and along
+with it the circumstances proper for _distillation_.
+
+Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water issuing from the earth,
+one forming calcareous incrustations, the other depositing bituminous
+substances. Here is enough for them to make the theory of a world; on
+the one hand, solid marble is explained, on the other, solid coal.
+Ignorance suspects not error; their first step is to reason upon a false
+principle;--no matter, were they only to reason far enough, they would
+soon find their error by the absurdity into which it lands them. The
+misfortune is, they reason no farther; they have explained mineralogy
+by infiltration; and they content themselves with viewing the beautiful
+specimens in their cabinet, the supposed product of solution and
+crystalization. How shall we inform such observators; How reason with
+those who attend not to an argument!
+
+As naturalists have explained all mineral concretions from aqueous or
+other solution, and attributed to infiltration the formation of those
+stony bodies in which there are marks of their original composition,
+so have they explained to themselves, I suppose, the origin of those
+bituminous bodies which are found among the strata of the earth. In the
+case of stony substances, I have shown how unfounded all their theories
+are for the production of those concretions, crystallizations, and
+consolidated bodies. I am here to examine the subject of inflammable and
+combustible bodies, which I believe have been little considered by those
+theorists who suppose mineral bodies consolidated by infiltration. It is
+here that we shall find an infinite difference between the aqueous and
+igneous theories; for, we shall find it impossible to explain by the one
+certain operations which must have necessarily required the great agent
+generally employed in the other.
+
+The subject of this chapter is a touch-stone for every theory of the
+earth. In every quarter of this globe, perhaps in every extensive
+country, bituminous strata are to be found; they are alternated with
+those which are called aquiform, or which had been evidently formed by
+subsidence of certain moved materials at the bottom of the sea; so far,
+therefore, all those strata have had the same origin. In this point
+I think I may assert, that all the different theories at present are
+agreed; and it is only concerning certain transformations of those
+strata, since their original collection, that have been ascribed to
+different causes.
+
+Of these transformations, which the strata must have undergone, there
+are two kinds; one in relation to change of place and position; the
+other in relation to solidity or consistence. It is only the last of
+those two changes which is here to be the subject of consideration;
+because, with regard to the first, there is nothing peculiar in these
+bituminous strata to throw any light, in that respect, upon the others.
+This is not the case with regard to the transformation in their chemical
+character and consistence; bituminous bodies may not be affected by
+chemical agents, such as fire and water, in the same manner as the
+argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and such other strata that are
+alternated with the bituminous; and thus we may find the means for
+investigating the nature of that agent by which those strata in general
+have been transformed in their substance; or we may find means for the
+detecting of false theories which may have been formed with regard
+to those operations in which the original deposits of water had been
+changed.
+
+We have had but two theories, with regard to the transformation of
+those bodies which have had a known origin, or to the change of their
+substance and consistence; the one of these which I have given is that
+of heat or fusion; the other, which I wish to be compared with mine,
+is that of water and infiltration. It is by this last that all authors
+hitherto, in one shape or another, have endeavoured to explain the
+changes that those strata must have undergone since the time of their
+first formation at the bottom of the sea. They indiscriminately apply
+the doctrine of infiltration to those strata of mineral coal as to any
+other; they say that bituminous matter is infiltrated with the water,
+impregnates certain strata of earth with bituminous matter, and thus
+converts them into mineral coal, and bituminous strata. This is not
+reasoning physically, or by the inductive method of proceeding upon
+matter of fact; it is reasoning fantastically, or by making gratuitous
+supposition founded merely on imagination. It was thus that natural
+philosophers reasoned before the age of science; the wonder now is,
+how men of science, in the present enlightened age, should suffer such
+language of ignorance and credulity to pass uncensured.
+
+The subject which I am now to treat of consists of peculiar strata of
+the earth, bodies which we may investigate through all the stages of
+their change, which is extreme; for, from vegetable bodies produced upon
+the habitable earth, they are now become a mineral body, and the most
+perfect coal,--a thing extremely different from what it had been, and
+a thing which cannot be supposed to have been accomplished by the
+operation of water alone, or any other agent in nature with which we
+are acquainted, except the action of fire or heat. It is therefore
+impossible for a philosopher, reasoning upon actual physical principles,
+not to acknowledge in this a complete proof of the theory which has been
+given, and a complete refutation of that aqueous operation which has
+been so inconsiderately supposed as consolidating the strata of the
+earth, and forming the various mineral concretions which are found in
+that great body.
+
+To see this, it will be sufficient to trace the progress of vegetable
+and animal substances, (bodies which had certainly lived by means of a
+former earth), to this changed state in which they have become perfect
+mineral bodies, and constitute a part of the present earth. For, as
+these changes are perfectly explained by the one theory, and absolutely
+inconsistent with the other, there arises from this a conviction that
+must be irresistible to a person who can give proper attention to a
+chain of reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+But if we thus succeed to illustrate the theory of the earth by the
+natural history of those particular strata, we have but one step farther
+to make in order to bring all the other parts of the earth, whether
+stratified or not, into the most perfect consistence with the theory;
+now this step, it will be most easy to make; and I shall now mention
+it, that so the reader may keep it in his view: Pyrites is a
+sulphureo-metallic substance, which cannot be produced by means of
+water, a substance which the influences of the atmosphere decomposes or
+separates into its elements, and which even our imperfect art may
+be considered as able to produce, by means of fusion in our fires.
+Therefore, the finding of this creature of fire intimately connected
+with those consolidated strata of mineral coal, adds the greatest
+confirmation, were it necessary, to the doctrine of those mineral bodies
+having been consolidated by fusion. This confirmation, however, is
+not necessary, and it is not the only thing which I am at present to
+illustrate in that doctrine. What I have now in view is, to homologate
+the origin of those coal strata, with the production of every other
+mineral substance, by heat or fusion; and this is what the intimate
+connection of pyrites with those strata will certainly accomplish. This
+will be done in the following manner:
+
+Pyrites is not only found in great masses along with the coal strata; it
+is contained in the veins which traverse those strata, and in the minute
+ramifications of those veins, which are occasioned by the contraction of
+the mass, and generally divide it into small cubical pieces; but besides
+that extrinsic connection, (as it may be called,) with the stratum of
+coal, pyrites is found intimately connected with that solid body, in
+being mixed with its substance. If, therefore, it were proved, that
+either the one or other of those two substances had been consolidated by
+fusion, the other must be acknowledged as having had the same origin;
+but now I am to prove, from the natural history of mineral coal, that
+pyrites had been there formed by fusion; and then, by means of the
+known origin of that sulphureo-metallic substance, we shall extend our
+knowledge to the origin of every other mineral body.
+
+The process of this argument is as follows: Every mineral body, I
+believe, without exception, will be found so intimately connected with
+pyrites, that these two things must be concluded as having been together
+in a fluid state, and that, whatever may have been the cause of fluidity
+in the one, this must have also caused the fluidity in the other;
+consequently, whatever shall be proved with regard to the mineral
+operations of pyrites, must be considered as proved of every other
+mineral substance. But, from the connection of pyrites with mineral
+coal, it is to be proved that the origin of this metallic body had been
+fusion; and then it will appear, that all other mineral bodies must have
+been more or less in fusion, or that they must have been consolidated
+by means of heat, and not by any manner of solution or aqueous
+infiltration. I therefore now proceed to take a view of the natural
+history of coal strata,--a subject which mineralogists seem not inclined
+to engage with, although the most ample data are to be found for that
+investigation.
+
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+Fossil coal is the species of stratum best understood with regard to its
+accidents, as being much sought after; at least, this is the case in
+many parts of Britain, where it supplies the place of wood for burning.
+This fossil body has the most distinguished character; for, being
+inflammable or combustible in its nature, there is no other species of
+stratum that may be confounded with it.
+
+But, though coal be thus the most distinguishable mineral, and that
+which is best understood in the science of mining, it is perhaps the
+most difficult to be treated of in the science of mineralogy; for,
+not having properly any distinguishable parts, we have nothing in the
+natural constitution of this body, as we have in most other strata, to
+lead us to the knowledge of its original state or first formation.
+
+The varieties of coal are distinguished by their different manner of
+burning; but, from appearances of this kind, no perfect judgement can be
+formed with regard to the specific manner in which those strata had been
+made; although, from chemical principles, some conclusion may be drawn
+concerning certain changes which they have undergone since they had been
+formed.
+
+Thus we have one species of coal which is extremely fusible, abounds
+with oil, and consequently is inflammable; we have another species again
+which is perfectly fixed and infusible in the fire; therefore, we may
+conclude upon principle, that, however, both those coals must have
+undergone the operation of heat and fusion, in bringing them to their
+present state, it is only the last that has become so much evaporated as
+to become perfectly fixed, or so perfectly distilled, as to have been
+reduced to a caput mortuum.
+
+The argument here employed is founded upon this fact; that, from the
+fusible species of coal, a caput mortuum may be formed by distillation,
+and that this chemical production has every essential quality, or every
+peculiar property, of the fixed and infusible species; although, from
+the circumstances of our operation, this caput mortuum may not have
+precisely the exterior appearance of the natural coal. But, we have
+reason to believe, it is not in the nature of things to change the
+infusible species, so as to make it fusible or oily. Now, that this body
+was not formed originally in its present state, must appear from this,
+that the stratum here considered is perfectly solid; but, without
+fusion, this could not have been attained; and the coal is now supposed
+to be infusible. Consequently, this fixed substance, which is now,
+properly speaking, a perfect coal, had been originally an oily
+bituminous or fusible substance. It is now a fixed substance, and an
+infusible coal; therefore, it must have been by means of heat and
+distillation that it had been changed, from the original state in which
+this stratum had been formed.
+
+We have thus, in the examination of coal strata upon chemical
+principles, received a certain lesson in geology, although this does not
+form a proper distinction by which to specify those strata in general,
+or explain the variety of that mineral. For, in this manner, we
+could only distinguish properly two species of those strata; the one
+bituminous or inflammable; the other proper coal, burning without smoke
+or flame. Thus it will appear that, as this quality of being perfectly
+charred is not originally in the constitution of the stratum, but an
+accident to which some strata of every species may have been subjected,
+we could not class them by this property without confounding together
+strata which had differences in their composition or formation.
+Therefore, we are led to inquire after some other distinction, which may
+be general to strata of fossil coal, independent of those changes which
+this substance may have undergone after it had been formed in a stratum.
+
+Perfect mineral coal being a body of undistinguishable parts, it is only
+in its resolution that we may analyse it, and this is done by burning.
+Thus, in analysing coal by burning, we have, in the ashes alone, that by
+which one species of coal may be distinguished from another; and, if we
+should consider pure coal as having no ashes of itself, we should then,
+in the weight of its ashes, have a measure of the purity of the coal,
+this being inversely as the quantity of the ashes. Now, though this be
+not accurately true, as the purest coal must have some ashes proper to
+itself, yet, as this is a small matter compared with the quantity of
+earthy matter that may be left in burning some species of coal, this
+method of analysis may be considered as not far removed from the truth.
+
+But, in distinguishing fossil coal by this species of chemical analysis,
+not only is there to be found a perfect or indefinite gradation from a
+body which is perfectly combustible to one that is hardly combustible in
+any sensible degree, we should also fall into an inconveniency similar
+to that already mentioned, of confounding two things extremely different
+in their nature, a bituminous body, and a perfect charcoal. Thus, if we
+shall found our distinction upon the fusibility and different degree of
+having been charred, we shall confound fossil coals of very different
+degrees of value in burning, or of very different compositions as
+strata; if, again, we found it upon the purity of composition, in
+judging from the ashes, we shall confound fossil bodies of very
+different qualities, the one burning with much smoke and flame, the
+other without any; the one fusible almost like wax, the other fixed and
+infusible as charcoal.
+
+It will now appear, that what cannot be done in either the one or other
+of those two methods, may in a great degree, or with considerable
+propriety, be performed in employing both.
+
+Thus, whether for the economical purposes of life, or the natural
+history of fossil coal, those strata should be considered both with
+regard to the purity of their composition as inflammable matter
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, and to the changes which they
+have afterwards undergone by the operation of subterranean heat and
+distillation.
+
+We have now considered the original matter of which coal strata are
+composed to be of two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as being
+perfectly inflammable or combustible; the other an earthy matter,
+with which proper coal may be variously mixed in its composition, or
+intimately connected, in subsiding from that suspended state by which it
+had been carried in the ocean. It is a matter of great importance, in
+the physiology of this globe, to know that the proper substance of coal
+may be thus mixed with heterogeneous bodies; for, supposing that this
+earthy matter, which has subsided in the water along with coal, be no
+farther connected with the combustible substance of those strata, than
+that it had floated in the waters of the ocean, and subsided _pari
+passu_ with the proper materials of the coal, we hence learn a great
+deal with regard to the state in which the inflammable matter must have
+been at the time of its formation into strata. This will appear by
+considering, that we find schistus mixed with coal in the most equal or
+uniform manner, and in almost every conceivable degree, from the purest
+coal to the most perfect schistus. Hence we have reason to conclude,
+that, at the formation of those strata, the bituminous matter, highly
+subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the earth subsiding in the
+water.
+
+Not only is the bituminous matter of coal found mixed in every different
+proportion with the earthy or uninflammable materials of strata, but the
+coaly or bituminous composition is found with perhaps every different
+species of substance belonging to strata. This is certain, that we have
+the coaly matter intimately mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous
+strata.
+
+Thus it will appear, that it is no proper explanation of the formation
+of coal strata, to say that vegetable matter is the basis of those
+strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance proper for the formation
+of bituminous matter is produced, it remains to know by what means, from
+a vegetable body, this bituminous matter is produced, and how it comes
+to be diffused in that subtile state by which it may be uniformly mixed
+with the most impalpable earth in water. Could we once resolve this
+question, every other appearance might be easily explained. Let us
+therefore now endeavour to discover a principle for the resolving of
+this problem.
+
+There are two ways in which vegetable bodies may be, in part at least,
+resolved into that subtilised state of bituminous matter after which we
+inquire; the one of these is by means of fire, the other by water. We
+shall now consider these severally as the means of forming bituminous
+strata, although they may be both employed by nature in this work.
+
+When vegetable bodies are made to burn, there is always more or less of
+a fuliginous substance formed; but this fuliginous substance is no
+other than a bituminous body in that subtilised state in which it is
+indefinitely divided, and may be mixed uniformly with any mass of matter
+equally subtilised with itself. But this is precisely what we want, in
+order to compose the strata of coal in question. If, therefore, there
+were to be found in the ocean such a fund of this fuliginous substance
+as might suffice for the formation of bituminous strata, no difficulty
+would be left in explaining the original of fossil coal. But tho'
+sufficient quantity of this fuliginous matter might not be found for the
+explanation of natural appearances, yet there cannot be a doubt that
+more or less of this matter must be produced in the mineral operations
+of the globe, and be found precisely in that place where it is required
+for the forming of those strata of coal.
+
+In order to conceive this, we are to consider, that there are actually
+great quantities of coal strata in a charred state, which indicates
+that all their more volatile oleaginous or fuliginous matter had been
+separated by force of subterranean heat; and, we are to suppose that
+this had been transacted at the bottom of the ocean: Consequently, a
+subtile oleaginous, bituminous, or fuliginous substance, must have been
+diffused in that ocean; and this bituminous matter would be employed in
+forming other strata, which were then deposited at the bottom of the
+waters.
+
+But besides this quantity of bituminous matter which is necessarily
+formed in the mineral operations of the earth, and with regard to the
+quantity of which we can never form a proper estimate, there must enter
+into this same calculation all the fuliginous matter that is formed in
+burning bodies upon the surface of this earth. This bituminous matter of
+smoke is first delivered into the atmosphere, but ultimately it must
+be settled at the bottom of the sea. Hence though, compared with the
+quantity that we think required, each revolution of the globe produces
+but a little in our estimation, yet the progress of time, in reforming
+worlds, may produce all that is necessary in the formation of our
+strata.
+
+There now remains to explain the other way in which bituminous matter
+may be obtained from vegetable bodies, that is, by means of water. For
+this purpose we must begin with a part of natural history that will
+throw some light upon the subject.
+
+All the rivers in Scotland run into the sea tinged with a brown
+substance; this is most evident in some of them after a flood, and while
+yet the river is swelled; but, in travelling to the north of Scotland
+in the summer season, without any rain, I saw all the rivers, without
+exception, of a brown colour, compared with a river of more clear water.
+This colour proceeds from the moss water, as it is called, which runs
+into the rivers, or the infusion of that vegetable substance which
+forms combustible turf, called peat. Now, this moss water leaves, upon
+evaporation, a bituminous substance, which very much resembles fossil
+coal. Therefore, in order to employ this vegetable infusion, delivered
+into the ocean for the purpose of forming bituminous strata at its
+bottom, it is only required to make this bituminous matter separate and
+subside.
+
+If now we consider the immense quantity of inflammable vegetable
+substance, dissolved in water, that is carried into the sea by all the
+rivers of the earth, and the indefinite space of time during which those
+rivers have been pouring in that oily matter into the sea; and if we
+consider, that the continual action of the sun and atmosphere upon this
+oily substance tends, by inspissation, to make it more and more dense or
+bituminous, we cannot hesitate in supposing a continual separation
+of this bituminous matter or inspissated oil from the water, and
+a precipitation of it to the bottom of the sea. This argument is
+corroborated by considering, that, if it were otherwise, the water of
+the sea must have, during the immense time that rivers are proved
+to have run, be strongly impregnated with that oily or bituminous
+substance; but this does not appear; therefore we are to conclude, that
+there must be the means of separating that substance from the water in
+which it had been dissolved.
+
+If there is thus, from the continual perishing of animal and vegetable
+bodies upon the surface of this earth and in the sea, a certain supply
+of oily or bituminous matter given to the ocean, then, however small a
+portion of this shall be supposed the whole oily or inflammable matter
+produced upon the surface of the earth, or however long time it may
+require for thus producing a stratum or considerable body of coal,
+we must still see in this a source of the materials proper for the
+production of that species of strata in the bottom of the sea.
+
+We have now considered the proper materials of which pure fossil coal
+is chiefly formed; we have at present to consider what should be the
+appearances of such a substance as this collected at the bottom of the
+sea, and condensed or consolidated by compression and by heat. We should
+thus have a body of a most uniform structure, black, breaking with a
+polished surface, and more or less fusible in the fire, or burning with
+more or less smoke and flame, in proportion as it should be distilled
+or inspissated, less or more, by subterranean heat. But this is the
+description of our purest fossil coals, which burn in giving the
+greatest quantity of heat, and leave the smallest quantity of ashes.
+
+In order to form another regular species of coal, let us suppose that,
+along with the bituminous substance now considered, there shall be
+floating in the water of the ocean a subtile earthy substance, and that
+these two different substances shall subside together in an uniform
+manner, to produce a stratum which shall be covered with immense weight,
+compressed, condensed, and consolidated as before, we should thus have
+produced a most homogeneous or uniform body to appearance, but not so
+in reality. The mixture of heterogeneous matter, in this case, is too
+minute to be discovered simply by inspection; it must require deep
+reflection upon the subject, with the help of chemical analysis,
+to understand the constitution of this body, and judge of all the
+circumstances or particulars in which it differs from the former. It is
+worth while to examine this subject with some attention, as it will give
+the most instructive view of the composition of bituminous strata, both
+those which are not considered as coal, and also the different species
+of that mineral body.
+
+In the first place then, if the mixture of those two different
+substances had been sufficiently perfect, and the precipitation uniform,
+the solid body of coal resulting from this mixture, would not only
+appear homogeneous, but might break equally or regularly in all
+directions; but the fracture of this coal must visibly differ from the
+former, so far as the fracture of this heterogeneous coal cannot have
+the polished surface of the pure bituminous body; for, the earthy matter
+that is interposed among the bituminous particles must affect the
+fracture in preventing its surface from being perfectly smooth. This
+imperfect plane of the fracture may be improved by polishing; in which
+case the body might be sufficiently smooth to have an agreeable polish;
+but it cannot have a perfect polish like a homogeneous body, or appear
+with that glassy surface which is naturally in the fracture of the pure
+bituminous coal.
+
+But this is also a perfect description of that species of coal which is
+called in England Kennel coal, and in Scotland Parrot coal. It is so
+uniform in its substance that it is capable of being formed on the
+turning loom; and it receives a certain degree of polish, resembling
+bodies of jet.
+
+Thus, we have a species of coal in which we shall find but a small
+degree of fusibility, although it may not be charred in any degree.
+Such an infusible coal may therefore contain a great deal of aqueous
+substance, and volatile oily matter; consequently may burn with smoke
+and flame. But this same species of coal may also occasionally be
+charred more or less by the operation of subterranean heat; and, in
+that case, we should have a variety of coal which could only be
+distinguished, from a similar state of pure bituminous coal, by the
+ashes which they leave in burning. At least, this must be the case, when
+both species are, by sufficient distillation, reduced to the state of
+what may be properly termed a chemical coal.
+
+But in the natural state of its composition, we find those strata of
+kennel or parrot coal, possessing a peculiar property, which deserves to
+be considered, as still throwing more light upon the subject.
+
+We have been representing these strata of coal as homogeneous to
+appearance, and as breaking indifferently in all directions; this last,
+perhaps, is not so accurate; for they would seem to break chiefly into
+two directions, that is, either parallel or perpendicular to the bed.
+Thus we have this coal commonly in rectangular pieces, in which it
+is extremely difficult to distinguish the direction of the bed, or
+stratification of the mass. By an expert eye, however, this may be in
+general, or at least sometimes, distinguished, and then, by knowing
+the habit of the coal in burning, a person perfectly ignorant of the
+philosophy of the matter may exhibit a wonderful sagacity, or even of
+power over future events, in applying this body to fire; for, at his
+pleasure, and unknown to those who are not in the secret; he may
+apparently, in equal circumstances, make this coal either kindle
+quietly, or with violent cracking and explosions, throwing its splinters
+at a distance.
+
+The explanation lies in this, that, though the rectangular mass of coal
+appears extremely uniform in its structure, it is truly a stratified
+mass; it is therefore affected, by the sudden approach of fire in a very
+different manner, according as the edge of the stratum, which is seen in
+four of the sides of this supposed cube, shall be applied to the fire,
+or the other two sides, which are in the line of the stratum, or
+parallel to the bed of coal. The reason of this phenomenon now remains
+to be considered.
+
+When the edge of the coal is exposed to the fire, the stratification of
+the coal is opened gradually by the heat and expanding vapours, as a
+piece of wood, of a similar shape, would be by means of wedges placed in
+the end way of the timber. The coal then kindles quietly, and quickly
+flames, while the mass of this bituminous schistus is opening like the
+leaves of a book, and thus exhibits an appearance in burning extremely
+like wood. But let the fire be applied to the middle of the bed, instead
+of the edge of the leaves, and we shall see a very different appearance;
+for here the expanded aqueous vapours, confined between the _laminae_,
+form explosions, in throwing off splinters from the kindling mass; and
+this mass of coal takes fire with much noise and disturbance.
+
+The ashes of this coal may be determined as to quality, being in general
+a subtile white earth; but, as to quantity, the measure of that earth
+produces an indefinite variety in this species of coal; for, from the
+kennel or parrot coal, which is valuable for its burning with much
+flame, to that black schistus which our masons use in drawing upon
+stone, and which, though combustible in some degree, is not thought to
+be a coal, there is a perfect gradation, in which coal may be found with
+every proportion of this earthy alloy.
+
+Among the lowest species of this combustible schistus are those
+argillaceous strata in Yorkshire from whence they procure alum in
+burning great heaps of this stone, which also contains sulphur, to
+impregnate the aluminous earth with its acid. We have also, in this
+country, strata which differ from those aluminous schisti only in the
+nature of the earth, with which the bituminous sediment is mixed. In
+the strata now considered, the earth, precipitated with the bituminous
+matter, being calcareous, has produced a limestone, which, after burning
+especially, is perfectly fissile.
+
+Therefore, with regard to the composition of mineral coal, the theory
+is this. That inflammable, vegetable, and animal substances, in a
+subtilised state, had subsided in the sea, being mixed more or less with
+argillaceous, calcareous, and other earthy substances in an impalpable
+state. Now, the chemical analysis of fossil coal justifies that theory;
+for, in the distillation of the inflammable or oily coal, we procure
+volatile alkali, as might be naturally expected.
+
+Thus we have considered fossil coal as various, both in its state and
+composition; we have described coal which is of the purest composition,
+as well as that which is most impure or earthy; and we have shown that
+there is a gradation, from the most bituminous state in which those
+strata had been formed in being deposited at the bottom of the sea,
+to the most perfect state of a chemical coal, to which they have been
+brought by the operation of subterranean fire or heat.
+
+We have been hitherto considering fossil coal as formed of the
+impalpable parts of inflammable bodies, united together by pressure, and
+made to approach in various degrees to the nature of a chemical coal,
+by means of subterranean heat; because, from the examination of those
+strata, many of them have evidently been formed in this manner.
+But vegetable bodies macerated in water, and then consolidated by
+compression, form a substance of the same kind, almost undistinguishable
+from some species of fossil coal. We have an example of this in our turf
+pits or peat mosses; when this vegetable substance has been compressed
+under a great load of earth, which sometimes happens, it is much
+consolidated, and hardens, by drying, into a black body, not afterwards
+dilutable or penetrated by water, and almost undistinguishable in
+burning from mineralised bodies of the same kind.
+
+Also, when fossil wood has been condensed by compression and changed by
+the operation of heat, as it is frequently found in argillaceous strata,
+particularly in the aluminous rock upon the coast of Yorkshire, it
+becomes a jet almost undistinguishable from some species of fossil coal.
+
+There cannot therefore be a doubt, that if this vegetable substance,
+which is formed by the collection of wood and plants in water upon the
+surface of the earth, were to be found in the place of fossil coal, and
+to undergo the mineral operations of the globe, it must at least augment
+the quantity of those strata, though it should not form distinct strata
+by itself.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that vegetable bodies and their impalpable
+parts are things too far distant in the scale of magnitude to be
+supposed as subsiding together in the ocean; and this would certainly be
+a just observation with regard to any other species of bodies: But the
+nature of vegetable bodies is to be floatant in water; so that we may
+suppose them carried at any distance from the shore; consequently, the
+size of the body here makes no difference with regard to the place or
+order in which these are to be deposited.
+
+The examination of fossil coal fully confirms those reasonable
+suppositions. For, _first_, The strata that attend coal, whether the
+sandstone or the argillaceous strata, commonly, almost universally,
+abound with the most distinct evidence of vegetable substances; this
+is the impressions of plants which are found in their composition.
+_Secondly_, There is much fossil coal, particularly that termed in
+England clod coal, and employed in the iron foundry, that shows
+abundance of vegetable bodies in its composition. The strata of this
+coal have many horizontal interstices, at which the more solid shining
+coal is easily separated; here the fibrous structure of the compressed
+vegetable bodies is extremely visible; and thus no manner of doubt
+remains, that at least a part of this coal had been composed of the
+vegetable bodies themselves, whatever may have been the origin of the
+more compact parts where nothing is to be distinguished.
+
+The state in which we often find fossil wood in strata gives reason to
+conclude that this body of vegetable production, in its condensed state,
+is in appearance undistinguishable from fossil coal, and may be also in
+great quantity; as, for example, the Bovey coal in Devonshire.
+
+Thus the strata of fossil coal would appear to be formed by the
+subsidence of inflammable matter of every species at the bottom of the
+sea, in places distant from the shore, or where there had been much
+repose, and where the lightest and most floatant bodies have been
+deposited together. This is confirmed in examining those bodies of
+fossil coal; for, though there are often found beds of sand-stone
+immediately above and below the stratum of the coal, we do not find any
+sand mixed in the strata of the coal itself.
+
+Having found the composition of coal to be various, but all included
+within certain rules which have been investigated, we may perceive in
+this an explanation of that diversity which is often observed among the
+various strata of one bed of coal. Even the most opposite species of
+composition may be found in the thickness of one bed, although of very
+little depth, that is to say, the purest bituminous coal may, in the
+same bed, be conjoined with that which is most earthy.
+
+Fossil coal is commonly alternated with regular sand-stone and
+argillaceous strata; but these are very different bodies; therefore,
+it may perhaps be inquired how such different substances came to be
+deposited in the same place of the ocean. The answer to this is easy; we
+do not pretend to trace things from their original to the place in which
+they had been ultimately deposited at the bottom of the sea. It is
+enough that we find the substance of which we treat delivered into
+the sea, and regularly deposited at the bottom, after having been
+transported by the currents of the ocean. Now the currents of the ocean,
+however regular they may be for a certain period of time, and however
+long this period may be protracted, naturally change; and then the
+currents, which had given birth to one species of stratum in one place,
+will carry it to another; and the sediment which the moment before
+had formed a coal stratum, or a bed of that bituminous matter, may
+be succeeded either with the sediment of an argillaceous stratum, or
+covered over with a bed of sand, brought by the changed current of the
+sea.
+
+We have now considered all the appearances of coal strata, so far as
+these depend upon the materials, and their original collection. But,
+as those bituminous strata have been changed in their substance by the
+operation of subterranean heat and inspissation, we are now to look for
+the necessary consequences of this change in the body of the stratum;
+and also for other mineral operations common to fossil coal with
+consolidated strata of whatever species.
+
+If coal, like other mineral strata, have been inspissated and
+consolidated by subterranean heat, we should find them traversed with
+veins and fissures; and, if the matter found in those veins and fissures
+corresponds to that found in similar places of other strata, every
+confirmation will be hence given to the theory that can be expected from
+the consideration of those bituminous strata. But this is the case; we
+find those fissures filled both with calcareous, gypseous, and pyritous
+substances. Therefore, we have reason to conclude, that the strata of
+fossil coal, like every other indurated or consolidated body in the
+earth, has been produced, _first_, by means of water preparing and
+collecting materials proper for the construction of land; and,
+_secondly_, by the operation of internal fire or subterranean heat
+melting and thus consolidating every known substance of the globe.
+
+Not only are those sparry and pyritous substances, which are more
+natural to coal strata, found forming veins traversing those strata in
+various directions, but also every other mineral vein may occasionally
+be found pervading coal mines, or traversing bituminous strata. Gold,
+silver, copper, lead, calamine, have all, in this manner, been found in
+coal.
+
+There remains now only to consider those bituminous strata of fossil
+coal in relation to that change of situation which has happened more
+or less to every stratum which we examine; but which is so much better
+known in those of coal, by having, from their great utility in the arts
+of life, become a subject for mining, and thus been traced in the earth
+at great expense, and for a long extent.
+
+Coal strata, which had been originally in a horizontal position, are now
+found sometimes standing in an erect posture, even almost perpendicular
+to the plane in which they had been formed. Miners therefore distinguish
+coal strata according as they deem them to approach to the one or other
+of those two extremes, in terming them either flat or edge seams or
+veins. Thus, it will appear, that every possible change from the
+original position of those strata may have happened, and are daily found
+from our experience in those mines.
+
+But besides the changed position of those strata, in departing from the
+horizontal line or flat position in which they had been formed, there is
+another remarkable change, termed by miners a _trouble_ in the coal. The
+consideration of this change will further illustrate the operations of
+nature in placing that which had been at the bottom of the sea above its
+surface.
+
+Strata, that are in one place regularly inclined, may be found bended,
+or irregularly inclined, in following their course. Here then is a
+source of irregularity which often materially effects the estimates
+of miners, judging from what they see, of those parts which are to be
+explored; and this is an accident which they frequently experience.
+
+But, without any change in the general direction of the stratum, miners
+often find their coal broke off abruptly, those two parts being placed
+upon a higher and lower situation in respect to each other, if flat
+beds, or separated laterally if they are edge seams. This is by miners
+termed a _slip, hitch_, or _dyke_.
+
+These irregularities may either be attended with an injected body of
+subterraneous lava or basaltes, here termed whin-stone, or they may not
+be attended, at least apparently, _i.e._ immediately, with any such
+accident. But experienced miners know, that, in approaching to any of
+those injected masses of stone, which are so frequent in this country,
+their coal is more and more subject to be troubled.
+
+As there is, in this country of Scotland, two different species of
+mountains or hills, one composed both in matter and manner exactly
+similar to the Alps of Switzerland, the other of whin-stone, basaltic
+rock, or subterraneous lava; and as the fossil coal, argillaceous and
+sand-stone strata, are found variously connected with those hills,
+nothing can tend more to give a proper understanding, with regard to the
+construction of the land in general, of the globe than a view of those
+different bodies, which are here found much mixed together in a little
+space of country, thus exhibiting, as it were in miniature, what may be
+found in other parts of the world, upon a larger scale, but not upon any
+other principle. I will therefore endeavour to give a short description
+of the mineral state of this country with regard to coal, so far as my
+experience and memory will serve.
+
+This country might very properly be considered as consisting of primary
+and secondary mountains; not as supposing the primary mountains original
+and inexplicable in their formation, any more than those of the latest
+production, but as considering the one to be later in point of time, or
+posterior in the progress of things. The first are those which commonly
+form the alpine countries, consisting of various schisti, of quartzy
+stone, and granites. The second, again, are the whinstone or basaltic
+hills scattered up and down the low country, and evidently posterior to
+the strata of that country, which they break, elevate, and displace.
+
+Thus there are in this country, as well as every where else, three
+things to be distinguished; first, the alpine or elevated country;
+secondly, the flat or low country; and, thirdly, that which has been of
+posterior formation to the strata which it traverses, in whatever shape
+or quality; whether as a mountain, or only as a vein; whether as a
+basaltes, a porphyry, or a granite, or only as a metal, a siliceous
+substance, or a spar.
+
+Those three things which are here distinguished do not differ with
+regard to the chemical character of their substances; for, in each of
+these, every different substance is to be found, more or less; and it
+is not in being composed of materials peculiar to itself, that makes an
+alpine country be distinguished from a flat country; it is chiefly in
+the changes which the strata of the alpine country have been made to
+undergo, posterior to their original collection, that the rocks of the
+alpine country differ from those of the flat country.
+
+But the observation that is most to the purpose of the present subject
+of bituminous strata, is this; it is chiefly in the strata of the flat
+country that fossil coal are found; there are none that I know of in
+all the alpine countries of Scotland; and it is always among the strata
+peculiar to the flat country that fossil coal is found. Now, this
+appearance cannot be explained by saying that the materials of mineral
+coal had not existed in the world while those primary strata were formed
+in the sea. I have already shown, (chap. 4.) that there had been the
+same system of a world, producing plants, and thus maintaining animals,
+while the primary strata were formed in the sea; I have even adduced an
+example of coal strata among those primary schisti, although this be an
+extremely rare occurrence: Consequently, we are under the necessity of
+looking out for some other cause.
+
+If the changes which have been evidently superinduced in the strata of
+alpine countries arise from the repeated operations of subterranean
+fire, or to the extreme degree in which those strata have been affected
+by this consolidating and elevating cause, it will be natural to suppose
+that the bituminous or combustible part among those stratifications, may
+have been mostly consumed upon some occasion during those various and
+long continued operations; whereas, in the flat beds of the low country,
+although there is the most perfect evidence for the exertion of heat in
+the consolidation of those strata, the general quantity of this has been
+a little thing, compared with the universal manifestation of this cause
+in the operations of the alpine countries, the strata of which have been
+so much displaced in their situations and positions.
+
+To illustrate this, strata of sand-stone are found in both the alpine
+and flat countries of Scotland. About Leadhills, for example, there are
+abundance of those strata; but, in the flat country, the generality of
+the sand-stone is so little changed as to appear to every enlightened
+naturalist aquiform strata; whereas the most enlightened of those
+philosophers will not perhaps attribute the same original to a similar
+composition in the alpine country, which is so much changed from its
+original state. It is not because there had been wanting a sufficient
+degree of heat to consolidate the sand-stone in the coal country; for I
+can show specimens of sand-stone almost contiguous with coal, that have
+been extremely much consolidated in this manner. But this is only a
+particular stratum; and the general appearance of the sand-stone, as
+well as other strata in the coal countries, is that of having been
+little affected by those subterranean operations of heat by which those
+bodies in the alpine country have been changed in their structure,
+shape, and position.
+
+If we shall thus allow the principle of consolidation, consequently also
+of induration, to have been much exerted upon the strata of the alpine
+country, and but moderately or little upon those of the low country of
+Scotland, we shall evidently see one reason, perhaps the only one, for
+the lesser elevation of the one country above the level of the sea, than
+the other. This is because the one resists the powers which have been
+employed in leveling what has been raised from the bottom of the sea,
+more than the other; consequently, we find more of the one remaining
+above the level of the sea than of the other.
+
+Let us now take the map of Scotland, in order to observe the mixture of
+those two different species of countries, whereof the one is generally
+low and flat, the other high and mountainous; the one more or less
+provided with fossil coal, the other not.
+
+From St Abb's Head, on the east of Scotland, to the Mull of Galloway,
+on the west, there runs a ridge of mountains of granite, quartz, and
+schistus strata, which contain not coal. On each side of this ridge we
+find coal countries; Northumberland, on the one side, and, on the other,
+the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and the Lothians; the one is a mountainous
+country, the others are comparatively low or flat countries. Let us now
+draw another alpine line from Buchan and Caithness, upon the east, to
+the island of Jura, on the west; this traverses a mountainous country
+destitute of coal, and, so far as I know, of any marks of marine bodies.
+But, on each side of this great alpine ridge, we find the hard country
+skirted with one which is lower, flatter, or of a softer nature,
+in which coal is found, upon the one side, in the shires of Fife,
+Clackmannan, and Stirling; and, on the other, in that hollow which runs
+from the Murray Frith south-west, in a straight line, directed upon the
+end of Mull, and composed, for the most part, of water very little above
+the level of the sea. Here, to be sure, the coal is scarce, or not so
+evident; but there is coal upon the sea coast in several places of this
+great Bay betwixt Buchan and Caithness; and the lowness of the country,
+across this part of the island, is almost sufficient testimony that it
+had been composed of softer materials.
+
+Thus the coal country of Scotland may be considered as in one band
+across the island, and included in the counties of Ayr, Lanark, and all
+those which border upon the Frith of Forth. Now, in all this tract of
+coal and tender strata, we do not find ridges of alpine stone or primary
+mountains, but we find many hills of solid rock, little mountains, from
+500 to 1000 feet high; such as that beautiful conical hill North Berwick
+Law, Torpender Law, Arthur's Seat, the Lowmands, and others of inferior
+note. That is to say, the whole of this included space, both sea and
+land, has been invaded from below with melted masses of whin-stone,
+breaking up through the natural strata of the country, and variously
+embossing the surface of the earth at present, when all the softer
+materials, with which those subterranean lavas had been covered, are
+washed away or removed from those summits of the country. Hence there is
+scarcely a considerable tubercle, with which this country also abounds,
+that may not be found containing a mass of whin-stone as a nucleus.
+
+But besides those insulated masses of whinstone that form a gradation
+from a mountain to a single rock, such, for example, as that on which
+the Castle of Edinburgh is built, we find immense quantities of the same
+basaltic rock interjected among the natural strata, always breaking and
+disordering them, but often apparently following their directions for a
+considerable space with some regularity. We also find dykes of the same
+substance bisecting the strata like perpendicular veins of rock; and, in
+some places, we see the connection of these rocks of the same substance,
+which thus appear to be placed in such a different form in relation to
+the strata.
+
+It will thus appear, that the regular form, and horizontal direction of
+strata throughout this country of coal, now under contemplation, has
+been broken and disordered by the eruption and interjection of those
+masses of basaltic stone or subterraneous lava; and thus may be
+explained not only the disorders and irregularities of coal strata, but
+also the different qualities of this bituminous substance from its
+more natural state to that of a perfect coal or fixed infusible and
+combustible substance burning without smoke. This happens sometimes to a
+part of a coal stratum which approaches the whin-stone.
+
+Having thus stated the case of combustible or bituminous strata, I would
+ask those naturalists, who adhere to the theory of infiltration and the
+operation of water alone, how they are to conceive those strata formed
+and consolidated. They must consider, that here are immense bodies of
+those combustible strata, under hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathoms
+of sand-stone, iron-stone, argillaceous and calcareous strata. If they
+are to suppose bituminous bodies collected at the bottom of the sea,
+they must say from whence that bitumen had come; for, with regard to the
+strata below those bituminous bodies, above them, and between them,
+we see perfectly from whence had come the materials of which they are
+formed. They cannot say that it is from a collection of earthy matter
+which had been afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for, although
+we find many of those earthy strata variously impregnated with the
+bituminous and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy and the
+bituminous matter had subsided together; besides, there are many of
+those coaly and bituminous strata in which there is no more than two or
+three _per cent._ of earthy matter or ashes after burning; therefore
+the strata must have been formed of bituminous matter, and not simply
+impregnated with it.
+
+To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow them to form their strata,
+which certainly is the case in great part, by the collection of
+vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say, in what manner they are
+to consolidate those bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
+pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous veins of spar and pyrites,
+which traverse those strata in all directions, to be formed in
+those bodies consolidated by the compression of the superincumbent
+masses?--Here is a manifest inconsistency, which proves that it could
+not be. But, even were we to suppose all those difficulties to be over
+come, there is still an impossibility in the way of that inconsiderate
+theory, and this will appear more fully in the following chapter.
+
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+There is not perhaps a greater difference among the various qualities of
+bodies than that which may be observed to subsist between the burning of
+those two substances, that is, the inflammable bodies on the one hand,
+and those that are combustible on the other. I have treated of that
+distinction in Dissertations upon subjects of Natural Philosophy, part
+3d. where I have considered the different effects of those two kinds
+of bodies upon the incident light; and, in a Dissertation upon the
+Philosophy of Fire, etc. I have distinguished those two kinds of
+substances in relation to their emitting, in burning, the fixed light
+which had constituted a part of those inflammable and combustible
+bodies.
+
+All animals and vegetable bodies contain both those different chemical
+substances united; and this phlogistic composition is an essential part
+in every animal and vegetable substance. There are to be found in those
+bodies particular substances, which abound more or less with one of
+those species of phlogistic matter, but never is the one species of
+those burning substances to be found naturally, in animal and vegetable
+bodies, without being associated with the other; and it is all that the
+chemical art can do to separate them in a great degree upon occasion.
+Pure ardent spirit may perhaps be considered as containing the one, and
+the most perfect coal the other; the chemical principle of the one
+is proper carbonic matter; and of the other it is the hydrogeneous
+principle, or that of inflammable air.
+
+Thus we so far understand the composition of animal and vegetable
+substances which burn or maintain our fires; we also understand the
+chemical analysis of those bodies, in separating the inflammable from
+the combustible substance, or the volatile from the fixed matter, the
+oil from what is the proper coal. It is by distillation or evaporation,
+the effect of heat, that this separatory operation is performed; and we
+know no other means by which this may be done. Therefore, wherever we
+find peculiar effects of that separatory operation, we have a right to
+infer the proper cause.
+
+The subject, which we are to consider in this section, is not the
+composition of strata in those of mineral coal, but the transformation
+of those, which had been originally inflammable bodies, into bodies
+which are only combustible, an end which is to be attained by the
+separation of their volatile or inflammable substances. In the last
+section, I have shown of what materials the strata of mineral coal had
+been originally formed; these are substances containing abundance of
+inflammable oil or bitumen, as well as carbonic matter which is properly
+combustible; and this is confirmed by the generality of those strata,
+which, though perfectly consolidated by fusion, retain still their
+inflammable and fusible qualities. But now the object of investigation
+is that mineral operation by which some of those strata, or some parts
+of a fusible and inflammable stratum, have been so changed as to become
+infusible and only combustible.
+
+We have now examined those strata which may be considered as either
+proper mineral coal, or as only a bituminous schistus; we are now to
+class along with these another species of this kind of matter, which has
+had a similar origin, although it may assume a different character.
+
+According to the common observations of mankind, the eminent quality by
+which coal is to be distinguished, is the burning of that substance,
+or its capacity for making a fire. Therefore, however similar in other
+respects, a substance which had not that eminent quality of coal could
+hardly be considered as being allied to it; far less could it be
+supposed, as being in every other respect the same. We are however
+to endeavour to show, that there are truly substances of this kind,
+substances which to common observation, having none of the properties of
+coal with respect to fire, consequently, no utility for the purpose of
+burning, might be considered as another species of mineral, while at the
+same time they are truly at bottom a composition very little different
+from those which we have considered as the most perfect coal.
+
+It must be recollected that we have distinguished coal in general as
+of two different species, one perfect or proper coal, containing no
+perceptible quantity of either oil or phlegm; the other as burning with
+smoke and flame, consequently containing both aqueous and oleaginous
+substances which it emits in distillation. It is the first of these
+which we are now to consider more particularly, in order to see the
+varieties which may be found in this species of mineral substance.
+
+When that bituminous fossil, which is the common coal of this country,
+is submitted to heat it is subject to melt more or less, and emits smoke
+which is composed of water and oil. If it be thus completely distilled,
+it becomes a perfect coal of a porous or spongy texture. Such a
+substance as this is extremely rare among minerals; I have however found
+it. It is in the harbour of Ayr, where a whinstone dyke traverses the
+coal strata, and includes some of that substance in the state of coals
+or cinder. I pointed this out many years ago to Dr Black; and lately I
+showed it to Professor Playfair.
+
+But the culm of South Wales, the Kilkenny coal of Ireland, and the blind
+coal of Scotland, notwithstanding that these are a perfect coal, or
+charred to a coal, have nothing of the porous construction of the
+specimen which I have just now mentioned; they are perfectly solid, and
+break with a smooth shining surface like those which emit smoke and
+flame.
+
+Here is therefore a mineral operation in the preparation of those coals
+which we cannot imitate; and here is the clearest evidence of the
+operation of mineral fire or heat, although we are ignorant of the
+reason why some coal strata are charred, while others are not, and why,
+in some particular cases, the charred coal may be porous or spongy like
+our coals, while in general those blind coals (as they are called) are
+perfectly solid in their structure.
+
+But to what I would call more particularly the attention of mineral
+philosophers is this, that it is inconceivable to have this effect
+produced by means of water; we might as well say that heat were to be
+the cause of ice. The production of coal from vegetable bodies, in which
+that phlogistic substance is originally produced, or from animal bodies
+which have it from that source, is made by heat, and by no other means,
+so far as we know. But, even heat alone is not sufficient to effect that
+end, or make a perfect coal; the phlogistic body, which is naturally
+compound, consisting of both inflammable and combustible substances,
+must be separated chemically, and this must be the operation of heat
+under the proper circumstances for distillation or evaporation.
+
+Here is the impossibility which in the last chapter I have alleged the
+aqueous theory has to struggle against; and here is one of the absolute
+proofs of the igneous theory. Not only must the aqueous part of those
+natural phlogistic bodies be evaporated, in order to their becoming
+coal, but the oily parts must also, by a still increased degree of heat,
+be evaporated, or separated by distillation from the combustible part.
+Here, therefore, is evidently the operation of heat, not simply that
+of fusion in contradiction to the fluidity of aqueous solution, but
+in opposition to any effect of water, as requiring the absence or
+separation of that aqueous substance.
+
+But those natural appearances go still farther to confirm our theory,
+which, upon all occasions, considers the compression upon the bodies
+that are submitted to the operation of heat, in the mineral regions, as
+having the greatest efficacy in modifying that operation. Coal strata,
+which are in the neighbourhood of each other, being of those two
+opposite species, the one fusible and inflammable, the other infusible
+and combustible, afford the clearest proof of the efficacy of
+compression; for, it is evident, that the coal, which was once
+bituminous or fusible, cannot be charred without the distillation of
+that substance; therefore, prevent the distillation by compression and
+the charring operation cannot proceed, whatever should be the intensity
+of the heat; and then, fusion alone must be the effect upon the
+bituminous body. But now, as we have both those species of coal in the
+vicinity of each other, and even the same strata of coal part charred,
+while the rest is not, this natural appearance, so far from being a
+stumbling block, as it must be to the opposite theory, is most clearly
+explained by the partial escape of vapours from the mineral regions, and
+thus confirms the theory with regard to the efficacy of compression.
+
+It is owing to the solidity of those natural charred coals, and the want
+of oil, that they are so very difficult of kindling; but, when once
+kindled in sufficient quantity, they make a fire which is very durable.
+There are even some of them which, to common observation, seem to be
+altogether incombustible. I have of this kind a specimen from a stratum
+at Stair, which shall be afterwards mentioned.
+
+M. Struve, in the Journal de Physique for January 1790, describes a
+mineral which he calls _plombagine charbonneuse ou hexaëdre_; and gives
+for reason, _parce qu'elle ressemble extrêmement au charbon de pierre
+schisteux, ou d'hexaëdre_. He says farther, "Il est très commun, dans
+une roche qui forme un passage entre les granits et les brèches, qu'on
+n'a trouvée jusqu'a présent qu'on masses roulées dans le pays de Vaud."
+He concludes his paper thus: "Ce fossile singulier ne paroît pas
+appartenir à la Suisse seule. J'ai dans ce moment devant les yeux une
+substance parfaitement semblable, si on excepte la couleur qui tient le
+milieu entre le gris de fer et le rouge modéré; elle vient du pays de
+Gotha de la Friedrischs-grube, proche d'Umneau. On le regarde comme un
+eisenrahm uni à du charbon de pierre."
+
+The specimen which I have from Stair upon the water of Ayr, so far as I
+can understand, perfectly resembles this _plombagine_ of M. Struve. It
+consumes very slowly in the fire, and deflagrates like plumbago with
+nitre. Now this comes from a regular coal stratum; and what is more
+remarkable, in this stratum is contained a true plumbago, Farther up the
+country, the Earl of Dumfries has also a mine containing plumbago along
+with other coal strata; and though the plumbago of these two mines have
+not all the softness and beauty of the mineral of the same species from
+Cumberland, they are nevertheless perfect plumbago.
+
+I have a specimen of steatetical whinstone or basaltes from some part of
+Cumberland, in which is contained many nodules of the most perfect and
+beautiful plumbago. It is dispersed through this stone in rounded masses
+of all sizes from a nut to a pin's head; and many of these are mixed
+with pyrites. There is therefore reason to believe that this plumbago
+had been in fusion.
+
+Now, if we consider that every species of coal and every species of
+plumbago are equally, that is, perfectly combustible, and yield, in
+burning, the same volatile principles, differing only perhaps a little
+in the small quantity of fixed matter which remains, we shall be
+inclined to believe, that they have all the same origin in a vegetable
+substance; and that they are diversified by some very small composition
+of other matter. This being allowed, one thing is certain, that it is by
+the operation of mineral fire or heat that those combustible substances,
+however composed, have been brought to their present state of coal,
+although we are ignorant of the circumstances by which their differences
+and their peculiar chemical and mechanical qualities have been produced.
+
+Let us resume in a few words. There is not perhaps one substance in the
+mineral kingdom by which the operation of subterraneous heat is, to
+common understanding, better exemplified than that of mineral coal.
+Those strata are evidently a deposit of inflammable substances which all
+come originally from vegetable bodies. In this state of their formation,
+those coal strata must all be oleagenous or bituminous. In many of them,
+however, these volatile parts are found wanting; and, the stratum is
+found in the state of the most perfect coal or caput mortuum. There, is,
+I presume, no other means to be found by which this eminent effect could
+be produced, except by distillation; and, this distillation perhaps
+proceeded under the restraining force of an immense compression.
+
+To this theory it must not be objected, that all the strata of coal,
+which are found in the same place or neighbourhood, are not reduced to
+that caput mortuum or perfect coaly state. The change from a bituminous
+to a coaly substance can only take place in proportion as the
+distillation of the volatile parts is permitted. Now this distillation
+must be permitted, if any passage can be procured from the inflammable
+body submitted to the operation of subterraneous heat; and, one stratum
+of coal may find vent for the passage of those vapours, through some
+crevice which is not open to another. In this way, doubtless, some of
+those bodies have been inspissated or reduced to a fixed coal, while
+others, at a little distance, have retained most of their volatile
+parts.
+
+We cannot doubt of this distilling operation in the mineral regions,
+when we consider that in most places of the earth we find the evident
+effects of such distillation of oily substances in the naphta and
+petroleum that are constantly emitted along with water in certain
+springs. These oily substances are no other than such as may be
+procured, in a similar manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal
+strata; we have therefore every proof of this mineral operation that the
+nature of things admit of. We have also sufficient evidence that those
+fusible and inflammable coals, which have not been distilled to a caput
+mortuum, had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous heat,
+because we find those fusible coals subject to be injected with pyrites,
+as well as the more perfect coal.
+
+If we now consider those various appearances of mineral bodies which
+are thus explained by the theory of mineral fire, or exertion of
+subterraneous heat, appearances which it is impossible to reconcile by
+any supposition of aqueous solution, or that unintelligible language
+of mineral infiltration which has of late prevailed, we shall be fully
+satisfied, that there is a uniform system in nature of providing a power
+in the mineral regions, for consolidating the loose materials deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, and for erecting those masses of mineralized
+substances into the place of land; we shall thus be led to admire the
+wisdom of nature, providing for the continuation of this living world,
+and employing those very means by which, in a more partial view of
+things, this beautiful structure of an inhabited earth seems to be
+necessarily going into destruction.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12861 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12861 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4), by
+James Hutton</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THEORY
+OF THE
+EARTH</h1>
+
+<h4>WITH PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.</h4><br>
+
+<h2><i>By JAMES HUTTON, M.D. &amp; F.R.S.E.</i></h2><br><br>
+
+<h4>IN FOUR PARTS.</h4>
+
+<h4>EDINBURGH<br>
+<br>
+1795</h4>
+
+<h2>VOL. I.</h2><br><br>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>PART I.</p>
+
+<p><i>THEORY OF THE EARTH; with the Examination
+of different Opinions on that</i>
+<i>Subject.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. I.</p>
+
+<p><i>THEORY OF THE EARTH; or an Investigation
+of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration
+of Land upon the Globe</i></p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Prospect of the Subject to be
+treated of</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>An Investigation of the Natural
+Operations employed in consolidating
+the Strata of the Globe</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>Investigation of the Natural
+Operations employed in the Production
+of Land above the Surface of the Sea</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. IV.&mdash;<i>System of Decay and Renovation
+observed in the Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. II.</p>
+
+<p><i>An Examination of Mr KIRWAN's Objections
+to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. III.</p>
+
+<p><i>Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories,
+in general</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. IV.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Supposition of Primitive Mountains
+refuted</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. V.</p>
+
+<p><i>Concerning that which may be termed the
+Primary Part of the Present Earth</i>.</p>
+
+<p>CHAP. VI.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Theory of interchanging Sea and
+Land, illustrated by an Investigation of
+the Primary and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>A distinct view of the Primary
+and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>The Theory confirmed from
+Observations made on purpose to elucidate
+the Subject</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. VII.</p>
+
+<p><i>Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction,
+or Mineral Concretion</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. VIII.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the
+Formation of Bituminous Strata, investigated</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Purpose of this Inquiry</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>Natural History of Coal Strata,
+and Theory of this Geological Operation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>The Mineralogical Operations
+of the Earth illustrated from the
+Theory of Fossil Coal</i>.</p>
+
+<br><br>
+
+
+<h3>PART I.</h3><br>
+
+<h2>THEORY OF THE EARTH;</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THE<br>
+
+<i>EXAMINATION</i><br>
+
+OF<br>
+
+<i>DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THAT SUBJECT</i>.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<h4>IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.</h4><br><br>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+
+<p><i>THEORY of the EARTH; or an Investigation of
+the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution,
+and Restoration, of Land upon the
+Globe.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p>SECTION I.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>When we trace the parts of which this
+terrestrial system is composed, and
+when we view the general connection of those
+several parts, the whole presents a machine of
+a peculiar construction by which it is adapted
+to a certain end. We perceive a fabric, erected
+in wisdom, to obtain a purpose worthy of
+the power that is apparent in the production
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>We know little of the earth's internal parts,
+or of the materials which compose it at any
+considerable depth below the surface. But
+upon the surface of this globe, the more inert
+matter is replenished with plants, and with
+animal and intellectual beings.</p>
+
+<p>Where so many living creatures are to ply
+their respective powers, in pursuing the end
+for which they were intended, we are not to
+look for nature in a quiescent state; matter
+itself must be in motion, and the scenes of life
+a continued or repeated series of agitations and
+events.</p>
+
+<p>This globe of the earth is a habitable world;
+and on its fitness for this purpose, our sense of
+wisdom in its formation must depend. To
+judge of this point, we must keep in view, not
+only the end, but the means also by which that
+end is obtained. These are, the form of the
+whole, the materials of which it is composed,
+and the several powers which concur, counteract,
+or balance one another, in procuring the
+general result.</p>
+
+<p>The form and constitution of the mass are
+not more evidently calculated for the purpose
+of this earth as a habitable world, than are the
+various substances of which that complicated
+body is composed. Soft and hard parts variously
+combine to form a medium consistence,
+adapted to the use of plants and animals; wet
+and dry are properly mixed for nutrition, or
+the support of those growing bodies; and hot
+and cold produce a temperature or climate no
+less required than a soil: Insomuch, that there
+is not any particular, respecting either the qualities
+of the materials, or the construction of
+the machine, more obvious to our perception,
+than are the presence and efficacy of design and
+intelligence in the power that conducts the work.</p>
+
+<p>In taking this view of things, where ends
+and means are made the object of attention,
+we may hope to find a principle upon which
+the comparative importance of parts in the system
+of nature may be estimated, and also a rule
+for selecting the object of our inquiries. Under
+this direction, science may find a fit subject
+of investigation in every particular, whether
+of <i>form</i>, <i>quality</i>, or <i>active power</i>, that presents
+itself in this system of motion and of life;
+and which, without a proper attention to this
+character of the system, might appear anomalous
+and incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only by seeing those general operations
+of the globe which depend upon its peculiar
+construction as a machine, but also by
+perceiving how far the particulars, in the construction
+of that machine, depend upon the general
+operations of the globe, that we are enabled
+to understand the constitution of this earth
+as a thing formed by design. We shall thus
+also be led to acknowledge an order, not unworthy
+of Divine wisdom, in a subject which,
+in another view, has appeared as the work of
+chance, or as absolute disorder and confusion.</p>
+
+<p>To acquire a general or comprehensive view
+of this mechanism of the globe, by which it is
+adapted to the purpose of being a habitable
+world, it is necessary to distinguish three different
+bodies which compose the whole. These
+are, a solid body of earth, an aqueous body of
+sea, and an elastic fluid of air.</p>
+
+<p>It is the proper shape and disposition of these
+three bodies that form this globe into a habitable
+world; and it is the manner in which
+these constituent bodies are adjusted to each
+other, and the laws of action by which they
+are maintained in their proper qualities and
+respective departments, that form the Theory
+of the machine which we are now to examine.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin with some general sketch of
+the particulars now mentioned.</p>
+
+<p><i>1st</i>, There is a central body in the globe.
+This body supports those parts which come to
+be more immediately exposed to our view, or
+which may be examined by our sense and observation.
+This first part is commonly supposed
+to be solid and inert; but such a conclusion
+is only mere conjecture; and we shall
+afterwards find occasion, perhaps, to form another
+judgment in relation to this subject, after
+we have examined strictly, upon scientific
+principles, what appears upon the surface, and
+have formed conclusions concerning that
+which must have been transacted in some
+more central part.</p>
+
+<p><i>2dly</i>, We find a fluid body of water. This,
+by gravitation, is reduced to a spherical form,
+and by the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation,
+is become oblate. The purpose of this
+fluid body is essential in the constitution of the
+world; for, besides affording the means of
+life and motion to a multifarious race of animals,
+it is the source of growth and circulation
+to the organized bodies of this earth, in being
+the receptacle of the rivers, and the fountain
+of our vapours.</p>
+
+<p><i>3dly</i>, We have an irregular body of land
+raised above the level of the ocean. This, no
+doubt, is the smallest portion of the globe;
+but it is the part to us by far most interesting.
+It is upon the surface of this part that plants
+are made to grow; consequently, it is by virtue
+of this land that animal life, as well as
+vegetation, is sustained in this world.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, We have a surrounding body of atmosphere,
+which completes the globe. This
+vital fluid is no less necessary, in the constitution
+of the world, than are the other parts;
+for there is hardly an operation upon the surface
+of the earth, that is not conducted or
+promoted by its means. It is a necessary condition
+for the sustenance of fire; it is the
+breath of life to animals; it is at least an instrument
+in vegetation; and, while it contributes
+to give fertility and health to things that
+grow, it is employed in preventing noxious
+effects from such as go into corruption. In
+short, it is the proper means of circulation for
+the matter of this world, by raising up the
+water of the ocean, and pouring it forth upon
+the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the mechanism of the globe: Let
+us now mention some of those powers by
+which motion is produced, and activity procured
+to the mere machine.</p>
+
+<p>First, There is the progressive force, or
+moving power, by which this planetary body,
+if solely actuated, would depart continually
+from the path which it now pursues, and thus
+be for ever removed from its end, whether as
+a planetary body, or as a globe sustaining
+plants and animals, which may be termed a
+living world.</p>
+
+<p>But this moving body is also actuated by gravitation,
+which inclines it directly to the central
+body of the sun. Thus it is made to revolve
+about that luminary, and to preserve its path.</p>
+
+<p>It is also upon the same principles, that each
+particular part upon the surface of this globe,
+is alternately exposed to the influence of light
+and darkness, in the diurnal rotation of the
+earth, as well as in its annual revolution. In
+this manner are produced the vicissitudes of
+night and day, so variable in the different latitudes
+from the equator to the pole, and so
+beautifully calculated to equalise the benefits
+of light, so variously distributed in the different
+regions of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Gravitation, and the <i>vis infita</i> of matter, thus
+form the first two powers distinguishable in the
+operations of our system, and wisely adapted to
+the purpose for which they are employed.</p>
+
+<p>We next observe the influence of light and
+heat, of cold and condensation. It is by means
+of these two powers that the various operations
+of this living world are more immediately
+transacted; although the other powers
+are no less required, in order to produce or
+modify these great agents in the economy of
+life, and system of our changing things.</p>
+
+<p>We do not now inquire into the nature of
+those powers, or investigate the laws of light
+and heat, of cold and condemnation, by which
+the various purposes of this world are accomplished;
+we are only to mention those effects
+which are made sensible to the common understanding
+of mankind, and which necessarily
+imply a power that is employed. Thus, it
+is by the operation of those powers that the
+varieties of season in spring and autumn are
+obtained, that we are blessed with the vicissitudes
+of summer's heat and winter's cold, and
+that we possess the benefit of artificial light
+and culinary fire.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus bountifully provided with the
+necessaries of life; we are supplied with things
+conducive to the growth and preservation of
+our animal nature, and with fit subjects to
+employ and to nourish our intellectual powers.</p>
+
+<p>There are other actuating powers employed
+in the operations of this globe, which we are
+little more than able to enumerate; such are
+those of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous
+heat or mineral fire.</p>
+
+<p>Powers of such magnitude or force, are not
+to be supposed useless in a machine contrived
+surely not without wisdom; but they are
+mentioned here chiefly on account of their
+general effect; and it is sufficient to have
+named powers, of which the actual existence
+is well known, but of which the proper use in
+the constitution of the world is still obscure.
+The laws of electricity and magnetism have
+been well examined by philosophers; but the
+purposes of those powers in the economy of
+the globe have not been discovered. Subterraneous
+fire, again, although the most conspicuous
+in the operations of this world, and
+often examined by philosophers, is a power
+which has been still less understood, whether
+with regard to its efficient or final cause. It
+has hitherto appeared more like the accident
+of natural things, than the inherent property
+of the mineral region. It is in this last light,
+however, that I wish to exhibit it, as a great
+power acting a material part in the operations
+of the globe, and as an essential part in the
+constitution of this world.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus surveyed the machine in general,
+with those moving powers, by which
+its operations, diversified almost <i>ad infinitum</i>,
+are performed. Let us now confine our view,
+more particularly, to that part of the machine
+on which we dwell, that so we may consider
+the natural consequences of those operations
+which, being within our view, we are better
+qualified to examine.</p>
+
+<p>This subject is important to the human
+race, to the possessor of this world, to the intelligent
+being Man, who foresees events to
+come, and who, in contemplating his future
+interest, is led to inquire concerning causes,
+in order that he may judge of events which
+otherwise he could not know.</p>
+
+<p>If, in pursuing this object, we employ our
+skill in research, not in forming vain conjectures;
+and if <i>data</i> are to be found, on which
+Science may form just conclusions, we should
+not long remain in ignorance with respect to
+the natural history of this earth, a subject on
+which hitherto opinion only, and not evidence,
+has decided: For in no subject, perhaps,
+is there naturally less defect of evidence,
+although philosophers, led by prejudice, or
+misguided by false theory, may have neglected
+to employ that light by which they should
+have seen the system of this world.</p>
+
+<p>But to proceed in pursuing a little farther
+our general or preparatory ideas. A solid
+body of land could not have answered the
+purpose of a habitable world; for, a soil is necessary
+to the growth of plants; and a soil is
+nothing but the materials collected from the
+destruction of the solid land. Therefore, the
+surface of this land, inhabited by man, and
+covered with plants and animals, is made by nature
+to decay, in dissolving from that hard and,
+compact state in which it is found below the
+soil; and this soil is necessarily washed away,
+by the continual circulation of the water, running
+from the summits of the mountains towards
+the general receptacle of that fluid.
+The heights of our land are thus levelled
+with the shores; our fertile plains are formed
+from the ruins of the mountains; and those
+travelling materials are still pursued by the moving
+water, and propelled along the inclined
+surface of the earth<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> These moveable materials,
+delivered into the sea, cannot, for a long
+continuance, rest upon the shore; for, by the
+agitation of the winds, the tides and currents,
+every moveable thing is carried farther and farther
+along the shelving bottom of the sea, towards
+the unfathomable regions of the ocean.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag1"> (return) </a> M. de Luc, in his second letter to me, published in
+the Monthly Review for 1790, says, "You ought to
+have proved that both gravel and sand are carried from
+our continents to the sea; which, on the contrary, I
+shall prove not to be the case." He then endeavours
+to prove his assertion, by observing, that, in certain places
+where there is not either sufficient declivity in the surface,
+or force in the running water, gravel and sand are made
+to rest, and do not travel to the sea. This surely is a fact
+to which I most readily assent; but, on the other hand,
+I hope he will acknowledge, that, where there is sufficient
+declivity in the surface, or force in the running water,
+sand, gravel, and stones, are travelled upon the land, and
+are thus carried into the sea&mdash;at last. This is all that my
+theory requires, and this is what I believe will be admitted,
+without any farther proof on my part.</blockquote>
+
+<p>If the vegetable soil is thus constantly removed
+from the surface of the land, and if its
+place is thus to be supplied from the dissolution
+of the solid earth, as here represented, we
+may perceive an end to this beautiful machine;
+an end, arising from no error in its
+constitution as a world, but from that destructibility
+of its land which is so necessary in the
+system of the globe, in the economy of life
+and vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>The immense time necessarily required for
+this total destruction of the land, must not be
+opposed to that view of future events, which
+is indicated by the surest facts, and most approved
+principles. Time, which measures
+every thing in our idea, and is often deficient
+to our schemes, is to nature endless and as
+nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
+it had existence; and, as the natural course of
+time, which to us seems infinite, cannot be
+bounded by any operation that may have an
+end, the progress of things upon this globe,
+that is, the course of nature, cannot be limited
+by time, which must proceed in a continual
+succession. We are, therefore, to consider as
+inevitable the deduction of our land, so far
+as effected by those operations which are necessary
+in the purpose of the globe, considered
+as a habitable world; and, so far as we have
+not examined any other part of the economy
+of nature, in which other operations and a
+different intention might appear.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the globe of this
+earth as a machine, constructed upon chemical
+as well as mechanical principles, by which
+its different parts are all adapted, in form, in
+quality, and in quantity, to a certain end; an
+end attained with certainty or success; and an
+end from which we may perceive wisdom, in
+contemplating the means employed.</p>
+
+<p>But is this world to be considered thus
+merely as a machine, to last no longer than
+its parts retain their present position, their
+proper forms and qualities? Or may it not
+be also considered as an organized body?
+such as has a constitution in which the necessary
+decay of the machine is naturally repaired,
+in the exertion of those productive powers
+by which it had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>This is the view in which we are now to
+examine the globe; to see if there be, in the
+constitution of this world, a reproductive operation,
+by which a ruined constitution may be
+again repaired, and a duration or stability thus
+procured to the machine, considered as a world
+sustaining plants and animals.</p>
+
+<p>If no such reproductive power, or reforming
+operation, after due inquiry, is to be found
+in the constitution of this world, we should
+have reason to conclude, that the system of
+this earth has either been intentionally made
+imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite
+power and wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an important question, therefore,
+with regard to the constitution of this globe;
+a question which, perhaps, it is in the power
+of man's sagacity to resolve; and a question
+which, if satisfactorily resolved, might add
+some lustre to science and the human intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Animated with this great, this interesting
+view, let us strictly examine our principles,
+in order to avoid fallacy in our reasoning;
+and let us endeavour to support our attention,
+in developing a subject that is vast in its extent,
+as well as intricate in the relation of parts
+to be stated.</p>
+
+<p>The globe of this earth is evidently made
+for man. He alone, of all the beings which
+have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and
+every part; he alone is capable of knowing
+the nature of this world, which he thus possesses
+in virtue of his proper right; and he
+alone can make the knowledge of this system
+a source of pleasure, and the means of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Man alone, of all the animated beings which
+enjoy the benefits of this earth, employs the
+knowledge which he there receives, in leading
+him to judge of the intention of things,
+as well as of the means by which they are
+brought about; and he alone is thus made to
+enjoy, in contemplation as well as sensual
+pleasure, all the good that may be observed in
+the constitution of this world; he, therefore,
+should be made the first subject of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if we are to take the written history
+of man for the rule by which we should judge
+of the time when the species first began, that
+period would be but little removed from the
+present state of things. The Mosaic history
+places this beginning of man at no great distance;
+and there has not been found, in natural
+history, any document by which a high
+antiquity might be attributed to the human
+race. But this is not the case with regard to
+the inferior species of animals, particularly
+those which inhabit the ocean and its shores.
+We find, in natural history, monuments which
+prove that those animals had long existed;
+and we thus procure a measure for the computation
+of a period of time extremely remote,
+though far from being precisely ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>In examining things present, we have data
+from which to reason with regard to what has
+been; and, from what has actually been, we
+have data for concluding with regard to that
+which is to happen hereafter. Therefore,
+upon the supposition that the operations of
+nature are equable and steady, we find, in natural
+appearances, means for concluding a certain
+portion of time to have necessarily elapsed,
+in the production of those events of which
+we see the effects.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals
+of every kind in the solid body of our
+earth, a natural history of those animals is
+formed, which includes a certain portion of
+time; and, for the ascertaining this portion of
+time, we must again have recourse to the regular
+operations of this world. We shall thus
+arrive at facts which indicate a period to
+which no other species of chronology is able
+to remount.</p>
+
+<p>In what follows, therefore, we are to examine
+the construction of the present earth,
+in order to understand the natural operations
+of time past; to acquire principles, by which
+we may conclude with regard to the future
+course of things, or judge of those operations,
+by which a world, so wisely ordered, goes into
+decay; and to learn, by what means such
+a decayed world may be renovated, or the
+waste of habitable land upon the globe repaired.</p>
+
+<p>This, therefore, is the object which we are
+to have in view during this physical investigation;
+this is the end to which are to be directed
+all the steps in our cosmological pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>The solid parts of the globe are, in general,
+composed of sand, of gravel, of argillaceous
+and calcareous strata, or of the various compositions
+of these with some other substances,
+which it is not necessary now to mention.
+Sand is separated and sized by streams and
+currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition
+of stones agitated in water; and marly,
+or argillaceous strata, have been collected, by
+subsiding in water with which those earthy
+substances had been floated. Thus, so far as
+the earth is formed of these materials, that solid
+body would appear to have been the production
+of water, winds, and tides.</p>
+
+<p>But that which renders the original of our
+land clear and evident, is the immense quantities
+of calcareous bodies which had belonged
+to animals, and the intimate connection of
+these masses of animal production with the
+other strata of the land. For it is to be proved,
+that all these calcareous bodies, from the collection
+of which the strata were formed, have
+belonged to the sea, and were produced in it.</p>
+
+<p>We find the marks of marine animals in the
+most solid parts of the earth; consequently,
+those solid parts have been formed after the
+ocean was inhabited by those animals which
+are proper to that fluid medium. If, therefore,
+we knew the natural history of those
+solid parts, and could trace the operations of
+the globe, by which they had been formed,
+we would have some means for computing
+the time through which those species of animals
+have continued to live. But how shall
+we describe a process which nobody has seen
+performed, and of which no written history
+gives any account? This is only to be investigated,
+<i>first</i>, in examining the nature of those
+solid bodies, the history of which we want to
+know; and, 2<i>dly</i>, In examining the natural
+operations of the globe, in order to see if there
+now actually exist such operations, as, from
+the nature of the solid bodies, appear to have
+been necessary to their formation.</p>
+
+<p>But, before entering more particularly into
+those points of discussion, by which the question
+is to be resolved, let us take a general
+view of the subject, in order to see what it is
+which science and observation must decide.</p>
+
+<p>In all the regions of the globe, immense
+masses are found, which, though at present in
+the most solid state, appear to have been formed
+by the collection of the calcareous <i>exuviae</i>
+of marine animals. The question at present
+is not, in what manner those collections of
+calcareous relics have become a perfect solid
+body, and have been changed from an animal
+to a mineral substance; for this is a subject
+that will be afterwards considered; we are
+now only inquiring, if such is truly the origin
+of those mineral masses.</p>
+
+<p>That all the masses of marble or limestone
+are composed of the calcareous matter of marine
+bodies, may be concluded from the following
+facts:</p>
+
+<p>1<i>st</i>, There are few beds of marble or limestone,
+in which may not be found some of
+those objects which indicate the marine origin
+of the mass. If, for example, in a mass
+of marble, taken from a quarry upon the top
+of the Alps or Andes<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a>, there shall be found
+one cockle-shell, or piece of coral, it must be
+concluded, that this bed of stone had been
+originally formed at the bottom of the sea, as
+much as another bed which is evidently composed
+almost altogether of cockle-shells and
+coral. If one bed of limestone is thus found
+to have been of a marine origin, every concomitant
+bed of the same kind must be also
+concluded to have been formed in the same
+Manner.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag2"> (return) </a> "Cette sommité élevée de 984 toises au dessus de
+notre lac, et par conséquent de 1172 au dessus de la
+mer, est remarquable en ce que l'on y voit des fragmens
+d'huîtres pétrifiés.&mdash;Cette montagne est dominée par
+un rocher escarpé, qui s'il n'est pas inaccessible, est du
+moins d'un bien difficile accès; il paroît presqu'entièrement
+composé de coquillages pétrifiés, renfermés dans
+un roc calcaire, ou marbre grossier noirâtre. Les fragmens
+qui s'en détachent, et que l'on rencontre en montant
+à la Croix de fer, sont remplis de <i>turbinites</i> de différentes
+espèces." M. DE SAUSSURE, <i>Voyage dans les
+Alpes</i>, p. 394.</blockquote>
+
+<p>We thus shall find the greatest part of the
+calcareous masses upon this globe to have originated
+from marine calcareous bodies; for
+whether we examine marbles, limestones, or
+such solid masses as are perfectly changed from
+the state of earth, and are become compact
+and hard, or whether we examine the soft,
+earthy, chalky or marly strata, of which so
+much of this earth is composed, we still find
+evident proofs, that those beds had their origin
+from materials deposited at the bottom of
+the sea; and that they have the calcareous
+substance which they contain, from the same
+source as the marbles or the limestones.</p>
+
+<p>2<i>dly</i>, In those calcareous strata, which are
+evidently of marine origin, there are many
+parts that are of a sparry structure, that is to
+say, the original texture of those beds, in such
+places, has been dissolved, and a new structure
+has been assumed, which is peculiar to a
+certain state of the calcareous earth. This
+change is produced by crystallisation, in consequence
+of a previous state of fluidity, which
+has so disposed the concreting parts, as to allow
+them to assume a regular shape and structure
+proper to that substance. A body, whose
+external form has been modified by this process,
+is called a <i>crystal</i>; one whose internal
+arrangement of parts is determined by it, is said
+to be of a <i>sparry structure</i>; and this is known
+from its fracture.</p>
+
+<p>3<i>dly</i>, There are, in all the regions of the
+earth, huge masses of calcareous matter, in
+that crystalline form of sparry state, in which
+perhaps no vestige can be found of any organised
+body, nor any indication that such calcareous
+matter had belonged to animals; but
+as, in other masses, this sparry structure, or
+crystalline state, is evidently assumed by the
+marine calcareous substances, in operations
+which are natural to the globe, and which are
+necessary to the consolidation of the strata, it
+does not appear, that the sparry masses, in
+which no figured body is formed, have been
+originally different from other masses, which,
+being only crystallised in part, and in part still
+retaining their original form, leave ample
+evidence of their marine origin<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag3"> (return) </a> M. de Saussure, describing the marble of Aigle,
+says, "Les tables polies de ce marbre présentent fréquemment
+des coquillages, dont la plupart sont des peignes
+striés, et de très-beaux madrépores. Tous ces
+corps marins on pris entierement la nature et le grain
+même du marbre, on n'y voit presque jamais la coquille
+sous sa forme originaire."</blockquote>
+
+<p>We are led, in this manner, to conclude,
+that all the strata of the earth, not only those
+consisting of such calcareous masses, but others
+superincumbent upon these, have had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea, by the collection
+of sand and gravel, of shells, of coralline
+and crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays,
+variously mixed, or separated and accumulated.
+Here is a general conclusion, well authenticated
+in the appearances of nature, and
+highly important in the natural history of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The general amount of our reasoning is this,
+that nine-tenths, perhaps, or ninety-nine hundredths
+of this earth, so far as we see, have
+been formed by natural operations of the
+globe, in collecting loose materials, and depositing
+them at the bottom of the sea; consolidating
+those collections in various degrees,
+and either elevating those consolidated masses
+above the level on which they were formed,
+or lowering the level of that sea.</p>
+
+<p>There is a part of the solid earth which we
+may at present neglect, not as being persuaded
+that this part may not also be found to
+come under the general rule of formation with
+the rest, but as considering this part to be of
+no consequence in forming a general rule,
+which shall comprehend almost the whole,
+without doing it absolutely. This excluded
+part consists of certain mountains and masses
+of granite. These are thought to be still older
+in their formation, and are said never to
+be found superincumbent on strata which
+must be acknowledged as the productions of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found the greater part, if not
+the whole, of the solid land to have been originally
+composed at the bottom of the sea, we
+may now, in order to form a proper idea of
+these operations, suppose the whole of this seaborn
+land to be again dispersed along the bottom
+of the ocean, the surface of which would
+rise proportionally over the globe. We would
+thus have a spheroid of water, with granite
+rocks and islands scattered here and there.
+But this would not be the world which we
+inhabit; therefore, the question now is, how
+such continents, as we actually have upon the
+globe, could be erected above the level of the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that no motion of the
+sea, caused by this earth revolving in the solar
+system, could bring about that end; for
+let us suppose the axis of the earth to be
+changed from the present poles, and placed in
+the equinoctial line, the consequence of this
+might, indeed, be the formation of a continent
+of land about each new pole, from
+whence the sea would run towards the new
+equator; but all the rest of the globe would
+remain an ocean. Some new points might
+be discovered, and others, which before appeared
+above the surface of the sea, would be
+sunk by the rising of the water; but, on the
+whole, land could only be gained substantially
+at the poles. Such a supposition, as this, if
+applied to the present state of things, would
+be destitute of every support, as being incapable
+of explaining what appears.</p>
+
+<p>But even allowing that, by the changed axis
+of the earth, or any other operation of the
+globe, as a planetary body revolving in the
+solar system, great continents of land could
+have been erected from the place of their formation,
+the bottom of the sea, and placed in
+a higher elevation, compared with the surface
+of that water, yet such a continent as this
+could not have continued stationary for many
+thousand years; nor could a continent of this
+kind have presented to us, every where within
+its body, masses of consolidated marble,
+and other mineral substances, in a state as different
+as possible from that in which they
+were, when originally collected together in
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, besides an operation, by
+which the earth at the bottom of the sea
+should be converted into an elevated land, or
+placed high above the level of the ocean, there
+is required, in the operations of the globe, a
+consolidating power, by which the loose materials
+that had subsided from water, should
+be formed into masses of the most perfect solidity,
+having neither water nor vacuity between
+their various constituent parts, nor in
+the pores of those constituent parts themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an operation of the globe, whether
+chemical or mechanical, which is necessarily
+connected with the formation of our present
+continents: Therefore, had we a proper understanding
+of this secret operation, we might
+thereby be enabled to form an opinion, with
+regard to the nature of that unknown power,
+by which the continents have been placed
+above the surface of that water wherein they
+had their birth.</p>
+
+<p>If this consolidating operation be performed
+at the bottom of the ocean, or under great
+depths of the earth, of which our continents
+are composed, we cannot be witnesses to this
+mineral process, or acquire the knowledge of
+natural causes, by immediately observing the
+changes which they produce; but though we
+have not this immediate observation of those
+changes of bodies, we have, in science, the
+means of reasoning from distant events; consequently,
+of discovering, in the general
+powers of nature, causes for those events of
+which we see the effects.</p>
+
+<p>That the consolidating operation, in general,
+lies out of the reach of our immediate observation,
+will appear from the following truth:
+All the consolidated masses, of which we now
+inquire into the cause, are, upon the surface
+of the earth, in a state of general decay, although
+the various natures of those bodies admit
+of that dissolution in very different degrees<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>From every view of the subject, therefore,
+we are directed to look into those consolidated
+masses themselves, in order to find principles
+from whence to judge of those operations by
+which they had attained their hardness or
+consolidated state.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that nothing but the
+most general acquaintance with the laws of
+acting substances, and with those of bodies
+changing by the powers of nature, can enable
+us to set about this undertaking with any reasonable
+prospect of success; and here the science
+of Chemistry must be brought particularly
+to our aid; for this science, having for
+its object the changes produced upon the sensible
+qualities, as they are called, of bodies,
+by its means we may be enabled to judge of
+that which is possible according to the laws of
+nature, and of that which, in like manner, we
+must consider as impossible.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag4"> (return) </a> Stalactical and certain ferruginous concretions may seem
+to form an exception to the generality of this proposition.
+But an objection of this kind could only arise from a partial
+view of things; for the concretion here is only temporary;
+it is in consequence of a solution, and it is to be followed
+by a dissolution, which will be treated of in its proper place.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Whatever conclusions, therefore, by means
+of this science, shall be attained, in just reasoning
+from natural appearances, this must be
+held as evidence, where more immediate proof
+cannot be obtained; and, in a physical subject,
+where things actual are concerned, and
+not the imaginations of the human mind, this
+proof will be considered as amounting to a
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<h3>SECTION II.</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Investigation of the Natural Operations
+employed in consolidating the Strata of the
+Globe.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>We are now about to investigate those mineral
+operations of the globe by which the qualities
+of hardness and solidity, consequently
+of strength and durability, are procured to
+great bodies of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>That those qualities are not original to such
+bodies, but actually superinduced in the natural
+operations of the earth, will appear from
+the examination of some of the hardest and
+most solid of those mineral bodies. In such
+masses, (for example of flint and agate,) we
+find included shells and coralline bodies. Consequently,
+there must be a natural operation
+in the globe for consolidating and hardening
+its soft and loose materials. It is concerning
+the nature of this consolidating operation that
+we are now to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>There are just two ways in which porous
+or spongy bodies can be consolidated, and by
+which substances may be formed into masses
+of a natural shape and regular structure; the
+one of these is simple <i>congelation</i> from a fluid
+state, by means of cold; the other is <i>accretion</i>;
+and this includes a separatory operation, as
+well as that by which the solid body is to be
+produced. But in whichever of these ways
+solidity shall be procured, it must be brought
+about by first inducing fluidity, either immediately
+by the action of heat, or mediately
+with the assistance of a solvent, that is, by the
+operation of solution. Therefore, fire and
+water may be considered as the general agents
+in this operation, which we would explore.</p>
+
+<p>Heat has been already mentioned as a general
+power, and as acting in all the different
+parts of the globe; I would now wish more
+particularly to call the attention of the reader
+to subterraneous fire, or heat, as a powerful
+agent in the mineral regions, and as a cause
+necessarily belonging to the internal constitution
+of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is not our purpose at present to inquire
+into the particular nature of this power of
+subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
+and analogy of the internal fire with
+that which is so necessary to our life, and
+which acts so great a part upon the surface of
+the earth, this being reserved for the last part.
+Our intention in here mentioning it, is only
+to dispose the mind to look for active powers
+or efficient causes, in that part of the earth
+which has been commonly considered as passive
+and inert, but which will be found extremely
+active, and the source of mighty revolutions
+in the fate of land.</p>
+
+<p>There may, indeed, be some difficulty in
+conceiving all the modifications of this mineral
+power; but as, on the one hand, we are
+not arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose
+of explaining events, or certain appearances
+which are not understood; so, on the
+other, we must not refuse to admit the action
+of a known power, when this is properly
+suggested in the appearances of things; and,
+though we may not understand all the modifications,
+or the whole capacity and regulation
+of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect
+the appropriating to it, as a cause, those
+effects which are natural to it, and which, so
+far as we know, cannot belong to any other.
+On all occasions, we are to judge from what
+we know; and, we are only to avoid concluding
+from our suppositions, in cases where
+evidence or real information is necessarily required.
+The subject now considered, subterraneous
+fire, will afford an example of that
+truth; and, a general view of this great natural
+power will here find a proper place, before
+the application of it for the explanation of
+natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>No event is more the object of our notice,
+or more interesting as a subject for our study,
+than is the burning of a fire: But, the more
+that philosophers have studied this subject, the
+more they seem to differ as to the manner in
+which that conspicuous event is to be explained.
+Therefore, being so ignorant with
+regard to that fire of which we see the origin
+as well as the more immediate effects, how
+cautious should we be in judging the nature
+of subterraneous fire from the burning of bodies,
+a subject which we so little understand.</p>
+
+<p>But, though the cause of fire in general, or
+the operations of that power in its extreme
+degrees, be for us a subject involved in much
+obscurity, this is not the case with regard to
+the more common effects of heat; and, tho'
+the actual existence of subterraneous fire, as
+the cause of light and heat, might be a thing
+altogether problematical in our opinion; yet,
+as to other effects, there are some of these
+from which the action of that liquefying power
+may be certainly concluded as having taken
+place within the mineral region, although the
+cause should be in every other respect a thing
+to us unknown. In that case, where the operation
+or effect is evident, and cannot be disputed,
+to refuse to admit the power in question,
+merely because we had not seen it act,
+or because we know not every rule which it
+may observe in acting, would be only to found
+an argument upon our ignorance; it would
+be to misunderstand the nature of investigating
+physical truths, which must proceed by reasoning
+from effect to cause.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge is extremely limited with
+regard to the effects of heat in bodies, while
+acting under different conditions, and in various
+degrees. But though our knowledge in
+these respects is limited, our judgment with
+regard to the efficacy of this power of heat is
+in its nature positive, and contains not any
+thing that is doubtful or uncertain. All mankind,
+who have the opportunity, know that
+the hard substance of ice is by heat converted
+into water, wherein no hardness remains;
+and the profound philosophy of Dr Black, in
+relation to the subject of <i>latent heat</i>, as that of
+Sir Isaac Newton, in relation to the weight of
+bodies, is not necessary to convince the world
+that in the one case ice will melt, and in the
+other, that heavy bodies will move when unsupported.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in the abstract doctrine of <i>latent
+heat</i>, the ingenuity of man has discovered
+a certain measure for the quantity of those
+commutable effects which are perceived; and
+though this be a progress of science far above
+the apprehension of the vulgar, yet still, that
+solid bodies are changed into fluids, by the
+power of heat, is the same unalterable judgment,
+which the savage forms as well as the
+philosopher. Here, therefore, are evident effects,
+which mankind in general attribute to
+the power of heat; and it is from those
+known effects that we are to investigate subterraneous
+fire, or to generalise the power of
+heat, as acting in the interior parts, as well as
+on the surface of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>If, indeed, there were any other cause for
+fluidity besides the operation of fire or the
+power of heat, in that case the most evident
+proof, with regard to the flowing, or former
+fluidity, of mineral bodies, would draw to no
+conclusion in proving the existence of mineral
+fire; but when we have not the smallest
+reason for conjecturing any other cause, or
+the least doubt with regard to that which, in
+the doctrine of latent heat, has been properly
+investigated, the proofs which we shall bring,
+of fusion in all the minerals of this earth, must
+be held as proofs of mineral fire, in like manner
+as the proof of subterraneous fire would
+necessarily imply mineral fusion as its natural
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have, in our physical investigation,
+several points in view. First, from the
+present state of things, to infer a former state
+of fusion among mineral bodies. Secondly,
+from that former fusion, to infer the actual
+existence of mineral fire in the system of the
+earth. And, lastly, from the acknowledged
+fact of subterraneous fire as a cause, to reason
+with regard to the effects of that power in
+mineral bodies.</p>
+
+<p>But besides the power or effect of subterraneous
+heat in bodies which are unorganised,
+and without system, in the construction of
+their different parts, we have to investigate
+the proper purpose of this great agent in the
+system of this world, which may be considered
+as a species of organised body. Here,
+therefore, final causes are to be brought into
+view, as well as those which are efficient.
+Now, in a subject involved with so much obscurity,
+as must be for us the internal regions
+of the globe, the consideration of efficient and
+final causes may contribute mutually to each
+others evidence, when separately the investigation
+of either might be thought unsatisfactory
+or insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>So far it seemed necessary to premise with
+regard to the great mineral power which we
+are to employ as an agent in the system of
+this earth; and it may be now observed, that
+it is in the proper relation of this power of heat
+and the fluidity or softness of bodies, as cause
+and effect, that we are to find a physical principle
+or argument for detecting those false
+theories of the earth that have been only imagined,
+and not properly founded on fact or
+observation. It is also by means of this principle,
+that we shall be enabled to form a true
+theory of the mineral region, in generalising
+particular effects to a common cause.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now proceed in endeavouring to decide
+this important question, viz. By what
+active principle is it, that the present state of
+things, which we observe in the strata of the
+earth, a state so very different from that in
+which those bodies had been formed originally,
+has been brought about?</p>
+
+<p>Two causes have been now proposed for
+the consolidating of loose materials which had
+been in an incoherent state; these are, on the
+one hand, fire; or, on the other, water, as
+the means of bringing about that event. We
+are, therefore, to consider well, what may be
+the consequences of consolidation by the one
+or other of those agents; and what may be
+the respective powers of those agents with respect
+to this operation.</p>
+
+<p>If we are not informed in this branch of
+science, we may gaze without instruction upon
+the most convincing proofs of what we
+want to attain. If our knowledge is imperfect,
+we may form erroneous principles, and
+deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to
+those works of nature, which are wisely calculated
+for our instruction.</p>
+
+<p>The strata, formed at the bottom of the sea,
+are to be considered as having been consolidated,
+either by aqueous solution and crystallization,
+or by the effect of heat and fusion.
+If it is in the first of these two ways that the
+solid strata of the globe have attained to their
+present state, there will be a certain uniformity
+observable in the effects; and there will be
+general laws, by which this operation must
+have been conducted. Therefore, knowing
+those general laws, and making just observations
+with regard to the natural appearances
+of those consolidated masses, a philosopher, in
+his closet, should be able to determine, what
+may, and what may not have been transacted
+in the bowels of the earth, or below the bottom
+of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now endeavour to ascertain what
+may have been the power of water, acting
+under fixed circumstances, operating upon
+known substances, and conducting to a certain
+end.</p>
+
+<p>The action of water upon all different substances
+is an operation with which we are
+familiar.  We have it in our power to apply
+water in different degrees of heat for the solution
+of bodies, and under various degrees of
+compression; consequently, there is no reason
+to conclude any thing mysterious in the operations
+of the globe, which are to be performed
+by means of water, unless an immense
+compressing power should alter the nature of
+those operations. But compression alters the
+relation of evaporation only with regard to
+heat, or it changes the degree of heat which
+water may be made to sustain; consequently,
+we  are to look for no occult quality in
+water acting upon bodies at the bottom of
+the deepest ocean, more than what can be
+observed in experiments which we have it in
+our power to try.</p>
+
+<p>With regard again to the effect of time:
+Though the continuance of time may do
+much in those operations which are extremely
+slow, where no change, to our observation,
+had appeared to take place, yet, where it is
+not in the nature of things to produce the
+change in question, the unlimited course of
+time would be no more effectual, than the
+moment by which we measure events in our
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>Water being the general medium in which
+bodies collected at the bottom of the sea are
+always contained, if those masses of collected
+matter are to be consolidated by solution, it
+must be by the dissolution of those bodies in
+that water as a menstruum, and by the concretion
+or crystallization of this dissolved matter,
+that the spaces, first occupied by water in
+those masses, are afterwards to be filled with
+a hard and solid substance; but without some
+other power, by which the water contained
+in those cavities and endless labyrinths of the
+strata, should be separated in proportion as it
+had performed its task, it is inconceivable
+how those masses, however changed from the
+state of their first subsidence, should be absolutely
+consolidated, without any visible or
+fluid water in their composition.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this difficulty of having the water
+separated from the porous masses which are
+to be consolidated, there is another with
+which, upon this supposition, we have to
+struggle. This is, From whence should come
+the matter with which the numberless cavities
+in those masses are to be filled?</p>
+
+<p>The water in the cavities and interstices of
+those bodies composing strata, must be in a
+stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
+upon the surfaces of those cavities which are
+to be filled up. But with what are they to
+be filled? Not with water; they are full of
+that already: Not with the substance of the
+bodies which contain that water; this would
+be only to make one cavity in order to fill up
+another. If, therefore, the cavities of the
+strata are to be filled with solid matter, by
+means of water, there must be made to pass
+through those porous masses, water impregnated
+with some other substances in a dissolved
+state; and the aqueous menstruum must
+be made to separate from the dissolved substance,
+and to deposit the same in those cavities
+through which the solution moves.</p>
+
+<p>By such a supposition as this, we might
+perhaps explain a partial consolidation of
+those strata; but this is a supposition, of
+which the case under consideration does not
+admit; for in the present case, which is that
+of materials accumulated at the bottom of the
+ocean, there is not proper means for separating
+the dissolved matter from the water included
+in those enormous masses; nor are
+there any means by which a circulation in
+those masses may be formed. In this case,
+therefore, where the means are not naturally
+in the supposition, a philosopher, who is to
+explain the phenomenon by the natural operation
+of water in this situation, must not have
+recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
+to assist his supposition which cannot be
+admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea, in the
+manner now considered, operations are required
+unnatural to this place; consequently,
+not to be supposed, in order to support a hypothesis.</p>
+
+<p>But now, instead of inquiring how far water
+may be supposed instrumental in the consolidation
+of strata which were originally of
+a loose texture, we are to consider how far
+there may be appearances in those consolidated
+bodies, by which it might be concluded,
+whether or not the present state of their consolidation
+has been actually brought about by
+means of that agent.</p>
+
+<p>If water had been the menstruum by which
+the consolidating matter was introduced into
+the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies
+could only be found consolidated with such
+substances as water is capable of dissolving;
+and these substances would be found only in
+such a state as the simple separation of the
+solvent water might produce.</p>
+
+<p>In this case, the consolidation of strata
+would be extremely limited; for we cannot
+allow more power to water than we find it
+has in nature; nor are we to imagine to ourselves
+unlimited powers in bodies, on purpose
+to explain those appearances by which we
+should be made to know the powers of nature.
+Let us, therefore, attend, with every
+possible circumspection, to the appearances of
+those bodies, by means of which we are to
+investigate the principles of mineralogy, and
+know the laws of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The question now before us concerns the
+consolidating substances of strata. Are these
+such as will correspond to the dissolving
+power of water, and to the state in which
+these substances might be left by the separation
+of their menstruum? No; far, far from
+this supposition is the conclusion that necessarily
+follows from natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>We have strata consolidated by calcareous
+spar, a thing perfectly distinguishable from the
+stalactical concretion of calcareous earth, in
+consequence of aqueous solution. We have
+strata made solid by the formation of fluor,
+a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
+water. We have strata consolidated with
+sulphureous and bituminous substances, which
+do not correspond to the solution of water.
+We have strata consolidated with siliceous
+matter, in a state different from that under
+which it has been observed, on certain occasions,
+to be deposited by water. We have
+strata consolidated by feld-spar, a substance
+insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated
+by almost all the various metallic substances,
+with their almost endless mixtures
+and sulphureous compositions; that is to say,
+we find, perhaps, every different substance
+introduced into the interstices of strata which
+had been formed by subsidence at the bottom
+of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>If it is by means of water that those interstices
+have been filled with those materials,
+water must be, like fire, an universal solvent,
+or cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely
+our opinion of water in relation to its
+chemical character. But there is no necessity
+thus to violate our chemical principles, in order
+to explain certain natural appearances;
+more especially if those appearances may be
+explained in another manner, consistently
+with the known laws of nature.</p>
+
+<p>If, again, it is by means of heat and fusion
+that the loose and porous structure of strata
+shall be supposed to have been consolidated,
+then every difficulty which had occurred in
+reasoning upon the power or agency of water
+is at once removed. The loose and discontinuous
+body of a stratum may be closed by
+means of softness and compression; the porous
+structure of the materials may be consolidated,
+in a similar manner, by the fusion of
+their substance; and foreign matter may be
+introduced into the open structure of strata,
+in form of steam or exhalation, as well as in
+the fluid state of fusion; consequently, heat
+is an agent competent for the consolidation of
+strata, which water alone is not. If, therefore,
+such an agent could be found acting in
+the natural place of strata, we must pronounce
+it proper to bring about that end.</p>
+
+<p>The examination of nature gives countenance
+to this supposition, so far as strata are
+found consolidated by every species of substance,
+and almost every possible mixture of
+those different substances; consequently, however
+difficult it may appear to have this application
+of heat, for the purpose of consolidating
+strata formed at the bottom of the
+ocean, we cannot, from natural appearances,
+suppose any other cause, as having actually
+produced the effects which are now examined.</p>
+
+<p>This question, with regard to the means of
+consolidating the strata of the globe, is, to natural
+history, of the greatest importance; and
+it is essential in the theory now proposed to
+be given of the mineral system. It would,
+therefore, require to be discussed with some
+degree of precision in examining the particulars;
+but of these, there is so great a field,
+and the subject is so complicated in its nature,
+that volumes might be written upon particular
+branches only, without exhausting what
+might be laid upon the subject; because the
+evidence, though strong in many particulars,
+is chiefly to be enforced by a multitude of
+facts, conspiring, in a diversity of ways, to
+point out one truth, and by the impossibility
+of reconciling all these facts, except by means
+of one supposition.</p>
+
+<p>But, as it is necessary to give some proof
+of that which is to be a principle in our reasoning
+afterwards, I shall now endeavour to
+generalise the subject as much as possible, in
+order to answer that end, and, at the same
+time, to point out the particular method of
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>There are to be found, among the various
+strata of the globe, bodies formed of two different
+kinds of substances, <i>siliceous</i> bodies, and
+those which may be termed <i>sulphureous</i> or
+<i>phlogistic</i>. With one or other, or both of
+those we substances, every different consolidated
+stratum of the globe will be found so
+intimately mixed, or closely connected, that
+it must be concluded, by whatever cause those
+bodies of siliceous and sulphureous matter had
+been changed from a fluid to a concreted
+state, the strata must have been similarly affected
+by the same cause.</p>
+
+<p>These two species of bodies, therefore, the
+siliceous and the sulphureous, may now be
+examined, in relation to the causes of their
+concretion, with a view to determine, what
+has been the general concreting or consolidating
+power, which has operated universally
+in the globe; and particularly to show, it has
+not been by means of any fluid solution, that
+strata in general have been consolidated, or
+that those particular substances have been
+crystallized and concreted.</p>
+
+<p>Siliceous matter, physically speaking, is not
+soluble in water; that is to say, in no manner
+of way have we been enabled to learn, that
+water has the power of dissolving this matter.</p>
+
+<p>Many other substances, which are so little
+soluble in water, that their solubility could
+not be otherwise detected of themselves, are
+made to appear soluble by means of siliceous
+matter; such is feld-spar, one of the component
+parts of rock-granite.</p>
+
+<p>Feld-spar is a compound of siliceous, argillaceous,
+and calcareous earth, intimately united
+together. This compound siliceous body
+being, for ages, exposed to the weather, the
+calcareous part of it is dissolved, and the siliceous
+part is  left in form of a soft white earth.
+But whether this dissolution is performed by
+pure water, or by means also of an acid, may
+perhaps be questioned. This, however, is
+certain, that we must consider siliceous substances
+as insoluble in water.</p>
+
+<p>The water of Glezer in Iceland undoubtedly
+contains this substance in solution; but
+there is no reason to believe, that it is here
+dissolved by any other than the natural means;
+that is, an alkaline substance, by which siliceous
+bodies may be rendered soluble in water<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag5"> (return) </a> This conjecture, which I had thus formed, has been
+fully confirmed by the accurate analysis of those waters.
+See vol. 3d. of the Phil. Trans. of Edin.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It may be, therefore, asserted, that no siliceous
+body having the hardness of flint, nor
+any crystallization of that substance, has ever
+been formed, except by fusion. If, by any
+art, this substance shall be dissolved in simple
+water, or made to crystallise from any solution,
+in that case, the assertion which has been here
+made may be denied. But where there is not
+the vestige of any proof, to authorise the supposition
+of flinty matter being dissolved by water,
+or crystallized from that solution, such an
+hypothesis cannot be admitted, in opposition
+to general and evident appearances<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag6"> (return) </a>  The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious
+theory for the solution of siliceous substances in water (Journal de Physique, Mai 1792.).
+This theory has not been taken up merely at a
+venture, but is founded upon very accurate and interesting
+chemical experiments. Hitherto, however, the nature
+of the siliceous substance is not sufficiently known, to enable
+us to found, upon chemical principles, the mineral
+operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be
+dissolved, or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline
+salt, and that it may be also volatilised by means of the
+fluor acid, is almost all that we know upon the subject.
+But this is saying no more in relation to the mineral operations
+employed upon the siliceous substance, than it
+would be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this
+metal is dissolved by aqua regia.
+
+<p>It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may
+have its menstruum, by means of which it may be retained
+with water in a dissolved state; but from this it does
+not follow, that it is by the means of aqueous solutions of
+all those mineral bodies, that nature operates the consolidation
+of bodies, which we find actually accomplished with
+all those different substances. It is the business of this
+work to show, that from all appearances in the mineral
+regions, as well as those upon the surface in the atmosphere,
+the supposition, of that manner of consolidating
+bodies by solution, is inconsistent both with natural appearances,
+and also with chemical principles.</p>
+
+<p>Our ingenious author, who has, with, great diligence as
+well as an enlightened mind, observed the operations of
+nature upon the surface of the earth, here says, "ce n'est
+pas sans étonnement que je remarque depuis long-temps
+que jamais aucune eau qui coule à la surface de la terre
+n'attaque le quartz, aucune n'en tient en dissolution,
+pendant que celles qui circulent intérieurement le corrodent
+aussi souvent qu'elles le déposent."&mdash;How dangerous
+it is in science for ingenious men to allow themselves
+to form conclusions, which the principles on which
+they reason do not strictly warrant, we have a remarkable
+example in the present case.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Dolomieu sees no corrosion of quartz, or solution
+of that substance, upon the surface of the earth;
+from this, then, he concludes, that siliceous substance is
+not dissolved in that situation of things. On the other
+hand, he finds siliceous bodies variously concreted among
+the solid strata of the earth; and, from this he concludes,
+that siliceous substance has been both dissolved by water
+in the strata, and also there again concreted and crystallised
+in having been separated from the water. This is
+certainly what we all perceive; but we do not all allow
+ourselves to draw such inconclusive inferences from our
+premises. Notwithstanding the greatest accuracy of our
+observations, quartz may be dissolvable in a minute degree
+by water, upon the surface of this earth; and, all the appearances
+of siliceous bodies, in the mineral regions, where
+we cannot immediately see the operation, may be better
+explained by fusion than by aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>But, from his chemical experiments, our author has
+conjectured that there may be a phlogistic substance, by
+means of which the siliceous earth is dissolved when in
+darkness; and that this solvent loses its power, if exposed
+to the light of day. I have one observation to oppose
+to this ingenious theory. Under deep black mosses,
+through which no ray of light can penetrate, every condition
+for dissolving siliceous bodies should be found, according
+to the supposition in question; neither will sufficient
+time be found wanting, in those deep mosses, upon
+the summits of our mountains; yet, examine the matter
+of fact? not the smallest solution is to be perceived in the
+siliceous parts of the stones which are found under those
+mosses, but every particle of iron is dissolved, so that the
+surface of every stone is white, and nothing but the siliceous
+earth of the feld-spar, and perhaps the argillaceous,
+is left.</p>
+
+<p>Here we have in this author an instructive example:
+No person, in my opinion, has made such enlightened or
+scientific experiments, or such judicious observations with
+regard to the nature of siliceous substance, as a compound
+thing; no person reasons more distinctly in general, or
+sees more clearly the importance of his principles; yet,
+with regard to mineral concretions, how often has he been
+drawn thus inadvertently into improper generalization!
+I appeal to the analogy which, in this treatise, he has
+formed, between the stalactical concretions upon the surface
+of the earth, and the mineral concretions of siliceous
+substance. As an example of the great lights, and penetrating
+genius, of this assiduous studier of nature, I refer
+to the judicious observations which he has made upon the
+subject of aluminous earth, in this dissertation.</p>
+
+<p>I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking,
+in the origin of this globe of our earth, a general
+principle of fluidity or solution in water, like the alkahest
+of the alchymists, by means of which the different substances
+in the chemical constitution of precious stones
+might have been united as well as crystallised. One would
+have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the
+operations of subterraneous fire, would have perceived,
+that there is but one general principle of fluidity or dissolution,
+and that this is heat.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous
+bodies, which is indirect, arising from the in
+dissolubility of that substance in water, there
+is another, which is more direct, being founded
+upon appearances which are plainly inconsistent
+with any other supposition, except that
+of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof
+I mean is, the penetration of many bodies with
+a flinty substance, which, according to every
+collateral circumstance, must have been performed
+by the flinty matter in a simply fluid
+state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.</p>
+
+<p>These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in
+strata both of chalk and sand. It requires but
+inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
+that flinty matter could be conveyed into the
+middle of those strata, by a menstruum in
+which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in
+that place, without the smallest trace of deposition
+in the surrounding parts.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this argument taken from what
+does not appear, the actual form in which those
+flinty masses are found, demonstrates, <i>first</i>,
+That they have been introduced among those
+strata in a fluid state, by injection from some
+other place. 2<i>dly</i>, That they have been dispersed
+in a variety of ways among those strata,
+then deeply immersed at the bottom of the
+sea; and, <i>lastly</i>, That they have been there congealed
+from the state of fusion, and have remained
+in that situation, while those strata have
+been removed from the bottom of the ocean to
+the surface of the present land.</p>
+
+<p>To describe those particular appearances
+would draw this paper beyond the bounds of
+an essay. We must, therefore, refer those who
+would inquire more minutely into the subject,
+to examine the chalk-countries of France and
+England, in which the flint is found variously
+formed; the land-hills interspersed among those
+chalk-countries, which have been also injected
+by melted flint; and the pudding-stone of England,
+which I have not seen in its natural situation.
+More particularly, I would recommend
+an examination of the insulated masses of stone,
+found in the sand-hills by the city of Brussels;
+a stone which is formed by an injection of
+flint among sand, similar to that which, in a
+body of gravel, had formed the pudding-stone
+of England<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag7"> (return) </a>  Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
+would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.</blockquote>
+
+<p>All these examples would require to be examined
+upon the spot, as a great part of the
+proof for the fusion of the flinty substance,
+arises, in my opinion, from the form in which
+those bodies are found, and the state of the
+surrounding parts. But there are specimens
+brought from many different places, which
+contain, in themselves, the most evident marks
+of this injection of the flinty substance in a
+fluid state. These are pieces of fossil wood,
+penetrated with a siliceous substance, which are
+brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh
+in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from these specimens, that there
+has sometimes been a prior penetration of the
+body of wood, either with irony matter, or
+calcareous substance. Sometimes, again, which
+is the case with that of Lochneagh, there does
+not seem to have been any penetration of those
+two substances. The injected flint appears to
+have penetrated the body of this wood, immersed
+at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
+compression of water. This appears
+from the wood being penetrated partially, some
+parts not being penetrated at all.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in the limits between those two parts,
+we have the most convincing proofs, that it
+had been flint in a simple fluid state which
+had penetrated the wood, and not in a state of
+solution.</p>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, Because, however little of the wood
+is left unpenetrated, the division is always distinct
+between the injected part and that which
+is not penetrated by the fluid flint. In this
+case, the flinty matter has proceeded a certain
+length, which is marked, and no farther; and,
+beyond this boundary, there is no partial impregnation,
+nor a gradation of the flintifying
+operation, as must have been the case if siliceous
+matter had been deposited from a solution.
+2<i>dly</i>, The termination of the flinty impregnation
+has assumed such a form, precisely, as
+would naturally happen from a fluid flint penetrating
+that body.</p>
+
+<p>In other specimens of this mineralising operation,
+fossil wood, penetrated, more or less,
+with ferruginous and calcareous substances,
+has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty
+substance. In this case, with whatever different
+substances the woody body shall be supposed
+to have been penetrated in a state of solution
+by water, the regular structure of the
+plant would still have remained, with its vacuities,
+variously filled with the petrifying substances,
+separated from the aqueous menstruum,
+and deposited in the vascular structure of the
+wood. There cannot be a doubt with regard
+to the truth of this proposition; for, as it is, we
+frequently find parts of the consolidated wood,
+with the vascular structure remaining perfectly
+in its natural shape and situation; but if it
+had been by aqueous solution that the wood
+had been penetrated and consolidated, all the
+parts of that body would be found in the same
+natural shape and situation.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, is far from being the case;
+for while, in some parts, the vascular structure
+is preserved entire, it is also evident, that, in
+general, the woody structure is variously broken
+and dissolved by the fusion and crystallization
+of the flint. There are so many and
+such various convincing examples of this, that,
+to attempt to describe them, would be to exceed
+the bounds prescribed for this dissertation;
+but such specimens are in my possession, ready
+for the inspection of any person who may desire
+to study the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We may now proceed to consider sulphureous
+substances, with regard to their solubility
+in water, and to the part which these bodies
+have acted in consolidating the strata of the
+globe.</p>
+
+<p>The sulphureous substances here meant to
+be considered, are substances not soluble in,
+water, so far as we know, but fusible by heat,
+and inflammable or combustible by means of
+heat and vital air. These substances are of two
+kinds; the one more simple, the other more
+compound.</p>
+
+<p>The most simple kind is composed of two
+different substances, viz. phlogiston, with certain
+specific substances; from which result, on
+the one hand, sulphur, and, on the other, proper
+coal and metals. The more compound
+sort, again, is oily matter, produced by vegetables,
+and forming bituminous bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>first</i> of these is found naturally combined
+with almost all metallic substances, which
+are then said to be mineralised with sulphur.
+Now, it is well known, that this mineralising
+operation is performed by means of heat or fusion;
+and there is no person skilled in chemistry
+that will pretend to say, this may be done
+by aqueous solution. The combination of iron
+and sulphur, for example, may easily be performed
+by fusion; but, by aqueous solution,
+this particular combination is again resolved,
+and forms an acido-metallic, that is, a vitriolic
+substance, after the phlogiston (by means of
+which it is insoluble in water) has been separated
+from the composition, by the assistance
+of vital air.</p>
+
+<p>The variety of these sulphureo-metallic substances,
+in point of composition, is almost indefinite;
+but, unless they were all soluble in
+water, this could not have happened by the action
+of that solvent. If we shall allow any one
+of those bodies to have been formed by the
+fluidity of heat, they must all have been formed
+in the same manner; for there is such a
+chain of connection among those bodies in the
+mineral regions, that they must all have been
+composed, either, on the one hand, by aqueous
+solution, or, on the other, by means of heat
+and fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Here, for example, are crystallised together
+in one mass, 1<i>st, Pyrites</i>, containing sulphur,
+iron, copper; 2<i>dly, Blend</i>, a composition of
+iron, sulphur, and calamine; 3<i>dly, Galena</i>,
+consisting of lead and sulphur; 4<i>thly, Marmor
+metallicum</i>, being the terra ponderosa, saturated
+with the vitriolic acid; a substance insoluble in
+water; 5<i>thly, Fluor</i>, a saturation of calcareous
+earth, with a peculiar acid, called the <i>acid of
+spar</i>, also insoluble in water; 6<i>thly, Calcareous
+spar</i>, of different kinds, being calcareous earth
+saturated with fixed air, and something besides,
+which forms a variety in this substance; <i>lastly,
+Siliceous substance</i>, or <i>Quartz crystals</i>. All these
+bodies, each possessing its proper shape, are
+mixed in such a manner as it would be endless
+to describe, but which may be expressed in general
+by saying, that they are mutually contained
+in, and contain each other.</p>
+
+<p>Unless, therefore; every one of these different
+substances may be dissolved in water, and
+crystallised from it, it is in vain to look for the
+explanation of these appearances in the operations
+of nature, by the means of aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, heat being capable of
+rendering all these substances fluid, they may
+be, with the greatest simplicity, transported
+from one place to another; and they may be
+made to concrete altogether at the same time,
+and distinctly separate in any place. Hence,
+for the explanation of those natural appearances,
+which are so general, no further conditions
+are required, than the supposition of a sufficient
+intensity of subterraneous fire or heat, and a
+sufficient degree of compression upon those bodies,
+which are to be subjected to that violent
+heat, without calcination or change. But, so
+far as this supposition is not gratuitous, the
+appearances of nature will be thus explained.</p>
+
+<p>I shall only mention one specimen, which
+must appear most decisive of the question. It
+is, I believe, from an Hungarian mine. In this
+specimen, petro-silex, pyrites, and cinnabar, are
+so mixed together, and crystallised upon each
+other, that it is impossible to conceive any one
+of those bodies to have had its fluidity and concretion
+from a cause which had not affected
+the other two. Now, let those who would
+deny the fusion of this siliceous body explain
+how water could dissolve these three different
+bodies, and deposit them in their present shape.
+If, on the contrary, they have not the least
+shadow of reason for such a gratuitous supposition,
+the present argument must be admitted
+in its full force.</p>
+
+<p>Sulphur and metals are commonly found
+combined in the mineral regions. But this
+rule is not universal; for they are also frequently
+in a separate state. There is not, perhaps, a
+metal, among the great number which are now
+discovered, that may not be found native, as
+they are called, or in their metallic state.</p>
+
+<p>Metallic substances are also thus found in
+some proportion to the disposition of the particular
+metals, to resist the mineralising operations,
+and to their facility of being metallised
+by fire and fusion. Gold, which refuses
+to be mineralised with sulphur, is found generally
+in its native state. Iron, again, which
+is so easily mineralised and scorified, is seldom
+found in its malleable state. The other metals
+are all found more or less mineralised,
+though some of them but rarely in the native
+state.</p>
+
+<p>Besides being found with circumstances thus
+corresponding to the natural facility, or to the
+impediments attending the metallization of
+those different calces, the native metals are
+also found in such a shape, and with such
+marks, as can only agree with the fusion of
+those bodies; that is to say, those appearances
+are perfectly irreconcilable with any manner
+of solution and precipitation.</p>
+
+<p>For the truth of this assertion, among a
+thousand other examples, I appeal to that famous
+mass of native iron discovered by Mr
+Pallas in Siberia. This mass being so well
+known to all the mineralists of Europe, any
+comment upon its shape and structure will be
+unnecessary<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag8"> (return) </a> Since this Dissertation was written, M. de la Peyrouse
+has discovered a native manganese. The circumstances
+of this mineral are so well adapted for illustrating
+the present doctrine, and so well related by M. de la Peyrouse,
+that I should be wanting to the interest of mineral
+knowledge, were I not to give here that part of his Memoir.
+
+<p>"Lorsque je fis insérer dans le journal de physique de
+l'année 1780, au mois de Janvier, une Dissertation contenant
+la classification des mines de manganèse, je ne connoissois
+point, à cette époque, la mine de manganèse native.
+Elle a la couleur de son régule: Elle salit les doigts
+de la même teinte. Son tissu parait aussi lamelleux, et les
+lames semblent affecter une sorte de divergence. Elle a
+ainsi que lui, l'éclat métallique; comme lui elle se laisse
+aplatir sous le marteau, et s'exfolie si l'on redouble les
+coups; mais une circonstance qui est trop frappante
+pour que je l'omette, c'est la figure de la manganèse
+native, si prodigieusement conforme à celle du régule,
+qu'on s'y laisseroit tromper, si la mine n'étoit encore
+dans sa gangue: figure très-essentielle à observer ici,
+parce qu'elle est due à la nature même de la manganèse.
+En effet, pour réduire toutes les mines en général, il
+faut employer divers flux appropriés. Pour la réduction
+de la manganèse, bien loin d'user de ce moyen,
+il faut, au contraire, éloigner tout flux, produire la fusion,
+par la seule violence et la promptitude du feu.
+Et telle est la propension naturelle et prodigieuse de la
+manganèse à la vitrification, qu'on n'a pu parvenir encore
+à réduire son régule en un seul culot; on trouve
+dans le creuset plusieurs petits boutons, qui forment
+autant de culots séparés. Dans la mine de manganèse
+native, elle n'est point en une seule masse; elle est disposée
+également en plusieurs culots séparés, et un peu
+aplatis, comme ceux que l'art produit; beaucoup plus
+gros, à la vérité, parce que les agens de la nature
+doivent avoir une autre énergie, que ceux de nos laboratoires;
+et cette ressemblance si exacte, semble devoir
+vous faire penser que la mine native à été produite par
+le feu, tout comme son régule. La présence de la
+chaux argentée de la manganèse, me permettroit de
+croire que la nature n'a fait que réduire cette chaux.
+Du reste, cette mine native est très-pure, et ne contient
+aucune partie attirable à l'aimant. Cette mine, unique
+jusqu'à ce moment, vient, tout comme les autres manganèse
+que j'ai décrites, des mines de fer de <i>Sem</i>, dans
+la vallée de <i>Viedersos</i>, en Comté de Foix."&mdash;<i>Journal de
+Physique, Janvier 1786</i>.</blockquote>
+
+<p>We come now to the <i>second</i> species of inflammable
+bodies called oily or bituminous.
+These substances are also found variously mixed
+with mineral bodies, as well as forming
+strata of themselves; they are, therefore, a
+proper subject for a particular examination.</p>
+
+<p>In the process of vegetation, there are produced
+oily and resinous substances; and, from
+the collection of these substances at the bottom
+of the ocean, there are formed strata, which
+have afterwards undergone various degrees of
+beat, and have been variously changed, in consequence
+of the effects of that heat, according
+as the distillation of the more volatile parts of
+those bodies has been suffered to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand this, it must be considered,
+that, while immersed in water, and
+under insuperable compression, the vegetable,
+oily, and resinous substances, would appear to
+be unalterable by heat; and it is only in proportion
+as certain chemical separations take
+place, that these inflammable bodies are changed
+in their substance by the application of
+heat. Now, the most general change of this
+kind is in consequence of evaporation, or the
+distillation of their more volatile parts, by
+which oily substances become bituminous, and
+bituminous substances become coaly.</p>
+
+<p>There is here a gradation which may be
+best understood, by comparing the extremes.</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand, we know by experiment,
+that oily and bituminous substances can be
+melted and partly changed into vapour by
+heat, and that they become harder and denser,
+in  proportion as the more volatile parts have
+evaporated from them. On the other hand,
+coaly substances are destitute of fusibility and
+volatility, in proportion as they have been
+exposed to greater degrees of heat, and to
+other circumstances favourable to the dissipation
+of their more volatile and fluid parts.</p>
+
+<p>If, therefore, in mineral bodies, we find the
+two extreme states of this combustible substance,
+and also the intermediate states, we
+must either conclude, that this particular operation
+of heat has been thus actually employed in
+nature, or we must explain those appearances
+by some other means, in as satisfactory a manner,
+and so as shall be consistent with other
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>In this case, it will avail nothing to have
+recourse to the false analogy of water dissolving
+and crystallising salts, which has been so
+much employed for the explanation of other
+mineral appearances. The operation here in
+question is of a different nature, and necessarily
+requires both the powers of heat and proper
+conditions for evaporation.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, in order to decide the point,
+with regard to what is the power in nature
+by which mineral bodies have become solid,
+we have but to find bituminous substance in
+the most complete state of coal, intimately connected
+with some other substance, which is
+more generally found consolidating the strata,
+and assisting in the concretion of mineral substances.
+But I have in my possession the most
+undoubted proof of this kind. It is a mineral
+vein, or cavity, in which are blended together
+coal of the most fixed kind, quartz and marmor
+metallicum. Nor is this all; for the specimen
+now referred to is contained in a rock
+of this kind, which every naturalist now-a-days
+will allow to have congealed from a fluid
+state of fusion. I have also similar specimens
+from the same place, in which the coal is not
+of that fixed and infusible kind which burns
+without flame or smoke, but is bituminous or
+inflammable coal.</p>
+
+<p>We have hitherto been resting the argument
+upon a single point, for the sake of simplicity
+or clearness, not for want of those circumstances
+which shall be found to corroborate
+the theory. The strata of fossil coal are found
+in almost every intermediate state, as well as
+in those of bitumen and charcoal. Of the one
+kind is that fossil coal which melts or becomes
+fluid upon receiving heat; of the other, is that
+species of coal, found both in Wales and Scotland,
+which is perfectly infusible in the fire,
+and burns like coals, without flame or smoke.
+The one species abounds in oily matter, the
+other has been distilled by heat, until it has
+become a <i>caput mortuum</i>, or perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>The more volatile parts of these bituminous
+bodies are found in their separate state on
+some occasions. There is a stratum of limestone
+in Fifeshire, near Raith, which, though
+but slightly tinged with a black colour, contains
+bituminous matter, like pitch, in many
+cavities, which are lined with calcareous spar
+crystallised. I have a specimen of such a
+cavity, in which the bitumen is in sphericles,
+or rounded drops, immersed in the calcareous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is to be observed, that, if the cavity
+in the solid limestone or marble, which is lined
+with calcareous crystals containing pyrites,
+had been thus encrusted by means of the filtration
+of water, this water must have dissolved
+calcareous spar, pyrites, and bitumen. But
+these natural appearances would not even be
+explained by this dissolution and supposed filtration
+of those substances. There is also required,
+<i>first</i>, A cause for the separation of
+those different substances from the aqueous
+menstruum in which they had been dissolved;
+<i>2dly</i>, An explanation of the way in which a
+dissolved bitumen should be formed into round
+hard bodies of the most solid structure; and,
+<i>lastly</i>, Some probable means for this complicated
+operation being performed, below the
+bottom of the ocean, in the close cavity of a
+marble stratum.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the additional proof, from the facts
+relating to the bituminous substances, conspiring
+with that from the phenomena of other
+bodies, affords the strongest corroboration of
+this opinion, that the various concretions found
+in the internal parts of strata have not been
+occasioned by means of aqueous solution, but
+by the power of heat and operation of simple
+fusion, preparing those different substances to
+concrete and crystallise in cooling.</p>
+
+<p>The arguments which have been now employed
+for proving that strata have been consolidated
+by the power of heat, or by the
+means of fusion, have been drawn chiefly
+from the insoluble nature of those consolidating
+substances in relation to water, which is
+the only general menstruum that can be allowed
+for the mineral regions. But there are
+found, in the mineral kingdom, many solid
+masses of saltgem, which is a soluble substance.
+It may be now inquired, How far these masses,
+which are not infrequent in the earth, tend
+either to confirm the present theory, or, on
+the contrary, to give countenance to that
+which supposes water the chief instrument in
+consolidating strata.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of salt at the bottom of the
+sea, without the assistance of subterranean fire,
+is not a thing unsupposable, as at first sight it
+might appear. Let us but suppose a rock
+placed across the gut of Gibraltar, (a case nowise
+unnatural), and the bottom of the Mediterranean
+would be certainly filled with salt,
+because the evaporation from the surface of
+that sea exceeds the measure of its supply.</p>
+
+<p>But strata of salt, formed in this manner at
+the bottom of the sea, are as far from being
+consolidated by means of aqueous solution, as
+a bed of sand in the same situation; and we
+cannot explain the consolidation of such a
+stratum of salt by means of water, without
+supposing subterranean heat employed, to evaporate
+the brine which would successively occupy
+the interstices of the saline crystals. But
+this, it may be observed, is equally departing
+from the natural operation of water, as the
+means for consolidating the sediment of the
+ocean, as if we were to suppose the same thing
+done by heat and fusion. For the question is
+not, If subterranean heat be of sufficient intensity
+for the purpose of consolidating strata
+by the fusion of their substances; the question
+is, Whether it be by means of this agent, subterranean
+heat, or by water alone, without the
+operation of a melting heat, that those materials
+have been variously consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>The example now under consideration,
+consolidated mineral salt, will serve to throw
+some light upon the subject; for, as it is to
+be shown, that this body of salt had been consolidated
+by perfect fusion, and not by means
+of aqueous solution, the consolidation of strata
+of indissoluble substances, by the operation of
+a melting heat, will meet with all that confirmation
+which the consistency of natural appearances
+can give.</p>
+
+<p>The salt rock in Cheshire lies in strata of
+red marl. It is horizontal in its direction.
+I do not know its thickness, but it is dug
+thirty or forty feet deep. The body of
+this rock is perfectly solid, and the salt, in
+many places, pure, colourless, and transparent,
+breaking with a sparry cubical structure. But
+the greatest part is tinged by the admixture of
+the marl, and that in various degrees, from
+the slightest tinge of red, to the most perfect
+opacity. Thus, the rock appears as if it had
+been a mass of fluid salt, in which had been
+floating a quantity of marly substance, not
+uniformly mixed, but every where separating
+and subsiding from the pure saline substance.</p>
+
+<p>There is also to be observed a certain regularity
+in this separation of the tinging from
+the colourless substance, which, at a proper
+distance, gives to the perpendicular section of
+the rock a distinguishable figure in its structure.
+When looking at this appearance near
+the bottom of the rock, it, at first, presented
+me with the figure of regular stratification;
+but, upon examining the whole mass of rock,
+I found, that it was only towards the bottom
+that this stratified appearance took place; and
+that, at the top of the rock, the most beautiful
+and regular figure was to be observed; but a
+figure the most opposite to that of stratification.
+It was all composed of concentric circles;
+and these appeared to be the section of
+a mass, composed altogether of concentric
+spheres, like those beautiful systems of configuration
+which agates so frequently present
+us with in miniature. In about eight or ten
+feet from the top, the circles growing large,
+were blended together, and gradually lost their
+regular appearance, until, at a greater depth,
+they again appeared in resemblance of a stratification.</p>
+
+<p>This regular arrangement of the floating
+marly substance in the body of salt, which is
+that of the structure of a coated pebble, or that
+of concentric spheres, is altogether inexplicable
+upon any other supposition, than the
+perfect fluidity or fusion of the salt, and the
+attractions and repulsions of the contained substances.
+It is in vain to look, in the operations
+of solution and evaporation, for that
+which nothing but perfect fluidity or fusion
+can explain.</p>
+
+<p>This example of a mineral salt congealed
+from a melted state, may be confirmed from
+another which I have from Dr Black, who
+suggested it to me. It is an alkaline salt,
+found in a mineral state, and described in the
+Philosophical Transactions, <i>anno</i> 1771. But
+to understand this specimen, something must
+be premised with regard to the nature of fossil
+alkali.</p>
+
+<p>The fossil alkali crystallises from a dissolved
+state, in combining itself with a large portion
+of the water, in the manner of alum; and, in
+this case, the water is essential to the constitution
+of that transparent crystalline body; for,
+upon the evaporation of the water, the transparent
+salt loses its solidity, and becomes a
+white powder. If, instead of being gently
+dried, the crystalline salt is suddenly exposed
+to a sufficient degree of heat, that is, somewhat
+more than boiling water, it enters into
+the state of aqueous fusion, and it boils, in
+emitting the water by means of which it had
+been crystallised in the cold, and rendered
+fluid in that heated state. It is not possible to
+crystallise this alkaline salt from a dissolved
+state, without the combination of that quantity
+of water, nor to separate that water without
+destroying its crystalline state.</p>
+
+<p>But in this mineral specimen, we have a
+solid crystalline salt, with a structure which,
+upon fracture, appears to be sparry and radiated,
+something resembling that of zeolite. It
+contains no water in its crystallization, but
+melts in a sufficient heat, without any aqueous
+fusion. Therefore, this salt must have
+been in a fluid state of fusion, immediately
+before its congelation and crystallization.</p>
+
+<p>It would be endless to give examples of
+particular facts, so many are the different natural
+appearances that occur, attended with a
+variety of different circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>There is one, however, which is peculiarly
+distinct, admits of sufficiently accurate description,
+and contains circumstances from
+which conclusions may be drawn with clearness.
+This is the ironstone, which is commonly
+found among the argillaceous strata,
+attendant upon fossil coal, both in Scotland
+and in England.</p>
+
+<p>This stone is generally found among the
+bituminous schistus, or black argillaceous strata,
+either in separate masses of various shapes
+and sizes, or forming of itself strata which are
+more or less continuous in their direction
+among the schistus or argillaceous beds.</p>
+
+<p>This mineral contains, in general, from 40
+to 50 <i>per cent.</i> of iron, and it loses near one
+third of its weight in calcination. Before calcination
+it is of a grey colour, is not penetrable
+by water, and takes a polish. In this
+state, therefore, it is perfectly solid; but being
+calcined, it becomes red, porous, and tender.</p>
+
+<p>The fact to be proved with regard to these
+iron-stones is this, That they have acquired
+their solid state from fusion, and not in concreting
+from any aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>To abridge this disquisition, no argument
+is to be taken from contingent circumstances,
+(which, however, are often found here as well
+as in the case of marbles); such only are to
+be employed as are general to the subject, and
+arise necessarily from the nature of the operation.</p>
+
+<p>It will be proper to describe a species of
+these stones, which is remarkably regular in
+its form. It is that found at Aberlady, in
+East Lothian.</p>
+
+<p>The form of these iron-stones is that of an
+oblate or much compressed sphere, and the
+size from two or three inches diameter to
+more than a foot. In the circular or horizontal
+section, they present the most elegant
+septarium<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a>; and, from the examination of
+this particular structure, the following conclusions
+may be drawn.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9">
+</a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag9"> (return) </a>
+See <a href="#p1">Plate I.</a></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, That, the septa have been formed by
+the uniform contraction of the internal parts
+of the stone, the volume of the central parts
+diminishing more than that of the circumference;
+by this means, the separations of the
+stone diminish, in a progression from the
+center towards the circumference.</p>
+
+<p><i>2d</i>, That there are only two ways in which
+the septa must have received the spar or spatthose
+ore with which they are filled, more or
+less, either, <i>first</i> By insinuation into the cavity
+of the septa after these were formed; or,
+<i>2dly</i>, By separation from the substance of the
+stone, at the same time that the septa were
+forming.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Were the first supposition true, appearances
+would be observable, showing that the sparry
+substance had been admitted, either through
+the porous structure of the stone, or through
+proper apertures communicating from without.
+Now, if either one or other of these
+had been the case, and that the stone had been
+consolidated from no other cause than concretion
+from a dissolved state, that particular
+structure of the stone, by means of which the
+spar had been admitted, must appear at present
+upon an accurate examination.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, is not the case, and we may
+rest the argument here. The septa reach not
+the circumference; the surface of the stone
+is solid and uniform in every part; and there
+is not any appearance of the spar in the argillaceous
+bed around the stone.</p>
+
+<p>It, therefore, necessarily follows, that the
+contraction of the iron-stone, in order to form
+septa, and the filling of these cavities with
+spar, had proceeded<i>pari passu</i>; and that this
+operation must have been brought about by
+means of fusion, or by congelation from a
+state of simple fluidity and expansion.</p>
+
+<p>It is only further to be observed, that all
+the arguments which have been already employed,
+concerning mineral concretions from
+a simply fluid state, or that of fusion, here
+take place. I have septaria of this kind, in
+which, besides pyrites, iron-ore, calcareous
+spar, and another that is ferruginous and compound,
+there is contained siliceous crystals; a
+case which is not so common. I have them
+also attended with circumstances of concretion
+and crystallization, which, besides being extremely
+rare, are equally curious and interesting.</p>
+
+<p>There is one fact more which is well worth
+our attention, being one of those which are
+so general in the mineral regions. It is the
+crystallizations which are found in close cavities
+of the most solid bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more common than this appearance.
+Cavities are every where found closely
+lined with crystallizations, of every different
+substance which may be supposed in those
+places. These concretions are well known to
+naturalists, and form part of the beautiful specimens
+which are preserved in the cabinets of
+collectors, and which the German mineralists
+have termed <i>Drusen</i>. I shall only particularise
+one species, which may be described upon
+principle, and therefore may be a proper subject
+on which to reason, for ascertaining the
+order of production in certain bodies. This
+body, which we are now to examine, is of
+the agate species.</p>
+
+<p>We have now been considering the means
+employed by nature in consolidating strata
+which were originally of an open structure;
+but in perfectly solid strata we find bodies of
+agate, which have evidently been formed in
+that place where they now are found. This
+fact, however, is not still that of which we
+are now particularly to inquire; for this, of
+which we are to treat, concerns only a cavity
+within this agate; now, whatever may have
+been the origin of the agate itself, we are to
+show, from what appears within its cavity,
+that the crystallizations which are found in
+this place had arisen from a simply fluid state,
+and not from that of any manner of solution.</p>
+
+<p>The agates now in question are those of
+the coated kind, so frequent in this country,
+called pebbles. Many of these are filled with
+a siliceous crystallization, which evidently
+proceeds from the circumference towards the
+centre. Many of them, again, are hollow.
+Those cavities are variously lined with crystallized
+substances; and these are the object
+of the present examination.</p>
+
+<p>But before describing what is found within,
+it is necessary to attend to this particular
+circumstance, that the cavity is perfectly inclosed
+with many solid coats, impervious to
+air or water, but particularly with the external
+cortical part, which is extremely hard,
+takes the highest polish, and is of the most
+perfect solidity, admitting the passage of nothing
+but light and heat.</p>
+
+<p>Within these cavities, we find, <i>1st</i>, The
+coat of crystals with which this cavity is always
+lined; and this is general to all substances
+concreting, in similar circumstances,
+from a state of fusion; for when thus at liberty
+they naturally crystallise. <i>2dly</i>, We
+have frequently a subsequent crystallization,
+resting on the first, and more or less immersed
+in it. <i>3dly</i>, There is also sometimes a
+third crystallization, superincumbent on the
+second, in like manner as the second was on
+the first. I shall mention some particulars.</p>
+
+<p>I have one specimen, in which the primary
+crystals are siliceous, the secondary thin foliaceous
+crystals of deep red but transparent iron-ore,
+forming elegant figures, that have the
+form of roses. The tertiary crystallization is
+a frosting of small siliceous crystals upon the
+edges of the foliaceous crystals.</p>
+
+<p>In other specimens, there is first a lining of
+colourless siliceous crystals, then another lining
+of amethystine crystals, and sometimes
+within that, fuliginous crystals. Upon these
+fuliginous and amethystine crystals are many
+sphericles or hemispheres of red compact iron-ore,
+like haematites.</p>
+
+<p>In others, again, the primary crystals are
+siliceous, and the secondary calcareous. Of
+this kind, I have one which has, upon the
+calcareous crystals, beautiful transparent siliceous
+crystals, and iron sphericles both upon
+all these crystals, and within them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, I have an agate formed of various
+red and white coats, and beautifully figured.
+The cavity within the coated part of the pebble
+is filled up without vacuity, first, with colourless
+siliceous crystals; secondly, with fuliginous
+crystals; and, lastly, with white or
+colourless calcareous spar. But between the
+spar and crystals there are many sphericles,
+seemingly of iron, half sunk into each of
+these two different substances.</p>
+
+<p>From these facts, I may now be allowed to
+draw the following conclusions:</p>
+
+<p>1<i>st</i>, That concretion had proceeded from the
+surface of the agate body inwards. This necessarily
+follows from the nature of those figured
+bodies, the figures of the external coats always
+determining the shape of those within, and
+never, contrarily, those within affecting those
+without.</p>
+
+<p>2<i>dly</i>, That when the agate was formed,
+the cavity then contained every thing which
+now is found within it, and nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>3<i>dly</i>, That the contained substances must
+have been in a fluid state, in order to their
+crystallizing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, That as this fluid state had not been
+the effect of solution in a menstruum, it must
+have been fluidity from heat and fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now make one general observation
+and argument with regard to the formation
+of those various coated, concreted, crystallized,
+and configured bodies. Were the crystallization
+and configuration found to proceed
+from a central body, and to be directed from
+that centre outwards, then, without inquiring
+into collateral appearances, and other proofs
+with regard to the natural concretion of those
+substances, we might suppose that these concretions
+might have proceeded from that central
+body gradually by accretion, and that the
+concreting and crystallizing substances might
+have been supplied from a fluid which had
+before retained the concreting substance in solution;
+in like manner as the crystallizations
+of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
+that saccharine substance, and are termed candies,
+are formed upon the threads which are
+extended in the crystallizing vessel for that
+purpose. But if, on the contrary, we are to
+consider those mineral bodies as spheres of
+alternate coats, composed of agate, crystal,
+spars, etc.; and if all those crystallizations
+have their <i>bases</i> upon the uncrystallized coat
+which is immediately external to it, and their
+<i>apices</i> turned inwards into the next internal
+solid coat, it is not possible to conceive that a
+structure of this kind could have been formed
+in any manner from a solution. But this
+last manner is the way without exception in
+which those mineral bodies are found; therefore
+we are to conclude, that the concretion
+of those bodies had proceeded immediately
+from a state of fusion or simple fluidity.</p>
+
+<p>In granite these cavities are commonly lined
+with the crystal corresponding to the constituent
+substances of the stone, viz. quartz,
+feld-spar, and mica or talk. M. de Saussure,
+(Voyages dans les Alpes, tom. ii. §722.),
+says, "On trouve fréquemment des amas
+considérables de spath calcaire, crystallisé
+dans les grottes ou se forme le crystal de
+roche; quoique ces grottes soient renfermées
+dans le coeur des montagnes d'un
+granit vif, &amp; qu'on ne voie aucun roc calcaire
+au dessus de ces montagnes."</p>
+
+<p>So accurate an observer, and so complete a
+naturalist, must have observed how the extraneous
+substance had been introduced into this
+cavity, had they not been formed together
+the cavity and the calcareous crystals. That
+M. de Saussure perceived no means for that
+introduction, will appear from what immediately
+follows in that paragraph. "Ces rocs
+auroient-ils été détruits, ou bien ce spath
+n'est il que le produit d'une sécrétion des
+parties calcaires que l'on fait êtres dispersées
+entre les divers élémens du granit?"</p>
+
+<p>Had M. de Saussure allowed himself to
+suppose all those substances in fusion, of which
+there cannot be a doubt, he would soon have
+resolved both this difficulty, and also that of
+finding molybdena crystallized along with
+feld-spar, in a cavity of this kind. §718.</p>
+
+<p>To this argument, taken from the close cavities
+in our agates, I am now to add another
+demonstration. It is the case of the calcedony
+agate, containing a body of calcareous
+spar; here it is to be shown, that, while the
+calcareous body was altogether inclosed within
+the calcedony nodular body, these two
+substances had been perfectly soft, and had
+mutually affected each others shape, in concreting
+from a fluid state. In order to see
+this, we are to consider that both those substances
+have specific shapes in which they
+concrete from the third state; the sparry
+structure of the one is well known; the spherical
+or mammelated crystallization of the calcedony,
+is no less conspicuous; this last is,
+in the present case, spherical figures, which
+are some of them hemispheres, or even more.
+The figures which we have now in contemplation
+are so distinctly different as cannot be
+mistaken; the one is a rhombic figure bounded
+by planes; the other is a most perfect
+spherical form; and both these are specific figures,
+belonging respectively to the crystallization
+of those two substances.</p>
+
+<p>The argument now to be employed for
+proving that those two bodies had concreted
+from the fluid state of fusion, and not from
+any manner of solution, is this: That, were
+the one of those bodies to be found impressing
+the other with its specific figure, we must
+conclude that the impressing body had concreted
+or crystallized while the impressed body
+was in a soft or fluid state; and that, if
+they are both found mutually impressing and
+impressed by each other, they must have both
+been in the fluid and concreting state together.
+Now the fact is, that the calcareous
+body is perfectly inclosed within the solid calcedony,
+and that they are mutually impressed
+by each others specific figure, the sparry
+structure of the calcareous body impressing
+the calcedony with its type of planes and angles,
+at the same time that, in other parts, the
+spherical figures of the calcedony enter the
+solid body of the spar, and thus impress their
+mammelated figures into that part which is
+contiguous. It is therefore inconceivable,
+that these appearances could have been produced
+in any other manner than by those two
+bodies concreting from a simply fluid state.</p>
+
+<p>There are in jaspers and agates many other
+appearances, from whence the fusion of those
+substances may be concluded with great certainty
+and precision; but it is hoped, that
+what has been now given may suffice for
+establishing that proposition without any
+doubt.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be here objected, That there
+are frequently found siliceous crystals and amethysts
+containing water; and that it is impossible
+to confine water even in melted glass.
+It is true, that here, at the surface of the
+earth, melted glass cannot, in ordinary circumstances,
+be made to receive and inclose
+condensed water; but let us only suppose a
+sufficient degree of compression in the body
+of melted glass, and we can easily imagine it
+to receive and confine water as well as any
+other substance. But if, even in our operations,
+water, by means of compression, may
+be made to endure the heat of red hot iron
+without being converted into vapour, what
+may not the power of nature be able to perform?
+The place of mineral operations is not
+on the surface of the earth; and we are not
+to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
+the powers of nature by the measure of
+our own.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag10"> (return) </a> This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
+the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral
+substances, that I beg the particular attention of the reader
+to that subject. The effect of compression upon
+compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
+heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established
+principle in natural philosophy. This, like every other
+physical principle, is founded upon matter of fact or experience;
+we find, that many compound substances may
+with heat be easily changed, by having their more volatile
+parts separated when under a small compression; but
+these substances are preserved without change when sufficiently
+compressed. Our experiments of this kind are
+necessarily extremely limited; they are not, however, for
+that reason, the less conclusive. The effects of increasing
+degrees of heat are certainly prevented by increasing degrees
+of compression; but the rate at which the different
+effects of those powers proceed, or the measure of those
+different degrees of increase that may be made without
+changing the constitution of the compound substance, are
+not known; nor is there any limit to be set to that operation,
+so far as we know. Consequently, it is a physical
+principle, That the evaporation of volatile substances by
+heat, or the reparation of them from a compound substance,
+consequently the effect of fire in changing that
+compound substance, may be absolutely prevented by
+means of compression.
+
+<p>It now remains to be considered, how far there is reason
+to conclude that there had been sufficient degrees of
+compression in the mineral regions, for the purpose of
+melting the various substances with which we find strata
+consolidated, without changing the chemical constitution
+of those compound substances.</p>
+
+<p>Had I, in reasoning <i>a priori</i>, asserted, That all mineral
+bodies might have been melted without change, when under
+sufficient compression, there might have arisen, in the
+minds of reasoning men, some doubt with regard to the
+certainty of that proposition, however probable it were to
+be esteemed: But when, in reasoning <i>a posteriori</i>, it is
+found that all mineral bodies have been actually melted,
+then, all that is required to establish the proposition on
+which I have founded my theory, is to see that there must
+have been immense degrees of compression upon the subjects
+in question; for we neither know the degree of heat
+which had been employed, nor that of compression by
+which the effect of the heat must have been modified.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in order to see that there had been immense compression,
+we have but to consider that the formation of
+the strata, which are to be consolidated, was at the bottom
+of the ocean, and that this place is to us unfathomable.
+If it be farther necessary to show that it had been
+at such unfathomable depth strata were consolidated, it
+will be sufficient to observe, it is not upon the surface of
+the earth, or above the level of the sea, that this mineral
+operation can take place; for, it is there that those consolidated
+bodies are redissolved, or necessarily going into
+decay, which is the opposite to that operation which we
+are now inquiring after; therefore, if they were consolidated
+in any other place than at the bottom of the sea, it
+must have been between that place of their formation and
+the surface of the sea; but that is a supposition which we
+have not any reason to make; therefore, we must conclude
+that it was at the bottom of the ocean those stratified
+bodies had been consolidated.</blockquote>
+
+<p>To conclude this long chemico-mineral disquisition,
+I have specimens in which the mixture
+of calcareous, siliceous, and metallic substances,
+in almost every species of concretion
+which is to be found in mineral bodies, may
+be observed, and in which there is exhibited,
+in miniature, almost every species of mineral
+transaction, which, in nature, is found upon
+a scale of grandeur and magnificence. They
+are nodules contained in the whin-stone, porphyry,
+or basaltes of the Calton-hill, by Edinburgh;
+a body which is to be afterwards
+examined, when it will be found to have
+flowed, and to have been in fusion, by the
+operation of subterraneous heat.</p>
+
+<p>This evidence, though most conclusive with
+regard to the application of subterraneous heat,
+as the means employed in bringing into fusion
+all the different substances with which strata
+may be found consolidated, is not directly a
+proof that strata had been consolidated by the
+fusion of their proper substance. It was necessary
+to see the general nature of the evidence,
+for the universal application of subterraneous
+heat, in the fusion of every kind of
+mineral body. Now, that this has been done,
+we may give examples of strata consolidated
+without the introduction of foreign matter,
+merely by the softening or fusion of their own
+materials.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose, we may consider two different
+species of strata, such as are perfectly
+simple in their nature, of the most distinct substances,
+and whose origin is perfectly understood,
+consequently, whose subsequent changes
+may be reasoned upon with certainty and clearness.
+These are the siliceous and calcareous
+strata; and these are the two prevailing substances
+of the globe, all the rest being, in comparison
+of these, as nothing; for unless it be
+the bituminous or coal strata, there is hardly
+any other which does not necessarily contain
+more or less of one or other of these two substances.
+If, therefore, it can be shown, that
+both of those two general strata have been
+consolidated by the simple fusion of their substance,
+no <i>desideratum</i> or doubt will remain,
+with regard to the nature of that operation
+which has been transacted at great depths of
+the earth, places to which all access is denied
+to mortal eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to prove, <i>first</i>, That those strata
+have been consolidated by simple fusion;
+and, <i>2dly</i>, That this operation is universal, in
+relation to the strata of the earth, as having
+produced the various degrees of solidity or
+hardness in these bodies.</p>
+
+<p>I shall first remark, that a fortuitous collection
+of hard bodies, such as gravel and sand,
+can only touch in points, and cannot, while
+in that hard state, be made to correspond so
+precisely to each others shape as to consolidate
+the mass. But if these hard bodies should be
+softened in their substance, or brought into a
+certain degree of fusion, they might be adapted
+mutually to each other, and thus consolidate
+the open structure of the mass. Therefore,
+to prove the present point, we have but
+to exhibit specimens of siliceous and calcareous
+strata which have been evidently consolidated
+in this manner.</p>
+
+<p>Of the first kind, great varieties occur in
+this country. It is, therefore, needless to describe
+these particularly. They are the consolidated
+strata of gravel and sand, often containing
+abundance of feld-spar, and thus graduating
+into granite; a body, in this respect,
+perfectly similar to the more regular strata
+which we now examine.</p>
+
+<p>The second kind, again, are not so common
+in this country, unless we consider the shells
+and coralline bodies in our lime-stones, as exhibiting
+the same example, which indeed they
+do. But I have a specimen of marble from
+Spain, which may be described, and which
+will afford the most satisfactory evidence of
+the fact in question.</p>
+
+<p>This Spanish marble may be considered as
+a species of pudding-stone, being formed of
+calcareous gravel; a species of marble which,
+from Mr Bowles' Natural History, appears to
+be very common in Spain. The gravel of
+which this marble is composed, consists of
+fragments of other marbles of different kinds.
+Among these, are different species of <i>oolites</i>
+marble, some shell marbles, and some composed
+of a chalky substance, or of undistinguishable
+parts. But it appears, that all these
+different marbles had been consolidated or
+made hard, then broken into fragments, rolled
+and worn by attrition, and thus collected together,
+along with some sand or small siliceous
+bodies, into one mass. Lastly, This compound
+body is consolidated in such a manner
+as to give the most distinct evidence, that this
+had been executed by the operation of heat or
+simple fusion.</p>
+
+<p>The proof I give is this, That besides the
+general conformation of those hard bodies, so
+as to be perfectly adapted to each other's
+shape, there is, in some places, a mutual indentation
+of the different pieces of gravel into
+each other; an indentation which resembles
+perfectly that junction of the different bones
+of the <i>cranium</i>, called sutures, and which must
+have necessarily required a mixture of those
+bodies while in a soft or fluid state.</p>
+
+<p>This appearance of indentation is by no
+means singular, or limited to one particular
+specimen. I have several specimens of different
+marbles, in which fine examples of this
+species of mixture may be perceived. But in
+this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone,
+where the mutual indentation is made
+between two pieces of hard stone, worn round
+by attrition, the softening or fusion of these
+two bodies is not simply rendered probable,
+but demonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus proved, that those strata had
+been consolidated by simple fusion, as proposed,
+we now proceed to show, that this mineral
+operation had been not only general, as being
+found in all the regions of the globe, but
+universal, in consolidating our earth in all the
+various degrees, from loose and incoherent
+shells and sand, to the most solid bodies of the
+siliceous and calcareous substances.</p>
+
+<p>To exemplify this in the various collections
+and mixtures of sands, gravels, shells, and corals,
+were endless and superfluous. I shall only
+take, for an example, one simple homogeneous
+body, in order to exhibit it in the various
+degrees of consolidation, from the state of
+simple incoherent earth to that of the most solid
+marble. It must be evident that this is
+chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but
+which may be also found consolidated in every
+different degree.</p>
+
+<p>Through the middle of the Isle of Wight,
+there runs a ridge of hills of indurated chalk.
+This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly
+west into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle
+towards Dorchester, perhaps beyond that
+place. The sea has broke through this ridge
+at the west end of the Isle of Wight, where
+columns of the indurated chalk remain, called
+the Needles; the same appearance being found
+upon the opposite shore in Dorsetshire.</p>
+
+<p>In this field of chalk, we find every gradation
+of that soft earthy substance to the most
+consolidated body of this indurated ridge,
+which is not solid marble, but which has lost
+its chalky property, and has acquired a kind
+of stony hardness.</p>
+
+<p>We want only further to see this cretaceous
+substance in its most indurated and consolidated
+state; and this we have in the north of
+Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway.
+I have examined cargoes of this lime-stone
+brought to the west of Scotland, and find the
+most perfect evidence of this body having
+been once a mass of chalk, which is now a
+solid marble.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the
+strata of the earth have been, in many places,
+consolidated, we must conclude, that all the
+degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite,
+have been brought about by the same means.</p>
+
+<p>Now, that all the strata of the mineral regions,
+which are those only now examined,
+have been consolidated in some degree, is a
+fact for which no proof can be offered here,
+but must be submitted to experience and inquiry;
+so far, however, as they shall be considered
+as consolidated in any degree, which
+they certainly are in general, we have investigated
+the means which had been employed in
+that mineral operation.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the concretions of
+particular bodies, and the general consolidation
+of strata; but it may be alleged, that there is
+a great part of the solid mass of this earth not
+properly comprehended among those bodies
+which have been thus proved to be consolidated
+by means of fusion. The body here alluded
+to is granite; a mass which is not generally
+stratified, and which, being a body perfectly
+solid, and forming some part in the
+structure of this earth, deserves to be considered.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of granite, as a part of the structure
+of the earth, is too intricate a subject to
+be here considered, where we only seek to
+prove the fusion of a substance from the evident
+marks which are to be observed in a body.
+We shall, therefore, only now consider
+one particular species of granite; and if this
+shall appear to have been in a fluid state of fusion,
+we may be allowed to extend this property
+to all the kind.</p>
+
+<p>The species now to be examined comes from
+the north country, about four or five miles west
+from Portfoy, on the road to Huntly. I have
+not been upon the spot, but am informed that
+this rock is immediately connected or continuous
+with the common granite of the country.
+This indeed appears in the specimens
+which I have got; for, in some of these, there
+is to be perceived a gradation from the regular
+to the irregular sort.</p>
+
+<p>This rock may indeed be considered, in
+some respects, as a porphyry; for it has an
+evident ground, which is feld-spar, in its sparry
+state; and it is, in one view, distinctly maculated
+with quartz, which is transparent, but
+somewhat dark-coloured<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11">
+</a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag11"> (return) </a>
+See: <a href="#p2">Plate II. fig. 1. 2. 3.</a>*</blockquote>
+
+<p>Considered as a porphyry, this specimen is
+no less singular than as a granite. For, instead
+of a siliceous ground, maculated with the
+rhombic feld-spar, which is the common state
+of porphyry, the ground is uniformly crystallised,
+or a homogeneous regular feld-spar, maculated
+with the transparent siliceous substance.
+But as, besides the feld-spar and quartz, which
+are the constituent parts of the stone, there is
+also mica, in some places, it may, with propriety,
+be termed a granite.
+
+<p>The singularity of this specimen consists,
+not in the nature or proportions of its constituent
+parts, but in the uniformity of the sparry
+ground, and the regular shape of the quartz
+mixture. This siliceous substance, viewed in
+one direction, or longitudinally, may be considered
+as columnar, prismatical, or continued
+in lines running nearly parallel. These columnar
+bodies of quartz are beautifully impressed
+with a figure on the sides, where they are in
+contact with the spar. This figure is that of
+furrows or channels, which are perfectly parallel,
+and run across the longitudinal direction
+of the quartz. This is represented in fig. 4.
+This striated figure is only seen when, by
+fracture, the quartz is separated from the contiguous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>But what I would here more particularly
+represent is, the transverse section of those
+longitudinal siliceous bodies These are seen
+in fig. 1. 2. and 3. They have not only separately
+the forms of certain typographic
+characters, but collectively give the regular
+lineal appearance of types set in writing.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident from the inspection of this fossil,
+that the sparry and siliceous substances had
+been mixed together in a fluid state; and that
+the crystallization of the sparry substance,
+which is rhombic, had determined the regular
+structure of the quartz, at least in some directions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the siliceous substance is to be considered
+as included in the spar, and as figured,
+according to the laws of crystallization proper
+to the sparry ground; but the spar is also to
+be found included in the quartz. It is not,
+indeed, always perfectly included or inclosed
+on all sides; but this is sometimes the case, or
+it appears so in the section. Fig. 5. 6. 7. 8.
+9. and 10. are those cases magnified, and represent
+the different figured quartz inclosing
+the feld-spar. In one of them, the feld-spar,
+which is contained within the quartz, contains
+also a small triangle of quartz, which it
+incloses. Now, it is not possible to conceive
+any other way in which those two substances,
+quartz and feld-spar, could be thus concreted,
+except by congelation from a fluid
+state, in which they had been mixed.</p>
+
+<p>There is one thing more to be observed
+with regard to this curious species of granite.
+It is the different order or arrangement of the
+crystallization or internal structure of the feld-spar
+ground, in two contiguous parts of the
+same mass. This is to be perceived in the
+polished surface of the stone, by means of the
+reflection of light.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain direction in which, viewing
+the stone, when the light falls with a proper
+obliquity, we see a luminous reflection
+from the internal parts of the stone. This
+arises from the reflecting surfaces of the sparry
+structure or minute cracks, all turned in
+one direction, consequently, giving that luminous
+appearance only in one point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Now, all the parts of the stone in which
+the figured quartz is directed in the same
+manner, or regularly placed in relation to each
+other, present that shining appearance to the
+eye at one time, or in the same point of direction.
+But there are parts of the mass, which,
+though immediately contiguous and properly
+continuous, have a different disposition
+of the figured quartz; and these two distinguished
+masses, in the same surface of the polished
+stone, give to the eye their shining appearance
+in very different directions. Fig. 3.
+shows two of those figured and shining masses,
+in the same plane or polished surface.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that, as the crystallization
+of the sparry structure is the figuring
+cause of the quartz bodies, there must be observed
+a certain correspondency between those
+two things, the alinement (if I may be allowed
+the expression) of the quartz, and the shining
+of the sparry ground. It must also appear,
+that at the time of congelation of the
+fluid spar, those two contiguous portions had
+been differently disposed in the crystallization
+of their substance. This is an observation
+which I have had frequent opportunities of
+making, with respect to masses of calcareous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, therefore, whether we
+shall consider granite as a stratum or as an irregular
+mass, whether as a collection of several
+materials, or as the separation of substances
+which had been mixed, there is sufficient
+evidence of this body having been consolidated
+by means of fusion, and in no other
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus led to suppose, that the power
+of heat and operation of fusion must have been
+employed in consolidating strata of loose materials,
+which had been collected together and
+amassed at the bottom of the ocean. It will,
+therefore, be proper to consider, what are the
+appearances in consolidated strata that naturally
+should follow, on the one hand, from fluidity
+having been, in this manner, introduced
+by means of heat, and, on the other, from the
+interstices being filled by means of solution;
+that so we may compare appearances with the
+one and other of those two suppositions, in
+order to know that with which they may be
+only found consistent.</p>
+
+<p>The consolidation of strata with every different
+kind of substance was found to be inconsistent
+with the supposition, that aqueous
+solution had been the means employed for this
+purpose. This appearance, on the contrary,
+is perfectly consistent with the idea, that the
+fluidity of these bodies had been the effect of
+heat; for, whether we suppose the introduction
+of foreign matter into the porous mass of
+a stratum for its consolidation, or whether we
+shall suppose the materials of the mass acquiring
+a degree of softness, by means of which,
+together with an immense compression, the
+porous body might be rendered solid; the
+power of heat, as the cause of fluidity and vapour,
+is equally proper and perfectly competent.
+Here, therefore, appearances are as decidedly
+in favour of the last supposition, as
+they had been inconsistent with the first.</p>
+
+<p>But if strata have been consolidated by
+means of aqueous solution, these masses should
+be found precisely in the same state as when
+they were originally deposited from the water.
+The perpendicular section of those masses
+might show the compression of the bodies included
+in them, or of which they are composed;
+but the horizontal section could not
+contain any separation of the parts of the stratum
+from one another.</p>
+
+<p>If, again, strata have been consolidated by
+means of heat, acting in such a manner as to
+soften their substance, then, in cooling, they
+must have formed rents or separations of their
+substance, by the unequal degrees of contraction
+which the contiguous strata may have
+suffered. Here is a most decisive mark by
+which the present question must be determined.</p>
+
+<p>There is not in nature any appearance more
+distinct than this of the perpendicular fissures
+and separations in strata. These are generally
+known to workmen by the terms of veins
+or backs and cutters; and there is no consolidated
+stratum that wants these appearances.
+Here is, therefore, a clear decision of the
+question, Whether it has been by means of
+heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that
+collections of loose bodies at the bottom of
+the sea have been consolidated into the hardest
+rocks and most perfect marbles<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag12"> (return) </a> This subject is extremely interesting, both to the
+theory of the earth, and to the science cf the mining art;
+I will now illustrate that theory, with an authority which I
+received after giving this dissertation to the Royal Society.
+It is in the second volume of M. de Saussure's <i>voyages dans
+les Alpes</i>. Here I find proper examples for illustrating that
+subject of mineralogy; and I am happy to have this opportunity
+of giving the reasoning of a man of science upon
+the subject, and the opinion of a person who is in every
+respect so well qualified to judge upon a point of this
+kind.
+
+<p>The first example is of a marble in the Alps, (<i>voyages
+dans les Alpes.</i>) tom. 2. page 271.</p>
+
+<p>"La pâte de ces brèches est tantôt blanche, tantôt
+grise, et les fragmens qui y font renfermés font, les
+uns blancs, les autres gris, d'autres roux, et presque toujours
+d'une couleur différente de celle de la pâte qui
+les lit. Ils sont tous de nature calcaire; tels étaient au
+moins tous ceux que j'ai pus observer; et ce qu'il-y-a de
+remarquable, c'est qu'ils sont tous posés dans le sens des
+feuillets de la pierre; on diroit en les voyant, qu'ils
+ont tous été comprimés et écrasés dans le même sens.
+Cette même pierre est mêlée de mica, sur-tout dans les
+interstices des couches et entre les fragmens et la pâte
+qui les réunit; mais on ne voit point de mica dans les
+fragmens eux-mêmes. On trouve aussi dans ces brèches
+des infiltrations de quartz. Cette pierre est coupée
+par des fréquentes fissures perpendiculaires aux plans
+des couches. On voit clairement que ces fentes out
+été formées par l'inégal affaissement des couches, et
+non par une retraite spontanée: car les morceaux ou
+fragmens étrangers sont tous partagés et coupés net par
+ces fissures au lieu que dans les divisions naturelles des
+couches, ces mêmes fragmens sont entiers et saillans au
+dehors de la surface. Les noeuds de quartz et les divers
+crystaux, que renferment les roches feuilletées,
+présentent le même phénomène, et l'on peut en tirer
+la même conséquence; ils font partagés dans les fentes,
+et entiers dans les séparations des couches."</p>
+
+<p>He finds those particular strata in the other side of the
+mountain <i>col de la Seigne</i>, and gives us the following observations:</p>
+
+<p>"Plus bas on passe entre deux bancs de ces mêmes
+brèches, entre lesquels sont interposées des couches d'ardoises
+noires et de grès feuilletés micacés, dont la situation
+est la même.</p>
+
+<p>"On retrouve encore ces brèches vers le has de la descente,
+au pied de pyramides calcaires dont j'ai parlé
+plus haut. Je trouvai en 1774 de très-jolis crystaux de
+roche qui s'étaient formés dans les fentes de cette
+brèche. Il y avoit même un mélange de quartz et de
+mica qui s'étoit moulé dans quelques-une de ces fentes.
+C'étoit donc une roche semblable aux primitives, et
+pourtant d'une formation postérieure à celle de la pierre
+calcaire. Et quel système pourroit nous persuader que
+la nature ne puisse encore produire ce qu'elle a produit
+autrefois!"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Saussure has here given us an example of a calcareous
+Braccia, as he calls it, but which is rather a pudding
+stone, with veins or contractions of the mass. He
+does not seem to understand these as consequences of the
+consolidation of those strata; this, however, is the only
+light in which these appearances may be explained, when
+those bodies are thus divided without any other separation
+in the mass.</p>
+
+<p>The second example is found in the vertical strata of
+those mountains through which the Rhône has made its
+way in running from the great valley of the <i>Vallais</i> towards
+the lake of Geneva. (Chapitre xlviii.)</p>
+
+<p>"C'est une espèce de pétrosilex gris, dur, sonore, un
+peu transparent, qui se débite en feuillets minces parfaitement
+plans et réguliers. Ces feuillets, ou plutôt
+ces couches, courent à 35 degrés du nord par est, en
+montant du coté de l'ouest sous un angle de 80 degrés.
+Ces couches sont coupées par des fentes qui leur sont à-peu-près
+perpendiculaires et qui le sont aussi à l'horizon.
+Cette pierre s'emploie aux mêmes usage que l'ardoise,
+mais elle est beaucoup plus forte et plus durable, parce
+qu'elle est plus dure et moins accessible aux impressions
+de l'eau et de l'air.</p>
+
+<p>§ 1047. "Ces pétrosilex feuilletés changent peu-à-peu
+de nature, en admettant dans les interstices de leurs
+feuillets des parties de feldspath. Ils out alors l'apparence
+d'une roche feuilletée, quartzeuse et micacée,
+(<i>quartzum fornacum W.</i>). Mais cette apparence est
+trompeuse; car on n'y trouve pas un atome de quartz:
+toutes les parties blanches qui donnent du feu contre
+l'acier, font du feldspath; et les parties grise écailleuses
+ne font point du mica, ce sont de lames minces du pétrosilex
+dont j'ai déjà parlé."</p>
+
+<p>Here is evidently what I would call petuntze strata, or
+porcelane stone, that is, strata formed by the deposits of
+such materials as might come from the <i>detritus</i> of granite,
+arranged at the bottom of the sea, and consolidated by
+heat in the mineral regions. We have precisely such stratified
+masses in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh. I have
+also a specimen of the same kind, brought from the East
+Indies, in which there is the print of an organized body.
+I believe it to be of some coralline or zoophite.</p>
+
+<p>§ 1048. "Cette roche mélangée continue jusqu'à ce
+que le rocher s'éloigne un peu du grand chemin. Là,
+ce rocher se présente coupé à pic dans une grande étendue,
+et divisé par de grandes fentes obliques, à-peu-près
+parallèles entr'elles. Ces fentes partagent la montagne
+en grandes tranches de 50 à 60 pieds d'épaisseur,
+que de loin semblent être des couches. Mais lorsqu'on
+s'en approche, on voit, par le tissu même de la pierre
+feuilletée, que ses vraies couches font avec l'horizon des
+angles de 70 à 75 degré, et que ces grandes divisions
+sont de vraies fentes par lesquelles un grand nombre de
+couches consécutives sont coupées presque perpendiculairement
+à leurs plans. Les masses de rocher, comprises
+entre ces grandes fentes, sont encore divisées par
+d'autres fentes plus petites, dont la plupart sont paralleles
+aux grandes, d'autres leur sont obliques; mais
+toutes sont à très-peu-près perpendiculaires aux plans
+des couchés dont la montagne est composée."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a distinct view of that which may be found to
+take place in all consolidated strata, whatever be the composition
+of the stratum; and it is this appearance which is
+here maintained to be a physical demonstration, that those
+strata had been consolidated by means of heat softening
+their materials. In that case, those stratified bodies, contracting
+in cooling, form veins and fissures traversing perpendicularly
+their planes; and these veins are afterwards
+filled with mineral substances. These are what I have
+here distinguished as the <i>particular</i> veins of mineral masses;
+things perfectly different from proper mineral or metallic
+veins, which are more general, as belonging to immense
+masses of those strata; and which had been formed,
+not from the contraction, but from the disrupture of those
+masses, and by the forcible injection of fluid mineral substances
+from below. Now these two species of veins, the
+particular and the general, although occasionally connected,
+must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one,
+we see the means which had been employed for the
+consolidation of the strata; in the other, we see that
+power by which the strata have been raised from the bottom
+of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Error never can be consistent, nor can truth
+fail of having support from the accurate examination
+of every circumstance. It is not
+enough to have found appearances decisive of
+the question, with regard to the two suppositions
+which have been now considered, we
+may farther seek confirmation of that supposition
+which has been found alone consistent
+with appearances.</p>
+
+<p>If it be by means of heat and fusion that
+strata have been consolidated, then, in proportion
+to the degree of consolidation they have
+undergone from their original state, they
+should, <i>caeteris paribus</i>, abound more with
+separations in their mass. But this conclusion
+is found consistent with appearances. A stratum
+of porous sand-stone does not abound so
+much with veins and cutters as a similar stratum
+of marble, or even a similar stratum of
+sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
+therefore, as strata have been consolidated,
+they are in general intersected with
+veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata
+are deep in their perpendicular section, the
+veins are wide, and placed at greater distances.
+In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins
+are many, but proportionally narrow.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be
+demonstrated, That all the solid strata of the
+globe have been condensed by means of heat,
+and hardened from a state of fusion. But this
+proposition is equally to be maintained from
+principles which are mechanical. The strata
+of the globe, besides being formed of earths,
+are composed of sand, of gravel, and fragments
+of hard bodies, all which may be considered
+as, in their nature, simple; but these
+strata are also found composed of bodies which
+are not simple, but are fragments of former
+strata, which had been consolidated, and afterwards
+were broken and worn by attrition, so
+as to be made gravel. Strata composed in
+this manner have been again consolidated;
+and now the question is, By what means?</p>
+
+<p>If strata composed of such various bodies
+had been consolidated, by any manner of concretion,
+from the fluidity of a dissolution, the
+hard and solid bodies must be found in their
+entire state, while the interstices between those
+constituent parts of the stratum are filled up.
+No partial fracture can be conceived as introduced
+into the middle of a solid mass of hard
+matter, without having been communicated
+from the surrounding parts. But such partial
+separations are found in the middle of those
+hard and solid masses; therefore, this compound
+body must have been consolidated by
+other means than that of concretion from a
+state of a solution.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish marble already described, as
+well as many consolidated strata of siliceous
+gravel, of which I have specimens, afford the
+clearest evidence of this fact. These hard
+bodies are perfectly united together, in forming
+the most solid mass; the contiguous parts
+of some of the rounded fragments are interlaced
+together, as has already been observed;
+and there are partial shrinkings of the mass
+forming veins, traversing several fragments,
+but perfectly filled with the sparry substance
+of the mass, and sometimes with parts of the
+stone distinctly floating in the transparent body
+of spar. Now, there is not, besides heat or
+fusion, any known power in nature by which
+these effects might be produced. But such
+effects are general to all consolidated masses,
+although not always so well illustrated in a
+cabinet specimen.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have discovered a truth that is
+confirmed by every appearance, so far as the
+nature of the subject now examined admits.
+We now return to the general operation, of
+forming continents of those materials which
+had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>SECTION III.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Investigation of the Natural Operations employed
+in the Production of Land above the
+Surface of the Sea.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>We seek to know that operation by means of
+which masses of loose materials, collected at
+the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
+surface, and transformed into solid land.</p>
+
+<p>We have found, that there is not in this
+globe (as a planet revolving in the solar system)
+any power or motion adapted to the
+purpose now in view; nor, were there such
+a power, could a mass of simply collected
+materials have continued any considerable
+time to resist the waves and currents natural to
+the sea, but must have been quickly carried
+away, and again deposited at the bottom of
+the ocean. But we have found, that there
+had been operations, natural to the bowels of
+this earth; by which those loose and unconnected
+materials have been cemented together,
+and consolidated into masses of great strength
+and hardness; those bodies are thus enabled
+to resist the force of waves and currents, and
+to preserve themselves, for a sufficient time,
+in their proper shape and place, as land above
+the general surface of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>We now desire to know, how far those internal
+operations of the globe, by which solidity
+and stability are procured to the beds of
+loose materials, may have been also employed
+in raising up a continent of land, to remain
+above the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing so proper for the erection
+of land above the level of the ocean, as an expansive
+power of sufficient force, applied directly
+under materials in the bottom of the
+sea, under a mass that is proper for the formation
+of land when thus erected. The
+question is not, how such a power may be
+procured; such a power has probably been
+employed. If, therefore, such a power should
+be consistent with that which we found had
+actually been employed in preparing the erected
+mass; or, if such a power is to be reasonably
+concluded as accompanying those operations
+which we have found natural to the
+globe, and situated in the very place where
+this expansive power appears to be required,
+we should thus be led to perceive, in the natural
+operations of the globe, a power as efficacious
+for the elevation of what had been at
+the bottom of the sea into the place of land,
+as it is perfect for the preparation of those
+materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to this conclusion, it will not
+be allowed to allege; that we are ignorant
+how such a power might be exerted under
+the bottom of the ocean; for, the present
+question is not, what had been the cause of
+heat, which has appeared to have been produced
+in that place, but if this power of heat,
+which has certainly been exerted at the bottom
+of the ocean for consolidating strata, had
+been employed also for another purpose, that
+is, for raising those strata into the place of
+land.</p>
+
+<p>We may, perhaps, account for the elevation
+of land, by the same cause with that of
+the consolidation of strata, already investigated,
+without explaining the means employed
+by nature in procuring the power of heat, or
+showing from what general source of action
+this particular power had been derived; but,
+by finding in subterranean heat a cause for
+any other change, besides the consolidation of
+porous or incoherent bodies, we shall generalise
+a fact, or extend our knowledge in the
+explanation of natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The power of heat for the expansion of
+bodies, is, so far as we know, unlimited; but,
+by the expansion of bodies placed under the
+strata at the bottom of the sea, the elevation
+of those strata may be effected; and the question
+now to be resolved regards the actual exertion
+of this power of expansion. How far
+it is to be concluded as having been employed
+in the production of this earth above the level
+of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Before attempting to resolve that question,
+it may be proper to observe, there has been
+exerted an extreme degree of heat below the
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea; and
+this is precisely the action of a power required
+for the elevation of those heated bodies into a
+higher place. Therefore, if there is no other
+way in which we may conceive this event to
+have been brought about, consistent with the
+present state of things, or what actually appears,
+we shall have a right to conclude, that
+such had been the order of procedure in natural
+things, and that the strata formed at the
+bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
+consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.</p>
+
+<p>The consolidation of strata by means of
+fusion or the power of heat, has been concluded
+from the examination of nature, and from
+finding, that the present state of things is inconsistent
+with any other supposition. Now,
+again, we are considering the only power that
+may be conceived as capable of elevating strata
+from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
+a mass above the surface of the water. It is
+a truth unquestionable, that what had been
+originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
+the highest of our land. In explaining
+this appearance, therefore, no other alternative
+is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by
+the power of heat above the level of the present
+sea, or the surface of the ocean reduced
+many miles below the height at which it had
+subsisted during the collection and induration
+of the land which we inhabit.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose
+no general power of subterraneous fire
+or heat, we leave to our theory no means for
+the retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its
+surface; if, on the other hand, we are to allow
+the general power of subterraneous heat,
+we cannot have much difficulty in supposing,
+either the surface of the sea to have subsided,
+or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts,
+to have been raised by a subterranean power
+above the level of its surface, according as appearances
+shall be found to require the one or
+other of those conclusions. Here, therefore,
+we are again remitted to the history of nature,
+in order to find matter of fact by which this
+question may be properly decided.</p>
+
+<p>If the present land had been discovered by
+the subsiding of the waters, there has not been
+a former land, from whence materials had
+been procured for the construction of the present,
+when at the bottom of the sea; for, there
+is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole
+land of the present earth having been formed
+evidently at the bottom of the sea. Neither
+could the natural productions of the sea have
+been accumulated, in the shape in which we
+now find them, on the surface of this earth;
+for, How should the Alps and Andes have
+been formed within the sea from the natural
+productions of the water? Consequently, this
+is a supposition inconsistent with every natural
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence
+of the former ocean, for the purpose of discovering
+the present land, is beset with more
+difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom
+of the former ocean; for, <i>first</i>, There is
+a place to provide for the retirement of the
+waters of the ocean; and, <i>2dly</i>, There is required
+a work of equal magnitude; this is,
+the swallowing up of that former continent,
+which had procured the materials of the present
+land.</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface
+of the ocean would but make the former
+land appear the higher; and, on the other,
+the sinking the body of the former land into
+the solid globe, so as to swallow up the greater
+part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
+would be at least a superfluous exertion
+of the power of nature. Such an operation
+as this would discover as little wisdom
+in the end elected, as in the means appropriated
+to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
+and worn away in the natural operations of
+the globe, Why make such a convulsion in the
+world in order to renew the land? If, again,
+the land naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary
+a power, in order to hide a former
+continent of land, and puzzle man?</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider how far the other proposition,
+of strata being elevated by the power
+of heat above the level of the sea, may be confirmed
+from the examination of natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The strata formed at the bottom of the
+ocean are necessarily horizontal in their position,
+or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
+direction or extent. They may change,
+and gradually assume the nature of each other,
+so far as concerns the materials of which they
+are formed; but there cannot be any sudden
+change, fracture, or displacement, naturally in
+the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are
+cemented by the heat of fusion, and erected
+with an expansive power acting below, we
+may expect to find every species of fracture,
+dislocation, and contortion, in those bodies,
+and every degree of departure from a horizontal
+towards a vertical position.</p>
+
+<p>The strata of the globe are actually found
+in every possible position: For, from horizontal,
+they are frequently found vertical; from
+continuous, they are broken and separated in
+every possible direction; and, from a plane,
+they are bent and doubled. It is impossible
+that they could have originally been formed,
+by the known laws of nature, in their present
+state and position; and the power that has
+been necessarily required for their change, has
+not been inferior to that which might have
+been required for their elevation from the
+place in which they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>In this cafe, natural appearances are not
+anomalous. They are, indeed, infinitely various,
+as they ought to be, according to the
+rule; but all those varieties in appearances
+conspire to prove one general truth, viz. That
+all which we see had been originally composed
+according to certain principles, established
+in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
+and that those regular compositions had been
+afterwards greatly changed by the operations
+of another power, which had introduced apparent
+confusion among things first formed in
+order and by rule.</p>
+
+<p>It is concerning the operation of this second
+power that we are now inquiring; and here
+the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
+mineral regions are as instructive, with regard
+to what had been transacted in a former period
+of time, as the order and regularity of those
+same regions are conclusive, in relation to the
+place in which a former state of things had
+produced that which, in its changed state, we
+now perceive.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to conclude, that the land on
+which we dwell had been elevated from a
+lower situation by the same agent which had
+been employed in consolidating the strata, in
+giving them stability, and preparing them for
+the purpose of the living world. This agent
+is matter actuated by extreme heat, and expanded
+with amazing force.</p>
+
+<p>If this has been the case, it will be reasonable
+to expect, that some of the expanded
+matter might be found condensed in the bodies
+which have been heated by that igneous
+vapour; and that matter, foreign to the strata,
+may have been thus introduced into the fractures
+and separations of those indurated masses.</p>
+
+<p>We have but to open our eyes to be convinced
+of this truth. Look into the sources
+of our mineral treasures; ask the miner, from
+whence has come the metal into his vein?
+Not from the earth or air above,&mdash;not from
+the strata which the vein traverses; these do
+not contain one atom of the minerals now
+considered. There is but one place from
+whence these minerals may have come; this
+is the bowels of the earth, the place of power
+and expansion, the place from whence must
+have proceeded that intense heat by which loose
+materials have been consolidated into rocks,
+as well as that enormous force by which the
+regular strata have been broken and displaced.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention is here peculiarly called upon,
+where we have the opportunity of examining
+those mineral bodies, which have
+immediately proceeded from the unknown
+region, that place of power and energy which
+we want to explore; for, if such is the system
+of the earth, that materials are first deposited
+at the bottom of the ocean, there to be prepared
+in a certain manner, in order to acquire
+solidity, and then to be elevated into the proper
+place of land, these mineral veins, which
+contain matter absolutely foreign to the surface
+of the earth, afford the most authentic information
+with regard to the operations which
+we want to understand. It is these veins
+which we are to consider as, in some measure,
+the continuation of that mineral region, which
+lies necessarily out of all possible reach of our
+examination. It is, therefore, peculiarly interesting
+to know the state in which things
+are to be found in this place, which may be
+considered as intermediate between the solid
+land, upon the one hand, and the unknown
+regions of the earth, upon the other.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to examine those mineral
+veins; and these may be considered, first, in
+relation to their form, independent of their
+substance or particular contents; and, secondly,
+in relation to the contained bodies, independent
+of their form.</p>
+
+<p>In examining consolidated strata, we remarked
+veins and cutters as a proof of the means
+by which those bodies had been consolidated.
+In that case, the formation of these veins is
+a regulated process, determined by the degree
+of fusion, and the circumstances of condensation
+or refrigeration. In respect of these, the
+mineral veins now to be examined are anomalous.
+They are; but we know not why
+or how. We see the effect; but, in that effect,
+we do not see the cause. We can say,
+negatively, that the cause of mineral veins is
+not that by which the veins and fissures of
+consolidated strata have been formed; consequently,
+that it is not the measured contraction
+and regulated condensation of the consolidated
+land which has formed those general
+mineral veins; however, veins, similar in
+many respects, have been formed by the cooperation
+of this cause.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus taken a view of the evident
+distinction between the veins or contractions
+that are particular to the consolidated body in
+which they are found, and those more general
+veins which are not limited to that cause, we
+may now consider what is general in the subject,
+or what is universal in these effects of
+which we wish to investigate the cause.</p>
+
+<p>The event of highest generalization or universality,
+in the form of those mineral veins,
+is fracture and dislocation. It is not, like that
+of the veins of strata, simple separation and
+measured contraction; it is violent fracture
+and unlimited dislocation. In the one case,
+the forming cause is in the body which is separated;
+for, after the body had been actuated
+by heat, it is by the reaction of the proper
+matter of the body, that the chasm which
+constitutes the vein is formed. In the other
+case, again, the cause is extrinsic in relation to
+the body in which the chasm is formed.
+There has been the most violent fracture and
+divulsion; but the cause is still to seek; and
+it appears not in the vein; for it is not every
+fracture and dislocation of the solid body of
+our earth, in which minerals, or the proper
+substances of mineral veins, are found.</p>
+
+<p>We are now examining matter of fact, real
+effects, from whence we would investigate the
+nature of certain events which do not now
+appear. Of these, two kinds occur; one
+which has relation to the hardness and solidity,
+or the natural constitution of the body;
+the other, to its shape or local situation. The
+first has been already considered; the last is
+now the subject of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>But, in examining those natural appearances,
+we find two different kinds of veins;
+the one necessarily connected with the consolidating
+cause; the other with that cause of
+which we now particularly inquire. For, in
+those great mineral veins, violent fracture and
+dislocation is the principle; but there is no
+other principle upon which strata, or masses
+formed at the bottom of the sea, can be placed
+at a height above its surface. Hence, in those
+two different operations, of forming mineral
+veins, and erecting strata from a lower to a
+higher place, the principle is the same; for,
+neither can be done without violent fracture
+and dislocation.</p>
+
+<p>We now only want to know, how far it is
+by the same power, as well as upon the same
+principle, that these two operations have been
+made. An expansive force, acting from below,
+is the power most proper for erecting
+masses; but whether it is a power of the same
+nature with that which has been employed in
+forming mineral veins, will best appear in
+knowing the nature of their contents. These,
+therefore, may be now considered.</p>
+
+<p>Every species of fracture, and every degree
+of dislocation and contortion, may be perceived
+in the form of mineral veins; and there is
+no other general principle to be observed in
+examining their form. But, in examining
+their contents, some other principle may appear,
+so far as, to the dislocating power or
+force, there may be superadded matter, by
+which something in relation to the nature of
+the power may be known. If, for example,
+a tree or a rock shall be found simply split
+asunder, although there be no doubt with regard
+to some power having been applied in
+order to produce the effect, yet we are left
+merely to conjecture at the power. But when
+wedges of wood or iron, or frozen water,
+should be found lodged in the cleft, we might
+be enabled, from this appearance, to form a
+certain judgment with regard to the nature of
+the power which had been applied. This is
+the case with mineral veins. We find them
+containing matter, which indicates a cause;
+and every information in this case is interesting
+to the theory.</p>
+
+<p>The substances contained in mineral veins
+are precisely the same with those which, in
+the former section, we have considered as being
+made instrumental in the consolidation of
+strata; and they are found mixed and concreted
+in every manner possible.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this evidence for the exertion
+of extreme heat, in that process by which
+those veins were filled, there is another important
+observation to be gathered from the
+inspection of this subject. There appears to
+have been a great mechanical power employed
+in the filling of these veins, as well as that
+necessarily required in making the first fracture
+and divulsion.</p>
+
+<p>This appears from the order of the contents,
+or filling of these veins, which is a
+thing often observed to be various and successive.
+But what it is chiefly now in view
+to illustrate, is that immense force which is
+manifested in the fracture and dispersion of
+the solid contents which had formerly filled
+those veins. Here we find fragments of rock
+and spar floating in the body of a vein filled
+with metallic substances; there, again, we see
+the various fragments of metallic masses floating
+in the sparry and siliceous contents.</p>
+
+<p>One thing is demonstrable from the inspection
+of the veins and their contents; this is,
+the successive irruptions of those fluid substances
+breaking the solid bodies which they
+meet, and floating those fragments of the broken
+bodies in the vein. It is very common
+to see three successive series of those operations;
+and all this may be perceived in a
+small fragment of stone, which a man of
+science may examine in his closet, often better
+than descending to the mine, where all
+the examples are found on an enlarged scale.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what power would be
+required to force up, from the most unfathomable
+depth of the ocean, to the Andes
+or the Alps, a column of fluid metal and of
+stone. This power cannot be much less than
+that required to elevate the highest land upon
+the globe. Whether, therefore, we shall consider
+the general veins as having been filled
+by mineral steams, or by fluid minerals, an
+elevating power of immense force is still required,
+in order to form as well as fill those
+veins. But such a power acting under the
+consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea,
+is the only natural means for making those
+masses land.</p>
+
+<p>If such have been the operations that are
+necessary for the production of this land;
+and if these operations are natural to the
+globe of this earth, as being the effect of wisdom
+in its contrivance, we shall have reason
+to look for the actual manifestation of this
+truth in the phaenomena of nature, or those
+appearances which more immediately discover
+the actual cause in the perceived effect.</p>
+
+<p>To see the evidence of marble, a body that
+is solid, having been formed of loose materials
+collected at the bottom of the sea, is not
+always easy, although it may be made abundantly
+plain; and to be convinced that this
+calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in
+our fires, should have been brought into fusion
+by subterraneous heat, without suffering
+calcination, must require a chain of reasoning
+which every one is not able to attain<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a>. But
+when fire bursts forth from the bottom of the
+sea, and when the land is heaved up and down,
+so as to demolish cities in an instant, and split
+asunder rocks and solid mountains, there is
+nobody but must see in this a power, which
+may be sufficient to accomplish every view of
+nature in erecting land, as it is situated in the
+place most advantageous for that purpose.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag13"> (return) </a> Mr le Chevalier de Dolomieu, in considering the different
+effects of heat, has made the following observation;
+Journal de Physique, Mai 1792.
+
+<p>"Je dis <i>le feu tel que nous l'employons</i> pour distinguer
+le feu naturel des volcans, du feu de nos fourneaux et
+de celui de nos chalumeaux. Nous sommes obligés de
+donner une grande activité à son action pour suppléer
+et au volume qui ne seroit pas à notre disposition et au
+tems que nous sommes forcés de ménager, et cette manière
+d'appliquer une chaleur très-active, communique
+le mouvement et le désordre jusques dans les molécules
+constituantes. Agrégation et composition, tout est
+troublé. Dans les volcans la grand masse du feu supplée
+à son intensité, le tems remplace son activité, de
+manière qu'il tourmente moins les corps fournis à son
+action; il ménage leur composition en relâchant leur
+agrégation, et les pierres qui eut été rendues fluides par
+l'embrasement volcanique peuvent reprendre leur état
+primitif; la plupart des substances qu'un feu plus actif
+auroit expulsées y restent encore. Voilà pourquoi les
+laves ressemblent tellement aux pierres naturelles des
+espèces analogues, qu'elles ne peuvent en être distinguées;
+voilà également pourquoi les verres volcaniques
+eux-même renferment encore des substances élastiques
+qui les font boursoufler lorsque nous les fondons de
+nouveau, et pourquoi ces verres blanchissent aussi, pour
+lors, par la dissipation, d'une substance grasse qui a résisté
+à la chaleur des volcans, et que volatilise la chaleur
+par laquelle nous obtenons leur second fusion."</p>
+
+<p>No doubt, the long application of heat may produce
+changes in bodies very different from those which are
+occasioned by the sudden application of a more intense
+heat; but still there must be sufficient intensity in that
+power, so as to cause fluidity, without which no chemical
+change can be produced in bodies. The essential difference,
+however, between the natural heat of the mineral
+regions, and that which we excite upon the surface of the
+earth, consists in this; that nature applies heat under circumstances
+which we are not able to imitate, that is, under
+such compression as shall prevent the decomposition of
+the constituent substances, by the separation of the more
+volatile from the more fixed parts. This is a circumstance
+which, so far as I know, no chemist or naturalist
+has hitherto considered; and it is that by which the operations
+of the mineral regions must certainly be explained.
+Without attending to this great principle in the mineralizing
+operations of subterraneous fire, it is impossible
+to conceive the fusion and concretion of those various bodies,
+which we examine when brought up to the surface
+of the earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The only question, therefore, which it concerns
+us to decide at present, is, Whether those
+operations of extreme heat, and violent mechanic
+force, be only in the system as a matter
+of accident; or if, on the contrary, they are
+operations natural to the globe, and necessary
+in the production of such land as this which
+we inhabit? The answer to this is plain:
+These operations of the globe remain at present
+with undiminished activity, or in the fullness
+of their power.</p>
+
+<p>A stream of melted lava flows from the sides
+of Mount Aetna. Here is a column of weighty
+matter raised from a great depth below, to
+an immense height above, the level of the sea,
+and rocks of an enormous size are projected
+from its orifice some miles into the air. Every
+one acknowledges that here is the liquefying
+power and expansive force of subterranean
+fire, or violent heat. But, that Sicily itself had
+been raised from the bottom of the ocean, and
+that the marble called Sicilian Jasper, had its
+solidity upon the same principle with the lava,
+would stumble many a naturalist to acknowledge.
+Nevertheless, I have in my possession
+a table of this marble, from which it is demonstrable,
+that this calcareous stone had flowed,
+and been in such a state of fusion and fluidity
+as lava.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a comparison formed of two mineral
+substances, to which it is of the highest importance
+to attend. The solidity and present
+state of the one of these is commonly thought
+to be the operation of fire; of the other, again,
+it is thought to be that of water. This, however,
+is not the case. The immediate state and
+condition of both these bodies is now to be
+considered as equally the effect of fire or heat.
+The reason of our forming such a different
+judgment with regard to these two subjects is
+this; we see, in the one case, the more immediate
+connection of the cause and the effect,
+while, in the other, we have only the effects
+from whence we are in science to investigate
+the cause.</p>
+
+<p>But, if it were necessary always to see this
+immediate connection, in order to acknowledge
+the operation of a power which, at present, is
+extinguished in the effect, we should lose the
+benefit of science, or general principles, from
+whence particulars may be deduced, and we
+should be able to reason no better than the
+brute. Man is made for science; he reasons
+from effects to causes, and from causes to effects;
+but he does not always reason without
+error. In reasoning, therefore, from appearances
+which are particular, care must be taken
+how we generalise; we should be cautious not
+to attribute to nature, laws which may perhaps
+be only of our own invention.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate question now before us is
+not, If the subterraneous fire, or elevating
+power, which we perceive sometimes as operating
+with such energy, be the consolidating
+cause of strata formed at the bottom of the
+sea; nor, if that power be the means of making
+land appear above the general surface of
+the water? for, though this be the end we want
+to arrive at ultimately, the question at present
+in agitation respects the laws of nature, or the
+generality of particular appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Has the globe within it such an active power
+as fits it for the renovation of that part of its
+constitution which may be subject to decay?
+Are those powerful operations of fire, or subterraneous
+heat, which so often have filled us
+with terror and astonishment, to be considered
+as having always been? Are they to be concluded
+as proper to every part upon the globe,
+and as continual in the system of this earth?
+If these points in question shall be decided in
+the affirmative, we can be at no loss in ascertaining
+the power which has consolidated strata,
+nor in explaining the present situation of
+those bodies, which had their origin at the bottom
+of the sea. This, therefore, should be the
+object of our pursuit; and in order to have demonstration
+in a case of physical inquiry, we
+must again have recourse to the book of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The general tendency of heat is to produce
+fluidity and softness; as that of cold is, on the
+contrary, to harden soft and fluid bodies. But
+this softening power of heat is not uniform in
+its nature; it is made to act with very different
+effect, according to the nature of the substance
+to which it is applied. We are but limited in
+the art of increasing the heat or the cold of
+bodies; we find, however, extreme difference
+in their substances with respect to fusibility.</p>
+
+<p>A fusible substance, or mineral composition
+in a fluid state, is emitted from those places of
+the earth at which subterraneous fire and expansive
+force are manifested in those eruptive
+operations. In examining these emitted bodies,
+men of science find a character for such
+productions, in generalising the substance, and
+understanding the natural constitution of those
+bodies. It is in this manner that such a person,
+finding a piece of lava in any place of
+the earth, says with certainty, Here is a stone
+which had congealed from a melted state.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found a distinguishing character
+for those fused substances called, in general,
+Lavas, and having the most visible marks for
+that which had been actually a volcano, naturalists,
+in examining different countries, have
+discovered the most undoubted proofs of many
+ancient volcanos, which had not been before
+suspected. Thus, volcanos will appear to be
+not a matter of accident, or as only happening
+in a particular place, they are general to the
+globe, so far as there is no place upon the earth
+that may not have an eruption of this kind;
+although it is by no means necessary for every
+place to have had those eruptions.</p>
+
+<p>Volcanos are natural to the globe, as general
+operations; but we are not to consider nature
+as having a burning mountain for an end
+in her intention, or as a principal purpose in
+the general system of this world. The end of
+nature in placing an internal fire or power of
+heat, and a force of irresistible expansion, in
+the body of this earth, is to consolidate the
+sediment collected at the bottom of the sea,
+and to form thereof a mass of permanent land
+above the level of the ocean, for the purpose
+of maintaining plants and animals. The power
+appointed for this purpose is, as on all other
+occasions, where the operation is important,
+and where there is any danger of a shortcoming,
+wisely provided in abundance; and
+there are contrived means for disposing of the
+redundancy. These, in the present case, are
+our volcanos.</p>
+
+<p>A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten
+superstitious people into fits of piety and
+devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities
+with destruction; a volcano should be considered
+as a spiracle to the subterranean furnace,
+in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation
+of land, and fatal effects of earthquakes; and
+we may rest assured, that they, in general,
+wisely answer the end of their intention, without
+being in themselves an end, for which nature
+had exerted such amazing power and excellent
+contrivance.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a view of the most elevated
+places of the earth; if the present theory is
+just, it is there that we should find volcanos.
+But is not this the case? There are volcanos
+in the Andes; and round the Alps we find
+many volcanos, which are in France upon the
+one side, and in Germany upon the other, as
+well as upon the Italian side, where Vesuvius
+still continues to exhibit violent eruptions.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant to allege, that it is only upon
+the summit of a continent volcanos should
+appear. Subterraneous fire has sometimes made
+its appearance in bursting from the bottom of
+the sea. But, even in this last case, land was
+raised from the bottom of the sea, before the
+eruption made its exit into the atmosphere. It
+must also be evident, that, in this case of the
+new island near Santorini, had the expansive
+power been retained, instead of being discharged,
+much more land might have been raised
+above the level of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the eruption of that elastic force
+through the bottom of the sea, may be considered
+as a waste of power in the operations
+of the globe, where the elevation of indurated
+strata is an object in the exertion of that power;
+whereas, in the centre of a continent sufficiently
+elevated above the level of the sea, the eruption
+of that fiery vapour calculated to elevate
+the land, while it may occasionally destroy
+the habitations of a few, provides for the security
+and quiet possession of the many.</p>
+
+<p>In order to see the wisdom of this contrivance,
+let us consider the two extreme places
+at which this eruption of ignited matter may
+be performed. These are, on the one hand,
+within a continent of land, and, on the other,
+at the bottom of the ocean. In the one case,
+the free eruption of the expanding power
+should be permitted; because the purpose for
+which it had been calculated to exist has been
+accomplished. In the other, again, the free
+eruption of that powerful matter should be
+repressed; because there is reserved for that
+power much of another operation in that place.
+But, according to the wise constitution of
+things, this must necessarily happen. The
+eruption of the fiery vapour from volcanos
+on the continent or land, is interrupted only
+occasionally, by the melted bodies flowing in
+the subterraneous chimney; whereas, at the
+bottom of the ocean, the contact of the water
+necessarily tends to close the orifice, by accumulating
+condensed matter upon the weakest
+place.</p>
+
+<p>If this be a just theory of the natural operations
+of the globe, we shall have reason to
+expect, that great quantities of this melted
+matter, or fusible substance, may be found in
+form of lava, among the strata of the earth,
+where there are no visible marks of any volcano,
+or burning mountain, having existed.
+Here, therefore, is an important point to be
+determined; for, if it shall appear that much
+of this melted matter, analogous to lava, has
+been forced to flow among the strata which
+had been formed at the bottom of the sea, and
+now are found forming dry land above its surface,
+it will be allowed, that we have discovered
+the secret operations of nature concocting
+future land, as well as those by which the present
+habitable earth had been produced from
+the bottom of the abyss. Here, therefore, we
+shall at present rest the argument, with endeavouring
+to show that such is actually the case.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from Cronstedt's Mineralogy,
+that the rock-stone, called trap by the Swedes,
+the amygdaloides and the schwarts-stein of
+the Germans, are the same with the whin-stone
+of this country. This is also fully confirmed
+by specimens from Sweden, sent me
+by my friend Dr Gahn. Whatever, therefore,
+shall be ascertained with regard to our
+whin-stone, may be so far generalized or extended
+to the countries of Norway, Sweden,
+and Germany.</p>
+
+<p>The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same
+with the toad-stone of Derbyshire, which is of
+the amygdaloides species; it is also the same
+with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire,
+which is a simple whin-stone, or perfect trap.
+England, therefore, must be included in this
+great space of land, the mineral operations of
+which we explore; and also Ireland, of which
+the Giant's Causeway, and many others, are
+sufficient proof.</p>
+
+<p>In the south of Scotland, there is a ridge of
+hills, which extends from the west side of the
+island in Galloway to the east side in Berwickshire,
+composed of granite, of schistus,
+and of siliceous strata. The Grampians on
+the north, again, form another range of
+mountains of the same kind; and between
+these two great fields of broken, tumbled, and
+distorted strata, there lies a field of lesser hardness
+and consolidation, in general; but a field
+in which there is a great manifestation of subterraneous
+fire, and of exerted force.</p>
+
+<p>The strata in this space consist, in general,
+of sand-stone, coal, lime-stone or marble, iron-stone,
+and marl or argillaceous strata, with
+strata of analogous bodies, and the various
+compositions of these. But what is to the
+present purpose is this, that, through all this
+space, there are interspersed immense quantities
+of whinstone; a body which is to be distinguished
+as very different from lava; and
+now the disposition of this whin-stone is to be
+considered.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it is found in an irregular mass
+or mountain, as Mr Cronstedt has properly observed;
+but he has also said, that this is not
+the case in general. His words are: "It is
+oftener found in form of veins in mountains
+of another kind, running commonly
+in a serpentine manner, contrary or across
+to the direction of the rock itself."</p>
+
+<p>The origin of this form, in which the trap
+or whin-stone appears, is most evident to inspection,
+when we consider that this solid
+body had been in a fluid state, and introduced,
+in that state, among strata, which preserved
+their proper form. The strata appear to have
+been broken, and the two correspondent parts
+of those strata are separated to admit the flowing
+mass of whin-stone.</p>
+
+<p>A fine example of this kind may be seen
+upon the south side of the Earn, on the road
+to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands
+perpendicular, and appears many feet above
+the surface of the ground. It runs from that
+eastward, and would seem to be the same with
+that which crosses the river Tay, in forming
+Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser one of
+the same kind does below it. I have seen it
+at Lednoc upon the Ammon, where it forms
+a cascade in that river, about five or six miles
+west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from
+the Tay east through Strathmore, so that it
+may be considered as having been traced for
+twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to
+Drummond castle, perhaps much farther.</p>
+
+<p>Two small veins of the same kind, only
+two or three feet wide, may be seen in the
+bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the
+horizontal strata, the one is above St Bernard's
+well, the other immediately below it. But,
+more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the
+north of Irvine, there are to be seen upon the
+coast, between that and Scarmorly, in the
+space of about twenty miles, more than twenty
+or thirty such dykes (as they are called) of
+whin-stone. Some of them are of a great
+thickness; and, in some places, there is perceived
+a short one, running at right angles,
+and communicating with other two that run
+parallel.</p>
+
+<p>There is in this country, and in Derbyshire<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a>,
+another regular appearance of this stone,
+which Cronstedt has not mentioned. In this
+case, the strata are not broken in order to have
+the whin-stone introduced, they are separated,
+and the whin-stone is interjected in form of
+strata, having various degrees of regularity,
+and being of different thickness. On the
+south side of Edinburgh, I have seen, in little
+more than the space of a mile from east to
+west, nine or ten masses of whin-stone interjected
+among the strata. These masses of whin-stone
+are from three or four to an hundred feet
+thick, running parallel in planes inclined to
+the horizon, and forming with it an angle of
+about twenty or thirty degrees, as may be
+seen at all times in the hill of Salisbury
+Craggs.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag14"> (return) </a> See Mr Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus described these masses, which
+have flowed by means of heat among the strata
+of the globe, strata which had been formed
+by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will
+now be proper to examine the difference that
+subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as
+they may be termed, and the analogous bodies
+which are proper lavas, in having issued out
+of a volcano.<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag15"> (return) </a> The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination
+of Aetna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed
+the distinction of these two different species of lavas;
+but without seeming to know the principle upon
+which this essential difference depends. No bias of system,
+therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's
+view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting
+to the present theory, as corresponding perfectly
+with the facts from whence it has been formed. It will
+be proper to give the account of these in his own words.
+
+<p>La zéolite est très-commune dans certains laves de
+l'Ethna; il seroit peut-être possible d'y en rencontrer des
+morceaux aussi gros que ceux que fournit l'isle de Ferroé.
+Quoique cette substance semble ici appartenir aux laves, je
+ne dirai cependant point que toutes les zéolites soient volcaniques,
+ou unies à des matières volcaniques; celles que
+l'on trouve en Allemagne sont, dit-on, dans des circonstances
+différentes; mais je doit annoncer que je n'ai
+trouvé cette substance en Sicile, que dans les seules laves
+qui évidemment ont coulé dans la mer, et qui out été recouvertes
+par ses eaux. La zéolite des laves n'est point une
+déjection volcanique, ni une production du feu, ni même
+un matière que les laves aient enveloppée lorsqu'elles
+étoient fluides; elle est le résultat d'une opération et d'une
+combinaison postérieure, auxquelles les eaux de la mer ont
+concouru. Les laves qui n'ont pas été submergées, n'en
+contiennent jamais. J'ai trouvé ces observations si constantes,
+que par-tout où je rencontrois de la zéolite, j'étois
+sûr de trouver d'autres preuves de submersion, et partout
+où je voyois des laves recouvertes des dépôts de l'eau, j'étois
+sûr de trouver de la zéolite, et un de ces faits m'a
+toujours indiqué l'autre. Je me suis servi avec succès de
+cette observation pour diriger mes recherches, et pour
+connoître l'antiquité des laves. <i>Minéralogie de Volcans,
+par M. Faujas de Saint-Fond</i>. Here would appear to be
+the distinction of subterraneous lava, in which zeolite and
+calcareous spar may be found, and that which has flowed
+from a volcano, in which neither of these are ever observed.</blockquote>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that these two different
+species of bodies have had the same
+origin, and that they are composed of the
+same materials nearly; but from the different
+circumstances Of their production, there is
+formed a character to these bodies, by which,
+they may be perfectly distinguished. The
+difference of those circumstances consists in
+this; the one has been emitted to the atmosphere
+in its fluid state the other only came to
+be exposed to the light in a long course of
+time, after it had congealed under the compression
+of an immense load of earth, and after
+certain operations, proper to the mineral regions,
+had been exercised upon the indurated
+mass. This is the cause of the difference between
+those erupted lavas, and our whin-stone,
+toad-stone, and the Swedish trap, which may
+be termed subterraneous lava. The visible effects
+of those different operations may now
+be mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the erupted lavas, those substances which
+are subject to calcine and vitrify in our fires,
+suffer similar changes, when delivered from a
+compression which had rendered them fixed,
+though in an extremely heated state. Thus,
+a lava in which there is much calcareous spar,
+when it comes to be exposed to the atmosphere,
+or delivered from the compressing force
+of its confinement, effervesces by the explosion
+of its fixed air; the calcareous earth, at
+the same time, vitrifies with the other substances.
+Hence such violent ebullition in volcanos,
+and hence the emission of so much pumice-stone
+and ashes, which are of the same
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>In the body of our whin-stone, on the contrary,
+there is no mark of calcination or vitrification.
+We frequently find in it much calcareous
+spar, or the <i>terra calcarea aerata</i>,
+which had been in a melted state by heat, and
+had been crystallized by congelation into a
+sparry form. Such is the <i>lapis amygdaloides</i>,
+and many of our whin-stone rocks, which
+contain pebbles crystallized and variously figured,
+both calcareous, siliceous, and of a mixture
+in which both these substances form distinct
+parts. The specimens of this kind,
+which I have from the whin-stone or porphyry
+rock of the Calton-hill, exhibit every
+species of mineral operation, in forming jasper,
+figured agate, and marble; and they demonstrate,
+that this had been performed by
+heat or fusion.</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to say, that this demonstration
+is direct; it is conditional, and proceeds
+upon the supposition, that the basaltic or porphyry
+rock, in which those specimens are
+found, is a body which had been in a melted
+state. Now, this is a supposition for which I
+have abundance of evidence, were it required;
+but naturalists are now sufficiently disposed to
+admit that proposition; they even draw conclusions
+from this fact, which, I think, they
+are not sufficiently warranted in doing; that
+is, from this appearance, they infer the former
+existence of volcanos in those places. For my
+part, though I have made the most strict examination,
+I never saw any vestige of such an
+event. That there are, in other countries,
+evident marks of volcanos which have been
+long extinguished, is unquestionably true; but
+naturalists, imagining that there are no other
+marks of subterraneous fire and fusion, except
+in the production of a lava, attribute to a volcano,
+as a cause, these effects, which only indicate
+the exertion of that power which might
+have been the cause of a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>If the theory now given be just, a rock of
+marble is no less a mark of subterraneous fire
+and fusion, than that of the basaltes; and the
+flowing of basaltic streams among strata broken
+and displaced, affords the most satisfactory
+evidence of those operations by which the
+body of our land had been elevated above the
+surface of the sea; but it gives no proof that
+the eruptive force of mineral vapours had
+been discharged in a burning mountain. Now,
+this discharge is essential in the proper idea of
+a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this internal mark of an unerupted
+lava in the substance of the stone or body of
+the flowing mass, there are others which belong
+to it in common with all other mineral
+strata, consolidated by subterraneous fire, and
+changed from the place of their original formation;
+this is, the being broken and dislocated,
+and having veins of foreign matter
+formed in their separations and contractions.</p>
+
+<p>If these are mineral operations, proper to
+the lower regions of the earth, and exerted
+upon bodies under immense compression, such
+things will be sometimes found in the unerupted
+lavas, as well as in the contiguous
+bodies with which they are associated. If,
+on the contrary, these are operations proper
+to the surface of the earth, where the dissolving
+power of water and air take place, and
+where certain stalactical and ferruginous concretions
+are produced by these means; then,
+in erupted lavas, we should find mineral concretions,
+which concretions should be denied
+to bodies which had been consolidated at the
+bottom of the sea; that is to say, where, without
+the operation of subterraneous fire, no
+changes of that kind could have taken place,
+as has already been observed. But in the
+unerupted species of lava, that is to say, in our
+whin-stone, every species of mineral appearance
+is occasionally to be found. Let those
+who have the opportunity to examine, say,
+what arc to be found in proper lavas, that is,
+those of the erupted kind. Sir William Hamilton
+informed me, when I showed him those
+mineral veins and spars in our whin-stone,
+that he had never observed the like, in lavas
+We have now formed some conclusions
+with regard to the nature and production of
+those parts of the land of this globe which we
+have had the means of examining perfectly;
+but; from the accounts of travellers, and from,
+the specimens which are brought to us from
+distant parts, we have reason to believe, that
+all the rest of the earth is of the same nature
+with that which has been now considered.
+The great masses of the earth are the same
+every where; and all the different species of
+earths, of rocks or stone, which have as yet
+appeared, are to be found in the little space
+of this our island.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that there are peculiar productions
+in the mineral kingdom which are rare,
+as being found only in few places; but these
+things are merely accidental in relation to the
+land, for they belong in property to those
+parts of the mineral region which we never
+see. Such are, the diamond of the east, the
+platina of the west, and the tin of Cornwall,
+Germany, and Sumatra. Gold and silver,
+though found in many countries, do not appear
+to be immediately necessary in the production
+of a habitable country. Iron, again,
+is universal in the operations of the globe, and
+is found often in that profusion which equals
+its utility. Between these two extremes, we
+find all other minerals, that is to say, here and
+there in moderate quantity, and apparently in
+some proportion to their use. But all these
+substances are to be considered as the vapours
+of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally
+in the crevices of the land; and it is only the
+rocks and strata (in which those mineral veins
+are found) that are now examined with regard
+to their original composition, at the bottom
+of the sea, as well as to that, operation by
+which those bodies had been indurated in their
+substance, and elevated from the place in which
+they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, we have sufficient reason to believe,
+that, in knowing the construction of the land
+in Europe, we know the constitution of the
+land in every part of the globe. Therefore,
+we may proceed to form general conclusions,
+from the knowledge of the mineral region,
+thus acquired in studying those parts which
+are seen.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found, <i>first</i>, That the consolidated
+and indurated masses of our strata had
+suffered the effects of violent heat and fusion;
+<i>2dly</i>, That those strata, which had been formed
+in a regular manner at the bottom of the
+sea, have been violently bended, broken, and
+removed from their original place and situation;
+and, <i>lastly</i>, Having now found the most
+indubitable proof, that the melting, breaking,
+and removing power of subterraneous fire, has
+been actually exerted upon this land which
+we examine, we cannot hesitate in ascribing
+these operations as a cause to those effects
+which are exposed to our view. Now, these
+may be considered as consisting in the solid
+state and present situation of those stratified
+bodies, originally formed by subsidence in the
+ocean; appearances which cannot, in reason,
+be ascribed to any other cause, and which,
+upon this principle, are perfectly explained.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant to specify every particular
+in the means employed by nature for the elevation
+of our land. It is sufficient to have
+shown, that there is, in nature, means employed
+for the consolidating of strata, formed
+originally of loose and incoherent materials;
+and that those same means have also been
+employed in changing the place and situation
+of those strata. But how describe an operation
+which man cannot have any opportunity of
+perceiving? Or how imagine that, for which,
+perhaps, there are not proper data to be found?
+We only know, that the land is raised by a
+power which has for principle subterraneous
+heat; but, how that land is preserved in its
+elevated station, is a subject in which we have
+not even the means to form conjecture; at
+least, we ought to be cautious how we indulge
+conjecture in a subject where no means occur
+for trying that which is but supposition.</p>
+
+<p>We now proceed, from the facts which
+have been properly established, to reason with
+regard to the duration of this globe, or the
+general view of its operations, as a living
+world, maintaining plants and animals.</p>
+
+<h3>SECTION IV.</h3>
+
+<p><i>System of Decay and Renovation observed in
+the Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Philosophers observing an apparent disorder
+and confusion in the solid parts of this
+globe, have been led to conclude, that there
+formerly existed a more regular and uniform
+state, in the constitution of this earth; that
+there had happened some destructive change;
+and that the original structure of the earth had
+been broken and disturbed by some violent
+operation, whether natural, or from a super-natural
+cause. Now, all these appearances,
+from which conclusions of this kind have been
+formed, find the most perfect explanation in
+the theory which we have been endeavouring
+to establish; for they are the facts from whence
+we have reasoned, in discovering the nature
+and constitution of this earth: Therefore,
+there is no occasion for having recourse to
+any unnatural supposition of evil, to any destructive
+accident in nature, or to the agency
+of any preternatural cause, in explaining that
+which actually appears.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary for a living or inhabited
+world, that this should consist of land and
+water. It is also necessary, that the land
+should be solid and stable, refilling, with great
+power, the violent efforts of the ocean; and,
+at the same time, that this solid land should be
+resolved by the influence of the sun and atmosphere,
+so as to decay, and thus become a soil
+for vegetation. But these general intentions
+are perfectly fulfilled in the constitution of our
+earth, which has been now investigated. This
+great body being formed of different mixed
+masses, having various degrees of hardness
+and solubility, proper soil for plants is supplied
+from the gradual resolution of the solid parts;
+fertility in those soils arises from the mixture
+of different elementary substances; and stability
+is procured to that vegetable world, by the
+induration of certain bodies, those rocks and
+stones, which protect the softer masses of clay
+and soil.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner, also, will easily be explained
+those natural appearances which diversify
+the surface of the earth for the use of plants
+and animals, and those objects which beautify
+the face of nature for the contemplation of
+mankind. Such are, the distinctions of mountains
+and valleys, of lakes and rivers, of dry
+barren deserts and rich watered plains, of
+rocks which stand apparently unimpaired by
+the lapse of time, and sands which fluctuate
+with the winds and tides. All these are the
+effects of steady causes; each of these has its
+proper purpose in the system of the earth;
+and in that system is contained another, which
+is that of living growing bodies, and of animated
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this, man, the intellectual being,
+has, in this subject of the mineral kingdom,
+the means of gratifying the desire of
+knowledge, a faculty by which he is distinguished
+from the animal, and by which he
+improves his mind in knowing causes. Man
+is not satisfied, like the brute, in seeing things
+which are; he seeks to know how things
+have been, and what they are to be. It is
+with pleasure that he observes order and regularity
+in the works of nature, instead of being
+disgusted with disorder and confusion;
+and he is made happy from the appearance of
+wisdom and benevolence in the design, instead
+of being left to suspect in the Author of nature,
+any of that imperfection which he finds
+in himself.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take a view of that system of
+mineral economy, in which may be perceived
+every mark of order and design, of provident
+wisdom and benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>We have been endeavouring to prove, that
+all the continents and islands of this globe
+had been raised above the surface of the ocean;
+we have also aimed at pointing out the cause
+of this translation of matter, as well as of the
+general solidity of that which is raised to our
+view; but however this theory shall be received,
+no person of observation can entertain
+a doubt, that all, or almost all we see of
+this earth, had been originally formed at the
+bottom of the sea. We have now another
+object in our view; this is to investigate the
+operations of the globe, at the time that the
+foundation of this land was laying in the
+waters of the ocean, and to trace the existence
+and the nature of things, before the present
+land appeared above the surface of the waters.
+We should thus acquire some knowledge of
+the system according to which this world is
+ruled, both in its preservation and production;
+and we might be thus enabled to judge, how
+far the mineral system of the world shall appear
+to be contrived with all the wisdom,
+which is so manifest in what are termed the
+animal and vegetable kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be imagined that this undertaking
+is a thing unreasonable in its nature; or
+that it is a work necessarily beset with any unsurmountable
+difficulty; for, however imperfectly
+we may fulfil this end proposed, yet, so
+far as it is to natural causes that are to be ascribed
+the operations of former time, and so
+far as, from the present state of things, or
+knowledge of natural history, we have it in
+our power to reason from effect to cause, there
+are, in the constitution of the world, which
+we now examine, certain means to read the
+annals of a former earth.</p>
+
+<p>The object of inquiry being the operations
+of the globe, during the time that the present
+earth was forming at the bottom of the sea,
+we are now to take a very general view of
+nature, without descending into those particulars
+which so often occupy the speculations
+of naturalists, about the present state of things.
+We are not at present to enter into any discussion
+with regard to what are the primary
+and secondary mountains of the earth; we
+are not to consider what is the first, and what
+the last, in those things which now are seen;
+whatever is most ancient in the strata which
+we now examine, is supposed to be collecting
+at the bottom of the sea, during the period
+concerning which we are now to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>We have already considered those operations
+which had been necessary in forming
+our solid land, a body consisting of materials
+originally deposited at the bottom of the ocean;
+we are now to investigate the source from
+whence had come all those materials, from the
+collection of which the present land is formed;
+and from knowing the state in which
+those materials had existed, previously to their
+entering the composition of our strata, we
+shall learn something concerning the natural
+history of this world, while the present earth
+was forming in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have already observed, that all the strata
+of the earth are composed either from the
+calcareous relicts of sea animals, or from the
+collection of such materials as we find upon
+our shores. At a gross computation, there
+may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land,
+which is composed from the matter that had
+belonged to those animals. Now, what a
+multitude of living creatures, what a quantity
+of animal economy must have been required
+for producing a body of calcareous matter
+which is interspersed throughout all the land
+of the globe, and which certainly forms a very
+considerable part of that mass! Therefore,
+in knowing how those animals had lived, or
+with what they had been fed, we shall have
+learned a most interesting part of the natural
+history of this earth; a part which it is necessary
+to have ascertained, in order to see the
+former operations of the globe, while preparing
+the materials of the present land. But,
+before entering upon this subject, let us examine
+the other materials of which our land is
+formed.</p>
+
+<p>Gravel forms a part of those materials
+which compose our solid land; but gravel is
+no other than a collection of the fragments of
+solid stones worn round, or having their angular
+form destroyed by agitation in water,
+and the attrition upon each other, or upon similar
+hard bodies. Consequently, in finding
+masses of gravel in the composition of our
+land, we must conclude, that there had existed
+a former land, on which there had been
+transacted certain operations of wind and water,
+similar to those which are natural to the
+globe at present, and by which new gravel is
+continually prepared, as well as old gravel consumed
+or diminished by attrition upon our
+shores.</p>
+
+<p>Sand is the material which enters, perhaps
+in greatest quantity, the composition of our
+land. But sand, in general, is no other than
+small fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn
+or rounded more or less by attrition; consequently,
+the same natural history of the earth,
+which is investigated from the masses of gravel,
+is also applicable to those masses of sand
+which we find forming so large a portion of
+our present land throughout all the earth<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag16"> (return) </a> Sand is a term that denotes no particular substance;
+although by it is commonly meant a siliceous substance, as
+being by far the most prevalent. Sand is one of the modifications,
+of size and shape, in a hard body or solid substance,
+which may be infinitely diversified. The next
+modification to be distinguished in mineral bodies is that
+of gravel; and this differs in no respect from sand, except
+in point of size. Next after gravel, in the order of
+ascent, come stones; and these bear nearly the same relation
+to gravel as gravel does to sand. Now, by stones is
+to be understood the fragments of rocks or solid mineral
+bodies; and there is a perfect gradation from those stones
+to sand. I have already endeavoured to explain the formation
+of those stony substances; and now I am treating
+of a certain system of circulation, which is to be found
+among minerals.
+
+<p>M. de Luc censures me for not giving the origin of
+sand, of which I form the strata of the earth. He seems
+to have misunderstood my treatise. I do not pretend, as
+he does in his theory, to describe the beginning of things;
+I take things such as I find them at present, and from
+these I reason with regard to that which must have been.
+When, from a thing which is well known, we explain
+another which is less so, we then investigate nature; but
+when we imagine things without a pattern or example in
+nature, then, instead of natural history, we write only
+fable.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc, in the letter already mentioned, says, "that
+sand may be, and I think it is, a substance which has
+formed <i>strata</i> by <i>precipitation in a liquid</i>." This is but an
+opinion, which may be either true or false. If it be true,
+it is an operation of the mineral kingdom of which I am
+ignorant. In all the sand which I have ever examined, I
+have never seen any that might not be referred to the
+species of mineral substance from which it had been formed.
+When this author shall have given us any kind of
+information with regard to the production of sand <i>by precipitation
+in a liquid</i>, it will then be time enough to think
+of forming the strata of the earth with that sand.*</blockquote>
+
+<p>Clay is now to be considered as the last of
+those materials of which our strata are composed;
+but, in order to understand the nature
+of this ingredient, something must be premised.</p>
+
+<p>Clay is a mixture of different earths or
+hard substances, in an impalpable state. Those
+substances are chiefly the siliceous and aluminous
+earths. Other earths are occasionally
+mixed in clays, or perhaps always to be found
+in some small portion. But this does not affect
+the general character of clay; it only
+forms a special variety in the subject. A sensible
+or considerable portion of calcareous
+earth, in the composition of clay, constitutes
+a marl, and a sufficient admixture of sand, a
+loam.</p>
+
+<p>An indefinite variety of those compositions
+of clay form a large portion of the present
+strata, all indurated and consolidated in various
+degrees; but this great quantity of siliceous,
+argillaceous, and other compound substances,
+in form of earth or impalpable sediment, corresponds
+perfectly with that quantity of those
+same substances which must have been prepared
+in the formation of so much gravel and
+sand, by the attrition of those bodies in the
+moving waters.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, from the consideration of those
+materials which compose the present land, we
+have reason to conclude, that, during the time
+this land was forming, by the collection of its
+materials at the bottom of the sea, there had
+been a former land containing materials similar
+to those which we find at present in examining
+the earth. We may also conclude,
+that there had been operations similar to those
+which we now find natural to the globe, and
+necessarily exerted in the actual formation of
+gravel, sand, and clay. But what we have now
+chiefly in view to illustrate is this, that there
+had then been in the ocean a system of animated
+beings, which propagated their species,
+and which have thus continued their several
+races to this day.</p>
+
+<p>In order to be convinced of that truth, we
+have but to examine the strata of our earth,
+in which we find the remains of animals. In
+this examination, we not only discover every
+genus of animal which at present exists in the
+sea, but probably every species, and perhaps
+some species with which at present we are not
+acquainted. There are, indeed, varieties in
+those species, compared with the present animals
+which we examine, but no greater varieties
+than may perhaps be found among the
+same species in the different quarters of the
+globe. Therefore, the system of animal life,
+which had been maintained in the ancient sea,
+had not been different from that which now
+subsists, and of which it belongs to naturalists
+to know the history.</p>
+
+<p>It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately
+supported from matter of vegetable
+production. Inflammable matter may be considered
+as the <i>pabulum</i> of life. This is prepared
+in the bodies of living plants, particularly
+in their leaves exposed to the sun and
+light. This inflammable matter, on the contrary,
+is consumed in animal bodies, where it
+produces heat or light, or both. Therefore,
+however animal matter, or the pabulum of
+life, may circulate through a series of digesting
+powers, it is constantly impaired or diminishing
+in the course of this economy, and,
+without the productive power of plants, it
+would finally be extinguished.<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag17"> (return) </a> See Dissertations on different subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part II.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The animals of the former world must
+have been sustained during indefinite successions
+of ages. The mean quantity of animal
+matter, therefore, must have been preserved
+by vegetable production, and the natural waste
+of inflammable substance repaired with continual
+addition; that is to say, the quantity of
+inflammable matter necessary to the animal
+consumption, must have been provided by
+means of vegetation. Hence we must conclude,
+that there had been a world of plants,
+as well as an ocean replenished with living
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>We are now, in reasoning from principles,
+come to a point decisive of the question, and
+which will either confirm the theory, if it be
+just, or confute our reasoning, if we have erred.
+Let us, therefore, open the book of Nature,
+and read in her records, if there had been
+a world bearing plants, at the time when this
+present world was forming at the bottom of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here the cabinets of the curious are to be
+examined; but here some caution is required,
+in order to distinguish things perfectly different,
+which sometimes are confounded.</p>
+
+<p>Fossil wood, to naturalists in general, is
+wood dug up from under ground, without
+inquiring whether this had been the production
+of the present earth, or that which had
+preceded it in the circulation of land and water.
+The question is important, and the solution
+of it is, in general, easy. The vegetable
+productions of the present earth, however
+deep they may be found buried beneath
+its surface, and however ancient they may appear,
+compared with the records of our known
+times, are new, compared with the solid land
+on which they grew; and they are only covered
+with the produce of a vegetable soil, or
+the alluvion of the present land on which we
+dwell, and on which they had grown. But
+the fossil bodies which form the present subject
+of inquiry, belonged to former land, and
+are found only in the sea-born strata of our
+present earth. It is to these alone that we
+appeal, in order to prove the certainty of former
+events.</p>
+
+<p>Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object
+now inquired after; that wood which had
+been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and
+there composed part of a stratum, which hitherto
+we have considered as only formed of
+the materials proper to the ocean. Now, what
+a profusion of this species of fossil wood is
+to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and
+even in the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers
+of polished stones! In some places, it
+would seem to be as common as the agate.</p>
+
+<p>I shall only mention a specimen in my own
+collection. It is wood petrified with calcareous
+earth, and mineralised with pyrites.
+This specimen of wood contains in itself, even
+without the stratum of stone in which it is
+embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
+It had been eaten or perforated by
+those sea worms which destroy the bottoms of
+our ships. There is the clearest evidence of
+this truth. Therefore, this wood had grown
+upon land which flood above the level of
+sea, while the present land was only forming
+at the bottom of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Wood is the most substantial part of plants,
+as shells are the more permanent part of marine
+animals. It is not, however, the woody
+part alone of the ancient vegetable world that
+is transmitted to us in the record of our mineral
+pages. We have the type of many species
+of foliage, and even of the most delicate
+flower; for, in this way, naturalists have determined,
+according to the Linnaean system,
+the species, or at least the genus, of the plant.
+Thus, the existence of a vegetable system at
+the period now in contemplation, so far from
+being doubtful, is a matter of physical demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>The profusion of this vegetable matter, delivered
+into the ocean, which then generated
+land, is also evidenced in the amazing quantities
+of mineral coal which is to be found in
+perhaps every region of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more certain, than that all
+the coaly or bituminous strata have had their
+origin from the substance of vegetable bodies
+that grew upon the land. Those strata, tho',
+in general, perfectly consolidated, often separate
+horizontally in certain places; and there
+we find the fibrous or vascular structure of
+the vegetable bodies. Consequently, there is
+no doubt of fossil coal being a substance of
+vegetable production, however animal substances
+also may have contributed in forming
+this collection of oleaginous or inflammable
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus ascertained the state of a former
+earth, in which plants and animals had
+lived, as well as the gradual production of the
+present earth, composed from the materials
+of a former world, it must be evident, that
+here are two operations which are necessarily
+consecutive. The formation of the present
+earth necessarily involves the destruction of
+continents in the ancient world; and, by pursuing
+in our mind the natural operations of a
+former earth, we clearly see the origin of that
+land, by the fertility of which, we, and all
+the animated bodies of the sea, are fed. It is
+in like manner, that, contemplating the present
+operations of the globe, we may perceive
+the actual existence of those productive causes,
+which are now laying the foundation of land
+in the unfathomable regions of the sea, and
+which will, in time, give birth to future continents.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in generalising the operations
+of nature, we have arrived at those great
+events, which, at first sight, may fill the mind
+with wonder and with doubt, we are not to
+suppose, that there is any violent exertion of
+power, such as is required in order to produce
+a great event in little time; in nature, we find
+no deficiency in respect of time, nor any limitation
+with regard to power. But time is not
+made to flow in vain; nor does there ever
+appear the exertion of superfluous power, or
+the manifestation of design, not calculated in
+wisdom to effect some general end.</p>
+
+<p>The events now under consideration may
+be examined with a view to see this truth;
+for it may be inquired, Why destroy one
+continent in order to erect another? The
+answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a
+continent from having wearied of a subject
+which had given pleasure, or changed her
+purpose, whether for a better or a worse;
+neither does she erect a continent of land
+among the clouds, to show her power, or to
+amaze the vulgar man; Nature has contrived
+the productions of vegetable bodies, and the
+sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the
+gradual but sure destruction of a continent;
+that is to say, these two operations necessarily
+go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has
+nature ordered things in the economy of this
+world, that the destruction of one continent is
+not brought about without the renovation of
+the earth in the production of another; and
+the animal and vegetable bodies, for which
+the world above the surface of the sea is levelled
+with its bottom, are among the means
+employed in those operations, as well as the
+sustenance of those living beings is the proper
+end in view.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in understanding the proper constitution
+of the present earth, we are led to
+know the source from whence had come all
+the materials which nature had employed in
+the construction of the world which appears;
+a world contrived in consummate wisdom for
+the growth and habitation of a great diversity
+of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly
+adapted to the purposes of man, who inhabits
+all its climates, who measures its extent,
+and determines its productions at his pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of a great object or event fills
+us with wonder and astonishment, when all
+the particulars, in the succession of which the
+whole had been produced, may be considered
+without the least emotion. When, for example,
+we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our
+mind is agitated with a crowd of ideas that
+highly entertains the person who understands
+the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone
+up to the top of a hill or mountain would
+give that person little pleasure or concern.
+We wonder at the whole operation of the pyramid,
+but not at any one particular part.</p>
+
+<p>The raising up of a continent of land from
+the bottom of the sea, is an idea that is too
+great to be conceived easily in all the parts of
+its operations, many of which are perhaps unknown
+to us; and, without being properly
+understood, so great an idea may appear like
+a thing that is imaginary. In like manner,
+the co-relative, or corresponding operation,
+the destruction of the land, is an idea that
+does not easily enter into the mind of man in
+its totality, although he is daily witness to
+part of the operation. We never see a river
+in a flood, but we must acknowledge the carrying
+away of part of our land, to be sunk at
+the bottom of the sea; we never see a storm
+upon the coast, but we are informed of a hostile
+attack of the sea upon our country; attacks
+which must, in time, wear away the
+bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations
+of our dwellings. Thus, great things are not
+understood without the analysing of many
+operations, and the combination of time with
+many events happening in succession.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what is to be the subject
+of examination, and where it is that we
+are to observe those operations which must
+determine either the stability or the instability
+of this land on which we live.</p>
+
+<p>Our land has two extremities; the tops of
+the mountains, on the one hand, and the sea-shores,
+on the other: It is the intermediate
+space between these two, that forms the habitation
+of plants and animals. While there is
+a sea-shore and a higher ground there is that
+which is required in the system of the world:
+Take these away, and there would remain an
+aqueous globe, in which the world would
+perish. But, in the natural operations of the
+world, the land is perishing continually; and
+this is that which now we want to understand.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the one extremity of our land, there
+is no increase, or there is no accession of any
+mineral substance. That place is the mountain-top,
+on which nothing is observed but
+continual decay. The fragments of the mountain
+are removed in a gradual succession from
+the highest station to the lowest. Being arrived
+at the shore, and having entered the dominion
+of the waves, in which they find perpetual
+agitation, these hard fragments, which
+had eluded the resolving powers natural to
+the surface of the earth, are incapable of resisting
+the powers here employed for the destruction
+of the land. By the attrition of one
+hard body upon another, the moving stones
+and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
+that solid mass, which of itself had potential
+liability against the violence of the waves, affords
+the instruments of its own destruction,
+and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand the system of the
+heavens, it is necessary to connect together
+periods of measured time, and the distinguished
+places of revolving bodies. It is thus that
+system may be observed, or wisdom, in the
+proper adapting of powers to an intention.
+In like manner, we cannot understand the
+system of the globe, without seeing that progress
+of things which is brought about in
+time, thus measuring the natural operations of
+the earth with those of the heavens. This is
+properly the business of the present undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Our object is to know the time which had
+elapsed since the foundation of the present
+continent had been laid at the bottom of the
+ocean, to the present moment in which we
+speculate on these operations. The space is
+long; the data for the calculations are, perhaps,
+deficient: No matter; so far as we know our
+error, or the deficiency in our operation, we
+proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason.
+It is not given to man to know what
+things are truly in themselves, but only what
+those things are in his thought. We seek not
+to know the precise measure of any thing; we
+only understand the limits of a thing, in knowing
+what it is not, either on the one side or
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>We are investigating the age of the present
+earth, from the beginning of that body which
+was in the bottom of the sea, to the perfection
+of its nature, which we consider as in the moment
+of our existence; and we have necessarily
+another aera, which is collateral, or correspondent,
+in the progress of those natural
+events. This is the time required, in the natural
+operations of this globe, for the destruction
+of a former earth; an earth equally perfect
+with the present and an earth equally
+productive of growing plants and living animals.
+Now, it must appear, that, if we had a
+measure for the one of those corresponding
+operations, we would have an equal knowledge
+of the other.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of a future earth being in
+the bottom of the ocean, at depths unfathomable
+to man, and in regions far beyond the
+reach of his observation, here is a part of the
+process which cannot be taken as a principle
+in forming an estimate of the whole. But, in
+the destruction of the present earth, we have
+a process that is performed within the limits of
+our observation; therefore, in knowing the
+measure of this operation, we shall find the
+means of calculating what had passed on a former
+occasion, as well as what will happen in
+the composition of a future earth. Let us,
+therefore, now attempt to make this estimate
+of time and labour.</p>
+
+<p>The highest mountain may be levelled with
+the plain from whence it springs, without the
+loss of real territory in the land; but when
+the ocean makes encroachment on the basis of
+our earth, the mountain, unsupported, tumbles
+with its weight; and with the accession of
+hard bodies, moveable with the agitation of
+the waves, gives to the sea the power of undermining
+farther and farther into the solid
+basis of our land. This is the operation which
+is to be measured; this is the mean proportional
+by which we are to estimate the age of
+worlds that have terminated, and the duration
+of those that are but beginning.</p>
+
+<p>But how shall we measure the decrease of
+our land? Every revolution of the globe wears
+away some part of some rock upon some coast;
+but the quantity of that decrease, in that measured
+time, is not a measurable thing. Instead
+of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age.
+The age of man does no more in this estimate
+than a single year. He sees, that the natural
+course of things is to wear away the coast,
+with the attrition of the sand and stones upon
+the shore; but he cannot find a measure for
+this quantity which shall correspond to time,
+in order to form an estimate of the rate of this
+decrease.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not confined to what he sees;
+he has the experience of former men. Let us
+then go to the Romans and the Greeks in
+search of a measure of our coasts, which we
+may compare with the present state of things.
+Here, again, we are disappointed; their descriptions
+of the shores of Greece and of Italy,
+and their works upon the coast, either give
+no measure of a decrease, or are not accurate
+enough for such a purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity
+which escapes our notice, and which history
+cannot ascertain; and we might just as
+well attempt to measure the distance of the
+stars without a parallax, as to calculate the destruction
+of the solid land without a measure
+corresponding to the whole.</p>
+
+<p>The description which Polybius has given
+of the Pontus Euxinus, with the two opposite
+Bosphori, the Meotis, the Propontis, and the
+Port of Byzantium, are as applicable to the
+present state of things as they were at the writing
+of that history. The filling up of the bed
+of the Meotis, an event which, to Polybius,
+appeared not far off, must also be considered
+as removed to a very distant period, though
+the causes still continue to operate as before.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a thing in which history and
+the present state of things do not agree. It is
+upon the coast of Spain, where Polybius says
+there was an island in the mouth of the harbour
+of New Carthage. At present, in place
+of the island, there is only a rock under the
+surface of the water. It must be evident, however,
+that the loss of this small island affords no
+proper ground of calculation for the measure
+or rate of wasting which could correspond to
+the coast in general; as neither the quantity
+of what is now lost had been measured, nor
+its quality ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>Let us examine places much more exposed
+to the fury of the waves and currents than the
+coast of Carthagena, the narrow fretum, for
+example, between Italy and Sicily. It does
+not appear, that this passage is sensibly wider
+than when the Romans first had known it.
+The Isthmus of Corinth is also apparently the
+same at present as it had been two or three
+thousand years ago. Scilla and Charibdis remain
+now, as they had been in ancient times,
+rocks hazardous for coasting vessels which had
+to pass that strait.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant by this to say, these rocks
+have not been wasted by the sea, and worn
+by the attrition of moving bodies, during that
+space of time; were this true, and that those
+rocks, the bulwarks of the land upon those
+coasts, had not been at all impaired from that
+period, they might remain for ever, and thus
+the system of interchanging the place of sea
+and land upon this globe might be frustrated.
+It is only meant to affirm, that the quantity
+which those rocks, or that coast, have diminished
+from the period of our history, has either
+been too small a thing for human observation,
+or, which is more probable, that no
+accurate measurement of the subject, by which
+this quantity of decrease might have been ascertained,
+had been taken and recorded. It
+must be also evident, that a very small operation
+of an earthquake would be sufficient to
+render every means of information, in this
+manner of mensuration, unsatisfactory or precarious.</p>
+
+<p>Pliny says Italy was distant from Sicily a
+mile and a half; but we cannot suppose that
+this measure was taken any otherwise than by
+computation, and such a measure is but little
+calculated to afford us the just means of a comparison
+with the present distance. He also
+says, indeed, that Sicily had been once joined
+with Italy. His words are: "Quondam Brutio
+agro cohaerens, mox interfuso mari avulsa.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a>"
+But all that we can conclude from
+this history of Pliny is, that, in all times, to
+people considering the appearances of those
+two approached coasts, it had seemed probable,
+that the sea formed a passage between the two
+countries which had been once united; in like
+manner as is still more immediately perceived,
+in that smaller disjunction which is made between
+the island of Anglesey and the continent
+of Wales.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag18"> (return) </a> Lib. 3. cap. 8.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The port of Syracuse, with the island which
+forms the greater and lesser, and the fountain
+of Arethusa, the water of which the ancients
+divided from the sea with a wall, do not seem
+to be altered. From Sicily to the coast of
+Egypt, there is an uninterrupted course of sea
+for a thousand miles; consequently, the wind,
+in such a stretch of sea, should bring powerful
+waves against those coasts: But, on this coast
+of Egypt, we find the rock on which was formerly
+built the famous tower of Pharos; and
+also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste,
+the sea-bath, cut in the solid rock upon
+the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted immediately
+with the waves of the Mediterranean
+sea, are, to all appearance, the same at this day
+as they were in ancient times.<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag19"> (return) </a> Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. Savary.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Many other such proofs will certainly occur,
+where the different parts of those coasts
+are examined by people of observation and intelligence.
+But it is enough for our present
+purpose, that this decrease of the coasts in general
+has not been observed; and that it is as
+generally thought, that the land is gaining upon
+the sea, as that the sea is gaining upon the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the argument, we are certain,
+that all the coasts of the present continents are
+wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing
+away upon the whole; but this operation is so
+extremely slow, that we cannot find a measure
+of the quantity in order to form an estimate:
+Therefore, the present continents of the earth,
+which we consider as in a state of perfection,
+would, in the natural operations of the globe,
+require a time indefinite for their destruction.</p>
+
+<p>But, in order to produce the present continents,
+the destruction of a former vegetable
+world was necessary; consequently, the production
+of our present continents must have
+required a time which is indefinite. In like
+manner, if the former continents were of the
+same nature as the present, it must have required
+another space of time, which also is
+indefinite, before they had come to their perfection
+as a vegetable world.</p>
+
+<p>We have been representing the system of
+this earth as proceeding with a certain regularity,
+which is not perhaps in nature, but
+which is necessary for our clear conception of
+the system of nature. The system of nature is
+certainly in rule, although we may not know
+every circumstance of its regulation. We are
+under a necessity, therefore, of making regular
+suppositions, in order to come at certain
+conclusions which may be compared with the
+present state of things.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary that the present land
+should be worn away and wasted, exactly in
+proportion as new land shall appear; or, conversely,
+that an equal proportion of new land
+should always be produced as the old is made
+to disappear. It is only required, that at all
+times, there should be a just proportion of
+land and water upon the surface of the globe,
+for the purpose of a habitable world.</p>
+
+<p>Neither is it required in the actual system
+of this earth, that every part of the land
+should be dissolved in its structure, and worn
+away by attrition, so as to be floated in the
+sea. Parts of the land may often sink in a
+body below the level of the sea, and parts
+again may be restored, without waiting for
+the general circulation of land and water,
+which proceeds with all the certainty of nature,
+but which advances with an imperceptible
+progression. Many of such apparent irregularities
+may appear without the least infringement
+on the general system. That system
+is comprehended in the preparation of future
+land at the bottom of the ocean, from
+those materials which the dissolution and attrition
+of the present land may have provided,
+and from those which the natural operations
+of the sea afford.</p>
+
+<p>In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are
+not to limit nature with the uniformity of an
+equable progression, although it be necessary
+in our computations to proceed upon equalities.
+Thus also, in the use of means, we are
+not to prescribe to nature those alone which
+we think suitable for the purpose, in our narrow
+view. It is our business to learn of nature
+(that is by observation) the ways and
+means, which in her wisdom are adopted;
+and we are to imagine these only in order to
+find means for further information, and to increase
+our knowledge from the examination
+of things which actually have been. It is in
+this manner, that intention may be found in
+nature; but this intention is not to be supposed,
+or vainly imagined, from what we may
+conceive to be.</p>
+
+<p>We have been now supposing, that the beginning
+of our present earth had been laid in
+the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of
+the former land; but this was only for the
+sake of distinctness. The just view is this,
+that when the former land of the globe had
+been complete, so as to begin to waste and be
+impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the
+present land began to appear above the surface
+of the ocean. In this manner we suppose a
+due proportion to be always preserved of land
+and water upon the surface of the globe, for
+the purpose of a habitable world, such as this
+which we possess. We thus, also, allow time
+and opportunity for the translation of animals
+and plants to occupy the earth.</p>
+
+<p>But, if the earth on which we live, began
+to appear in the ocean at the time when the
+last began to be resolved, it could not be from
+the materials of the continent immediately preceding
+this which we examine, that the present
+earth had been constructed; for the bottom
+of the ocean must have been filled with
+materials before land could be made to appear
+above its surface.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose that the continent, which is
+to succeed our land, is at present beginning to
+appear above the water in the middle of the
+Pacific Ocean, it must be evident, that the materials
+of this great body, which is formed and
+ready to be brought forth, must have been
+collected from the destruction of an earth,
+which does not now appear. Consequently,
+in this true statement of the case, there is necessarily
+required the destruction of an animal
+and vegetable earth prior to the former land;
+and the materials of that earth which is first
+in our account, must have been collected at
+the bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted
+for the production of the present earth,
+when the land immediately preceding the present
+had arrived at its full extent.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, alters nothing with regard
+to the nature of those operations of the globe.
+The system is still the same. It only protracts
+the indefinite space of time in its existence,
+while it gives us a view of another
+distinct period of the living world; that is to
+say, the world which we inhabit is composed
+of the materials, not of the earth which was
+the immediate predecessor of the present, but
+of the earth which, in ascending from the present,
+we consider as the third, and which had
+preceded the land that was above the surface
+of the sea, while our present land was yet beneath
+the water of the ocean. Here are three
+distinct successive periods of existence, and
+each of these is, in our measurement of time,
+a thing of indefinite duration.</p>
+
+<p>We have now got to the end of our reasoning;
+we have no data further to conclude immediately
+from that which actually is: But
+we have got enough; we have the satisfaction
+to find, that in nature there is wisdom,
+system, and consistency. For having, in the
+natural history of this earth, seen a succession
+of worlds, we may from this conclude that
+there is a system in nature; in like manner as,
+from seeing revolutions of the planets, it is
+concluded, that there is a system by which
+they are intended to continue those revolutions.
+But if the succession of worlds is
+established in the system of nature, it is in
+vain to look for any thing higher in the origin
+of the earth. The result, therefore, of this
+physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of
+a beginning,&mdash;no prospect of an end.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Examination of Mr KIRWAN'S Objections
+to the Igneous Origin of Stony Substances</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>A theory which is founded on a new
+principle, a theory which has to make
+its way in the public mind by overturning the
+opinions commonly received by philosophising
+men, and one which has nothing to recommend
+it but the truth of its principles,
+and the view of wisdom or design to which it
+leads, neither of which may perhaps be perceived
+by the generality of people, such a
+theory, I say, must meet with the strongest
+opposition from the prejudices of the learned,
+and from the superstition of those who judge
+not for themselves in forming their notions,
+but look up to men of science for authority.
+Such is the case with some part of the Theory
+of the Earth, which I have given, and
+which will probably give offence to naturalists
+who have espoused an opposite opinion.
+In order, then, to obtain the approbation of
+the public, it may not be enough to give a
+theory that should be true, or altogether unexceptionable
+it may be necessary to defend
+every point that shall be thought exceptionable
+by other theorists, and to show the fallacy
+of every learned objection that may be made
+against it. It is thus, in general, that truth
+and error are forced to struggle together, in
+the progress of science; and it is only in proportion
+as science removes erroneous conceptions,
+which are necessarily in the constitution
+of human knowledge, that truth will find itself
+established in natural philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Kirwan has written a dissertation, entitled,
+<i>Examination of the Supposed Igneous
+Origin of Stony Substances</i>, which was read in
+the Royal Irish Academy. The object of that
+dissertation is to state certain objections, which
+have occurred to him, against the Theory of
+the Earth published in the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh Royal Society; and he has attacked
+that theory in all the points where it appears
+to him to be vulnerable. It is to these
+objections that I am now to give an answer.
+The authority given to this dissertation, by
+the Royal Irish Academy, as well as the reputation
+of the author, make it necessary for
+me to endeavour to put in their true light
+the facts alleged in that performance, and
+to analyse the arguments employed, in order
+to judge of the reasoning by which the
+theory of mineral fusion is refuted in this
+Examination.</p>
+
+<p>A theory founded on truth, and formed
+according to the proper rules of science, can
+ever suffer from a strict examination, by
+which it would be but the more and more
+confirmed. But, where causes are to be traced
+through a chain of various complicated
+effects, an examination not properly conducted
+upon accurate analytical principles, instead
+of giving light upon a subject in which there
+had been obscurity and doubt, may only serve
+to perplex the understanding, and bring confusion
+into a subject which was before sufficiently
+distinct. To redress that evil, then,
+must require more labour and some address;
+and this is an inconveniency that may be looked
+for, more or less, in every controversial
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to enter any farther into the
+defence of my theory in this chapter, than
+what is necessary to answer a man of science
+and respectability, who has stated his objections.
+The observations which he has made
+appear to me to be founded on nothing more
+than common prejudice, and misconceived
+notions of the subject. I am therefore to point
+out that erroneous train of reasoning, into
+which a hasty superficial view of things, perhaps,
+has led the patron of an opposite opinion
+to see my theory in an unfavourable
+light.  This, however, is not all; for, that
+train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial
+with the crude and inconsiderate notion
+generally entertained, of solid mineral bodies
+having been formed by the infiltration of water
+into the earth, that no opportunity should
+be lost of exposing an erroneous manner of
+reasoning, which is employed in supporting a
+hypothesis founded upon certain operations of
+the surface of this earth that cannot be properly
+applied to the formation of mineral bodies.
+This object, therefore, so far as it may
+come in the way, will be attended to in this
+discussion, although I shall have another opportunity
+of farther enlarging upon that subject.</p>
+
+<p>Our author begins by examining a geological
+operation, the very opposite to that of
+mineral consolidation, and which would seem
+to have little connection with the subject of
+this dissertation. In my theory, I advanced
+two propositions with regard to the economy
+of this world: First, That the solid masses
+of this earth, when exposed to the atmosphere,
+decay, and are resolved into loose materials,
+of which the vegetable soil upon the
+surface is in part composed; and, secondly,
+That these loose materials are washed away
+by the currents of water, and thus carried at
+last into the sea. Our author says "Here are
+two suppositions, neither of which is grounded
+on facts;" and yet he has but the moment
+before made the following confession:
+"That the soil, however, receives an increase
+from some species of stones that moulder by
+exposition to the air cannot be denied, but
+there is no proof that all soil has arisen from
+decomposition."&mdash;Surely <i>all soil</i>, that is
+made from the <i>hard and compact</i> body of the
+land, which is my proposition, must have
+arisen from <i>decomposition</i>; and I have no where
+said, that <i>all</i> the soil of this earth is made from
+the decomposition or detritus of those stony
+substances; for, masses of looser sand and softer
+substances contribute still more to the formation
+of vegetable soils.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the other proposition, our
+author says, "Soil is not constantly carried
+away by the water, even from mountains."&mdash;I
+have not said that it is <i>constantly</i> washed
+away; for, while it is soil in which plants
+grow, it is not travelling to the sea, although
+it be on the road, and must there arrive in
+time. I have said, that it is <i>necessarily</i> washed
+away, that is, occasionally. M. de Luc's authority
+is then referred to, as refuting this
+operation of water and time upon the soil.
+Now, I cannot help here observing, that our
+author seems to have as much misapprehended
+M. de Luc's argument as he has done
+mine. That philosopher, in his letters to the
+Queen, has described most accurately the decay
+of the rocks and solid mountains of the
+Alps and Jura, and the travelling of their materials
+by water, although he does not carry
+them to the sea. It is true, indeed, that this
+author, who supposes the present earth on
+which we dwell very young, is anxious to
+make an earth, <i>in time</i>, that shall not decay
+nor be washed away at all; but that time is
+not come yet; therefore the authority, here
+given against my theory, is the speculative
+supposition, or mere opinion, of a natural philosopher,
+with regard to an event which may
+never come to pass, and which I shall have
+occasion to consider fully in another place.</p>
+
+<p>Our author had just now said, that I have
+advanced two suppositions, <i>neither of which
+is grounded on facts</i>: Now, with regard to the
+one, he has acknowledged, that the mouldering
+of stones takes place, which is the fact on
+which that proposition is grounded; and with
+regard to the other, the only authority given
+against it is founded expressly upon the moving
+of soil by means of the rain water, in
+order to make sloping plains of mountains.
+Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
+upon facts; and our author has founded
+his objections, first, upon a difficulty which
+he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon
+nothing but a visionary opinion, with regard
+to an earth which is not yet made, and which,
+when once made, is never more to change.</p>
+
+<p>After making some unimportant observations,&mdash;of
+all water not flowing into the sea,&mdash;and
+of the travelled materials being also deposited
+upon the plains, etc. our author thus
+proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our author
+relative to the imperfect constitution
+of the globe falls to the ground; and the
+pains he takes to learn, <i>by what means a
+decayed world may be renovated</i>, are superfluous."&mdash;The
+object of my theory is to
+show, that this decaying nature of the solid
+earth is the very <i>perfection</i> of its constitution,
+as a living world; therefore, it was most proper
+that I should <i>take pains to learn</i> by what
+means the decayed parts might be renovated.
+It is true, indeed, that this will be superfluous,
+when once that constitution of the earth, which
+M. de Luc thinks is preparing, shall be finished;
+but, in the mean time, while rivers carry
+the materials of our land, and while the sea
+impairs the coast, I may be allowed to suppose
+that this is the actual constitution of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot help here animadverting upon
+what seems to be our author's plan, in making
+these objections, which have nothing to do
+with his examination. He accuses me of
+giving this world a false or imperfect constitution,
+(in which the solid land is considered
+as resolvable, and the materials of that land
+as being washed away into the sea,) for no
+other reason, that I can see, but because this
+may imply the formation of a future earth,
+which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is
+now to deny the stratified construction of this
+present earth to have been made by the deposits
+of materials at the bottom of the sea, because
+that would prove the existence of a former
+earth, which is repugnant to his notion
+of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he
+says, to reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic
+history. Let me observe, in passing, that M.
+de Luc, of whose opinions our author expresses
+much approbation, thinks that he proves,
+from the express words and tenor of the Mosaic
+history, that the present earth was at the
+bottom of the sea not many years ago, and
+that the former earth had then disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>But, what does our author propose to himself,
+in refusing to admit my view of the operations
+which are daily transacting upon the
+surface of this earth, where there is nothing
+dark or in the least mysterious, as there may
+be in the mineral regions? Does he mean to
+say, that it is not the purpose of this world to
+provide soil for plants to grow in? Does he
+suppose that this soil is not moveable with the
+running water of the surface? and, Does he
+think that it is not necessary to replace that
+soil which is removed? This is all that I required
+in that constitution of the world which
+he has thus attacked; and I wish that he or
+any person would point out, in what respect
+I had demanded any thing unreasonable, or
+any thing that is not actually to be observed
+every day.</p>
+
+<p>Thus I have endeavoured to show, that our
+author has attacked my theory in a part where
+I believe it must be thought invulnerable;
+but this is only, I presume, in order that he
+may make an attack with more advantage
+upon another part, viz. the composition of
+strata from the materials of an earth thus worn
+out in the service of vegetation,&mdash;materials
+which are necessarily removed in order to
+make way for that change of things in which
+consists the active and living system of this
+world. If he succeed in this attempt to refute
+my theory of the original formation of
+strata, he would then doubtless find it more
+easy to persuade philosophers that the means
+which I employ in bringing those materials
+again to light, when transformed into such
+solid masses as the system of this earth requires,
+are extravagant, unnatural, and unnecessary.
+Let us then see how he sets about
+this undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the composition of the earth,
+it is quoted from my theory, that <i>the solid
+parts of the globe are in general composed of
+sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata,
+or of various compositions of these with other
+substances</i>; our author then adds, "This certainly
+cannot be affirmed as a fact, but rather
+the contrary; it holds only true of the
+surface, the basis of the greater part of
+Scotland is evidently a granitic rock, to say
+nothing of the continents, both of the Old
+and New World, according to the testimony
+of all mineralogists." This proposition,
+with regard to the general composition of the
+earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have
+maintained it as a fact, after the most scrupulous
+examination of all that, with the most diligent
+search, I have been able to see, and
+of all that authors have wrote intelligibly upon
+the subject. If, therefore, I have so misrepresented
+this great geological fact on which
+my theory is absolutely founded, I must have
+erred with open eyes; and my theory of the
+earth, like others which have gone before it,
+will, upon close examination, appear to be unfounded,
+as the dissertation now before us is
+endeavouring to represent it.</p>
+
+<p>Our author here, I think, alleges that the
+contrary to this, my fundamental proposition,
+is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
+an example in which his assertion (founded
+upon the testimony of all mineralogists),
+is illustrated. Now my geological proposition
+should certainly be applicable to Scotland,
+which is the country that I ought to be best
+acquainted with; consequently, if what our
+author here asserts be true, I would have deserved
+that blame which he is willing to
+throw on me. Let me then beg the readers
+attention for a moment, that I may justify
+myself from that charge, and place in its proper
+light this authority, upon so material a
+point in geology.</p>
+
+<p>I had examined Scotland from the one end
+to the other before I saw one stone of granite
+in its native place, I have moreover examined
+almost all England and Wales, (excepting Devonshire
+and Cornwall) without seeing more
+of granite than one spot, not many hundred
+yards of extent; this is at Chap; and I know,
+from information, that there is another small
+spot in the middle of England where it is
+just seen. But, let me be more particular with
+regard to Scotland, the example given in
+proof.</p>
+
+<p>I had travelled every road from the borders
+of Northumberland and Westmoreland to
+Edinburgh; from Edinburgh, I had travelled
+to Port-Patrick, and from that along the coast
+of Galloway and Airshire to Inverary in Argyleshire,
+and I had examined every spot between
+the Grampians and the Tweedale mountains
+from sea to sea, without seeing granite
+in its place. I had also travelled from Edinburgh
+by Grief, Rannock, Dalwhiny, Fort Augustus,
+Inverness, through east Ross and
+Caithness, to the Pentland-Frith or Orkney
+islands, without seeing one block of granite in
+its place. It is true, I met with it on my
+return by the east coast, when I just saw it,
+and no more, at Peterhead and Aberdeen;
+but that was all the granite I had ever seen
+when I wrote my Theory of the Earth. I
+have, since that time, seen it in different places;
+because I went on purpose to examine it, as I
+shall have occasion to describe in the course
+of this work.</p>
+
+<p>I may now with some confidence affirm,
+from my own observation, and from good information
+with regard to those places where I
+have not been, except the northwest corner,
+I may affirm, I say, that instead of the basis of
+the greatest part of Scotland being a granitic
+rock, which our author has maintained as an
+evident thing, there is very little of it that is
+so; not perhaps one five hundred part. So
+far also as I am to judge from my knowledge
+of the mineral construction of England and
+Wales, which I have examined with the greatest
+care, and from the mineral chart which
+my friend Mr Watt made for me from his
+knowledge of Cornwall, I would say that there
+is scarcely one five hundred part of Britain
+that has granite for its basis. All the rest,
+except the porphyry and basaltes, consists of
+stratified bodies, which are composed more or
+less of the materials which I mentioned, generally,
+in the above quotation, and which our
+author would dispute.</p>
+
+<p>But do not let me take the advantage of
+this error of our author with regard to the
+mineralogy of Scotland, and thus draw what
+may be thought an undue conclusion in favour
+of my general theory; let us go over
+and examine the continent of Europe, and see
+if it is any otherwise there than in Britain.
+From the granite of the Ural mountains, to
+that which we find in the Pyrenees, there is
+no reason, so far as I have been able to learn,
+to conclude that things are formed either upon
+any other principle, or upon a different scale.
+But, instead of one five hundred part, let us
+suppose there to be one fiftieth part of the
+earth in general resting upon granite, I could
+not have expressed myself otherwise than I
+have done; for, when I maintained that the
+earth in general consisted of stratified bodies,
+I said that this was only <i>nine tenths, or perhaps
+ninety-nine hundredths</i> of the whole, and
+I mentioned that there were other masses of a
+different origin, which should be considered
+separately. Our author, on the contrary, asserts
+that the Old and New Worlds, as well as
+Scotland, are placed upon granite as a basis,
+which he says is according to the testimony of
+all mineralogists. I shall have occasion to
+examine this opinion of mineralogists, in comparing
+it with those masses of granite which
+appear to us; and I hope fully to refute the
+geological, as well as mineralogical notions
+with regard to that body. In the mean time,
+let me make the following reflection, which
+here naturally occurs.</p>
+
+<p>My Theory of the Earth is here examined,&mdash;not
+with the system of nature, or actual
+state of things, to which it certainly should
+have corresponded,&mdash;but with the systematic
+views of a person, who has formed his notions
+of geology from the vague opinion of
+others, and not from what he has seen. Had
+the question been, How far my theory agreed
+with other theories, our author might very
+properly have informed his readers that it was
+diametrically opposite to the opinions of mineralogists;
+but, this was no reason for concluding
+it to be erroneous; on the contrary,
+it is rather a presumption that I may have
+corrected the error of mineralogists who have
+gone before me, in like manner as it is most
+reasonable to presume that our author may
+have corrected mine. Let us then proceed
+to examine how far this shall appear to be the
+case.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has stated very fairly from the
+Theory, viz. <i>That all the strata of the earth,
+not only those consisting of calcareous masses, but
+others superincumbent on these, have had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea, by the collection
+of sand, gravel, shells, coralline, and crustaceous
+bodies, and of earths and clays variously
+mixed, separated, and accumulated.</i> He then
+adds, "Various geological observations contradict
+this conclusion. There are many
+stratified mountains of argillaceous slate,
+gneiss, serpentine, jasper, and even marble,
+in which either sand, gravel, shells, coralline,
+or crustaceous bodies are never, or
+scarce ever found."</p>
+
+<p>Here our author seems to have deceived
+himself, by taking a very partial view of
+things which should be fully examined, and
+well understood, before general conclusions
+are to be drawn from those appearances; for,
+although those particular objects may not be
+visible in the strata which he has enumerated,
+or many others, they are found in those strata
+which are either immediately connected and
+alternated with them, or with similar strata;
+something to that purpose I think I have said;
+and, if I had not, it certainly requires no deep
+penetration to have seen this clear solution of
+that appearance of those objects not being found
+in every particular stratum. He says that
+those marks of known materials are never or
+scarce ever found;&mdash;by <i>scarce ever</i> he surely
+means that they are sometimes found; but if
+they shall only <i>once</i> be found, his argument
+is lost. I have not drawn my geological
+conclusion from every particle in strata being
+distinguishable, but from there being certain
+distinguishable particles in strata, and from our
+knowing what had been the former state and
+circumstances of those distinguished parts.</p>
+
+<p>If every stone or part of a stratum, in which
+those known objects are not immediately visible,
+must be considered as so <i>many geological
+observations that contradict my theory</i>, (of strata
+being formed from the materials of a former
+earth), then, surely every stone and every
+stratum which visibly contains any of those
+materials, must prove my theory. But if
+every stratum, where these are found in any
+part of it, is to be concluded as having had
+its origin at the bottom of the sea; and, if
+every concomitant stratum, though not having
+those objects visible or sufficiently distinct,
+must be considered as having had the same or
+a similar origin, that pretended contradiction
+of my theory comes to no more than this, that
+every individual stone does not bear in it the
+same or equal evidence of that general proposition
+which necessarily results from the attentive
+consideration of the whole, including
+every part.</p>
+
+<p>But to see how necessary it is to judge in
+this manner, not partially, but upon the whole,
+we may observe, that there are two ways by
+which the visible materials or distinguishable
+bodies of a former earth, not only <i>may</i> be rendered
+invisible in the composition of our present
+earth, but <i>must</i> be so upon many occasions.
+These are, <i>first</i>, by mechanical comminution,
+which necessarily happens, more or
+less, in that operation by which bodies are
+moved against one another, and thus transported
+from the land to the bottom of the
+deepest seas; <i>secondly</i>, by chemical operations,
+(whatever these may be, whether the
+action of water or of fire, or both), which are
+also necessarily employed for consolidating
+those loose materials, that are to form the
+rocks and stones of this earth, and by means
+of which those materials are to have their distinguishable
+shapes affected in all degrees and
+obliterated. Therefore, to demand the visible
+appearance of those materials in every stratum
+of the earth, or in every part of a stratum,
+is no other than to misunderstand the
+subject altogether. The geological observations,
+which have been thus alleged as contradicting
+my theory, are stratified bodies,
+containing proofs of the general origin which
+I attribute to the earth, but proofs which may
+not always be seen with equal facility as those
+which even convince the vulgar.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has surely perplexed himself
+with what writers of late have said concerning
+primitive mountains as they are called, a
+subject of deeper search, than is commonly
+imagined, as I hope to show in the course of
+this work. It is an interesting subject of investigation,
+as giving us the actual view of
+those operations of nature which, in forming
+my Theory of the Earth, more general principles
+had led me to conclude <i>might be</i>. But,
+it is a subject which, I am afraid, will lead me
+to give farther offence to our author, however
+innocent I may be in giving nothing but what
+I have from nature.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for saying so is this; I am
+blamed for having endeavoured to trace back
+the operations of this world to a remote period,
+by the examination of that which actually
+appears, contrary, as is alleged, "to
+reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic history,
+thus leading to an abyss, from which human
+reason recoils, etc." In a word, (says
+our author), "to make use of his own expression,
+<i>We find no vestige of a beginning.</i>
+Then this system of successive worlds must
+have been eternal." Such is the logic by
+which, I suppose, I am to be accused of atheism.
+Our author might have added, that I have
+also said&mdash;<i>we see no prospect of an end</i>; but what
+has all this to do with the idea of eternity?
+Are we, with our ideas of <i>time</i>, (or mere succession),
+to measure that of eternity, which
+never succeeded any thing, and which will
+never be succeeded? Are we thus to measure
+eternity, that boundless thought, with
+those physical notions of ours which necessarily
+limit both space and time? and, because
+we see not the beginning of created things,
+Are we to conclude that those things which
+we see have always been, or been without a
+cause? Our author would thus, inadvertently
+indeed, lead himself into that gulf of irreligion
+and absurdity into which, he alleges,
+I have <i>boldly plunged</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In examining this present earth, we find
+that it must have had its origin at the bottom
+of the sea, although our author seems willing
+to deny that proposition. Farther, in examining
+the internal construction of this stratified
+and sea-born mass, we find that it had
+been composed of the moved materials of
+a former earth; and, from the most accurate
+and extensive examination of those materials,
+which in many places are indeed much disguised,
+we are led necessarily to conclude,
+that there had been a world existing, and
+containing an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral
+system. But, in thus tracing back the
+natural operations which have succeeded each
+other, and mark to us the course of time past,
+we come to a period in which we cannot see
+any farther. This, however, is not the beginning
+of those operations which proceed in
+time and according to the wise economy of
+this world; nor is it the establishing of that,
+which, in the course of time, had no beginning;
+it is only the limit of our retrospective
+view of those operations which have come to
+pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme
+intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>My principal anxiety was to show how the
+constitution of this world had been wisely
+contrived; and this I endeavoured to do, not
+from supposition or conjecture, but from its
+answering so effectually the end of its intention,
+viz. the preserving of animal life, which
+we cannot doubt of being its purpose. Here
+then is a world that is not eternal, but which
+has been the effect of wisdom or design.</p>
+
+<p>With regard again to the prospective view of
+the creation, How are we to see the end of
+that wise system of things which so properly
+fulfils the benevolent intention of its maker,&mdash;in
+giving sustenance to the animal part,
+and information to intellectual beings, who,
+in these works of nature, read what much
+concerns their peace of mind,&mdash;their intellectual
+happiness? What then does our author
+mean, in condemning that comprehensive view
+which I have endeavoured to take of nature?
+Would he deny that there is to be perceived
+wisdom in the system of this world, or that a
+philosopher, who looks into the operations of
+nature, may not plainly read the power and
+wisdom of the Creator, without recoiling, as he
+says, from the abyss? The abyss, from which
+a man of science should recoil, is that of ignorance
+and error.</p>
+
+<p>I have thus shown, that, from not perceiving
+the wise disposition of things upon the
+surface of this earth for the preservation of
+vegetable bodies, our author has been led to
+deny the necessary waste of the present earth,
+and the consequent preparation of materials
+for the construction of another; I have also
+shown, that he denies the origin which I had
+attributed to the stratified parts of this earth,
+as having been the collection of moving materials
+from a former earth; and now I am
+come to consider the professed purpose of this
+paper, viz. the examination of solid stony
+substances which we find in those strata of our
+earth, as well as in more irregular masses.
+Here, no doubt, my theory would have been
+attacked with greater success, had our author
+succeeded in pointing out its error with regard
+to the original composition of those indurated
+bodies, to which I ascribe fusion as
+the cause of their solidity. For, if we should,
+according to our author's proposition, consider
+those consolidated bodies as having been originally
+formed in that solid state, here the
+door might be shut against any farther investigation;&mdash;But
+to what purpose?&mdash;Surely not
+to refute my theory, but to explode every
+physical inquiry farther on the subject, and
+thus to lead us back into the science of darkness
+and of scepticism. But let us proceed to
+see our author's sentiments on this subject.</p>
+
+<p>As I had proved from matter of fact, or
+the actual appearances of nature, that all the
+strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
+of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials
+which either come from the decaying
+land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
+that I should consider in what manner
+those spongy or porous bodies of loose materials,
+gathered together at the bottom of the
+sea, could have acquired that consolidated
+state in which we find them, now that they
+are brought up to our examination. Upon
+this occasion, our author says, "The particles
+which now form the solid parts of the globe
+need not be supposed to have originally
+been either spongy or porous, the interior
+parts at the depth of a few miles might
+have been originally, as at present, a solid
+mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition,
+we may then save ourselves the
+trouble of considering either how the strata
+of the earth have been formed or consolidated;
+for, they might have been so originally.
+But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen
+a piece of Derbyshire marble, or any other
+shell limestone, make that supposition? Here
+are, to the satisfaction of every body of common
+understanding who looks at them, bodies
+which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
+have evidently been formed at the bottom of
+the sea, and therefore which were not originally
+a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true,
+wrote a book to prove that those appearances
+were nothing but a <i>lusus naturae</i>; and, I suppose
+he meant, with our author, that those
+strata had been also originally, as at present, a
+solid mass.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the consolidation of strata,
+that cardinal point for discussion, our author
+gives the following answer: "Abstracting
+from his own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very
+easy to satisfy our author on this head; the
+concreting and consolidating power in most
+cases arises from the mutual attraction of
+the component particles of stones to each
+other." This is an answer with regard to
+the <i>concreting power</i>, a subject about which
+we certainly are not here inquiring. Our
+author, indeed, has mentioned a <i>consolidating
+power</i>; but that is an improper expression; we
+are here inquiring, How the interstices, between
+the collected materials of strata, deposited at
+the bottom of the sea, have been filled
+with a hard substance, instead of the fluid water
+which had originally occupied those spaces.
+Our author then continues; "If these
+particles leave any interstices, these are filled
+with water, which no ways obstructs
+their solidity when the points of contact
+are numerous; hence the decrepitation of
+many species of stones when heated."</p>
+
+<p>If I understand our author's argument, the
+particles of stone are, by their mutual attractions,
+to leave those hard and solid bodies
+which compose the strata, that is to say, those
+hard bodies are to dissolve themselves; but, To
+what purpose? This must be to fill up the interstices,
+which we must suppose occupied by
+the water. In that case, we should find the
+original interstices filled with the substances
+which had composed the strata, and we should
+find the water translated into the places of
+those bodies; here would be properly a transmutation,
+but no consolidation of the strata,
+such as we are here to look for, and such as we
+actually find among those strata. It may be
+very easy for our author to form those explanations
+of natural phenomena; it costs no tedious
+observation of facts, which are to be
+gathered with labour, patience, and attention;
+he has but to look into his own fancy, as philosophers
+did in former times, when they saw
+the abhorrence of a vacuum and explained
+the pump. It is thus that we are here told
+the consolidation of strata <i>arises from the mutual
+attraction of the component particles of
+stones to each other</i>; the power, by which the
+particles of solid stony bodies retain their
+places in relation to each other, and resist separation
+from the mass, may, no doubt, be
+properly enough termed their mutual attractions;
+but we are not here inquiring after that
+power; we are to investigate the power by
+which the particles of hard and stony bodies
+had been separated, contrary to their mutual
+attractions, in order to form new concretions,
+by being again brought within the spheres of
+action in which their mutual attractions might
+take place, and make them one solid body.
+Now, to say that this is by their mutual attraction,
+is either to misunderstand the proper question,
+or to give a most preposterous answer.</p>
+
+<p>It is not every one who is fit to reason with
+regard to abstract general propositions; I will
+now, therefore, state a particular case, in illustration
+of that proposition which has been
+here so improperly answered. The strata of
+Derbyshire marbles were originally immense
+collections at the bottom of the sea, of calcareous
+bodies consisting almost wholly of various
+fragments of the <i>entrochi</i>; and they were
+then covered with an indefinite number of
+other strata under which these <i>entrochi</i> must
+have been buried. In this original state of
+those strata, I suppose the interstices between
+the fragments of the coralline bodies to have
+been left full of sea-water; at present we find
+those interstices completely filled with a most
+perfectly solid body of marble; and the
+question is, whether that consolidating operation
+has been the work of water and solution,
+by our naturalist's termed infiltration; or if it
+has been performed, as I have maintained, by
+the softening power or heat, or introduction
+of matter in the fluid state of fusion. Our
+author does not propose any other method for
+the consolidation of those loose and incoherent
+bodies, but he speaks of the <i>mutual attraction
+of the component particles of stone to
+each other</i>; Will that fill the interstices between
+the coralline bodies with solid marble,
+as well as consolidate the coralline bodies
+themselves? or, if it should, How are those
+interstices to be thus filled with a substance
+perfectly different from the deposited bodies,
+which is also frequently the case? But, how
+reason with a person who, with this consolidation
+of strata, confounds the well known
+operation by which the mortar, made with
+caustic lime and sand, becomes a hard body!
+One would imagine that he were writing to
+people of the last age, and not to chemical
+philosophers who know so well how that
+mortar is concreted.</p>
+
+<p>To my argument, That these porous strata
+are found <i>consolidated with every different species
+of mineral substance</i>, our author makes the
+following observation: "Here the difficulties
+to the supposition of an aqueous solution
+are placed in the strongest light; yet
+it must be owned that they partly arise from
+the author's own gratuitous supposition,
+that strata existed at the bottom of the sea
+previous to their consolidation;"&mdash;gratuitous
+supposition!&mdash;so far from being a supposition
+of any kind, it is a self evident proposition;
+the terms necessarily imply the conclusion.
+I beg the readers attention for a
+moment to this part of our author's animadversion,
+before proceeding to consider the
+whole; for, this is a point so essential in my
+theory, that if it be a gratuitous supposition,
+as is here asserted, it would certainly be in
+vain to attempt to build upon it the system of
+a world.</p>
+
+<p>That strata may exist, whether at the bottom
+of the sea, or any other where, without
+being consolidated, will hardly be disputed;
+for, they are actually found consolidated in
+every different degree. But, when strata are
+found consolidated, at what time is it that we
+are to suppose this event to have taken place,
+or this accident to have happened to them?
+&mdash;Strata are formed at the bottom of water,
+by the subsidence or successive deposits of certain
+materials; it could not therefore be
+during their formation that such strata had
+been consolidated; consequently, we must necessarily
+<i>conclude</i>, without any degree of <i>supposition</i>,
+that <i>strata had existed at the bottom of
+the sea previous to their consolidation</i>, unless
+our author can show how they may have been
+consolidated previous to their existing.</p>
+
+<p>This then is what our author has termed a
+gratuitous supposition of mine, and which, he
+adds, "is a circumstance which will not be
+allowed by the patrons of the aqueous origin
+of stony substances, as we have already
+seen."&mdash;I am perfectly at a loss to guess at
+what is here alluded to <i>by having been already
+seen</i>, unless it be that which I have already
+quoted, concerning things which have been
+never seen, that is, <i>those interior parts of the
+earth which were originally a solid mass</i>.&mdash;I
+have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;&mdash;a
+reasoning which is not founded upon
+any principle, which holds up nothing but
+chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing
+that is intelligible;&mdash;but, others, perhaps,
+may see this dissertation of our author's
+in a different light; therefore, it is my duty
+to analyse the argument, however insignificant
+it may seem to me.</p>
+
+<p>I have minutely examined all the stratified
+bodies which I have been able, during a lifetime,
+to procure, both in this country of Britain,
+and from all the quarters of the globe;
+and the result of my inquiry has been to
+conclude, that there is nothing among them
+in an original state, as the reader will see in
+the preceding chapter. With regard again to
+the masses which are not stratified, I have also
+given proof that they are not in their original
+state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine,
+and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction,
+I hope, upon that head, in the course of
+this work. I have therefore concluded, That
+there is nothing to be found in an original
+state, so far as we see, in the construction of
+this earth. But, our author answers, That
+the interior parts <i>might have been in an original
+state of solidity</i>.&mdash;So might they have
+been upon the surface of the earth, or on the
+summits of our mountains; but, we are not
+inquiring What they <i>might have been</i>, but
+What they truly <i>are</i>. It is from this actual
+state in which the solid parts of the earth are
+found, that I have endeavoured to trace back
+the different states in which they must have
+been; and, by generalising facts, I have formed
+a theory of the earth. If this be a
+wrong principle or manner of proceeding in
+a physical investigation, or if, proceeding upon
+that principle, I have made the induction by
+reasoning improperly on any occasion, let this
+be corrected by philosophers, who may reason
+more accurately upon the subject. But to
+oppose a physical investigation with this proposition,
+<i>that things might have been otherwise</i>,
+is to proceed upon a very different principle,&mdash;a
+principle which, instead of tending to
+bring light out of darkness, is only calculated
+to extinguish that light which we may have
+acquired.</p>
+
+<p>I shall afterwards have occasion to examine
+how far the philosophers, who attribute to
+aqueous solution the origin of stony substances,
+have proceeded in the same inductive
+manner of reasoning from effect to cause, as
+they ought to do in physical subjects, and not
+by feigning causes, or following a false analogy;
+in the mean time, I am to answer the
+objections which have been made to the
+theory of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to the theory of consolidating
+bodies by fusion, our author has taken great
+pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
+for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find
+the means to make it burn had I those materials.
+Had our author read attentively my
+theory he would have observed, that I give
+myself little or no trouble about that fire, or
+take no charge with regard to the procuring
+of that power, as I have not founded my
+theory on the <i>supposition</i> of subterraneous fire,
+however that fire properly follows as a conclusion
+from those appearances on which the
+theory is founded. My theory is founded
+upon the general appearances of mineral bodies,
+and upon this, that mineral bodies must
+necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I
+do not pretend to prove, demonstratively, that
+they had been even hot, however that conclusion
+also naturally follows from their having
+been in fusion. It is sufficient for me to demonstrate,
+That those bodies must have been,
+more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity,
+without any species of solution. I do not say
+that this fluidity had been without heat; but,
+if that had been the case, it would have answered
+equally well the purpose of my theory,
+so far as this went to explain the consolidation
+of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still
+repeat, must have been by simple fluidity, and
+not by any species of solution, or any other
+solvent than that universal one which permeates
+all bodies, and which makes them
+fluid.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has justly remarked the difficulty
+of fire burning below the earth and sea.
+It is not my purpose here to endeavour to remove
+those difficulties, which perhaps only
+exist in those suppositions which are made on
+this occasion; my purpose is to show, that he
+had no immediate concern with that question,
+in discussing the subject of the consolidation
+which we actually find in the strata of the
+earth, unless my theory, with regard to the
+igneous origin of stony substances, had proceeded
+upon the supposition of a subterraneous
+fire. It is surely one thing to employ
+fire and heat to melt mineral bodies, in supposing
+this to be the cause of their consolidation,
+and another thing to acknowledge fire
+or heat as having been exerted upon mineral
+bodies, when it is clearly proved, from actual
+appearances, that those bodies had been in a
+melted state, or that of simple fluidity. Here
+are distinctions which would be thrown away
+upon the vulgar; but, to a man of science,
+who analyses arguments, and reasons strictly
+from effect to cause, this is, I believe, the proper
+way of coming at the truth. If the patrons
+of the aqueous origin of stony substances
+can give us any manner of scientifical, <i>i.e.</i>
+intelligible investigation of that process, it shall
+be attended to with the most rigid impartiality,
+even by a patron of the igneous origin of
+those substances, as he wishes above all things
+to distinguish, in the mineral operations, those
+which, on the one hand, had been the effect
+of water, from those which, on the other hand,
+had been the immediate effect of fire or fusion;&mdash;this
+has been my greatest study. But,
+while mineralists or geologists give us only
+mere opinions, What is science profited by
+such inconsequential observations, as are founded
+upon nothing but our vulgar notions? Is
+the figure of the earth, <i>e.g.</i> to be doubted,
+because, according to the common notion of
+mankind, the existence of an antipod is certainly
+to be denied?</p>
+
+<p>I am not avoiding to meet that question
+with regard to the providing of materials for
+such a mineral fire as may be required; no
+question I desire more to be asked to resolve;
+but it must not be in the manner that our author
+has put that question. He has included
+this supposed difficulty among a string of
+other arguments by which he would refute
+my theory with regard to the igneous origin
+of stony substances, as if I had made that fire
+a necessary condition or a principle in forming
+my theory of consolidation. Now, it is precisely
+the reverse; and this is what I beg that
+mineral philosophers will particularly attend
+to, and not give themselves so much unnecessary
+trouble, and me so disagreeable a talk. I
+have proved that those stony substances have
+been in the fluid state of fusion; and from
+this, I have inferred the former existence of
+an internal heat, a subterraneous fire, or a certain
+cause of fusion by whatever name it shall
+be called, and by whatever means it shall
+have been procured. The nature of that operation
+by which strata had been consolidated,
+like that by which they had been composed,
+must, according to my philosophy, be decided
+by ocular demonstration; from examining the
+internal evidence which is to be found in those
+bodies as we see them in the earth; because
+the consolidating operation is not performed
+in our sight, no more than their stratification
+which our author has also denied to have been
+made, as I have said, by the deposits of materials
+at the bottom of the sea. Now, with
+regard to the means of procuring subterraneous
+fire, if the consolidating operation shall
+be thus decided to have been that of fusion,
+as I think I have fully shown, and for which
+I have as many witnesses, perhaps as there are
+mineral bodies, then our author's question,
+(how I am to procure a fire) in the way that
+he has put it, as an argument against the fusion,
+would be at least useless; for, though I
+should here confess my ignorance with regard
+to the means of procuring fire, the evidence
+of the melting operation, or former fluidity of
+those mineral bodies, would not be thereby in
+the least diminished. If again no such evidence
+for the fusion of those bodies shall appear,
+and it be concluded that they had been
+consolidated by the action of water alone, as
+our author seems inclined to maintain, he
+would have no occasion to start difficulties
+about the procuring of fire, in order to refute
+a theory which then would fall of itself as
+having no foundation.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to see this author's notion of
+the theory which he is here examining, it
+may be proper to give a specimen of his
+reasoning upon this subject of heat. He says,
+"That my supposition of heat necessary for
+consolidating strata is <i>gratuitous</i>, not only
+because it is unnecessary, as we have already
+shown, but also because it is inconsistent
+with our author's own theory." Let
+us now consider those two propositions. <i>First</i>,
+it is unnecessary, <i>as we have already shown</i>;&mdash;
+I have already taken particular notice of what
+we have been shown on this occasion, viz.
+That the earth at a certain depth <i>may have
+been originally in a solid state</i>; and, that,
+where it is to be consolidated, this is done by
+the <i>mutual attraction of the stony particles</i>.
+Here is all that we have been shown to make
+subterraneous heat, for the consolidation of
+strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly submit,
+if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral
+heat is a gratuitous supposition.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, "<i>it is inconsistent with our author's
+own theory.</i>" Here I would beg the
+readers attention to the reasoning employed
+on this occasion. He says, "according to
+him these strata, which were consolidated
+by heat, were composed of materials gradually
+worn from a preceding continent, casually
+and successively deposited in the sea;
+Where then will he find, and how will he
+suppose, to have been formed those enormous
+masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen,
+necessary to produce that immense heat necessary
+for the fusion of those vast mountains
+of stone now existing? All the coal,
+sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
+not form the 100,000 part of the materials
+deposited within one quarter of a mile under
+the surface of the earth; if, therefore,
+they were, as his hypothesis demands, carried
+off and mixed with the other materials,
+and not formed in vast and separate collections,
+they could never occasion, by their
+combustion, a heat capable of producing
+the smallest effect, much less those gigantic
+effects which he requires."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a comparative estimate formed between
+two things which have not any necessary
+relation; these are, the quantity of combustible
+materials found in the earth, on the
+one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
+necessary for hardening and consolidating strata,
+on the other. If this earth has been consolidated
+by the burning of combustible materials,
+there must have been a superfluity, so
+far as there is a certain quantity of these actually
+found unconsumed in the strata of the
+earth. Our author's conclusion is the very
+opposite; let us then see how he is to form
+his argument, by which he proves that the
+supposition of subterraneous heat for hardening
+bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary, as
+being inconsistent with my theory.</p>
+
+<p>According to my theory, the strata of this
+earth are composed of the materials which
+came from a former earth; particularly these
+combustible strata that contain plants which
+must have grown upon the land. Let us then
+suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with
+its combustible materials from this source,
+the vegetable bodies growing upon the surface
+of the land. Here is a source provided
+for the supplying of mineral fire, a source
+which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless we
+are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and
+the necessary ingredients; such as the matter
+of light, carbonic matter, and the hydrogenous
+principle. But it is not upon any deficiency
+of this kind that our author founds his estimate;
+it is upon the superfluity of combustible
+materials which is actually found in this
+earth, after it had been properly consolidated
+and raised above the surface of the sea. This is
+a method of reasoning calculated to convince
+only those who do not understand it; it is as
+if we should conclude that a person had died
+of want, because he had left provision behind
+him. Our author certainly means to employ
+nothing but the combustible minerals of the
+present earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire
+which is to concoct a future earth; in that
+case, I will allow that his provision is deficient;
+but this is not my theory.</p>
+
+<p>I am not here to enter into any argument
+concerning subterraneous fire; the reader will
+find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
+concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed
+previous to, and ever since, the formation
+of this earth,&mdash;that it exists in all its vigour
+at this day,&mdash;that there is, in the constitution
+of this earth, a superfluity of subterranean
+heat,&mdash;and that there is wisely provided
+a proper remedy against any destructive effect
+to the system, that might arise from that
+superabundant provision of this necessary
+agent. Had our author attended to the ocular
+proof that we have of the actual existence
+of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations
+which I have given of the effects
+of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must
+have seen that those arguments of his, with
+regard to the difficulty or impossibility of procuring
+that fire, can only show the error of
+his reasoning. I am far from supposing that
+my theory may be free from inconsistency or
+error; I am only maintaining that, in all his
+confident assertions, this author has not hitherto
+pointed any of these out.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have answered our author's objections
+as to consolidation, and I have given
+a specimen of his reasoning upon that subject;
+but with regard to my Theory of the Earth,
+although simple fluidity, without heat, would
+have answered the purpose of consolidating
+strata that had been formed at the bottom of
+the sea, it was necessary to provide a power
+for raising those consolidated strata from that
+low place to the summits of the continents;
+now, in supposing heat to be the cause of that
+fluidity which had been employed in the consolidation
+of those submarine masses, we find
+a power capable of erecting continents, and
+the only power, so far as I see, which natural
+philosophy can employ for that purpose. Thus
+I was led, from the consolidation of strata,
+to understand the nature of the elevating
+power, and, from the nature of that power,
+again to understand the cause of fluidity by
+which the rocks and stones of this earth had
+been consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus, without employing the evidence
+of any fire or <i>burning</i>, been necessarily
+led to conclude an extreme degree of heat
+exerted in the mineral regions, I next inquire
+how far there are any appearances from
+whence we might conclude whether that active
+subterraneous power still subsists, and
+what may be the nature of that power.
+When first I conceived my theory, naturalists
+were far from suspecting that basaltic rocks
+were of volcanic origin; I could not then
+have employed an argument from these rocks
+as I may do now, for proving that the fires,
+which we see almost daily issuing with such
+force from volcanos, are a continuation of
+that active cause which has so evidently been
+exerted in all times, and in all places, so far
+as have been examined of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the degree of heat in that
+subterraneous fire, our author, after proving
+that combustible materials would not burn in
+the mineral regions, then says, that suppose
+they were to burn, this would be "incapable
+of forming a heat even equal to that of our
+common furnaces, as Mr Dolomieu has
+clearly shown to be the case with respect to
+volcanic heat." The place to which he
+alludes, I believe to be that which I have
+quoted from the Journal de Physique (Part I.
+page 139) to which I here beg leave to refer
+the reader. After what I have already said,
+this subject will appear to be of little concern
+to me; but, it must be considered, that my
+object, in these answers, is not so much to
+justify the theory which I have given, as it
+is to remove that prejudice which, to those
+who are not master of chemical and mineral
+subjects, will naturally arise from the opinion
+or authority of a scientific man, and a chemist;
+therefore, I think it my business to show
+how much he has misconceived the matter
+which he treats of, and how much he misunderstands
+the subject of my theory.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Dolomieu alleges that the volcanic
+fire operates in the melting of bodies, not by
+the intensity of its heat, which is the means
+employed by us in our operations, but in the
+long continuance of its action. But in that
+proposition, this philosopher is merely giving
+us his opinion; and, this opinion our author
+mistakes, I suppose, for the fact on which that
+opinion had been (perhaps reasonably) founded.
+The reader will see, in the place quoted,
+or in the <i>avant-propos</i> to his <i>Mémoire sur les
+Iles Ponces</i>, the fact to be this; That the Chevalier
+Dolomieu finds those bodies which we
+either cannot melt in our fires, or which we
+cannot melt without changing them by calcination
+and vitrification, he finds, I say, these
+substances had actually been melted with his
+lavas; he also finds those substances, which
+are necessarily dissipated in our fires, to have
+been retained in those melted mineral substances.
+Had our author quoted the text, instead
+of giving us his own interpretation, he could
+not have offered a stronger confirmation of
+my theory; which certainly is not concerned
+with the particular intensity of volcanic fire,
+and far less with what may be the opinion of
+any naturalist with regard to that intensity,
+but only with the efficacy of that volcanic
+heat for the melting of mineral substances.
+Now this efficacy of volcanic fire, so far as we
+are to found upon the authority given on this
+occasion, is clearly confirmed by the observations
+of a most intelligent mineralist, and one
+who is actually a patron of the opposite theory
+to that which I have given. This being the
+state of the case, Must I not conclude, that
+our author has misunderstood the subject, and
+that he has been led to give a mutilated opinion
+of Mr Dolomieu, in order to refute my
+theory, when either the entire opinion, or the
+facts on which the opinion had been founded,
+would have confirmed it?</p>
+
+<p>I have thus endeavoured to put in its true
+light a species of reasoning, which, while it
+assumes the air and form of that inductive
+train of thought employed by men of science
+for the investigation of nature, is only fit to
+mislead the unwary, and, when closely examined,
+will appear to be inconsequential or
+unfounded. How mortifying then to find,
+that one may be employed almost a lifetime
+in generalising the phenomena of nature, or
+in gathering an infinity of evidence for the
+forming of a theory, and that the consequence
+of this shall only be to give offence, and to
+receive reproach from those who see not things
+in the same light!&mdash;While man has to learn,
+mankind must have different opinions. It is
+the prerogative of man to form opinions;
+these indeed are often, commonly I may say,
+erroneous; but they are commonly corrected,
+and it is thus that truth in general is made to
+appear.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote a general Theory for the inspection
+of philosophers, who doubtless will point out
+its errors; but this requires the study of nature,
+which is not the work of a day; and, in
+this political age, the study of nature seems to
+be but little pursued by our philosophers. In
+the mean time, there are, on the one hand,
+sceptical philosophers, who think there is nothing
+certain in nature, because there is misconception
+in the mind of man; on the other
+hand, there are many credulous amateurs,
+who go to nature to be entertained as we go
+to see a pantomime: But there are also superficial
+reasoning men, who think themselves
+qualified to write on subjects on which they
+may have read in books,&mdash;subjects which they
+may have seen in cabinets, and which, perhaps,
+they have just learned to name; without
+truly knowing what they see, they think
+they know those regions of the earth which
+never can be seen; and they judge of the
+great operations of the mineral kingdom, from
+having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom
+of a little crucible.</p>
+
+<p>In the Theory of the Earth which was
+published, I was anxious to warn the reader
+against the notion that subterraneous heat and
+fusion could be compared with that which we
+induce by our chemical operations on mineral
+substances here upon the surface of the
+earth; yet, notwithstanding all the precaution
+I had taken, our author has bestowed four
+quarto pages in proving to me, that our fires
+have an effect upon mineral substances different
+from that of the subterraneous power
+which I would employ.</p>
+
+<p>He then sets about combining metals with
+sulphur in the moist way, as if that were any
+more to his purpose than is the making of a
+stalactite for the explanation of marble. Silver
+and lead may be sulphurated, as he says, with
+hepatic gas; but, Has the sulphurated solid
+ores of those metals, and that of iron, been
+formed in the moist way, as in some measure
+they may be by the fusion of our fires?
+But, even suppose that this were the case,
+Could that explain a thousand other appearances
+which are inconsistent with the operation
+of water? We see aerated lead dissolved
+in the excavations of our mines, and again
+concreted by the separation of the evaporated
+solvent, in like manner as stalactical concretions
+are made of calcareous earth; but, so far
+from explaining mineral appearances, as having
+had their concretions formed in the same
+manner, here is the most convincing argument
+against it; for, among the infinite variety
+of mineral productions which we find in
+nature, Why does no other example of aqueous
+concretion ever occur upon the surface of
+the earth except those which we understand
+so well, and which we therefore know cannot
+be performed in the bodies of strata not exposed
+to the evaporation of the solvent, a circumstance
+which is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>I have given a very remarkable example of
+mineral fusion, in reguline manganese, (as the
+reader will see in page 68.) It is not that this
+example is more to the purpose of my theory
+than what may be found in every species of
+stone; but this example speaks so immediately
+to the common sense of mankind, (who are
+often convinced by a general resemblance of
+things, when they may not see the force of
+demonstration from an abstract principle) that
+I thought it deserved a place on that account,
+as well as being a curious example, But more
+particularly to my antagonist, who has been
+pleased (very improperly indeed) to try some
+part of my theory in the fire, here is an example
+which should have been absolutely in
+point, and without any manner of exception:&mdash;Has
+he acknowledged this?&mdash;No; he has,
+on the contrary, endeavoured to set this very
+example aside.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, he says, "Manganese has
+been found in a reguline state by M. de la
+Peyrouse, and in small grains, as when produced
+by fire. True; but it was mixed
+with a large quantity of iron, which is often,
+found in that form without any suspicion of
+fusion. A fire capable of melting quartz
+might surely produce it in larger masses."
+We have here a kind of two arguments, for
+removing the effect of this example; and I
+shall consider them separately.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these is, the not being suspected
+of having been in fusion; now, if this
+were to be admitted as an argument against
+the igneous origin of stony substances, it might
+have superseded the adducing of any other,
+for it is applicable perhaps to every mineral;
+but we must here examine the case more minutely.</p>
+
+<p>This argument, of the manganese being in
+a mine of iron, if I understand it rightly,
+amounts to this, that, as iron ore is not suspected
+of having been melted, therefore, we
+should doubt the manganese having been so.
+If this be our author's meaning, it is not the
+fair conclusion which the case admits of; for,
+so far as the manganese appears evidently to
+have been in a melted state, the iron ore should
+be <i>suspected</i> of having been also in fusion, were
+there no other evidence of that fact. In science,
+however, it is not suspicion that should
+be employed in physical investigation; the
+question at present is; If the phenomena of the
+case correspond to the conclusion which the
+intelligent mineralist, who examined them,
+has formed? and, to this question, our author
+gives no direct answer. He says, <i>iron is often
+found in that form without any suspicion of fusion</i>.
+This is what I am now to answer.</p>
+
+<p>The form in which the manganese appears
+is one of the strongest proofs of those masses
+having been in fusion; and, if iron should
+ever be found in that form, it must give the
+same proof of mineral fusion as this example
+of manganese; let us then see the nature of
+this evidence. The form of the manganese is
+that of a fluid body collecting itself into a
+spherical figure by the cohesion or attraction
+of its particles, so far as may be admitted by
+other circumstances; but, being here refilled
+by the solid part on which it rests, this spherical
+body is flattened by the gravitation of its
+substance. Now here is a regular form, which
+demonstrates the masses to have been in the
+state of fusion; for, there is no other way in
+which that form of those reguline masses could
+have been induced.</p>
+
+<p>There now remains to be considered what
+our author has observed respecting the intensity
+of the fire and size of the masses. "A
+fire capable of melting quartz might surely
+produce it (meaning the manganese) in larger
+masses." M. de la Peyrouse says, that
+those masses were in all respects as if formed
+by art, only much larger, as the powers of nature
+exceed those of our laboratories. What
+then is it that is here meant to be disputed?
+We are comparing the operation of nature
+and that of art, and these are to be judged of
+by the product which we examine; but the
+quantity, in this case, or the size of the masses,
+makes no part of the evidence, and therefore
+is here most improperly mentioned by our author.
+With regard again to the nature of the
+fire by which the fusion had been produced,
+he is much mistaken if he imagines that the
+reduction of the reguline or metallic manganese
+depends upon the intensity of the heat;
+it depends upon circumstances proper for the
+separation of the oxygenating principle from
+the calx, in like manner as the calcination of
+calcareous spar must depend upon circumstances
+proper for allowing the separation of the
+carbonic acid or fixed air.</p>
+
+<p>But do not let us lose sight of our proper
+subject, by examining things foreign or not
+so immediately to the purpose. We are only
+inquiring if those flattened spheres of native
+manganese had been formed by water, or if it
+were by fusion; for, our author agrees that
+there is no other way. Why then does he
+endeavour to evade giving a direct answer,
+and fly away to consider the quantity of the
+product, as if that had any thing to do with,
+the question, or as if that quantity were not
+sufficient, neither of which is the case. In
+short, our author's whole observation, on this
+occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy,
+by insinuation, the force of an argument
+which proves the theory of mineral fusion;
+and that he wishes to render doubtful,
+by a species of sophistry, what in fair reasoning
+he cannot deny.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has written upon the subject of
+phlogiston; one would suppose that he should
+be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at
+least; let us see then what he has to observe
+upon that subject. He quotes from my Theory,
+that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon
+or near each other, and adhering to coal, or
+mixed with bitumen, etc. are found; circumstances
+that cannot be explained in the
+hypothesis of solution in the moist way.&mdash;He
+then answers;&mdash;"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
+which is not wonderful: But they
+are still less explicable in the hypothesis of
+dry solution, as must be apparent from what
+has been already said.  How coal, an infusible
+substance, could be spread into strata
+by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."&mdash;It
+is only upon the last sentence that I am
+here to remark: This, I believe, will be a sufficient
+specimen of our author's understanding,
+with regard at least to my Theory which
+he is here examining.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will see what I have said upon
+the subject of coal, by turning back to the second
+section of the preceding chapter. I had
+given almost three quarto pages upon that
+subject, endeavouring to explain how all the
+different degrees of <i>infusibility</i> were produced,
+by means of heat and distillation, in strata
+which had been originally more or less oily,
+bituminous, and <i>fusible</i>; and now our author
+says, that it is incomprehensible to him, how
+coal, <i>an infusible substance</i>, could be spread into
+strata by mere heat.&mdash;So it truly may, either
+to him or to any other person; but, it
+appears to me almost as incomprehensible,
+how a person of common understanding should
+read my Dissertation, and impute to it a thing
+so contrary to its doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived
+view that our author seems to have taken
+of the two opposite theories, (<i>i. e</i>. of consolidation
+by means of heat, and by means of
+water alone,) than his observation upon the
+case of mineral alkali. To that irrefragable argument
+(which Dr Black suggested) in proof
+of this substance having been in a state of fusion
+in the mineral regions, our author makes
+the following reply; "What then will our
+author say of the vast masses of this salt
+which are found with their full quantity of
+water of crystallization?"&mdash;There is in this
+proposition, insignificant as it may seem, a
+confusion of ideas, which it certainly cannot
+be thought worth while to investigate; but,
+so far as the doctrine of the aqueous theory
+may be considered as here concerned, it will
+be proper that I should give some answer to
+the question so triumphantly put to me.</p>
+
+<p>Our author is in a mistake in supposing that
+Dr Black had written any thing upon the subject;
+he had only suggested the argument of
+this example of mineral alkali to me, as I have
+mentioned; and, the use I made of that argument
+was to corroborate the example I had
+given of sal gem. If, therefore, our author
+does not deny the inference from the state of
+that mineral alkali, his observation upon it
+must refer to something which this other example
+of his is to prove on the opposite side,
+or to support the aqueous instead of the igneous
+theory; and, this is a subject which I am
+always willing to examine in the most impartial
+manner, having a desire to know the true
+effect of aqueous solution in the consolidation
+of mineral bodies, and having no objection to
+allow it any thing which it can possibly produce,
+although denying that it can do every
+thing, as many mineralists seem to think.</p>
+
+<p>The question, with regard to this example
+of our author's of a mineral alkali with its water
+of crystallization, must be this, Whether
+those saline bodies had been concreted by the
+evaporation of the aqueous solvent with which
+they had been introduced, or by the congelation
+of that saline substance from a fluid state
+of fusion; for, surely, we are not to suppose
+those bodies to have been created in the place
+and state in which we find them. With regard
+to the evaporation or separation of the
+aqueous solvent, this may be easily conceived
+according to the igneous theory; but, the
+aqueous theory has not any means for the
+producing of that effect in the mineral regions,
+which is the only place we are here concerned
+with. Therefore, this example of a concreted
+body of salt, whatever it may prove in other
+respects, can neither diminish the evidence of
+my Theory with regard to the igneous origin
+of stony substances, nor can it contribute to
+support the opposite supposition of an aqueous
+origin to them.</p>
+
+<p>But to show how little reason our author
+had for exulting in that question which he so
+confidently proposed in order to defeat my
+argument, let us consider this matter a little
+farther. I will for a moment allow the aqueous
+theory to have the means for separating
+the water from the saline solution, and thus
+to concrete the saline substance in the bowels
+of the earth; this concretion then is to be examined
+with a view to investigate the last state
+of this body, which is to inform us with regard
+to those mineral operations. But, our
+author has not mentioned whether those masses
+appear to have been crystallised from the
+aqueous solution, or if they appear to have
+been congealed from the melted state of their
+<i>aqueous fusion</i>.&mdash;Has he ever thought of
+this? Now this is so material a point in the
+view with which that example has been held
+out to us, that, without showing that this
+salt had crystallised from the solution, he
+has no right to employ it as an example; and
+if, on the other hand, it should appear to have
+simply congealed from the state of aqueous
+fusion, then, instead of answering the purpose
+for which our author gave it, it would refute
+his supposition, as certainly as the example
+which I have given.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have reasoned upon the supposition
+of this alkali, with its water of crystallization,
+being truly a mineral concretion; but, I see
+no authority for such a supposition: It certainly
+may be otherwise; and, in that case,
+our author would have no more right to give
+it as an example in opposition to Dr Black's
+argument, than he would have to give the
+crystallization of sea-salt, on Turk's Island, in
+opposition to the example which I had given,
+of the salt rock, at Northwych in Cheshire,
+having been in the state of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly was incumbent on our author
+to have informed us, if those masses of salt
+were found in, what may be properly termed,
+their mineral state; or, if the state in which
+they are found at present had been produced
+by the influences of the atmosphere, transforming
+that saline substance from its mineral
+state, as happens upon so many other occasions;
+I am inclined to suspect that this last
+is truly the case. It may be thought illiberal
+in me to suppose a natural philosopher thus
+holding out an example that could only serve
+to lead us into error, or to mislead our judgment
+with regard to those two theories which
+is the subject of consideration. This certainly
+would be the case, almost on any other occasion;
+but, when I find every argument and
+example, employed in this dissertation, to be
+either unfounded or misjudged, Whether am
+I to conclude our author, on this occasion, to
+be consistent with himself, or not?</p>
+
+<p>I have but one article more to observe upon.
+I had given, as I thought, a kind of demonstration,
+from the internal evidence of the
+stone, that granite had been in the fluid state
+of fusion, and had concreted by crystallization
+and congelation from that melted state.
+This no doubt must be a stumbling block to
+those who maintain that granite mountains
+are the primitive parts of our earth; and who,
+like our author, suppose that "things may
+have been originally, as at present, in a
+solid state." It must also be a great, if not
+an invincible obstacle in the way of the aqueous
+theory, which thus endeavours to explain
+those granite veins that are found traversing
+strata, and therefore necessarily of a posterior
+formation.</p>
+
+<p>To remove that obstacle in the way of the
+aqueous theory, or to carry that theory over
+the obstacle which he cannot remove, our author
+undertakes to refute my theory with regard
+to the igneous origin of stony substances,
+by giving an example of granite formed upon
+the surface of the earth by means of water, or
+in what is called the moist way; and he
+closes his Dissertation with this example as an
+<i>experimentum crucis</i>. It is therefore necessary
+that I take this demonstration of our author
+into particular consideration; for, surely, independent
+of our controversy, which is perhaps
+of little moment, here is the most interesting
+experiment, as it is announced, that
+mineralogy could be enriched with.</p>
+
+<p>"To close this controversy," says our author,
+"I shall only add, that granite, recently
+formed in the moist way, has been frequently
+found."&mdash;Of that remarkable event,
+however, he has selected only one example.
+This is to be found upon the Oder; and the
+authority upon which our author has given
+it, is that of Lasius Hartz.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of a granite stone, from granite
+sand, by means of water, is inconsistent
+with our chemical knowledge of those mineral
+substances which constitute that stone; it
+is repugnant to the phenomena which appear
+from the inspection of the natural bodies of
+this kind; and it is directly contrary to the
+universal experience in granite countries,
+where, instead of any thing concreting, every
+thing is going into decay, from the loose
+stones and sand of granite, to the solid rock
+and mountains which are always in a state of
+degradation. Therefore, to have any credit
+given to such a story, would require the most
+scientific evidence in its favour. Now, in order
+that others may judge whether this has
+been the case in this example, I will transcribe
+what our author has said upon the subject;
+and then I will give the view in which it appears
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>He says, "a mole having been constructed
+in the Oder in the year 1723, 350 feet
+long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at
+bottom, and 54 at the top, its sides only
+were granite, without any other cement
+than moss; the middle space was entirely
+filled with granite sand. In a short time
+this concreted into a substance so compact
+as to be impenetrable by water."&mdash;Here is
+an example, according to our author, of <i>granite
+formed in the moist way</i>. But now, I
+must ask to see the evidence of that fact; for,
+from what our author has told us, I do not
+even see reason to conclude that there was the
+least concretion, or any stone formed at all.
+A body of sand will be <i>so compacted as to be
+impenetrable by water</i>, with the introduction
+of a very little mud, and without any degree
+of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot
+be made to pass through such a body without
+compacting it so; and this every body finds,
+to their cost, who have attempted to make a
+filter of that kind.</p>
+
+<p>But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our
+author that there had been a petrifaction in
+this case; and, before I admit this example
+of the formation of granite, I must ask what
+sort of a granite it was;&mdash;whether of two,
+three, or four ingredients; and, how these
+were disposed. If, again, it were not properly
+a granite, but a stone formed of granite
+sand, What is the cementing substance?&mdash;Is
+it quartz, felt-spar, mica, or schorl?&mdash;or, Was
+it calcareous? If our author knows any thing
+about these necessary questions, Why has
+he not informed us, as minutely as he
+has done with regard to the dimensions of
+the mole, with which we certainly are less
+concerned? If, again, he knows no more
+about the matter than what he has informed
+us of, he must have strangely imposed upon
+himself, to suppose that he was giving us an
+example of the <i>formation of granite in the
+moist way</i>, when he has only described an effectual
+way of retaining water, by means of
+sand and mud.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. III.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories,
+in general</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the first chapter I have given a general
+theory of the earth, with such proofs as I
+thought were sufficient for the information of
+intelligent men, who might satisfy themselves
+by examining the facts on which the reasoning
+in that theory had been founded.</p>
+
+<p>In the second chapter, I have endeavoured
+to remove the objections which have been
+made to that theory, by a strenuous patron of
+the commonly received opinion of mineralogists
+and geologists,&mdash;an opinion which, if not
+diametrically opposite, differs essentially from
+mine. But now I am to examine nature
+more particularly, in order to compare those
+different opinions with the actual state of
+things, on which every physical theory must
+be founded. Therefore, the opinions of other
+geologists should be clearly stated, that so a
+fair comparison may be made of theories
+which are to represent the system of this
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if I am to compare that which I
+have given as a theory of the earth, with the
+theories given by others under that denomination,
+I find so little similarity, in the things
+to be compared, that no other judgment could
+hence be formed, perhaps, than that they had
+little or no resemblance. I see certain treatises
+named Theories of the Earth; but, I find not
+any thing that entitles them to be considered
+as such, unless it be their endeavouring to
+explain certain appearances which are observed
+in the earth. That a proper theory of
+the earth should explain all those appearances
+is true; but, it does not hold, conversely, that
+the explanation of an appearance should constitute
+a theory of the earth. So far as the
+theory of the earth shall be considered as the
+philosophy or physical knowledge of this
+world, that is to say, a general view of the
+means by which the end or purpose is attained,
+nothing can be properly esteemed such a
+theory unless it lead, in some degree, to the
+forming of that general view of things. But
+now, let us see what we have to examine in
+that respect.</p>
+
+<p>We have, first, Burnet's Theory of the
+Earth. This surely cannot be considered in
+any other light than as a dream, formed upon
+the poetic fiction of a golden age, and that of
+iron which had succeeded it; at the same
+time, there are certain appearances in the
+earth which would, in a partial view of things,
+seem to justify that imagination. In Telliamed,
+again, we have a very ingenious theory,
+with regard to the production of the earth
+above the surface of the sea, and of the origin
+of those land animals which now inhabit
+that earth. This is a theory which has something
+in it like a regular system, such as we
+might expect to find in nature; but, it is only
+a physical romance, and cannot be considered
+in a serious view, although apparently
+better founded than most of that which has
+been wrote upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We have then a theory of a very different
+kind; this is that of the Count de Buffon.
+Here is a theory, not founded on any regular
+system, but upon an irregularity of nature, or
+an accident supposed to have happened to the
+sun. But, are we to consider as a theory of
+the earth, an accident by which a planetary
+body had been made to increase the number
+of these in the solar system? The circumvolution
+of a planetary body (allowing it to have
+happened in that manner) cannot form the
+system of a world, such as our earth exhibits;
+and, in forming a theory of the earth, it is required
+to see the aptitude of every part of
+this complicated machine to fulfil the purpose
+of its intention, and not to suppose the
+wise system of this world to have arisen from,
+the cooling of a lump of melted matter which
+had belonged to another body. When we
+consider the power and wisdom that must
+have been exerted in the contriving, creating,
+and maintaining this living world which sustains
+such a variety of plants and animals, the
+revolution of a mass of dead matter according
+to the laws of projectiles, although in perfect
+wisdom, is but like a unite among an infinite
+series of ascending numbers.</p>
+
+<p>After the theory of that eloquent writer,
+founded on a mere accident, or rather the error
+of a comet which produced the beautiful
+system of this world, M. de Luc, in his Theory
+of the earth, has given us the history of a
+disaster which befell this well contrived world;&mdash;a
+disaster which caused the general deluge,
+and which, without a miracle, must have undone
+a system of living beings that are so
+well adapted to the present state of things.
+But, surely, general deluges form no part of
+the theory of the earth; for, the purpose of
+this earth is evidently to maintain vegetable
+and animal life, and not to destroy them.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these imaginary great operations in
+the natural history of this earth, we have also
+certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists
+with regard to the effect of water, for explaining
+to us the consolidation of the loose
+materials of which the strata of the earth had
+been composed, and also for producing every
+other appearance, or any which shall happen
+to occur in the examination of the earth, and
+require to be explained. That this is no exaggerated
+representation, and that this is all
+we have as a theory, in the suppositions of
+those geologists, will appear from the following
+state of the case.</p>
+
+<p>They suppose water the agent employed in
+forming the solid bodies of the earth, and in
+producing those crystallised bodies which appear
+in the mineral kingdom. That this is a
+mere supposition will appear by considering;
+first, that they do not know how this agent
+water is to operate in producing those effects;
+nor have they any direct proof of the fact
+which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy;
+and, secondly, that they cannot tell us
+where this operation is to be performed. They
+cannot say that it is in the earth above the
+level of the sea: for, the same appearances
+are found as deep as we can examine below
+that level; besides, we see that water has the
+opposite effect upon the surface of the earth,
+through which it percolates dissolving soluble
+substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in
+preparing soil for plants. If, again, it be below
+the level of the sea, that strata of the earth
+are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration
+of that water which falls from the
+heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
+whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that
+place, must have been always full of water,
+consequently cannot admit of that supposed
+infiltration.</p>
+
+<p>But allowing those suppositions to be true,
+there is nothing in them like a theory of the
+earth,&mdash;a theory that should bring the operations
+of the world into the regularity of ends
+and means, and, by generalizing these regular
+events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
+forming a design; they are only an
+attempt to show how certain things, which we
+see, have happened without any perceivable
+design, or without any farther design than this
+particular effect which we perceive. If we
+believe that there is almighty power, and supreme
+wisdom employed for sustaining that
+beautiful system of plants and animals which
+is so interesting to us, we must certainly conclude,
+that the earth, on which this system of
+living things depends, has been constructed
+on principles that are adequate to the end proposed,
+and procure it a perfection which it is
+our business to explore. Therefore, a proper
+system of the earth should lead us to see that
+wise contraction, by which this earth is made
+to answer the purpose of its intention and to
+preserve itself from every accident by which
+the design of this living world might be frustrated
+as this world is an active scene.
+or a material machine moving in all its parts,
+we must see how this machine is so contrived,
+as either to have those parts to move without
+wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
+which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.</p>
+
+<p>A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself,
+may interest a philosopher to study; but,
+when he comes to see the necessity of those
+hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth,
+or for the permanency of the land on which
+we dwell, and when he finds that there are
+means wisely provided for the renovation of
+this necessary decaying part, as well as that of
+every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates
+this manifestation of design, and thus
+connects the mineral system of this earth with
+that by which the heavenly bodies are made
+to move perpetually in their orbits. It is not,
+therefore, simply by seeing the concretion of
+mineral bodies that a philosopher is to be gratified
+in his his intellectual pursuit, but by the
+contemplation of that system in which the
+necessary resolution of this earth, while at
+present it serves the purpose of vegetation,
+or the fertility of our soil, is the very means
+employed in furnishing the materials of future
+land.</p>
+
+<p>It is such a view as this that I have endeavoured
+to represent in the theory which
+I have given. I have there stated the present
+situation of things, by which we are led to
+perceive a former state; and, from that necessary
+progress of actual things, I have concluded
+a certain system according to which
+things will be changed, without any accident
+or error. It is by tracing this regular system
+in nature that a philosopher is to perceive the
+wisdom with which this world has been contrived;
+but, he must see that wisdom founded
+upon the aptitude of all the parts to fulfil
+the intention of the design; and that intention
+is to be deduced from the end which is
+known to be attained. Thus we are first to
+reason from effect to cause, in seeing the order
+of that which has already happened; and
+then, from those known causes, to reason forwards,
+so as to conceive that which is to come
+to pass in time. Such would be the philosophy
+of this earth, formed by the highest generalisation
+of phenomena, a generalisation
+which had required the particular investigation
+of inductive reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>That no such theory as this, founded upon
+water as an agent operating in the changes of
+this earth, has yet appeared, will, I believe
+be easily allowed. With regard again to fire
+as an agent in the mineral operations of this
+earth, geologists have formed no consistent
+theory. They see volcanoes in all the quarters
+of the globe, and from those burning
+mountains, they conjecture other mountains
+have been formed. But a burning mountain
+is only a matter of fact; and, they have not
+on this formed any general principle, for establishing
+what may be called a theory of the
+earth. Those who have considered subterraneous
+fires as producing certain effects, neither
+know how these have been procured, nor do
+they see the proper purpose for which they
+are employed in the system of this world.
+In this case, the agent fire is only seen as a
+destructive element, in like manner as deluges
+of water have been attributed by others to
+changes which have happened in the natural
+state of things. These operations are seen only
+as the accidents of nature, and not as part
+of that design by which the earth, which is
+necessarily wasted in the operations of the
+world, is to be repaired.</p>
+
+<p>So far from employing heat or subterraneous
+fire as an agent in the mineral operations
+of the earth, the volcanic philosophers do not
+even attempt to explain upon that principle
+the frequent nodules of calcareous, zeolite,
+and other spatose and agaty substances, in those
+basaltic bodies which they consider as lavas.
+Instead then of learning to see the operation
+of heat as a general principle of mineral consolidation
+and crystallization, the volcanic philosophers
+endeavour to explain those particular
+appearances, which they think inconsistent
+with fusion, by aqueous infiltration, no otherwise
+than other mineralists who do not admit
+the igneous origin of those basaltic bodies.
+Thus, that great agent, subterraneous heat, has
+never been employed by geologists, as a general
+principle in the theory of the earth; it
+has been only considered as an occasional circumstance,
+or as the accident of having certain
+mineral bodies, which are inflammable,
+kindled in the earth, without so much as seeing
+how that may be done.</p>
+
+<p>This agent heat, then, is a new principle
+to be employed in forming a theory of the
+earth; a principle that must have been in the
+constitution of this globe, when contrived to
+subsist as a world, and to maintain a system of
+living bodies perpetuating their species. It is
+therefore necessary to connect this great mineral
+principle, subterraneous fire or heat,
+with the other operations of the world, in
+forming a general theory. For, whether we
+are to consider those great and constant explosions
+of mineral fire as a principal agent in
+the design, or only as a casual event depending
+upon circumstances which give occasion
+to an operation of such magnitude, here is an
+object that must surely have its place in every
+general theory of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In examining things which actually exist,
+and which have proceeded in a certain order,
+it is natural to look for that which had been
+first; man desires to know what had been the
+beginning of those things which now appear.
+But when, in forming a theory of the earth,
+a geologist shall indulge his fancy in framing,
+without evidence, that which had preceded
+the present order of things, he then either
+misleads himself, or writes a fable for the
+amusement of his reader. A theory of the
+earth, which has for object truth, can have no
+retrospect to that which had preceded the present
+order of this world; for, this order alone
+is what we have to reason upon; and to reason
+without data is nothing but delusion. A
+theory, therefore, which is limited to the actual
+constitution of this earth, cannot be allowed
+to proceed one step beyond the present
+order of things.</p>
+
+<p>But, having surveyed the order of this living
+world, and having investigated the progress
+of this active scene of life, death and circulation,
+we find ample data on which to
+found a train of the most conclusive reasoning
+with regard to a general design. It is thus
+that there is to be perceived another system.
+of active things for the contemplation of our
+mind;&mdash;things which, though not immediately
+within our view, are not the less certain
+in being out of our sight; and things which
+must necessarily be comprehended in the
+theory of the earth, if we are to give stability
+to it as a world sustaining plants and animals.
+This is a mineral system, by which the decayed
+constitution of an earth, or fruitful surface
+of habitable land, may be continually renewed
+in proportion as it is wasted in the operations
+of this world.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this mineral system that I have occasion
+to compare the explanations, which I
+give of certain natural appearances, with the
+theories or explanations which have been
+given by others, and which are generally received
+as the proper theory of those mineral
+operations. I am, therefore, to examine those
+different opinions, respecting the means employed
+by nature for producing particular appearances
+in the construction of our land, appearances
+which must be explained in some
+consistent mineral theory.</p>
+
+<p>These appearances may all be comprehended
+under two heads, which are now to be
+mentioned, in order to see the importance of
+their explanation, or purpose which such an
+explanation is to serve in a theory of the earth.
+The first kind of these appearances is that of
+known bodies which we find composing part
+of the masses of our land, bodies whose natural
+history we know, as having existed in
+another state previous to the composition of
+this earth where they now are found; these
+are the relicts or parts of animal and vegetable
+bodies, and various stony substances broken
+and worn by attrition, all which had belonged
+to a former earth. By means of these known
+objects, we are to learn a great deal of the
+natural history of this earth; and, it is in
+tracing that history, from where we first perceive
+it, to the present state of things, that
+forms the subject of a geological and mineralogical
+theory of this earth. But, we are
+more especially enabled to trace those operations
+of the earth, by means of the second
+kind of appearances, which are now to be
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>These again are the evident changes which
+those known bodies have undergone, and
+which have been induced upon such collected
+masses of which those bodies constitute a
+part. These changes are of three sorts; <i>first</i>,
+the solid state, and various degrees of it, in
+which we now find those masses which had
+been originally formed by the collection of
+loose and incoherent materials; <i>secondly</i>, the
+subsequent changes which have evidently
+happened to those consolidated masses which
+have been broken and displaced, and which
+have had other mineral substances introduced
+into those broken and disordered parts; and,
+<i>lastly</i>, that great change of situation which has
+happened to this compound mass formed originally
+at the bottom of the sea, a mass which,
+after being consolidated in the mineral region,
+is now situated in the atmosphere above the
+surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner we are led to the system of
+the world, or theory of the earth in general;
+for, that great change of situation, which our
+land has undergone, cannot be considered as
+the work of accident, or any other than an
+essential part in the system of this world. It
+is therefore a proper view of the necessary
+connection and mutual dependence of all those
+different systems of changing things that forms
+the theory of this earth as a world, or as that
+active part of nature which the philosophy of
+this earth has to explore. The animal system
+is the first or last of these; next comes the
+vegetable system, on which the life of animals
+depends; then comes the system of this earth,
+composed of atmosphere, sea, and land, and
+comprehending the various chemical, mechanical,
+and meteorologically operations which
+take place upon that surface where vegetation
+must proceed; and, lastly, we have the mineral
+system to contemplate, a system in which
+the wasting surface of the earth is employed
+in laying the foundation of future land within
+the sea, and a system in which the mineral
+operations are employed in concocting that
+future land.</p>
+
+<p>Now, such must surely be the theory of this
+earth, if the land is continually wasting in the
+operations of this world; for, to acknowledge
+the perfection of those systems of plants and
+animals perpetuating their species, and to suppose
+the system of this earth on which they must
+depend, to be imperfect, and in time to perish,
+would be to reason inconsistently or absurdly.
+This is the view of nature that I would wish
+philosophers to take; but, there are certain
+prejudices of education or prepossession of
+opinion among them to be overcome, before
+they can be brought to see those fundamental
+propositions,&mdash;the wasting of the land, and
+the necessity of its renovation by the co-operation
+of the mineral system. Let us then
+consider how men of science, in examining
+the mineral state of things, and reasoning from
+those appearances by which we are to learn
+the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves
+with regard to physical causes, and formed
+certain mineralogical and geological theories,
+by which their judgment is so perverted,
+in examining nature, as to exclude them from
+the proper means of correcting their first erroneous
+notions, or render them blind to the
+clearest evidence of any other theory that is
+proposed.</p>
+
+<p>When men of science reason upon subjects
+where the ideas are distinct and definite, with
+terms appropriated to the ideas, they come to
+conclusions in which there is no difference of
+opinion. It is otherwise in physical subjects,
+where things are to be assimilated, in being
+properly compared; there, things are not
+always compared in similar and equal circumstances
+or conditions; and there, philosophers
+often draw conclusions beyond the analogy of
+the things compared, and thus judge without
+data. When, for example, they would form
+the physical induction, with regard to the effect
+of fire or water upon certain substances
+in the mineral regions, from the analogy of
+such events as may be observed upon the surface
+of the earth, they are apt to judge of
+things acting under different circumstances or
+conditions, consequently not producing similar
+effects; in which case, they are judging without
+reason, that is, instead of inductive reasoning
+from actual data or physical truth, they
+are forming data to themselves purely by supposition,
+consequently, so far as these, imagined
+data may be wrong, the physical conclusion,
+of these philosophers may be erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that philosophers have judged,
+with regard to the effects of fire and water
+upon mineral substances below the bottom of
+the sea, from what their chemistry had taught
+them to believe concerning bodies exposed to
+those agents in the atmosphere or on the surface
+of the earth. If in those two cases the
+circumstances were the same, or similar, consequently
+the conditions of the action not
+changed, then, the inductive reasoning, which
+they employ in that comparison, would be just;
+but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have
+employed that inductive conclusion for the explanation
+of mineral appearances, without having
+reason to believe that those changed circumstances
+of the case should not make any
+difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
+have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning;
+consequently, instead of being a proper
+physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
+reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing
+things not properly analysed or distinguished,
+is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
+therefore, cannot be admitted as a part
+of any geological or mineral theory. Now I
+here maintain, that philosophers have judged
+in no other manner than by this false analogy,
+when they conclude that water is the agent by
+which mineral concretions have been formed.
+But it will be proper to state more particularly
+the case of that misunderstanding among mineral
+philosophers.</p>
+
+<p>In forming a geological theory, the general
+construction of this earth, and the materials of
+which it is composed, are such visible objects,
+and so evident to those who will take the pains
+to examine nature, that here is a subject in
+which there cannot be any doubt or difference
+of opinion. Neither can there be any dispute
+concerning the place and situation of
+mass when it was first formed or composed;
+for, this is clearly proved, from every concomitant
+circumstance, to have been at the bottom
+of the sea. The only question in this
+case, that can be made, is, How that mass
+comes now to be a solid body, and above the
+surface of the sea in which it had been formed?</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers
+have been so dissonant, so vague, and
+so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
+Some suppose the land to be discovered by the
+gradual retreat of the ocean, without proposing
+to explain to us from whence had come the
+known materials of a former earth, which
+compose the highest summits of the mountains
+in the highest continents of the earth.
+Others suppose the whole of a former earth to
+have subsided below the bottom even of the
+present sea, and together with it all the water
+of the former sea, from above the summits of
+the present mountains, which had then been
+at the bottom of the former sea. The placing
+of the bottom of the sea, or any part of it, in
+the atmosphere so as to be dry land, is no
+doubt a great operation to be performed, and
+a difficult task to be explained; but this is only
+an argument the more for philosophers to
+agree in adopting the most reasonable means.</p>
+
+<p>But though philosophers differ so widely in
+that point, this is not the case with regard to
+the concretion of mineral bodies; here mineralists
+seem to be almost all of one mind, at
+the same time without any reason, at least,
+without any other reason than that false analogy
+which they have inconsiderately formed
+from the operations of the surface of this earth.
+This great misunderstanding of mineralists has
+such an extensive and baneful effect in the
+judging of geological theories, that it will be
+proper here to explain how that has happened,
+and to show the necessity of correcting that
+erroneous principle before any just opinion
+can be formed upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Fire and water are two great agents in the
+system of this earth; it is therefore most natural
+to look for the operation of those agents
+in the changes which are made on bodies in
+the mineral regions; and as the consolidated
+state of those bodies, which had been collected
+at the bottom of the sea, may have been
+supposed to be induced either by fusion, or by
+the concretion from a solution, we are to consider
+how far natural appearance lead to the
+conclusion of the one or other of those two
+different operations. Here, no doubt, we are
+to reason analogically from the known power
+and effects of those great agents; but, we must
+take care not to reason from a false analogy,
+by misunderstanding the circumstances of the
+case, or not attending to the necessary conditions
+in which those agents act.&mdash;We must not
+conclude that fire cannot burn in the mineral
+regions because our fires require the ventilation
+of the atmosphere; for, besides the actual
+exigence of mineral fire being a notorious matter
+of fact, we know that much more powerful
+means <i>may</i> be employed by nature, for that
+mineral purpose of exciting heat, than those
+which we practise.&mdash;We must not conclude
+that mineral marble is formed in the same manner
+as we see a similar stony substance produced
+upon the surface of the earth, unless we
+should have reason to suppose the analogy to
+be complete. But, this is the very error into
+which mineral philosophers have fallen; and
+this is the subject which I am now to endeavour
+to illustrate.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which those philosophers
+have deceived themselves when reasoning upon
+the subject of mineral concretion, is this:
+They see, that by means of water a stony substance
+is produced; and, this stony body so
+much resembles mineral marble as to be hardly
+distinguishable in certain cases. These mineral
+philosophers then, reasoning in the manner
+of the vulgar, or without analysing the subject
+to its principle, naturally attribute the formation
+of the mineral marble to a cause of the
+same sort; and, the mineral marble being found
+so intimately connected with all other mineral
+bodies, we must necessarily conclude, in reasoning
+according to the soundest principles,
+that all those different substances had been
+concreted in the same manner. Thus, having
+once departed one step from the path of just
+investigation, our physical science is necessarily
+bewildered in the labyrinth of error. Let us
+then, in re-examining our data, point out where
+lies that first devious step which had been
+impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic
+acid gas, (as it is called), dissolves a certain
+portion of mild calcareous earth or marble;
+consequently such acidulated water, that is, water
+impregnated with this gas, will, by filtrating
+through calcareous substances, become saturated
+with that solution of marble; and, this
+solution is what is called a <i>petrifying water</i>.
+When this solution is exposed to the action of
+the atmosphere, the acid gas, by means of which
+the stony substance is dissolved, evaporates from
+the solution, in having a stronger attraction for
+the atmospheric air; it is then that the marble,
+or calcareous substance, concretes and crystallises,
+separating from the water in a sparry state,
+and forming a very solid stone by the successive
+accretion from the solution, as it comes to
+be exposed to the influence of the atmosphere
+in flowing over the accumulating body. Here
+is the source of their delusion; for, they do
+not distinguish properly the case of this solution
+of a stony substance concreting by means
+of the separation of its solvent, and the case of
+such a solution being in a place where that necessary
+condition cannot be supposed to exist;
+such as, e.g., the interstices among the particles
+of sand, clay, etc. deposited at the bottom of
+the sea, and accumulated in immense stratified
+masses.</p>
+
+<p>No example can better illustrate how pernicious
+it is to science to have admitted a false
+principle, on which a chain of reasoning is to
+proceed in forming a theory. Mineral philosophers
+have founded their theory upon that
+deceitful analogy, which they had concluded
+between the stalactical concretions of petrifying
+waters and the marble formed in the mineral
+regions; thus, blinded by prejudice,
+they shut the door against the clearest evidence;
+and it is most difficult to make them see the
+error of their principle. But this is not to be
+wondered at, when we consider how few among
+philosophising men remount to the first principles
+of their theory; and, unless they shall
+thus remount to that first step, in which the
+concreting operation of a dissolved stony substance
+is supposed to take place without the
+necessary conditions for the petrifying operation,
+it is impossible to be convinced that their
+theory, thus formed with regard to mineral
+concretion, is merely supposition, and has no
+foundation in matter of fact from whence it
+should proceed.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all; for, even supposing their
+theory to be well founded and just, it is plainly
+contradicted by natural appearances. According
+to that theory of aqueous consolidation,
+all the stratified bodies, of which this earth in
+general consists, should be found in the natural
+order of their regular formation; but, instead
+of this, they are found every where disturbed
+in that order more or less; in many
+places this order and regularity is so disturbed
+as hardly to be acknowledged; in most places
+we find those stratified bodies broken, dislocated,
+and contorted, and this aqueous theory
+of mineralists has neither the means for attaining
+that end, were it required in their theory,
+nor have they any such purpose in their theory,
+were that end attainable by the means
+which they employ. Thus blinded by the
+prejudice of a false analogy, they do not even
+endeavour to gratify the human understanding
+(which naturally goes in quest of wisdom
+and design) by forming a hypothetical or specious
+theory of the mineral system; and they
+only amuse themselves with the supposition of
+an unknown operation of water for the explanation
+of their cabinet specimens, a supposition
+altogether ineffectual for the purpose of
+forming a habitable earth, and a supposition
+which is certainly contradicted by every natural
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in examining geological and mineralogical
+theories, I am laid under the disagreeable
+necessity of pointing out the errors of
+physical principles which are assumed, the prejudices
+of theoretical opinions which have
+been received, and the misconceived notions
+which philosophers entertain with regard to
+the system of nature, in which may be perceived
+no ineffectual operation, nor any destructive
+intention, but the wise and benevolent
+purpose of preserving the present order of
+this world. But, though thus misled with
+regard to the cause of things, naturalists are
+every where making interesting observations
+in the mineral kingdom, I shall therefore
+avail myself of that instructive information,
+for the confirmation of my theory.</p>
+
+<p>It may now be proper to consider what
+must be required, in order to have a geological
+and mineral theory established upon scientific
+principles, or on such grounds as must
+give conviction to those who will examine the
+subject; for, unless we may clearly see that
+there are means for attaining that desirable
+end, few philosophers will be persuaded to
+pursue this branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>A theory is nothing but the generalization
+of particular facts; and, in a theory of the
+earth, those facts must be taken from the observations
+of natural history. Nature is considered
+as absolutely true; no error or contradiction
+can be found in nature. For, if such
+contradiction were truly found, if the stone,
+for example, which fell to day were to rise
+again to-morrow, there would be an end of
+natural philosophy, our principles would fail,
+and we would no longer investigate the rules
+of nature from our observations.</p>
+
+<p>Every natural appearance, therefore, which
+is explained, <i>i.e.</i> which is made to come into
+the order of things that happen, must so far
+confirm the theory to which it then belongs.
+But is it necessary, that every particular appearance,
+among minerals, should be thus explained
+in a general theory of the earth?
+And, is any appearance, which is not explained
+by it, to be considered as sufficient to discredit
+or confute a theory which corresponded
+with every other appearance? Here is a
+question which it would require some accuracy
+to resolve.</p>
+
+<p>If we knew all the powers of nature, and all
+the different conditions in which those powers
+may have their action varied, that is to say,
+if we were acquainted with every physical
+cause, then every natural effect, or all appearances
+upon the surface of this earth, might be
+explained in a theory that were just. But,
+seeing that this is far from being the case, and
+that there may be many causes of which we
+are as yet ignorant, as well as certain conditions
+in which the known action of powers
+may be varied, it must be evident, that a
+theory of the earth is not to be confuted by
+this argument alone, That there are, among
+natural bodies, certain appearances which are
+not explained by the theory. We must admit,
+that, not having all the data which natural
+philosophy requires, we cannot pretend to
+explain every thing which appears; and that
+our theories, which necessarily are imperfect,
+are not to be considered as erroneous when
+not explaining every thing which is in nature,
+but only when they are found contrary
+to or inconsistent with the laws of nature,
+which are known, and with which the case in
+question may be properly compared.</p>
+
+<p>But we may have different theories to compare
+with nature; and, in that case, the
+question is not, How far any of those theories
+should explain all natural appearances? but,
+How far any one particular theory might explain
+a phenomenon better than another? In
+this case of comparison, it will be evident, that
+if one theory explains natural appearances,
+then the opposite to that theory cannot be
+supposed to explain the same appearances. If
+for example, granite, porphyry, or basaltes,
+should be found naturally formed by fusion,
+the formation of those stones could not be
+supposed in any case as formed by water, although
+it could not be demonstrated that
+water is incapable of forming those mineral
+productions.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner, if those three bodies were
+proved to have been actually formed by water
+alone, then, in other cases where we should
+have no proof, they could not be supposed as
+having been formed by fire or fusion. It
+must be evident, that an equal degree of proof
+of those two different propositions would leave
+our judgment in suspence, unless that proof
+were perfect, in which case, we would have
+two different causes producing similar effects.
+But, if we shall have a sufficient proof upon
+the one side, and only a presumptive proof
+or probability upon the other, we must reject
+that probability or presumption, when opposed
+by a proof, although that proof were only
+an induction by reasoning from similar effects
+as following similar causes. <i>A fortiori</i>,
+if there be on one side a fair induction, without
+the least suspicion of error, and on the
+other nothing but a mere presumption founded
+upon a distant analogy, which could not
+even properly apply, then, the inductive proof
+would be as satisfactory as if there had not
+been any supposition on the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p>So far as a theory is formed in the generalization
+of natural appearances, that theory
+must be just, although it may not be perfect,
+as having comprehended every appearance;
+that is to say, a theory is not perfect until it
+be founded upon every natural appearance;
+in which case, those appearances will be explained
+by the theory. The theory of gravitation,
+though no ways doubtful, was not so
+perfect before the shape of this globe had
+been determined by actual measurement, and
+before the direction of the plummet had been
+tried upon Shihallion, as after those observations
+had been made. But a theory which
+should be merely hypothetical, or founded
+upon a few appearances, can only be received
+as a theory, after it has been found to correspond
+properly with nature; it would then
+be held a proper explanation of those natural
+appearances with which it corresponded; and,
+the more of those phenomena that were thus
+explained by the theory, the more would that,
+which had been first conjectural, be converted
+into a theory legitimately founded upon natural
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Matter of fact is that upon which science
+proceeds, by generalization, to form theory,
+for the purpose of philosophy, or the knowledge
+of all natural causes; and it is by the
+companion of these matters of fact with any
+theory, that such a theory will be tried. But,
+in judging of matter of fact, let us be cautious
+of deceiving ourselves, by substituting speculative
+reasoning in place of actual events.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, as the subject of our observation,
+consists of two sorts of objects; for, things
+are either active, when we perceive change to
+take place in consequence of such action, or
+they are quiescent, when we perceive no
+change to take place. Now, it is evident,
+that in judging of the active powers of nature
+from the quiescent objects of our information,
+we are liable to error, in misinterpreting the
+objects which we see; we thus form to ourselves
+false or erroneous opinion concerning
+the general laws of action, and the powers of
+nature. In comparing, therefore, generalised
+facts, or theory, with particular observations,
+there is required the greatest care, neither, on
+the one hand, to strain the appearances, so as
+to bring in to the theory a fact belonging to
+another class of things; nor, on the other, to
+condemn a proper theory, merely because
+that theory has not been extended to the explanation
+of every natural appearance.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides the misinterpretation of matters
+of fact, we are also to guard against
+the misrepresentation of natural appearances.
+Whether warped by the prejudice of partial
+and erroneous theory, or deceived by the inaccuracy
+of superficial observation, naturalists
+are apt to see things in an improper light,
+and thus to reason from principles which cannot
+be admitted, and, which often lead to false
+conclusions. A naturalist, for example, comes
+to examine a cavity in the mines, he there
+finds water dropping down all around him,
+and he sees the cavity all hung with siliceous
+crystals; he then concludes, without hesitation,
+that here is to be perceived cause and
+effect, or that he actually sees the formation
+of those crystallizations from the operation of
+water. It is thus that I have been told by
+men of great mineral knowledge, men who
+must have had the best education upon that
+subject of mineralogy, and who have the superintendance
+of great mineral concerns in
+Germany, that they had actually seen nature
+at work in that operation of forming rock-crystal;&mdash;they
+saw what I have now described;
+they could see no more; but, they saw
+what had convinced them of that which, there
+is every reason to believe, never happened.
+With regard to my theory, I wish for the
+most rigorous examination; and do not ask
+for any indulgence whatever, whether with
+regard to the principles on which the theory
+is built, or for the application of the theory
+to the explanation of natural appearances.
+But, let not geologists judge my theory by
+their imperfect notions of nature, or by those
+narrow views which they take of the present
+state of things;&mdash;let not mineralogists condemn
+my theory, for no other reason but because
+it does not correspond with their false
+principles, and those gratuitous suppositions
+by which they had been pleased to explain to
+themselves every thing before. First let them
+look into their own theory, and correct that
+erroneous principle, with regard to the action
+of water, or the assumption of unknown causes,
+upon which they have reasoned in forming
+their vague notions of the mineral region,
+before they can be properly qualified to examine,
+impartially, a theory which employs
+another principle. Every thing which has
+come under my observation shall be, as far as
+I can, faithfully related; nor shall I withhold
+those which neither the present theory,
+nor any other that I am acquainted with, can,
+I think, explain.</p>
+
+<p>Appearances cannot well be described except
+in relation to some theory or general arrangement
+of the subject; because the particular
+detail, of every part in a complicated appearance,
+would be endless and insignificant.
+When, however, any question in a theory depends
+upon the nature of an appearance, we
+cannot be too particular in describing that by
+which the question is to be decided. But
+though it be sometimes proper to be minute
+in a particular, it is always, and above all
+things, necessary to be distinct; and not to
+confound together things which are of different
+natures. For, though it be by finding
+similarity, in things which at first sight may
+seem different, that science is promoted and
+philosophy attained, yet, we must have a distinct
+view of those things which are to be assimilated;
+and surely the lowest state of knowledge
+in any subject, is the not distinguishing
+things which, though not to common observation
+different, are not truly the same.</p>
+
+<p>To confound, for example one stone with
+another, because they were both hard, friable,
+and heavy, would be to describe, with the superficial
+views of vulgar observation; whereas
+science specifies the weight and hardness,
+and thus accurately distinguishes the stone.</p>
+
+<p>Before naturalists had learned to distinguish
+what they saw, and to describe, in known
+terms, those natural appearances, a theorist
+must have generalised only from his proper
+observation. This has been my case. When
+I first conceived my theory, few naturalists
+could write intelligibly upon the subject; but
+that is long ago, and things are much altered
+since; now there are most enlightened men
+making observations, and communicating natural
+knowledge. I have the satisfaction, almost
+every day, to compare the theory, which
+I had formed from my proper observations,
+with the actual state of things in almost every
+quarter of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Whether, therefore, we mean to try a theory
+by its application to such phenomena as are
+well understood, or to learn something from
+the application of particular phenomena to a
+well established theory, we shall always find
+it interesting to have appearances described;
+particularly such as may be referred to some
+general rule, as circumscribing it to certain
+conditions, or as finding rule in rule, that is to
+say, discovering those particular conditions in
+which the general laws of action may be affected.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, for example, of the rule which
+we find in the application of heat for the fusion
+and evaporation of mineral substances upon
+the surface of this earth, we may find it
+necessary to consider the effect which changed
+circumstances produce in the mineral regions,
+and occasion a change of that rule of action
+which we have learned from experience,
+when melting and evaporating those substances
+in the atmosphere or on the surface of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this manner that a theory, which
+was formed by the generalization of particular
+facts, comes to be a source of information,
+by explaining to us certain appearances which
+otherwise we could not understand. Thus, it
+was not the appearance of the tides that taught
+the theory of gravitation; it was the theory of
+gravitation that made us understand the appearance
+of the tides. In like manner, the law
+of gravitation, which was demonstrated from
+the motion of the moon in her orbit round
+this earth, when applied to the paths of comets,
+explained that appearance. Our theory,
+of a central fire, has been formed upon
+the consolidation of the strata of this earth;
+but this theory is to be applied for the explanation
+of various different appearances. In
+this manner, two different purposes will be
+served; the trying of the theory by its application
+to phenomena; and the explanation of
+phenomena by the principles laid open in the
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>I may repeat it; a theory of the earth must
+ultimately depend upon matter of fact or particular
+observation; but those observations must
+be distinct, and those distinguished things must
+be generalised. We have just now given for
+an example, a distinction among stones, in
+knowing them by their sensible qualities. But,
+besides distinguishing those objects, we are also
+to inquire into the origin and cause of those
+things which are distinguished. Here, again,
+we take into our aid the chemical as well
+as the mechanical properties of these several
+things; and hence learn to know on what their
+natural form and constitution may depend.
+Having thus attained the natural philosophy
+of stones, we next inquire into the place and
+application of those things in nature; and in
+this manner we acquire some knowledge with
+regard to the natural constitution of this earth.
+We find this earth composed of known things;
+it is therefore the operations, required in these
+compositions, which form the natural philosophy
+of this earth, considered as a body of solid
+land. But, the solid land is only one part
+of the globe; therefore, the philosophy of the
+globe proceeds still farther by knowing the
+constitution of this planetary body, as consisting
+of different parts united for a purpose,
+which is that of a world.</p>
+
+<p>The general theory of this earth as a world,
+will thus appear to be a complex thing, which
+however founded upon simple principles, contains
+many subjects of discussion, and requires
+attention to a variety of particulars. For, not
+only the great features of this earth are to be
+explained by the theory, but also the most minute
+appearance, such as are to be found, even
+with microscopic observation, in every particular
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the nature, constitution, and cause
+of every particular appearance in the construction
+of this earth, are to be investigated
+in a geological theory, as well as that general
+constitution of the world in which all
+the particular parts are to be employed for a
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>If the subject here examined shall be found
+properly explained, there will remain little
+doubt with regard to the justness of the theory,
+which will then be applicable to other appearances
+that may occur; although every
+appearance is not to be explained, in a manner
+equally satisfactory, by any theory which
+is not perfect.</p>
+
+<p>The first subject to be examined is the modern
+theory of primitive mountains. I have
+written several chapters upon that subject, having
+successively acquired more light in this
+interesting part of the theory, by observations
+of my own in several places of this country,
+as well as from the natural history of other
+countries. I shall give these nearly in the order
+in which they occurred, or had been written.</p>
+
+<br>
+<p>CHAP. IV.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the theory now given, the earth has been
+represented as a composition of different
+materials, which had existed in another form,
+and as the effect of natural operations; therefore,
+however various may be found the structure
+of our earth, and however dissimilar some
+parts of its composition may be in comparison
+with others, no part should be considered as
+original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive,
+in relation to second causes, <i>i.e.</i> physical
+operations by which those parts should have
+been formed. But it is pretended by naturalists,
+that there are certain primitive mountains
+in the earth, bodies which have had
+another origin than that of the general strata
+of the globe and subsequent masses; an origin,
+therefore, which cannot be considered as having
+been produced from natural operations, or
+as effected in the course of known causes.
+Now, if it can be made to appear, that there
+is no solid ground for this distinction; and if
+it can be shown, that there is truly no mineral
+body in this earth which may not have been
+produced by operations natural to the globe,
+we should thus procure a certain confirmation
+of the doctrine. This also will be the
+more interesting, in being deduced from a
+part of natural appearances, which seemed to
+be inconsistent with the theory.</p>
+
+<p>Certain masses or mountains of granite, are
+the only bodies of this earth which have
+apparently a certain pretension to this species
+of originality. These, therefore, must be now
+the subject of our examination.</p>
+
+<p>Granite, considered by itself, does not appear
+to have any claim to originality in its
+nature. It is composed of bodies which are
+capable of being analysed; and these are then
+found to be compositions of different substances,
+which are also sometimes variously proportioned.
+The feldspar and the mica, for example,
+as well as the schorl, are found variously
+coloured in different granites, and coloured
+in various proportions. Besides the
+variety in the composition, or chemical mixture
+of the different bodies which compose
+granite, this rock admits of a great diversity,
+from the variety of its mechanical mixture,
+or from the different species of bodies which
+are its constituent parts. M. de Saussure, who
+has examined this subject perhaps more than
+any other person, and who has had the very
+best opportunities for this purpose, says, that
+this composition may be found in all the
+different combinations which may be produced
+by every possible composition of 7 or 8 different
+kinds of stone, (page 108, Voyage dans
+les Alpes, etc.). Neither does this fill up the
+measure of its variety; for, another source of
+change is found in the grain of this rock
+stone; I have a specimen of this variety from
+the size almost of sand to that of some inches.</p>
+
+<p>Were granite, therefore, to be supposed
+as in the original state of its creation, nature
+would be considered as having operated in an
+indefinite diversity of ways, without that order
+and wisdom which we find in all her
+works; for here would be change without a
+principle, and variety without a purpose.
+There is no reason, however, to suppose granite
+original, more than any other composite
+rock, although we may be ignorant of the particular
+process in which it is formed, and although,
+comparatively in relation to certain
+other rocks, granite, or certain masses of this
+composition, may be found of a more ancient
+date.</p>
+
+<p>If granite be truly stratified, and those strata
+connected with the other strata of the earth,
+it can have no claim to originality; and the
+idea of primitive mountains, of late so much
+employed by natural philosophers, must vanish,
+in a more extensive view of the operations
+of the globe; but it is certain that granite,
+or a species of the same kind of stone, is thus
+found stratified. It is the <i>granit feuilletée</i> of
+M. de Saussure, and, if I mistake not, what is
+called <i>gneis</i> by the Germans. We have it
+also in our north alpine country of Scotland;
+of this I have specimens, but have not seen it
+in its place.</p>
+
+<p>Granite being thus found stratified, the
+masses of this stone cannot be allowed to have
+any right of priority over the schistus, its
+companion in the alpine countries, although M.
+de Saussure, whose authority I would revere,
+has given it for the following reason; that it
+is found the most centrical in the chains of
+high mountains, or in alpine countries. Now,
+supposing this fact to be general, as he has
+found it in the Alps, no argument for the
+priority of those masses can be founded either
+upon the height or the situation of those granite
+mountains; for the height of the mountain
+depends upon the solidity and strength of
+the stone. Now though it is not to be here
+maintained that granite is the most durable of
+those alpine rocks, yet as a mountain, either
+granite in general, or in particular, certain
+species of it, may be esteemed such, consequently,
+this massy stone, remaining highest
+in the mountainous region, will naturally be
+considered as the centre, and according to this
+rule, as having the pre-eminence in point of
+seniority.</p>
+
+<p>The rock which stands in competition with
+granite for the title of primitive in the order
+of mountains, is that micaceous stratified stone
+which is formed chiefly of quartz, but which
+admits of great variety like the granite. The
+difference between those two bodies does not
+consist in the materials of which they are composed,
+for, in their varieties, they may be in
+this respect the same, but in a certain regularity
+of composition, in this alpine stone, which evidently
+arises from stratification or subsidence
+in water.</p>
+
+<p>If we shall thus consider all the varieties of
+this alpine stone as being of one kind, and
+call it granite, then we shall distinguish in this
+body two different species, from whence perhaps
+some interesting conclusion may be formed
+with regard to the operations of the globe.
+These two species are, <i>first</i>, granite regular in
+its composition, or stratified in its construction;
+and, <i>secondly</i>, granite in mass, or irregular
+in its construction. Let us now endeavour
+to make use of these generalizations
+and distinctions.</p>
+
+<p>In examining the great diversity of our
+whinstone, trap, or basaltes, it is found at
+last to granulate into granite; at the same time
+those two different species of rock-stone may
+be distinguished. A perfect granite has not
+in its composition necessarily any argillaceous
+earth, farther than may be in the natural constitution
+of its distinct parts; whereas, a perfect
+basalt may have abundance of this substance,
+without any quartz or any siliceous
+body. A perfect granite, is, therefore, an extremely
+hard stone, having quartz and feldspar
+for its basis; but a perfect whin or basaltes
+may be extremely soft, so as to cut easily
+with a knife. In like manner granite is a
+composition which graduates into porphyry;
+but porphyry is only whinstone of a harder
+species. Therefore, though perfectly distinct,
+those three things graduate into each other,
+and may be considered as the same.</p>
+
+<p>Granite and whinstone, or basaltes, though
+distinct compositions, thus graduating into
+each other; and whinstone, as well as porphyry,
+being without doubt a species of lava,
+we may consider the granite which is found
+in mass without stratification, in like manner
+as we do the masses of whinstone, basaltes, or
+Swedish trap, as having flowed in the bowels
+of the earth, and thus been produced by the
+chance of place, without any proper form of
+its own, or in an irregular shape and construction.
+In this manner would be explained the
+irregular shape or structure of those granite
+masses; and thus great light would be thrown
+upon the waved structure of the stratified alpine
+stone, which, though it has not been
+made to flow, has been brought to a great
+degree of softness, so as to have the original
+straight lines of its stratification changed to
+those undulated or waving lines which are in
+some cases extremely much incurvated.</p>
+
+<p>It remains only to confirm this reasoning,
+upon our principles, by bringing actual observation
+to its support; and this we shall do
+from two of the best authorities. The Chevalier
+de Dolomieu, in describing the volcanic
+productions of Etna, mentions a lava which
+had flowed from that mountain, and which
+may be considered as a granite. But M. de
+Saussure has put this matter out of doubt by
+describing most accurately what he had seen
+both in the Alps and at the city of Lyons.
+These are veins of granite which have flowed
+from the contiguous mass into the stratified
+stone, and leave no doubt with regard to this
+proposition, that the granite had flowed in form
+of subterranean lava, although M. de Saussure
+has drawn a very different conclusion from
+this appearance. I have also a specimen from
+this country of a vein of granite in a granite
+stone, the vein being of a smaller grain than
+that of the rock which it traverses.<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag20"> (return) </a> This is what I had wrote upon, the subject of granite,
+before I had acquired such ample testimony from my
+own observations upon that species of rock. I have given
+some notice, in the 3d vol. of the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh R.S. concerning the general result of those
+observations, which will be given particularly in the course
+of this work.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It will thus appear, that the doctrine which
+of late has prevailed, of primitive mountains,
+or something which should be considered as
+original in the construction of this earth, must
+be given up as a false view of nature, which
+has formed the granite upon the same principle
+with that of any other consolidated stratum;
+so far as the collection of different materials,
+and the subsequent fusion of the compound
+mass, are necessary operations in the
+preparation of all the solid masses of the earth.
+Whatever operations of the globe, therefore,
+may be concluded from the composition of
+granite masses, as well as of the alpine strata,
+these must be considered as giving us information
+with regard to the natural history of
+this earth; and they will be considered as important,
+in proportion as they disclose to us
+truths, which from other strata might not be
+so evident, or at all made known.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now examine the arguments, which,
+may be employed in favour of that supposition
+of primitive mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The observations, on which naturalists have
+founded that opinion of originality in some
+of the component parts of our earth, are these;
+<i>first</i>, They observe certain great masses of granite
+in which stratification is not to be perceived;
+this then they say is an original mass,
+and it is not to be derived from any natural
+operation of the globe; <i>secondly</i>, They observe
+considerable tracts of the earth composed of
+matter in the order of stratification as to its
+general composition, but not as to its particular
+position, the vertical position here prevailing,
+instead of the horizontal which is proper
+to strata formed in water; this, therefore,
+they also term primitive, and suppose it to be
+from another origin than that of the subsidence
+of materials moved in the waters of the globe;
+<i>lastly</i>, They observe both strata and masses of
+calcareous matter in which they cannot distinguish
+any marine body as is usual in other
+strata of the same substance; and these calcareous
+masses being generally connected with
+their primitive mountains, they have also included
+these collections of calcareous matter,
+in which marine bodies are not observed,
+among the primitive parts which they suppose
+to be the original construction of this globe.</p>
+
+<p>It may be proper to see the description of
+a calcareous alpine mountain. M. de Saussure
+gives us the following observations concerning
+a mountain of this kind in the middle of
+the Alps, where the water divides in running
+different ways towards the sea. It is in describing
+the passage of the Bon-Homme,
+(Tom. 2. V. dans les Alpes).</p>
+
+<p>"§ 759. Sur la droite ou au couchant de
+ces rochers, on voit une montagne calcaire
+étonnante dans ce genre par la hardiesse
+avec laquelle elle élève contre le ciel ses
+cimes aigues et tranchantes, taillées à angles
+vifs dans le costume des hautes cimes de
+granit. Elle est pourtant bien sûrement calcaire,
+je l'ai observée de près, et on rencontre
+sur cette route les blocs qui s'en détachent.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette pierre porte les caractères des calcaires
+les plus anciennes; sa couleur est
+grise, son grain assez fin, on n'y apperçoit
+aucun vestige de corps organisés; ses couches
+sont peu épaisses, ondées et coupées fréquemment
+par des fentes parallèles entr'elles
+et perpendiculaires à leurs plans. On trouve
+aussi parmi ces fragmens des brèches calcaires
+grises."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a mountain which will rank with
+the most primitive of the earth; But why?
+only because it is extremely consolidated without
+any mark of organised body. Had there
+been in this mountain but one single shell, we
+should not then have scrupled to conclude that
+the origin of this lofty mountain had been the
+same with every marble or limestone in the
+earth. But though, from the structure of this
+stone, there is no mark of its having been
+formed immediately of the calcareous parts of
+animals, there is every mark of those calcareous
+strata having been formed like other marbles
+by deposit in the waters of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>These two things are also homologated by
+the equal or perfect consolidation of their substance;
+for, as it is to be proved that all stratified
+marbles have been consolidated by the
+fusion of their substance, we must attribute the
+same consolidating cause to those alpine masses;
+the frequent veins that divide those calcareous
+strata which M. de Saussure has here
+described, also prove the nature of the consolidating
+cause, (see Chap. 1. page 111.).</p>
+
+<p>This mountain, considered by itself, may
+perhaps afford no data by which a naturalist
+might read the circumstances of its origin.
+But, Is a theory of the earth to be formed upon
+such a negative observation? and, Is there
+any particular in this mountain, that may not
+be shown in others of which the origin is not
+in any degree doubtful?</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be disputed, that there are parts
+of the solid body of our earth which may be
+considered as primary or prior, compared with
+others that are posterior, in relation to the time
+of their formation, and much less changed with
+regard to the state in which they had been originally
+formed:&mdash;But it is here denied, that
+there are any parts of the earth which do not
+appear to have had the same origin with all
+the rest, so far as this consists in the collection
+of materials deposited at the bottom of the waters<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a>;
+for there is no solid mass of land that
+may not be traced to this origin, either from
+its composition, or from its local connection
+with other masses, the nature of which in this
+respect are known. We have already given
+examples of this from sufficient authority.
+The evidence, therefore, of those primary masses
+being original in relation to the natural
+operations of the globe, is reduced to this assertion,
+that there are no vestiges of organised
+bodies to be found in those primary masses.
+Let us now examine how far this testimony
+for the originality of those masses is to be admitted
+in fact and sound reasoning.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag21"> (return) </a> There are no collection of those alpine masses in
+which may not be found in some of them sand, mica, and
+gravel; but these materials prove the existence of an earth,
+on which those fragments of greater masses had been formed,
+and more or less worn by attrition.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The matter in question at present is this,
+that there are certain tracts of countries in
+which no vestige of organised bodies are found;
+now, let us suppose the fact to be true or well
+grounded, Can we conclude from this that
+there had been originally no organised bodies
+in the composition of those masses?&mdash;Such a
+conclusion could only be formed in making a
+supposition, that every organised body deposited
+in a mass of matter, whether homogeneous
+or heterogeneous, should be preserved
+without change, while the collected mass, in
+which it had been deposited, changes as much
+as possible by the operation both of fire and
+water. But this supposition is erroneous, and
+cannot be admitted; and the study of marbles
+will demonstrate this truth, that the calcareous
+relics of organised bodies are changed, in the
+consolidating operations of the globe, in every
+degree, from the smallest alteration to the
+greatest, when they become indistinguishable
+any farther to our sight.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, from the supposition of no appearance
+of marine bodies in the pretended
+primitive masses, there is no sufficient evidence
+or reason to conclude, that those masses have
+not had a marine origin; because, the traces
+of organised bodies may be obliterated by the
+many subsequent operations of the mineral
+region; and which operations, the present
+state of those masses certify beyond dispute.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to examine the fact, how far
+the ground on which that false reasoning had
+been founded is strictly true.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, then, it must be considered,
+that the alleged fact is nothing but a negative
+assertion, importing that no mark of
+organised bodies had been observed, in certain
+stones and strata which some naturalists have
+examined with that view. But, though many
+naturalists have looked for them without success,
+it does not follow that such marks may
+not be found; it indeed proves that such a
+task is difficult, and the success of it, to a particular,
+most precarious; accident, however,
+may bring about what the greatest industry has
+not been able to attain. Secondly, there is
+good reason to believe that this asserted negation
+is not absolutely true; for I have in my
+possession what I consider as proof of the contrary;
+I found it in Wales, and I think it is
+in what may be considered as primitive mountains;&mdash;it
+is the mark of shells in a stone of
+that kind.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, I had formed my opinion with regard
+to this alleged fact, long before I had seen
+any description either of the Alps or Pyrennean
+mountains; and now I have no reason to
+change that opinion. It may indeed be alleged,
+that the strata of marble or limestone,
+containing marine bodies found in those mountains,
+are secondary strata, and not the primitive.
+To this I can give no reply, as the descriptions
+given of those strata do not enable
+me to decide this point.</p>
+
+<p>At the village of Mat, under the Mont Blatten
+for example, there is a quarry of schistus
+or black slate, in which are often found the
+print and the bones of fishes. (Discours sur
+l'Histoire Naturelle de la Suisse, page 225.). If
+this may be considered as an alpine or primitive
+schistus, it would be decisive of the question:
+But it would require to have it well ascertained
+that this schistus is truly one of those
+which are esteemed primitive, or that it is properly
+connected with them.</p>
+
+<p>But though I cannot find in those interesting
+descriptions which we now have got, any
+one which is demonstrative of this truth, that
+calcareous marine objects are found in the primitive
+strata, this is not the case with regard
+to another object equally important in deciding
+this question, Whether the primitive strata
+are found containing the marks of organised
+bodies?</p>
+
+<p>M. de Dellancourt, in his <i>Observations Minéralogiques</i>,
+Journal de Physique Juillet 1786,
+in describing the mountains of Dauphiné,
+gives us the following fact with regard to
+those alpine vertical strata.</p>
+
+<p>"La pierre constituante de la montagne
+d'Oris est en général le <i>Kneifs</i> ou la roche
+feuilletée mica et quartz à couches plus ou
+moins ferrées quelquefois le schorl en roche
+pénétré de stéatite. Les couches varient infiniment
+quant à leur direction et à leur
+inclinaisons. Cette montagne est cultivée
+et riche dans certain cantons, surtout autour
+du village d'Oris, mais elle est très-escarpée
+dans beaucoup d'autres. Entre le village
+d'Oris et celui du Tresnay est une espèce de
+combe assez creuse formée par la chute des
+eaux des cimes supérieures des rochers. Cette
+combe offre beaucoup de schiste dont les
+couches font ou très-inclinées ou perpendiculaires.
+Entre ces couches il s'en est trouvé
+de plus noires que les autres et capable de
+brûler, mais difficilement. Les habitans ont
+extrait beaucoup de cette matière terreuse,
+et lui ont donné le nom de charbon de terre.
+Ils viennent même à bout de la faire brûler,
+et de s'en servir l'hiver en la mêlant avec
+du bois. Ce schiste noir particulier m'a paru
+exister principalement dans les endroits ou
+les eaux se sont infiltrées entre les couches
+perpendiculaires, et y ont entraîné diverse
+matières, et sur-tout des débris de végétaux
+que j'ai encore retrouvés à demi-noirs, pulvérulens
+et comme dans un état charbonneux."</p>
+
+<p>This formation of coal, by the infiltration
+of water and carrying in of vegetable bodies,
+certainly cannot be admitted of; consequently,
+from this description, there would seem to
+be strata of coal alternated with the alpine
+schisti. But the formation of mineral coal
+requires vegetable matter to have been deposited
+along with those earthy substances, at
+the bottom of the sea. The production of
+vegetable bodies, again, requires the constitution
+of sea and land, and the system of a living
+world, sustaining plants at least, if not animals.</p>
+
+<p>In this natural history of the alpine schisti,
+therefore, we have a most interesting fact, an
+example which is extremely rare. Seldom
+are calcareous organised bodies found among
+those alpine strata, but still more rarely, I believe,
+are the marks of vegetable bodies having
+contributed in the formation of those masses.
+But however rare this example, it is equally
+decisive of the question, Whether the alpine
+schisti have had a similar origin as the other
+strata of the globe, in which are found abundance
+of animal and vegetable bodies, or their
+relics? and we are authorised to say, that since
+those perfect alpine strata of Dauphiné have
+had that origin, all the alpine schisti of the
+globe have been originally formed in a similar
+manner. But to put this matter out of doubt:</p>
+
+<p>In this summer 1788, coming from the Isle
+of Man, Mr Clerk and I travelled through the
+alpine schistus country of Cumberland and
+Westmoreland. We found a limestone quarry
+upon the banks of Windermere, near the Low-wood
+Inn. I examined this limestone closely,
+but despaired of finding any vestige of organised
+body. The strata of limestone seem to
+graduate into the slate or schistus strata, between
+which the calcareous are placed. Fortunately,
+however, I at last found a fragment
+in which I thought to perceive the works of
+organised bodies in a sparry state; I told Mr
+Clerk so, and our landlord Mr Wright, who
+had accompanied us. I have brought home
+this specimen, which I have now ground and
+polished; and now it is most evidently full of
+fragments of entrochi. Mr Wright then told
+me he had seen evident impressions of marine
+objects, as I understood from the description,
+in the slate of those mountains; and he was
+to send me specimens so soon as he could procure
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Here is one specimen which at once overturns
+all the speculations formed upon that
+negative proposition. The schistus mountains
+of Cumberland were, in this respect, as perfect
+primitive mountains as any upon the earth,
+before this observation; now they have no
+claim upon that score, no more than any limestone
+formed of shells.</p>
+
+<p>When I first announced my belief that such
+objects in natural history might be found, I
+little thought to have seen it realised, to such a
+degree as has now happened in the little circle
+of my knowledge. In the summer 1791,</p>
+
+<p>Professor Playfair was to pass through Cumberland.
+I begged that he would inquire of
+Mr Wright, at the Low-wood Inn, for those
+objects which he was to endeavour to procure
+for me, and to examine the limestone quarry
+in which I had found the specimen with entrochi.
+He went through another part of those
+primary mountains, and has found examples
+of this kind in the schisti; concerning which
+he has written me the following account.</p>
+
+<p>"In a visit which I made to the Lakes of
+Cumberland in September 1791, in company
+with the Hon. Francis Charteris, I
+met with a limestone full of marine objects,
+though from its position it is certainly to be
+reckoned among the primary strata. The
+place where we found this stone was in the
+district of Lancashire, that is west of Windermere
+Lake, on the road from Ambleside
+to the north end of Coniston Lake, and
+not far from the point when you come in
+sight of the latter. Just about this spot we
+happened to meet with one of those people
+who serve as guides to travellers in those
+parts, and who told us, among other things,
+that stones with shells in them were often
+found not far from where we were then
+walking. We immediately began to look
+about for specimens of that kind, and soon
+met with several; the most remarkable of
+which was in a rock that rose a little above
+the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to the
+right of the road. It was a part of a limestone
+stratum, nearly vertical, and was full
+of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
+in a common secondary limestone. The
+strata on both sides had the same inclination,
+and were decidedly primary, consisting
+of the ordinary micaceous schistus. This
+however I need not remark to you, who
+know so well from your own observations
+that the whole of the country I am now
+speaking of has every character of a primary
+one. I, only mention it, that it may
+not be supposed that the rock in question
+was some fragment of a secondary stratum
+that remained, after the rest was washed
+away, superincumbent on the primary.</p>
+
+<p>"After I had seen this rock, I recollected
+that you had told me of something of the
+same kind that you saw in a quarry at Low-wood
+Inn; and it may be that both belonged
+to the same stratum or body of strata;
+for the direction of the strata, as nearly as
+I could observe, was from S.W. to N.E.;
+and this also is nearly the bearing of Low-wood
+from the place where we now were.
+I send you a specimen, which you can compare
+with those you brought from the lime
+quarry at Low-wood."</p>
+
+<p>I have examined this specimen, and find it
+to be the common schistus of that country,
+only containing many bivalve shells and fragments
+of entrochi and madrapore bodies, and
+mixed with pyrites.</p>
+
+<p>I have already observed that one single example
+of a shell, or of its print, in a schistus,
+or in a stone stratified among those vertical or
+erected masses, suffices to prove the origin of
+those bodies to have been, what I had maintained
+them to be, water formed strata erected
+from the bottom of the sea, like every other
+consolidated stratum of the earth. But now,
+I think, I may affirm, that there is not, or
+rarely, any considerable extent of country of
+that primary kind, in which some mark of
+this origin will not be found, upon careful examination;
+and now I will give my reason for
+this assertion. I have been examining the south
+alpine country of Scotland, occasionally, for
+more than forty years back, and I never could
+find any mark of an organised body in the
+schistus of those mountains. It is true that I
+know of only one place where limestone is
+found among the strata; this is upon Tweed-side
+near the Crook. This quarry I had carefully
+examined long ago, but could find no
+mark of any organised body in it. I suppose
+they now are working some other of the vertical
+strata near those which I had examined;
+for, in the summer 1792, I received a letter
+from Sir James Hall, which I shall now transcribe.
+It is dated at Moffat, June 2. 1792.</p>
+
+<p>"As I was riding yesterday between Noble-house
+and Crook, on the road to this place,
+I fell in with a quarry of alpine limestone;
+it consists of four or five strata, about three
+feet thick, one of them single, and the rest
+contiguous; they all stand between the strata
+of slate and schist that are at the place
+nearly vertical. In the neighbourhood, a
+slate quarry is worked of a pure blue slate;
+several of the strata of slate near the limestone
+are filled with fragments of limestone
+scattered about like the fragments of schist
+in the sandstone in the neighbourhood of
+the junction on our coast.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag22"> (return) </a> This has a reference to very curious observations which
+we made upon the east coast where these mountains terminate,
+and which I am to describe in the course of this
+work.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Among the masses of limestone lately
+broken off for use, and having the fractures
+fresh, I found the forms of cockles quite
+distinct; and in great abundance.&mdash;I send
+you three pieces of this kind," etc.</p>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be alleged that those mountains
+of Cumberland and Tweedale are not
+the primary mountains, but composed of the secondary
+schistus, which is every where known
+to contain those objects belonging to a former
+earth. Naturalists who have not the opportunity
+of convincing themselves by their proper
+examination, must judge with regard to that
+geological fact by the description of others.
+Now it is most fortunate for natural history,
+that it has been in this range of mountains that
+we have discovered those marks of a marine
+origin; for, I shall afterwards have occasion to
+give the clearest light into this subject, from
+observations made in other parts of those same
+mountains of schist, by which it will be proved
+that they are the primary strata; and thus
+no manner of doubt will then remain in the
+minds of naturalists, who might otherwise suspect
+that we were deceiving ourselves, by mistaking
+the secondary for the primitive schistus.</p>
+
+<p>I have only farther to observe, that those
+schisti mountains of Wales, of Cumberland,
+and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where
+these marine objects have been found, consist,
+of that species of stone which in some places
+makes the most admirable slate for covering
+houses; and, in other parts, it breaks into
+blocks that so much resemble wood in appearance,
+that, without narrow inspection, it might
+pass for petrified wood.</p>
+
+<p>We are therefore to conclude that the marks
+of organised bodies in those primary mountains
+are certainly found; at the same time the
+general observation of naturalists has some
+foundation, so far as the marks of organised
+bodies are both rarely to be met with in those
+masses, and not easily distinguished as such
+when they are found.</p>
+
+<p>But this scarcity of marine objects is not
+confined to those primary mountains, as they
+are called; for among the most horizontal
+strata, or those of the latest production, there
+are many in which, it is commonly thought,
+no marine calcareous objects are to be found;
+and this is a subject that deserves to be more
+particularly considered, as the theory may thus
+receive some illustration.</p>
+
+<p>Sandstone, coal, and their accompanying
+strata, are thought to be destitute of calcareous
+marine productions, although many vestiges
+of plants or vegetable productions are there
+perceived. But this general opinion is neither
+accurate nor true; for though it be true that
+in the coal and sandstone strata it is most common
+to find marks of vegetable production,
+and rarely those calcareous bodies which are
+so frequent in the limestone, yet it is not unusual
+for coal to be accompanied with limestone
+formed of shells and corals, and also
+with ironstone containing many of those marine
+objects as well as wood. Besides, sandstone
+frequently contains objects which have
+been organised bodies, but which do not belong
+to the vegetable kingdom, at least to no
+plant which grows upon the land, but would
+seem to have been some species of zoophite
+perhaps unknown.</p>
+
+<p>I have also frequently seen the vestige of
+shells in sandstone, although in these strata
+the calcareous bodies are in general not perceived.
+The reason of this is evident. When
+there is a small proportion of the calcareous
+matter in the mass of sand which is pervious
+to steam and to the percolation of water, the
+calcareous bodies may be easily dissolved, and
+either carried away or dispersed in the mass;
+or even without being thus dispersed by means
+of solution, the calcareous matter may be absorbed
+by the siliceous substance of the stratum
+by means of fusion, or by heat and cementation.
+The fact is, that I have seen in
+sandstone the empty mould of marine shells
+with some siliceous crystallization, so far as I
+remember, which corresponded perfectly with
+that idea. The place I saw this was in a fine
+white sandstone accompanying the coal, upon
+the sea side at Brora in Sutherland.</p>
+
+<p>Mineralogy is much indebted to Mr Pallas
+for the valuable observations which he has
+given of countries so distant from the habitations
+of learned men. The physiology of the
+globe has also been enriched with some interesting
+observations from the labours of this
+learned traveller. But besides giving us facts,
+Mr Pallas has also reasoned upon the subject,
+and thus entered deep into the science of Cosmogeny;
+here it is that I am afraid he has
+introduced some confusion into the natural
+history of the earth, in not properly distinguishing
+the mineral operations of the globe,
+and those again which belong entirely to the
+surface of the earth; perhaps also in confounding
+the natural effects of water upon the
+surface of the earth, with those convulsions of
+the sea which may be properly considered as
+the accidental operations of the globe. This
+subject being strictly connected with the opinions
+of that philosopher with regard to primitive
+mountains, I am obliged to examine in
+this place matters which otherwise might have
+come more properly to be considered in
+another.</p>
+
+<p>M. Pallas in his <i>Observations sur la formation
+des montagnes</i>, (page 48) makes the following
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>"J'ai déjà dit que <i>la bande de montagnes
+primitives schisteuses</i> hétérogènes, qui, par
+toute la terre, accompagne les chaines granitiques,
+et comprend les roches quartzeuses
+et talceuses mixtes, trapézoïdes, serpentines,
+le schiste corne, les roches spathiques et cornées,
+les grais purs, le porphyre et le jaspre,
+tous rocs fêlés en couches, ou presque perpendiculaires,
+ou du moins très-rapidement
+inclinées, (les plus favorables à la filtration
+des eaux), semble aussi-bien que le granit,
+antérieure à la création organisée. Une raison
+très-forte pour appuyer cette supposition,
+c'est que la plupart de ces roches,
+quoique lamelleuse en façon d'ardoise, n'a
+jamais produit aux curieux la moindre trace
+de pétrifactions ou empreintes de corps organisés.
+S'il s'en est trouvé, c'est apparemment
+dans des fentes de ces roches où ces
+corps ont été apportés par un deluge, et
+encastrées apres dans une matière infiltrée,
+de même qu'on a trouvé des restes d'Eléphans
+dans le filon de la mine d'argent du
+Schlangenberg.<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> Les caractères par lesquels
+plusieurs de ces roches semblent avoir
+souffert des effets d'un feu-très-violent, les
+puissantes veines et amas des minéraux les
+plus riches qui se trouvent principalement
+dans la bande qui en est composée, leur position
+immédiate sur le granit, et même le
+passage, par lequel on voit souvent en grand,
+changer le granit en une des autres espèces;
+tout cela indique une origine bien plus
+ancienne, et des causes bien différentes de
+celles qui ont produit les montagnes secondaires."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag23"> (return) </a> This is a very natural way of reasoning when a philosopher
+finds a fact, related by some naturalists, that does
+not correspond with his theory or systematic view of
+things. Here our author follows the general opinion in
+concluding that no organised body should be found in
+their primitive strata; when, therefore, such an object is
+said to have been observed, it is supposed that there may
+have been some mistake with regard to the case, and that all
+the circumstances may not have been considered. This
+caution with regard to the inaccurate representation of
+facts, in natural history, is certainly extremely necessary;
+the relicts of an elephant found in a mineral vein, is certainly
+a fact of that kind, which should not be given as an
+example in geology without the most accurate scientifical
+examination of the subject.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Here M. Pallas gives his reason for supposing
+those mountains primitive or anterior to
+the operations of this globe as a living world;
+<i>first</i>, because they have not, in general, marks
+of animals or plants; and that it is doubtful
+if they ever properly contain those marks of
+organised bodies; <i>secondly</i>, because many of
+those rocks have the appearance of having
+suffered the effects of the most violent fire.
+Now, What are those effects? Is it in their
+having been brought into a fluid state of fusion.
+In that case, no doubt, they may have
+been much changed from the original state of
+their formation; but this is a very good
+reason why, in this changed state, the marks
+of organised bodies, which may have been in
+their original constitution, should be now effaced.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>third</i> reason for supposing those
+mountains primitive, is taken from the metallic
+veins, which are found so plentifully in
+these masses. Now, had these masses been
+the only bodies in this earth in which those
+mineral veins were found, there might be
+some species of reason for drawing the conclusion,
+which is here formed by our philosopher.
+But nothing is so common (at least in
+England) as mineral veins in the strata of the
+latest formation, and in those which are principally
+formed of marine productions; consequently
+so far from serving the purpose for
+which this argument was employed, the mineral
+veins in the primitive mountains tend to
+destroy their originality, by assimilating them
+in some respect with every other mass of strata
+or mountain upon the globe.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, M. Pallas here employs an argument
+taken from an appearance for which we
+are particularly indebted to him, and by which
+the arguments which have been already employed
+in denying the originality of granite is
+abundantly confirmed. It has been already
+alleged, that granite, porphyry, and whinstone,
+or trap, graduate into each other;
+but here M. Pallas informs us that he has
+found the granite not only changed into porphyry,
+but also into the other alpine compositions.
+How an argument for the originality
+of these mountains can be established upon
+those facts, I am not a little at a loss to conceive.</p>
+
+<p>The general mineralogical view of the Russian
+dominions, which we have, in this treatise,
+may now be considered with regard to
+that distinction made by naturalists, of primitive,
+secondary, and tertiary mountains, in order
+to see how far the observations of this
+well informed naturalist shall be found to confirm
+the theory of the earth which has been
+already given, or not.</p>
+
+<p>The Oural mountains form a very long
+chain, which makes the natural division betwixt
+Europe and Asia, to the north of the
+Caspian. If in this ridge, as a centre of elevation,
+and of mineral operations, we shall find
+the greatest manifestation of the violent exertion
+of subterraneous fire, or of consolidating
+and elevating operations; and if we shall perceive
+a regular appearance of diminution in
+the violence or magnitude of those operations,
+as the places gradually recede from this centre
+of active force; we may find some explanation
+of those appearances, without having recourse
+to conjectures which carry no scientific meaning,
+and which are more calculated to confound
+our acquired knowledge, than to form
+any valuable distinction of things. Let us
+consult M. Pallas how far this is the case, or
+not.</p>
+
+<p>After having told us that all those various
+alpine schisti, jaspers, porphyries, serpentines,
+etc. in those mountains, are found mutually
+convertible with granite, or graduating into
+each other, our author thus continues, (p. 50).</p>
+
+<p>"On entrevoit de certaines loix à l'égard
+de l'arrangement respectif de cet ordre secondaire
+d'anciennes roches, par tous les
+systèmes de montagnes qui appartiennent à
+l'Empire Russe. La chaîne Ouralique, par
+exemple, a du côté de l'Orient sur tout sa
+longueur, une très-grande abondance de
+schistes cornés, serpentins et talceux, riches
+en filons de cuivre, qui forment le principal
+accompagnement du granite, et en jaspres
+de diverses couleurs plus extérieurs et
+souvent comme entrelacés avec les premiers,
+mais formant des suites de montagnes
+entières, et occupant de très-grands
+espaces. De ce même côté, il y paraît
+beaucoup de quartz en grandes roches toutes
+pures, tant dans la principale chaîne que
+dans le noyau des montagnes de jaspre, et
+jusques dans la plaine. Les marbres spateux
+et veinés, percent en beaucoup d'endroits.
+La plupart de ces espèces ne paraissent
+point du tout à la lisière occidentale
+de la chaîne, qui n'est presque que de
+roche mélangée de schistes
+argileux, alumineux, phlogistique, etc. Les
+filons des mines d'or mêlées, les riches mines
+de cuivre en veines et chambrées, les
+mines de fer et d'aimant par amas et montagnes
+entières, sont l'apanage de la bande
+schisteuse orientale; tandis que l'occidentale
+n'a pour elle que des mines de fer de
+dépôts, et se montre généralement très-pauvre
+en métaux. Le granit de la chaîne
+qui borde la Sibérie, est recouvert du côté
+que nous connaissons de roches cornées de
+la nature des pierres à fusil, quelquefois
+tendant à la nature d'un grais fin et de
+schistes très-métallières de différente composition.
+Le jaspre n'y est qu'en filons, ou
+plans obliques, ce qui est très-rare pour la
+chaîne Ouralique, et s'observe dans la plus
+grande partie de la Sibérie, à l'exception
+de cette partie de sa chaîne qui passe près
+de la mer d'Okhotsk, ou le jaspre forme
+derechef des suites de montagnes, ainsi que
+nous venons de le dire des monts Ourals;
+mais comme cette roche tient ici le côté
+méridionale de la chaîne Sibérienne, et que
+nous ne lui connaissons point ce côté sur le
+reste de sa longueur, il se pourrait que le
+jaspre y fût aussi abondant. Il faudrait,
+au reste, bien plus de fouilles et d observations
+pour établir quelque chose de certain
+sur l'ordre respectif qu'observent ces
+roches."</p>
+
+<p>I would now ask, if in all this account of
+the gradation of rock from the Oural mountains
+to the sandy coast of the Baltic, there is to
+be observed any clear and distinctive mark of
+primitive, secondary, and tertiary, mountains,
+farther than as one stratum may be considered
+as either prior or posterior to another stratum,
+according to the order of superposition
+in which they are found. We have every
+where evident marks of the formation of strata
+by materials deposited originally in water;
+for the most part, there is sufficient proof that
+this water in which those materials had been
+deposited was the sea; we are likewise assured
+that the operations of this living world
+producing animals, must have, for a course of
+time, altogether inconceivably been exerted,
+in preparing materials for this mass; and,
+lastly, from the changed constitution of those
+masses, we may infer certain mineral operations
+that melt the substance and alter the position
+of those horizontal bodies. Such is the
+information which we may collect from this
+mineral description of the Russian Dominions.</p>
+
+<p>If we compare some of the Oural mountains
+with the general strata of the Russian
+plains, then, as to the contained minerals, we
+may find a certain diversity in those two
+places; at the same time, no greater perhaps
+than may be found betwixt two different
+bodies in those same plains, for example, chalk
+and flint. But when we consider those bodies
+of the earth, or solid strata of the globe, in relation
+to their proper structure and formation,
+we surely can find in this description nothing
+on which may be founded any solid opinion
+with regard to a different original, however
+important conclusions may perhaps be formed
+with regard to the operations of the globe,
+from the peculiar appearances found in alpine.</p>
+
+<p>From this detail of what is found in the
+Oural mountains, and in the gradation of
+country from those mountains to the plains of
+Russia, we have several facts that are worthy
+of observation. First extensive mountains of
+jasper. I have a specimen of this stone; it is
+striped red and green like some of our marly
+strata. It has evidently been formed of such
+argillaceous and siliceous materials, not only
+indurated, so as to lose its character, as an argillaceous
+stone, but to have been brought into
+that degree of fusion which produces perfect
+solidity. Of the same kind are those
+hornstein rocks of the nature of flint, sometimes
+tending to the nature of a fine sandstone.
+Here is the same induration of sandstone
+by means of fusion, that in the argillaceous
+strata has produced jasper. But oblique
+veins of jasper are represented as traversing
+these last strata; now this is a fact which is
+not conceivable in any other way, than by the
+injection or transfusion of the fluid jasper
+among those masses of indurated strata.</p>
+
+<p>All this belongs to the east side of the
+mountains. On the west, again, we find the
+same species of strata; only these are not changed
+to such a degree as to lose their original
+character or construction, and thus to be termed
+differently in mineralogy.</p>
+
+<p>Our author then proceeds. (p. 53.)</p>
+
+<p>"Nous pourrons parler plus décisivement
+sur les <i>montagnes secondaires et tertiaires</i> de
+l'Empire, et c'est de celles-là, de la nature,
+de l'arrangement et du contenu de leurs
+couches, des grandes inégalités et de la
+forme du continent d'Europe et d'Asie, que
+l'on peut tirer avec plus de confiance quelques
+lumières sur les changemens arrivés
+aux terres habitables. Ces deux ordres de
+montagnes présentent la chronique de notre
+globe la plus ancienne, la moins sujette aux
+falsifications, et en même-tems plus lisible
+que le caractère des chaînes primitives; ce
+font les archives de la nature, antérieures
+aux lettres et aux traditions les plus reculées,
+qu'il étoit réservé à notre siècle observateur
+de feuiller, de commenter, et de
+mettre au jour, mais que plusieurs siècles
+après le nôtre n'épuiseront pas.</p>
+
+<p>"Dans toute l'étendue de vastes dominations
+Russes, aussi bien que dans l'Europe
+entière, les observateurs attentifs ont remarqué
+que généralement la band schisteuse
+des grandes chaînes se trouve immédiatement
+recouverte ou cottée par la <i>bande calcaire</i>.
+Celle-ci forme deux ordres de montagnes,
+très-différentes par la hauteur, la situation
+de leurs couches, et la composition
+de la pierre calcaire qui les compose; différence
+qui est très-évidente dans cette bande
+calcaire qui forme la lisière occidentale de
+toute la chaîne Ouralique, et dont le plan
+s'étend par tout le plat pays de la Russie.
+L'on observerait la même chose à l'orient
+de la chaîne, et dans toute l'étendue de la
+Sibérie, si les couches calcaires horizontales
+n'y étaient recouvertes par les dépôts postérieures,
+de façon qu'il ne paraît à la surface
+que les parties les plus faillantes de la
+bande, et si ce pays n'étoit trop nouvellement
+cultivé et trop peu exploité par des
+fouilles et autres opérations, que des hommes
+industrieux ont pratiqué dans les pays anciennement
+habités. Ce que je vais exposer
+sur les deux ordres de montagnes calcaires,
+se rapportera donc principalement à celles
+qui sont à l'occident de la chaîne Ouralique.</p>
+
+<p>"Ce côté de la dite chaîne consiste sur cinquante
+à cent verstes de largeur, de roche
+calcaire solide, d'un grain uni, qui tantôt
+ne contient aucune trace de productions
+marines, tantôt n'en conserve que des empreintes
+aussi légères qu'éparses. Cette
+roche s'élève en montagnes d'une hauteur
+très-considérable, irrégulières, rapides, et coupées
+de vallons escarpés. Ses couches, généralement
+épaisses, ne sont point de niveau,
+mais très-inclinées à l'horizon, paralleles,
+pour la plupart, à la direction de la chaîne,
+qui est aussi ordinairement celle de la bande
+schisteuse;&mdash;au lieu que du côté de l'orient
+les couches calcaires sont au sens de la chaîne
+en direction plus ou moins approchante de
+l'angle droite. L'on trouve dans ces hautes
+montagnes calcaires de fréquentes grottes et
+cavernes très-remarquables, tant par leur
+grandeur que par les belles congélations et
+crystallizations stalactiques dont elles s'ornent.
+Quelques-unes de ces grottes ne peuvent
+être attribuées qu'à quelque bouleversement
+des couches; d'autres semblent devoir
+leur origine à l'écoulement des sources souterraines
+qui ont amolli, rongé et charrié
+une partie de la roche qui en étoit susceptible.</p>
+
+<p>"En s'éloignant de la chaîne, on voit les
+couches calcaires s'aplanir assez rapidement,
+prendre une position horizontale, et devenir
+abondantes en toute forte de coquillages, de
+madrépores, et d'autres dépouilles marines.
+Telles on les voit par-tout dans les vallées
+les plus basses qui se trouvent aux pieds des
+montagnes (comme aux environs de la rivière
+d'Oufal; telles aussi, elles occupent
+tout l'étendue de la grande Russie, tant en
+collines qu'en plat pays; solides tantôt et
+comme semées de productions marines;
+tantôt toutes composées de coquilles et madrépores
+brisées, et de ce gravier calcaire
+qui se trouve toujours sur les parages ou la
+mer abonde en pareilles productions; tantôt,
+enfin, dissoutes en craie et en marines, et
+souvent entremêlées de couches de gravier
+et de cailloux roulés."</p>
+
+<p>How valuable for science to have naturalists
+who can distinguish properly what they
+see, and describe intelligibly that which they
+distinguish. In this description of the strata,
+from the chain of mountains here considered
+as primitive, to the plains of Russia, which are
+supposed to be of a tertiary formation, our naturalist
+presents us with another species of strata,
+which he has distinguished, on the one
+hand, in relation to the mountains at present
+in question, and on the other, with regard to
+the strata in the plains, concerning which there
+is at present no question at all. Now, let us
+see how these three things are so connected in
+their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
+links of the same chain.</p>
+
+<p>The primary and tertiary masses are bodies
+perfectly disconnected; and, without a medium
+by which they might be approached, they
+would be considered as things differing in all
+respects, consequently as having their origins
+of as opposite a nature as are their appearances.
+But the nature and formation of those
+bodies are not left in this obscurity; for, the
+secondary masses, which are interposed, participate
+so precisely of what is truly opposite
+and characteristic in the primary and tertiary
+masses, that it requires nothing more than to
+see this distinction of things in its true light,
+to be persuaded, that in those three different
+things we may perceive a certain gradation,
+which here takes place among the works of
+nature, and forms three steps distinguishable
+by a naturalist, although in reality nothing
+but the variable measure of similar operations.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to assimilate the primary and
+tertiary masses, which are so extremely different,
+by means of the secondary masses,
+which is the mean. The primary and tertiary
+differ in the following respects: The one
+of these contains the relicts of organised bodies
+which are not observed in the other. But in
+the species containing these distinguishable
+bodies, the natural structure and position of the
+mass is little affected, or not so much as to be
+called into doubt. This, however, is not the
+case with the other; the species in which organised
+bodies do not appear, is in general so
+indurated or consolidated in its structure, and
+changed in its position, that this common origin
+of those masses is by good naturalists, who
+have also carefully examined them, actually
+denied. Now, the secondary masses may be
+considered, not only as intermediate with respect
+to its actual place, as M. Pallas has represented
+it, but as uniting together the primary
+and tertiary, or as participating of the
+distinguishing characters of the other two. It
+is homologated with the primitive mountains,
+in the solidity of its substance and in the position
+of its strata; with the tertiary species, again,
+in its containing marks of organised bodies.
+How far this view of things is consistent with
+the theory of the earth now given, is submitted
+to the consideration of the unprejudiced.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see what our learned author has said
+farther on this subject, (page 65).</p>
+
+<p>"Je dois parler d'un ordre de montagnes
+très-certainement postérieur aux couches
+marines, puisque celles-ci, généralement lui
+servent de base. On n'a point jusqu'ici
+observé une suite de ces <i>montagnes tertiaires</i>,
+effet des catastrophes les plus modernes de
+notre globe, si marquée et si puissante, que
+celle qui accompagne la chaine Ouralique
+ou côté occidentale fur tout la longueur.
+Cette suite de montagnes, pour la plupart
+composées de grais, de marnes rougeâtres,
+entremêlées de couches diversement mixtes,
+forme une chaîne par-tout séparée par une
+vallée plus ou moins large de la bande de
+roche calcaire, dont nous avons parlé. Sillonnée
+et entrecoupée de fréquens vallons,
+elles s'élève souvent à plus de cent toises
+perpendiculaires, se répand vers les plaines
+de la Russie en traînées de collines, qui séparent
+les rivières, en accompagnant généralement
+la rive boréale ou occidentale, et
+dégénère enfin en déserts sableux qui occupent
+de grands espaces, et s'étendent surtout
+par longues bandes parallèles aux principales
+traces qui suivent les cours des rivieres.
+La principale force de ces montagnes tertiaires
+est plus près de la chaîne primitive par-tout le
+gouvernement d'Orenbourg et la Permie, ou
+elle consiste principalement en grais, et contient
+un fond inépuisable de mines de cuivre
+sableuses, argileuses, et autres qui se
+voient ordinairement dans les couches horizontales.
+Plus loin, vers la plaine, sont
+des suites de collines toutes marneuses, qui
+abondent autant en pierres gypseuses, que
+les autres en minerais cuivreux. Je n'entre
+pas dans le détail de celles-ci, qui indiquent
+sur-tout les sources salines; mais je
+dois dire des premières, qui abondent le
+plus et dont les plus hautes élévations des
+plaines, même celle de Moscou, sont formées,
+qu'elles contiennent très-peu de traces
+de productions marines, et jamais des
+amas entiers de ces corps, tels qu'une mer
+reposée pendant des siècles de suite a pu
+les accumuler dans les bancs calcaires. Rien,
+au contraire, de plus abondant dans ces
+montagnes de grais stratifié sur l'ancien
+plan calcaire, que des troncs d'arbres entières
+et des fragmens de bois pétrifié, souvent
+minéralisé par le cuivre ou le fer; des
+impressions de troncs de palmires, de tiges
+de plantes, de roseau, et de quelques fruits
+étrangers; enfin des ossemens d'animaux
+terrestres, si rares dans les couches calcaires.
+Les bois pétrifiés se trouvent jusques dans les
+collines de sable de la plaine; l'on en tire,
+entr'autres, des hauteurs sablonneuses aux
+environs de Sysran sur la Volga, changés
+en queux très-fin, qui a conservé jusqu'à
+la texture organique du bois, et remarquables
+sur-tout par les traces très-évidentes de
+ces vers rongeurs qui attaquent les vaisseaux,
+les pilotis et autres bois trempés dans la
+mer, et qui sont proprement originaires de
+la mer des Indes."</p>
+
+<p>This philosopher has now given us a view
+of what, according to the present fashion of
+mineral philosophy, he has termed <i>montagnes
+primitives, secondaires, et tertiaires</i>. The first
+consists in masses and strata, much indurated
+and consolidated, and greatly displaced in their
+position; but the character of which is chiefly
+taken from this, that they contain not any
+visible mark of animal or vegetable bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The second are formed in a great measure
+of marine productions, are often no less consolidated
+than those of the first class, and frequently
+no less changed in their natural shape
+and situation.</p>
+
+<p>The third again have for character, according
+to this learned theorist, the containing of
+those organised bodies which are proper to
+the earth, instead of those which in the second
+class had belonged to the sea; in other respects,
+surely there is no essential difference.
+It is not pretended that these tertiary strata
+had any other origin, than that of having been
+deposited in water; it is not so much as suspected,
+that this water had been any other
+than that of the sea; the few marine bodies
+which M. Pallas here acknowledges, goes at
+least to prove this fact: and with regard to
+the mineral operations which had been employed
+in consolidating those water formed
+strata, it is impossible not to be convinced that
+every effect visible in the other two are here
+also to be perceived.</p>
+
+<p>From this view of mineral bodies, taken
+from the extensive observations of the Russian
+dominions, and from the suppositions of geologists
+in relation to those appearances, we
+should be led to conclude that the globe of
+this earth had been originally nothing but an
+ocean, a world containing neither plant nor
+animal to live, to grow and propagate its
+species. In following a system founded on
+those appearances, we must next suppose, that
+to the sterile unorganised world there had succeeded
+an ocean stored with fish of every
+species. Here it would be proper to inquire
+what sustained those aquatic animals; for, in
+such a system as this, there is no provision
+made for continuing the life even of the individuals,
+far less of feeding the species while,
+in an almost infinite succession of individuals,
+they should form a continent of land almost
+composed of their <i>exuviae</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If fish can be fed upon water and stone; if
+siliceous bodies can, by the digesting powers
+of animals, be converted into argillaceous
+and calcareous earths; and if inflammable
+matter can be prepared without the intervention
+of vegetable bodies, we might erect a
+system in which this should be the natural
+order of things. But to form a system in direct
+opposition to every order of nature that
+we know, merely because we may suppose
+another order of things different from the
+laws of nature which we observe, would be
+as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in
+science, by which the speculations of philosophy
+are directed, as it would be contrary to
+common sense, by which the affairs of mankind
+are conducted.</p>
+
+<p>Still, however, to pursue our visionary system,
+after a continent had been formed from
+the relicts of those animals, living, growing,
+and propagating, during an indefinite series of
+ages, plants at last are formed; and, what is
+no less wonderful, those animals which had
+formed the earth then disappear; but, in compensation,
+we are to suppose, I presume, that
+terrestrial animals began. Let us now reason
+from those facts, without either constraining
+nature, which we know, or forming visionary
+systems, with regard to things which are unknown.
+It would appear, that at one period
+of time, or in one place, the matter of the
+globe may be deposited, in strata, without containing
+any organised bodies; at another time,
+or in another place, much animal matter may
+be deposited in strata, without any vegetable
+substance there appearing; but at another period,
+or at another time, strata may be formed
+with much vegetable matter, while there is
+hardly to be observed any animal body.
+What then are we to conclude upon the
+whole? That nature, forming strata, is subject
+to vicissitudes; and that it is not always
+the same regular operation with respect to the
+materials, although always forming strata upon
+the same principles. Consequently, upon
+the same spot in the sea, different materials
+may be accumulated at different periods of
+time, and, conversely, the same or similar materials
+may be collected in different places at
+the same time. Nothing more follows strictly
+from the facts on which we now are reasoning;
+and this is a conclusion which will be
+verified by every appearance, so far as I know.</p>
+
+<p>Of this I am certain, that in a very little
+space of this country, in many places, such a
+course of things is to be perceived.  Nothing
+so common as to find alternated, over and over
+again, beds of sand-stone without animal bodies,
+beds of coal and schistus abounding with vegetable
+bodies, beds of lime-stone formed of shells
+and corals, and beds or particular strata of iron-stone
+containing sometimes vegetable sometimes
+animal bodies, or both. Here, indeed,
+the strata are most commonly inclined; it is
+seldom they are horizontal; consequently, as
+across the whole country, all the strata come
+up to the day, and may be seen in the beds
+of our rivers, we have an opportunity of observing
+that great variety which is in nature,
+and which we are not able to explain. This
+only is certain, from what we see, that there
+is nothing formed in one epoch of nature,
+but what has been repeated in another, however
+dissimilar may be the operations which
+had intervened between those several epochs.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged, that the heights of
+the Oural mountains, or the hardness of their
+rocks, make an essential distinction between
+them and the argillaceous or arenaceous strata
+of the plains; solidity and hardness, as well
+as changes in their height and natural position,
+has been superinduced in operations posterior
+to the collection of those masses,&mdash;operations
+which may be formed in various degrees,
+even in the different parts of the same mass.
+If this is the case, there can be no difficulty in
+conceiving a stratum, which appears to be argillaceous
+or marly in the plains, to be found
+jasper in the Oural mountains. But there is
+nothing in the Oural mountains, that may not
+be found some where or other in the plains,
+although the soft and easily decomposing argillaceous
+strata be not found upon the Oural
+mountains, or the Alps, for this reason, that
+had those mountains been formed of such materials,
+there had not been a mountain there at
+this day.</p>
+
+<p>But surely the greatest possible error, with
+regard to the philosophy of this earth, would
+be to confound the sediment of a river with
+the strata of the globe; bodies deposited upon
+the surface of the earth, with those sunk at
+the bottom of the sea; and things which only
+form the travelled or transported soil, with
+those which constitute the substratum or the
+solid earth. How far M. Pallas has committed
+this oversight, I leave others to determine.
+After mentioning those strata in which wood
+is found petrified, and metallic minerals formed,
+he thus proceeds, (page 69).</p>
+
+
+<p>"Dans ces mêmes dépôts sableux et souvent
+limoneux, gisent les restes des grands
+animaux de l'Inde: ces ossemens d'éléphans,
+de rhinocéros, de buffles monstrueux,
+dont on déterre tous les jours un si grand
+nombre, et qui font l'admiration des curieux.
+En Sibérie, où l'on à découvert le
+long de presque toutes les rivières ces restes
+d'animaux étrangers, et l'ivoire même bien
+conservé en si grande abondance, qu'il forme
+un article de commerce, en Sibérie, dis
+je, c'est aussi la couche la plus moderne de
+limon sablonneux qui leur sert de sépulture,
+et nulle part ces monumens étrangers sont
+si frequens, qu'aux endroits où la grande
+chaine, qui domine surtout la frontière méridionale
+de la Sibérie, offre quelque dépression,
+quelque ouverture considérable.</p>
+
+<p>"Ces grands ossemens, tantôt épars tantôt
+entassés par squelettes, et même par hécatombes,
+considérée dans leurs sites naturels,
+m'ont sur-tout convaincu de la réalité d'un
+déluge arrivé sur notre terre, d'une catastrophe,
+dont j'avoue n'avoir pu concevoir
+la vraisemblance avant d'avoir parcouru ces
+places, et vu, par moi-même, tout ce qui
+peut y servir de preuve à cet évènement
+mémorable<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a>. Une infinité de ces ossemens
+couchés dans des lits mêlés de petites
+tellines calcinées, d'os de poissons, de glossopètres,
+de bois chargés d'ocre, etc. prouve
+déjà qu'ils ont été transportés par des inondations.
+Mais la carcasse d'un rhinocéros,
+trouvé avec sa peau entière, des restes
+de tendons, de ligamens, et de cartilages,
+dans les terres glacées des bords du Viloûi,
+dont j'ai déposé les parties les mieux conservées
+au cabinet de l'Académie, forme encore
+une preuve convaincante que ce devait
+être un mouvement d'inondation des
+plus violens et des plus rapides, qui entraîna
+jadis ces cadavres vers nos climats
+glacés, avant que la corruption eût le tems,
+d'en détruire les parties molles. Il seroit
+à souhaiter qu'un observateur parvint aux
+montagnes qui occupent l'espace entre les
+fleuves Indighirka et Koylma où selon le
+rapport des chasseurs, de semblables carcasses
+d'éléphans et d'autres animaux gigantesques
+encore revêtues de leurs peaux,
+ont été remarquées à plusieurs reprises."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag24"> (return) </a> Voyez le Mémoire, imprimé dans le XVII. volume
+des nouveaux Commentaires de l'Académie Imperiale de
+Petersbourgh.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The question here turns upon this, Are the
+sea shells and glossopetrae, which are thus
+found deposited along with those skeletons,
+in their natural state, or are they petrified and
+mineralised. If the productions of the sea
+shall here be found collected along with bodies
+belonging to the surface of the earth, and
+which had never been within the limits of the
+sea, this would surely announce to us some
+strange catastrophe, of which it would be difficult,
+perhaps, to form a notion; if, on the
+contrary, those marine productions belong to
+the solid strata of the earth, in the resolution
+or decay of which they had been set at liberty,
+and were transported in the floods, our author
+would have no reason from those appearances to
+conclude, there had existed any other deluge
+than those produced by the waters of the land<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag25"> (return) </a> Since writing this, I find my doubts in a great measure
+resolved, in reading M. Pallas's Journal, translated
+from the German by M. Gauthier de la Peyronie. What
+I had suspected is, I think, confirmed in the distinct account
+which M. Pallas has given of those occasions in
+which the bones of land animals and marine objects are
+found buried together. The marine objects are mineralised;
+consequently, they have proceeded from the decomposition
+of the solid strata; and, having been travelled in the running
+water of the surface of the earth, they must have been
+deposited in those beds of rivers, which now are dry, alongst
+with the bones, or the entire bodies of terrestrial animals,
+the remains of which are now found there. This argument,
+from the state of those marine bodies will not be allowed,
+perhaps by the generality of mineralists, who attribute
+to the operations of water every species of petrifaction
+or mineralisation; but, until some species of proof be
+given with regard to the truth of that theory, which vulgar
+error first suggested, I must reason from a theory, in
+proof of which I have given clear examples, and, I think,
+irrefragable arguments, which shall be more and more illustrated.
+Thus may be removed the necessity of a general
+deluge, or any great catastrophe, in order to bring together
+things so foreign to each other; but at the same
+time we would ascertain this fact, That formerly the Elephant
+and Rhinoceros had lived in Siberia. (See Voyage
+de Pallas, Tom. II. p. 377 and 403.)</blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus endeavoured to remove this
+prevailing prejudice, of there being primitive
+parts in this earth, parts of which the composition
+and constitution are not to be explained
+upon the principles of natural philosophy, it
+will be proper to inquire, how far there may
+be in the theory, which has now been given,
+principles by which may be explained those
+appearances that have led natural philosophers
+to form conclusions, of there being in this
+earth parts whose origin may not be traced;
+and of there being parts whose origin may
+not be explained upon the same principles
+which apply so well to all the rest.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. V.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Concerning that which may be termed the
+Primary Part of the Present Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the present theory, it is maintained, that
+there is no part of the earth which has not
+had the same origin, so far as this consists in
+that earth being collected at the bottom of the
+sea, and afterwards produced, as land, along
+with masses of melted substances, by the operation
+of mineral causes. But, though all
+those things be similar, or equal, as to the
+manner of their production, they are far from
+being so with regard to the periods of their
+original composition, or to the subsequent
+operations which they may have undergone.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain order established for the
+progress of nature, for the succession of things,
+and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
+of this globe; and, the order of time is
+associated with this change of things. But it
+is not in equal portions that time is thus combined
+with dissimilar things, nor always found,
+in our estimation, as equally accompanying
+those which we reckon similar. The succession
+of light and darkness is that which, in
+those operations, appears to us most steady;
+the alternation of heat and cold comes next,
+but not with equal regularity in its periods.
+The succession of wet and dry upon the surface
+of the earth, though equally the work of
+nature and the effect of regular causes, is often
+to us irregular, when we look for equal periods
+in the course of things which are unequal.
+It is by equalities that we find order in things,
+and we wish to find order every where.</p>
+
+<p>The present object of our contemplation is
+the alternation of land and water upon the
+surface of this globe. It is only in knowing
+this succession of things, that natural appearances
+can be explained; and it is only from
+the examination of those appearances, that
+any certain knowledge of this operation is to
+be obtained. But how shall we acquire the
+knowledge of a system calculated for millions,
+not of years only, nor of the ages of man, but
+of the races of men, and the successions of
+empires? There is no question here with regard
+to the memory of man, of any human
+record, which continues the memory of man
+from age to age; we must read the transactions
+of time past, in the present state of natural
+bodies; and, for the reading of this
+character, we have nothing but the laws of
+nature, established in the science of man by
+his inductive reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>It has been in reasoning after this manner,
+that I have endeavoured to prove, that every
+thing which we now behold, of the solid parts
+of this earth, had been formerly at the bottom
+of the sea; and that there is, in the constitution
+of this globe, a power for interchanging
+sea and land. If this shall be admitted as a
+just view of the system of this globe, we may
+next examine, how far there are to be found
+any marks of certain parts of our earth having
+more than once undergone that change of
+posture, or vicissitude of things, and of having
+had reiterated operations of the mineral kingdom
+changing their substance, as well as altering
+their positions in relation to the atmosphere
+and sea.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the gradual decay of solid land, exposed
+to the silent influences of the atmosphere,
+and to the violent operations of the
+waters moving upon the surface of the earth,
+there is a more sudden destruction that may
+be supposed to happen sometimes to our continents
+of land. In order to see this, it must
+be considered, that the continents of our earth
+are only raised above the level of the sea by
+the expansion of matter, placed below that
+land, and rarefied in that place: We may thus
+consider our land as placed upon pillars, which
+may break, and thus restore the ancient situation
+of things when this land had been originally
+collected at the bottom of the ocean. It
+is not here inquired by what mechanism this
+operation is to be performed; it is certainly
+by the exertion of a subterranean power that
+the land is elevated from the place in which
+it had been formed; and nothing is more natural
+than to suppose the supports of the land
+in time to fail, or be destroyed in the course
+of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
+In that case, whatever were remaining
+of that land, which had for millions of
+ages past sustained plants and animals, would
+again be placed at the bottom of the sea; and
+strata of every different species might be deposited
+again upon that mass, which, from an
+atmospheric situation, is now supposed to be
+lower than the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated,
+or restored with the new superincumbent
+strata, consolidated in their texture
+and inclined in their position. In that case,
+the inferior mass must have undergone a
+double course of mineral changes and displacement;
+consequently, the effect of subterranean
+heat or fusion must be more apparent
+in this mass, and the marks of its original
+formation more and more obliterated.</p>
+
+<p>If, in examining our land, we shall find a
+mass of matter which had been evidently
+formed originally in the ordinary manner of
+stratification, but which is now extremely distorted
+in its structure, and displaced in its
+position,&mdash;which is also extremely consolidated
+in its mass, and variously changed in its
+composition,&mdash;which therefore has the marks
+of its original or marine composition extremely
+obliterated, and many subsequent veins of melted
+mineral matter interjected; we should then
+reason to suppose that here were masses
+of matter which, though not different in their
+origin from those that are gradually deposited
+at the bottom of the ocean, have been more
+acted upon by subterranean heat and the expanding
+power, that is to say, have been
+changed in a greater degree by the operations
+of the mineral region. If this conclusion
+shall be thought reasonable, then here is an
+explanation of all the peculiar appearances of
+the alpine schistus masses of our land, those
+parts which have been erroneously considered
+as primitive in the constitution of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus led to suppose, that some parts
+of our earth may have undergone the vicissitudes
+of sea and land more than once, having
+been changed from the summit of a continent
+to the bottom of the sea, and again erected,
+with the rest of that bottom, into the place of
+land. In that case, appearances might be found
+to induce natural philosophers to conclude that
+there were in our land primary parts, which
+had not the marine origin which is generally
+to be acknowledged in the structure of this
+earth; and, by finding other masses, of marine
+origin, superincumbent upon those primary
+mountains, they might make strange suppositions
+in order to explain those natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now see what has been advanced by
+those philosophers who, though they term
+these parts of the earth <i>primordial</i>, and not
+<i>primitive</i>, at the same time appear to deny to
+those parts an origin analogous to that of their
+secondary mountains, or strata that are aquiform
+in their construction.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc, after having long believed that
+the strata of the Alps had been formed like
+those of the low countries, at the bottom of
+the sea, gives an account of the occasion by
+which he was first confirmed in the opposite
+opinion.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> Like a true philosopher, he gives
+us the reason of this change.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag26"> (return) </a> Lettres Physique et Morales sur l'Histoire de la
+Terre, tom. 2. pag. 206.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ce fut une espèce de <i>montagne</i> très commune,
+et que j'avois souvent examinée qui
+dessilla mes yeux. La pierre qui la compose
+est de la classe appellée <i>schiste</i>; son caractère
+générique est d'être <i>feuilletée</i>; elle
+renferme <i>l'ardoise</i> dont on couvre les toits.
+Ces <i>feuillets</i> minces, qu'on peut prendre
+pour des <i>couches</i>, et qui le font en effet
+dans quelques pierres de ce genre, rappelloient
+toujours l'idée vague de dépôts des
+eaux. Mais il y a des masses dont la composition
+est plutôt par fibres que par feuillets,
+et dont le moëllon ressemble aux copeaux
+de bois d'un chantier. Le plus souvent
+aussi les feuillets sont situés en toute
+suite de sens dans une même <i>montagne</i>, et
+quelquefois même verticalement, Enfin il
+s'en trouve de si tortillés, qu'il est impossible
+de les regarder comme des dépôts de
+l'eau.</p>
+
+<p>"Ce fut donc cette espèce de montagne
+qui me persuada la première que toutes les
+montagnes n'avoient pas une même origine.
+Le lieu où j'abjurai mon erreur, étoit un
+de ces grands <i>chantiers</i> pétrifiés, qui, par la
+variété du tortillement, et des zig-zags des
+fibres du moëllon qui le composoit, attira
+singulièrement mon attention. C'étoit un
+sort grand talus qui venoit d'une face escarpée;
+j'y montai pour m'approcher du rocher,
+et je remarquai, avec étonnement, des
+multitudes de paquets enchevêtrés les uns
+dans les autres, sans ordre ni direction fixe;
+les uns presqu'en rouleaux; les autres en
+zig-zag; et même ce qui, séparé de la montagne,
+eût peu être pris pour des <i>couches</i>,
+le trouvoit incliné de toute manière dans
+cette même face de rocher. <i>Non</i>, me dis-je
+alors à moi-même; <i>non, l'eau n'a pu faire
+cette montagne.... Ni celle-là donc</i>, ajoutai-je
+en regardant ailleurs.... <i>Et pourquoi
+mieux celle-là? Pourquoi toutes les montagnes
+devroient-elles être le produit des
+eaux, seulement parce qu'il y en a quelques-unes
+qui annoncent cette origine</i>? En effet,
+puis qu'on n'a songé aux eaux, comme
+cause des montagnes, que par les preuves
+évidentes que quelques-unes offroient de
+cette formation; pourquoi étendre cette
+conséquence à toutes, s'il y en a beaucoup
+qui manquent de ces caractères? C'est
+comme le dit Mr. d'Alembert, qu'on généralise
+ses premières remarques l'instant
+d'apres qu'on ne remarquoit rien."</p>
+
+<p>Science is indebted to this author for giving
+us so clear a picture of natural appearances,
+and of his own reasoning upon those facts, in
+forming his opinion; he thus leads astray no
+person of sound judgment, although he may
+be in error. The disposition of things in the
+present case are such, that, reasoning from his
+principles, this author could not see the truth;
+because he had not been persuaded, that aquiform
+strata could have been so changed by the
+chemical power of fusion, and the mechanical
+force of bending while in a certain state of
+softness.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in this case, the reasoning of
+this philosopher is to be justified, so far as he
+proceeded upon principles which could not
+lead him to the truth, his conduct is not so
+irreproachable in applying them to cases by
+which their fallacy might have been detected.
+This author acknowledges calcareous strata to
+be aquiform in their original; but, in those
+mountains which he has so much examined,
+he will find those aquiform bodies have undergone
+the same species of changes, which made
+him conclude that those schistus mountains
+had not been truly aquiform, as he at first had
+thought them. This would have led him to
+reason back upon his principles, and to say,
+<i>If one species of strata may be thus changed in
+its texture, and its shape, may not another be
+equally so? Therefore, may not the origin of
+both be similar</i>?</p>
+
+<p>But least I should do injustice to this author,
+to whom we are indebted for many valuable
+observations in natural history, I shall transcribe
+what he has said upon the subject, being
+persuaded that my readers will not think
+this improper in me, or impertinent to the argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Quand nous fumes une fois persuadés
+que la mer n'avoit pas fait toutes les <i>montagnes</i>,
+nous entreprîmes de découvrir les
+caractères distinctifs de celles qui lui devoient
+leur origine; et s'il étoit, par exemple,
+des matières qui leur fussent propres.
+Mais nous y trouvâmes les mêmes
+difficultés qu'on rencontre dans tout ce
+qu'on veut classer dans la nature. On peut
+bien distinguer entr'elles les choses qui ont
+fortement l'empreinte de leur classe; mais
+les confins échappent toujours.</p>
+
+<p>"C'est là, pour le dire en passant, ce qui a
+pu conduire quelques philosophes à imaginer
+cette <i>chaîne des êtres</i> où ils supposent,
+que, de la pierre à l'homme et plus haut,
+les nuances sont réellement imperceptibles.
+Comme si, quoique les limites soyent cachées
+à nos sens, notre intelligence ne nous
+disoit pas, qu'il y a un <i>saut</i>, une distance
+même infinie, entre le plus petit degré d'organization
+<i>propageante</i>, et la matière unie
+par la simple cohésion: entre le plus petit
+degré de <i>sensibilité</i>, et la matière insensible:
+entre la plus petite capacité d'observer et de
+transmettre ses observations, et l'instinct
+constamment le même dans l'espèce. Toutes
+ces différences tranchées existent dans la
+nature; mais notre incapacité de rien connoître
+à fond, et la necessité où nous sommes
+de juger de tout sur des apparences,
+nous fait perdre presque toutes les limites,
+parce que sur ces bords, la plupart des phénomènes
+sont équivoques. Ainsi la plante
+nous paroît se rapprocher de la pierre, mais
+n'en approche jamais réellement.</p>
+
+<p>"On éprouve la même difficulté à classer
+les montagnes; et quoique depuis quelque
+tems plusieurs naturalistes ayent aussi observé
+qu'elles n'ont pas toutes la même origine,
+je ne vois pas qu'on soit parvenu à
+fixer des caractères infaillibles, pour les
+placer sûrement toutes dans leurs classes
+particulières.</p>
+
+<p>"Après avoir examiné attentivement cet
+objet, d'après les phénomènes que j'ai moi-même
+observés, et ce que j'ai appris par les
+observations des autres; j'ai vu que c'étoit
+là un champ très vaste, quand on vouloit
+l'embrasser en entier, et trop vaste pour moi,
+qui n'étois pas libre d'y consacrer tout le
+tems qu'il exige. Je me suis donc replié
+sur mon objet principal, savoir <i>la cause qui
+a laissé des dépouilles marines dans nos continens</i>,
+et l'examen des hypothèses sur cette
+matière.</p>
+
+<p>"Les phénomènes ainsi limités, se réduisent
+à ceci: qu'il y a dans nos continens
+des montagnes visiblement formées par des
+<i>dépôts successifs de la mer</i> et a l'égard des
+quelles il n'y a besoin de rien imaginer, si
+ce n'est la manière dont elles en sont sorties:
+qu'il y en a d'autres au contraire, qui
+ne portent aucun des caractères de cette
+cause, et qui, si elles ont été produites dans
+la <i>mer</i>, doivent être l'effet de toute autre
+cause que de simples dépôts successifs, et
+avoir même précédé l'existence des animaux
+marins. J'abandonne donc les classes confuses
+où ces caractères sont équivoques, jusqu'à
+ce qu'elles servent à fonder quelque
+hypothèse; ayant assez de ces deux classes
+très distinctes pour examiner d'apres elles
+tous les systèmes qui me sont connus.</p>
+
+<p>"Là où ces deux classes de montagnes
+sont mêlées, on remarque que celles qui
+sont formées par <i>couches</i>, et qui renferment
+des <i>corps marins</i>, recouvrent souvent celles
+de l'autre classe, mais n'en sont jamais recouvertes.
+On a donc naturellement conclu,
+que lors même que la <i>mer</i> auroit en
+quelque part à la formation des montagnes
+où l'on ne reconnoît pas son caractère, celles
+auxquelles elle a travaillé seule, en enlevant
+des matières dans certaines parties
+de son fond et les déposant dans d'autres,
+font au moins les dernières formées. On
+les a donc nommées <i>secondaires</i>, et les autres
+<i>primitives</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"J'adopterai la première de ces expressions;
+car c'est la même qui nous étoit venu à
+l'esprit à mon frère, et à moi longtemps
+avant que nous l'eussions vue employer;
+mais je substituerai celle de <i>primordiales à</i>
+<i>primitives</i> pour l'autre classe de <i>montagnes</i>,
+afin de ne rien décider sur leur origine. Il
+est des <i>montagnes</i>, dont jusqu'à present on
+n'a pu démêler la cause: voila le fait. Je
+ne dirai donc pas qu'elles ont été créées
+ainsi, parce qu'en physique je ne dois pas
+employer des expressions sur lesquelles on
+ne s'entend pas. Sans doute cependant,
+que l'histoire naturelle ni la physique ne
+nous conduisent nullement à croire que notre
+globe ait existé de toute éternité; et
+lorsqu'il prit naissance, il fallut bien que la
+matière qui le composa fut de quelque nature,
+ou sous quelque première forme intégrante.
+Rien donc jusqu'ici n'empêche
+d'admettre que ces <i>montagnes</i> que je nommerai
+<i>primordiales</i>, ne soient réellement
+<i>primitives</i>; je penche même pour cette
+opinion à l'égard de quelques unes. Mais
+il y a une très grande variété entr'elles; et
+quoiqu'elles soyent toutes également exclues
+de la classe <i>secondaire</i>, elles ne sont pas
+toutes semblables: il y en a même un
+grand nombre dont les matières ont une
+certaine configuration qui semble annoncer
+qu'elles ayent été molles et durcies ensuite,
+quoique par une toute autre cause que celle
+qui a agi pour former les montagnes secondaires."</p>
+
+<p>Here I would beg leave to call the attention
+of philosophers to this observation of
+a naturalist who explains all petrification, and
+the consolidation of strata by aqueous infiltration.
+If he has here found reason to conclude
+that, in those primordial parts of the earth,
+there are a great number which, from their
+present configuration, must have been in a
+soft state and then hardened, and this by a
+quite different cause from that which he supposes
+had produced the consolidation and
+hardness of the secondary parts; this is entering
+precisely into my views of the subject,
+in ascribing all the consolidation of the
+earth, whether primary or secondary, to one
+general cause, and in tracing this cause, from
+its effects, to be no other than the fusion of
+those bodies. It must be evident, that if this
+philosopher has seen good reason for concluding
+such a softening cause, which had operated
+upon the primary parts, to be quite different
+from that which he ascribes to the consolidation
+of the secondary, which is the effect of
+water, it must then, I say, be evident that the
+softening cause of the primary parts, if not
+heat, by which every degree of fusion may be
+produced, must be an occult cause, one which
+cannot be admitted into natural philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>By thus choosing to consider mountains as
+of two distinct kinds, one aquiform which is
+understood, and the other primordial which is
+not to be known, we supersede the necessity of
+reconciling a theory with many appearances
+in nature which otherwise might be extremely
+inconvenient to our explanation, if not inconsistent
+with our system. Our author no
+doubt has thus relieved himself from a considerable
+difficulty in the philosophy of this
+earth, by saying here is a great part which is
+not to be explained. But I would beg leave
+to observe, that this form of discussion, with
+regard to a physical subject, is but a mere confession
+of our ignorance, and has no tendency
+to clear up another part of the subject of
+which one treats, however it may impress us
+with a favourable opinion of the theorist, in
+allowing him all the candour of the acknowledgement.</p>
+
+<p>The general result of the reasoning which
+we now have quoted, and what follows in
+his examination, seems to terminate in this;
+that there are various different compositions
+of mountains which this author cannot
+allow to be the production of the sea; but it
+is not upon account of the matter of which
+they are formed, or of the particular mixture
+and composition of those species of matter, of
+which the variety is almost indefinite. According
+to this philosopher, the distinction
+that we are to make of those primordial and
+secondary competitions, consists in this, that
+the first are in such a shape and structure as
+cannot be conceived to be formed by subsidence
+in water.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Saussure has carefully examined
+those same objects; and he seems inclined to
+think that they must have been the operation
+of the ocean; not in the common manner of
+depositing strata, but in some other way by
+crystallization. The present theory supposes
+all those masses formed originally in the ordinary
+manner, by the deposits or subsidence of
+materials transported in the waters, and that
+those strata were afterwards changed by operations
+proper to the mineral regions.</p>
+
+<p>But the subject of the present investigation
+goes farther, by inquiring if, in the operations
+of the globe, a primary and secondary class of
+bodies may be distinguished, so far as the one
+may have undergone the operations of the
+globe, or the vicissitudes of sea and land, oftener
+than the other, consequently must be anterior
+to the later productions both in time
+and operation, although the original of all those
+bodies be the same, and the operations of the
+earth, so far as we see in the effects, always
+proceed upon the same principles. This is an
+extensive view of nature to which few have
+turned their thoughts. But this is a subject
+to which the observations described by this
+author have evidently a reference.</p>
+
+<p>In his 113th letter, he has given us a view
+of one of those parts of the earth that are proper
+to be examined in determining this question
+so important in the genealogy of land,
+although no ways concerned in altering the
+principles upon which nature in forming continents
+must proceed.</p>
+
+<p>It is in describing the nature of the mountains
+about <i>Elbingerode</i>; and he begins in ascending
+from Hefeld.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette partie extérieure de la chaîne est
+<i>primordiale</i>: c'est du <i>granit</i> à <i>Hereld</i> et au
+commencement de la route; puis quand on
+passe dans d'autres vallées, on trouve les
+<i>schistes</i> et la <i>roche grise</i> dans tout le pied
+des montagnes: mais des qu'on est arrivé à
+une certain hauteur, on voit de la <i>pierre à
+chaux</i> par couches étendue sur ces matières;
+et c'est elle qui forme le sommet de ces
+mêmes montagnes; tellement que la plaine
+élevée, qui conduit à <i>Elbingerode</i>, est entièrement
+de <i>pierre à chaux</i>, excepté dans
+sa partie la plus haute ou cette pierre est
+recouverte des mêmes <i>grès</i> et sables <i>vitrescibles</i>
+qui sont sur le schiste du Bruchberg
+et sur la <i>pierre à chaux</i> dans la <i>Hesse</i> et le
+pays de Gottingue.</p>
+
+<p>"Les environs d'Elbingerode étant plus
+bas que ces parties recouvertes de matières
+vitrescibles, montrent la <i>pierre à chaux</i> à
+nud; et l'on y trouve de très beaux marbres,
+dont les nuances jaunes, rouges et vertes
+sont souvent très vives, et embellies par
+les coupes des <i>corps marins</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Cependant le schiste n'est pas enseveli
+partout sous ces dépôts de la mer; on le
+retrouve en quelques endroits, et même
+avec de <i>filons</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Ainsi au milieu de ces matières <i>calcaires</i>
+qui forment le sol montueux des environs
+<i>d'Elbingerode</i>, paroît encore le <i>schiste</i> sur
+lequel elles ont été déposées: Et en montant
+à la partie la plus élevée de ces mêmes
+environs, on trouve que la <i>pierre à chaux</i>
+est recouverte elle-même d'une <i>pierre sableuse</i>
+grise par couches, dans laquelle on
+voit quantité de petits fragmens de <i>schiste</i> posés
+de plat. C'est la que se trouve une des
+mines de <i>fer</i> dont le minerai va en partie
+à la <i>Koningshutte</i>, mais en plus grande
+partie à la <i>Rothechutte</i>, qui n'est qu'à une
+lieue de distance. On perce d'abord la
+couche sableuse; sous elle se trouve de la
+<i>pierre à chaux</i> grise; puis une couche de
+<i>pierre à chaux ferrugineuse</i>, remplie de <i>corps
+marins</i>, et surtout <i>d'entroques</i>: C'est cette
+<i>couche</i> qui est ici le <i>minerai</i>; et elle appartient
+à la formation de cette éminence comme
+toutes les autres <i>couches</i>. Cette mine
+se nomme <i>bomshey</i>: elle n'est pas riche;
+mais elle sert de <i>fondant</i> aux matières ferrugineuses
+tirées des filons des montagnes
+primordiales en même tems qu'elle leur
+ajoute son <i>fer</i> dans la fonte. A quelque
+distance de là on a percé un autre puits;
+qui a transversé d'abord une sorte de pierre,
+que je ne saurois nommer, mais qui ressemble
+fort à une <i>lave</i> poreuse. Au dessous
+de cette couche on a retrouvé la <i>pierre
+à chaux</i> ordinaire; puis la <i>couche ferrugineuse</i>
+y continue; mais elle diffère un peu
+de ce qu'elle est dans l'autre mine, une
+partie de sa substance étant convertie en <i>jaspe</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ce qui est digne de la plus grande
+attention dans cette contrée, est un filon
+peu distant nomme <i>Buchenberg</i>, qui appartient
+en partie au Roi, et en partie à
+Mr. le Comte de <i>Wernigerode</i>. La montagne
+en cette endroit montre une vallée
+artificielle de 70 à 80 pieds de profondeur,
+de 20 à 30 de largeur dans le haut, et de
+400 toises en étendue. C'est le creusement
+qu'on a déjà fait en suivant ce <i>filon</i> de <i>fer</i>,
+que l'on continue à exploiter de la même
+manière sur les terres de Mr. le Comte de
+<i>Wernigerode</i>. La matière propre de la montagne
+<i>est</i> de <i>schiste</i>; et la vallée qui se forme
+de nouveau à mesure qu'on enlève la <i>gangue</i>
+du <i>filon</i>, a sûrement déjà existé dans la
+mer sous la forme d'une <i>fente</i>, qui a été
+remplie, et en particulier des ingrédiens
+dont on fait aujourd'hui le <i>fer</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a supposition of our author that
+corresponds to nothing which has yet been
+observed any where else, so far as I know.
+It is concerning a mineral vein, one which
+does not appear to differ in any respect from
+other mineral veins, except in being worked
+in that open manner which has given our author
+an idea of its being a valley. He then
+supposes that valley (or rather empty vein)
+to have been in this mountain when at the
+bottom of the sea, and that this mineral vein
+had then been filled with those materials
+which now are found in that space between
+the two sides of the separated rock. This is
+a very different operation from that of infiltration,
+which is commonly supposed to be
+the method of filling mineral veins; but, we
+shall soon see the reason why our author has
+here deserted the common hypothesis, and has
+adopted another to serve the occasion, without
+appearing to have considered how perfectly
+inconsistent those two suppositions are to each
+other. That mineral veins have been filled
+with matter in a fluid state, is acknowledged
+by every body who has either looked at a
+mineral vein in the earth, or in a cabinet specimen;
+mineralists and geologists, in general,
+suppose this to have been done by means of
+solutions and concretions, a supposition by
+no means warranted by appearances, which,
+on the contrary, in general demonstrate that
+the materials of those veins had been introduced
+in the fluid state of fusion. But here
+is a new idea with regard to the filling of
+those veins; and, I would now beg the reader's
+attention to the facts which follow in this
+interesting description, and which have suggested
+that idea to our author.</p>
+
+<p>"Quand cette matière accidentelle est enlevée,
+on voit la coupe du <i>schiste</i> des deux
+côtes de la <i>fente</i>, faisant un <i>toit</i> et un <i>mur</i>,
+parce que la <i>fente</i> n'est pas absolument verticale:
+des qu'il y a un peu d'inclinaison,
+on distingue un <i>toit</i> et un mur, comme j'ai
+l'honneur de l'expliquer à V.M. On ne
+connoît point encore l'étendue de ce filon,
+ni dans sa profondeur, où l'on ne peut pas
+s'enfoncer beaucoup de cette manière, ni
+dans la longueur, selon laquelle on continue
+à l'exploiter.</p>
+
+<p>"Voilà donc un <i>filon</i>, à la rigueur de la
+définition que j'en ai donné à V.M. c'est à
+dire, une <i>fente</i> dans la montagne naturelle,
+<i>comblée</i> de <i>matière</i> étrangère. Mais ce qu'il
+y a d'extraordinaire ici, c'est que cette <i>matière</i>
+vient de la <i>mer</i>: ce sont différentes
+<i>couches aquiformes</i>, dont quelques unes
+sont remplies de <i>corps marins</i>. Il y a des
+<i>couches</i> d'une <i>terre martiale</i> fort brune et
+sans liaison: d'autres, au contraire toujours
+<i>martiales</i>, sont très dures et renferment de
+très beau jaspe sanguin: d'autres enfin sont
+de vrai <i>marbre</i> gris veinées de rouge. C'est
+dans ce marbre que font les <i>corps marins</i>,
+savoir des coquillages et des spongites; et il
+est lui-même martial comme tout le reste:
+les mineurs le nomment <i>Kubrimen</i>, et ne
+l'employent que comme un <i>fondant</i> pour
+d'autres <i>minéraux de fer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"A ce <i>filon</i>, s'en joignent d'autres plus embarrassans.
+Ils viennent du <i>toit</i>, qu'ils divisent
+par de larges <i>fentes</i> comblées, aboutissantes
+au <i>filon</i> principale. Ils font de
+même <i>calcaires</i> et marins faits par <i>couches</i>;
+mais ces <i>couches</i> ont une si grande inclinaison,
+que je ne puis les comprendre: il faut
+qu'il y ait eu d'étranges bouleversemens dans
+ces endroits-là<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag27"> (return) </a> Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible
+to explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling
+of mineral veins, and their branches or ramifications,
+with marble containing marks of marine objects. But, if
+we shall suppose this marble to have been in the fluid state
+of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may easily
+conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its
+branches. The description here given of those appearances
+is by no means such as to enable us to judge particularly
+of this case, which surely merits the most accurate
+investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical
+demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances.
+I know that shells have been found within the body of
+veins in Germany; but, a stratification of those materials
+in a vein was never heard of before, so far as I know.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ces <i>fentes</i> se sont faites, et ont été remplies,
+dans la <i>mer</i>; puisque les matières
+qui les remplissent sont de la classe de ses
+dépôts très connoissables, et qu'il contiennent
+des <i>dépouilles marines</i>. Mais ce qui
+embarrasse alors c'est que les autres <i>filons</i>
+ne soyent pas dans le même cas. N'est ce
+point là encore un indice, que ces <i>fentes</i>
+out été d'abord et principalement remplies
+de matières, poussées du fond par la même
+force qui secouoit les montagnes<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag28"> (return) </a> But what is this power by which matter is to be
+forced from the bottom of the sea to the top of the
+mountains? For, unless we can form some idea of that
+power which, as a cause, we ascribe to the perceived effect,
+we either say nothing to the purpose, or we employ
+a preternatural cause. It is not sufficient to imagine a
+power capable of raising from the bottom of the sea the
+materials deposited in the abyss; it is also necessary to
+find a power capable of softening bodies which are hard,
+and of thus consolidating those masses which are formed
+of loose or unconnected materials. Such a power, indeed,
+the present theory assumes; and, so far as this shall be
+implied in the supposition of our author, it will thus have
+received a certain conformation.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ce <i>filon</i> n'est pas le seul dans le <i>Hartz</i>
+qui donne des signes <i>marins</i>. Il y en a
+un autre, qui même se rapproche davantage
+de la nature du commun des <i>filons</i>, et
+où l'on trouve aussi des <i>coquillages</i>. C'est
+celui de <i>Haus-Hartzbergerzug</i>, pres de
+<i>Clausthal</i>, où, dans les <i>Halles</i> de quelques
+mines de plomb abandonnées, et dans une
+forte <i>d'ardoise</i>, on trouve de petites <i>moules</i> ou
+<i>tellines</i> striées, d'une espèce particulière que
+j'ai vue dans des <i>ardoises secondaires d'Arotzen</i>
+en <i>Waldek</i> et de <i>Sombernon</i> en <i>Bourgogne</i>.
+Il y a donc certainement quelques
+<i>filons</i> faits par les dépôts de la <i>mer</i> dans les
+<i>fentes</i> de montagnes <i>primordiales</i>; comme
+au contraire il y a des <i>filons</i> métalliques
+sans indices <i>marins</i>, dans des montagnes
+évidemment <i>secondaires</i>, telles que celles de
+<i>Derbyshire</i>, ou les <i>filons</i> de <i>plomb</i> traversent
+des couches de <i>pierre à chaux</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here again our author seems to me to refute
+his own supposition, That a chasm in the
+schistus rock may have existed at the bottom
+of the sea, and been then filled from above
+with such materials as were transported by the
+moving water to that place, is not impossible;
+but nobody, who knows the nature of a common
+metallic vein, can ever suppose it to have
+been filled in that manner. Our author then
+adds, "On ne fait réellement que commencer
+dans ce genre d'observations, considérées
+quant à la Cosmologie; ainsi il ne faut
+point désespérer que tout cela ne se dévoile
+un jour, et que nous n'acquerrions ainsi un
+peu plus de connoissance sur ce qui se passoit
+dans la <i>mer ancienne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"En revenant vers <i>Elbingerode</i>, nous retrouvâmes
+ces <i>schistes</i>, qui paroissent au
+travers des <i>marbres:</i> ils sont donc la continuation
+de la masse <i>schisteuse</i> à laquelle
+appartient le <i>filon</i>, dont je viens de parler.
+Ce <i>filon</i> à été formé dans une <i>fente</i>, restée
+ouverte et vide: les dépôts de la <i>mer</i>
+l'ont comblée, en même tems qu'ils formoient
+les couches de <i>marbre</i>, qui sont à
+l'extérieur. En effet, ce <i>filon</i> contient des
+<i>couches marines ferrugineuses</i>, de la même
+nature que celles des collines calcaires voisines
+formées sur le schiste.</p>
+
+<p>"Nous partîmes <i>d'Elbingerode</i> dans l'après
+midi pour nous rapprocher de Clausthal.
+Notre chemin fut encore quelque tems sur
+des sommités <i>calcaires</i>; et avant que d'en
+sortir, nous trouvâmes une autre mine singulière
+à <i>Arenfeld</i>. C'est encore un vrai
+<i>filon</i>; mais dans une montagne de <i>pierre à
+chaux:</i> C'est à-dire, que cette montagne a
+aussi été <i>fendue</i>, et que la <i>fente</i> a été remplie
+d'une <i>gangue</i>. La matière de ce <i>filon</i> est
+encore <i>calcaire</i> en plus grande partie; mais
+cette <i>pierre à chaux</i> distincte est <i>ferrugineuse</i>,
+et parsemée de concrétions de <i>jaspe</i>
+comme celles <i>d'Elbingerode:</i> on y trouve
+aussi une matière verdâtre, qui, comme le
+<i>jaspe</i>, ne fait pas effervescence avec l'eau
+forte."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a phenomenon which is altogether
+incompatible with the theory that this author
+has given us for the explanation of those appearances.
+He supposes empty crevices in
+the schistus mountains at the bottom of the
+sea; these crevices he supposes filled by the
+deposits of the sea, at the same time, and with
+the same materials with which the lime-stone
+strata were formed above the schistus mountains;
+but we find one of those same veins in
+these secondary calcareous strata. Now, tho'
+we should be disposed to allow, that, in the
+primordial mountain, of which we are supposed
+not to know the origin, there might have
+been empty crevices which were afterwards
+filled with materials transported by the sea,
+this cannot be admitted as taking place in the
+loose or incoherent materials deposited above
+the schistus. Consequently, this theory of
+our author, which is evidently erroneous with
+regard to the veins in the lime-stone, must, in
+the other case, be at least examined with a
+jealous eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Le haut de cette partie des montagnes
+<i>calcaires</i> étoit encore recouvert de <i>sable</i> et
+de grès <i>vitrescibles</i>: et continuant à marcher,
+sans aucune inflexion sensible, nous
+nous trouvâmes subitement sur les <i>schistes</i>;
+d'où nous montâmes plus rapidement.
+Puis traversant quelques petites vallées nous
+arrivâmes sur les montagnes qui appartiennent
+au prolongement du <i>Brocken</i> ou
+<i>Blocksberg</i>. La matière dominante est alors
+le <i>granit</i>; mais il est tout en blocs le long
+de cette route, et ces blocs se trouvent à
+une telle distance de tout sommité intacte
+de cette pierre, qui est aisé de juger non
+seulement qu'ils ne sont pas dans leur place
+originaire, mais encore qu'il ne sont arrivés
+là par aucune des causes naturelles
+qui agissent dans les montagnes; savoir, la
+pesanteur, la pente, et le cours des eaux.
+Ce sont donc de violentes explosions qui
+ont dispersé ces blocs; et alors ils deviennent
+un nouveau trait cosmologique de
+quelque importance: car rien ne se meut,
+ni ne paroît s'être mu depuis bien des
+siècles, dans ces lieux qui montrent tant de
+désordre: un tapis de verdure couvre tout,
+en conservant les contours baroques du sol.
+Le bétail ne sauroit pâturer dans de telles
+prairies; mais l'industrieux montagnard fait
+y faucher<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag29"> (return) </a> M. de Saussure endeavours to explain those appearances
+of transported blocks of granite by another cause;
+this is a certain <i>debacle</i> of the waters of the earth, which I
+do not understand. M. de Luc again attempts to explain
+it by violent explosions; I suppose he means those of a
+volcano. But he has not given us the evidence upon
+which such an opinion may be founded, farther than by
+saying that those blocks could not have come there by the
+natural operations of the surface. By this must be meant,
+that, from the nearest summit of granite, there is not, at
+present, any natural means by which these blocks might
+be transported to that place. But it is not with the present
+state of things that we are concerned, in explaining
+the operations of a distant period. If the natural operations
+of the surface change the shape of things, as is
+clearly proved by every natural appearance, Why form an
+argument against a former transaction, upon the circumstances
+of the present state of things? Our author does
+not seem to perceive, that, from this mode of reasoning,
+there is is an insuperable objection to his violent explosions
+having been employed in producing those effects. For,
+had there been such a cause, the evidence of this must
+have remained; if the surface of the earth does not undergo
+great changes: If, again, this surface be in time much
+changed, How can we judge from the present shape, what
+might have been the former posture of things?
+
+<p>This author, indeed, does not allow much time for the
+natural operations of the globe to change its surface; but,
+if things be not greatly removed from the state in which
+the violent operations of the globe had placed them, Why
+does he not point out to us the source of this great disorder
+which he there perceives? From what explosion
+will be explained the blocks of granite which are found
+upon the Jura, and which must have come from the mass
+of <i>Mont Blanc</i>? If these dispersed blocks of stone are to
+be explained by explosion, there must: have been similar explosions
+in other countries where there is not the smallest
+appearance of volcanic eruptions; for, around all our
+granite mountains, and I believe all others, there are
+found many blocks of granite, travelled at a great distance,
+and in all directions.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"<i>Oberbruck</i>, ou nous avions été la précédente
+fois, se trouva sur notre route, et
+nous y passames aussi la nuit, dans l'espérance
+de pouvoir monter le lendemain sur
+le <i>Brocken</i>; mais il fut encore enveloppé
+de nuages; ainsi nous continuâmes à marcher
+vers <i>Clausthal</i>, passant de nouveau par
+le <i>Bruchberg</i>, où le <i>sable</i> et ses gres recouvrent
+le <i>schiste</i>; puis arrivant à une
+autre sommité, nous y trouvâmes la même
+pierre <i>sableuse</i> par couches, mêlée de parcelles
+de <i>schiste</i>, que nous avions vue sur
+les montagnes <i>calcaires d'Elbingerode</i>. Il
+est donc toujours plus certain que le sol
+primordial de toutes ces montagnes existoit
+sous les eaux de l'ancienne mer; puisqu'il
+est recouvert de diverses fortes de dépôts,
+connus pour appartenir à la <i>mer</i>; et que
+les <i>fentes</i> des <i>filons</i> existoient dans cette
+<i>mer ancienne</i>; puisqu'elle en a rempli elle-même
+quelques unes, et qu'elle a recouvert
+de ses dépôts quelques autres <i>filons</i> tout
+formés. Quant à celles des matières de ces
+<i>filons</i>, qui ne paroissent pas être <i>marines</i> (et
+c'est de beaucoup la plus grande quantité),
+j'ai toujours plus de penchant d'en attribuer
+une partie à l'opération des <i>feux souterreins</i>,
+à mesure que je vois diminuer la
+probabilité de les assigner entièrement à
+<i>l'eau</i>. Mais quoi-qu'il en soit, ces gangues
+ne font pas de même date que les montagnes<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag30"> (return) </a> I most willingly admit the justness of our author's
+view, if he thus perceives the operation of fire in the
+solids of our earth; but it is not for the reasons he has
+given us for discovering it here more than in other places;
+for there is not a mineral vein, (so far at least as I have
+seen), in which the appearances may be explained by any
+thing else besides the operation of fire or fusion. It is
+not easy to conceive in what manner our author had conceived
+the opinions which he has displayed in these letters.
+He had no opinion of this kind, or rather he was persuaded
+that subterraneous fire had no hand in the formation
+of this earth before he came to this place of the
+Hartz; here he finds certain appearances, by which he is
+confirmed in his former opinion, that water had operated
+in forming mineral veins; and then he forms the idea
+that subterraneous fire may have operated also. But, before
+the discovery of the chasms in the schistus mountains
+having been filled with the stratified materials of the sea,
+How had he supposed veins to be filled? If this philosopher
+had before no opinion of subterraneous fire, as instrumental
+in that operation, How comes he now to change
+that former opinion? For, unless it be the extraordinary
+manner of filling these open crevices in the mountains by
+matter deposited immediately from the sea, there is certainly
+no other appearance in this mineral country of the
+Hartz, that may not be found in any other, only perhaps
+upon a smaller scale.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Le lendemain de notre arrivée a <i>Clausthal</i>,
+qui étoit le 13e, nous allâmes visiter
+d'autres mines de <i>fer</i> en montagnes secondaires,
+situées au côté opposé du Hartz.
+Elles sont auprès de <i>Grund</i> l'une des <i>villes
+de mines</i>, et près du lieu ou sortira la nouvelle
+<i>galerie d'écoulement</i> à laquelle on travaille,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrivés à <i>Grund</i> les officiers mineurs
+vinrent, comme à l'ordinaire, accompagner
+Mons. de <i>Reden</i> aux <i>mines</i> de leur département.
+Celles-ci, sans être plus extraordinaires
+que celles qui nous avions
+vues à <i>Elbingerod</i>, ou sans aider mieux
+jusqu'ici à expliquer ce qu'elles ont toutes
+d'extraordinaire, nous donnent au moins
+des indices probables de grands accidens.
+Ces montagnes de <i>Grund</i> sont encore de
+l'espèce remarquable, dont la base est de
+<i>schiste</i>, et le haut de <i>pierre à chaux</i>. Les
+mines qu'on y exploit sont de <i>fer</i>, et se
+trouvent dans cette matière <i>calcaire</i>; mais
+elles y sont sous des apparences tout-à-fait
+étranges. La montagne où nous les vîmes
+principalement le nomme <i>Iberg</i>. On y
+poursuit des masses de <i>pierre à fer</i>, de l'ensemble
+desquelles les mineurs ne peuvent encore
+se rendre compte d'une manière claire.
+Ils ont trouvé dans cette montagne des <i>cavernes</i>,
+qui ressemblent à l'encaissement de
+<i>filons</i> déjà exploités, ou non formés; c'est-à-dire,
+que ce sont des <i>fentes</i> presque verticales,
+et vides, Le <i>minerai</i> qu'ils poursuivent
+est en <i>Rognons</i>; c'est à dire, en
+grandes masses sans continuité décidée.
+Cependant ces masses semblent se succéder
+dans la montagne suivant une certaine direction;
+tellement que les mineurs savent
+déjà les chercher, par des indices d'habitude.
+La substance de cette <i>pierre à fer</i>
+particulière renferme des crystallizations de
+diverses espèces. Il y a des <i>druses de quartz</i>,
+ou de petits cristaux de quartz qui tapissent
+des cavités; il y a aussi du <i>spath</i> commun,
+et de celui qu'on nomme pesant; on y
+trouve enfin une forte de crystallization
+nommée <i>Eisenman</i> (<i>homme de fer</i>) par les
+mineurs; se sont des amas de cristaux noir-âtres,
+qui ressemblent à des groupes de
+grandes lentilles plattes, et ces cristaux sont
+<i>ferrugineux</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Entre les signes de bouleversement que
+renferme ce lieu, est un rocher nommé
+<i>Gebichensten</i>, qui est en <i>pierre à chaux</i>, ce
+que <i>l'Ebrenbreitstein</i> de <i>Coblentz</i> est en
+pierre sableuse: c'est-à-dire, que ses <i>couches</i>,
+remplies de <i>corps marins</i>, sont presque verticales;
+ceux de ces corps qu'on y trouve
+en plus grande quantité, sont des <i>madrépores</i>.
+Ce rocher s'élève comme un grand
+obélisque, au-dessus des <i>cavernes</i>, dont j'ai
+parlé; montrant par le côté ses <i>couches</i>, qui
+se trouvent, comme je l'ai dit, dans une
+situation presque verticale. Sa base est déjà
+bien minée, tant par les <i>cavernes</i>, que
+par la <i>pierre à fer</i> qu'on en tire; et je ne
+me hasardai dessus, que parce que je me
+dis, qu'il y a des millions contre un à parier,
+que ce n'est pas le moment où il s'enfoncerait.
+Mais je n'en dirois pas autant,
+s'il s'agissoit de m'y loger à demeure.</p>
+
+<p>"Quoique tout ce lieu là soit fort remarquable,
+il se pourrait que ce ne fut qu'un
+phénomène particulier. Les <i>cavernes</i> peuvent
+devoir leur origine à la même cause
+que celle de Schartzfeld; et le dérangement
+des rochers supérieurs à des enfoncemens
+occasionnés par ces <i>cavernes</i>. Rien
+n'est si difficile que de retracer aujourd'hui
+ces fortes d'accidens à cause des changemens
+que le tems y a opérés. S'ils sont
+arrivés sous les eaux de la <i>mer</i>, on conçoit
+aisément les altérations qui ont dû succéder;
+et si c'est depuis que nos continens
+sont à sec, les eaux encore, tant intérieures
+qu'extérieures, et la végétation, en ont
+beaucoup changé l'aspect."</p>
+
+<p>This author has a theory by which he explains
+to himself the former residence of the
+sea, above the summits of our mountains;
+this, however, is not the theory by which we
+are now endeavouring to explain appearances;
+we must therefore be allowed to reason from
+our own principles, in considering the facts
+here set forth by our author.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, I think, is more evident, than
+that in this mineral country of the Hartz, we
+may find the clearest marks of fracture, elevation,
+and dislocation of the strata, and of the
+introduction of foreign matter among those
+separated bodies. All those appearances, our
+author would have to be nothing but some
+particular accident, which is not to enter into
+the physiology of the earth. I wish again to
+generalise these facts, by finding them universal
+in relation to the globe, and necessarily
+to be found in all the consolidated parts of our
+land.</p>
+
+<p>It was not to refute our author's reasoning
+that I have here introduced so much of his
+observations, but to give an extensive view of
+the mineral structure of this interesting country.
+This therefore being done, we now proceed
+to what is more peculiarly our business
+in this place, or the immediate subject of investigation,
+viz. the distinction of primary and
+secondary strata.</p>
+
+<p>"Dans le voisinage de cette montagne, il
+y a une autre fort intéressante, que je vis le
+jour suivant. Quoiqu'en traitant des volcans,
+j'aie démontré que la formation des
+montagnes, par soulèvement, étoit sans example
+dans les faits, et sans fondement dans
+la théorie, je ne laisseroi pas de m'arrêter au
+phénomène que présente cette montagne;
+parce qu'il prouvera directement que les
+<i>couches calcaires</i> au moins, ont été formées
+<i>à la hauteur ou elles sont</i>; c'est-a-dire
+qu'elles n'ont pas été soulevées.</p>
+
+<p>"Voulant prendre l'occasion de mon retour
+à <i>Hanovre</i>, pour traverser les avant-corps
+du <i>Hartz</i>, dans quelque nouvelle direction;
+je résolus de faire ce voyage à
+cheval, et de prendre ma route droite vers
+<i>Hanovre</i>, au-travers des collines; ce qui
+me conduisit encore à <i>Grund</i> puis à <i>Münchehof
+Brunshausen, Engelade, Winsenburg</i>
+et <i>Alfeld</i>, où enfin, traversant la <i>Leine</i> j'entrai
+dans la grande route.</p>
+
+<p>"Je quittai donc <i>Clausthal</i> (et avec bien
+du regret) le 14 au matin; et revenant
+d'abord à <i>Grund</i>, je le laissai sur ma droite,
+ainsi que <i>l'Iberg</i>; et plus loin, du même
+côté, une autre montagne nommée <i>Winterberg</i>
+dont la base est <i>schiste</i>, et le sommet
+plus haut que Clausthal, entièrement composé
+de <i>couches calcaires</i>. De <i>Grund</i> je
+montai vers une montagne nommée <i>Ost
+Kamp</i>; et je commençai là à donner une
+attention particulière au sol. Le long de
+mon chemin, je ne trouvai longtemps que
+des schistes, qui montroient leurs points en
+haut, comme à l'ordinaire, et avec tous leurs
+tortillemens de feuillets. Mais arrivé au
+haut de la montagne, j'y vis des carrières
+de <i>pierre à chaux</i>, où les couches absolument
+régulières, et qui ont peu d'épaisseur
+sur le <i>schiste</i> suivent parfaitement les contours
+du <i>sommet</i>. Ces lits de <i>pierre à chaux</i>
+n'ont certainement pas été soulevés du fond
+de la <i>mer</i> sur le dos des schistes; lors même
+qu'à cause de la grande inclinaison des feuillets
+de ceux-ci on voudroit le attribuer à
+quelque révolution telle que le <i>soulèvement</i>;
+(ce que je n'admettrois point). Car si ces
+lits <i>calcaires</i>, ayant été faits au fond de la
+<i>mer</i>, avoyent été soulevés avec les schistes,
+ne feroient-ils pas brisés et bouleversés comme
+eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il
+soi arrivé au schiste qui les porte, ces lits,
+et tous les autres de même genre qui sont
+au haut de ces montagnes, ont été déposées
+au niveau où ils sont; et que par conséquent
+la <i>mer</i> les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le
+système de soulèvement perd son but, s'il
+tend à expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
+<i>couches</i>, formées par la mer, qui se trouvent
+maintenant si fort au dessus de son niveau.
+Il est évident que ces <i>couches</i> n'ont pas été
+soulevées; mais que la <i>mer</i> s'est <i>abaissée</i>.
+Or c'est là le grand point cosmologique à
+expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent à
+la structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles,
+n'appartiendront qu'à <i>l'histoire naturelle</i>,
+tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec
+celui-la."</p>
+
+<p>Here are two things to be considered; the
+interesting facts described by our author, and
+the inference that he would have us draw
+from those facts. It would appear from the
+facts, that the body of schistus below, and
+that of lime-stone above, had not undergone
+the same disordering operations, or by no
+means in the same degree. But our author
+has formed another conclusion; he says, that
+these lime-stone strata must have been formed
+precisely in the place and order in which they
+lie at present; and the reason for this is, because
+these strata appeared to him to follow
+perfectly the contour of the summit of this
+mountain. Now, had there been in the top
+of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed
+about with the schistus rock; and had this
+cavity been now found filled with horizontal
+strata, there might have been some shadow of
+reason for supposing those strata to have been
+deposited upon the top of the mountain. But
+to suppose, <i>first</i>, that shells and corals should
+be deposited upon the convex summit of a
+mountain which was then covered by the sea;
+<i>secondly</i>, that these moveable materials should
+remain upon the summit, while the sea had
+changed its place; and, <i>lastly</i>, that those shells
+and corals left by the sea upon the top of a
+mountain should become strata of solid limestone.
+and have also metallic veins in it, certainly
+holds of no principle of natural philosophy
+that I am acquainted with. If, therefore,
+such an appearance as this were to be employed
+either in illustration or confirmation of a
+theory, it would itself require to be explained;
+but this is a task that this cosmologists
+does not seem willing to undertake.</p>
+
+<p>He has formed a hypothesis for explaining
+the general appearance of that which was once
+the bottom of the sea being now found forming
+the summits of our mountains; but surely
+this philosopher will acknowledge, that
+those natural appearances, in any particular
+place, will be the same, whether we suppose
+the bottom of the sea to have been raised, as
+in the present theory, or the surface of the sea
+to have sunk according to his hypothesis. For,
+it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the
+earth to have been raised all this height, as to
+suppose all the rest of the surface of the globe
+to have sunk an equal space, while a small
+portion of the bottom of the sea, remaining
+here and there fixed in its place, became the
+highest portion of the globe. Consequently,
+whatever evidence this philosopher shall find
+in support of his theory of the present earth,
+(a subject which it is not our purpose to examine)
+it cannot be allowed that he has here
+brought any argument capable of disproving
+the elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition
+which other theories may require.</p>
+
+<p>I would now observe, in relation to the
+present theory, that so far as this author has
+reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
+conclusions will be found to confirm the present
+supposition, that there is to be perceived
+the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
+in the masses of this earth, without
+altering the general theory either with respect
+to the original formation of those masses, or
+to their posterior production.</p>
+
+<p>Here one of two things must be allowed;
+either that those strata of schistus had been
+broken and distorted under a mass of other
+superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent
+strata had been deposited upon the
+broken and distorted strata at the bottom of
+the sea. Our author, who has examined the
+subject, inclines to think, that this last has
+been the case. If, therefore, strata had been
+deposited upon broken and bare rocks of
+schistus, it is probable that these had been
+sunk in the sea after having been exposed to
+the atmosphere, and served the purpose of
+land upon the globe.<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag31"> (return) </a> This is also supported by another very interesting observation
+contained in this letter. M. de Luc observes,
+that in this country the schistus is generally covered by
+strata of lime-stone, and that these lime-stone strata are
+again covered with those of sand-stone, in which are found
+a great many fragments of schistus lying flat. Therefore,
+while those sand-stone strata were collecting at the bottom
+of the sea, there had been rocks of schistus in some other
+place, from whence those fragments bad been detached.</blockquote>
+
+<p>An example of the same kind also occurs
+in the <i>Discours sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la
+Suisse</i>; and this author of the <i>Tableaux de la
+Suisse</i> has given a very distinct description of
+that appearance, which is perhaps the more
+to be valued as a piece of natural history, as
+this intelligent author does not pretend to any
+geological theory, but simply narrates what
+he has seen, with such pertinent observations
+on the subject as naturally must occur to a
+thinking person on the spot.&mdash;(Discours, etc.
+page 228. Entrée au pays de Grisons).</p>
+
+<p>"Du village d'Elen on continue à monter
+le reste du petit vallon pendant une lieue
+et demie parmi les mêmes espèces de pierres
+qu'on vient de décrire; en passant au travers
+de bois et de forêts de sapins et de
+quelques pâturages dont ce haut est couvert,
+on parvient au pied du Bundnerberg,
+montagne des grisons, qui forme la
+tête du vallon. On laisse à droite un fond
+ou espèce d'entonnoir, entouré de très-hautes
+montagnes inaccessibles, pour s'enfourrer
+à gauche entre des rochers qui font
+fort resserrés, où coule un torrent. Ce lieu
+seroit horreur si on ne se trouvoit accoutumé,
+par degrés, à voir de ces positions effrayantes:
+tout y est aride, il n'y a plus
+d'arbres ni de végétaux ce sont des rochers
+entassés les un sur les autres; ce lieu paroit
+d'autant plus affreux que le passage a
+été subit, et qu'en sortant de bois et des
+forêts, on se trouve tout-à-coup parmi ces
+rochers qui s'élèvent comme des murailles,
+et dont on ne voit pas la cime; cette gorge
+ou cette entrée qui se nomme Jetz, est la
+communication du Canton du Glaris aux
+Gritons; on a dit précédemment qu'il y en
+avoit une plus aisée par le Gros-Thal ou
+le grand vallon. Ce passage est très-curieux
+pour la Lithogeognosie, il est rare
+de trouver autant de phénomènes intéressans
+rassemblés, et des substances aussi variées
+par rapport à leurs positions; c'est le
+local qui mérite le plus d'être examiné en
+Suisse, et la plus difficile que nous ayons
+parcouru. On se souviendra que nous
+avons continuellement monté depuis Glaris,
+et que nous nous trouvons au pied de
+ces montagnes ou de ces pics étonnans qui
+dominent les hautes Alpes; on trouve ici
+la facilité peu commune de pouvoir examiner,
+et voir le pied ou les fondemens
+de ces colosses qui couronnent le globe,
+parce qu'ils sont ordinairement entourés de
+leurs débris et de leurs éboulemens qui en
+cachent le pied. Ici c'est une roche de
+schiste bleuâtre, dure et compact, traversée
+de filons de quartz blanc, et quelquefois
+jaunâtre, dans laquelle on a taillé un sentier
+pour pouvoir en franchir le pied. Cette
+roche s'élève à une hauteur prodigieuse,
+est presque verticale, et ces couches sont à
+quatre-vingt degrés d'inclinaison. L'imagination
+est effrayée de voir que de pareilles
+masses ayent pu être ébranlées et déplacées
+au point d'avoir fait presque un quart de
+conversion. Après avoir monté et suivi
+cette roche parmi les pierres et les décombres,
+une heure et demie, on trouve
+cette roche de schiste surmontée d'autres
+rochers fort hauts qui sont calcaires, et dont
+les lits sont fort horizontaux. Les schistes,
+qui sont directement sous les roches calcaires,
+conservent la même inclinaison qu'elles
+ont à leur pied."</p>
+
+<p>Here is an observation which certainly
+agrees with that given by M. de Luc, and
+would seem to confirm this conclusion, that
+strata had been deposited upon those <i>schisti</i>
+after they had been changed from their natural
+or horizontal position, and become vertical;
+at the same time, this conclusion is not
+of necessary consequence, without examining
+concomitant appearances, and finding particular
+marks by which this operation might be
+traced; for the simply finding horizontal
+strata, placed above vertical or much inclined
+schiste, is not sufficient, of itself, to constitute
+that fact, while it is acknowledged that every
+species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion,
+is to be found among the displaced strata of
+the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Since writing this chapter, I am enabled to
+speak more decisively upon that point, having
+acquired more light upon the subject, as will
+appear in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VI.</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land
+illustrated by an Investigation of the Primary
+and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>A distinct View of the Primary and
+Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having given a view of what seems
+to be the primary and secondary strata,
+from the observations of authors, and having
+given what was my opinion when I first wrote
+that chapter, I am now to treat of this subject
+from observations of my own, which I
+made since forming that opinion.</p>
+
+<p>From Portpatrick, on the west coast, to St
+Abb's Head, on the east, there is a tract of
+schistus mountains, in which the strata are
+generally much inclined, or approaching to
+the vertical situation; and it is in these inclined
+strata that geologists allege that there
+is not to be found any vestige of organised
+body. This opinion, however, I have now
+proved to be erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>There cannot be any doubt with regard to
+the original formation of those stratified bodies,
+as having been formed of the materials
+that are natural to this earth, viz. the detritus
+of former bodies; and as having been deposited
+in water, like the horizontal strata: For
+the substances and bodies of which they are
+visibly composed are no other than those
+which form the most regular horizontal strata,
+and which are continually travelling, or transported
+at the bottom of the sea, such as gravel,
+and sand, argillaceous and micaceous bodies.</p>
+
+<p>On each side of this ridge of mountains,
+which towards the east end is but narrow,
+there is a lower country composed of strata
+in general more horizontal; and among which
+strata, besides coal, there are also found the
+relics of organised bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Abstracting at present from any consideration
+of organised bodies among the materials
+of those strata, it may be affirmed, that the
+materials which form the strata in the mountains
+and in the low country, are similar, or
+of the same nature; that they have, in both
+places, been consolidated by the same means,
+viz. heat and fusion; and that the same or
+similar accidents have happened to them, such
+as change from their original position, and
+mineral veins traversing them in various
+shapes. Yet still there is a distinctive character
+for those two bodies, the alpine and the
+horizontal strata; for, while the horizontal
+position appears natural to the one, and the
+changes from that particular state to be only
+an accident, the vertical position appears to be
+more natural to the other, which is seldom
+found horizontal.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, altho' it is unquestionable that
+the strata in the alpine and low countries had
+the same or a similar original, yet, as the
+vertical position, which is the greatest possible
+change in that respect, is more natural to the
+alpine strata, or only necessary in the natural
+order of those bodies, we are to consider this
+great disorder or change from the natural state
+of their original formation, as the proper character
+of those alpine strata. But then it is
+also necessary to include in this character a
+general hardness and solidity in those vertical
+strata, otherwise they would not have been
+properly alpine, or have resisted the wearing
+and washing powers of the globe, so as to
+have remained higher than the others; for, the
+vertical position, or great inclination of those
+strata, should rather have disposed them the
+more to dissolution and decay. Let us now
+see how far we shall be justified in that general
+conclusion, by the examination of those
+bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The fact is certain, that those alpine bodies
+are much harder, or less subject to dissolution
+and decay, than the horizontal strata. But
+this must be taken in the general, and will by
+no means apply to particular cases which
+might be compared. Nothing, for example,
+more solid than the lime-stones, or marbles,
+and iron-stones; nothing more hard or solid
+than the chirt or flint; and all these are found
+among the horizontal strata. But, while some
+strata among those horizontal beds are thus
+perfectly solid, others are found with so slight
+degrees of consolidation, that we should not
+be able to ascribe it to the proper cause, without
+that gradation of the effect, which leads
+us to impute the slightest degree of consolidation
+to the same operations that have produced
+the complete solidity. While, therefore, the
+most perfect solidity is found in certain strata,
+or occasionally among the horizontal bodies,
+this forms no part of their character in general,
+or cannot be considered as a distinctive
+mark, as it truly is with regard to the alpine
+strata. These last have a general character
+of consolidation and indissolubility, which
+is in a manner universal. We are, therefore,
+now to inquire into the cause of this distinction,
+and to form some hypothesis that may
+be tried by the actual state of things, in being
+compared with natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>As the general cause of consolidation among
+mineral bodies, formed originally of loose materials,
+has been found to consist in certain
+degrees of fusion or cementation of those materials
+by means of heat; and as, in the examination
+of the horizontal strata we actually
+find very different degrees of consolidation in
+the several strata, independent of their positions
+in relation to height or depth, we have
+reason to believe that the heat, or consolidating
+operation, has not been equally employed
+in relation to them all.</p>
+
+<p>We are not now inquiring how an inferior
+stratum should have been heated in a lesser
+degree, or not consolidated, while a superior
+stratum had been consolidated in the most
+perfect manner; we are to reason upon a
+fact, which is, that the horizontal strata in
+general appear not to have been equally or
+universally consolidated; and this we must
+attribute to an insufficient exertion of the
+consolidating cause. But, so far as the erecting
+cause is considered as the same with that
+by which the elevated bodies were consolidated,
+and so far as the vertical situation is a
+proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous
+power, the strata which are most erected,
+should in general be found most consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more certain than that there have
+been several repeated operations of the mineralising
+power exerted upon the strata in particular
+places; and all those mineral operations
+tend to consolidation: Therefore, the
+more the operations have been repeated in
+any place, the more we should find the strata
+consolidated, or changed from their natural
+state. Vertical strata have every appearance
+from whence we should be led to conclude,
+that much of the mineral power had been exerted
+upon them, in changing their original
+constitution or appearance. But the question
+now to be considered is this, How far it may
+appear that these masses of matter, which now
+seem to be so different from the ordinary strata
+of the globe, had been twice subjected to the
+mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
+and erected into the place of land,
+and afterwards sunk below the bottom of the
+sea, in order a second time to undergo the
+process of subterraneous heat, and again be
+elevated into the place where they now are
+found.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, here is a question that
+may not be easy to decide. It is not to the
+degree of any change to which bodies may be
+subject, that we are to appeal, in order to clear
+up the point in question, but to a regular
+course of operations, which must appear to
+have been successively transacted, and by
+which the different circumstances or situations
+of those masses are to be discovered in their
+present state. Now, though it does not concern
+the present theory that this question be
+decided, as it is nothing but a repetition of
+the same operations that we look for; nevertheless,
+it would be an interesting fact in the
+natural history of this earth; and it would
+add great lustre to a theory by which so great,
+so many operations were to be explained. I
+am far from being sanguine in my expectations
+of giving all the satisfaction in relation
+to this subject that I could wish; but it will
+be proper to state what I have lately learned
+with regard to so curious a question, that
+others, who shall have the opportunity, may
+be led to inquire, and that thus the natural
+history of the earth may be enlarged, by a
+proper investigation of its mineral operations.</p>
+
+<p>With this view I have often considered our
+schistus mountains, both in the north and
+south; but I never found any satisfactory appearance
+from whence conclusions could be
+formed, whether for the question or against it.
+The places I examined were those between
+the alpine countries and the horizontal strata;
+here, indeed, I have frequently found a confused
+mass, formed of the fragments of those
+alpine strata mixed with the materials of the
+horizontal bodies; but not having seen the
+proper shape and connection of those several
+deposits, I always suspended my judgment
+with regard to the particular operations which
+might have been employed in producing those
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>I had long looked for the immediate junction
+of the secondary or low country strata
+with the alpine schistus, without finding it;
+the first place in which I observed it was at
+the north end of the island of Arran, at the
+mouth of Loch Ranza; it was upon the shore,
+where the inclined strata appeared bare, being;
+washed by the sea. It was but a very small
+part that I could see; but what appeared was
+most distinct. Here the schistus and the sandstone
+strata both rise inclined at an angle of
+about 45°; but these primary and secondary
+strata were inclined in almost opposite directions;
+and thus they met together like the
+two sides of a <i>lambda</i>, or the rigging of a
+house, being a little in disorder at the angle
+of their junction. From this situation of
+those two different masses of strata, it is evidently
+impossible that either of them could
+have been formed originally in that position;
+therefore, I could not here learn in what state
+the schistus strata had been in when those of
+the sand-stone, &amp;c, had been superinduced.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of my mind, in relation
+to that subject:, when at Jedburgh upon a visit
+to a friend, after I had returned from Arran,
+and wrote the history of that journey; I there
+considered myself as among the horizontal
+strata which had first appeared after passing
+the Tweed, and before arriving at the Tiviot.
+The strata there, as in Berwickshire, which is
+their continuation to the east, are remarkably
+horizontal for Scotland; and they consist of
+alternated beds of sand-stone and marl, or argillaceous
+and micaceous strata. These horizontal
+strata are traversed in places with small
+veins of whin-stone, as well as greater masses
+forming rocks and hills of that material; but,
+except it be these, (of which there are some
+curious examples), I thought there could be
+nothing more of an interesting nature to observe.
+Chance, however, discovered to me
+what I could not have expected or foreseen.</p>
+
+<p>The river Tweed, below Melrose, discovers
+in its bed the vertical strata of the schistus
+mountains, and though here these indurated
+bodies are not veined with quartz as in
+many places of the mountains, I did not hesitate
+to consider them as the same species,
+that is to say, the marly materials indurated
+and consolidated in those operations by which
+they had been so much changed in their place
+and natural position. Afterwards in travelling
+south, and seeing the horizontal softer
+strata, I concluded that I had got out of the
+alpine country, and supposed that no more of
+the vertical strata were to be observed.</p>
+
+<p>The river Tiviot has made a wide valley as
+might have been expected, in running over
+those horizontal strata of marly or decaying
+substances; and the banks of this river declining
+gradually are covered with gravel and
+soil, and show little of the solid strata of the
+country. This, however, is not the case with
+the Jed, which is to the southward of the Tiviot;
+that river, in many places, runs upon
+the horizontal strata, and undermines steep
+banks, which falling shows high and beautiful
+sections of the regular horizontal strata. The
+little rivulets also which fall into the Jed have
+hollowed out deep gullies in the land, and
+show the uniformity of the horizontal strata.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner I was disposed to look for
+nothing more than what I had seen among
+those mineral bodies, when one day, walking
+in the beautiful valley above the town of Jedburgh,
+I was surprised with the appearance of
+vertical strata in the bed of the river, where I
+was certain that the banks were composed of
+horizontal strata. I was soon satisfied with
+regard to this phenomenon, and rejoiced at
+my good fortune in stumbling upon an object
+so interesting to the natural history of the
+earth, and which I had been long looking for
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Here the vertical strata, similar to those that
+are in the bed of the Tweed, appear; and
+above those vertical strata, are placed the horizontal
+beds, which extend along the whole
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The question which we would wish to have
+solved is this; if the vertical strata had been
+broken and erected under the superincumbent
+horizontal strata; or if, after the vertical strata
+had been broken and erected, the horizontal
+strata had been deposited upon the vertical
+strata, then forming the bottom of the sea.
+That strata, which are regular and horizontal
+in one place, should be found bended,
+broken, or disordered at another, is not uncommon;
+it is always found more or less in
+all our horizontal strata. Now, to what
+length this disordering operation might have
+been carried, among strata under others, without
+disturbing the order and continuity of
+those above, may perhaps be difficult to determine;
+but here, in this present case, is the
+greatest disturbance of the under strata, and
+a very great regularity among those above.
+Here at least is the most difficult case of this
+kind to conceive, if we are to suppose that the
+upper strata had been deposited before those
+below had been broken and erected.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now suppose that the under strata
+had been disordered at the bottom of the sea,
+before the superincumbent bodies were deposited;
+it is not to be well conceived, that
+the vertical strata should in that case appear to
+be cut off abruptly, and present their regular
+edges immediately under the uniformly deposited
+substances above. But, in the case
+now under consideration, there appears the
+most uniform section of the vertical strata,
+their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
+deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the
+vertical strata had been in at the time of this
+event, we can hardly suppose that they could
+have been so perfectly cut off, without any
+relict being left to trace that operation. It is
+much more probable to suppose, that the sea
+had washed away the relics of the broken and
+disordered strata, before those that are now
+superincumbent had been begun to be deposited.
+But we cannot suppose two such
+contrary operations in the same place, as that
+of carrying away the relics of those broken
+strata, and the depositing of sand and subtile
+earth in such a regular order. We are therefore
+led to conclude, that the bottom of the
+sea, or surface of those erected strata, had been
+in very different situations at those two periods,
+when the relics of the disordered strata
+had been carried away, and when the new
+materials had been deposited.</p>
+
+<p>If this shall be admitted as a just view of
+the subject, it will be fair to suppose, that the
+disordered strata had been raised more or less
+above the surface of the ocean; that, by the
+effects of either rivers, winds, or tides, the
+surface of the vertical strata had been washed
+bare; and that this surface had been afterwards
+sunk below the influence of those destructive
+operations, and thus placed in a situation
+proper for the opposite effect, the accumulation
+of matter prepared and put in motion
+by the destroying causes.</p>
+
+<p>I will not pretend to say that this has all
+the evidence that should be required, in order
+to constitute a physical truth, or principle from
+whence we were to reason farther in our
+theory; but, as a simple fact, there is more
+probability for the thing having happened in
+that manner than in any other; and perhaps
+this is all that may be attained, though not all
+that were to be wished on the occasion. Let
+us now see how far any confirmation may be
+obtained from the examination of all the
+attending circumstances in those operations.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned, that I had long
+observed great masses of <i>debris</i>, or an extremely
+coarse species of pudding-stone, situated on
+the south as well as north sides of those schistus
+mountains, where the alpine strata terminate
+in our view, and where I had been looking
+for the connection of those with the softer
+strata of the low country. It has surely been
+such appearances as these which have often
+led naturalists to see the formation of secondary
+and tertiary strata formed by the simple
+congestion of <i>debris</i> from the mountains, and
+to suppose those masses consolidated by the
+operation of that very element by which they
+had been torn off from one place and deposited
+in another. I never before had data from
+whence to reason with regard to the natural
+history of those masses of gravel and sand
+which always appeared to me in an irregular
+shape, and not attended with such circumstances
+as might give light into their natural
+history; but now I have found what I think
+sufficient to explain those obscure appearances,
+and which at the same time will in some respect
+illustrate or confirm the conjecture which
+has now been formed with regard to the operations
+of the globe in those regions.</p>
+
+<p>In describing the vertical and horizontal
+strata of the Jed, no mention has been made
+of a certain pudding-stone, which is interposed
+between the two, lying immediately upon
+the one and under the other. This puddingstone.
+corresponds entirely to that which I
+had found along the skirt of the schistus
+mountains upon the south side, in different
+places, almost from one end to the other. It
+is a confused mass of stones, gravel, and sand,
+with red marly earth; these are consolidated
+or cemented in a considerable degree, and thus
+form a stratum extremely unlike any thing
+which is to be found either above or below.</p>
+
+<p>When we examine the stones and gravel
+of which it is composed, these appear to have
+belonged to the vertical strata or schistus
+mountains. They are in general the hard
+and solid parts of those indurated strata, worn
+and rounded by attrition; particularly sand
+or marl-stone consolidated and veined with
+quartz, and many fragments of quartz, all
+rounded by attrition. In this pudding-stone
+of the Jed, I find also rounded lumps of porphyry,
+but have not perceived any of granite.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a>
+This however is not the case in the pudding-stone
+of the schistus mountains, for, where
+there is granite in the neighbourhood, there
+is also granite in the pudding-stone.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a>
+<b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag32"> (return) </a>
+A view of this object is seen in <a href="#p3">plate 3d.</a>
+It is from a drawing taken by Mr Clerk of Eldin.</blockquote>
+
+<p>From this it will appear, that the schistus
+mountains or the vertical strata of indurated
+bodies had been formed, and had been wasted
+and worn in the natural operations of the
+globe, before the horizontal strata were begun
+to be deposited in those places; the gravel
+formed of those indurated broken bodies worn
+round by attrition evince that fact. But it
+also appears that the mineral operations of the
+globe, melting and consolidating bodies, had
+been exerted upon those deposited strata above
+the vertical bodies.</p>
+
+<p>This appears evidently from the examination
+of our pudding-stone. The vertical strata
+under it are much broken and injected
+with ferruginous spar; and this same spar has
+greatly penetrated the pudding-stone above,
+in which are found the various mineral appearances
+of that spar and iron ore.</p>
+
+<p>But those injecting operations reach no farther
+up among the marl strata in this place;
+and then would appear to have been confined
+to the pudding-stone. But in another place,
+about half a mile farther up the river, where
+a very deep section of the strata is discovered,
+there are two injections from below; the one
+is a thin vein of whin-stone or basaltes, full of
+round particles of steatites impregnated with
+copper; it is but a few inches wide, and proceeds
+in a kind of zigzag. The other appears
+to have been calcareous spar, but the
+greatest part of it is now dissolved out. The
+strata here descend to the bottom of the river,
+which is above the place of the pudding-stone
+and vertical strata. Neither are these last discoverable
+below the town of Jedburgh, at
+least so far as I have seen; and the line of
+division, or plane of junction of the vertical
+and horizontal strata, appears to decline more
+than the bed of the river.</p>
+
+<p>But it may be asked, how the horizontal
+strata above, among which are many very
+strong beds, have been consolidated. The
+answer to this question is plain. Those strata
+have been indurated or consolidated in no
+other manner than the general strata of the
+earth; these being actually the common strata
+of the globe; while the vertical or schistus
+strata are the ordinary strata still farther manufactured,
+(if we may be allowed the expression)
+in the vicissitude of things, and by
+the mineral operations of the globe. That
+those operations have been performed by subterraneous
+heat has been already proved; but
+I would now mention some particular appearances
+which are common or general to those
+strata, and which can only be explained upon
+that principle.</p>
+
+<p>The red marly earth is prevalent among
+those strata; and it is with this red ferruginous
+substance that many of the sand-stone
+strata are tinged. It is plain that there had
+been an uniform, deposits of that sand and
+tinging earth; and that, however different
+matter might be successively deposited, yet
+that each individual stratum should be nearly of
+the same colour or appearance, so far as it had
+been formed uniformly of the same subsiding
+matter. But, in the most uniform strata of
+red sand-stone, the fracture of the stone presents
+us with circular spots of a white or bluish
+colour; those little spheres are in all respects
+the same with the rest of the stone,
+they only want the tinging matter; and now
+it may be inquired how this has come about.</p>
+
+<p>To say that sphericles of white sand should
+have been formed by subsiding along with the
+red sand and earth which composed the uniform
+stratum whether of sand-stone or marl,
+(for it happens equally in both,) is plainly
+impossible, according to our notion of that
+operation in which there is nothing mysterious.
+Those foliated strata, which are of the
+most uniform nature, must have been gradually
+accumulated from the subsiding sand and
+earth; and the white or colourless places must
+have had their colour destroyed in the subsequent
+cementing operations. It is often
+apparent, that the discharging operation had
+proceeded from a centre, as some small matter
+may be perceived in that place. I know not
+what species of substance this has been,
+whether saline or phlogistic, but it must have
+had the power of either volatilising or changing
+the ferruginous or red tinging substance
+so as to make it lose its colour.</p>
+
+<p>I have only mentioned spherical spots for
+distinctness sake; but this discharging operation
+is found diversifying those strata in various
+ways, but always referable to the same or
+similar causes. Thus, in many of the veins or
+natural cracks of those strata, we find the colour
+discharged for a certain space within the strata;
+and we often see several of those spots
+united, each of them having proceeded from
+its own centre, and uniting where they approached.
+In the two veins above mentioned,
+of whin-stone and spar traversing the strata,
+the colour of the strata is, discharged more or
+less in the places contiguous with the veins.</p>
+
+<p>I am now to mention another appearance
+of a different kind. Those strata of marl are
+in general not much consolidated; but among,
+them there are sometimes found thin calcareous
+strata extremely consolidated, consequently
+much divided by veins. It is in the solid
+parts of those strata, perfectly disconnected
+from the veins, that there are frequent cavities
+curiously lined with crystals of different sorts,
+generally calcareous, sometimes containing also
+those that are siliceous, and often accompanied
+with pyrites. I am persuaded that the
+origin of those cavities may have been some
+hollow shells, such as <i>echini</i> or some marine
+object; but that calcareous body has been so
+changed, that it is not now distinguishable;
+therefore, at present, I hold this opinion only
+as conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>Having, in my return to Edinburgh, travelled
+up the Tiviot, with a view to investigate
+this subject of primary and secondary
+operations of the earth, I found the vertical
+strata, or alpine schistus, in the bed of the
+river about two miles below Hawick. This
+was the third time I had seen those vertical
+bodies after leaving the mountains of Lauderdale.
+The first place was the bed of the river
+Tweed, at the new bridge below Melrose; but
+here no other covering is to be seen above
+those vertical strata besides the soil or travelled
+earth which conceals every thing except the
+rock in the bed of the river. The second
+place was Jedburgh, where I found the vertical
+strata covered with the horizontal sandstone
+and marl, as has been now described.
+The third place was the Tiviot, and this is
+that which now remains to be considered.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the vertical strata in the bed of the
+river, I was desirous to know if those were
+immediately covered with the horizontal strata.
+This could not be discovered in the bed
+of the river where the rock was covered upon
+the banks with travelled earth. I therefore
+left the river, and followed the course of a
+brook which comes from the south side. I
+had not gone far up the bank, or former boundary
+of the Tiviot, when I had the satisfaction
+to find the vertical strata covered with the
+pudding-stone and marly beds as in the valley
+of the Jed.</p>
+
+<p>It will now be reasonable to suppose that all
+the schistus which we perceive, whether in the
+mountains or in the valleys, exposed to our
+view had been once covered with those horizontal
+strata which are observed in Berwickshire
+and Tiviotdale; and that, below all those
+horizontal strata in the level country, there is
+at present a body or basis of vertical or inclined
+schistus, on which the horizontal strata of a
+secondary order had been deposited. This is
+the conclusion that I had formed at Jedburgh,
+before I had seen the confirmation of it in the
+Tiviot; it is the only one that can be formed
+according to this view of things; and it must
+remain in the present state until more evidence
+be found by which the probability may be
+either increased or diminished.</p>
+
+<p>Since writing this, I have read, in the Esprit
+de Journaux, an abstract of a memoir of
+M. Voigt, upon the same subject, which I
+shall now transcribe.</p>
+
+<p>"La mer a commencé par miner les
+montagnes primitives dont les débris se
+sont précipités au fond. Ces débris forment
+la premiere couche qui est posée immédiatement
+sur les montagnes primitives.
+D'après l'ancien langage de mineurs,
+nous avons jusqu'aujourd'hui appellé cette
+couche <i>le sol mort rouge</i>, parce qu'il y a
+beaucoup de rouge dans son mélange,
+qu'elle forme le sol ou la base d'autres
+couches, et peut-être de toutes, qu'elle est
+entierement inutile et, en quelque facon,
+morte pour l'exploitation des mines. Plusieurs
+se sont efforcés de lui donner un nom
+harmonieux; mais ils ne l'ont pu sans occasionner
+des équivoques. Les mots <i>Brèche
+Puddinstone Conglomérations</i>, &amp;<i>c</i>. désignent
+toujours des substances autres que cette
+espèce de pierre.</p>
+
+<p>"Il est très agréable de l'examiner dans les
+endroits où elle forme des montagnes entières.
+Cette couche est composée d'une
+quantité prodigieuse de pierres arrondies, agglutinées
+ensemble par une substance argileuse
+rouge et même grise, et le toute a acquis
+assez de dureté. On ne trouve dans sa composition
+aucune espèce de pierre qui, à en
+juger par les meilleures observations, puisse
+avoir été formée plus tard qu'elle; on n'y
+voit par-tout que des parties et des produit
+des montagnes primitives principalement de
+celles qui abondent le plus dans ces contrées.
+Le sol mort, par exemple, qui compose les
+montagnes des environs de Walbourg, près
+d'Eisenach, contient une quantité de gros
+morceaux de granit et de schiste micacé;
+c'est vraisemblablement parce que les montagnes
+primitives les plus voisines de Rhula,
+etc. sont, pour la plus part, formées
+de ces deux espèces de pierres. Près de
+Goldlauter, le sol mort consiste presque
+tout en porphyre, substance dont sont formées
+les montagnes primitives qui y dominent;
+et le Kiffauserberg dans la Thuringe
+a probablement reçu ces morceaux arrondis
+de schiste argileux des montagnes voisine
+du Hartz. Vous trouverez ici que le schiste
+argileux existoit déjà lorsque la mer a jetté
+les premiers fondemens de nos montagnes
+stratifiées. Je serois fort étonné que quelqu'un
+me montrât un sol mort qui contînt
+un morceaux de gypse, de marne, de pierre
+puante et autres. Quoiqu'il en soit il n'est
+pas aisé d'expliquer pourquoi on ne trouve
+point de corps marins pétrifiés dans cette
+espèce de pierre. C'est peut-être que, par
+l'immense quantité de pierres dures roulées
+dans le fond de la mer, ils ont été brisés
+avant qu'ils aient commencé de s'agglutiner
+ensemble. Mais on rencontre sur-tout au
+Kiffhauserberg des troncs d'arbres entiers
+pétrifiés; preuve qu'il y avoit déjà ou de
+la végétation avant que l'océan destructeur
+se fût emparé de ces cantons, ou du moins
+que quelques isles avoient existé au-dessus de
+la surface."</p>
+
+<p>Here we find the same observations in the
+mountains of Germany that I have been making
+with regard to those of Scotland. I have
+formerly observed masses of the same kind in
+the west of England, to the east of the Severn;
+but I could not discover any proper
+connection of that mass with the regular strata.
+I have also long observed it in many parts
+of Scotland, without being able to attain a sufficiently
+satisfactory idea with regard to those
+particulars by which the alternation of land
+and water, of the superficial and internal mineral
+operations of the globe, might be investigated.</p>
+
+<p>It will be very remarkable if similar appearances
+are always found upon the junction of
+the alpine with the level countries. Such an
+appearance, I am inclined to think, may be
+found in the Val d'Aoste, near Yvrée. M.
+de Saussure describes such a stone as having
+been employed in building the triumphal arch
+erected in honour of Augustus. "Cet arc
+qui étoit anciennement revêtu de marbre,
+est construit de grands quartiers d'une espèce
+assez singulière de poudingue ou de grès à
+gros grains. C'est une assemblage de fragmens,
+presque touts angulaires, de toutes
+sortes de roches primitives feuilletées, quartzeuses,
+micacées; les plus gros de ces fragmens
+n'atteignent pas le volume, d'une noisette.
+La plupart des édifices antiques de
+la cité l'Aoste et de ses environs, sont construits
+de cette matière; et les gens du pays
+sont persuadés que c'est une composition;
+mais j'en ai trouvé des rochers en place dans
+les montagnes au nord et au-dessus de la
+route d'Yvrée."</p>
+
+<p>We may now come to this general conclusion,
+that, in this example of horizontal and
+posterior strata placed upon the vertical <i>schisti</i>
+which are prior in relation to the former, we
+obtain a further view into the natural history
+of this earth, more than what appears in the
+simple succession of one stratum above another.
+We know, in general, that all the solid
+parts of this earth, which come to our view,
+have either been formed originally by subsidence
+at the bottom of the sea, or been transfused
+in a melted state from the mineral regions
+among those solid bodies; but here we
+further learn, that the indurated and erected
+strata, after being broken and washed by the
+moving waters, had again been sunk below
+the sea, and had served as a bottom or basis
+on which to form a new structure of strata;
+and also, that those new or posterior strata had
+been indurated or cemented by the consolidating
+operations of the mineral region, and elevated
+from the bottom of the sea into the place
+of land, or considerably above the general surface
+of the waters. It is thus that we may
+investigate particular operations in the general
+progress of nature, which has for object to
+renovate the surface of the earth necessarily
+wasted in the operation of a world sustaining
+plants and animals.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to compare together every
+thing of this kind which occurs; it is first necessary
+to ascertain the fact of their being a
+prior and posterior formation of strata, with
+the mineral operations for consolidating those
+bodies formed by collection of the moveable
+materials; and, secondly, it is interesting to
+acquire all the data we can in order to form
+a distinct judgment of that progress of nature
+in which the solid body of our land is alternately
+removed from the bottom of the sea
+into the atmosphere, and sunk again at the
+bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now transcribe what M. Schreiber
+has wrote in relation to this subject. It is in
+a memoir concerning the gold mine of Gardette,
+published in the Journal de Physique.</p>
+
+<p>"Avant de quitter la montagne de la Gardette
+qu'il me soit permis de rapporter une
+observation qui peut-être n'est pas dénuée
+de tout intérêt pour les naturalistes; je l'ai
+faite dans une galerie à environ cinquante-trois
+toises à l'ouest du principal puit laquelle
+a été poussée sur la ligne de réunion
+de la pierre calcaire, et du granit feuilleté
+ou gneiss pour fonder le filon dans cet
+endroit. Ce filon a six pouces d'épaisseur,
+et consiste en quartz entre-mêlé d'ochre
+martiale, de pyrite cuivreuse et galène.
+Cette dernière est souvent recouverte de
+chaux de plomb grise, et de petits cristaux
+de mine de plomb jaune donnant dans l'analyse
+un indice d'or. Ce filon finit à la
+réunion de la pierre calcaire au gneiss.
+Cette réunion se fait ici dans la direction
+d'une heure 6/8 de la boussole de raineur, et
+sous un inclinaison, occidentale de 26 degrés.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ce qu'il y a de remarquable, c'est
+que le gneis ne participe en rien de la
+pierre calcaire quoiqu'il n'en soit séparé
+que par une couche d'une pouce d'épaisseur
+de terre argileuse et calcaire, tandis
+que le rocher calcaire renferme beaucoup
+de fragmens de granit et de gneis, dans le
+voisinage de cette réunion.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette observation prouve incontestablement
+que le granit et le gneis avoient déjà
+acquis une dureté capable de résister aux
+infiltration des parties calcaire, et qu'ils existoient
+à-peu-près tels qu'ils sont aujourd'hui
+lorsque la pierre calcaire commença à
+se former; autrement elle n'auroit pu saisir
+et envelopper des morceaux détachés de
+ces rochers auxquels on donne avec raison
+l'épithète de primitif ou de première formation."</p>
+
+<p>M. Schreiber continues his reasoning upon
+those mineral appearances, in adducing another
+argument, which I do not think equally
+conclusive.  He says, "Le filon de la
+Gardette devoit pareillement exister avant
+la montagne calcaire, car s'il s'étoit formé
+apres, je ne voit pas la raison pour laquelle
+il s'y seroit arrêté court, et pourquoi il ne
+se seroit pas prolongé dans cette espèce de
+rocher." It is not necessary, in the formation
+of a vein, that it should proceed in traversing
+all the strata which then are superincumbent;
+it is reasonable to suppose, and consistent
+with observation to find them stop short
+in proceeding from one stratum to another.
+Had M. Schreiber found any pieces of the
+vein contained in the calcareous rock, he
+would have had good reason for that assertion;
+but, to conclude that fact from grounds
+which do not necessarily imply it, is not to
+be permitted in sound reasoning, if certainty
+is the object, and not mere probability.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>The Theory confirmed from Observations
+made on purpose to elucidate the subject</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having got a distinct view of the primary
+and secondary mineral bodies or strata of the
+globe, and having thus acquired a particular
+object to inquire after, with a view to investigate
+or illustrate this piece of natural history,
+I was considering where we might most probably
+succeed in finding the junction of the
+low country strata and alpine schistus. I inquired
+of Mr Hall of Whitehall, who had
+frequent opportunities of traversing those
+mountains which lie between his house in
+the Merse and Edinburgh; and I particularly
+entreated him to examine the bed of the
+Whittater, which he executed to my satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Hall having had occasion to examine
+the Pease and Tour burns, in planning and
+superintending the great improvement of the
+post road upon Sir James Hall's estate while
+Sir James was abroad, he informed me that
+the junction of the schistus and sand-stone
+strata was to be found in the Tour burn.
+Professor Playfair and I had been intending a
+visit to Sir James Hall at Dunglass; and this
+was a motive, not so much to hasten our visit,
+as to chose the most proper time for a mineral
+expedition both upon the hills and along the
+sea shore.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the spring 1788 when Sir
+James left town, and Mr Playfair and I went
+to Dunglass about the beginning of June.
+We had exceeding favourable weather during
+the most part of our expedition; and I now
+propose to give an account of the result of
+our observations.</p>
+
+<p>Dunglass burn is the boundary between the
+counties of East Lothian and Berwickshire;
+and it is almost the boundary between the
+vertical and horizontal strata. To the north-west
+of this burn and beautiful dean are situated
+the coal, lime-stone, marl, and sand-stone
+strata; they are found stretching away along
+the shore in a very horizontal direction for
+some time, but become more and more inclined
+as they approach the schistus of which
+the hills of Lammermuir to the south are
+composed.</p>
+
+<p>Though the boundary between the two
+things here in question be easily perceivable
+from the nature of the country at the first inspection,
+by the rising of the hills, yet this
+does not lead one precisely to the junction;
+and in the extensive common boundary of
+those two things, the junction itself is only to
+be perceived in few places, where the rock is
+washed bare by the rivers or the sea, and where
+this junction is exposed naked to our view.
+The sea is here wearing away the coast; and
+the bank, about 200 feet high, is gradually
+falling down, making in some places a steep
+declivity, in others a perpendicular cliff. St
+Abb's Head and Fast Castle are head lands
+projecting into the sea, and are the bulwarks
+of this shore, which is embayed to the westward,
+where the sea preys upon the horizontal
+strata. The solid strata are every where exposed
+either in the cliff or on the shore; we
+were therefore certain of meeting with the
+junction in going from Dunglass to Fast Castle,
+which is upon the schistus. But this journey
+can only be made by sea; and we first
+set out to examine the junction in the Tour
+and Pease burns, where we had been informed
+it was to be found.</p>
+
+<p>In the bottom of those rivulets the sand-stone
+and marly strata appear pretty much inclined,
+rising towards the schistus country. The
+two burns unite before they come to the shore;
+and it is about midway between this junction
+and the bridges which are thrown over those
+two hollows, that the junction is to be found.</p>
+
+<p>The schistus strata here approach towards
+vertical; and the sand-stone strata are greatly
+inclined. But this inclination of those two
+different strata are in opposite directions;
+neither does the horizontal section of those
+two different strata run parallel to the junction;
+that is to say, the intersection of those
+two different strata is a line inclined to the
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>At Jedburgh the schistus was vertical, and
+the strata horizontal; and there was interposed
+a compound bed of pudding-stone, formed
+of various water-worn bodies, the gravel
+of the schistus strata, and porphyries. Here
+again, though we have not a regular pudding-stone,
+we have that which corresponds to it,
+as having been the effect of similar circumstances.
+These are the fracture and detritus
+of the schistus, while the strata were deposited
+upon the broken ends of the schistus at the
+bottom of the sea. Most of the fragments of
+the schistus have their angles sharp; consequently,
+they had not travelled far, or been
+much worn by attrition. But more or less
+does not alter the nature of an operation; and
+the pudding-stone, which at Jedburgh is interposed
+between the vertical schistus and horizontal
+strata, is here properly represented by
+the included fragments of schistus in the inclined
+strata.</p>
+
+<p>The line of this junction running, on the
+one hand, towards Fast Castle eastward, and,
+on the other, towards the head of Dunglass
+burn westward, our business was to pursue
+this object in those two different directions.
+But it was chiefly in the sea coast that was
+placed our expectations, having recollection
+of the great banks of gravel under which the
+strata are buried about Oldhamstocks, near
+which, from all appearances, the junction was
+to be expected.</p>
+
+<p>Having taken boat at Dunglass burn, we set
+out to explore the coast; and, we observed the
+horizontal sand-stone turn up near the Pease
+burn, lifting towards the schistus. We found
+the junction of that schistus with the red sand-stone
+and marly strata on the shore and sea
+bank, at St. Helens, corresponding in general
+with what we had observed in the burns to
+the westward. But, at Siccar Point, we found
+a beautiful picture of this junction washed
+bare by the sea. The sand-stone strata are
+partly washed away, and partly remaining
+upon the ends of the vertical schistus; and, in
+many places, points of the schistus strata are
+seen standing up through among the sand-stone,
+the greatest part of which is worn
+away. Behind this again we have a natural
+section of those sand-stone strata, containing
+fragments of the schistus.</p>
+
+<p>After this nothing appears but the schistus
+rocks, until sand-stone and marl again are
+found at Red-heugh above the vertical strata.
+From that bay to Fast Castle we had nothing
+to observe but the schistus, which is continued
+without interruption to St Abb's Head. Beyond
+this, indeed, there appears to be something
+above the schistus; and great blocks of
+a red whin-stone or basaltes come down from
+the height and lie upon the shore; but we
+could not perceive distinctly how the upper
+mass is connected with the vertical schistus
+which is continued below.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention was now directed to what
+we could observe with respect to the schisti,
+of which we had most beautiful views and
+most perfect sections. Here are two objects
+to be held in view, in making those observations;
+the original formation or stratification
+of the schisti, and the posterior operations by
+which the present state of things has been
+procured. We had remarkable examples for
+the illustration of both those subjects.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the first, we have every
+where among the rocks many surfaces of the
+erected strata laid bare, in being separated.
+Here we found the most distinct marks of
+strata of sand modified by moving water. It
+is no other than that which we every day
+observe upon the sands of our own shore,
+when the sea has ebbed and left them in a
+waved figure, which cannot be mistaken.
+Such figures as these are extremely common
+in our sand-stone strata; but this is an object
+which I never had distinctly observed in the
+alpine schisti; although, considering that the
+original of those schisti was strata of sand, and
+formed in water, there was no reason to doubt
+of such a thing being found. But here the
+examples are so many and so distinct, that it
+could not fail to give us great satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>We were no less gratified in our views with
+respect to the other object, the mineral operations
+by which soft strata, regularly formed in
+horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea,
+had been hardened and displaced. Fig. 4.
+represents one of those examples; it was
+drawn by Sir James Hall from a perfect section
+in the perpendicular cliff at Lumesden
+burn. Here is not only a fine example of
+the bendings of the strata, but also of a horizontal
+shift or hitch of those erected strata.</p>
+
+<p>St Abb's Head is a promontory which, at
+a distance, one would naturally conclude to
+be composed of the schisti, as is all the shore
+to that place; but, as we approached it, there
+was some difference to be perceived in the
+external appearance, it having a more rounded
+and irregular aspect. Accordingly, upon our
+arrival, we found this head-land composed of
+a different substance. It is a great mass of
+red whin-stone, of a very irregular structure
+and composition. Some of it is full of small
+pebbles of calcareous spar, surrounded with a
+coat of a coloured substance, different both
+from the whin-stone ground and the inclosed
+pebble. Here ended our expedition by water.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found the junction of the
+sand-stone with the schistus or alpine strata to
+run in a line directed from Fast Castle to Oldhamstocks,
+or the heads of Dunglass burn, we
+set out to trace this burn, not only with a
+view to observe the junction, if it should there
+appear, but particularly to discover the source
+of many blocks of whin-stone, of all sizes,
+with which the bed of this burn abounds.</p>
+
+<p>The sand-stone and coal strata, which are
+nearly horizontal at the mouth of this burn,
+or on the coast, become inclined as we go up
+the course of the rivulet; and of this we have
+fine sections in the bank. The Dean of Dunglass
+is formed of precipitous and perpendicular
+rocks, through which the running water
+has worn its way more than a hundred feet
+deep; above this Dean the banks are steep
+and very high, but covered with soil, which
+here is a deep gravel. The burn runs all the
+way up to Oldhamstocks upon the sand-stone
+strata; but there, these are traversed by a high
+whin-stone dyke, which crosses the burn obliquely,
+as we found it on both banks though
+not in the bed of the burn; it is in the south
+bank below the village, and on the north
+above it. Here is the source of the whin-stone
+which we were looking for; it is the
+common blue basaltes, of the same nature
+with the Giant's Causeway, but with no regular
+columnar appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Above Oldhamstocks we again found the
+sand-stone in the bank, but it soon disappeared
+under a deep cover of gravel, and the burn
+then divided into several rivulets which come
+from the hills. We traced the one which led
+most directly up to the mountains, in expectation
+of meeting with the schistus, at least, if
+not the junction of it with the sandstone. But
+in this we were disappointed. We did not
+however lose our labour; for, though the
+junction which we pursued be not here visible,
+we met with what made it sufficiently evident,
+and was at the same time an object far
+more interesting in our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I have already quoted Mr Voigt's description
+of the <i>sol mort rouge</i>; he says, that in
+places it forms entire mountains; here we
+have a perfect example of the same thing;
+and the moment we saw it, we said, here is
+the <i>sol mort rouge</i>. We ascended to the top
+of the mountain through a gully of solid pudding-stone
+going into decay, and furnishing
+the country below with that great covering of
+gravel, soil, and water worn stones. We were
+now well acquainted with the pudding-stone,
+which is interposed between the horizontal
+and alpine strata; but from what we had seen
+to the eastward, we never should have dreamed
+of meeting with what we now perceived.
+What we had hitherto seen of this pudding-stone
+was but a few fragments of the schistus
+in the lower beds of sand-stone; here a mountain
+of water-worn schisti, imbedded in a red
+earth and consolidated, presented itself to our
+view. It was evident that the schisti mountains,
+from whence those fragments had come,
+had been prior to this secondary mass; but
+here is a secondary mountain equal in height
+to the primary, or schisti mountains, at the
+basis of which we had seen the strata superinduced
+on the shore. Still, however, every
+thing here is formed upon the same principle,
+and nothing here is altered except the scale on
+which the operation had been performed.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the coast, we have but a specimen of
+the pudding-stone; most of the fragments
+had their angles entire; and few of them are
+rounded by attrition. Here, on the contrary,
+the mountain is one pudding-stone; and
+most of the fragments are stones much rounded
+by attrition. But the difference is only in
+degree, and not in kind; the stones are the
+same, and the nature of the composition similar.
+Had we seen the mass of which this
+mountain is only a relict, (having been degraded
+by the hands of time), we should have
+found this pudding-stone at the bottom of our
+sand-stone strata; could we have penetrated
+below this mass of pudding-stone, we should
+have found our schistus which we left on the
+shore at St. Helens and in the Tour burn. In
+Tiviotdale the vertical schisti are covered with
+a bed of pudding-stone, the gravel of which
+had been much worn by attrition, but the
+thickness of that bed is small; here again the
+wearing operation has been great, and the
+quantity of those materials even more than in
+proportion to those operations. We returned
+perfectly satisfied; and Sir James Hall is to
+pursue this subject farther when he shall be in
+those mountains shooting muir game.</p>
+
+<p>We had now only one object more to pursue;
+this was to examine the south side of
+those mountains of Lammermuir upon the sea
+shore, in order to see the junction of the primary
+schistus with the coal strata of Berwickshire.
+Mr Hall was to meet us at the Press,
+and we were afterwards to go with him to
+Whitehall. We met accordingly; but the
+weather was rainy; and we went directly to
+Whitehall. I had often seen the pudding-stone
+in great masse; in the banks of the
+Whiteader, as it comes out of the mountains,
+but then I had not seen its connection neither,
+on the one hand, with the schisti, nor, on the
+other, with the sand-stone strata. We knew
+that at Lammerton upon the sea coast there
+was coal, and consequently the sand-stone
+strata; and reasoning upon those data we were
+sure that our proper course of investigation
+was to trace the river Ey to the shore, and
+then go south the coast in search of the junction
+of the schistus with the horizontal strata.
+This we executed as well as the weather
+would permit; but had it to regret, that the
+rainy season was not so favourable for our
+views, as it was agreeable to the country
+which had been suffering with the drought.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless now to enlarge upon this subject.
+I shall only mention that we found the
+red marly strata above the pudding-stone in
+the bed of the Ey and its branches; we then
+traced the schistus down the Ey, and found
+a mass of the most consolidated pudding-stone
+upon the coast to the north of the harbour of
+Eymouth. But this mass did not rest on the
+schistus; it is immediately upon a mass of
+whin-stone; and the schistus is in the harbour,
+so that this whin-stone mass seems to be
+here interposed between the pudding-stone
+and schistus. We then pursued the coast
+southwards until we found the junction of the
+schistus and sand-stone strata about two miles
+from Eymouth; but here the junction was
+not attended with any pudding-stone that we
+could perceive.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the same or similar appearances
+from the one end to the other, and on
+both sides of that range of mountains which
+run from sea to sea in the south of Scotland,
+we may now extend our view of this mineral
+operation in comprehending every thing of
+the same kind which we meet with in our
+island or any other distant country.</p>
+
+<p>Thus perhaps the pudding-stone of the
+south of England will be considered in the
+same light as having been formed of the <i>débris</i>
+and <i>détritus</i> of the flinty bodies.</p>
+
+<p>In the island of Arran, there is also a pudding-stone,
+even in some of the summits of
+the island, exactly upon the border of the
+schistus district, as will be described in the natural
+history of that island. This pudding-stone
+is composed of gravel formed of the
+hardest parts of the schistus and granite or
+porphyry mountains. That compound parasitical
+stone has been also again cemented by
+heat and fusion; I have a specimen in which
+there is a clear demonstration of that fact.
+One of the water-worn stones which had been
+rounded by attrition, has in this pudding-stone
+been broken and shifted, the one half slipping
+over the other, three quarters of an inch, besides
+other smaller slips in the same stone.
+But the two pieces are again cemented; or
+they had been shifted when the stone was in
+that soft state, by which the two pieces are
+made perfectly to cohere. Those shifts and
+veins, in this species of stone, are extremely
+instructive, illustrating the mineral operations
+of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner to the north of the Grampians,
+along the south side of Loch Ness,
+there are mountains formed of the debris of
+schistus and granite mountains, first manufactured
+into sand and gravel, and then consolidated
+into a pudding-stone, which is always
+formed upon the same principle. The same
+is also found upon the south side of those
+mountains in the shire of Angus.</p>
+
+<p>I may also give for example the African
+<i>Brechia</i>, which is a pudding-stone of the same
+nature. This stone is composed of granites
+or porphyries, serpentines and schisti, extremely
+indurated and perfectly consolidated.
+It is also demonstrable from the appearance
+in this stone that it has been in a softened
+state, from the shape and application of its
+constituent parts; and in a specimen of it
+which I have in my cabinet, there is also a
+demonstration of calcareous spar flowing
+among the gravel of the consolidated rock.</p>
+
+<p>This fact therefore of pudding-stone mountains,
+is a general fact, so far as it is founded
+upon observations that are made in Africa,
+Germany, and Britain. We may now reason
+upon this general fact, in order to see
+how far it countenances the idea of primitive
+mountains, on the one hand, or on the other
+supports the present theory, which admits of
+nothing primitive in the visible or examinable
+parts of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To a person who examines accurately the
+composition of our mountains, which occupy
+the south of Scotland, no argument needs be
+used to persuade him that the bodies in
+question are not primitive; the thing is evident
+from inspection, as much as would be
+the ruins of an ancient city, although there
+were no record of its history. The visible
+materials, which compose for the most part the
+strata of our south alpine schisti, are so distinctly
+the <i>debris</i> and <i>detritus</i> of a former
+earth, and so similar in their nature with those
+which for the most part compose the strata on
+all hands acknowledged as secondary, that
+there can remain no question upon that head.
+The consolidation, again, of those strata, and
+the erection of them from their original position,
+and from the place in which they had
+been formed, is another question.</p>
+
+<p>But the acknowledging strata, which had
+been formed in the sea of loose materials, to
+be consolidated and raised into the place of
+land, is plainly giving up the idea of primitive
+mountains. The only question, therefore,
+which remains to be solved, must respect the
+order of things, in comparing the alpine schisti
+with the secondary strata; and this indeed
+forms a curious subject of investigation.</p>
+
+<p>It is plain that the schisti had been indurated,
+elevated, broken, and worn by attrition in
+water, before the secondary strata, which form
+the most fertile parts of our earth, had existed.
+It is also certain that the tops of our schistus
+mountains had been in the bottom of the sea
+at the time when our secondary strata had begun
+to be formed; for the pudding-stone on
+the top of our Lammermuir mountains, as
+well as the secondary strata upon the vertical
+schisti of the Alps and German mountains,
+affords the most irrefragable evidence of that
+fact.</p>
+
+<p>It is further to be affirmed, that this whole
+mass of water-formed materials, as well as the
+basis on which it rested, had been subjected
+to the mineral operations of the globe, operations
+by which the loose and incoherent materials
+are consolidated, and that which was
+the bottom of the sea made to occupy the station
+of land, and serve the purpose for which
+it is destined in the world. This also will appear
+evident, when it is considered that it has
+been from the appearances in this very land,
+independent of those of the alpine schisti, that
+the present theory has been established.</p>
+
+<p>By thus admitting a primary and secondary
+in the formation of our land, the present
+theory will be confirmed in all its parts.
+For, nothing but those vicissitudes, in which
+the old is worn and destroyed, and new land
+formed to supply its place, can explain that order
+which is to be perceived in all the works
+of nature; or give us any satisfactory idea
+with regard to that apparent disorder and
+confusion, which would disgrace an agent
+possessed of wisdom and working with design.</p>
+
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VII.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction,
+or Mineral Concretion.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The ideas of naturalists with regard to
+petrifaction are so vague and indistinct,
+that no proper answer can be given to them.
+They in general suppose water to be the solvent
+of bodies, and the vehicle of petrifying
+substances; but they neither say whether water
+be an universal menstruum, nor do they
+show in what manner a solid body has been
+formed in the bowels of the earth, from
+that solution. It may now be proper to examine
+this subject, not with a view to explain
+all those petrifactions of bodies which is performed
+in the mineral regions of the earth,
+those regions that are inaccessible to man, but
+to show that what has been wrote by naturalists,
+upon this subject, has only a tendency
+to corrupt science, by admitting the grossest
+supposition in place of just principle or truth,
+and to darken natural history by introducing
+an ill conceived theory in place of matter of fact.</p>
+
+<p>M. le Comte de Buffon has attempted to
+explain the crystallization of bodies, or production
+of mineral forms, by the accretion or
+juxtaposition of elementary bodies, which
+have only form in two dimensions, length and
+breadth; that is to say, that mineral concretions
+are composed of surfaces alone, and not
+of bodies. This however is only an attempt
+to explain, what we do not understand, by a
+proposition which is either evidently contradictory,
+or plainly inconceivable. It is true
+that this eloquent and ingenious author endeavours
+to correct the palpable absurdity of
+the proposition, by representing the constituent
+parts of the mineral bodies as "<i>de lames
+infiniment minces</i>;" but who is it does not
+see, that these infinitely thin plates are no
+other than bodies of three dimensions, contrary
+to the supposition; for, infinitely thin,
+means a certain thickness; but the smallest
+possible or assignable thickness differs as much
+from a perfect superficies as the greatest.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc has given us his ideas of petrifaction
+with sufficient precision of term and
+clearness of expression; his opinion, therefore,
+deserves to be examined; and, as his
+theory of petrifaction is equally applicable to
+every species of substance, it is necessary again
+to examine this subject, notwithstanding of
+what has been already said, in the first part of
+this work, concerning consolidation and mineral
+concretion from the fluid state of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>This author has perhaps properly exposed
+Woodward's Theory of Petrification in saying<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a>,
+"Son erreur à cet égard vient de ce
+qu'il n'a point réfléchi sur la manière dont
+se fait la <i>pétrifaction</i>. Il ramollit d'abord
+les <i>pierres</i> pour y faire entrer les coquilles,
+sans bien connoître l'agent qu'il y employe;
+et il les duroit ensuite, sans réfléchir au
+comment." To avoid this error or defect,
+M. de Luc, in his Theory of Petrifaction, sets
+out with the acknowledged principle of cohesion;
+and, in order to consolidate strata of
+a porous texture, he supposes water carrying
+minute bodies of all shapes and sizes, and depositing
+them in such close contact as to produce
+solidity and concretion. Now, if Dr
+Woodward softened stones without a proper
+cause, M. de Luc, in employing the specious
+principle of cohesion, has consolidated them
+upon no better grounds; for, the application
+of this principle is as foreign to his purpose,
+as is that of magnetism. Bodies, it is true,
+cohere when their surfaces are closely applied
+to each other; But how apply this principle
+to consolidation?&mdash;only by supposing all the
+separate bodies, of which the solid is to be
+composed, to be in perfect contact in all their
+surfaces. But this, in other words, is supposing
+the body to be solid; and, to suppose the
+agent, water, capable of thus making hard
+bodies solid, is no other than having recourse
+to the fortuitous concourse of atoms to make
+a world; a thought which this author would
+surely hold in great contempt.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag33"> (return) </a> Lettres Physiques et Morales.</blockquote>
+
+<p>He then illustrates this operation of nature
+by those of art, in building walls which certainly
+become hard, and which, as our author
+seems to think, become solid. But this is only
+an imperfect or erroneous representation of
+this subject; for, mortar does not become
+hard upon the principle of petrification adopted
+by our author. Mortar, made of clay, instead
+of lime, will not acquire a stony hardness,
+nor ever, by means of water, will it be
+more indurated than by simply drying; neither
+will the most subtile powder of chalk, with
+water and sand, form any solid body, or a
+proper mortar. The induration of mortar
+arises from the solution of a stony substance,
+and the subsequent concretion of that dissolved
+matter, operations purely chemical. Now,
+if this philosopher, in his Theory of Petrifaction,
+means only to explain a chemical operation
+upon mechanical principles, why have
+recourse, for an example in this subject, to
+mineral bodies, the origin of which is questioned?
+Why does he not rather explain,
+upon this principle, the known concretion of
+some body, from a fluid state, or, conversely,
+the known solution of some concreted body?
+If again he means to explain petrifaction in
+the usual way, by a chemical operation, in that
+case, the application of his polished surfaces, so
+as to cohere, cannot take place until the dissolved
+body be separated from the fluid, by means
+of which it is transported from place to place
+in the mineral regions. But it is in this preliminary
+step that lies all the difficulty; for,
+could we see how every different substance
+might be dissolved, and every dissolved substance
+separated from its solvent at our pleasure,
+we should find no difficulty in admitting
+the cohesion of hard bodies, whether by
+means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or
+by the principle of general attraction, a principle
+which surely comprehends this particular,
+termed a cohesive power.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged, that seeing we
+know not how water dissolves saline bodies,
+therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we
+know, may also dissolve crystal; and, if water
+thus dissolves a mineral substance in a manner
+unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit
+it, although we may not be able to imagine
+how. This kind of reasoning is only
+calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the
+same time, the reasoning of philosophers, concerning
+petrifaction, does not in general appear
+to be founded on any principle that is
+more sound. That water dissolves salt is
+a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not
+a fact; therefore, those two propositions,
+with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
+removed, and cannot be assimilated in
+sound physical reasoning. It is no more a
+truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than
+that we never have been able to detect the
+smallest disposition in water to dissolve crystal,
+flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege
+the possibility of water being capable of dissolving
+those bodies in the mineral regions,
+and of thus changing the substance of one
+body into another, as naturalists have supposed,
+contrary to their knowledge, or in order
+to explain appearances, is so far from tending
+to increase our science, that it is abandoning
+the human intellect to be bewildered in an
+error; it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep
+the scientific conscience, and making the soul
+of man insensible to the natural distress of
+conscious ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>But besides that negative argument concerning
+the insolubility of crystal, by which
+the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
+be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly
+concreted in the cavities of the most solid
+rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
+in the midst of granite mountains. But these
+masses of granite were formed by fusion; I
+hope that I shall give the most satisfactory
+proof of that truth: Consequently, here at
+least there is no occasion for the action of water
+in dissolving siliceous substances in one
+place, in order to concrete and crystallise it in
+another.</p>
+
+<p>In these cavities of the solid granite rock,
+where crystal is found regularly shooting from
+a basis which is the internal surface of the cavity,
+we find the other constituent substances
+of the granite also crystallised. I have those
+small cavities, in this rock, from the island of
+Arran, containing crystal, felt-spar, and mica,
+all crystallised in the same cavity<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a>. But this
+is nothing to the <i>druzen</i> or crystalline concretions,
+which are found in a similar manner
+among metallic and mineral substances in the
+veins and mines; there, every species of mineral
+and metallic substance, with every variety
+of mixture and composition, are found
+both concreted and crystallised together in
+every imaginable shape and situation.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href="#footnotetag34"> (return) </a> The Chevalier Dolomieu makes the following observation.
+Journal de Physique, Juillet 1791.
+
+<p>"J'ai été étonné de trouver au centre d'un énorme
+massif de granit, que l'on avoit ouvert avec la poudre
+pour pratiquer un chemin, des morceaux, gros comme
+le poing et au dessous, de spath calcaire blanc, très-effervescent,
+en grandes écailles, ou lames entrecroisées.
+Il n'occupoit point des cavités particulières, il n'y paroissoit
+le produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des
+cavités, mais il étoit incorporé avec les feld-spath, le
+mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse avec eux, et ne pouvoit
+se rompre sans les entraîner avec lui."</p>
+
+<p>This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not
+been here introduced by infiltration, although that is the
+very method which he employs to form concretions, not
+only of spar but of crystal, zeolite, and pyrites, in the
+closest cavities of the most solid rocks of basaltes. These
+four substances in this stone were so mixed together that
+nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain
+the state in which they appeared; but, thinking that such
+a supposition could not be allowed, this naturalist, like a
+man of science when his data fail, leaves the matter without
+any interpretation of his own. This however is what
+he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he
+mistakes for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Here is an infinite operation, but an operation
+which is easily performed by the natural
+arrangement of substances acting freely in a
+fluid state, and concreting together, each substance,
+whether more simple or more compound,
+directing itself by its internal principle
+of attraction, and affecting mechanically those
+that are concreting around it.</p>
+
+<p>We see the very same thing happen under
+our eye, and precisely in the same manner.
+When a fluid mass of any mineral or metallic
+substance is made to congeal by sudden cooling
+on the outside, while the mass within is
+fluid, a cavity is thus sometimes formed by
+the contraction of the contained fluid; and in
+this cavity are found artificial <i>druzen</i>, as they
+may be called, being crystallizations similar to
+those which the mineral cavities exhibit in
+such beauty and perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Petrification and consolidation, in some degree,
+may doubtless be performed, in certain
+circumstances, by means of the solution of
+calcareous earth; but the examples given by
+M. de Luc, of those bodies of lime-stone and
+agate petrified in the middle of strata of loose
+or sandy materials, are certainly inexplicable
+upon any other principle except the fusion of
+those substances with which the bodies are
+petrified<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href="#footnotetag35"> (return) </a> Vid. Lettre 28 et Lettre 103. Lettres Physiques
+et Morales.</blockquote>
+
+<p>This subject deserves the strictest attention;
+I propose it as a touchstone for every theory
+of petrification or perfect consolidation. First,
+There are found, among argillaceous strata,
+insulated bodies of iron-stone, perfectly consolidated;
+secondly, There are found, in strata
+of chalk and lime-stone, masses of insulated
+flints; thirdly, There are found, in strata of
+sea sand, masses of that sand cemented by a
+siliceous substance; fourthly, In the midst of
+blocks of sand-stone, there are found masses
+of loose or pure sand inclosed in crystallised
+cavities; and in this sand are found insulated
+masses of crystallised spar, including within
+them the sand, but without having the sparry
+or calcareous crystallization disturbed by it.
+There are also other globular masses of the
+same kind, where the sparry crystallization
+is either not to be observed, or appears only
+partially<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a>: And now, lastly, In strata of shell-sand,
+there are found masses of consolidated
+lime-stone or marble. In all those cases, the
+consolidated bodies are perfectly insulated in
+the middle of strata, in which they must of
+necessity have been petrified or consolidated;
+the stratum around the bodies has not been
+affected by the petrifying substance, as there
+is not any vestige of it there; and here are
+examples of different substances, all conspiring
+to prove one uniform truth. Therefore, a
+general theory of petrification or consolidation
+of mineral bodies must explain this distinct
+fact, and not suffer it any longer to remain a
+<i>lusus naturae</i>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href="#footnotetag36"> (return) </a> Mem. de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, an. 1775.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what it is that we
+have to explain, upon the supposition of those
+concretions being formed from a solution.
+We have, first, To understand what sort of a
+solution had been employed for the introducing
+of those various substances; secondly,
+How those concretions had been formed from
+such solutions within those bodies of strata;
+and, lastly, How such concretions could
+have been formed, without any vestige appearing
+of the same substance, or of the same
+operation, in the surrounding part of the stratum.
+Whatever may be the difficulty of explaining
+those particular appearances by means
+of fusion and mechanical force, it is plainly
+impossible to conceive those bodies formed in
+those places by infiltration, or any manner of
+concretion from a state of solution.</p>
+
+<p>Naturalists, in explaining the formation of
+stones, often use a chemical language which
+either has no proper meaning, or which will
+not apply to the subject of mineral operations.
+We know the chemical process by which one
+or two stony concretions may be formed
+among bodies passing from one state to another.
+When, therefore, a change from a
+former state of things in mineral bodies is
+judged by naturalists to have happened, the
+present state is commonly explained, or the
+change is supposed to have been made by
+means of a similar process, without inquiring
+if this had truly been the case or not. Thus
+their knowledge of chemistry has led naturalists
+to reason erroneously, in explaining
+things upon false principles. It would be needless
+to give an example of any one particular
+author in this respect; for, so far as I have
+seen, it appears to be almost general, every one
+copying the language of another, and no one
+understanding that language which has been
+employed.</p>
+
+<p>These naturalists suppose every thing done
+by means of solution in the mineral kingdom,
+and yet they are ignorant of those solvents.
+They conceive or they imagine concretions
+and crystallizations to be formed of every different
+substance, and in every place within
+the solid body of the earth, without considering
+how far the thing is possible which they
+suppose. They are constantly talking of
+operations which could only take place in the
+cavities of the earth above the level of the sea,
+and where the influence of the atmosphere
+were felt; and yet this is the very place which
+we have it in our power to examine, and
+where, besides the stalactite, and one or two
+more of the same kind, or formed on the same
+principle, they have never been able to discover
+one of the many which, according to their
+theory, ought always to be in action or effect.
+So far from knowing that general consolidating
+operation, which they suppose to be exerted
+in filling up the veins and cavities of the
+earth by means of the infiltrating water of the
+surface, they do not seem fully to understand
+the only operation of this kind which they
+see. The concretion of calcareous matter
+upon the surface of the earth is perhaps the
+only example upon which their theory is
+founded; and yet nothing can be more against
+it than the general history of this transaction.</p>
+
+<p>Calcareous matter, the great <i>vinculum</i> of
+many mineral bodies, is in a perpetual state
+of dissolution and decay, in every place where
+the influences of air and water may pervade.
+The general tendency of this is to dissolve
+calcareous matter out of the earth, and deliver
+that solution into the sea. Were it possible to
+deny that truth, the very formation of stalactite,
+that operation which has bewildered naturalists,
+would prove it; for it is upon the
+general solubility of calcareous matter exposed
+to water that those cavities are formed, in
+which may be found such collections of stalactical
+concretion; and the general tendency
+of those operations is to waste the calcareous
+bodies through which water percolates. But
+how is the general petrifaction or consolidation
+of strata, below the surface of the sea, to
+be explained by the general dissolution of that
+consolidating substance in the earth above that
+level? Instead of finding a general petrifying
+or consolidating operation in the part of the
+earth which we are able to examine, we find
+the contrary operation, so far at least as relates
+to calcareous spar, and many other mineral
+bodies which are decomposed and dissolved
+upon the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in the surface of the earth, above the
+level of the sea, no petrifying operation of a
+durable nature is found; and, were such an
+operation there found, it could not be general,
+as affecting every kind of substance. But,
+even suppose that such a general operation
+were found to take place in the earth above
+the level of the sea, where there might be a
+circulation of air and percolation of water,
+How could the strata of the earth below the
+level of the sea be petrified? This is a question
+that does not seem to have entered into
+the heads of our naturalists who attempt to
+explain petrifaction or mineral concretion
+from aqueous solutions. But the consolidation
+of loose and incoherent things, gathered
+together at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards
+raised into rocks of various sorts, forms
+by far the greatest example of petrification or
+mineral operation of this globe. It is this
+that must be explained in a mineral theory;
+and it is this great process of petrifaction to
+which the doctrine of infiltration, whether for
+the mechanical purpose of applying cohesive
+surfaces, or the chemical one of forming crystallizations
+and concretions, will not by any
+means apply.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing shows more how little true science
+has been employed for the explanation of phenomena,
+than the language of modern naturalists,
+who attribute, to stalactical and stalagmical
+operations, every superficial or distant resemblance
+to those calcareous bodies, the origin
+of which we know so well. It is not a mere
+resemblance that should homologate different
+things; there should be a specific character in
+every thing that is to be generalised. It will
+be our business to show that, in the false
+stalactites, there is not the distinctive character
+of those water formed bodies to be found.</p>
+
+<p>In the formation of stalactical concretions,
+besides the incrustation as well as crystallization
+of the stony substance from the aqueous
+vehicle by which it had been carried in the
+dissolved state, we have the other necessary
+accompanyments of the operation, or collateral
+circumstances of the case. Such, for example,
+is that tubular construction of the stalactite,
+first formed by the concretion of the
+calcareous substance upon the outside of the
+pendant gut of water exposed to the evaporation
+of the atmosphere; we then see the gradual
+filling up of that pervious tube through
+which the petrifying water had passed for a
+certain time; and, lastly, we see the continual
+accretion which this conducting body had received
+from the water running successively
+over every part of it. But among the infinite
+number of siliceous concretions and crystallizations,
+as well as those of an almost indefinite
+variety of other substances, all of which are
+attributed to solution, there is not the least
+vestige of any collateral operation, by which
+the nature of that concretion might be ascertained
+in the same manner. In all those cases,
+we see nothing but the concreted substances
+or their crystallizations; but, no mark of any
+solvent or incrusting process is to be perceived.
+On the contrary, almost all, or the greatest part
+of them, are so situated, and attended with
+such circumstances, as demonstrate the physical
+impossibility of that being the manner in
+which they had been concreted; for, they are
+situated within close cavities, through which
+nothing can pervade but heat, electricity, magnetism,
+etc.; and they fill those cavities more
+or less, from the thinnest incrustation of crystals
+to the full content of those cavities with
+various substances, all regularly concreted or
+crystallised according to an order which cannot
+apply to the concretion of any manner of
+solution.</p>
+
+<p>That there is, in the mineral system, an
+operation of water which may with great
+propriety be termed <i>infiltration</i>, I make no
+doubt. But this operation of water, that may
+be employed in consolidating the strata in the
+mineral regions, is essentially different from
+that which is inconsiderately employed or supposed
+by mineralists when they talk of infiltration;
+these two operations have nothing in
+common except employing the water of the
+surface of the earth to percolate a porous body.
+Now, the percolation of water may increase
+the porousness of that body which it
+pervades, but never can thus change it from a
+porous to a perfect solid body. But even the
+percolation of water through the strata deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, necessarily required,
+according to the supposition of naturalists,
+must be refused; for, the interstices of
+those strata are, from the supposition of the
+case, already filled with water; consequently,
+without first removing that stagnant water, it
+is in vain to propose the infiltration of any
+fluid from the surface.</p>
+
+<p>This is a difficulty which does not occur in
+our theory, where the strata, deposited at the
+bottom of the sea, are to be afterwards heated
+by the internal fires of the earth. The natural
+consequence of those heating operations
+may be considered as the converting of the
+water contained in the strata into steam, and
+the expulsion of steam or vapour, by raising
+it up against the power of gravity, to be delivered
+upon the surface of the earth and again
+condensed to the state of water.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now conceive the strata, which had
+been deposited at the bottom of the sea, as exhausted
+of their water, and as communicating
+with the surface of the earth impregnated with
+water. Here again we have the power of gravity
+to operate in carrying down water to that
+place which had been before exhausted by the
+power of heat; and in this manner, by alternately
+employing those two great physical
+agents, we cannot doubt that nature may convey
+soluble substances from above, and deposit
+them below for the purpose of consolidating
+porous bodies, or of filling with saline and
+earthy matter those interstices which had been
+originally filled with water, when the strata
+were deposited at the bottom of the sea. How
+far any marks of this operation may be perceived,
+by carefully examining our mines and
+minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
+the contrary, whenever those examined objects
+were clear and distinct, with the concomitant
+circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
+always found the most certain marks of the
+solid bodies having concreted from the fluid
+state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude
+the case of infiltration having been previously
+employed; and I would intreat mineralists,
+who have the opportunity of examining
+the solid parts of the earth, to attend particularly
+to this distinction. But do not let
+them suppose that infiltration can be made to
+fill either the pores or veins of strata without
+the operation of mineral heat, or some such
+process by which the aqueous vehicle may be
+discharged.</p>
+
+<p>Not only are mineral philosophers so inconsiderate,
+in forming geological theories upon
+a mere supposition or false analogy, they
+have even proceeded, upon that erroneous
+theory, to form a geological supposition for
+explaining the appearances of strata and other
+stony masses in employing a particular physical
+operation, which is, that of <i>crystallization</i><a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a>.
+Now crystallization may be considered as a
+species of elective concretion, by which every
+particular substance, in passing from a fluid to
+a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar external
+shape and internal arrangement of its
+parts, by which it is often distinguished. But,
+to suppose the solid mineral structure of the
+earth explained, like an enigma, by the word
+<i>crystallization</i>, is to misunderstand the science
+by which we would explain the subject of research;
+and, to form a general mineral theory
+thus upon that term, is an attempt to generalise
+without a reason. For, when it were even
+admitted that every solid body is crystallised,
+we thus know no more of the geology of this
+earth, or understand as little of the general
+theory of mineral concretion, as we did before;&mdash;we
+cannot, from that, say whether it
+be by the operation of solution or of fusion
+which had produced the perceived effect.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href="#footnotetag37"> (return) </a> Journal de Physique; Avril 1753.</blockquote>
+
+<p>M. de Carosi has wrote a treatise upon certain
+petrifactions<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a>. In the doctrine of this
+treatise there is something new or extraordinary.
+It will therefore be proper to make
+some observations on it.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a><b>Footnote 38:</b><a href="#footnotetag38"> (return) </a> Sur la Generation du Silex et du Quartz en partie.
+Observations faites en Pologne 1783, à Cracovie.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The object of this treatise is to describe the
+generation of silex and quartz, with their modifications
+or compositions, formed within mineral
+bodies of a different substance. The natural
+history contained in this little treatise is
+well described and sufficiently interesting. But
+It is chiefly in order to examine the means
+which, according to the theory of this treatise,
+are employed in petrifying bodies, that I consider
+it in this place.</p>
+
+<p>The first section of this treatise has for title,
+<i>Generation du Caillou et du Quartz de la terre
+calcaire pure</i>. It may be worth while to compare
+the natural history of this part of the
+earth with the flint and chert found in our
+chalk and lime-stone countries. I shall therefore
+transcribe what is worth observing upon
+that subject (p. 5.).</p>
+
+<p>"Nous rencontrons chez nous dans les
+parties le plus montagneuses, et les moins
+couvertes de terreau, ou tout-au plus de
+sable, entre de purs rochers calcaires une
+quantité incroyable de cailloux (silex) tant
+en boules, que veines, couches, et débris.
+Au premier coup d'oeil l'on s'imagine que
+ce font des débris de montagnes éloignées,
+qui y furent amenés par les eaux, mais, en
+examinant la chose de plus pres, on est
+convaincu, que ce sont tout au contraire,
+des parties détachées des montagnes de la
+contrée. Car il y a sur presque toute l'étendue
+de nos montagnes calcaires une
+couche, ou pour mieux dire, un banc composé
+de plusieurs couches de base calcaire,
+mais qui ou sont parsemées irrégulièrement
+de boules, de rognons, de veines, et de petits
+filons de silex, ou qui contiennent cette
+pierre en filon, veines, et couches parallèles,
+et régulièrement disposées. Les boules et
+rognons de silex y font depuis moins de la
+grandeur d'une petite noisette, jusqu'au
+diamètre de plus de six pouces de nôtre
+mesure. La plupart de ces boules tant
+qu'elles sont dans l'intérieur caché de la
+roche vive, et qu'elles n'ont rien souffert de
+l'impression de l'air, ont, pour l'ordinaire,
+une croûte de spath calcaire, au moyen de
+la quelle elles sont accrues à la roche mere;
+ou pour mieux dire la croûte spatheuse fait
+l'intermède entre le silex, et la roche calcaire,
+par où se fait le passage de l'une à
+l'autre. Mais ceci ne vaut que de boules
+de silex entièrement formées. C'est dont
+on peut même se convaincre à la vue, par
+beaucoup de pierres dont le pavé de la ville
+de Cracovie est composé. Mais là, ou le
+silex n'est pas encore entièrement achevé,
+la croûte spatheuse manque, en revanche on
+y voit évidemment le passage par degrés
+successifs de la roche calcaire au silex qui y
+est contenu, et les nuances de ce passage
+sont souvent si peu marquées que même les
+acides minéraux ne suffisent pas à les
+déterminer, ce n'est que le briquet, qui
+nous aide à les découvrir. On voit bien
+ou la pierre calcaire s'enfonce en couleur,
+l'on s'apperçoit, où sa dureté, ses cassures
+changent, mais, comme elle y souffre encore
+quelque impression des acides, l'on ne sauroit
+déterminer au juste le point, ou elle a
+déjà plus de la nature du silex, que de celle
+de la chaux, qu'en la frappant du briquet.</p>
+
+<p>"Tels sont les cailloux en boules et rognons
+avant leur état de perfection, il y aura
+même au milieu une partie de pierre calcaire
+non changée.</p>
+
+<p>"Ceux au contraire, ou la nature à achevé
+son ouvrage, ont une croûte de chaux endurcie,
+et sont purement du silex fini, mais
+de toutes couleurs, d'un grain et d'une texture
+plus ou moins fine, qui passe assez souvent
+par degrés dans les différentes variétés
+du noble silex. Ils ont, pour l'ordinaire,
+dans leur intérieur une cavité, mais pas
+toujours au centre, et qui vient apparemment
+de la consommation de cette partie calcaire
+qui y resta la dernière, et n'en fut changée
+ou dissolute et séparée, que lorsque le reste
+du silex étoit déjà entièrement fini. Ces
+cavités sont toujours, ou enduites de calcédoine
+en couche concentriques recouverte
+de petits cristaux fort brillans et durs de
+quartz, ou bien seulement de ces derniers-ci.
+Par-fois il y a aussi du spath calcaire
+crystallisé, mais cela est extrêmement rare.
+Quelque-fois enfin ces cavités sont remplies
+d'une noix de calcédoine. Je n'ai réussi
+qu'une seule fois en cassant un pareil silex
+en boule d'y trouver encore le reste de
+l'eau de crystallisation."</p>
+
+<p>The only remark that I would here make
+is this, that, if the crystallization of those close
+cavities in the <i>silex</i> had at any time required
+water of solution, it must always have required
+it. But, if there had been water of solution
+contained in those close cavities, for the
+crystallization of the various things which are
+often found within them, How comes it that
+this water is almost never found? I have
+good reason to believe that water contained
+within a solid flint will not make its escape,
+as does that contained in the <i>anhydrites</i> of
+Mount <i>Berico</i>, which are composed of a porous
+calcedony.  But the siliceous crystallizations
+within close cavities is a curious subject,
+which we shall have occasion to examine more
+particularly in treating of agates. We now
+proceed to the next section, which is the generation
+of silex and quartz in marl, (p. 19.)</p>
+
+<p>"Il y a des contrées, chez nous, qui out
+des étendus assez considérables en long et
+en large, de montagnes de pierre de marne
+calcaire, dans lesquelles on rencontre le
+même phénomène que dans celles de chaux
+pure; c. a. d. nous y trouvons du silex de
+différentes variétés, et dans tous les degrés
+successifs de leur formation, et de leur perfection.
+Outre cela, nous y voyons encore
+quelque chose, qui semble nous conduire à
+la découverte des moyens, dont se sort la
+nature pour effecteur cette opération, et qui
+nous étoit caché dans les montagnes de
+chaux pure: ces bancs de pierre marnesilicieuse,
+contiennent une partie considérable
+de pyrites sulfureuses, qui non seulement
+y forment une grande quantité de
+petits sillons, mais toute la masse de la montagne
+est rempli de parcelles souvent presqu'imperceptibles
+de ce minéral. Ces
+pyrites sont évidemment des productions
+du phlogistique et de l'acide contenu dans
+la montagne.</p>
+
+
+<p>"L'eau, qui s'y trouve ordinairement en
+assez grande abondance, en détacha, extraha
+d'un et l'autre, et les combina après
+tous les deux ensemble. Cette même eau
+les dissout derechef, et en fait de nouvelles
+combinaisons. C'est ce qu'on voit évidemment
+là, ou la nature, ayant commencé ses
+opérations, il n'y est resté de la pyrite,
+qu'une portion de la partie inflammable
+liée à une base terrestre. Dans ces endroits
+la marne n'est que fort peu sensible
+aux acides, et de blanche qu'elle étoit, sa
+couleur est devenue presque noire. C'est
+là qu'on observe les différens degrés du
+changement de la marne en silex, contenant,
+même encore, par fois, de parties
+pyritéiques non détruites dans son intérieur.
+Et comme la nature forme ici, de
+même, que dans la chaux pure les silex, la
+plupart en boules ou rognons; comme les
+différent degrés de métamorphoses de la
+marne en silex, sont ici beaucoup plus nombreuses
+que là, de sorte qu'il y a des bandes
+entières, qui mériteroient plutôt d'être appellés
+bandes silicieuses, que marneuses;
+comme il y a, enfin, une grande quantité de
+pyrites, qu'ailleurs, il est très probable qu'elle
+se serve là du même moyen qu'ici pour
+opérer la métamorphose en question.</p>
+
+<p>"Ne nous précipitons, cependant, pas à en
+tirer plus de conséquences; poursuivons
+plutôt le fil de notre récit.</p>
+
+<p>"Le silex, qui se trouve ici, est non seulement
+de différents degrés de perfection, il
+est de plus d'une espèce. Il y a de la pierre
+à feu, 2 de la calcédoine, 3 des agathes, et
+4 différentes nuances et passages des espèces
+ordinaires aux fines du silex.</p>
+
+<p>"La pierre à feu, est, ordinairement dans
+son état de perfection d'un grain assez fin,
+d'une couleur grise plus ou moins foncée,
+et même donnant, dans le noirâtre, plus ou
+moins diaphane; ses cassures sont concentriques
+ou coquillées, et sa masse est assez
+compacte. Outre sa conformation ordinaire
+en boules et rognons, elle fait presque toujours
+la noix de ursins marins, qui y font
+en grand nombre, et dont la coquille est le
+plus souvent, et presque toujours de spath
+calcaire, même au milieu d'une boule de
+silex parfait.</p>
+
+<p>"Les calcédoines et agathes de ces couches
+sont toujours (au moins, je ne les ai pas
+encore vues autrement) de coraux et autres
+corps marins pétrifiés. Donc, il faut que
+les couches de pierres roulées, d'où j'ai tiré
+ma collection citée plus haut, soyent des
+débris de montagne» détruites de cette
+espèce. Il y en a qui sont très parfaites
+comme celles qui composent ma collection,
+d'autres méritent plutôt d'être rangées parmi
+les passages du silex ordinaire, et ses
+espèces plus fines; d'autres encore sont, en
+effet, de vraies agathes, mais qui renferment
+dans leur intérieur plus ou moins de parties
+non parfaites presque calcaires, qui
+s'annoncent d'abord par leur couleur
+blanche, par leur gros grains relativement
+au reste, par leur opacité, par leur mollesse
+respective, et souvent même par leur sensibilité
+pour les acides minéraux. Mais
+celles, qui sont finies, quoiqu'elles ayent,
+pour la plupart, une couleur presque noire,
+ne laissent, cependant, pas d'avoir aussi des
+teintes plus claires comme brunâtres, verdâtres,
+rougeâtres, jaunâtres, bleuâtres,
+tachetées, veinées, etc. Leur clarté n'est
+pas moins variable, que leur couleur, il y
+en a de presqu'opaques, comme aussi de
+presque transparentes, sur tout là, ou la calcédoine
+prédomine.</p>
+
+<p>"Le quartz s'y trouve comme dans les
+pierres de la premiere section, c, a, d, crystallisé,
+en groupes dans de petites cavités;
+quelquefois aussi en veines. La calcédoine
+y est de même, ou bien en mamelons,
+ou bien en stalactites, lorsqu'elle a de la
+place pour s'y déposer.</p>
+
+<p>"Un phénomène encore plus curieux que
+cela est cette belle pyrite sulphureuse jaune,
+comme de l'or, qui est quelquefois parsemée
+par tout la substance de pétrifications
+agathisées, et qui apparemment y fut déposée
+après la dite métamorphose à la faveur des
+petits pores, qui y étoient restés ouverts."</p>
+
+<p>I would beg that mineralists, who use such
+language as this, would consider if it contains
+a distinct idea of the operation which they
+would thereby describe, or if it does not contain
+either a contradiction or an inconceivable
+proposition. It supposes a calcareous body to
+be metamorphosed, somehow by means of the
+mountain acid, into a siliceous body. But,
+finding many bodies of pyrites contained
+within that solid flint, it is said, that, when the
+calcareous body was flintified, there were left
+in it cavities which were afterwards filled with
+pyrites. Let us reflect a moment upon this
+doctrine. These cavities were first open to
+the outside of the flinty body; but now the
+pyrites with which they had been filled is insulated
+in the solid flint. Here three things
+are required; first, The calcareous body is to
+be flintified, at the same time leaving the body
+full of small cavities open to the outside; secondly,
+These cavities are to be filled with
+pyrites; lastly, These mineral bodies are to
+be so inclosed within the flint, as to leave no
+vestige of the former processes. This marly
+mountain itself, which had been formed of
+loose materials gathered together at the bottom
+of the sea, was first to be filled with pyrites,
+in various shapes, by means of the phlogistic
+and the acid of the mountain. Here is
+proposed to us an operation which is totally
+unknown, or of which we have no kind of
+idea. But, let us suppose pyrites formed in
+this mountain, (of whatever chemical substances),
+by means of water; Why should
+water again undo that pyrites, in order to
+form other concretions? And, Why should
+the flint be formed first with cavities, and
+then made solid, after pyrites had been introduced
+into those cavities of the agate, and, as
+our author expresses it, <i>parsemée pour toute la
+substance?</i> Here are suppositions which are
+not only perfectly gratuitous, but are also inconsistent
+with any thing that we understand.
+This is not explaining nature; it is only feigning
+causes<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a><b>Footnote 39:</b><a href="#footnotetag39"> (return) </a> The description of those insulated siliceous bodies,
+containing in their closed cavities all the usual concretions
+of calcedony and crystals, as well as full of small pyrites
+floating in the solid flint, are extremely interesting to a
+mineral system, or such a geological theory as should explain
+the present state of things in those strata that had
+been formed by deposits of known materials at the bottom
+of the sea; they are indeed such appearances as may be
+found, more or less, in all consolidated strata. But it is
+this author's explanation of that petrifaction which is our
+present object to consider; and, as he is so particular in
+giving us his theory upon the subject, it is easy to detect
+the error of his reasoning. Were those naturalists who
+explain things only in general, by saying that water is the
+agent, and infiltration the means employed by nature;&mdash;were
+these naturalists, I say, to give us as particular a description
+of their process, it would appear as inconsistent
+with the nature of things as that which we have from this
+author, who examines nature very minutely, and who sees
+distinctly that the infiltrating theory is inapplicable for the
+explanation of those petrifactions.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The third section has for title, "<i>Generation
+du Silex et Quartz de la Pierre Puante</i>."
+Here we find an example worthy of being
+recorded, as contributing to throw great light
+upon those mineral operations; however, the
+opinion of our author and mine, upon this
+subject, differ widely. He proceeds thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Cette pierre n'est, comme chacun le sçait,
+qu'une pierre calcaire contenant du bitume.</p>
+
+<p>"Nos montagnes n'en contiennent seulement
+pas de simples couches, mais il y en
+a même de grandes bancs fort épais.</p>
+
+<p>"Le caillou, ou silex qui s'y génère, forme,
+tantôt de gros blocs informes, qui occupent
+des cavités dans l'intérieure des montagnes,
+tantôt, enfin, en forme de filons.</p>
+
+<p>"J'ai remarqué cette métamorphose sur
+trois endroits différens, dans chacun des
+quels la nature a autrement opéré.</p>
+
+<p>"Sur l'un, la pierre puante fait un banc
+horizontal dans une montagne de pierre
+calcaire crystalline, ou d'une espèce de
+marbre, qui contient des couches et filons
+de métal. Ce banc de pierre puante y fait
+le toit d'une couche de galène de plomb
+et de pierre calaminaire, et dans ses cavités
+et fentes il y a non seulement des blocs de
+grandeur différente, mais aussi des veines
+et petites bandes courtes de silex, tant ordinaire,
+que noble c, a, d, de la pierre à
+feu, de calcédoine, d'agathes, et même
+d'une espèce de cornaline jaune et rouge
+pâle. Je ne m'arrêterai pas à en détailler
+les variétés, parce qu'elles sont trop accidentelles.
+Je ne les connois pas même toutes,
+il s'en faut de beaucoup, parce qu'elles se
+trouvent dans des anciennes mines négligées,
+peut être depuis plus d'un siècle, et
+par conséquent peu accessibles. Je ne doute,
+cependant pas, que, si l'on pouvoit mieux
+sonder le terrain, on y trouveroit bien plus
+encore du peu que j'ai cité. Parmi ce silex,
+il y a aussi de petites groupes et de petites
+veines de quartz solide et crystallisé.</p>
+
+<p>"Au second endroit la pierre puante fait
+un filon, ou si l'on veut, une couche ou
+bande verticale, qui partage la montagne
+en deux parties presqu'égales de l'épaisseur
+de trois aunes à peu près. La montagne,
+ou cela se voit est aussi une ancienne mine
+de cuivre et de plomb, consistant en plusieurs
+variétés de marbre, différent en couleur
+et en grain, déposées par couches les
+unes sur les autres. Le filon de silex est
+formé de feuilles alternatives de pierre
+puante et de silex, tous les deux de couleur
+brun de bois à peu prés; mais le silex est
+plus foncé que sa compagne. Ces feuilles
+alternatives, consistent d'autres bien plus
+minces encore, qui souvent n'ont pas l'épaisseur
+d'une ligne, mais ce qu'il y a de
+plus curieux, c'est que la même feuille est
+d'un but de pierre porque, qui, vers le
+milieu, passe successivement en silex, qui, à
+son tour, vers l'autre but, qui étoit exposé
+à l'air repasse par les mêmes gradations en
+une espèce de tuffe calcaire. Ce qui nous
+fait voir évidemment la génération et la
+destruction du silex, même avec une partie
+des moyens par lesquels elle s'opère.
+Comme l'endroit de cette découverte n'est
+accessible qu'à la superficie, je ne saurois
+dire s'il y a d'autres variétés de silex outre
+la dite. Il l'est à supposer autant par analogie,
+que par quelques morceaux qui ont
+de petites veines transversales d'une espèce
+de calcédoine, et qui sont, même, sur leur
+fentes, garnis de petits cristaux de roche.
+Mais ce qu'il y a de sur c'est que ce filon,
+parvenu à une certaine profondeur, s'ennoblit
+et contient du métal, c. a. d. de la galène
+de plomb, et de la pyrite cuivreuse,
+j'y en ai trouvés de morceaux, qui en font
+de preuves incontestables. Le caillou d'ici
+est un grain fin d'une texture forte, peu
+transparent, donne beaucoup d'étincelles au
+briquet, mais ses cassures sont écailleuses.</p>
+
+<p>"La montagne calcaire du troisième lieu a
+une couche de pierre puante épaisse de plusieurs
+aunes, qui, derechef contient de petites
+couches irrégulières et des bandes
+transversales de silex, qui ont jusques à six
+pouces passés d'épaisseur. La pierre puante
+est d'une couleur gris-brune, d'un grain
+assez fin, et d'un tissu assez dur; ses cassures
+sont irrégulières, mais plus la pierre
+s'approche du silex, plus elles donnent dans
+le coquillé. Le silex ordinaire est d'un
+brun de bois, d'un grain assez fin, et d'un
+tissu résistant, et ses cassures sont égales à la
+pierre porque. Ce n'est pas là la seule
+variété, il y a, aussi, de la calcédoine et des
+agathes de couleurs différentes. Même la
+pierre à feu est assez souvent traversée de
+veines de calcédoine, de quartz crystallisé,
+et de spath calcaire blanc en feuilles et en
+crystaux. Il arrive que la même veine est
+composée de ces trois espèces de pierres à
+la fois, de sorte que l'une semble passer dans
+l'autre, parce que les limites réciproques
+sont, souvent, assez indistinctes. Il est évident,
+que le silex est formé de la pierre
+puante, parce qu'on remarque ici les mêmes
+phénomènes dont j'ai parlé plus haut, c. a.
+d. les passages successifs de l'une dans l'autre
+pierre, tant en montant qu'en descendant."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing particular in the siliceous
+mixture in this species of lime-stone, except
+the vein of that substance. It is evident that
+this vein, traversing the mountain, had been
+introduced in the fluid state of fusion. I do
+not mean to say, that, in this particular case
+now described, the evidence of that truth peculiarly
+appears; but that, from the general
+nature of mineral veins breaking and traversing
+the solid strata of the globe, no other
+conclusion can be formed; and that in the
+particulars of this example there is nothing
+that could lead us to suppose any other origin
+to the petrifactions contained in this vein of
+stinking lime-stone. It is plain, that our author
+has imagined to himself an unknown
+manner of executing his mineral metamorphoses.
+He sees plainly that the common
+notion of infiltration will not at all explain
+the evident confusion of those calcareous and
+siliceous bodies which appear to him to be
+metamorphosing into each other. Nothing,
+indeed, can explain those phenomena but a
+general cause of fluidity; and there is no such
+general cause besides that of heat or fusion.</p>
+
+<p>But to show how mineralists of great merit,
+gentlemen who have examined systematically
+and with some accuracy, may impose upon
+themselves in reasoning for the explanation of
+mineral appearances from limited notions of
+things, and from the supposition of these having
+been formed where they now are found,
+that is, upon the surface of the earth, I would
+beg leave to transcribe what this author has
+said upon this species of petrifaction. It is
+not that he is ignorant of what mineralists
+have already said upon the subject; it is because
+he sees the incompetency of their explanations
+in those particular cases; and that
+he would employ some other more effectual
+means. (p. 50.)</p>
+
+<p>"Toute terre calcaire à changer dans une
+autre doit, avant toute chose, être rendue
+réfractaire ce qui ne peut se faire qu'en la
+saturant avec un acide. Mais une terre
+simplement, saturée d'un acide, est d'une réduction
+fort aisée, vu que l'acide n'y tient
+pas trop fort, d'ailleurs ce n'est qu'un sel
+neutre terreux fort facile â dissoudre dans
+une quantité suffisante d'eau. Or pour
+rendre cette union plus constante, il faut
+que la terre alcaline s'assimile intimement à
+l'acide, ce qui ne se sera jamais sans un intermedeliant,
+qui homogène les parties de
+ce nouveau corps, et pour que cela ce fasse
+il est indispensable, qu'il s'opère une dissolution
+foncière des parties terrestres de la
+chaux, qui facilite l'ingress à l'acide, et à
+l'intermède pour qu'ils s'y lie bien fortement.
+Supposons qu'il se forme une liqueur savonneuse
+de l'acide et du phlogistique, que
+l'air fixe, mis en liberté, ouvre les interstices
+des parties qui constituent la terre alcaline,
+qu'apres cela cette liqueur savonneuse ayant
+l'entrée libre s'assimile à la terre en proportion
+requise, que l'eau, qui servoit de
+véhicule dans cette operation, s'évapore successivement,
+et emporte le superflu des ingrediens,
+pour qu'il se puisse opérer le rapprochement
+le plus exacte des parcelles ou
+molécules homogénées de nouveau corps
+qu'enfin les molécules les plus pures et les
+mieux affinées soyent réunies en forme liquide
+dans des cavités, et que par l'évaporation
+et séparation de l'eau, ou elles nageoient,
+il s'en forme des crystaux n'aurons-nous
+pas une boule de silex, avec de crystaux
+de quartz dans ses creux intérieurs."</p>
+
+<p>The supposed case is this; a calcareous
+body is to be metamorphosed into a siliceous
+nodule, having a cavity within it lined with
+quartz, crystals, etc. M. de Carosi means to
+inform us how this may be done. Now, as
+this process requires no other conditions than
+those that may be found upon the surface of
+this earth, the proper way to prove this hypothetical
+theory, would be to exhibit such a
+mineral body produced by those means. But,
+even supposing that such a process were to
+be exhibited, still it would remain to be explained,
+how this process, which requires conditions
+certainly not be found at the bottom
+of the sea, could be accomplished in that place,
+where the strata of the earth had been deposited,
+accumulated, consolidated, and metamorphosed.</p>
+
+<p>This mineral process, which has been now
+described, will no doubt revolt the opinions
+of many of our chemists as well as naturalists;
+and I should not have thought of transcribing
+it, but as an example of that inconclusive
+reasoning which prevails in mineralogical
+writings upon this subject.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all. We have, upon this
+occasion, a most remarkable example of the
+fallaceous views that may be taken of things;
+and of the danger to science when men of
+sense and observation form suppositions for
+the explanation of appearances without that
+strict conformity with the principles of natural
+philosophy which is requited on all occasions.
+Both M. de Carosi, and also M. Macquart<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a>,
+to whom our author communicated
+his ideas and proper specimens, assert, that
+from their accurate experience, they find calcedony
+growing daily, not only in the solid
+body of gypsum, etc. while in the mine, but
+also in the solid stone when taken out of the
+mine, and preserved in their cabinet.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a><b>Footnote 40:</b><a href="#footnotetag40"> (return) </a> Vid. Essais de Minéralogie par M. Macquart.</blockquote>
+
+<p>What answer can be made to this positive
+testimony of these gentlemen, by a person
+who has not seen any such a thing, and who
+has not the opportunity of examining the
+cases in which those naturalists may have perhaps
+been led into some delusion? Were I
+however to conjecture upon a subject in
+which I have not any positive information, I
+should suppose that some part of the calcedony,
+like the <i>oculus mundi</i> when dipped in water,
+may be so transparent, while containing some
+portion of humidity, that it is not easily distinguishable
+from the gypsum in which it is
+concreted; but that in having the humidity
+evaporated, by being taken out of the mine
+and exposed to the dry air, those portions of
+calcedony, which did not before appear, may
+be perceived by becoming more opaque<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41"><sup>41</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a><b>Footnote 41:</b><a href="#footnotetag41"> (return) </a> From the description given in this treatise, and from
+the drawings both of M. de Carosi and M. Macquart, I
+find a very valuable inference to be made, so much the
+more interesting, as I have not found any example of the
+like before. This arises from the intimate connection
+which is here to be perceived between agate and gypsum.
+Now, upon this principle, that the agate-calcedony had
+been formed by fusion, a truth which, from the general
+testimony of minerals, I must presume, it is plain,
+that those nodules of gypsum had been in the fluid state
+of fusion among those marly strata, and that the gypseous
+bodies had been penetrated variously with the siliceous
+substance of the calcedony.
+
+<p>The description of those siliceous penetrations of gypsum
+is followed by this conclusion: "En voila assez, je
+crois pour faire voir que le silex ci-décrit est effectivement
+une émanation du gypse, et non pas une matière
+hétérogène amenée d'autre part et déposée, ou nous
+la voyons." In this instance our author had convinced
+himself that the calcedony concretions had not been formed,
+as he and other mineralists had before supposed, by
+means of infiltration; he has not, however, substituted any
+thing more intelligible in its stead. I do not pretend
+that we understand mineral fusion; but only that such
+mineral fusion is a thing demonstrable upon a thousand
+occasions; and that thus is to be explained the petrification
+and consolidation of the porous and naturally incoherent
+strata of the earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>There is, however, a subject in which I can
+more freely accuse this author of being deceived.
+This naturalist says, that calcareous
+stones become silex by a certain chemical
+operation; and that those flinty bodies, in being
+exposed upon the surface of the earth,
+out of their natural bed, are again, by a contrary
+chemical operation, changed from flint
+to a calcareous substance. I will give it in
+his own words, (p. 56.)</p>
+
+<p>"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progénéré
+de chaux, détaché de son lieu natal,
+et exposé aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit,
+reçoit de crevasses, perd sa transparence,
+devient, enfin, tout-à-fait opaque,
+le phlogistique s'en évapore, l'acide en est
+détaché, lavé, et de terre vitrescible, qu'il
+étoit, il redevient chaux, comme il étoit
+auparavant."</p>
+
+<p>Here is no question with regard to mere
+opinion, but to matter of fact; and, in this
+case, nothing is more evident, than that upon
+the surface of this earth, that is, in the examinable
+parts above the level of the sea, there
+is no transition either of calcareous bodies into
+flint, nor of flinty bodies into calcareous
+substance. Calcareous matter is constantly
+dissolved by water, when it is exposed to the
+washing of that fluid; and it is even dissolved
+out of the most perfect union or combination
+with siliceous substance, and the most solid
+composition of an insoluble body, as may be
+perceived in the decaying of feld-spar. A
+superficial view of flints, which have come out
+of a body of chalk, may have created such an
+opinion, which will not either bear the light
+of chemical or mineral investigation. The
+subject of these chalk flints will be minutely
+examined in its proper place.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has carefully examined the subject
+of flintification; and the country where
+he makes his observations would seem to be
+well disposed for such a research. He has
+had great opportunity and inclination to examine
+the subject which he writes upon; and
+he has given a distinct account of what be has
+seen. His description of the flintification of
+sand-stone is extremely interesting. I will
+therefore transcribe it, both as a valuable portion
+of natural history, and also in order to
+contrast this author's opinion, with regard to
+the means employed by nature in petrifying
+bodies, and that which I maintain to be the
+general consolidating operation of the globe.
+It is Section V. <i>Generation du Caillou du Silex
+du Grès, ou Pierre Sabloneuse</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Tout grès est susceptible de cette métamorphose
+quant au grain et quant à la couleur;
+depuis la bréccia quartzeuse jusqu'à
+la pierre à rasoir; et depuis le grès blanc
+jusqu'au brun et presque noirâtre, tient ou
+non tient, dur, ou presque friable, c'est indifférent,
+toutes ces variétés donnent du
+silex, et surtout de la calcédoine, de la cornaline,
+et des agathes. Quant au ciment
+je l'y ai toujours remarqué calcaire et faisant
+effervescence avec les acides dans les
+endroits de la pierre qui n'étoient point
+encore changés; et jamais je n'ai vu ce
+changement dans du grès dont le ciment
+fut ou quartzeux ou argileux et réfractaire.
+Ainsi le ciment entre pour quelque chose
+dans ce changement.</p>
+
+<p>"Le commencement de cette métamorphose
+paroit (autant que j'ai pu l'observer
+dans mes débris roulés) se faire par le ciment,
+qui dissout là, où les agens eurent
+l'accès libre, rend les grains en quartz mobiles,
+les emporte, les mêle avec sa masse
+dense-liquide, les dissout, même en partie,
+et forme, dans cet état, des veines et de
+masses calcédonieuse, carneoliques, ou d'une
+autre espèce de silex, au milieu du grés peu,
+ou pas du tout, changé. Car autant que je
+puis voir, ce n'est pas par couches ou veines
+qu'elle s'opère, mais par boules et masses
+rond-oblongues. Au commencement ces
+veines et tâches sont fort minces, et le reste
+du grés n'est point du tout, ou à peine sensiblement
+changé hormis qu'il gagne, plus
+de consistance, à proportion du changement
+souffert. Mais à mesure que le silex y
+augmente et se perfectionne, on y apperçoit
+les degrés par lesquels a passé cette
+operation. Les nuance du passage d'une
+pierre à l'autre deviennent plus visibles, les
+veines et masses de silex grandissent au
+point, même, qu'il y a jusqu'aux trois quart
+du grés changé en silex clair comme de
+l'eau n'ayant que fort peu de grains de
+sable nageants dans sa masse. Des morceaux
+de cette espèce sont rares à la vérité,
+mais j'en ai, cependant, trouvé quelques
+uns. Ordinairement, dans les beaux morceaux,
+le silex fait la base, et le sable y est,
+comme nageant tantôt en grains séparés
+tantôt en parties et flocons. Dans les pieces
+moins belles, le sable fait la base, et le silex
+sert à la fois de ciment, et forme aussi plus
+ou moins de veines, qui traversent la masse
+en maintes et maintes directions. Mais si
+c'est un grès à gros grains, ou de la breccia,
+alors le reste prend la nature silicieuse
+mêlé de sable fin, et les gros grains de
+quartz restent tels, qu'ils étoient, sans
+changer. J'ai déjà remarqué que cette
+métamorphose semble s'opérer, comme celle
+des cailloux d'origine calcaire en forme approchans
+la sphérique, il faut encore y a
+jouter, que j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle se
+fasse aussi du dedans en dehors, tout, comme
+la décomposition se fait du dehors au dedans.</p>
+
+<p>"Il arrive dans cette pierre, comme dans
+toute autre, qu'il se forme des crystallisations
+dans les cavités. Lorsqu'elles sont de silex,
+leur figure est toujours mamelonnée,
+mais leur eau ou pureté, leur grandeur et
+leur couleur n'est pas par tout égale. Il y
+en a qui sont grands, et de la plus pure calcédoine,
+d'autres sont petits et chaque goutte
+ou mamelon contient un grain de sable,
+de facon que cela a l'air d'un grès crystallisè
+en mamelons ou stalagmitique.
+D'autres encore sont, de calcédoine, mais
+recouverts d'une croûte, tantôt blanche qui
+fait effervescence avec l'acide minéral, et
+qui est, par conséquent, de nature calcaire;
+tantôt cette croûte est bleue foncée nuancée
+de bleu-celeste; tantôt, enfin, elle est noire,
+mais toutes les deux réfractaires. Outre ces
+crystallisations silicieuses, il y en a, quoique
+rarement, de quartzeuses, qui ou forment
+de petites veines de crystal, ou bien
+des groupes de crystaux quartzeux, ou qui
+enfin, enduisent les mamelons de silex."</p>
+
+<p>Our author then makes a specification of
+the different varieties; after which he continues,
+p. 69.</p>
+
+<p>"Après tout ceci, l'on conviendra j'espère,
+que nôtre grais est une pierre bien singulière,
+et surpassant, à bien des égards, le
+grais, faussement dit crystallisé, de Fontainebleau.
+La raison de la figure du grais
+François est fort évidente, c'est le spath calcaire,
+qui lui sert de ciment, qui la lui fit
+prendre; mais qu'est-ce qui opère les métamorphoses
+racontées dans notre grai siliceux?
+Seroit-ce son ciment calcaire ou
+marneux par les mêmes raisons, qui font
+changer la marne en silex? La chose est
+très-probable, et je n'en saurois pas même,
+deviner d'autre. En ce cas la nature auroit
+un moyen d'opérer par la voie humide, ce
+que nous faisons dans nos laboratoires en
+quelque façon, par la voie sèche, c, a, d,
+de fondre et liquéfier la terre vitrescible, au
+moyen des alcalis; secret que nous lui
+avons déjà arraché en partie, en faisant la
+liqueur silicieuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Je n'ose, cependant, décider pas même
+hypothétiquement, sur cette matière, pour
+n'avoir pu observer la nature dans ses ateliers,
+et parce que je ne possède que des
+pièces, qui détachées de leur lieu natal, depuis
+un très long-tems, furent exposées aux
+intempéries des saisons, où elles peuvent
+avoir souffert bien de changemens."</p>
+
+<p>There cannot be a more fair exposition of
+facts; and it is only our author's opinion of
+this mineral transmutation that I would controvert.
+I do not pretend to understand the
+manner of operating that our author here supposes
+nature to take. I only maintain, that
+here, as every where in general, the loose and
+incoherent strata of the globe have been petrified,
+that is, consolidated, by means of the
+fusion of their substances; and this I think is
+confirmed from the accurate description here
+given of the flintification of sand-stone. Here
+is described very distinctly an appearance
+which is very common or general on those
+occasions; this is the parts or particles of stone
+floating in the fluid siliceous substance, and
+there dissolving more or less.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Carosi describes very systematically
+the generation of silex, calcedony, onyx, and
+quartz, in calcareous earth, marl, gypsum,
+sand-stone, and also what he terms <i>terre glaise,
+ou de l'Argile</i>. It is in this last that we find
+a perfect analogy with what is so frequent in
+this country of Scotland. These are the
+agates, calcedonies, calcareous and zeolite nodules,
+which are found produced in our whin-stone
+or subterraneous lavas, that is, the amygdaloides
+of Crondstedt. Naturalists explain
+the formation of those nodular bodies differently.
+The Chevalier de Dolomieu supposes
+these rocks to have been erupted lavas, originally
+containing cavities; and that these cavities
+in the solid rock had been afterwards filled
+and crystallised, by means of infiltration,
+with the different substances which are found
+variously concreted and crystallised within
+the solid rocks. Our author, on the contrary,
+supposes these formed by a species of chemical
+transmutation of calcareous and argillaceous
+earths, which, if not altogether incomprehensible,
+is at least not in any degree, so
+far as I know, a thing to be understood.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the place where that subject of
+these particular rocks, which is extremely interesting,
+is to be examined. We shall afterwards
+have occasion to treat of that matter at
+large. It is sufficient here to observe, that
+our author finds occasion to generalise the
+formation of those petrifactions with the flintifications
+in calcareous and gypseous bodies.
+When, therefore, the formation of any of
+them shall be demonstrated, as having taken
+its origin in the fusion of those substances,
+this mode of operation, which is generalised
+in the consolidation of strata, will be properly
+inferred in all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Petrifaction is a subject in which mineralogists
+have perhaps wandered more widely
+from the truth than in any other part of natural
+history; and the reason is plain. The
+mineral operations of nature lie in a part of
+the globe which is necessarily inaccessible to
+man, and where the powers of nature act under
+very different conditions from those which
+we find take place in the only situation where
+we can live. Naturalists, therefore, finding
+in stalactical incrustation a cause for the formation
+of stone, in many respects analogous
+to what is found in the strata of the earth, and
+which had come from the mineral region in a
+consolidated state, have, without due consideration,
+attributed to this cause all the appearances
+of petrifaction or mineral concretion.
+It has been one of the objects of this work to
+show that this operation of incrustation, or
+petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether
+ineffectual for producing mineral concretions;
+and that, even were it capable of forming those
+mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of
+this earth, formed by a deposit of travelled
+materials at the bottom of the sea, the conditions
+necessary to this incrustating process do
+not take place.</p>
+
+<p>Those enlightened naturalists who have of
+late been employed in carefully examining
+the evidences of mineral operations, are often
+staggered in finding appearances inconsistent
+with the received doctrine of infiltration;
+they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions,
+in order to explain that enigma. In
+giving examples of this kind. I have in view
+both to represent the natural history these mineralists
+furnish us with, which is extremely
+interesting, and also to show the various shapes
+in which error will proceed, when ingenious
+men are obliged to reason without some necessary
+principle in their science. We have
+just now had an example in Europe; I will
+next present the reader with one from Asia.</p>
+
+<p>M. Patrin, in his <i>Notice Minéralogique de
+la Daourie</i>, (Journal de Physique, Mars 1791)
+gives us a very distinct account of what he
+met with in that region. Describing the
+country of Doutchersk upon the river Argun,
+in Siberia, he proceeds thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Ces collines sont formées d'un hornstein
+gris qui paroit se convertir en pierre calcaire
+par l'action des météores; car tout celui
+qu'on prend hors du contact de l'air donne
+les plus vives étincelles, et ne fait pas la
+moindre effervescence avec les acides, même
+après avoir été calciné; et l'on observe celui
+qui est à découvert, passer, par nuances
+insensibles, jusqu'à l'état de pierre calcaire
+parfaite de couleur blanchâtre."</p>
+
+<p>Here M. Patrin has persuaded himself, probably
+from an imperfect examination of the
+subject, that there takes place a mineral metamorphosis,
+which certainly is not found in
+any other part of the earth, and for which he
+does not find any particular cause. The natural
+effect of the meteors, in other parts of
+the earth, is to dissolve the calcareous substance
+out of bodies exposed to those agents;
+and the gradation from the one of those two
+things to the other, which seems to be the
+data on which he had proceeded in forming
+his conclusion, is not sufficient to prove the
+metamorphosis, even were there not so strong
+a physical objection to it; for, it is by no
+means unusual for mineral bodies to graduate
+thus from one substance to another. However
+that be, this is not the principal object of
+the example<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42"><sup>42</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a><b>Footnote 42:</b><a href="#footnotetag42"> (return) </a> Here we have well informed naturalists reasoning
+with all the light of our present mineralogy, and maintaining,
+on the one hand, that gypsum is transformed into
+calcedony, by the operation of the meteors, or some
+such cause; and, on the other, that a siliceous substance
+is by the same means converted into lime-stone. What
+should we now conclude from this?&mdash;That calcareous and
+siliceous substances were mutually convertible. But then
+this is only in certain districts of Poland and Siberia.
+Every where, indeed, we find strange mixtures of calcareous
+and siliceous bodies; but neither mineralists nor
+chemists have, from these examples, ventured to affirm
+a metamorphosis, which might have spared them much
+difficulty in explaining those appearances.
+
+<p>This is a subject that may be taken in very different
+lights. In one view, no doubt, there would appear to
+be absurdity in the doctrine of metamorphosis, as there is
+now a days acknowledged to be in that of <i>lusus naturae</i>;
+and those reasoning mineralists might thus, in the opinion
+of some philosophers, expose their theory to contempt and
+ridicule. This is not the light in which I view the subject.
+I give those gentlemen credit for diligently observing
+nature; and I applaud them for having the merit to
+reason for themselves, which would seem to be the case
+with few of the many naturalists who now speak and write
+upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now draw an inference, with regard to this, in
+judging of the different theories. Either the received
+system concerning mineral operations is just, in which case
+those gentlemen, who employ a secret metamorphosis, may
+be to blame in laying it aside; or it is erroneous and deficient;
+and, in that case, they have the merit of distinguishing
+the error or deficiency of the prevailing system.
+How far they have seen the system of nature, in those examples
+which they have described, is another question.
+In the mean time, I am to avail myself of the testimony
+of those gentlemen of observation, by which the insufficiency
+at least of the received mineral system is acknowledged.</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>After speculating upon the effect of the
+ancient ocean upon the mountains of that
+country, he proceeds as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Je laisse ces conjectures pour remarquer
+un fait singulier: la colline, qui est au
+nord de l'église de la fonderie, a son arrête
+composée de ce hornstein qui se décompose
+en pierre calcaire; mais ici, les parties, qui
+sont ainsi décomposées, offrent une substance
+calcédonieuse disposées par zones concentriques,
+comme on l'observe dans les agates
+d'oberstein; mais ce ne sont point ici des
+corps parasites formés par infiltration dans
+des cavités pré-existantes comme les agates;
+on voit que ce sont les parties constituantes
+de la roche qui, <i>par un travail interne</i>, et
+par une sorte de crystallisation, out pris
+cette disposition régulière (que ce mot de
+<i>crystallisation</i> ne révolte point, j'appelle
+ainsi toute tendance à prendre une forme
+constante, polyèdre ou non polyèdre.) Les
+couches les plus voisine du centre sont nettes
+et distinctes; peu-à-peu elles le sont moins,
+et enfin elles s'évanouissent et se confondent
+avec le fond de la roche. Chaque assemblage
+de ces zones a une forme ronde ou
+ovale plus ou moins régulière de sept à huit
+pouces de diamètre.</p>
+
+<p>"Cela ressemble en grand à ce qu'on observe
+dans les pierres oeillées, et la cause est
+vraisemblablement la même. Je le répète,
+je regarde cette disposition régulière comme
+une véritable cristallisation, qui peut s'opérer
+et qui s'opère en effet dans l'intérieur
+des corp les plus solide, tant qu'ils sont
+fournis à l'action des agens de la nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Tous ceux qui visitent l'intérieur de la
+terre savent que les roches mêmes le plus
+compactes y sont intimement pénétrées
+d'humidité, et ce fluide n'est certainement
+pas l'eau pure; c'est l'agent qui opère
+toutes les agrégations, toutes les cristallisations,
+tous les travaux de la nature dans le
+règne minéral. On peut donc aisément
+concevoir qu'à la faveur de ce fluide, il
+règne, dans les parties les plus intimes des
+corps souterrains, une circulation qui fait
+continuellement changer de place aux élémens
+de la matière, jusqu'a ce que réunis
+par la force des affinités, les corpuscules
+similaires prennent la forme que la nature
+leur a assignée."</p>
+
+<p>Those nodular bodies or figured parts which
+are here inclosed in the rock, are evidently
+what may be called calcedony agates. M.
+Patrin is persuaded, from the examination of
+them, that they had not been formed in the
+manner of German agates, which he supposes
+is by mean of infiltration; and he has endeavoured
+to conceive another manner of
+operating, still however by means of water,
+which I suppose, according to this hypothesis,
+is to dissolve substances in one part, and deposits
+them in another, There must certainly
+be some great <i>desideratum</i> in that mineral
+philosophy which is obliged to have recourse
+to such violent suppositions. First, water is
+not an universal solvent, as it would require
+to be, upon this supposition; secondly, were
+water allowed to be an universal menstruum,
+here is to be established a circulation that does
+not naturally arise from the mixture of water
+and earth; and, lastly, were this circulation
+to be allowed, it would not explain the variety
+which is found in the consolidation and
+concretion of mineral bodies.</p>
+
+<p>So long, therefore, as we are to explain natural
+appearances by reasoning from known
+principles, and not by ascribing those effects
+to preternatural causes, we cannot allow
+of this regular operation which M. Patrin
+alleges to be acting in the interior parts
+of the most solid bodies. This is indeed
+evident, that there has been a cause operating
+in the internal parts of the most solid
+bodies, a cause by which the elements, or constituent
+parts of those solid bodies, have been
+moved and regularly disposed, as this author
+very well observes must have been the case in
+our agates or eyed stones; but to ascribe to
+water this effect, or to employ either an ineffectual
+or an unknown cause, is not to reason
+philosophically with regard to the history of
+nature; it is to reason phantastically, and to
+imagine fable.</p>
+
+<p>M. Monnet has imagined a petrifying power
+in water very different from any that has
+hitherto been conceived, I believe, by natural
+philosophers, and I also believe, altogether inconsistent
+with experience or matter of fact;
+but as it is not without good reason that this
+naturalist has been induced to look out for a
+petrifying cause different from any hitherto
+supposed, and as he has endeavoured very
+properly to refute the systems of petrification
+hitherto received, I would beg leave to transcribe
+his reasoning upon the subject in corroboration
+of the present theory of consolidation
+by the means of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>It is upon occasion of describing one of the
+species of alpine stone or schistus which contains
+quartzy particles. <i>Nouveau voyage minéralogique,
+etc.</i> Journal de Physique Aoust
+1784.</p>
+
+<p>"Il y a loin de cette pierre, que je regarde
+comme une variété de roches ardoisées, aux
+véritable ardoises. La composition de toutes
+ces pierres est due aux terres quartzeuses et
+argileuses, et à la terre talqueuse, que je
+démontrerai un jour être une espèce particulière
+et distincte des autres, qui constitue
+les bonnes ardoises, et fait, ainsi que le
+quartz, qu'elles résistent aux injures de l'air,
+sans s'effleurir, comme je ferai voir que cette
+terre, qu'on désignera sous la dénomination
+de terre talqueuse, si l'on veut, résiste au
+grand feu sans se fondre. Les différences
+de toutes ces pierres, quoique composées
+des mêmes matières, mais dans des proportions
+différentes, sont frappantes, et pourroient
+faire croire qu'elles n'appartiennent
+pas à ce genre. Mais qui ne voit ici que
+toutes ces différences, ou ces variétés, ne sont
+dues qu'aux modifications de la matière
+première, qu'elle a éprouvées, soit en se mêlant
+avec des matières hétérogènes, prévenantes
+du débris des êtres qui ont existé,
+comme l'argile, par exemple, qui, de l'aveu
+de presque tous les naturalistes, est le produit
+de l'organization des plantes, ou soit
+en se mêlant avec de la matière déjà solidifiée
+depuis long-temps? Or nous ne craignons
+pas de dire, ce que nous avons dit
+plusieurs fois quand l'occasion s'en est présentée,
+que cette matière unique, que se
+modifie selon les occasions et les circonstances,
+et qui prend un caractère analogue au
+matières qu'elle rencontre, est l'eau, que
+beaucoup de naturalistes cherchent vainement
+ailleurs. Ils ne peuvent comprendre,
+malgré les exemples frappans qui pourroient
+les porter à adopter cette opinion,
+que ce fluide général soit l'élément des corps
+solides du règne minéral, comme il est de
+ceux du règne végétal et du règne animal.
+L'on cherche sérieusement, par des expériences
+chimiques, à découvrir si l'eau est
+susceptible de se convertir en terre comme
+si la nature n'avoit pas d'autre moyen que
+nous de la faire passer de l'état fluide à l'état
+solide. Voyez le spath calcaire et le quartz
+transparens; est il à présumer qu'ils ne
+sont que le résultat du dépôt des matières
+terreuses fait par les eaux? Mais, dans ce ca-là
+encore, il faut supposer que l'eau qui est
+restée entre ces partie s'est solidifiée; car,
+qu'est-elle donc devenue, et quel est donc
+le lien qui a uni ces parties et leur a fait
+prendre une forme régulière? Il est vrai
+qu'on nous parle d'un suc lapidifique; mais
+c'est-la un être de raison, dont il seroit bien
+plus difficile d'établir l'existence, que de
+croire à la solidification de l'eau. On nous
+donne cependant comme un principe certain
+que l'eau charie d'un lieu à un autre
+les matières qu'il a dissoutes, et qu'elle les
+dépose à la maniere des sels. Mais c'est
+supposer une chose démentie par l'experience;
+savoir, que l'eau ait la propriété de
+dissoudre les matières terreuses, telles que
+la quartzeuse. A la vérité, M. Auchard de
+Berlin y joint de l'air fixe; mais cet air fixe
+ne sauroit tenir en dissolution un atome de
+quartz dans l'eau; et quelle qu'ait été l'exactitude
+de ceux qui ont répété les expériences
+de M. Auchard, on n'a pu réussir à
+imiter la nature, c'est-à-dire, à former des
+cristaux quartzeux, comme il a annoncé.
+Que l'eau ait la faculté de tenir en dissolution
+quelques petites parties de terre calcaire,
+au moyen de cet air fixe, il n'en faut
+pas conclure qu'elle puisse former de cette
+maniere tous les cristaux calcaires, sans que
+l'eau elle-même y concoure pour sa part;
+car ce seroit conclure quelque fois que la
+partie seroit égale au tout. Voyez ces
+géodes calcaire et argileuses, qui renferment
+des cristaux nombreux de quartz ou
+de spath calcaire; ne sont ils que le résultat
+du dépôt de l'eau qui y a été renfermée, ou
+que la cristallization pure et simple des molécules
+que vous supposez avoir été tenues
+en dissolution par cette eau? Il naîtroit de
+cette opinion une foule d'objections qu'il
+seroit impossible de résoudre. Cependant
+M. Guettard, dans la minéralogie du Dauphiné,
+qui vient de paroître, ouvrage très-estimable
+à beaucoup d'égards, explique,
+selon cette maniere de penser, la formation
+de cristallizations quartzeuses qu'on trouve
+dans certaines géodes de cette province, et
+celle des mines de cristal des hautes montagnes.
+En supposant même comme vraie
+l'explication qu'il en donne, on trouveroit
+en cela un des plus grands problème, et des
+plus difficiles à résoudre qu'il y ait en minéralogie;
+car d'abord il faudroit expliquer
+comment un si petite quantité d'eau que
+celle qui a été renfermée dans les géodes,
+et celle qui est parvenue dans les fentes des
+rochers, ont pu fournir un si grande quantité
+de matière que celle qui constitue ces
+cristallisations, et ce qui n'est pas le moins
+difficile à concevoir, comment l'eau a pu
+charrier cette matière à travers tant de matières
+différentes, et la conserver précisément
+pour cette destination; comment, par exemple,
+l'eau est venue déposer de la terre
+quartzeuse dans les masses énormes de pierres
+calcaires, qui forment la côté qui domine
+le village de Champigny, à quatre
+lieues de Paris, au delà de Saint-maur; car
+s'il nous faut citer un exemple frappant de
+cette singularité, et à portée d'être vue des
+naturalistes qui sont dans la capitale, je ne
+puis mieux faire que de citer cette côté, une
+des plus curieuses de la France, et que je
+me propose de fair connoître en détail dans
+la troisième partie de la minéralogie de la
+France. On verra, dis-je, dans cette bonne
+pierre à chaux, et une de plus pure des environs
+de Paris, de très-abondantes cristallisations
+de quartz transparent, et quelque fois de
+belle eau, que les ouvriers sont forcés de
+séparer de la partie calcaire, à laquelle elles
+adhèrent fortement. Mais c'est trop nous
+arrêter à combattre une opinion qui doit son
+origine aux premières idées qu'ont eues les
+premiers observateurs en minéralogie, qui
+se détruira d'elle même comme tant d'autres
+dont il nous reste à peine le souvenir."</p>
+
+<p>We find here an accurate naturalist, and a
+diligent observer, who, in conformity with
+what my sentiments are upon the subject,
+thinks it impossible that the crystallizations in
+close cavities, and concretions of different solid
+substances within each other, which so frequently
+occur in the mineral regions, could
+have been produced, by means of solution and
+crystallization, from a fluid vehicle. But
+what has he now substituted in place of this
+solution, in order to explain appearances?&mdash;a
+mere supposition, viz. that nature may have
+the power of converting water, in those secret
+places, into some other thing; or rather that
+the substance of water is here converted into
+every other thing; for, though he has only
+mentioned quartz and calcareous spar, what
+mineral substance is there that may not be
+found in those close cavities? They are actually
+almost all, not even excepting gold;
+for, small grains of gold are inclosed within
+the cavities of a porous stone, in the Siberian
+mine. Now, for what purpose should nature,
+(to the power of which we are not to set a
+limit) have such an object in view as to convert
+water into every thing, unless it were to
+confound human understanding? For, so far
+as human experience has been as yet able to
+reach, there would appear to be certain elementary
+substances; and among these is water,
+or the principles of that fluid<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43"><sup>43</sup></a>. But because
+water is so generally found in bodies, and so
+necessarily in most of the operations of this
+world, why convert it into every other thing?
+Surely, for no better reason than that there
+has not occurred to this mineralist any other
+way of explaining certain natural appearances
+which aqueous solution could not produce.
+Here is no dispute about a matter of fact; it
+is on all hands allowed, that in certain cavities,
+inaccessible to any thing but heat and
+cold, we find mineral concretions, which contain
+no water, and which, according to the
+known operations of nature, water could not
+have produced; must we therefore have recourse
+to water acting according to no known
+principle, that is to say, are we to explain nature
+by a preternatural cause?</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a><b>Footnote 43:</b><a href="#footnotetag43"> (return) </a> Water is now considered by men of science, as a
+compound substance; this doctrine, which seems to follow
+so necessarily from the experiments of the French
+philosophers, must be tried by the growing light of chemical
+science. In the oxygenating operation of inflammable
+and combustible bodies when burning, those ingenious
+chemists overlooked the operation of <i>phlogistic matter</i>,
+which has no weight, and which escapes on that occasion,
+as I have had occasion to show in a dissertation upon phlogiston,
+and in the Philosophy of Light, Heat, and Fire.
+How far this view, which I have given of those interesting
+experiments, may lead to the explanation of other collateral
+phenomena, such as that of the water produced, I
+will not pretend to conjecture.  One thing is evident,
+that if the weight of the water, procured in burning inflammable
+and vital air, be equal to that of those two
+gasses, we would then have reason to conclude, either that
+water were a compound substance, or that vital air, and
+inflammable vapour were compounds of water and the
+matter of light, or solar substance.</blockquote>
+
+<p>I dare say that this is not the view that M.
+Monnet takes of the subject, when he thinks
+to explain to himself the concretion of those
+different substances by means of water; but,
+according to my apprehension of the matter,
+his theory, when sifted to the bottom, will
+bear no other construction; and, unless he
+shall consider water like the matter of heat, as
+capable of producing the fluidity of fusion,
+and of being also again abstracted from the
+fluid, by pervading the most solid body, which
+would then be a substance different from water,
+he must employ this aqueous substance as a
+menstruum or solvent for solid bodies, in the
+same manner as has been done by those naturalists
+whom he he justly censure, and conform
+to those erroneous ideas which first observations,
+or inaccurate knowledge of minerals,
+may have suggested to former naturalists.</p>
+
+<p>It is the dissolution and concretion of siliceous
+substance, no doubt, that gives such difficulty
+to our naturalists in explaining petrifaction:
+they have, however, something apparently
+in their favour, which it may be proper
+now to mention.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>first</i> place, although siliceous substance
+is not soluble, so far as we know, by
+simple water, it is soluble by means of alkaline
+substance; consequently, it is possible that
+it may be dissolved in the earth.</p>
+
+<p><i>Secondly</i>, The water of Giezer in Iceland,
+actually petrifies bodies which are alternately
+imbibed with that hot water and exposed to
+the air. This water, therefore, not only contains
+siliceous substance in a dissolved state,
+but deposits this again, either by means of
+cooling, or being aerated, or of evaporating.
+Consequently, without knowing the principle
+upon which it proceeds, we here perceive a
+natural operation by which siliceous petrifaction
+may be performed.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, We have another principle for the
+dissolution of siliceous substance. This is the
+fluor acid which volatilises the siliceous substance.
+This, however, requires certain conditions,
+which cannot be found as a general
+cause in the mineral regions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we would seem to have every thing
+necessary for explaining the concretion and
+crystallization of siliceous bodies, provided we
+could find the proper conditions requisite for
+that operation; for whether it shall be by
+means of acid or alkaline substances that siliceous
+matter is to be dissolved, volatilised, and
+transported from one place to another, it is
+necessary that those dissolving substances should
+be present upon those occasions. Nor is it
+sufficient only to dissolve the siliceous substance
+which is to be transported; the necessary
+conditions for the concretion again of the
+dissolved substances, whatever these may be,
+are also absolutely required for this operation.
+Now, though those requisite conditions may
+be, upon many occasions, allowed in the
+earth, it is not according to the theory of our
+modern naturalists, who explain petrifaction
+upon the principles of simple infiltration of
+water, that any advantage can be taken of
+those conditions; nor are natural appearances
+to be explained without employing more
+complicated chemical agents in the mineral
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>To this subject of the petrifactions of Giezier,
+I may now add the information which
+we have received in consequence of a new
+voyage from this country to Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Joseph Banks returned from his
+expedition to Iceland, he landed at this place;
+and, having brought specimens of the petrifications
+of Giezer, Dr Black and I first discovered
+that these were of a siliceous substance. I
+have always conjectured that the water of
+Giezer must be impregnated with flinty matter
+by means of an alkaline substance, and so
+expressed my opinion in the Theory of the
+Earth published in the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh Royal Society. We have therefore
+been very desirous of procuring some of
+that water, in order to have it analysed.</p>
+
+<p>An opportunity favourable to our views has
+occurred this summer. Mr Stanley set out
+from this place with the same purpose of examining
+Iceland. He was so good as to ask
+of Dr Black and I what inquiries we would
+incline that he should make. We have now,
+by the favour of this gentleman, obtained
+specimens of the petrifactions of Giezer; and,
+what is still more interesting, we have procured
+some of the water of those petrifying
+boiling springs.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from these specimens, that the
+boiling water which is ejected from those
+aqueous volcanoes, if we may use the expression,
+is endued with the quality of forming
+two different species of petrifaction or incrustation;
+for, besides the siliceous bodies, of
+which we had before received specimens, the
+same stream of water incrustates its channel
+with a calcareous substance. All the specimens
+which I have seen consist of incrustation,
+some purely siliceous, some calcareous,
+and others mixed of those two, more or less.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Black has been analysing the water;
+and he finds in it siliceous matter dissolved
+by an alkaline substance, in the manner of
+liquor silicum<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44"><sup>44</sup></a>. My conjecture has thus
+been verified.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a><b>Footnote 44:</b><a href="#footnotetag44"> (return) </a> See Trans. of the Edin. Royal Society.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged that nature may
+operate in the mineral regions, as she does
+here upon the surface in the case of Giezer.
+Such an argument as this, however sound it
+may be in general, will not apply to the subject
+of which we treat at present. There is
+no question about the limiting the powers of
+nature; we are only considering nature as operating
+in a certain determined manner, viz.
+by water acting simply upon the loose materials
+of the land deposited at the bottom of the
+sea, and accumulated in regular strata, one
+upon another, to the most enormous depth or
+thickness. This is the situation and condition
+of things in which nature is to operate; and
+we are to find the means of consolidating
+those strata, and concreting every species of
+substance in almost every possible composition,
+according to some known physical principle.
+Here is an operation which is limited; for, we
+must reason strictly, according to the laws of
+nature, in the case which we have under consideration;
+and we cannot suppose nature as
+ever transgressing those laws.</p>
+
+<p>It is acknowledged, that, by means sometimes
+of an aeriform, sometimes of an alkaline,
+perhaps also of an acid substance, calcareous
+matter is dissolved in the earth, and certain
+metallic substances, such as lead and iron.
+This solution also, upon particular occasions,
+(where the proper conditions for separating
+the solvent from the dissolved substance exist),
+forms certain concretions; these are sometimes
+a mere incrustation, as in the case of
+the siliceous incrustation of Giezer, sometimes
+again in a crystallised or sparry form,
+as in the case of stalactical concretions. But
+here is no question of those cases where the
+proper conditions may be found; first, of dissolving
+the substance which is afterwards to be
+concreted; secondly, of separating the menstruum
+from the dissolved substance; and,
+lastly, of removing the fluid deprived of its
+solution, and of supplying a new solution in
+its room; the question is, how far those concretions
+are formed where those conditions do
+not take place. Now, this last case is that of
+almost all mineral concretions.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be here alleged that certain
+concretions have been found in mines posterior
+to these having been worked by man;
+consequently, that those concretions have been
+formed by nothing but the infiltration of water.
+In those cases, where such concretions
+are truly found, I am persuaded that all the
+conditions proper to that operation will also
+be found; and it is only, I believe, in those
+cases where such proper conditions may be
+found, that this aqueous concretion ever appears.
+Now, if we shall except calcareous
+stalactite, and the bog ore of iron, How seldom
+is it that any appearance of those aqueous
+mineral concretion ever is found? Those
+very few cases in which they are found, afford
+the strongest proof against these being operations
+general to the globe, or proper mineral
+concretions; because it is only where all the
+necessary conditions conspire in each contributing
+its part, that the effect is accomplished;
+and this is a thing which cannot possibly
+take place in the aquiform strata below the
+surface of the sea. But, without attending to
+this clear distinction of things perfectly different,
+naturalists are apt to see false analogies,
+and thus in generalising to form the most erroneous
+theories.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now give an example of this fallaceous
+manner of reasoning; it is in the case
+of certain mineral appearances which are erroneously
+considered as stalactical concretions.</p>
+
+<p>The only true stalactical bodies are of a
+calcareous substance; they are formed by water
+containing this substance in a dissolved
+state; and the principles upon which this particular
+concretion is formed are well known.
+It is therefore easy to compare other concretions,
+which may have some superficial resemblance
+to these stalactical bodies, in order to
+see if they have proceeded upon the same
+principle of concretion from a dissolved state,
+or by water depositing its dissolved substance
+in a similar manner.</p>
+
+<p>There are two different mineral substances
+which give appearances of this sort. These
+are certain concretions of calcedony, and also
+of iron-ore, which are thought to have such
+resemblance to stalactical concretions as, by
+some superficial observers, to be reckoned of
+the same kind. It is now proposed to show
+that those conclusions are not well founded;
+and that, in this case of calcedony and iron-ore,
+it could not be upon the principle of stalactical
+concretion that the bodies now in question
+had their forms.</p>
+
+<p>The principle upon which calcareous substance
+is dissolved in water, and made to concrete
+by the evaporation of the acid substance,
+or fixed air by which it had been dissolved, is
+too well known to require any explanation
+in this place; we are only to consider the
+sensible effects of those operations of which
+we know so well the proper conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There are just two distinct views under
+which we may consider all stalactical concretions
+formed; these are the incrustation of the
+calcareous substance concreting upon a foreign
+body, and the incrustation of the same substance
+upon itself. By the first any manner
+of shape may be formed, provided there be a
+solid body, upon the surface of which the calcareous
+solution is made to pass. By the second,
+again, we have various forms; but we
+know the principles upon which they had
+been made. These are the shape and motions
+of the fluid which gives the calcareous
+concretion. Now, these principles are always
+to be perceived, more or less, in all the bizarre
+or fantastical, as well as regular shapes which
+are produced by stalactical concretions. At
+present, we shall confine our views to one
+particular shape, which is simple, regular, and
+perfectly understood wherever it is formed.</p>
+
+<p>Drops of water falling from a roof, and
+forming stalactite, produce first tubular bodies,
+and then gradually consolidate and increase
+those pendulous bodies by incrustation. These
+appearances are thought to be observed in the
+calcedony and ferruginous concretions, which
+has led some mineralists to conclude, that those
+concretions had been formed in the same manner,
+by means of water. We are now to show
+that these mineral appearances are not analogous
+to stalactites in their formation, and that
+they have evidently been formed in a different
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that, in the formation
+of those pendulous bodies, each distinct stalactite
+must be formed by a separate drop of water;
+consequently, that no more stalactites can
+be formed in a given space, than there could
+have subsisted separate drops of water. Now,
+a drop of water is a very determined thing;
+and thus we have a principle by which to
+judge of those mistaken appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose the gut of water to be but
+one eighth of an inch, although it is a great
+deal more, we should have no stalactites formed
+nearer to each other than that measure of
+space. But those mineral concretions, which
+are supposed to be stalactical, are contained in
+half that space, or are nearer to each other
+than the tenth or twentieth of an inch. I
+have them like needles, and in every degree
+of proximity or contiguity, at the same time
+that they are perfectly solid. Therefore, it is
+plainly impossible that they could have been
+formed upon this principle of calcareous stalactite.
+But, it is only by this false resemblance,
+that any argument can be formed for
+the concretion of those bodies from an aqueous
+solution; in every other respect they are
+true mineral concretions; and, that these have
+had a very different origin, has been already
+the subject of investigation, and will be more
+particularly examined in the course of this
+work.</p>
+
+<p>The term <i>infiltration</i>, which has been much
+employed for explaining mineral appearances,
+is too vague, imperfect, or unexplicit, for
+science, whether as the means of knowing
+nature, or the subject of confutation. This is
+not the case with that of stalactite; here is a
+term that implies a certain natural operation,
+or a most distinct process for attaining a certain
+end; and we know the principles upon
+which it proceeds, as well as the several steps
+that may be traced in the general result. It
+is an operation which has not only been analysed
+to its principles; it is also a process
+which is performed by man, proceeding on
+his acquired knowledge. Now, were this
+operation common to the mineral regions, as
+it is proper to the surface of this earth; we
+could not remain in any degree of suspense
+with regard to the origin of those mineral
+bodies; for, having the true clue of knowledge,
+we should be able to unravel the most
+intricate and mysterious appearance. But, so
+far from this being the case, the more we
+come to inquire into nature, and employ this
+principle, the less we find it applicable, and
+the more involved in darkness is our science.</p>
+
+<p>The places where these false appearances of
+stalactite are found, are precisely those in
+which, from the nature of things, all possibility
+for such an operation is excluded. For,
+How can this take place within a closs cavity
+in the mineral regions? The term <i>vegetation</i>
+may as well be employed for the explanation
+of those appearances: But what would
+now be said of such an explication? It is
+high time that science were properly applied
+to the natural history of this earth, and mineralists
+not allowed to impose upon themselves
+with false reasoning, or to please themselves
+with the vain attempt of explaining visible
+effects by unknown causes.</p>
+
+<p>Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting
+petrifaction or mineral concretion, as I
+have now exposed, opinions that are not
+founded on any sound physical principle,
+authorise me to conclude that they are all
+erroneous. If this be admitted, it will follow
+that we have no proof of any proper mineral
+concretion except that which had proceeded
+by congelation from the fluid state of fusion.
+This has been the doctrine which I have held
+out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will
+be more and more confirmed as we come to
+examine particular mineral appearances.</p>
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VIII.</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation
+of Bituminous Strata, investigated.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Purpose of this Inquiry.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the first chapter, I have given a perfect
+mark by which to judge, of every consolidated
+stratum, how far that had been the
+operation or effect of water alone, or if it had
+been that of heat and fusion. This is the
+particular veins or divisions of the consolidated
+stratum, arising from the contraction of
+the mass, distended by heat, and contracted
+in cooling. It is not an argument of greater
+or lesser probability; it is a physical demonstration;
+but, so far as I see, it would appear
+to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.
+Time, however, will open the eyes
+of men; science will some day find admittance
+into the cabinet of the curious. I will
+therefore now give another proof,&mdash;not of
+the consolidation of mineral bodies by means
+of fusion, for there is no mineral body in
+which that proof is not found,&mdash;but of the
+inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the
+appearances of bodies, where not only fusion
+had been employed for the consolidation, but
+where the application of heat is necessary, and
+along with it the circumstances proper for
+<i>distillation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water
+issuing from the earth, one forming calcareous
+incrustations, the other depositing bituminous
+substances. Here is enough for them
+to make the theory of a world; on the one
+hand, solid marble is explained, on the other,
+solid coal. Ignorance suspects not error;
+their first step is to reason upon a false principle;&mdash;no
+matter, were they only to reason
+far enough, they would soon find their error
+by the absurdity into which it lands them.
+The misfortune is, they reason no farther;
+they have explained mineralogy by infiltration;
+and they content themselves with viewing
+the beautiful specimens in their cabinet.
+the supposed product of solution and crystalization.
+How shall we inform such observators;
+How reason with those who attend
+not to an argument!</p>
+
+<p>As naturalists have explained all mineral
+concretions from aqueous or other solution,
+and attributed to infiltration the formation of
+those stony bodies in which there are marks
+of their original composition, so have they
+explained to themselves, I suppose, the origin
+of those bituminous bodies which are found
+among the strata of the earth. In the case of
+stony substances, I have shown how unfounded
+all their theories are for the production of
+those concretions, crystallizations, and consolidated
+bodies. I am here to examine the
+subject of inflammable and combustible bodies,
+which I believe have been little considered by
+those theorists who suppose mineral bodies
+consolidated by infiltration. It is here that
+we shall find an infinite difference between
+the aqueous and igneous theories; for, we
+shall find it impossible to explain by the one
+certain operations which must have necessarily
+required the great agent generally employed
+in the other.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of this chapter is a touch-stone
+for every theory of the earth. In every quarter
+of this globe, perhaps in every extensive
+country, bituminous strata are to be found;
+they are alternated with those which are called
+aquiform, or which had been evidently
+formed by subsidence of certain moved materials
+at the bottom of the sea; so far, therefore,
+all those strata have had the same origin.
+In this point I think I may assert, that all the
+different theories at present are agreed; and
+it is only concerning certain transformations
+of those strata, since their original collection,
+that have been ascribed to different causes.</p>
+
+<p>Of these transformations, which the strata
+must have undergone, there are two kinds;
+one in relation to change of place and position;
+the other in relation to solidity or consistence.
+It is only the last of those two
+changes which is here to be the subject of
+consideration; because, with regard to the
+first, there is nothing peculiar in these bituminous
+strata to throw any light, in that respect,
+upon the others. This is not the case with
+regard to the transformation in their chemical
+character and consistence; bituminous bodies
+may not be affected by chemical agents, such
+as fire and water, in the same manner as the
+argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and such
+other strata that are alternated with the bituminous;
+and thus we may find the means for
+investigating the nature of that agent by which
+those strata in general have been transformed
+in their substance; or we may find means for
+the detecting of false theories which may have
+been formed with regard to those operations
+in which the original deposits of water had
+been changed.</p>
+
+<p>We have had but two theories, with regard
+to the transformation of those bodies which
+have had a known origin, or to the change of
+their substance and consistence; the one of
+these which I have given is that of heat or
+fusion; the other, which I wish to be compared
+with mine, is that of water and infiltration.
+It is by this last that all authors hitherto,
+in one shape or another, have endeavoured
+to explain the changes that those strata
+must have undergone since the time of their
+first formation at the bottom of the sea. They
+indiscriminately apply the doctrine of infiltration
+to those strata of mineral coal as to any
+other; they say that bituminous matter is infiltrated
+with the water, impregnates certain
+strata of earth with bituminous matter, and
+thus converts them into mineral coal, and bituminous
+strata. This is not reasoning physically,
+or by the inductive method of proceeding
+upon matter of fact; it is reasoning fantastically,
+or by making gratuitous supposition
+founded merely on imagination. It was thus
+that natural philosophers reasoned before the
+age of science; the wonder now is, how men
+of science, in the present enlightened age,
+should suffer such language of ignorance and
+credulity to pass uncensured.</p>
+
+<p>The subject which I am now to treat of
+consists of peculiar strata of the earth, bodies
+which we may investigate through all the
+stages of their change, which is extreme; for,
+from vegetable bodies produced upon the habitable
+earth, they are now become a mineral
+body, and the most perfect coal,&mdash;a thing
+extremely different from what it had been,
+and a thing which cannot be supposed to
+have been accomplished by the operation of
+water alone, or any other agent in nature
+with which we are acquainted, except the action
+of fire or heat. It is therefore impossible
+for a philosopher, reasoning upon actual physical
+principles, not to acknowledge in this a
+complete proof of the theory which has been
+given, and a complete refutation of that aqueous
+operation which has been so inconsiderately
+supposed as consolidating the strata of
+the earth, and forming the various mineral
+concretions which are found in that great
+body.</p>
+
+<p>To see this, it will be sufficient to trace the
+progress of vegetable and animal substances,
+(bodies which had certainly lived by means
+of a former earth), to this changed state in
+which they have become perfect mineral bodies,
+and constitute a part of the present earth.
+For, as these changes are perfectly explained
+by the one theory, and absolutely inconsistent
+with the other, there arises from this a conviction
+that must be irresistible to a person
+who can give proper attention to a chain of
+reasoning from effect to cause.</p>
+
+<p>But if we thus succeed to illustrate the
+theory of the earth by the natural history of
+those particular strata, we have but one step
+farther to make in order to bring all the other
+parts of the earth, whether stratified or not,
+into the most perfect consistence with the
+theory; now this step, it will be most easy to
+make; and I shall now mention it, that so
+the reader may keep it in his view: Pyrites is
+a sulphureo-metallic substance, which cannot
+be produced by means of water, a substance
+which the influences of the atmosphere decomposes
+or separates into its elements, and
+which even our imperfect art may be considered
+as able to produce, by means of fusion
+in our fires. Therefore, the finding of this
+creature of fire intimately connected with
+those consolidated strata of mineral coal, adds
+the greatest confirmation, were it necessary, to
+the doctrine of those mineral bodies having
+been consolidated by fusion. This confirmation,
+however, is not necessary, and it is not
+the only thing which I am at present to illustrate
+in that doctrine. What I have now in
+view is, to homologate the origin of those coal
+strata, with the production of every other
+mineral substance, by heat or fusion; and this
+is what the intimate connection of pyrites
+with those strata will certainly accomplish.
+This will be done in the following manner:</p>
+
+<p>Pyrites is not only found in great masses
+along with the coal strata; it is contained in
+the veins which traverse those strata, and in
+the minute ramifications of those veins, which
+are occasioned by the contraction of the mass,
+and generally divide it into small cubical
+pieces; but besides that extrinsic connection,
+(as it may be called,) with the stratum of coal,
+pyrites is found intimately connected with
+that solid body, in being mixed with its substance.
+If, therefore, it were proved, that
+either the one or other of those two substances
+had been consolidated by fusion, the other
+must be acknowledged as having had the same
+origin; but now I am to prove, from the natural
+history of mineral coal, that pyrites had
+been there formed by fusion; and then, by
+means of the known origin of that sulphureo-metallic
+substance, we shall extend our knowledge
+to the origin of every other mineral
+body.</p>
+
+<p>The process of this argument is as follows:
+Every mineral body, I believe, without exception,
+will be found so intimately connected
+with pyrites, that these two things must be
+concluded as having been together in a fluid
+state, and that, whatever may have been the
+cause of fluidity in the one, this must have also
+caused the fluidity in the other; consequently,
+whatever shall be proved with regard
+to the mineral operations of pyrites, must be
+considered as proved of every other mineral
+substance. But, from the connection of pyrites
+with mineral coal, it is to be proved that
+the origin of this metallic body had been fusion;
+and then it will appear, that all other
+mineral bodies must have been more or less
+in fusion, or that they must have been consolidated
+by means of heat, and not by any
+manner of solution or aqueous infiltration. I
+therefore now proceed to take a view of the
+natural history of coal strata,&mdash;a subject which
+mineralogists seem not inclined to engage with,
+although the most ample data are to be found
+for that investigation.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>Natural History of Coal Strata,
+and Theory of this Geological Operation.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Fossil coal is the species of stratum best understood
+with regard to its accidents, as being
+much sought after; at least, this is the case in
+many parts of Britain, where it supplies the
+place of wood for burning. This fossil body
+has the most distinguished character; for, being
+inflammable or combustible in its nature,
+there is no other species of stratum that may
+be confounded with it.</p>
+
+<p>But, though coal be thus the most distinguishable
+mineral, and that which is best understood
+in the science of mining, it is perhaps
+the most difficult to be treated of in the
+science of mineralogy; for, not having properly
+any distinguishable parts, we have nothing
+in the natural constitution of this body,
+as we have in most other strata, to lead us to
+the knowledge of its original state or first formation.</p>
+
+<p>The varieties of coal are distinguished by
+their different manner of burning; but, from
+appearances of this kind, no perfect judgement
+can be formed with regard to the specific
+manner in which those strata had been
+made; although, from chemical principles,
+some conclusion may be drawn concerning
+certain changes which they have undergone
+since they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have one species of coal which
+is extremely fusible, abounds with oil, and
+consequently is inflammable; we have another
+species again which is perfectly fixed and infusible
+in the fire; therefore, we may conclude
+upon principle, that, however, both
+those coals must have undergone the operation
+of heat and fusion, in bringing them to
+their present state, it is only the last that has
+become so much evaporated as to become perfectly
+fixed, or so perfectly distilled, as to
+have been reduced to a caput mortuum.</p>
+
+<p>The argument here employed is founded
+upon this fact; that, from the fusible species
+of coal, a caput mortuum may be formed by
+distillation, and that this chemical production
+has every essential quality, or every peculiar
+property, of the fixed and infusible species;
+although, from the circumstances of our operation,
+this caput mortuum may not have precisely
+the exterior appearance of the natural
+coal. But, we have reason to believe, it is
+not in the nature of things to change the infusible
+species, so as to make it fusible or oily.
+Now, that this body was not formed originally
+in its present state, must appear from this,
+that the stratum here considered is perfectly
+solid; but, without fusion, this could not have
+been attained; and the coal is now supposed
+to be infusible. Consequently, this fixed substance,
+which is now, properly speaking, a
+perfect coal, had been originally an oily bituminous
+or fusible substance. It is now a fixed
+substance, and an infusible coal; therefore,
+it must have been by means of heat and distillation
+that it had been changed, from the
+original state in which this stratum had been
+formed.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus, in the examination of coal
+strata upon chemical principles, received a
+certain lesson in geology, although this does
+not form a proper distinction by which to
+specify those strata in general, or explain the
+variety of that mineral. For, in this manner,
+we could only distinguish properly two species
+of those strata; the one bituminous or inflammable;
+the other proper coal, burning without
+smoke or flame. Thus it will appear
+that, as this quality of being perfectly charred
+is not originally in the constitution of the
+stratum, but an accident to which some strata
+of every species may have been subjected, we
+could not class them by this property without
+confounding together strata which had differences
+in their composition or formation.
+Therefore, we are led to inquire after some
+other distinction, which may be general to strata
+of fossil coal, independent of those changes
+which this substance may have undergone after
+it had been formed in a stratum.</p>
+
+<p>Perfect mineral coal being a body of undistinguishable
+parts, it is only in its resolution
+that we may analyse it, and this is done by
+burning. Thus, in analysing coal by burning,
+we have, in the ashes alone, that by which
+one species of coal may be distinguished from
+another; and, if we should consider pure coal
+as having no ashes of itself, we should then, in
+the weight of its ashes, have a measure of the
+purity of the coal, this being inversely as the
+quantity of the ashes. Now, though this be
+not accurately true, as the purest coal must
+have some ashes proper to itself, yet, as this is
+a small matter compared with the quantity of
+earthy matter that may be left in burning
+some species of coal, this method of analysis
+may be considered as not far removed from
+the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But, in distinguishing fossil coal by this
+species of chemical analysis, not only is there
+to be found a perfect or indefinite gradation
+from a body which is perfectly combustible
+to one that is hardly combustible in any sensible
+degree, we should also fall into an inconveniency
+similar to that already mentioned,
+of confounding two things extremely different
+in their nature, a bituminous body, and a
+perfect charcoal. Thus, if we shall found our
+distinction upon the fusibility and different
+degree of having been charred, we shall confound
+fossil coals of very different degrees of
+value in burning, or of very different compositions
+as strata; if, again, we found it upon
+the purity of composition, in judging from
+the ashes, we shall confound fossil bodies of
+very different qualities, the one burning with
+much smoke and flame, the other without
+any; the one fusible almost like wax, the
+other fixed and infusible as charcoal.</p>
+
+<p>It will now appear, that what cannot be
+done in either the one or other of those two
+methods, may in a great degree, or with considerable
+propriety, be performed in employing
+both.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, whether for the economical purposes
+of life, or the natural history of fossil coal,
+those strata should be considered both with
+regard to the purity of their composition as
+inflammable matter deposited at the bottom
+of the sea, and to the changes which they
+have afterwards undergone by the operation
+of subterranean heat and distillation.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the original matter
+of which coal strata are composed to be of
+two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as
+being perfectly inflammable or combustible;
+the other an earthy matter, with which proper
+coal may be variously mixed in its composition,
+or intimately connected, in subsiding
+from that suspended state by which it had
+been carried in the ocean. It is a matter of
+great importance, in the physiology of this
+globe, to know that the proper substance of
+coal may be thus mixed with heterogeneous
+bodies; for, supposing that this earthy matter,
+which has subsided in the water along with coal,
+be no farther connected with the combustible
+substance of those strata, than that it had floated
+in the waters of the ocean, and subsided <i>pari
+passu</i> with the proper materials of the coal, we
+hence learn a great deal with regard to the
+state in which the inflammable matter must
+have been at the time of its formation into
+strata. This will appear by considering, that
+we find schistus mixed with coal in the most
+equal or uniform manner, and in almost every
+conceivable degree, from the purest coal to
+the most perfect schistus. Hence we have
+reason to conclude, that, at the formation of
+those strata, the bituminous matter, highly
+subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the
+earth subsiding in the water.</p>
+
+<p>Not only is the bituminous matter of coal
+found mixed in every different proportion
+with the earthy or uninflammable materials of
+strata, but the coaly or bituminous composition
+is found with perhaps every different
+species of substance belonging to strata. This
+is certain, that we have the coaly matter intimately
+mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous
+strata.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it will appear, that it is no proper
+explanation of the formation of coal strata, to
+say that vegetable matter is the basis of those
+strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance
+proper for the formation of bituminous matter
+is produced, it remains to know by what
+means, from a vegetable body, this bituminous
+matter is produced, and how it comes to be
+diffused in that subtile state by which it may
+be uniformly mixed with the most impalpable
+earth in water. Could we once resolve this
+question, every other appearance might be
+easily explained. Let us therefore now endeavour
+to discover a principle for the resolving
+of this problem.</p>
+
+<p>There are two ways in which vegetable
+bodies may be, in part at least, resolved into
+that subtilised state of bituminous matter after
+which we inquire; the one of these is by
+means of fire, the other by water. We shall
+now consider these severally as the means of
+forming bituminous strata, although they may
+be both employed by nature in this work.</p>
+
+<p>When vegetable bodies are made to burn,
+there is always more or less of a fuliginous
+substance formed; but this fuliginous substance
+is no other than a bituminous body in
+that subtilised state in which it is indefinitely
+divided, and may be mixed uniformly with
+any mass of matter equally subtilised with itself.
+But this is precisely what we want, in
+order to compose the strata of coal in question.
+If, therefore, there were to be found in the
+ocean such a fund of this fuliginous substance
+as might suffice for the formation of bituminous
+strata, no difficulty would be left in explaining
+the original of fossil coal. But tho'
+sufficient quantity of this fuliginous matter
+might not be found for the explanation of
+natural appearances, yet there cannot be a
+doubt that more or less of this matter must be
+produced in the mineral operations of the
+globe, and be found precisely in that place
+where it is required for the forming of those
+strata of coal.</p>
+
+<p>In order to conceive this, we are to consider,
+that there are actually great quantities of
+coal strata in a charred state, which indicates
+that all their more volatile oleaginous or fuliginous
+matter had been separated by force of
+subterranean heat; and, we are to suppose
+that this had been transacted at the bottom of
+the ocean: Consequently, a subtile oleaginous,
+bituminous, or fuliginous substance, must have
+been diffused in that ocean; and this bituminous
+matter would be employed in forming
+other strata, which were then deposited at the
+bottom of the waters.</p>
+
+<p>But besides this quantity of bituminous
+matter which is necessarily formed in the mineral
+operations of the earth, and with regard
+to the quantity of which we can never form
+a proper estimate, there must enter into this
+same calculation all the fuliginous matter that
+is formed in burning bodies upon the surface
+of this earth. This bituminous matter of
+smoke is first delivered into the atmosphere,
+but ultimately it must be settled at the bottom
+of the sea. Hence though, compared with
+the quantity that we think required, each revolution
+of the globe produces but a little in
+our estimation, yet the progress of time, in reforming
+worlds, may produce all that is necessary
+in the formation of our strata.</p>
+
+<p>There now remains to explain the other
+way in which bituminous matter may be obtained
+from vegetable bodies, that is, by means
+of water. For this purpose we must begin
+with a part of natural history that will throw
+some light upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>All the rivers in Scotland run into the sea
+tinged with a brown substance; this is most
+evident in some of them after a flood, and
+while yet the river is swelled; but, in travelling
+to the north of Scotland in the summer
+season, without any rain, I saw all the rivers,
+without exception, of a brown colour, compared
+with a river of more clear water. This
+colour proceeds from the moss water, as it is
+called, which runs into the rivers, or the infusion
+of that vegetable substance which forms
+combustible turf, called peat. Now, this
+moss water leaves, upon evaporation, a bituminous
+substance, which very much resembles
+fossil coal. Therefore, in order to employ
+this vegetable infusion, delivered into the ocean
+for the purpose of forming bituminous strata
+at its bottom, it is only required to make this
+bituminous matter separate and subside.</p>
+
+<p>If now we consider the immense quantity
+of inflammable vegetable substance, dissolved
+in water, that is carried into the sea by all the
+rivers of the earth, and the indefinite space of
+time during which those rivers have been
+pouring in that oily matter into the sea; and
+if we consider, that the continual action of
+the sun and atmosphere upon this oily substance
+tends, by inspissation, to make it more
+and more dense or bituminous, we cannot
+hesitate in supposing a continual separation of
+this bituminous matter or inspissated oil from
+the water, and a precipitation of it to the bottom
+of the sea. This argument is corroborated
+by considering, that, if it were otherwise,
+the water of the sea must have, during the
+immense time that rivers are proved to have
+run, be strongly impregnated with that oily
+or bituminous substance; but this does not
+appear; therefore we are to conclude, that
+there must be the means of separating that
+substance from the water in which it had been
+dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>If there is thus, from the continual perishing
+of animal and vegetable bodies upon the
+surface of this earth and in the sea, a certain
+supply of oily or bituminous matter given to
+the ocean, then, however small a portion of
+this shall be supposed the whole oily or inflammable
+matter produced upon the surface of
+the earth, or however long time it may require
+for thus producing a stratum or considerable
+body of coal, we must still see in this a source
+of the materials proper for the production of
+that species of strata in the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the proper materials
+of which pure fossil coal is chiefly formed;
+we have at present to consider what should be
+the appearances of such a substance as this collected
+at the bottom of the sea, and condensed
+or consolidated by compression and by heat.
+We should thus have a body of a most uniform
+structure, black, breaking with a polished
+surface, and more or less fusible in the fire,
+or burning with more or less smoke and flame,
+in proportion as it should be distilled or inspissated,
+less or more, by subterranean heat. But
+this is the description of our purest fossil coals,
+which burn in giving the greatest quantity of
+heat, and leave the smallest quantity of ashes.</p>
+
+<p>In order to form another regular species of
+coal, let us suppose that, along with the bituminous
+substance now considered, there shall
+be floating in the water of the ocean a subtile
+earthy substance, and that these two different
+substances shall subside together in an uniform
+manner, to produce a stratum which shall be
+covered with immense weight, compressed,
+condensed, and consolidated as before, we
+should thus have produced a most homogeneous
+or uniform body to appearance, but not
+so in reality. The mixture of heterogeneous
+matter, in this case, is too minute to be discovered
+simply by inspection; it must require
+deep reflection upon the subject, with the help
+of chemical analysis, to understand the constitution
+of this body, and judge of all the circumstances
+or particulars in which it differs
+from the former. It is worth while to examine
+this subject with some attention, as it
+will give the most instructive view of the
+composition of bituminous strata, both those
+which are not considered as coal, and also the
+different species of that mineral body.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place then, if the mixture of
+those two different substances had been sufficiently
+perfect, and the precipitation uniform,
+the solid body of coal resulting from this mixture,
+would not only appear homogeneous, but
+might break equally or regularly in all directions;
+but the fracture of this coal must visibly
+differ from the former, so far as the fracture
+of this heterogeneous coal cannot have the
+polished surface of the pure bituminous body;
+for, the earthy matter that is interposed among
+the bituminous particles must affect the
+fracture in preventing its surface from being
+perfectly smooth. This imperfect plane
+of the fracture may be improved by polishing;
+in which case the body might be sufficiently
+smooth to have an agreeable polish; but it
+cannot have a perfect polish like a homogeneous
+body, or appear with that glassy surface
+which is naturally in the fracture of the
+pure bituminous coal.</p>
+
+<p>But this is also a perfect description of
+that species of coal which is called in England
+Kennel coal, and in Scotland Parrot coal. It
+is so uniform in its substance that it is capable
+of being formed on the turning loom;
+and it receives a certain degree of polish, resembling
+bodies of jet.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, we have a species of coal in which
+we shall find but a small degree of fusibility,
+although it may not be charred in any degree.
+Such an infusible coal may therefore contain
+a great deal of aqueous substance, and volatile
+oily matter; consequently may burn with
+smoke and flame. But this same species of
+coal may also occasionally be charred more
+or less by the operation of subterranean heat;
+and, in that case, we should have a variety of
+coal which could only be distinguished, from
+a similar state of pure bituminous coal, by the
+ashes which they leave in burning. At least,
+this must be the case, when both species are,
+by sufficient distillation, reduced to the state
+of what may be properly termed a chemical
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>But in the natural state of its composition,
+we find those strata of kennel or parrot coal,
+possessing a peculiar property, which deserves
+to be considered, as still throwing more light
+upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We have been representing these strata of
+coal as homogeneous to appearance, and as
+breaking indifferently in all directions; this
+last, perhaps, is not so accurate; for they
+would seem to break chiefly into two directions,
+that is, either parallel or perpendicular
+to the bed. Thus we have this coal commonly
+in rectangular pieces, in which it is extremely
+difficult to distinguish the direction of
+the bed, or stratification of the mass. By an
+expert eye, however, this may be in general,
+or at least sometimes, distinguished, and then,
+by knowing the habit of the coal in burning,
+a person perfectly ignorant of the philosophy
+of the matter may exhibit a wonderful sagacity,
+or even of power over future events,
+in applying this body to fire; for, at his pleasure,
+and unknown to those who are not in
+the secret; he may apparently, in equal circumstances,
+make this coal either kindle quietly,
+or with violent cracking and explosions,
+throwing its splinters at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation lies in this, that, though
+the rectangular mass of coal appears extremely
+uniform in its structure, it is truly a stratified
+mass; it is therefore affected, by the
+sudden approach of fire in a very different
+manner, according as the edge of the stratum,
+which is seen in four of the sides of this supposed
+cube, shall be applied to the fire, or the
+other two sides, which are in the line of the
+stratum, or parallel to the bed of coal. The
+reason of this phenomenon now remains to
+be considered.</p>
+
+<p>When the edge of the coal is exposed to
+the fire, the stratification of the coal is opened
+gradually by the heat and expanding vapours,
+as a piece of wood, of a similar shape, would
+be by means of wedges placed in the end way
+of the timber. The coal then kindles quietly,
+and quickly flames, while the mass of this bituminous
+schistus is opening like the leaves of
+a book, and thus exhibits an appearance in
+burning extremely like wood. But let the
+fire be applied to the middle of the bed, instead
+of the edge of the leaves, and we shall
+see a very different appearance; for here the
+expanded aqueous vapours, confined between
+the <i>laminae</i>, form explosions, in throwing off
+splinters from the kindling mass; and this
+mass of coal takes fire with much noise and
+disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>The ashes of this coal may be determined
+as to quality, being in general a subtile white
+earth; but, as to quantity, the measure of that
+earth produces an indefinite variety in this
+species of coal; for, from the kennel or parrot
+coal, which is valuable for its burning with
+much flame, to that black schistus which our
+masons use in drawing upon stone, and which,
+though combustible in some degree, is not
+thought to be a coal, there is a perfect gradation,
+in which coal may be found with every
+proportion of this earthy alloy.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lowest species of this combustible
+schistus are those argillaceous strata in
+Yorkshire from whence they procure alum in
+burning great heaps of this stone, which also
+contains sulphur, to impregnate the aluminous
+earth with its acid. We have also, in
+this country, strata which differ from those
+aluminous schisti only in the nature of the
+earth, with which the bituminous sediment is
+mixed. In the strata now considered, the
+earth, precipitated with the bituminous matter,
+being calcareous, has produced a limestone,
+which, after burning especially, is perfectly
+fissile.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, with regard to the composition
+of mineral coal, the theory is this. That inflammable,
+vegetable, and animal substances,
+in a subtilised state, had subsided in the sea,
+being mixed more or less with argillaceous,
+calcareous, and other earthy substances in an
+impalpable state. Now, the chemical analysis
+of fossil coal justifies that theory; for, in
+the distillation of the inflammable or oily coal,
+we procure volatile alkali, as might be naturally
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have considered fossil coal as various,
+both in its state and composition; we
+have described coal which is of the purest
+composition, as well as that which is most impure
+or earthy; and we have shown that
+there is a gradation, from the most bituminous
+state in which those strata had been formed in
+being deposited at the bottom of the sea, to
+the most perfect state of a chemical coal, to
+which they have been brought by the operation
+of subterranean fire or heat.</p>
+
+<p>We have been hitherto considering fossil
+coal as formed of the impalpable parts of inflammable
+bodies, united together by pressure,
+and made to approach in various degrees to
+the nature of a chemical coal, by means of
+subterranean heat; because, from the examination
+of those strata, many of them have
+evidently been formed in this manner. But
+vegetable bodies macerated in water, and then
+consolidated by compression, form a substance
+of the same kind, almost undistinguishable from
+some species of fossil coal. We have an example
+of this in our turf pits or peat mosses;
+when this vegetable substance has been compressed
+under a great load of earth, which
+sometimes happens, it is much consolidated,
+and hardens, by drying, into a black body,
+not afterwards dilutable or penetrated by
+water, and almost undistinguishable in burning
+from mineralised bodies of the same kind.</p>
+
+<p>Also, when fossil wood has been condensed
+by compression and changed by the operation
+of heat, as it is frequently found in argillaceous
+strata, particularly in the aluminous rock
+upon the coast of Yorkshire, it becomes a jet
+almost undistinguishable from some species of
+fossil coal.</p>
+
+<p>There cannot therefore be a doubt, that if
+this vegetable substance, which is formed by
+the collection of wood and plants in water
+upon the surface of the earth, were to be
+found in the place of fossil coal, and to undergo
+the mineral operations of the globe, it must at
+least augment the quantity of those strata,
+though it should not form distinct strata by
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be thought that vegetable
+bodies and their impalpable parts are things
+too far distant in the scale of magnitude to be
+supposed as subsiding together in the ocean;
+and this would certainly be a just observation
+with regard to any other species of bodies: But
+the nature of vegetable bodies is to be floatant
+in water; so that we may suppose them
+carried at any distance from the shore; consequently,
+the size of the body here makes no
+difference with regard to the place or order in
+which these are to be deposited.</p>
+
+<p>The examination of fossil coal fully confirms
+those reasonable suppositions. For, <i>first</i>,
+The strata that attend coal, whether the sandstone
+or the argillaceous strata, commonly,
+almost universally, abound with the most distinct
+evidence of vegetable substances; this is
+the impressions of plants which are found in
+their composition. <i>Secondly</i>, There is much
+fossil coal, particularly that termed in England
+clod coal, and employed in the iron foundry,
+that shows abundance of vegetable bodies in
+its composition. The strata of this coal have
+many horizontal interstices, at which the more
+solid shining coal is easily separated; here the
+fibrous structure of the compressed vegetable
+bodies is extremely visible; and thus no manner
+of doubt remains, that at least a part of
+this coal had been composed of the vegetable
+bodies themselves, whatever may have been
+the origin of the more compact parts where
+nothing is to be distinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The state in which we often find fossil
+wood in strata gives reason to conclude that
+this body of vegetable production, in its condensed
+state, is in appearance undistinguishable
+from fossil coal, and may be also in great
+quantity; as, for example, the Bovey coal in
+Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the strata of fossil coal would appear
+to be formed by the subsidence of inflammable
+matter of every species at the bottom of the
+sea, in places distant from the shore, or where
+there had been much repose, and where the
+lightest and most floatant bodies have been deposited
+together. This is confirmed in examining
+those bodies of fossil coal; for, though
+there are often found beds of sand-stone immediately
+above and below the stratum of the
+coal, we do not find any sand mixed in the
+strata of the coal itself.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the composition of coal to be
+various, but all included within certain rules
+which have been investigated, we may perceive
+in this an explanation of that diversity
+which is often observed among the various
+strata of one bed of coal. Even the most opposite
+species of composition may be found in
+the thickness of one bed, although of very
+little depth, that is to say, the purest bituminous
+coal may, in the same bed, be conjoined
+with that which is most earthy.</p>
+
+<p>Fossil coal is commonly alternated with regular
+sand-stone and argillaceous strata; but
+these are very different bodies; therefore, it
+may perhaps be inquired how such different
+substances came to be deposited in the same
+place of the ocean. The answer to this is
+easy; we do not pretend to trace things from
+their original to the place in which they had
+been ultimately deposited at the bottom of the
+sea. It is enough that we find the substance
+of which we treat delivered into the sea, and
+regularly deposited at the bottom, after having
+been transported by the currents of the
+ocean. Now the currents of the ocean,
+however regular they may be for a certain
+period of time, and however long this period
+may be protracted, naturally change; and
+then the currents, which had given birth to
+one species of stratum in one place, will carry
+it to another; and the sediment which the
+moment before had formed a coal stratum, or
+a bed of that bituminous matter, may be succeeded
+either with the sediment of an argillaceous
+stratum, or covered over with a bed
+of sand, brought by the changed current of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered all the appearances
+of coal strata, so far as these depend upon
+the materials, and their original collection.
+But, as those bituminous strata have been
+changed in their substance by the operation of
+subterranean heat and inspissation, we are now
+to look for the necessary consequences of this
+change in the body of the stratum; and also
+for other mineral operations common to fossil
+coal with consolidated strata of whatever
+species.</p>
+
+<p>If coal, like other mineral strata, have
+been inspissated and consolidated by subterranean
+heat, we should find them traversed with
+veins and fissures; and, if the matter found
+in those veins and fissures corresponds to that
+found in similar places of other strata, every
+confirmation will be hence given to the
+theory that can be expected from the consideration
+of those bituminous strata. But
+this is the case; we find those fissures filled
+both with calcareous, gypseous, and pyritous
+substances. Therefore, we have reason to
+conclude, that the strata of fossil coal, like
+every other indurated or consolidated body in
+the earth, has been produced, <i>first</i>, by means of
+water preparing and collecting materials proper
+for the construction of land; and, <i>secondly</i>, by
+the operation of internal fire or subterranean
+heat melting and thus consolidating every
+known substance of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Not only are those sparry and pyritous substances,
+which are more natural to coal strata,
+found forming veins traversing those strata in
+various directions, but also every other mineral
+vein may occasionally be found pervading
+coal mines, or traversing bituminous strata.
+Gold, silver, copper, lead, calamine, have all,
+in this manner, been found in coal.</p>
+
+<p>There remains now only to consider those
+bituminous strata of fossil coal in relation to
+that change of situation which has happened
+more or less to every stratum which we examine;
+but which is so much better known
+in those of coal, by having, from their great
+utility in the arts of life, become a subject for
+mining, and thus been traced in the earth at
+great expense, and for a long extent.</p>
+
+<p>Coal strata, which had been originally in a
+horizontal position, are now found sometimes
+standing in an erect posture, even almost perpendicular
+to the plane in which they had
+been formed. Miners therefore distinguish
+coal strata according as they deem them to
+approach to the one or other of those two extremes,
+in terming them either flat or edge
+seams or veins. Thus, it will appear, that
+every possible change from the original position
+of those strata may have happened, and
+are daily found from our experience in those
+mines.</p>
+
+<p>But besides the changed position of those
+strata, in departing from the horizontal line or
+flat position in which they had been formed,
+there is another remarkable change, termed
+by miners a <i>trouble</i> in the coal. The consideration
+of this change will further illustrate
+the operations of nature in placing that which
+had been at the bottom of the sea above its
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>Strata, that are in one place regularly inclined,
+may be found bended, or irregularly
+inclined, in following their course. Here
+then is a source of irregularity which often
+materially effects the estimates of miners,
+judging from what they see, of those parts
+which are to be explored; and this is an accident
+which they frequently experience.</p>
+
+<p>But, without any change in the general direction
+of the stratum, miners often find their
+coal broke off abruptly, those two parts being
+placed upon a higher and lower situation in
+respect to each other, if flat beds, or separated
+laterally if they are edge seams. This is by
+miners termed a <i>slip, hitch</i>, or <i>dyke</i>.</p>
+
+<p>These irregularities may either be attended
+with an injected body of subterraneous lava
+or basaltes, here termed whin-stone, or they
+may not be attended, at least apparently, <i>i.e.</i>
+immediately, with any such accident. But
+experienced miners know, that, in approaching
+to any of those injected masses of stone,
+which are so frequent in this country, their
+coal is more and more subject to be troubled.</p>
+
+<p>As there is, in this country of Scotland,
+two different species of mountains or hills,
+one composed both in matter and manner exactly
+similar to the Alps of Switzerland, the
+other of whin-stone, basaltic rock, or subterraneous
+lava; and as the fossil coal, argillaceous
+and sand-stone strata, are found variously connected
+with those hills, nothing can tend more
+to give a proper understanding, with regard
+to the construction of the land in general, of
+the globe than a view of those different bodies,
+which are here found much mixed together
+in a little space of country, thus exhibiting,
+as it were in miniature, what may be
+found in other parts of the world, upon a
+larger scale, but not upon any other principle.
+I will therefore endeavour to give a short description
+of the mineral state of this country
+with regard to coal, so far as my experience
+and memory will serve.</p>
+
+<p>This country might very properly be considered
+as consisting of primary and secondary
+mountains; not as supposing the primary
+mountains original and inexplicable in their
+formation, any more than those of the latest
+production, but as considering the one to be
+later in point of time, or posterior in the progress
+of things. The first are those which
+commonly form the alpine countries, consisting
+of various schisti, of quartzy stone, and
+granites. The second, again, are the whinstone
+or basaltic hills scattered up and down
+the low country, and evidently posterior to
+the strata of that country, which they break,
+elevate, and displace.</p>
+
+<p>Thus there are in this country, as well as
+every where else, three things to be distinguished;
+first, the alpine or elevated country;
+secondly, the flat or low country; and, thirdly,
+that which has been of posterior formation
+to the strata which it traverses, in whatever
+shape or quality; whether as a mountain, or
+only as a vein; whether as a basaltes, a porphyry,
+or a granite, or only as a metal, a siliceous
+substance, or a spar.</p>
+
+<p>Those three things which are here distinguished
+do not differ with regard to the chemical
+character of their substances; for, in
+each of these, every different substance is to
+be found, more or less; and it is not in being
+composed of materials peculiar to itself, that
+makes an alpine country be distinguished from
+a flat country; it is chiefly in the changes
+which the strata of the alpine country have
+been made to undergo, posterior to their original
+collection, that the rocks of the alpine
+country differ from those of the flat country.</p>
+
+<p>But the observation that is most to the purpose
+of the present subject of bituminous strata,
+is this; it is chiefly in the strata of the flat
+country that fossil coal are found; there are
+none that I know of in all the alpine countries
+of Scotland; and it is always among the strata
+peculiar to the flat country that fossil coal is
+found. Now, this appearance cannot be explained
+by saying that the materials of mineral
+coal had not existed in the world while
+those primary strata were formed in the sea.
+I have already shown, (chap. 4.) that there
+had been the same system of a world, producing
+plants, and thus maintaining animals,
+while the primary strata were formed in the
+sea; I have even adduced an example of coal
+strata among those primary schisti, although
+this be an extremely rare occurrence: Consequently,
+we are under the necessity of looking
+out for some other cause.</p>
+
+<p>If the changes which have been evidently
+superinduced in the strata of alpine countries
+arise from the repeated operations of subterranean
+fire, or to the extreme degree in which
+those strata have been affected by this consolidating
+and elevating cause, it will be natural
+to suppose that the bituminous or combustible
+part among those stratifications, may have been
+mostly consumed upon some occasion during
+those various and long continued operations;
+whereas, in the flat beds of the low country,
+although there is the most perfect evidence
+for the exertion of heat in the consolidation
+of those strata, the general quantity of this
+has been a little thing, compared with the
+universal manifestation of this cause in the
+operations of the alpine countries, the strata
+of which have been so much displaced in their
+situations and positions.</p>
+
+<p>To illustrate this, strata of sand-stone are
+found in both the alpine and flat countries of
+Scotland. About Leadhills, for example, there
+are abundance of those strata; but, in the flat
+country, the generality of the sand-stone is so
+little changed as to appear to every enlightened
+naturalist aquiform strata; whereas the
+most enlightened of those philosophers will
+not perhaps attribute the same original to a
+similar composition in the alpine country,
+which is so much changed from its original
+state. It is not because there had been wanting
+a sufficient degree of heat to consolidate
+the sand-stone in the coal country; for I can
+show specimens of sand-stone almost contiguous
+with coal, that have been extremely
+much consolidated in this manner. But this
+is only a particular stratum; and the general
+appearance of the sand-stone, as well as other
+strata in the coal countries, is that of having
+been little affected by those subterranean operations
+of heat by which those bodies in the
+alpine country have been changed in their
+structure, shape, and position.</p>
+
+<p>If we shall thus allow the principle of consolidation,
+consequently also of induration, to
+have been much exerted upon the strata of
+the alpine country, and but moderately or little
+upon those of the low country of Scotland,
+we shall evidently see one reason, perhaps the
+only one, for the lesser elevation of the one
+country above the level of the sea, than the
+other. This is because the one resists the
+powers which have been employed in leveling
+what has been raised from the bottom of
+the sea, more than the other; consequently,
+we find more of the one remaining above the
+level of the sea than of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take the map of Scotland, in
+order to observe the mixture of those two different
+species of countries, whereof the one is
+generally low and flat, the other high and
+mountainous; the one more or less provided
+with fossil coal, the other not.</p>
+
+<p>From St Abb's Head, on the east of Scotland,
+to the Mull of Galloway, on the west,
+there runs a ridge of mountains of granite,
+quartz, and schistus strata, which contain not
+coal. On each side of this ridge we find coal
+countries; Northumberland, on the one side,
+and, on the other, the shires of Ayr, Lanark,
+and the Lothians; the one is a mountainous
+country, the others are comparatively low or
+flat countries. Let us now draw another alpine
+line from Buchan and Caithness, upon the east, to
+the island of Jura, on the west; this traverses
+a mountainous country destitute of coal, and,
+so far as I know, of any marks of marine bodies.
+But, on each side of this great alpine
+ridge, we find the hard country skirted with
+one which is lower, flatter, or of a softer nature,
+in which coal is found, upon the one
+side, in the shires of Fife, Clackmannan, and
+Stirling; and, on the other, in that hollow
+which runs from the Murray Frith south-west,
+in a straight line, directed upon the end
+of Mull, and composed, for the most part, of
+water very little above the level of the sea.
+Here, to be sure, the coal is scarce, or not so
+evident; but there is coal upon the sea coast
+in several places of this great Bay betwixt
+Buchan and Caithness; and the lowness of
+the country, across this part of the island, is
+almost sufficient testimony that it had been
+composed of softer materials.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the coal country of Scotland may be
+considered as in one band across the island,
+and included in the counties of Ayr, Lanark,
+and all those which border upon the Frith of
+Forth. Now, in all this tract of coal and tender
+strata, we do not find ridges of alpine
+stone or primary mountains, but we find many
+hills of solid rock, little mountains, from 500
+to 1000 feet high; such as that beautiful conical
+hill North Berwick Law, Torpender
+Law, Arthur's Seat, the Lowmands, and
+others of inferior note. That is to say, the
+whole of this included space, both sea and
+land, has been invaded from below with melted
+masses of whin-stone, breaking up through
+the natural strata of the country, and variously
+embossing the surface of the earth at present,
+when all the softer materials, with which
+those subterranean lavas had been covered,
+are washed away or removed from those summits
+of the country. Hence there is scarcely
+a considerable tubercle, with which this country
+also abounds, that may not be found containing
+a mass of whin-stone as a nucleus.</p>
+
+<p>But besides those insulated masses of whinstone
+that form a gradation from a mountain
+to a single rock, such, for example, as that on
+which the Castle of Edinburgh is built, we
+find immense quantities of the same basaltic
+rock interjected among the natural strata, always
+breaking and disordering them, but often
+apparently following their directions for a
+considerable space with some regularity. We
+also find dykes of the same substance bisecting
+the strata like perpendicular veins of
+rock; and, in some places, we see the connection
+of these rocks of the same substance,
+which thus appear to be placed in such a different
+form in relation to the strata.</p>
+
+<p>It will thus appear, that the regular form,
+and horizontal direction of strata throughout
+this country of coal, now under contemplation,
+has been broken and disordered by the
+eruption and interjection of those masses of
+basaltic stone or subterraneous lava; and thus
+may be explained not only the disorders and
+irregularities of coal strata, but also the different
+qualities of this bituminous substance from
+its more natural state to that of a perfect coal
+or fixed infusible and combustible substance
+burning without smoke. This happens sometimes
+to a part of a coal stratum which approaches
+the whin-stone.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus stated the case of combustible
+or bituminous strata, I would ask those naturalists,
+who adhere to the theory of infiltration
+and the operation of water alone, how
+they are to conceive those strata formed and
+consolidated. They must consider, that here
+are immense bodies of those combustible strata,
+under hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathoms
+of sand-stone, iron-stone, argillaceous and calcareous
+strata. If they are to suppose bituminous
+bodies collected at the bottom of the
+sea, they must say from whence that bitumen
+had come; for, with regard to the strata below
+those bituminous bodies, above them, and
+between them, we see perfectly from whence
+had come the materials of which they are
+formed. They cannot say that it is from a
+collection of earthy matter which had been
+afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for,
+although we find many of those earthy strata
+variously impregnated with the bituminous
+and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy
+and the bituminous matter had subsided together;
+besides, there are many of those coaly
+and bituminous strata in which there is no
+more than two or three <i>per cent.</i> of earthy
+matter or ashes after burning; therefore the
+strata must have been formed of bituminous
+matter, and not simply impregnated with
+it.</p>
+
+<p>To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow
+them to form their strata, which certainly
+is the case in great part, by the collection
+of vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say,
+in what manner they are to consolidate those
+bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
+pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous
+veins of spar and pyrites, which traverse
+those strata in all directions, to be formed
+in those bodies consolidated by the compression
+of the superincumbent masses?&mdash;Here
+is a manifest inconsistency, which proves
+that it could not be. But, even were we to
+suppose all those difficulties to be over come,
+there is still an impossibility in the way of
+that inconsiderate theory, and this will appear
+more fully in the following chapter.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>The Mineralogical Operations of
+the Earth illustrated from the Theory of Fossil
+Coal.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>There is not perhaps a greater difference
+among the various qualities of bodies than
+that which may be observed to subsist between
+the burning of those two substances, that is,
+the inflammable bodies on the one hand, and
+those that are combustible on the other. I
+have treated of that distinction in Dissertations
+upon subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part 3d. where I have considered the different
+effects of those two kinds of bodies upon the
+incident light; and, in a Dissertation upon
+the Philosophy of Fire, etc. I have distinguished
+those two kinds of substances in relation
+to their emitting, in burning, the fixed light
+which had constituted a part of those inflammable
+and combustible bodies.</p>
+
+<p>All animals and vegetable bodies contain
+both those different chemical substances united;
+and this phlogistic composition is an
+essential part in every animal and vegetable
+substance. There are to be found in those
+bodies particular substances, which abound
+more or less with one of those species of phlogistic
+matter, but never is the one species of
+those burning substances to be found naturally,
+in animal and vegetable bodies, without
+being associated with the other; and it is all
+that the chemical art can do to separate them
+in a great degree upon occasion. Pure ardent
+spirit may perhaps be considered as containing
+the one, and the most perfect coal
+the other; the chemical principle of the one
+is proper carbonic matter; and of the other
+it is the hydrogeneous principle, or that of
+inflammable air.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we so far understand the composition
+of animal and vegetable substances which burn
+or maintain our fires; we also understand the
+chemical analysis of those bodies, in separating
+the inflammable from the combustible substance,
+or the volatile from the fixed matter, the
+oil from what is the proper coal. It is by distillation
+or evaporation, the effect of heat, that
+this separatory operation is performed; and
+we know no other means by which this may
+be done. Therefore, wherever we find
+peculiar effects of that separatory operation,
+we have a right to infer the proper cause.</p>
+
+<p>The subject, which we are to consider in
+this section, is not the composition of strata
+in those of mineral coal, but the transformation
+of those, which had been originally inflammable
+bodies, into bodies which are only
+combustible, an end which is to be attained
+by the separation of their volatile or inflammable
+substances. In the last section, I
+have shown of what materials the strata of
+mineral coal had been originally formed; these
+are substances containing abundance of inflammable
+oil or bitumen, as well as carbonic
+matter which is properly combustible; and
+this is confirmed by the generality of those
+strata, which, though perfectly consolidated
+by fusion, retain still their inflammable and fusible
+qualities. But now the object of investigation
+is that mineral operation by which
+some of those strata, or some parts of a fusible
+and inflammable stratum, have been so changed
+as to become infusible and only combustible.</p>
+
+<p>We have now examined those strata which
+may be considered as either proper mineral
+coal, or as only a bituminous schistus; we
+are now to class along with these another species
+of this kind of matter, which has had a
+similar origin, although it may assume a different
+character.</p>
+
+<p>According to the common observations of
+mankind, the eminent quality by which coal
+is to be distinguished, is the burning of that
+substance, or its capacity for making a fire.
+Therefore, however similar in other respects,
+a substance which had not that eminent quality
+of coal could hardly be considered as being
+allied to it; far less could it be supposed,
+as being in every other respect the same. We
+are however to endeavour to show, that there
+are truly substances of this kind, substances
+which to common observation, having none
+of the properties of coal with respect to fire,
+consequently, no utility for the purpose of
+burning, might be considered as another species
+of mineral, while at the same time they
+are truly at bottom a composition very little
+different from those which we have considered
+as the most perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>It must be recollected that we have distinguished
+coal in general as of two different
+species, one perfect or proper coal, containing
+no perceptible quantity of either oil or phlegm;
+the other as burning with smoke and flame,
+consequently containing both aqueous and
+oleaginous substances which it emits in distillation.
+It is the first of these which we are
+now to consider more particularly, in order
+to see the varieties which may be found in
+this species of mineral substance.</p>
+
+<p>When that bituminous fossil, which is the
+common coal of this country, is submitted to
+heat it is subject to melt more or less, and
+emits smoke which is composed of water and
+oil. If it be thus completely distilled, it
+becomes a perfect coal of a porous or spongy
+texture. Such a substance as this is extremely
+rare among minerals; I have however found
+it. It is in the harbour of Ayr, where a whinstone
+dyke traverses the coal strata, and includes
+some of that substance in the state of
+coals or cinder. I pointed this out many
+years ago to Dr Black; and lately I showed
+it to Professor Playfair.</p>
+
+<p>But the culm of South Wales, the Kilkenny
+coal of Ireland, and the blind coal of
+Scotland, notwithstanding that these are a perfect
+coal, or charred to a coal, have nothing
+of the porous construction of the specimen
+which I have just now mentioned; they are
+perfectly solid, and break with a smooth shining
+surface like those which emit smoke and
+flame.</p>
+
+<p>Here is therefore a mineral operation in the
+preparation of those coals which we cannot
+imitate; and here is the clearest evidence of
+the operation of mineral fire or heat, although
+we are ignorant of the reason why some coal
+strata are charred, while others are not, and
+why, in some particular cases, the charred coal
+may be porous or spungy like our coaks, while
+in general those blind coals (as they are called)
+are perfectly solid in their structure.</p>
+
+<p>But to what I would call more particularly
+the attention of mineral philosophers is this,
+that it is inconceivable to have this effect produced
+by means of water; we might as well
+say that heat were to be the cause of ice. The
+production of coal from vegetable bodies, in
+which that phlogistic substance is originally
+produced, or from animal bodies which have
+it from that source, is made by heat, and by
+no other means, so far as we know. But,
+even heat alone is not sufficient to effect that
+end, or make a perfect coal; the phlogistic
+body, which is naturally compound, consisting
+of both inflammable and combustible substances,
+must be separated chemically, and this
+must be the operation of heat under the proper
+circumstances for distillation or evaporation.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the impossibility which in the last
+chapter I have alleged the aqueous theory
+has to struggle against; and here is one of
+the absolute proofs of the igneous theory.
+Not only must the aqueous part of those natural
+phlogistic bodies be evaporated, in order
+to their becoming coal, but the oily parts must
+also, by a still increased degree of heat, be
+evaporated, or separated by distillation from
+the combustible part. Here, therefore, is evidently
+the operation of heat, not simply that
+of fusion in contradiction to the fluidity of
+aqueous solution, but in opposition to any effect
+of water, as requiring the absence or separation
+of that aqueous substance.</p>
+
+<p>But those natural appearances go still farther
+to confirm our theory, which, upon all occasions,
+considers the compression upon the bodies
+that are submitted to the operation of
+heat, in the mineral regions, as having the
+greatest efficacy in modifying that operation.
+Coal strata, which are in the neighbourhood
+of each other, being of those two opposite
+species, the one fusible and inflammable, the
+other infusible and combustible, afford the
+clearest proof of the efficacy of compression;
+for, it is evident, that the coal, which was once
+bituminous or fusible, cannot be charred without
+the distillation of that substance; therefore,
+prevent the distillation by compression
+and the charring operation cannot proceed,
+whatever should be the intensity of the heat;
+and then, fusion alone must be the effect upon
+the bituminous body. But now, as we have
+both those species of coal in the vicinity of
+each other, and even the same strata of coal
+part charred, while the rest is not, this natural
+appearance, so far from being a stumbling
+block, as it must be to the opposite theory, is
+most clearly explained by the partial escape of
+vapours from the mineral regions, and thus
+confirms the theory with regard to the efficacy
+of compression.</p>
+
+<p>It is owing to the solidity of those natural
+charred coals, and the want of oil, that
+they are so very difficult of kindling; but,
+when once kindled in sufficient quantity, they
+make a fire which is very durable. There
+are even some of them which, to common observation,
+seem to be altogether incombustible.
+I have of this kind a specimen from a stratum
+at Stair, which shall be afterwards mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>M. Struve, in the Journal de Physique for
+January 1790, describes a mineral which he
+calls <i>plombagine charbonneuse ou hexaëdre</i>;
+and gives for reason, <i>parce qu'elle ressemble extrêmement
+au charbon de pierre schisteux, ou
+d'hexaëdre</i>. He says farther, "Il est très
+commun, dans une roche qui forme un passage
+entre les granits et les brèches, qu'on
+n'a trouvée jusqu'à présent qu'on masses
+roulées dans le pays de Vaud." He concludes
+his paper thus: "Ce fossile singulier ne
+paroît pas appartenir à la Suisse seule. J'ai
+dans ce moment devant les yeux une substance
+parfaitement semblable, si on excepte
+la couleur qui tient le milieu entre le gris
+de fer et le rouge modéré; elle vient du
+pays de Gotha de la Friedrischs-grube,
+proche d'Umneau. On le regarde comme
+un eisenrahm uni à du charbon de pierre."</p>
+
+<p>The specimen which I have from Stair
+upon the water of Ayr, so far as I can understand,
+perfectly resembles this <i>plombagine</i> of
+M. Struve. It consumes very slowly in the
+fire, and deflagrates like plumbago with nitre.
+Now this comes from a regular coal stratum;
+and what is more remarkable, in this stratum
+is contained a true plumbago, Farther up the
+country, the Earl of Dumfries has also a mine
+containing plumbago along with other coal
+strata; and though the plumbago of these two
+mines have not all the softness and beauty of
+the mineral of the same species from Cumberland,
+they are nevertheless perfect plumbago.</p>
+
+<p>I have a specimen of steatetical whinstone
+or basaltes from some part of Cumberland, in
+which is contained many nodules of the most
+perfect and beautiful plumbago. It is dispersed
+through this stone in rounded masses of
+all sizes from a nut to a pin's head; and many
+of these are mixed with pyrites. There is
+therefore reason to believe that this plumbago
+had been in fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if we consider that every species of
+coal and every species of plumbago are equally,
+that is, perfectly combustible, and yield, in
+burning, the same volatile principles, differing
+only perhaps a little in the small quantity of
+fixed matter which remains, we shall be inclined
+to believe, that they have all the same
+origin in a vegetable substance; and that they
+are diversified by some very small composition
+of other matter. This being allowed, one
+thing is certain, that it is by the operation of
+mineral fire or heat that those combustible substances,
+however composed, have been brought
+to their present state of coal, although we are
+ignorant of the circumstances by which their
+differences and their peculiar chemical and
+mechanical qualities have been produced.</p>
+
+<p>Let us resume in a few words. There is
+not perhaps one substance in the mineral kingdom
+by which the operation of subterraneous
+heat is, to common understanding, better exemplified
+than that of mineral coal. Those
+strata are evidently a deposit of inflammable
+substances which all come originally from vegetable
+bodies. In this state of their formation,
+those coal strata must all be oleagenous
+or bituminous. In many of them, however,
+these volatile parts are found wanting; and,
+the stratum is found in the state of the most
+perfect coal or caput mortuum. There, is, I
+presume, no other means to be found by
+which this eminent effect could be produced,
+except by distillation; and, this distillation
+perhaps proceeded under the restraining force
+of an immense compression.</p>
+
+<p>To this theory it must not be objected, that
+all the strata of coal, which are found in the
+same place or neighbourhood, are not reduced
+to that caput mortuum or perfect coaly state.
+The change from a bituminous to a coaly
+substance can only take place in proportion as
+the distillation of the volatile parts is permitted.
+Now this distillation must be permitted,
+if any passage can be procured from the inflammable
+body submitted to the operation of
+subterraneous heat; and, one stratum of coal
+may find vent for the passage of those vapours,
+through some crevice which is not
+open to another. In this way, doubtless,
+some of those bodies have been inspissated or
+reduced to a fixed coal, while others, at a little
+distance, have retained most of their volatile
+parts.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot doubt of this distilling operation
+in the mineral regions, when we consider that
+in most places of the earth we find the evident
+effects of such distillation of oily substances
+in the naphta and petroleum that are constantly
+emitted along with water in certain
+springs. These oily substances are no other
+than such as may be procured, in a similar
+manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal
+strata; we have therefore every proof of this
+mineral operation that the nature of things
+admit of. We have also sufficient evidence
+that those fusible and inflammable coals, which
+have not been distilled to a caput mortuum,
+had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous
+heat, because we find those fusible
+coals subject to be injected with pyrites, as
+well as the more perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>If we now consider those various appearances
+of mineral bodies which are thus explained
+by the theory of mineral fire, or exertion
+of subterraneous heat, appearances
+which it is impossible to reconcile by any
+supposition of aqueous solution, or that unintelligible
+language of mineral infiltration which
+has of late prevailed, we shall be fully satisfied,
+that there is a uniform system in nature
+of providing a power in the mineral regions,
+for consolidating the loose materials deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, and for erecting
+those masses of mineralized substances into
+the place of land; we shall thus be led to
+admire the wisdom of nature, providing for
+the continuation of this living world, and employing
+those very means by which, in a more
+partial view of things, this beautiful structure
+of an inhabited earth seems to be necessarily
+going into destruction.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h4>END OF VOLUME FIRST.</h4>
+
+<br><br>
+<h3>PLATES</H3>
+<br><br>
+
+<a name="p1"></a>
+<div align="center"><img src="images/ill_1.png" alt=""></div>
+<br><br>
+<a name="p2"></a>
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+<br><br>
+<a name="p3"></a>
+<div align="center"><img src="images/ill_3.png" alt="" width="100%"></div>
+<br><br>
+<div align="center"><img src="images/ill_4.png" alt="" width="100%"></div>
+<br><br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12861 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12861 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12861)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4), by
+James Hutton
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4)
+
+Author: James Hutton
+
+Release Date: July 9, 2004  [eBook #12861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME 1 (OF
+4)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Renald Levesque, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME I
+
+With Proofs and Illustrations, in Four Parts
+
+By
+
+JAMES HUTTON, M.D. & F.R.S.E.
+
+1795.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; with the Examination of different Opinions on
+that Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe.
+
+SECT. I.--Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+SECT. II.--An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in
+consolidating the Strata of the Globe.
+
+SECT. III.--Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the
+Production of Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+SECT. IV.--System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN's Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land, illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata 421.
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct view of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH;
+
+WITH THE
+
+EXAMINATION
+
+OF
+
+DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THAT SUBJECT.
+
+
+
+
+IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THEORY of the EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration, of Land upon the Globe.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+When we trace the parts of which this terrestrial system is composed,
+and when we view the general connection of those several parts, the
+whole presents a machine of a peculiar construction by which it is
+adapted to a certain end. We perceive a fabric, erected in wisdom, to
+obtain a purpose worthy of the power that is apparent in the production
+of it.
+
+We know little of the earth's internal parts, or of the materials which
+compose it at any considerable depth below the surface. But upon the
+surface of this globe, the more inert matter is replenished with plants,
+and with animal and intellectual beings.
+
+Where so many living creatures are to ply their respective powers, in
+pursuing the end for which they were intended, we are not to look for
+nature in a quiescent state; matter itself must be in motion, and the
+scenes of life a continued or repeated series of agitations and events.
+
+This globe of the earth is a habitable world; and on its fitness for
+this purpose, our sense of wisdom in its formation must depend. To judge
+of this point, we must keep in view, not only the end, but the means
+also by which that end is obtained. These are, the form of the whole,
+the materials of which it is composed, and the several powers which
+concur, counteract, or balance one another, in procuring the general
+result.
+
+The form and constitution of the mass are not more evidently calculated
+for the purpose of this earth as a habitable world, than are the various
+substances of which that complicated body is composed. Soft and hard
+parts variously combine to form a medium consistence, adapted to the use
+of plants and animals; wet and dry are properly mixed for nutrition,
+or the support of those growing bodies; and hot and cold produce a
+temperature or climate no less required than a soil: Insomuch, that
+there is not any particular, respecting either the qualities of the
+materials, or the construction of the machine, more obvious to
+our perception, than are the presence and efficacy of design and
+intelligence in the power that conducts the work.
+
+In taking this view of things, where ends and means are made the object
+of attention, we may hope to find a principle upon which the comparative
+importance of parts in the system of nature may be estimated, and also
+a rule for selecting the object of our inquiries. Under this direction,
+science may find a fit subject of investigation in every particular,
+whether of _form_, _quality_, or _active power_, that presents itself in
+this system of motion and of life; and which, without a proper
+attention to this character of the system, might appear anomalous and
+incomprehensible.
+
+It is not only by seeing those general operations of the globe which
+depend upon its peculiar construction as a machine, but also by
+perceiving how far the particulars, in the construction of that machine,
+depend upon the general operations of the globe, that we are enabled to
+understand the constitution of this earth as a thing formed by design.
+We shall thus also be led to acknowledge an order, not unworthy of
+Divine wisdom, in a subject which, in another view, has appeared as the
+work of chance, or as absolute disorder and confusion.
+
+To acquire a general or comprehensive view of this mechanism of the
+globe, by which it is adapted to the purpose of being a habitable world,
+it is necessary to distinguish three different bodies which compose the
+whole. These are, a solid body of earth, an aqueous body of sea, and an
+elastic fluid of air.
+
+It is the proper shape and disposition of these three bodies that form
+this globe into a habitable world; and it is the manner in which these
+constituent bodies are adjusted to each other, and the laws of action
+by which they are maintained in their proper qualities and respective
+departments, that form the Theory of the machine which we are now to
+examine.
+
+Let us begin with some general sketch of the particulars now mentioned.
+
+_1st_, There is a central body in the globe. This body supports those
+parts which come to be more immediately exposed to our view, or which
+may be examined by our sense and observation. This first part is
+commonly supposed to be solid and inert; but such a conclusion is only
+mere conjecture; and we shall afterwards find occasion, perhaps, to form
+another judgment in relation to this subject, after we have examined
+strictly, upon scientific principles, what appears upon the surface, and
+have formed conclusions concerning that which must have been transacted
+in some more central part.
+
+_2dly_, We find a fluid body of water. This, by gravitation, is reduced
+to a spherical form, and by the centrifugal force of the earth's
+rotation, is become oblate. The purpose of this fluid body is essential
+in the constitution of the world; for, besides affording the means of
+life and motion to a multifarious race of animals, it is the source of
+growth and circulation to the organized bodies of this earth, in being
+the receptacle of the rivers, and the fountain of our vapours.
+
+_3dly_, We have an irregular body of land raised above the level of the
+ocean. This, no doubt, is the smallest portion of the globe; but it is
+the part to us by far most interesting. It is upon the surface of this
+part that plants are made to grow; consequently, it is by virtue of
+this land that animal life, as well as vegetation, is sustained in this
+world.
+
+_Lastly_, We have a surrounding body of atmosphere, which completes the
+globe. This vital fluid is no less necessary, in the constitution of the
+world, than are the other parts; for there is hardly an operation upon
+the surface of the earth, that is not conducted or promoted by its
+means. It is a necessary condition for the sustenance of fire; it is the
+breath of life to animals; it is at least an instrument in vegetation;
+and, while it contributes to give fertility and health to things that
+grow, it is employed in preventing noxious effects from such as go into
+corruption. In short, it is the proper means of circulation for the
+matter of this world, by raising up the water of the ocean, and pouring
+it forth upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Such is the mechanism of the globe: Let us now mention some of those
+powers by which motion is produced, and activity procured to the mere
+machine.
+
+First, There is the progressive force, or moving power, by which this
+planetary body, if solely actuated, would depart continually from the
+path which it now pursues, and thus be for ever removed from its end,
+whether as a planetary body, or as a globe sustaining plants and
+animals, which may be termed a living world.
+
+But this moving body is also actuated by gravitation, which inclines
+it directly to the central body of the sun. Thus it is made to revolve
+about that luminary, and to preserve its path.
+
+It is also upon the same principles, that each particular part upon the
+surface of this globe, is alternately exposed to the influence of light
+and darkness, in the diurnal rotation of the earth, as well as in its
+annual revolution. In this manner are produced the vicissitudes of night
+and day, so variable in the different latitudes from the equator to the
+pole, and so beautifully calculated to equalise the benefits of light,
+so variously distributed in the different regions of the globe.
+
+Gravitation, and the _vis infita_ of matter, thus form the first two
+powers distinguishable in the operations of our system, and wisely
+adapted to the purpose for which they are employed.
+
+We next observe the influence of light and heat, of cold and
+condensation. It is by means of these two powers that the various
+operations of this living world are more immediately transacted;
+although the other powers are no less required, in order to produce or
+modify these great agents in the economy of life, and system of our
+changing things.
+
+We do not now inquire into the nature of those powers, or investigate
+the laws of light and heat, of cold and condemnation, by which the
+various purposes of this world are accomplished; we are only to mention
+those effects which are made sensible to the common understanding of
+mankind, and which necessarily imply a power that is employed. Thus,
+it is by the operation of those powers that the varieties of season
+in spring and autumn are obtained, that we are blessed with the
+vicissitudes of summer's heat and winter's cold, and that we possess the
+benefit of artificial light and culinary fire.
+
+We are thus bountifully provided with the necessaries of life; we are
+supplied with things conducive to the growth and preservation of our
+animal nature, and with fit subjects to employ and to nourish our
+intellectual powers.
+
+There are other actuating powers employed in the operations of this
+globe, which we are little more than able to enumerate; such are those
+of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous heat or mineral fire.
+
+Powers of such magnitude or force, are not to be supposed useless in a
+machine contrived surely not without wisdom; but they are mentioned here
+chiefly on account of their general effect; and it is sufficient to have
+named powers, of which the actual existence is well known, but of which
+the proper use in the constitution of the world is still obscure.
+The laws of electricity and magnetism have been well examined by
+philosophers; but the purposes of those powers in the economy of the
+globe have not been discovered. Subterraneous fire, again, although the
+most conspicuous in the operations of this world, and often examined by
+philosophers, is a power which has been still less understood, whether
+with regard to its efficient or final cause. It has hitherto appeared
+more like the accident of natural things, than the inherent property of
+the mineral region. It is in this last light, however, that I wish to
+exhibit it, as a great power acting a material part in the operations of
+the globe, and as an essential part in the constitution of this world.
+
+We have thus surveyed the machine in general, with those moving powers,
+by which its operations, diversified almost _ad infinitum_, are
+performed. Let us now confine our view, more particularly, to that part
+of the machine on which we dwell, that so we may consider the natural
+consequences of those operations which, being within our view, we are
+better qualified to examine.
+
+This subject is important to the human race, to the possessor of this
+world, to the intelligent being Man, who foresees events to come, and
+who, in contemplating his future interest, is led to inquire concerning
+causes, in order that he may judge of events which otherwise he could
+not know.
+
+If, in pursuing this object, we employ our skill in research, not in
+forming vain conjectures; and if _data_ are to be found, on which
+Science may form just conclusions, we should not long remain in
+ignorance with respect to the natural history of this earth, a subject
+on which hitherto opinion only, and not evidence, has decided: For in no
+subject, perhaps, is there naturally less defect of evidence, although
+philosophers, led by prejudice, or misguided by false theory, may have
+neglected to employ that light by which they should have seen the system
+of this world.
+
+But to proceed in pursuing a little farther our general or preparatory
+ideas. A solid body of land could not have answered the purpose of a
+habitable world; for, a soil is necessary to the growth of plants; and a
+soil is nothing but the materials collected from the destruction of the
+solid land. Therefore, the surface of this land, inhabited by man,
+and covered with plants and animals, is made by nature to decay, in
+dissolving from that hard and, compact state in which it is found below
+the soil; and this soil is necessarily washed away, by the continual
+circulation of the water, running from the summits of the mountains
+towards the general receptacle of that fluid. The heights of our land
+are thus levelled with the shores; our fertile plains are formed from the
+ruins of the mountains; and those travelling materials are still pursued
+by the moving water, and propelled along the inclined surface of the
+earth[1] These moveable materials, delivered into the sea, cannot, for
+a long continuance, rest upon the shore; for, by the agitation of the
+winds, the tides and currents, every moveable thing is carried
+farther and farther along the shelving bottom of the sea, towards the
+unfathomable regions of the ocean.
+
+[Note 1: M. de Luc, in his second letter to me, published in the Monthly
+Review for 1790, says, "You ought to have proved that both gravel and
+sand are carried from our continents to the sea; which, on the contrary,
+I shall prove not to be the case." He then endeavours to prove his
+assertion, by observing, that, in certain places where there is not
+either sufficient declivity in the surface, or force in the running
+water, gravel and sand are made to rest, and do not travel to the sea.
+This surely is a fact to which I most readily assent; but, on the other
+hand, I hope he will acknowledge, that, where there is sufficient
+declivity in the surface, or force in the running water, sand, gravel,
+and stones, are travelled upon the land, and are thus carried into the
+sea--at last. This is all that my theory requires, and this is what I
+believe will be admitted, without any farther proof on my part.]
+
+If the vegetable soil is thus constantly removed from the surface of the
+land, and if its place is thus to be supplied from the dissolution of
+the solid earth, as here represented, we may perceive an end to this
+beautiful machine; an end, arising from no error in its constitution as
+a world, but from that destructibility of its land which is so necessary
+in the system of the globe, in the economy of life and vegetation.
+
+The immense time necessarily required for this total destruction of
+the land, must not be opposed to that view of future events, which is
+indicated by the surest facts, and most approved principles. Time, which
+measures every thing in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes,
+is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
+it had existence; and, as the natural course of time, which to us seems
+infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end, the
+progress of things upon this globe, that is, the course of nature,
+cannot be limited by time, which must proceed in a continual succession.
+We are, therefore, to consider as inevitable the deduction of our land,
+so far as effected by those operations which are necessary in the
+purpose of the globe, considered as a habitable world; and, so far as
+we have not examined any other part of the economy of nature, in which
+other operations and a different intention might appear.
+
+We have now considered the globe of this earth as a machine, constructed
+upon chemical as well as mechanical principles, by which its different
+parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, and in quantity, to a
+certain end; an end attained with certainty or success; and an end from
+which we may perceive wisdom, in contemplating the means employed.
+
+But is this world to be considered thus merely as a machine, to last no
+longer than its parts retain their present position, their proper forms
+and qualities? Or may it not be also considered as an organized body?
+such as has a constitution in which the necessary decay of the machine
+is naturally repaired, in the exertion of those productive powers by
+which it had been formed.
+
+This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe; to see if
+there be, in the constitution of this world, a reproductive operation,
+by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired, and a duration or
+stability thus procured to the machine, considered as a world sustaining
+plants and animals.
+
+If no such reproductive power, or reforming operation, after due
+inquiry, is to be found in the constitution of this world, we should
+have reason to conclude, that the system of this earth has either been
+intentionally made imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite power
+and wisdom.
+
+Here is an important question, therefore, with regard to the
+constitution of this globe; a question which, perhaps, it is in
+the power of man's sagacity to resolve; and a question which, if
+satisfactorily resolved, might add some lustre to science and the human
+intellect.
+
+Animated with this great, this interesting view, let us strictly examine
+our principles, in order to avoid fallacy in our reasoning; and let us
+endeavour to support our attention, in developing a subject that is
+vast in its extent, as well as intricate in the relation of parts to be
+stated.
+
+The globe of this earth is evidently made for man. He alone, of all the
+beings which have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and every part;
+he alone is capable of knowing the nature of this world, which he thus
+possesses in virtue of his proper right; and he alone can make the
+knowledge of this system a source of pleasure, and the means of
+happiness.
+
+Man alone, of all the animated beings which enjoy the benefits of this
+earth, employs the knowledge which he there receives, in leading him to
+judge of the intention of things, as well as of the means by which they
+are brought about; and he alone is thus made to enjoy, in contemplation
+as well as sensual pleasure, all the good that may be observed in the
+constitution of this world; he, therefore, should be made the first
+subject of inquiry.
+
+Now, if we are to take the written history of man for the rule by which
+we should judge of the time when the species first began, that period
+would be but little removed from the present state of things. The Mosaic
+history places this beginning of man at no great distance; and there
+has not been found, in natural history, any document by which a high
+antiquity might be attributed to the human race. But this is not the
+case with regard to the inferior species of animals, particularly those
+which inhabit the ocean and its shores. We find, in natural history,
+monuments which prove that those animals had long existed; and we thus
+procure a measure for the computation of a period of time extremely
+remote, though far from being precisely ascertained.
+
+In examining things present, we have data from which to reason with
+regard to what has been; and, from what has actually been, we have
+data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen hereafter.
+Therefore, upon the supposition that the operations of nature are
+equable and steady, we find, in natural appearances, means for
+concluding a certain portion of time to have necessarily elapsed, in the
+production of those events of which we see the effects.
+
+It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals of every kind
+in the solid body of our earth, a natural history of those animals
+is formed, which includes a certain portion of time; and, for the
+ascertaining this portion of time, we must again have recourse to the
+regular operations of this world. We shall thus arrive at facts which
+indicate a period to which no other species of chronology is able to
+remount.
+
+In what follows, therefore, we are to examine the construction of the
+present earth, in order to understand the natural operations of time
+past; to acquire principles, by which we may conclude with regard to the
+future course of things, or judge of those operations, by which a world,
+so wisely ordered, goes into decay; and to learn, by what means such a
+decayed world may be renovated, or the waste of habitable land upon the
+globe repaired.
+
+This, therefore, is the object which we are to have in view during this
+physical investigation; this is the end to which are to be directed all
+the steps in our cosmological pursuit.
+
+The solid parts of the globe are, in general, composed of sand, of
+gravel, of argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of the various
+compositions of these with some other substances, which it is not
+necessary now to mention. Sand is separated and sized by streams and
+currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition of stones agitated
+in water; and marly, or argillaceous strata, have been collected, by
+subsiding in water with which those earthy substances had been floated.
+Thus, so far as the earth is formed of these materials, that solid body
+would appear to have been the production of water, winds, and tides.
+
+But that which renders the original of our land clear and evident,
+is the immense quantities of calcareous bodies which had belonged
+to animals, and the intimate connection of these masses of animal
+production with the other strata of the land. For it is to be proved,
+that all these calcareous bodies, from the collection of which the
+strata were formed, have belonged to the sea, and were produced in it.
+
+We find the marks of marine animals in the most solid parts of the
+earth; consequently, those solid parts have been formed after the ocean
+was inhabited by those animals which are proper to that fluid medium.
+If, therefore, we knew the natural history of those solid parts, and
+could trace the operations of the globe, by which they had been formed,
+we would have some means for computing the time through which those
+species of animals have continued to live. But how shall we describe a
+process which nobody has seen performed, and of which no written
+history gives any account? This is only to be investigated, _first_, in
+examining the nature of those solid bodies, the history of which we want
+to know; and, 2_dly_, In examining the natural operations of the globe,
+in order to see if there now actually exist such operations, as, from
+the nature of the solid bodies, appear to have been necessary to their
+formation.
+
+But, before entering more particularly into those points of discussion,
+by which the question is to be resolved, let us take a general view of
+the subject, in order to see what it is which science and observation
+must decide.
+
+In all the regions of the globe, immense masses are found, which, though
+at present in the most solid state, appear to have been formed by the
+collection of the calcareous _exuviae_ of marine animals. The question
+at present is not, in what manner those collections of calcareous relics
+have become a perfect solid body, and have been changed from an animal
+to a mineral substance; for this is a subject that will be afterwards
+considered; we are now only inquiring, if such is truly the origin of
+those mineral masses.
+
+That all the masses of marble or limestone are composed of the
+calcareous matter of marine bodies, may be concluded from the following
+facts:
+
+1_st_, There are few beds of marble or limestone, in which may not be
+found some of those objects which indicate the marine origin of the
+mass. If, for example, in a mass of marble, taken from a quarry upon the
+top of the Alps or Andes[2], there shall be found one cockle-shell, or
+piece of coral, it must be concluded, that this bed of stone had been
+originally formed at the bottom of the sea, as much as another bed which
+is evidently composed almost altogether of cockle-shells and coral. If
+one bed of limestone is thus found to have been of a marine origin,
+every concomitant bed of the same kind must be also concluded to have
+been formed in the same Manner.
+
+[Note 2: "Cette sommité élevée de 984 toises au dessus de notre lac, et
+par conséquent de 1172 au dessus de la mer, est remarquable en ce que
+l'on y voit des fragmens d'huîtres pétrifiés.--Cette montagne est
+dominée par un rocher escarpé, qui s'il n'est pas inaccessible, est du
+moins d'un bien difficile accès; il paroît presqu'entièrement composé
+de coquillages pétrifiés, renfermés dans un roc calcaire, ou marbre
+grossier noirâtre. Les fragmens qui s'en détachent, et que l'on
+rencontre en montant à la Croix de fer, sont remplis de _turbinites_ de
+différentes espèces." M. DE SAUSSURE, _Voyage dans les Alpes_, p. 394.]
+
+We thus shall find the greatest part of the calcareous masses upon this
+globe to have originated from marine calcareous bodies; for whether
+we examine marbles, limestones, or such solid masses as are perfectly
+changed from the state of earth, and are become compact and hard, or
+whether we examine the soft, earthy, chalky or marly strata, of which so
+much of this earth is composed, we still find evident proofs, that those
+beds had their origin from materials deposited at the bottom of the sea;
+and that they have the calcareous substance which they contain, from the
+same source as the marbles or the limestones.
+
+2_dly_, In those calcareous strata, which are evidently of marine
+origin, there are many parts that are of a sparry structure, that is
+to say, the original texture of those beds, in such places, has been
+dissolved, and a new structure has been assumed, which is peculiar to
+a certain state of the calcareous earth. This change is produced by
+crystallisation, in consequence of a previous state of fluidity, which
+has so disposed the concreting parts, as to allow them to assume a
+regular shape and structure proper to that substance. A body, whose
+external form has been modified by this process, is called a _crystal_;
+one whose internal arrangement of parts is determined by it, is said to
+be of a _sparry structure_; and this is known from its fracture.
+
+3_dly_, There are, in all the regions of the earth, huge masses of
+calcareous matter, in that crystalline form of sparry state, in
+which perhaps no vestige can be found of any organised body, nor any
+indication that such calcareous matter had belonged to animals; but
+as, in other masses, this sparry structure, or crystalline state, is
+evidently assumed by the marine calcareous substances, in operations
+which are natural to the globe, and which are necessary to the
+consolidation of the strata, it does not appear, that the sparry masses,
+in which no figured body is formed, have been originally different from
+other masses, which, being only crystallised in part, and in part still
+retaining their original form, leave ample evidence of their marine
+origin[3].
+
+[Note 3: M. de Saussure, describing the marble of Aigle, says, "Les
+tables polies de ce marbre présentent fréquemment des coquillages, dont
+la plupart sont des peignes striés, et de très-beaux madrépores. Tous
+ces corps marins on pris entierement la nature et le grain même
+du marbre, on n'y voit presque jamais la coquille sous sa forme
+originaire."]
+
+We are led, in this manner, to conclude, that all the strata of the
+earth, not only those consisting of such calcareous masses, but others
+superincumbent upon these, have had their origin at the bottom of the
+sea, by the collection of sand and gravel, of shells, of coralline
+and crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays, variously mixed,
+or separated and accumulated. Here is a general conclusion, well
+authenticated in the appearances of nature, and highly important in the
+natural history of the earth.
+
+The general amount of our reasoning is this, that nine-tenths, perhaps,
+or ninety-nine hundredths of this earth, so far as we see, have
+been formed by natural operations of the globe, in collecting loose
+materials, and depositing them at the bottom of the sea; consolidating
+those collections in various degrees, and either elevating those
+consolidated masses above the level on which they were formed, or
+lowering the level of that sea.
+
+There is a part of the solid earth which we may at present neglect, not
+as being persuaded that this part may not also be found to come under
+the general rule of formation with the rest, but as considering this
+part to be of no consequence in forming a general rule, which shall
+comprehend almost the whole, without doing it absolutely. This excluded
+part consists of certain mountains and masses of granite. These are
+thought to be still older in their formation, and are said never to
+be found superincumbent on strata which must be acknowledged as the
+productions of the sea.
+
+Having thus found the greater part, if not the whole, of the solid land
+to have been originally composed at the bottom of the sea, we may now,
+in order to form a proper idea of these operations, suppose the whole of
+this seaborn land to be again dispersed along the bottom of the ocean,
+the surface of which would rise proportionally over the globe. We would
+thus have a spheroid of water, with granite rocks and islands scattered
+here and there. But this would not be the world which we inhabit;
+therefore, the question now is, how such continents, as we actually have
+upon the globe, could be erected above the level of the sea.
+
+It must be evident, that no motion of the sea, caused by this earth
+revolving in the solar system, could bring about that end; for let us
+suppose the axis of the earth to be changed from the present poles, and
+placed in the equinoctial line, the consequence of this might, indeed,
+be the formation of a continent of land about each new pole, from whence
+the sea would run towards the new equator; but all the rest of the globe
+would remain an ocean. Some new points might be discovered, and others,
+which before appeared above the surface of the sea, would be sunk by
+the rising of the water; but, on the whole, land could only be gained
+substantially at the poles. Such a supposition, as this, if applied to
+the present state of things, would be destitute of every support, as
+being incapable of explaining what appears.
+
+But even allowing that, by the changed axis of the earth, or any other
+operation of the globe, as a planetary body revolving in the solar
+system, great continents of land could have been erected from the place
+of their formation, the bottom of the sea, and placed in a higher
+elevation, compared with the surface of that water, yet such a continent
+as this could not have continued stationary for many thousand years; nor
+could a continent of this kind have presented to us, every where within
+its body, masses of consolidated marble, and other mineral substances,
+in a state as different as possible from that in which they were, when
+originally collected together in the sea.
+
+Consequently, besides an operation, by which the earth at the bottom of
+the sea should be converted into an elevated land, or placed high above
+the level of the ocean, there is required, in the operations of the
+globe, a consolidating power, by which the loose materials that had
+subsided from water, should be formed into masses of the most perfect
+solidity, having neither water nor vacuity between their various
+constituent parts, nor in the pores of those constituent parts
+themselves.
+
+Here is an operation of the globe, whether chemical or mechanical, which
+is necessarily connected with the formation of our present continents:
+Therefore, had we a proper understanding of this secret operation, we
+might thereby be enabled to form an opinion, with regard to the nature
+of that unknown power, by which the continents have been placed above
+the surface of that water wherein they had their birth.
+
+If this consolidating operation be performed at the bottom of the
+ocean, or under great depths of the earth, of which our continents are
+composed, we cannot be witnesses to this mineral process, or acquire the
+knowledge of natural causes, by immediately observing the changes which
+they produce; but though we have not this immediate observation of those
+changes of bodies, we have, in science, the means of reasoning from
+distant events; consequently, of discovering, in the general powers of
+nature, causes for those events of which we see the effects.
+
+That the consolidating operation, in general, lies out of the reach of
+our immediate observation, will appear from the following truth: All the
+consolidated masses, of which we now inquire into the cause, are, upon
+the surface of the earth, in a state of general decay, although the
+various natures of those bodies admit of that dissolution in very
+different degrees[4]
+
+From every view of the subject, therefore, we are directed to look into
+those consolidated masses themselves, in order to find principles from
+whence to judge of those operations by which they had attained their
+hardness or consolidated state.
+
+It must be evident, that nothing but the most general acquaintance with
+the laws of acting substances, and with those of bodies changing by the
+powers of nature, can enable us to set about this undertaking with any
+reasonable prospect of success; and here the science of Chemistry must
+be brought particularly to our aid; for this science, having for its
+object the changes produced upon the sensible qualities, as they are
+called, of bodies, by its means we may be enabled to judge of that which
+is possible according to the laws of nature, and of that which, in like
+manner, we must consider as impossible.
+
+[Note 4: Stalactical and certain ferruginous concretions may seem
+to form an exception to the generality of this proposition. But an
+objection of this kind could only arise from a partial view of things;
+for the concretion here is only temporary; it is in consequence of a
+solution, and it is to be followed by a dissolution, which will be
+treated of in its proper place.]
+
+Whatever conclusions, therefore, by means of this science, shall be
+attained, in just reasoning from natural appearances, this must be held
+as evidence, where more immediate proof cannot be obtained; and, in
+a physical subject, where things actual are concerned, and not the
+imaginations of the human mind, this proof will be considered as
+amounting to a demonstration.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in consolidating
+the Strata of the Globe.
+
+We are now about to investigate those mineral operations of the globe by
+which the qualities of hardness and solidity, consequently of strength
+and durability, are procured to great bodies of this earth.
+
+That those qualities are not original to such bodies, but actually
+superinduced in the natural operations of the earth, will appear from
+the examination of some of the hardest and most solid of those mineral
+bodies. In such masses, (for example of flint and agate,) we find
+included shells and coralline bodies. Consequently, there must be a
+natural operation in the globe for consolidating and hardening its soft
+and loose materials. It is concerning the nature of this consolidating
+operation that we are now to inquire.
+
+There are just two ways in which porous or spongy bodies can be
+consolidated, and by which substances may be formed into masses of
+a natural shape and regular structure; the one of these is simple
+_congelation_ from a fluid state, by means of cold; the other is
+_accretion_; and this includes a separatory operation, as well as that
+by which the solid body is to be produced. But in whichever of these
+ways solidity shall be procured, it must be brought about by first
+inducing fluidity, either immediately by the action of heat, or
+mediately with the assistance of a solvent, that is, by the operation
+of solution. Therefore, fire and water may be considered as the general
+agents in this operation, which we would explore.
+
+Heat has been already mentioned as a general power, and as acting in all
+the different parts of the globe; I would now wish more particularly to
+call the attention of the reader to subterraneous fire, or heat, as
+a powerful agent in the mineral regions, and as a cause necessarily
+belonging to the internal constitution of this earth.
+
+It is not our purpose at present to inquire into the particular nature
+of this power of subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
+and analogy of the internal fire with that which is so necessary to our
+life, and which acts so great a part upon the surface of the earth, this
+being reserved for the last part. Our intention in here mentioning it,
+is only to dispose the mind to look for active powers or efficient
+causes, in that part of the earth which has been commonly considered as
+passive and inert, but which will be found extremely active, and the
+source of mighty revolutions in the fate of land.
+
+There may, indeed, be some difficulty in conceiving all the
+modifications of this mineral power; but as, on the one hand, we are not
+arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose of explaining events, or
+certain appearances which are not understood; so, on the other, we must
+not refuse to admit the action of a known power, when this is properly
+suggested in the appearances of things; and, though we may not
+understand all the modifications, or the whole capacity and regulation
+of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect the appropriating to it,
+as a cause, those effects which are natural to it, and which, so far as
+we know, cannot belong to any other. On all occasions, we are to judge
+from what we know; and, we are only to avoid concluding from our
+suppositions, in cases where evidence or real information is necessarily
+required. The subject now considered, subterraneous fire, will afford an
+example of that truth; and, a general view of this great natural power
+will here find a proper place, before the application of it for the
+explanation of natural appearances.
+
+No event is more the object of our notice, or more interesting as a
+subject for our study, than is the burning of a fire: But, the more that
+philosophers have studied this subject, the more they seem to differ
+as to the manner in which that conspicuous event is to be explained.
+Therefore, being so ignorant with regard to that fire of which we see
+the origin as well as the more immediate effects, how cautious should
+we be in judging the nature of subterraneous fire from the burning of
+bodies, a subject which we so little understand.
+
+But, though the cause of fire in general, or the operations of that
+power in its extreme degrees, be for us a subject involved in much
+obscurity, this is not the case with regard to the more common effects
+of heat; and, tho' the actual existence of subterraneous fire, as the
+cause of light and heat, might be a thing altogether problematical in
+our opinion; yet, as to other effects, there are some of these from
+which the action of that liquefying power may be certainly concluded as
+having taken place within the mineral region, although the cause should
+be in every other respect a thing to us unknown. In that case, where the
+operation or effect is evident, and cannot be disputed, to refuse to
+admit the power in question, merely because we had not seen it act, or
+because we know not every rule which it may observe in acting, would
+be only to found an argument upon our ignorance; it would be to
+misunderstand the nature of investigating physical truths, which must
+proceed by reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+Our knowledge is extremely limited with regard to the effects of heat in
+bodies, while acting under different conditions, and in various degrees.
+But though our knowledge in these respects is limited, our judgment with
+regard to the efficacy of this power of heat is in its nature positive,
+and contains not any thing that is doubtful or uncertain. All mankind,
+who have the opportunity, know that the hard substance of ice is by heat
+converted into water, wherein no hardness remains; and the profound
+philosophy of Dr Black, in relation to the subject of _latent heat_, as
+that of Sir Isaac Newton, in relation to the weight of bodies, is not
+necessary to convince the world that in the one case ice will melt, and
+in the other, that heavy bodies will move when unsupported.
+
+But though, in the abstract doctrine of _latent heat_, the ingenuity
+of man has discovered a certain measure for the quantity of those
+commutable effects which are perceived; and though this be a progress of
+science far above the apprehension of the vulgar, yet still, that solid
+bodies are changed into fluids, by the power of heat, is the same
+unalterable judgment, which the savage forms as well as the philosopher.
+Here, therefore, are evident effects, which mankind in general attribute
+to the power of heat; and it is from those known effects that we are to
+investigate subterraneous fire, or to generalise the power of heat, as
+acting in the interior parts, as well as on the surface of this earth.
+
+If, indeed, there were any other cause for fluidity besides the
+operation of fire or the power of heat, in that case the most evident
+proof, with regard to the flowing, or former fluidity, of mineral
+bodies, would draw to no conclusion in proving the existence of mineral
+fire; but when we have not the smallest reason for conjecturing any
+other cause, or the least doubt with regard to that which, in the
+doctrine of latent heat, has been properly investigated, the proofs
+which we shall bring, of fusion in all the minerals of this earth,
+must be held as proofs of mineral fire, in like manner as the proof of
+subterraneous fire would necessarily imply mineral fusion as its natural
+effect.
+
+Thus we have, in our physical investigation, several points in view.
+First, from the present state of things, to infer a former state of
+fusion among mineral bodies. Secondly, from that former fusion, to infer
+the actual existence of mineral fire in the system of the earth. And,
+lastly, from the acknowledged fact of subterraneous fire as a cause, to
+reason with regard to the effects of that power in mineral bodies.
+
+But besides the power or effect of subterraneous heat in bodies which
+are unorganised, and without system, in the construction of their
+different parts, we have to investigate the proper purpose of this great
+agent in the system of this world, which may be considered as a species
+of organised body. Here, therefore, final causes are to be brought into
+view, as well as those which are efficient. Now, in a subject involved
+with so much obscurity, as must be for us the internal regions of the
+globe, the consideration of efficient and final causes may contribute
+mutually to each others evidence, when separately the investigation of
+either might be thought unsatisfactory or insufficient.
+
+So far it seemed necessary to premise with regard to the great mineral
+power which we are to employ as an agent in the system of this earth;
+and it may be now observed, that it is in the proper relation of this
+power of heat and the fluidity or softness of bodies, as cause and
+effect, that we are to find a physical principle or argument for
+detecting those false theories of the earth that have been only
+imagined, and not properly founded on fact or observation. It is also by
+means of this principle, that we shall be enabled to form a true theory
+of the mineral region, in generalising particular effects to a common
+cause.
+
+Let us now proceed in endeavouring to decide this important question,
+viz. By what active principle is it, that the present state of things,
+which we observe in the strata of the earth, a state so very different
+from that in which those bodies had been formed originally, has been
+brought about?
+
+Two causes have been now proposed for the consolidating of loose
+materials which had been in an incoherent state; these are, on the one
+hand, fire; or, on the other, water, as the means of bringing about that
+event. We are, therefore, to consider well, what may be the consequences
+of consolidation by the one or other of those agents; and what may be
+the respective powers of those agents with respect to this operation.
+
+If we are not informed in this branch of science, we may gaze without
+instruction upon the most convincing proofs of what we want to attain.
+If our knowledge is imperfect, we may form erroneous principles, and
+deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to those works of nature,
+which are wisely calculated for our instruction.
+
+The strata, formed at the bottom of the sea, are to be considered
+as having been consolidated, either by aqueous solution and
+crystallization, or by the effect of heat and fusion. If it is in the
+first of these two ways that the solid strata of the globe have attained
+to their present state, there will be a certain uniformity observable
+in the effects; and there will be general laws, by which this operation
+must have been conducted. Therefore, knowing those general laws, and
+making just observations with regard to the natural appearances of those
+consolidated masses, a philosopher, in his closet, should be able to
+determine, what may, and what may not have been transacted in the bowels
+of the earth, or below the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Let us now endeavour to ascertain what may have been the power of water,
+acting under fixed circumstances, operating upon known substances, and
+conducting to a certain end.
+
+The action of water upon all different substances is an operation
+with which we are familiar. We have it in our power to apply water in
+different degrees of heat for the solution of bodies, and under various
+degrees of compression; consequently, there is no reason to conclude
+any thing mysterious in the operations of the globe, which are to be
+performed by means of water, unless an immense compressing power should
+alter the nature of those operations. But compression alters the
+relation of evaporation only with regard to heat, or it changes the
+degree of heat which water may be made to sustain; consequently, we are
+to look for no occult quality in water acting upon bodies at the bottom
+of the deepest ocean, more than what can be observed in experiments
+which we have it in our power to try.
+
+With regard again to the effect of time: Though the continuance of time
+may do much in those operations which are extremely slow, where no
+change, to our observation, had appeared to take place, yet, where it
+is not in the nature of things to produce the change in question, the
+unlimited course of time would be no more effectual, than the moment by
+which we measure events in our observations.
+
+Water being the general medium in which bodies collected at the bottom
+of the sea are always contained, if those masses of collected matter are
+to be consolidated by solution, it must be by the dissolution of
+those bodies in that water as a menstruum, and by the concretion or
+crystallization of this dissolved matter, that the spaces, first
+occupied by water in those masses, are afterwards to be filled with a
+hard and solid substance; but without some other power, by which the
+water contained in those cavities and endless labyrinths of the strata,
+should be separated in proportion as it had performed its task, it is
+inconceivable how those masses, however changed from the state of their
+first subsidence, should be absolutely consolidated, without any visible
+or fluid water in their composition.
+
+Besides this difficulty of having the water separated from the porous
+masses which are to be consolidated, there is another with which, upon
+this supposition, we have to struggle. This is, From whence should come
+the matter with which the numberless cavities in those masses are to be
+filled?
+
+The water in the cavities and interstices of those bodies composing
+strata, must be in a stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
+upon the surfaces of those cavities which are to be filled up. But
+with what are they to be filled? Not with water; they are full of that
+already: Not with the substance of the bodies which contain that water;
+this would be only to make one cavity in order to fill up another.
+If, therefore, the cavities of the strata are to be filled with solid
+matter, by means of water, there must be made to pass through those
+porous masses, water impregnated with some other substances in a
+dissolved state; and the aqueous menstruum must be made to separate
+from the dissolved substance, and to deposit the same in those cavities
+through which the solution moves.
+
+By such a supposition as this, we might perhaps explain a partial
+consolidation of those strata; but this is a supposition, of which the
+case under consideration does not admit; for in the present case, which
+is that of materials accumulated at the bottom of the ocean, there is
+not proper means for separating the dissolved matter from the water
+included in those enormous masses; nor are there any means by which a
+circulation in those masses may be formed. In this case, therefore,
+where the means are not naturally in the supposition, a philosopher, who
+is to explain the phenomenon by the natural operation of water in this
+situation, must not have recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
+to assist his supposition which cannot be admitted.
+
+Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate strata formed at the bottom
+of the sea, in the manner now considered, operations are required
+unnatural to this place; consequently, not to be supposed, in order to
+support a hypothesis.
+
+But now, instead of inquiring how far water may be supposed instrumental
+in the consolidation of strata which were originally of a loose
+texture, we are to consider how far there may be appearances in those
+consolidated bodies, by which it might be concluded, whether or not the
+present state of their consolidation has been actually brought about by
+means of that agent.
+
+If water had been the menstruum by which the consolidating matter was
+introduced into the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies could
+only be found consolidated with such substances as water is capable of
+dissolving; and these substances would be found only in such a state as
+the simple separation of the solvent water might produce.
+
+In this case, the consolidation of strata would be extremely limited;
+for we cannot allow more power to water than we find it has in nature;
+nor are we to imagine to ourselves unlimited powers in bodies, on
+purpose to explain those appearances by which we should be made to know
+the powers of nature. Let us, therefore, attend, with every possible
+circumspection, to the appearances of those bodies, by means of which we
+are to investigate the principles of mineralogy, and know the laws of
+nature.
+
+The question now before us concerns the consolidating substances of
+strata. Are these such as will correspond to the dissolving power of
+water, and to the state in which these substances might be left by the
+separation of their menstruum? No; far, far from this supposition is the
+conclusion that necessarily follows from natural appearances.
+
+We have strata consolidated by calcareous spar, a thing perfectly
+distinguishable from the stalactical concretion of calcareous earth,
+in consequence of aqueous solution. We have strata made solid by the
+formation of fluor, a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
+water. We have strata consolidated with sulphureous and bituminous
+substances, which do not correspond to the solution of water. We have
+strata consolidated with siliceous matter, in a state different from
+that under which it has been observed, on certain occasions, to be
+deposited by water. We have strata consolidated by feld-spar, a
+substance insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated by almost all
+the various metallic substances, with their almost endless mixtures
+and sulphureous compositions; that is to say, we find, perhaps, every
+different substance introduced into the interstices of strata which had
+been formed by subsidence at the bottom of the sea.
+
+If it is by means of water that those interstices have been filled with
+those materials, water must be, like fire, an universal solvent, or
+cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely our opinion of water in
+relation to its chemical character. But there is no necessity thus to
+violate our chemical principles, in order to explain certain natural
+appearances; more especially if those appearances may be explained in
+another manner, consistently with the known laws of nature.
+
+If, again, it is by means of heat and fusion that the loose and porous
+structure of strata shall be supposed to have been consolidated, then
+every difficulty which had occurred in reasoning upon the power or
+agency of water is at once removed. The loose and discontinuous body of
+a stratum may be closed by means of softness and compression; the porous
+structure of the materials may be consolidated, in a similar manner, by
+the fusion of their substance; and foreign matter may be introduced into
+the open structure of strata, in form of steam or exhalation, as well as
+in the fluid state of fusion; consequently, heat is an agent competent
+for the consolidation of strata, which water alone is not. If,
+therefore, such an agent could be found acting in the natural place of
+strata, we must pronounce it proper to bring about that end.
+
+The examination of nature gives countenance to this supposition, so far
+as strata are found consolidated by every species of substance,
+and almost every possible mixture of those different substances;
+consequently, however difficult it may appear to have this application
+of heat, for the purpose of consolidating strata formed at the bottom of
+the ocean, we cannot, from natural appearances, suppose any other cause,
+as having actually produced the effects which are now examined.
+
+This question, with regard to the means of consolidating the strata of
+the globe, is, to natural history, of the greatest importance; and it is
+essential in the theory now proposed to be given of the mineral system.
+It would, therefore, require to be discussed with some degree of
+precision in examining the particulars; but of these, there is so great
+a field, and the subject is so complicated in its nature, that volumes
+might be written upon particular branches only, without exhausting what
+might be laid upon the subject; because the evidence, though strong in
+many particulars, is chiefly to be enforced by a multitude of facts,
+conspiring, in a diversity of ways, to point out one truth, and by the
+impossibility of reconciling all these facts, except by means of one
+supposition.
+
+But, as it is necessary to give some proof of that which is to be
+a principle in our reasoning afterwards, I shall now endeavour to
+generalise the subject as much as possible, in order to answer that end,
+and, at the same time, to point out the particular method of inquiry.
+
+There are to be found, among the various strata of the globe, bodies
+formed of two different kinds of substances, _siliceous_ bodies, and
+those which may be termed _sulphureous_ or _phlogistic_. With one or
+other, or both of those we substances, every different consolidated
+stratum of the globe will be found so intimately mixed, or closely
+connected, that it must be concluded, by whatever cause those bodies
+of siliceous and sulphureous matter had been changed from a fluid to a
+concreted state, the strata must have been similarly affected by the
+same cause.
+
+These two species of bodies, therefore, the siliceous and the
+sulphureous, may now be examined, in relation to the causes of their
+concretion, with a view to determine, what has been the general
+concreting or consolidating power, which has operated universally in the
+globe; and particularly to show, it has not been by means of any fluid
+solution, that strata in general have been consolidated, or that those
+particular substances have been crystallized and concreted.
+
+Siliceous matter, physically speaking, is not soluble in water; that is
+to say, in no manner of way have we been enabled to learn, that water
+has the power of dissolving this matter.
+
+Many other substances, which are so little soluble in water, that their
+solubility could not be otherwise detected of themselves, are made to
+appear soluble by means of siliceous matter; such is feld-spar, one of
+the component parts of rock-granite.
+
+Feld-spar is a compound of siliceous, argillaceous, and calcareous
+earth, intimately united together. This compound siliceous body
+being, for ages, exposed to the weather, the calcareous part of it is
+dissolved, and the siliceous part is left in form of a soft white earth.
+But whether this dissolution is performed by pure water, or by means
+also of an acid, may perhaps be questioned. This, however, is certain,
+that we must consider siliceous substances as insoluble in water.
+
+The water of Glezer in Iceland undoubtedly contains this substance in
+solution; but there is no reason to believe, that it is here dissolved
+by any other than the natural means; that is, an alkaline substance, by
+which siliceous bodies may be rendered soluble in water[5].
+
+[Note 5: This conjecture, which I had thus formed, has been fully
+confirmed by the accurate analysis of those waters. See vol. 3d. of the
+Phil. Trans. of Edin.]
+
+It may be, therefore, asserted, that no siliceous body having the
+hardness of flint, nor any crystallization of that substance, has ever
+been formed, except by fusion. If, by any art, this substance shall be
+dissolved in simple water, or made to crystallise from any solution, in
+that case, the assertion which has been here made may be denied.
+But where there is not the vestige of any proof, to authorise the
+supposition of flinty matter being dissolved by water, or crystallized
+from that solution, such an hypothesis cannot be admitted, in opposition
+to general and evident appearances[6].
+
+[Note 6: The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious theory for
+the solution of siliceous substances in water [Journal de Physique, Mai
+1792.]. This theory has not been taken up merely at a venture, but
+is founded upon very accurate and interesting chemical experiments.
+Hitherto, however, the nature of the siliceous substance is not
+sufficiently known, to enable us to found, upon chemical principles, the
+mineral operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be dissolved,
+or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline salt, and that it may
+be also volatilised by means of the fluor acid, is almost all that we
+know upon the subject. But this is saying no more in relation to the
+mineral operations employed upon the siliceous substance, than it would
+be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this metal is dissolved
+by aqua regia.
+
+It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may have its
+menstruum, by means of which it may be retained with water in a
+dissolved state; but from this it does not follow, that it is by the
+means of aqueous solutions of all those mineral bodies, that nature
+operates the consolidation of bodies, which we find actually
+accomplished with all those different substances. It is the business of
+this work to show, that from all appearances in the mineral regions, as
+well as those upon the surface in the atmosphere, the supposition, of
+that manner of consolidating bodies by solution, is inconsistent both
+with natural appearances, and also with chemical principles.
+
+Our ingenious author, who has, with, great diligence as well as an
+enlightened mind, observed the operations of nature upon the surface
+of the earth, here says, "ce n'est pas sans étonnement que je remarque
+depuis long-temps que jamais aucune eau qui coule à la surface de la
+terre n'attaque le quartz, aucune n'en tient en dissolution, pendant que
+celles qui circulent intérieurement le corrodent aussi souvent qu'elles
+le déposent."--How dangerous it is in science for ingenious men to allow
+themselves to form conclusions, which the principles on which they
+reason do not strictly warrant, we have a remarkable example in the
+present case.
+
+M. de Dolomieu sees no corrosion of quartz, or solution of that
+substance, upon the surface of the earth; from this, then, he concludes,
+that siliceous substance is not dissolved in that situation of things.
+On the other hand, he finds siliceous bodies variously concreted among
+the solid strata of the earth; and, from this he concludes, that
+siliceous substance has been both dissolved by water in the strata, and
+also there again concreted and crystallised in having been separated
+from the water. This is certainly what we all perceive; but we do not
+all allow ourselves to draw such inconclusive inferences from our
+premises. Notwithstanding the greatest accuracy of our observations,
+quartz may be dissolvable in a minute degree by water, upon the surface
+of this earth; and, all the appearances of siliceous bodies, in the
+mineral regions, where we cannot immediately see the operation, may be
+better explained by fusion than by aqueous solution.
+
+But, from his chemical experiments, our author has conjectured that
+there may be a phlogistic substance, by means of which the siliceous
+earth is dissolved when in darkness; and that this solvent loses its
+power, if exposed to the light of day. I have one observation to oppose
+to this ingenious theory. Under deep black mosses, through which no ray
+of light can penetrate, every condition for dissolving siliceous bodies
+should be found, according to the supposition in question; neither will
+sufficient time be found wanting, in those deep mosses, upon the summits
+of our mountains; yet, examine the matter of fact? not the smallest
+solution is to be perceived in the siliceous parts of the stones which
+are found under those mosses, but every particle of iron is dissolved,
+so that the surface of every stone is white, and nothing but the
+siliceous earth of the feld-spar, and perhaps the argillaceous, is left.
+
+Here we have in this author an instructive example: No person, in my
+opinion, has made such enlightened or scientific experiments, or such
+judicious observations with regard to the nature of siliceous substance,
+as a compound thing; no person reasons more distinctly in general, or
+sees more clearly the importance of his principles; yet, with regard to
+mineral concretions, how often has he been drawn thus inadvertently
+into improper generalization! I appeal to the analogy which, in this
+treatise, he has formed, between the stalactical concretions upon
+the surface of the earth, and the mineral concretions of siliceous
+substance. As an example of the great lights, and penetrating genius, of
+this assiduous studier of nature, I refer to the judicious observations
+which he has made upon the subject of aluminous earth, in this
+dissertation.
+
+I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking, in the
+origin of this globe of our earth, a general principle of fluidity or
+solution in water, like the alkahest of the alchymists, by means of
+which the different substances in the chemical constitution of precious
+stones might have been united as well as crystallised. One would
+have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the operations of
+subterraneous fire, would have perceived, that there is but one general
+principle of fluidity or dissolution, and that this is heat.]
+
+Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous bodies, which is
+indirect, arising from the in dissolubility of that substance in water,
+there is another, which is more direct, being founded upon appearances
+which are plainly inconsistent with any other supposition, except that
+of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof I mean is, the penetration
+of many bodies with a flinty substance, which, according to every
+collateral circumstance, must have been performed by the flinty matter
+in a simply fluid state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.
+
+These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in strata both of chalk and
+sand. It requires but inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
+that flinty matter could be conveyed into the middle of those strata, by
+a menstruum in which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in that place,
+without the smallest trace of deposition in the surrounding parts.
+
+But, besides this argument taken from what does not appear, the actual
+form in which those flinty masses are found, demonstrates, _first_,
+That they have been introduced among those strata in a fluid state, by
+injection from some other place. 2_dly_, That they have been dispersed
+in a variety of ways among those strata, then deeply immersed at the
+bottom of the sea; and, _lastly_, That they have been there congealed
+from the state of fusion, and have remained in that situation, while
+those strata have been removed from the bottom of the ocean to the
+surface of the present land.
+
+To describe those particular appearances would draw this paper beyond
+the bounds of an essay. We must, therefore, refer those who would
+inquire more minutely into the subject, to examine the chalk-countries
+of France and England, in which the flint is found variously formed; the
+land-hills interspersed among those chalk-countries, which have been
+also injected by melted flint; and the pudding-stone of England, which
+I have not seen in its natural situation. More particularly, I would
+recommend an examination of the insulated masses of stone, found in
+the sand-hills by the city of Brussels; a stone which is formed by an
+injection of flint among sand, similar to that which, in a body of
+gravel, had formed the pudding-stone of England[7].
+
+[Note 7: Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
+would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.]
+
+All these examples would require to be examined upon the spot, as a
+great part of the proof for the fusion of the flinty substance, arises,
+in my opinion, from the form in which those bodies are found, and the
+state of the surrounding parts. But there are specimens brought from
+many different places, which contain, in themselves, the most evident
+marks of this injection of the flinty substance in a fluid state. These
+are pieces of fossil wood, penetrated with a siliceous substance, which
+are brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh in Ireland.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that there has sometimes been a prior
+penetration of the body of wood, either with irony matter, or calcareous
+substance. Sometimes, again, which is the case with that of Lochneagh,
+there does not seem to have been any penetration of those two
+substances. The injected flint appears to have penetrated the body
+of this wood, immersed at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
+compression of water. This appears from the wood being penetrated
+partially, some parts not being penetrated at all.
+
+Now, in the limits between those two parts, we have the most convincing
+proofs, that it had been flint in a simple fluid state which had
+penetrated the wood, and not in a state of solution.
+
+_First_, Because, however little of the wood is left unpenetrated, the
+division is always distinct between the injected part and that which is
+not penetrated by the fluid flint. In this case, the flinty matter has
+proceeded a certain length, which is marked, and no farther; and, beyond
+this boundary, there is no partial impregnation, nor a gradation of the
+flintifying operation, as must have been the case if siliceous matter
+had been deposited from a solution. 2_dly_, The termination of the
+flinty impregnation has assumed such a form, precisely, as would
+naturally happen from a fluid flint penetrating that body.
+
+In other specimens of this mineralising operation, fossil wood,
+penetrated, more or less, with ferruginous and calcareous substances,
+has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty substance. In this case,
+with whatever different substances the woody body shall be supposed
+to have been penetrated in a state of solution by water, the regular
+structure of the plant would still have remained, with its vacuities,
+variously filled with the petrifying substances, separated from the
+aqueous menstruum, and deposited in the vascular structure of the wood.
+There cannot be a doubt with regard to the truth of this proposition;
+for, as it is, we frequently find parts of the consolidated wood, with
+the vascular structure remaining perfectly in its natural shape and
+situation; but if it had been by aqueous solution that the wood had been
+penetrated and consolidated, all the parts of that body would be found
+in the same natural shape and situation.
+
+This, however, is far from being the case; for while, in some parts, the
+vascular structure is preserved entire, it is also evident, that, in
+general, the woody structure is variously broken and dissolved by the
+fusion and crystallization of the flint. There are so many and such
+various convincing examples of this, that, to attempt to describe them,
+would be to exceed the bounds prescribed for this dissertation; but such
+specimens are in my possession, ready for the inspection of any person
+who may desire to study the subject.
+
+We may now proceed to consider sulphureous substances, with regard to
+their solubility in water, and to the part which these bodies have acted
+in consolidating the strata of the globe.
+
+The sulphureous substances here meant to be considered, are substances
+not soluble in, water, so far as we know, but fusible by heat, and
+inflammable or combustible by means of heat and vital air. These
+substances are of two kinds; the one more simple, the other more
+compound.
+
+The most simple kind is composed of two different substances, viz.
+phlogiston, with certain specific substances; from which result, on the
+one hand, sulphur, and, on the other, proper coal and metals. The more
+compound sort, again, is oily matter, produced by vegetables, and
+forming bituminous bodies.
+
+The _first_ of these is found naturally combined with almost all
+metallic substances, which are then said to be mineralised with sulphur.
+Now, it is well known, that this mineralising operation is performed by
+means of heat or fusion; and there is no person skilled in chemistry
+that will pretend to say, this may be done by aqueous solution. The
+combination of iron and sulphur, for example, may easily be performed by
+fusion; but, by aqueous solution, this particular combination is again
+resolved, and forms an acido-metallic, that is, a vitriolic substance,
+after the phlogiston (by means of which it is insoluble in water) has
+been separated from the composition, by the assistance of vital air.
+
+The variety of these sulphureo-metallic substances, in point of
+composition, is almost indefinite; but, unless they were all soluble in
+water, this could not have happened by the action of that solvent. If we
+shall allow any one of those bodies to have been formed by the fluidity
+of heat, they must all have been formed in the same manner; for there is
+such a chain of connection among those bodies in the mineral regions,
+that they must all have been composed, either, on the one hand, by
+aqueous solution, or, on the other, by means of heat and fusion.
+
+Here, for example, are crystallised together in one mass, 1_st,
+Pyrites_, containing sulphur, iron, copper; 2_dly, Blend_, a composition
+of iron, sulphur, and calamine; 3_dly, Galena_, consisting of lead
+and sulphur; 4_thly, Marmor metallicum_, being the terra ponderosa,
+saturated with the vitriolic acid; a substance insoluble in water;
+5_thly, Fluor_, a saturation of calcareous earth, with a peculiar acid,
+called the _acid of spar_, also insoluble in water; 6_thly, Calcareous
+spar_, of different kinds, being calcareous earth saturated with fixed
+air, and something besides, which forms a variety in this substance;
+_lastly, Siliceous substance_, or _Quartz crystals_. All these bodies,
+each possessing its proper shape, are mixed in such a manner as it would
+be endless to describe, but which may be expressed in general by saying,
+that they are mutually contained in, and contain each other.
+
+Unless, therefore; every one of these different substances may be
+dissolved in water, and crystallised from it, it is in vain to look for
+the explanation of these appearances in the operations of nature, by the
+means of aqueous solution.
+
+On the other hand, heat being capable of rendering all these substances
+fluid, they may be, with the greatest simplicity, transported from one
+place to another; and they may be made to concrete altogether at
+the same time, and distinctly separate in any place. Hence, for the
+explanation of those natural appearances, which are so general, no
+further conditions are required, than the supposition of a sufficient
+intensity of subterraneous fire or heat, and a sufficient degree of
+compression upon those bodies, which are to be subjected to that violent
+heat, without calcination or change. But, so far as this supposition is
+not gratuitous, the appearances of nature will be thus explained.
+
+I shall only mention one specimen, which must appear most decisive
+of the question. It is, I believe, from an Hungarian mine. In this
+specimen, petro-silex, pyrites, and cinnabar, are so mixed together, and
+crystallised upon each other, that it is impossible to conceive any one
+of those bodies to have had its fluidity and concretion from a cause
+which had not affected the other two. Now, let those who would deny the
+fusion of this siliceous body explain how water could dissolve these
+three different bodies, and deposit them in their present shape. If,
+on the contrary, they have not the least shadow of reason for such a
+gratuitous supposition, the present argument must be admitted in its
+full force.
+
+Sulphur and metals are commonly found combined in the mineral regions.
+But this rule is not universal; for they are also frequently in a
+separate state. There is not, perhaps, a metal, among the great number
+which are now discovered, that may not be found native, as they are
+called, or in their metallic state.
+
+Metallic substances are also thus found in some proportion to the
+disposition of the particular metals, to resist the mineralising
+operations, and to their facility of being metallised by fire and
+fusion. Gold, which refuses to be mineralised with sulphur, is found
+generally in its native state. Iron, again, which is so easily
+mineralised and scorified, is seldom found in its malleable state. The
+other metals are all found more or less mineralised, though some of them
+but rarely in the native state.
+
+Besides being found with circumstances thus corresponding to the natural
+facility, or to the impediments attending the metallization of those
+different calces, the native metals are also found in such a shape, and
+with such marks, as can only agree with the fusion of those bodies;
+that is to say, those appearances are perfectly irreconcilable with any
+manner of solution and precipitation.
+
+For the truth of this assertion, among a thousand other examples, I
+appeal to that famous mass of native iron discovered by Mr Pallas in
+Siberia. This mass being so well known to all the mineralists of Europe,
+any comment upon its shape and structure will be unnecessary[8].
+
+[Note 8: Since this Dissertation was written, M. de la Peyrouse has
+discovered a native manganese. The circumstances of this mineral are so
+well adapted for illustrating the present doctrine, and so well related
+by M. de la Peyrouse, that I should be wanting to the interest of
+mineral knowledge, were I not to give here that part of his Memoir.
+
+"Lorsque je fis insérer dans le journal de physique de l'année 1780, au
+mois de Janvier, une Dissertation contenant la classification des mines
+de manganèse, je ne connoissois point, à cette époque, la mine de
+manganèse native. Elle a la couleur de son régule: Elle salit les doigts
+de la même teinte. Son tissu parait aussi lamelleux, et les lames
+semblent affecter une sorte de divergence. Elle a ainsi que lui, l'éclat
+métallique; comme lui elle se laisse aplatir sous le marteau, et
+s'exfolie si l'on redouble les coups; mais une circonstance qui est trop
+frappante pour que je l'omette, c'est la figure de la manganèse native,
+si prodigieusement conforme à celle du régule, qu'on s'y laisseroit
+tromper, si la mine n'étoit encore dans sa gangue: Figure
+très-essentielle à observer ici, parce qu'elle est due à la nature même
+de la manganèse. En effet, pour réduire toutes les mines en général, il
+faut employer divers flux appropriés. Pour la réduction de la manganèse,
+bien loin d'user de ce moyen, il faut, au contraire, éloigner tout flux,
+produire la fusion, par la seule violence et la promptitude du feu. Et
+telle est la propension naturelle et prodigieuse de la manganèse à la
+vitrification, qu'on n'a pu parvenir encore à réduire son régule en un
+seul culot; on trouve dans le creuset plusieurs petits boutons, qui
+forment autant de culots séparés. Dans la mine de manganèse native, elle
+n'est point en une seule masse; elle est disposée également en plusieurs
+culots séparés, et un peu aplatis, comme ceux que l'art produit;
+beaucoup plus gros, à la vérité, parce que les agens de la nature
+doivent avoir une autre énergie, que ceux de nos laboratoires; et cette
+ressemblance si exacte, semble devoir vous faire penser que la mine
+native à été produite par le feu, tout comme son régule. La présence
+de la chaux argentée de la manganèse, me permettroit de croire que la
+nature n'a fait que réduire cette chaux. Du reste, cette mine native
+est très-pure, et ne contient aucune partie attirable à l'aimant. Cette
+mine, unique jusqu'à ce moment, vient, tout comme les autres manganèse
+que j'ai décrites, des mines de fer de _Sem_, dans la vallée de
+_Viedersos_, en Comté de Foix."--_Journal de Physique, Janvier 1786_.]
+
+We come now to the _second_ species of inflammable bodies called oily or
+bituminous. These substances are also found variously mixed with mineral
+bodies, as well as forming strata of themselves; they are, therefore, a
+proper subject for a particular examination.
+
+In the process of vegetation, there are produced oily and resinous
+substances; and, from the collection of these substances at the bottom
+of the ocean, there are formed strata, which have afterwards undergone
+various degrees of beat, and have been variously changed, in consequence
+of the effects of that heat, according as the distillation of the more
+volatile parts of those bodies has been suffered to proceed.
+
+In order to understand this, it must be considered, that, while immersed
+in water, and under insuperable compression, the vegetable, oily, and
+resinous substances, would appear to be unalterable by heat; and it is
+only in proportion as certain chemical separations take place, that
+these inflammable bodies are changed in their substance by the
+application of heat. Now, the most general change of this kind is in
+consequence of evaporation, or the distillation of their more volatile
+parts, by which oily substances become bituminous, and bituminous
+substances become coaly.
+
+There is here a gradation which may be best understood, by comparing the
+extremes.
+
+On the one hand, we know by experiment, that oily and bituminous
+substances can be melted and partly changed into vapour by heat, and
+that they become harder and denser, in proportion as the more volatile
+parts have evaporated from them. On the other hand, coaly substances are
+destitute of fusibility and volatility, in proportion as they have
+been exposed to greater degrees of heat, and to other circumstances
+favourable to the dissipation of their more volatile and fluid parts.
+
+If, therefore, in mineral bodies, we find the two extreme states of this
+combustible substance, and also the intermediate states, we must either
+conclude, that this particular operation of heat has been thus actually
+employed in nature, or we must explain those appearances by some other
+means, in as satisfactory a manner, and so as shall be consistent with
+other appearances.
+
+In this case, it will avail nothing to have recourse to the false
+analogy of water dissolving and crystallising salts, which has been so
+much employed for the explanation of other mineral appearances. The
+operation here in question is of a different nature, and necessarily
+requires both the powers of heat and proper conditions for evaporation.
+
+Therefore, in order to decide the point, with regard to what is the
+power in nature by which mineral bodies have become solid, we have
+but to find bituminous substance in the most complete state of coal,
+intimately connected with some other substance, which is more generally
+found consolidating the strata, and assisting in the concretion of
+mineral substances. But I have in my possession the most undoubted proof
+of this kind. It is a mineral vein, or cavity, in which are blended
+together coal of the most fixed kind, quartz and marmor metallicum. Nor
+is this all; for the specimen now referred to is contained in a rock
+of this kind, which every naturalist now-a-days will allow to have
+congealed from a fluid state of fusion. I have also similar specimens
+from the same place, in which the coal is not of that fixed and
+infusible kind which burns without flame or smoke, but is bituminous or
+inflammable coal.
+
+We have hitherto been resting the argument upon a single point, for the
+sake of simplicity or clearness, not for want of those circumstances
+which shall be found to corroborate the theory. The strata of fossil
+coal are found in almost every intermediate state, as well as in those
+of bitumen and charcoal. Of the one kind is that fossil coal which melts
+or becomes fluid upon receiving heat; of the other, is that species of
+coal, found both in Wales and Scotland, which is perfectly infusible in
+the fire, and burns like coals, without flame or smoke. The one species
+abounds in oily matter, the other has been distilled by heat, until it
+has become a _caput mortuum_, or perfect coal.
+
+The more volatile parts of these bituminous bodies are found in their
+separate state on some occasions. There is a stratum of limestone in
+Fifeshire, near Raith, which, though but slightly tinged with a black
+colour, contains bituminous matter, like pitch, in many cavities, which
+are lined with calcareous spar crystallised. I have a specimen of such
+a cavity, in which the bitumen is in sphericles, or rounded drops,
+immersed in the calcareous spar.
+
+Now, it is to be observed, that, if the cavity in the solid limestone or
+marble, which is lined with calcareous crystals containing pyrites, had
+been thus encrusted by means of the filtration of water, this water must
+have dissolved calcareous spar, pyrites, and bitumen. But these natural
+appearances would not even be explained by this dissolution and supposed
+filtration of those substances. There is also required, _first_, A
+cause for the separation of those different substances from the aqueous
+menstruum in which they had been dissolved; _2dly_, An explanation of
+the way in which a dissolved bitumen should be formed into round hard
+bodies of the most solid structure; and, _lastly_, Some probable means
+for this complicated operation being performed, below the bottom of the
+ocean, in the close cavity of a marble stratum.
+
+Thus, the additional proof, from the facts relating to the bituminous
+substances, conspiring with that from the phenomena of other bodies,
+affords the strongest corroboration of this opinion, that the various
+concretions found in the internal parts of strata have not been
+occasioned by means of aqueous solution, but by the power of heat and
+operation of simple fusion, preparing those different substances to
+concrete and crystallise in cooling.
+
+The arguments which have been now employed for proving that strata have
+been consolidated by the power of heat, or by the means of fusion, have
+been drawn chiefly from the insoluble nature of those consolidating
+substances in relation to water, which is the only general menstruum
+that can be allowed for the mineral regions. But there are found, in
+the mineral kingdom, many solid masses of saltgem, which is a soluble
+substance. It may be now inquired, How far these masses, which are not
+infrequent in the earth, tend either to confirm the present theory, or,
+on the contrary, to give countenance to that which supposes water the
+chief instrument in consolidating strata.
+
+The formation of salt at the bottom of the sea, without the assistance
+of subterranean fire, is not a thing unsupposable, as at first sight
+it might appear. Let us but suppose a rock placed across the gut
+of Gibraltar, (a case nowise unnatural), and the bottom of the
+Mediterranean would be certainly filled with salt, because the
+evaporation from the surface of that sea exceeds the measure of its
+supply.
+
+But strata of salt, formed in this manner at the bottom of the sea, are
+as far from being consolidated by means of aqueous solution, as a bed of
+sand in the same situation; and we cannot explain the consolidation of
+such a stratum of salt by means of water, without supposing subterranean
+heat employed, to evaporate the brine which would successively occupy
+the interstices of the saline crystals. But this, it may be observed, is
+equally departing from the natural operation of water, as the means for
+consolidating the sediment of the ocean, as if we were to suppose
+the same thing done by heat and fusion. For the question is not,
+If subterranean heat be of sufficient intensity for the purpose of
+consolidating strata by the fusion of their substances; the question is,
+Whether it be by means of this agent, subterranean heat, or by water
+alone, without the operation of a melting heat, that those materials
+have been variously consolidated.
+
+The example now under consideration, consolidated mineral salt, will
+serve to throw some light upon the subject; for, as it is to be shown,
+that this body of salt had been consolidated by perfect fusion, and
+not by means of aqueous solution, the consolidation of strata of
+indissoluble substances, by the operation of a melting heat, will meet
+with all that confirmation which the consistency of natural appearances
+can give.
+
+The salt rock in Cheshire lies in strata of red marl. It is horizontal
+in its direction. I do not know its thickness, but it is dug thirty or
+forty feet deep. The body of this rock is perfectly solid, and the salt,
+in many places, pure, colourless, and transparent, breaking with a
+sparry cubical structure. But the greatest part is tinged by the
+admixture of the marl, and that in various degrees, from the slightest
+tinge of red, to the most perfect opacity. Thus, the rock appears as if
+it had been a mass of fluid salt, in which had been floating a quantity
+of marly substance, not uniformly mixed, but every where separating and
+subsiding from the pure saline substance.
+
+There is also to be observed a certain regularity in this separation of
+the tinging from the colourless substance, which, at a proper distance,
+gives to the perpendicular section of the rock a distinguishable figure
+in its structure. When looking at this appearance near the bottom of
+the rock, it, at first, presented me with the figure of regular
+stratification; but, upon examining the whole mass of rock, I found,
+that it was only towards the bottom that this stratified appearance took
+place; and that, at the top of the rock, the most beautiful and regular
+figure was to be observed; but a figure the most opposite to that of
+stratification. It was all composed of concentric circles; and these
+appeared to be the section of a mass, composed altogether of concentric
+spheres, like those beautiful systems of configuration which agates so
+frequently present us with in miniature. In about eight or ten feet from
+the top, the circles growing large, were blended together, and gradually
+lost their regular appearance, until, at a greater depth, they again
+appeared in resemblance of a stratification.
+
+This regular arrangement of the floating marly substance in the body
+of salt, which is that of the structure of a coated pebble, or that
+of concentric spheres, is altogether inexplicable upon any other
+supposition, than the perfect fluidity or fusion of the salt, and the
+attractions and repulsions of the contained substances. It is in vain
+to look, in the operations of solution and evaporation, for that which
+nothing but perfect fluidity or fusion can explain.
+
+This example of a mineral salt congealed from a melted state, may be
+confirmed from another which I have from Dr Black, who suggested it to
+me. It is an alkaline salt, found in a mineral state, and described in
+the Philosophical Transactions, _anno_ 1771. But to understand this
+specimen, something must be premised with regard to the nature of fossil
+alkali.
+
+The fossil alkali crystallises from a dissolved state, in combining
+itself with a large portion of the water, in the manner of alum; and,
+in this case, the water is essential to the constitution of that
+transparent crystalline body; for, upon the evaporation of the water,
+the transparent salt loses its solidity, and becomes a white powder. If,
+instead of being gently dried, the crystalline salt is suddenly exposed
+to a sufficient degree of heat, that is, somewhat more than boiling
+water, it enters into the state of aqueous fusion, and it boils, in
+emitting the water by means of which it had been crystallised in the
+cold, and rendered fluid in that heated state. It is not possible to
+crystallise this alkaline salt from a dissolved state, without the
+combination of that quantity of water, nor to separate that water
+without destroying its crystalline state.
+
+But in this mineral specimen, we have a solid crystalline salt, with
+a structure which, upon fracture, appears to be sparry and radiated,
+something resembling that of zeolite. It contains no water in its
+crystallization, but melts in a sufficient heat, without any aqueous
+fusion. Therefore, this salt must have been in a fluid state of fusion,
+immediately before its congelation and crystallization.
+
+It would be endless to give examples of particular facts, so many are
+the different natural appearances that occur, attended with a variety of
+different circumstances.
+
+There is one, however, which is peculiarly distinct, admits of
+sufficiently accurate description, and contains circumstances from which
+conclusions may be drawn with clearness. This is the ironstone, which
+is commonly found among the argillaceous strata, attendant upon fossil
+coal, both in Scotland and in England.
+
+This stone is generally found among the bituminous schistus, or black
+argillaceous strata, either in separate masses of various shapes and
+sizes, or forming of itself strata which are more or less continuous in
+their direction among the schistous or argillaceous beds.
+
+This mineral contains, in general, from 40 to 50 _per cent._ of iron,
+and it loses near one third of its weight in calcination. Before
+calcination it is of a grey colour, is not penetrable by water, and
+takes a polish. In this state, therefore, it is perfectly solid; but
+being calcined, it becomes red, porous, and tender.
+
+The fact to be proved with regard to these iron-stones is this, That
+they have acquired their solid state from fusion, and not in concreting
+from any aqueous solution.
+
+To abridge this disquisition, no argument is to be taken from contingent
+circumstances, (which, however, are often found here as well as in the
+case of marbles); such only are to be employed as are general to the
+subject, and arise necessarily from the nature of the operation.
+
+It will be proper to describe a species of these stones, which is
+remarkably regular in its form. It is that found at Aberlady, in East
+Lothian.
+
+The form of these iron-stones is that of an oblate or much compressed
+sphere, and the size from two or three inches diameter to more than
+a foot. In the circular or horizontal section, they present the most
+elegant septarium[9]; and, from the examination of this particular
+structure, the following conclusions may be drawn.
+
+_First_, That, the septa have been formed by the uniform contraction
+of the internal parts of the stone, the volume of the central parts
+diminishing more than that of the circumference; by this means, the
+separations of the stone diminish, in a progression from the center
+towards the circumference.
+
+_2d_, That there are only two ways in which the septa must have received
+the spar or spatthose ore with which they are filled, more or less,
+either, _first_ By insinuation into the cavity of the septa after these
+were formed; or, _2dly_, By separation from the substance of the stone,
+at the same time that the septa were forming.
+
+[Note 9: Plate I.]
+
+Were the first supposition true, appearances would be observable,
+showing that the sparry substance had been admitted, either through the
+porous structure of the stone, or through proper apertures communicating
+from without. Now, if either one or other of these had been the case,
+and that the stone had been consolidated from no other cause than
+concretion from a dissolved state, that particular structure of the
+stone, by means of which the spar had been admitted, must appear at
+present upon an accurate examination.
+
+This, however, is not the case, and we may rest the argument here. The
+septa reach not the circumference; the surface of the stone is solid and
+uniform in every part; and there is not any appearance of the spar in
+the argillaceous bed around the stone.
+
+It, therefore, necessarily follows, that the contraction of the
+iron-stone, in order to form septa, and the filling of these cavities
+with spar, had proceeded _pari passu_; and that this operation must have
+been brought about by means of fusion, or by congelation from a state of
+simple fluidity and expansion.
+
+It is only further to be observed, that all the arguments which have
+been already employed, concerning mineral concretions from a simply
+fluid state, or that of fusion, here take place. I have septaria of this
+kind, in which, besides pyrites, iron-ore, calcareous spar, and another
+that is ferruginous and compound, there is contained siliceous
+crystals; a case which is not so common. I have them also attended with
+circumstances of concretion and crystallization, which, besides being
+extremely rare, are equally curious and interesting.
+
+There is one fact more which is well worth our attention, being one
+of those which are so general in the mineral regions. It is the
+crystallizations which are found in close cavities of the most solid
+bodies.
+
+Nothing is more common than this appearance. Cavities are every where
+found closely lined with crystallizations, of every different substance
+which may be supposed in those places. These concretions are well known
+to naturalists, and form part of the beautiful specimens which
+are preserved in the cabinets of collectors, and which the German
+mineralists have termed _Drusen_. I shall only particularise one
+species, which may be described upon principle, and therefore may be
+a proper subject on which to reason, for ascertaining the order of
+production in certain bodies. This body, which we are now to examine, is
+of the agate species.
+
+We have now been considering the means employed by nature in
+consolidating strata which were originally of an open structure; but in
+perfectly solid strata we find bodies of agate, which have evidently
+been formed in that place where they now are found. This fact, however,
+is not still that of which we are now particularly to inquire; for this,
+of which we are to treat, concerns only a cavity within this agate; now,
+whatever may have been the origin of the agate itself, we are to show,
+from what appears within its cavity, that the crystallizations which are
+found in this place had arisen from a simply fluid state, and not from
+that of any manner of solution.
+
+The agates now in question are those of the coated kind, so frequent in
+this country, called pebbles. Many of these are filled with a siliceous
+crystallization, which evidently proceeds from the circumference
+towards the centre. Many of them, again, are hollow. Those cavities are
+variously lined with crystallized substances; and these are the object
+of the present examination.
+
+But before describing what is found within, it is necessary to attend to
+this particular circumstance, that the cavity is perfectly inclosed with
+many solid coats, impervious to air or water, but particularly with
+the external cortical part, which is extremely hard, takes the highest
+polish, and is of the most perfect solidity, admitting the passage of
+nothing but light and heat.
+
+Within these cavities, we find, _1st_, The coat of crystals with which
+this cavity is always lined; and this is general to all substances
+concreting, in similar circumstances, from a state of fusion; for when
+thus at liberty they naturally crystallise. _2dly_, We have frequently
+a subsequent crystallization, resting on the first, and more or less
+immersed in it. _3dly_, There is also sometimes a third crystallization,
+superincumbent on the second, in like manner as the second was on the
+first. I shall mention some particulars.
+
+I have one specimen, in which the primary crystals are siliceous, the
+secondary thin foliaceous crystals of deep red but transparent iron-ore,
+forming elegant figures, that have the form of roses. The tertiary
+crystallization is a frosting of small siliceous crystals upon the edges
+of the foliaceous crystals.
+
+In other specimens, there is first a lining of colourless siliceous
+crystals, then another lining of amethystine crystals, and sometimes
+within that, fuliginous crystals. Upon these fuliginous and amethystine
+crystals are many sphericles or hemispheres of red compact iron-ore,
+like haematites.
+
+In others, again, the primary crystals are siliceous, and the secondary
+calcareous. Of this kind, I have one which has, upon the calcareous
+crystals, beautiful transparent siliceous crystals, and iron sphericles
+both upon all these crystals, and within them.
+
+_Lastly_, I have an agate formed of various red and white coats, and
+beautifully figured. The cavity within the coated part of the pebble is
+filled up without vacuity, first, with colourless siliceous crystals;
+secondly, with fuliginous crystals; and, lastly, with white or
+colourless calcareous spar. But between the spar and crystals there are
+many sphericles, seemingly of iron, half sunk into each of these two
+different substances.
+
+From these facts, I may now be allowed to draw the following
+conclusions:
+
+1_st_, That concretion had proceeded from the surface of the agate body
+inwards. This necessarily follows from the nature of those figured
+bodies, the figures of the external coats always determining the shape
+of those within, and never, contrarily, those within affecting those
+without.
+
+2_dly_, That when the agate was formed, the cavity then contained every
+thing which now is found within it, and nothing more.
+
+3_dly_, That the contained substances must have been in a fluid state,
+in order to their crystallizing.
+
+_Lastly_, That as this fluid state had not been the effect of solution
+in a menstruum, it must have been fluidity from heat and fusion.
+
+Let us now make one general observation and argument with regard to
+the formation of those various coated, concreted, crystallized, and
+configured bodies. Were the crystallization and configuration found
+to proceed from a central body, and to be directed from that centre
+outwards, then, without inquiring into collateral appearances, and other
+proofs with regard to the natural concretion of those substances, we
+might suppose that these concretions might have proceeded from that
+central body gradually by accretion, and that the concreting and
+crystallizing substances might have been supplied from a fluid which had
+before retained the concreting substance in solution; in like manner as
+the crystallizations of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
+that saccharine substance, and are termed candies, are formed upon the
+threads which are extended in the crystallizing vessel for that purpose.
+But if, on the contrary, we are to consider those mineral bodies as
+spheres of alternate coats, composed of agate, crystal, spars, etc.; and
+if all those crystallizations have their _bases_ upon the uncrystallized
+coat which is immediately external to it, and their _apices_ turned
+inwards into the next internal solid coat, it is not possible to
+conceive that a structure of this kind could have been formed in
+any manner from a solution. But this last manner is the way without
+exception in which those mineral bodies are found; therefore we are to
+conclude, that the concretion of those bodies had proceeded immediately
+from a state of fusion or simple fluidity.
+
+In granite these cavities are commonly lined with the crystal
+corresponding to the constituent substances of the stone, viz. quartz,
+feld-spar, and mica or talk. M. de Saussure, (Voyages dans les Alpes,
+tom. ii. §722.), says, "On trouve fréquemment des amas considérables de
+spath calcaire, crystallisé dans les grottes ou se forme le crystal de
+roche; quoique ces grottes soient renfermées dans le coeur des montagnes
+d'un granit vif, & qu'on ne voie aucun roc calcaire au dessus de ces
+montagnes."
+
+So accurate an observer, and so complete a naturalist, must have
+observed how the extraneous substance had been introduced into this
+cavity, had they not been formed together the cavity and the calcareous
+crystals. That M. de Saussure perceived no means for that introduction,
+will appear from what immediately follows in that paragraph. "Ces rocs
+auroient-ils été détruits, ou bien ce spath n'est il que le produit
+d'une sécrétion des parties calcaires que l'on fait êtres dispersées
+entre les divers élémens du granit?"
+
+Had M. de Saussure allowed himself to suppose all those substances in
+fusion, of which there cannot be a doubt, he would soon have resolved
+both this difficulty, and also that of finding molybdena crystallized
+along with feld-spar, in a cavity of this kind. §718.
+
+To this argument, taken from the close cavities in our agates, I am now
+to add another demonstration. It is the case of the calcedony agate,
+containing a body of calcareous spar; here it is to be shown, that,
+while the calcareous body was altogether inclosed within the calcedony
+nodular body, these two substances had been perfectly soft, and had
+mutually affected each others shape, in concreting from a fluid state.
+In order to see this, we are to consider that both those substances have
+specific shapes in which they concrete from the third state; the
+sparry structure of the one is well known; the spherical or mammelated
+crystallization of the calcedony, is no less conspicuous; this last
+is, in the present case, spherical figures, which are some of
+them hemispheres, or even more. The figures which we have now in
+contemplation are so distinctly different as cannot be mistaken; the
+one is a rhombic figure bounded by planes; the other is a most perfect
+spherical form; and both these are specific figures, belonging
+respectively to the crystallization of those two substances.
+
+The argument now to be employed for proving that those two bodies had
+concreted from the fluid state of fusion, and not from any manner of
+solution, is this: That, were the one of those bodies to be found
+impressing the other with its specific figure, we must conclude that the
+impressing body had concreted or crystallized while the impressed body
+was in a soft or fluid state; and that, if they are both found mutually
+impressing and impressed by each other, they must have both been in
+the fluid and concreting state together. Now the fact is, that the
+calcareous body is perfectly inclosed within the solid calcedony, and
+that they are mutually impressed by each others specific figure, the
+sparry structure of the calcareous body impressing the calcedony with
+its type of planes and angles, at the same time that, in other parts,
+the spherical figures of the calcedony enter the solid body of the
+spar, and thus impress their mammelated figures into that part which is
+contiguous. It is therefore inconceivable, that these appearances
+could have been produced in any other manner than by those two bodies
+concreting from a simply fluid state.
+
+There are in jaspers and agates many other appearances, from whence the
+fusion of those substances may be concluded with great certainty and
+precision; but it is hoped, that what has been now given may suffice for
+establishing that proposition without any doubt.
+
+It must not be here objected, That there are frequently found siliceous
+crystals and amethysts containing water; and that it is impossible
+to confine water even in melted glass. It is true, that here, at the
+surface of the earth, melted glass cannot, in ordinary circumstances, be
+made to receive and inclose condensed water; but let us only suppose a
+sufficient degree of compression in the body of melted glass, and we
+can easily imagine it to receive and confine water as well as any
+other substance. But if, even in our operations, water, by means of
+compression, may be made to endure the heat of red hot iron without
+being converted into vapour, what may not the power of nature be able to
+perform? The place of mineral operations is not on the surface of the
+earth; and we are not to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
+the powers of nature by the measure of our own.[10]
+
+[Note 10: This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
+the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral substances, that I beg
+the particular attention of the reader to that subject. The effect of
+compression upon compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
+heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established principle
+in natural philosophy. This, like every other physical principle, is
+founded upon matter of fact or experience; we find, that many compound
+substances may with heat be easily changed, by having their more
+volatile parts separated when under a small compression; but these
+substances are preserved without change when sufficiently compressed.
+Our experiments of this kind are necessarily extremely limited; they
+are not, however, for that reason, the less conclusive. The effects of
+increasing degrees of heat are certainly prevented by increasing degrees
+of compression; but the rate at which the different effects of those
+powers proceed, or the measure of those different degrees of increase
+that may be made without changing the constitution of the compound
+substance, are not known; nor is there any limit to be set to that
+operation, so far as we know. Consequently, it is a physical principle,
+That the evaporation of volatile substances by heat, or the reparation
+of them from a compound substance, consequently the effect of fire in
+changing that compound substance, may be absolutely prevented by means
+of compression.
+
+It now remains to be considered, how far there is reason to conclude
+that there had been sufficient degrees of compression in the mineral
+regions, for the purpose of melting the various substances with which we
+find strata consolidated, without changing the chemical constitution of
+those compound substances.
+
+Had I, in reasoning _a priori_, asserted, That all mineral bodies might
+have been melted without change, when under sufficient compression,
+there might have arisen, in the minds of reasoning men, some doubt with
+regard to the certainty of that proposition, however probable it were to
+be esteemed: But when, in reasoning _a posteriori_, it is found that all
+mineral bodies have been actually melted, then, all that is required to
+establish the proposition on which I have founded my theory, is to
+see that there must have been immense degrees of compression upon the
+subjects in question; for we neither know the degree of heat which had
+been employed, nor that of compression by which the effect of the heat
+must have been modified.
+
+Now, in order to see that there had been immense compression, we have
+but to consider that the formation of the strata, which are to be
+consolidated, was at the bottom of the ocean, and that this place is to
+us unfathomable. If it be farther necessary to show that it had been at
+such unfathomable depth strata were consolidated, it will be sufficient
+to observe, it is not upon the surface of the earth, or above the level
+of the sea, that this mineral operation can take place; for, it is there
+that those consolidated bodies are redissolved, or necessarily going
+into decay, which is the opposite to that operation which we are now
+inquiring after; therefore, if they were consolidated in any other place
+than at the bottom of the sea, it must have been between that place of
+their formation and the surface of the sea; but that is a supposition
+which we have not any reason to make; therefore, we must conclude that
+it was at the bottom of the ocean those stratified bodies had been
+consolidated.]
+
+To conclude this long chemico-mineral disquisition, I have specimens in
+which the mixture of calcareous, siliceous, and metallic substances,
+in almost every species of concretion which is to be found in mineral
+bodies, may be observed, and in which there is exhibited, in miniature,
+almost every species of mineral transaction, which, in nature, is found
+upon a scale of grandeur and magnificence. They are nodules contained in
+the whin-stone, porphyry, or basaltes of the Calton-hill, by Edinburgh;
+a body which is to be afterwards examined, when it will be found to have
+flowed, and to have been in fusion, by the operation of subterraneous
+heat.
+
+This evidence, though most conclusive with regard to the application of
+subterraneous heat, as the means employed in bringing into fusion all
+the different substances with which strata may be found consolidated, is
+not directly a proof that strata had been consolidated by the fusion of
+their proper substance. It was necessary to see the general nature of
+the evidence, for the universal application of subterraneous heat, in
+the fusion of every kind of mineral body. Now, that this has been done,
+we may give examples of strata consolidated without the introduction
+of foreign matter, merely by the softening or fusion of their own
+materials.
+
+For this purpose, we may consider two different species of strata,
+such as are perfectly simple in their nature, of the most distinct
+substances, and whose origin is perfectly understood, consequently,
+whose subsequent changes may be reasoned upon with certainty and
+clearness. These are the siliceous and calcareous strata; and these
+are the two prevailing substances of the globe, all the rest being, in
+comparison of these, as nothing; for unless it be the bituminous or coal
+strata, there is hardly any other which does not necessarily contain
+more or less of one or other of these two substances. If, therefore,
+it can be shown, that both of those two general strata have been
+consolidated by the simple fusion of their substance, no _desideratum_
+or doubt will remain, with regard to the nature of that operation which
+has been transacted at great depths of the earth, places to which all
+access is denied to mortal eyes.
+
+We are now to prove, _first_, That those strata have been consolidated
+by simple fusion; and, _2dly_, That this operation is universal, in
+relation to the strata of the earth, as having produced the various
+degrees of solidity or hardness in these bodies.
+
+I shall first remark, that a fortuitous collection of hard bodies, such
+as gravel and sand, can only touch in points, and cannot, while in that
+hard state, be made to correspond so precisely to each others shape as
+to consolidate the mass. But if these hard bodies should be softened in
+their substance, or brought into a certain degree of fusion, they
+might be adapted mutually to each other, and thus consolidate the open
+structure of the mass. Therefore, to prove the present point, we have
+but to exhibit specimens of siliceous and calcareous strata which have
+been evidently consolidated in this manner.
+
+Of the first kind, great varieties occur in this country. It is,
+therefore, needless to describe these particularly. They are the
+consolidated strata of gravel and sand, often containing abundance of
+feld-spar, and thus graduating into granite; a body, in this respect,
+perfectly similar to the more regular strata which we now examine.
+
+The second kind, again, are not so common in this country, unless
+we consider the shells and coralline bodies in our lime-stones, as
+exhibiting the same example, which indeed they do. But I have a specimen
+of marble from Spain, which may be described, and which will afford the
+most satisfactory evidence of the fact in question.
+
+This Spanish marble may be considered as a species of pudding-stone,
+being formed of calcareous gravel; a species of marble which, from Mr
+Bowles' Natural History, appears to be very common in Spain. The gravel
+of which this marble is composed, consists of fragments of other marbles
+of different kinds. Among these, are different species of _oolites_
+marble, some shell marbles, and some composed of a chalky substance, or
+of undistinguishable parts. But it appears, that all these different
+marbles had been consolidated or made hard, then broken into fragments,
+rolled and worn by attrition, and thus collected together, along with
+some sand or small siliceous bodies, into one mass. Lastly, This
+compound body is consolidated in such a manner as to give the most
+distinct evidence, that this had been executed by the operation of heat
+or simple fusion.
+
+The proof I give is this, That besides the general conformation of those
+hard bodies, so as to be perfectly adapted to each other's shape, there
+is, in some places, a mutual indentation of the different pieces of
+gravel into each other; an indentation which resembles perfectly that
+junction of the different bones of the _cranium_, called sutures, and
+which must have necessarily required a mixture of those bodies while in
+a soft or fluid state.
+
+This appearance of indentation is by no means singular, or limited to
+one particular specimen. I have several specimens of different marbles,
+in which fine examples of this species of mixture may be perceived. But
+in this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone, where the mutual
+indentation is made between two pieces of hard stone, worn round by
+attrition, the softening or fusion of these two bodies is not simply
+rendered probable, but demonstrated.
+
+Having thus proved, that those strata had been consolidated by simple
+fusion, as proposed, we now proceed to show, that this mineral operation
+had been not only general, as being found in all the regions of the
+globe, but universal, in consolidating our earth in all the various
+degrees, from loose and incoherent shells and sand, to the most solid
+bodies of the siliceous and calcareous substances.
+
+To exemplify this in the various collections and mixtures of sands,
+gravels, shells, and corals, were endless and superfluous. I shall only
+take, for an example, one simple homogeneous body, in order to exhibit
+it in the various degrees of consolidation, from the state of simple
+incoherent earth to that of the most solid marble. It must be evident
+that this is chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but which may be
+also found consolidated in every different degree.
+
+Through the middle of the Isle of Wight, there runs a ridge of hills of
+indurated chalk. This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly west
+into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle towards Dorchester, perhaps
+beyond that place. The sea has broke through this ridge at the west
+end of the Isle of Wight, where columns of the indurated chalk remain,
+called the Needles; the same appearance being found upon the opposite
+shore in Dorsetshire.
+
+In this field of chalk, we find every gradation of that soft earthy
+substance to the most consolidated body of this indurated ridge, which
+is not solid marble, but which has lost its chalky property, and has
+acquired a kind of stony hardness.
+
+We want only further to see this cretaceous substance in its most
+indurated and consolidated state; and this we have in the north of
+Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway. I have examined cargoes of
+this lime-stone brought to the west of Scotland, and find the most
+perfect evidence of this body having been once a mass of chalk, which is
+now a solid marble.
+
+Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the strata of the earth have
+been, in many places, consolidated, we must conclude, that all the
+degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite, have been brought about
+by the same means.
+
+Now, that all the strata of the mineral regions, which are those only
+now examined, have been consolidated in some degree, is a fact for which
+no proof can be offered here, but must be submitted to experience and
+inquiry; so far, however, as they shall be considered as consolidated in
+any degree, which they certainly are in general, we have investigated
+the means which had been employed in that mineral operation.
+
+We have now considered the concretions of particular bodies, and the
+general consolidation of strata; but it may be alleged, that there is
+a great part of the solid mass of this earth not properly comprehended
+among those bodies which have been thus proved to be consolidated by
+means of fusion. The body here alluded to is granite; a mass which is
+not generally stratified, and which, being a body perfectly solid,
+and forming some part in the structure of this earth, deserves to be
+considered.
+
+The nature of granite, as a part of the structure of the earth, is too
+intricate a subject to be here considered, where we only seek to prove
+the fusion of a substance from the evident marks which are to be
+observed in a body. We shall, therefore, only now consider one
+particular species of granite; and if this shall appear to have been in
+a fluid state of fusion, we may be allowed to extend this property to
+all the kind.
+
+The species now to be examined comes from the north country, about four
+or five miles west from Portfoy, on the road to Huntly. I have not been
+upon the spot, but am informed that this rock is immediately connected
+or continuous with the common granite of the country. This indeed
+appears in the specimens which I have got; for, in some of these, there
+is to be perceived a gradation from the regular to the irregular sort.
+
+This rock may indeed be considered, in some respects, as a porphyry; for
+it has an evident ground, which is feld-spar, in its sparry state;
+and it is, in one view, distinctly maculated with quartz, which is
+transparent, but somewhat dark-coloured[11].
+
+[Note 11: Plate II. fig. 1. 2. 3.]
+
+Considered as a porphyry, this specimen is no less singular than as a
+granite. For, instead of a siliceous ground, maculated with the rhombic
+feld-spar, which is the common state of porphyry, the ground is
+uniformly crystallised, or a homogeneous regular feld-spar, maculated
+with the transparent siliceous substance. But as, besides the feld-spar
+and quartz, which are the constituent parts of the stone, there is also
+mica, in some places, it may, with propriety, be termed a granite.
+
+The singularity of this specimen consists, not in the nature or
+proportions of its constituent parts, but in the uniformity of the
+sparry ground, and the regular shape of the quartz mixture. This
+siliceous substance, viewed in one direction, or longitudinally, may
+be considered as columnar, prismatical, or continued in lines running
+nearly parallel. These columnar bodies of quartz are beautifully
+impressed with a figure on the sides, where they are in contact with the
+spar. This figure is that of furrows or channels, which are perfectly
+parallel, and run across the longitudinal direction of the quartz. This
+is represented in fig. 4. This striated figure is only seen when, by
+fracture, the quartz is separated from the contiguous spar.
+
+But what I would here more particularly represent is, the transverse
+section of those longitudinal siliceous bodies These are seen in fig. 1.
+2. and 3. They have not only separately the forms of certain typographic
+characters, but collectively give the regular lineal appearance of types
+set in writing.
+
+It is evident from the inspection of this fossil, that the sparry and
+siliceous substances had been mixed together in a fluid state; and that
+the crystallization of the sparry substance, which is rhombic, had
+determined the regular structure of the quartz, at least in some
+directions.
+
+Thus, the siliceous substance is to be considered as included in the
+spar, and as figured, according to the laws of crystallization proper
+to the sparry ground; but the spar is also to be found included in the
+quartz. It is not, indeed, always perfectly included or inclosed on all
+sides; but this is sometimes the case, or it appears so in the section.
+Fig. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. and 10. are those cases magnified, and represent the
+different figured quartz inclosing the feld-spar. In one of them, the
+feld-spar, which is contained within the quartz, contains also a small
+triangle of quartz, which it incloses. Now, it is not possible to
+conceive any other way in which those two substances, quartz and
+feld-spar, could be thus concreted, except by congelation from a fluid
+state, in which they had been mixed.
+
+There is one thing more to be observed with regard to this curious
+species of granite. It is the different order or arrangement of the
+crystallization or internal structure of the feld-spar ground, in two
+contiguous parts of the same mass. This is to be perceived in the
+polished surface of the stone, by means of the reflection of light.
+
+There is a certain direction in which, viewing the stone, when the light
+falls with a proper obliquity, we see a luminous reflection from the
+internal parts of the stone. This arises from the reflecting surfaces
+of the sparry structure or minute cracks, all turned in one direction,
+consequently, giving that luminous appearance only in one point of view.
+
+Now, all the parts of the stone in which the figured quartz is directed
+in the same manner, or regularly placed in relation to each other,
+present that shining appearance to the eye at one time, or in the same
+point of direction. But there are parts of the mass, which, though
+immediately contiguous and properly continuous, have a different
+disposition of the figured quartz; and these two distinguished masses,
+in the same surface of the polished stone, give to the eye their shining
+appearance in very different directions. Fig. 3. shows two of those
+figured and shining masses, in the same plane or polished surface.
+
+It must be evident, that, as the crystallization of the sparry structure
+is the figuring cause of the quartz bodies, there must be observed a
+certain correspondency between those two things, the alinement (if I may
+be allowed the expression) of the quartz, and the shining of the sparry
+ground. It must also appear, that at the time of congelation of the
+fluid spar, those two contiguous portions had been differently disposed
+in the crystallization of their substance. This is an observation which
+I have had frequent opportunities of making, with respect to masses of
+calcareous spar.
+
+Upon the whole, therefore, whether we shall consider granite as a
+stratum or as an irregular mass, whether as a collection of several
+materials, or as the separation of substances which had been mixed,
+there is sufficient evidence of this body having been consolidated by
+means of fusion, and in no other manner.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that the power of heat and operation
+of fusion must have been employed in consolidating strata of loose
+materials, which had been collected together and amassed at the bottom
+of the ocean. It will, therefore, be proper to consider, what are the
+appearances in consolidated strata that naturally should follow, on the
+one hand, from fluidity having been, in this manner, introduced by means
+of heat, and, on the other, from the interstices being filled by means
+of solution; that so we may compare appearances with the one and other
+of those two suppositions, in order to know that with which they may be
+only found consistent.
+
+The consolidation of strata with every different kind of substance was
+found to be inconsistent with the supposition, that aqueous solution
+had been the means employed for this purpose. This appearance, on the
+contrary, is perfectly consistent with the idea, that the fluidity of
+these bodies had been the effect of heat; for, whether we suppose the
+introduction of foreign matter into the porous mass of a stratum for its
+consolidation, or whether we shall suppose the materials of the mass
+acquiring a degree of softness, by means of which, together with an
+immense compression, the porous body might be rendered solid; the power
+of heat, as the cause of fluidity and vapour, is equally proper and
+perfectly competent. Here, therefore, appearances are as decidedly in
+favour of the last supposition, as they had been inconsistent with the
+first.
+
+But if strata have been consolidated by means of aqueous solution, these
+masses should be found precisely in the same state as when they were
+originally deposited from the water. The perpendicular section of those
+masses might show the compression of the bodies included in them, or of
+which they are composed; but the horizontal section could not contain
+any separation of the parts of the stratum from one another.
+
+If, again, strata have been consolidated by means of heat, acting in
+such a manner as to soften their substance, then, in cooling, they must
+have formed rents or separations of their substance, by the unequal
+degrees of contraction which the contiguous strata may have suffered.
+Here is a most decisive mark by which the present question must be
+determined.
+
+There is not in nature any appearance more distinct than this of the
+perpendicular fissures and separations in strata. These are generally
+known to workmen by the terms of veins or backs and cutters; and there
+is no consolidated stratum that wants these appearances. Here is,
+therefore, a clear decision of the question, Whether it has been by
+means of heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that collections of
+loose bodies at the bottom of the sea have been consolidated into the
+hardest rocks and most perfect marbles[12].
+
+[Note 12: This subject is extremely interesting, both to the theory of
+the earth, and to the science cf the mining art; I will now illustrate
+that theory, with an authority which I received after giving this
+dissertation to the Royal Society. It is in the second volume of M. de
+Saussure's _voyages dans les Alpes_. Here I find proper examples for
+illustrating that subject of mineralogy; and I am happy to have this
+opportunity of giving the reasoning of a man of science upon the
+subject, and the opinion of a person who is in every respect so well
+qualified to judge upon a point of this kind.
+
+The first example is of a marble in the Alps, (_voyages dans les
+Alpes._) tom. 2. page 271.
+
+"La pâte de ces brèches est tantôt blanche, tantôt grise, et les
+fragmens qui y font renfermés font, les uns blancs, les autres gris,
+d'autres roux, et presque toujours d'une couleur différente de celle de
+la pâte qui les lit. Ils sont tous de nature calcaire; tels étaient au
+moins tous ceux que j'ai pus observer; et ce qu'il-y-a de remarquable,
+c'est qu'ils sont tous posés dans le sens des feuillets de la pierre; on
+diroit en les voyant, qu'ils ont tous été comprimés et écrasés dans
+le même sens. Cette même pierre est mêlée de mica, sur-tout dans les
+interstices des couches et entre les fragmens et la pâte qui les réunit;
+mais on ne voit point de mica dans les fragmens eux-mêmes. On trouve
+aussi dans ces brèches des infiltrations de quartz. Cette pierre est
+coupée par des fréquentes fissures perpendiculaires aux plans des
+couches. On voit clairement que ces fentes out été formées par l'inégal
+affaissement des couches, et non par une retraite spontanée: car les
+morceaux ou fragmens étrangers sont tous partagés et coupés net par ces
+fissures au lieu que dans les divisions naturelles des couches, ces
+mêmes fragmens sont entiers et saillans au dehors de la surface. Les
+noeuds de quartz et les divers crystaux, que renferment les roches
+feuilletées, présentent le même phénomène, et l'on peut en tirer la même
+conséquence; ils font partagés dans les fentes, et entiers dans les
+séparations des couches."
+
+He finds those particular strata in the other side of the mountain _col
+de la Seigne_, and gives us the following observations:
+
+"Plus bas on passe entre deux bancs de ces mêmes brèches, entre lesquels
+sont interposées des couches d'ardoises noires et de grès feuilletés
+micacés, dont la situation est la même.
+
+"On retrouve encore ces brèches vers le has de la descente, au pied de
+pyramides calcaires dont j'ai parlé plus haut. Je trouvai en 1774 de
+très-jolis crystaux de roche qui s'étaient formés dans les fentes de
+cette brèche. Il y avoit même un mélange de quartz et de mica qui
+s'étoit moulé dans quelques-une de ces fentes. C'étoit donc une roche
+semblable aux primitives, et pourtant d'une formation postérieure à
+celle de la pierre calcaire. Et quel système pourroit nous persuader que
+la nature ne puisse encore produire ce qu'elle a produit autrefois!"
+
+M. de Saussure has here given us an example of a calcareous Braccia,
+as he calls it, but which is rather a pudding stone, with veins or
+contractions of the mass. He does not seem to understand these as
+consequences of the consolidation of those strata; this, however, is
+the only light in which these appearances may be explained, when those
+bodies are thus divided without any other separation in the mass.
+
+The second example is found in the vertical strata of those mountains
+through which the Rhône has made its way in running from the great
+valley of the _Vallais_ towards the lake of Geneva. (Chapitre xlviii.)
+
+"C'est une espèce de pétrosilex gris, dur, sonore, un peu transparent,
+qui se débite en feuillets minces parfaitement plans et réguliers. Ces
+feuillets, ou plutôt ces couches, courent à 35 degrés du nord par est,
+en montant du coté de l'ouest sous un angle de 80 degrés. Ces couches
+sont coupées par des fentes qui leur sont à-peu-près perpendiculaires et
+qui le sont aussi à l'horizon. Cette pierre s'emploie aux mêmes usage
+que l'ardoise, mais elle est beaucoup plus forte et plus durable, parce
+qu'elle est plus dure et moins accessible aux impressions de l'eau et de
+l'air.
+
+§ 1047. "Ces pétrosilex feuilletés changent peu-à-peu de nature, en
+admettant dans les interstices de leurs feuillets des parties de
+feldspath. Ils out alors l'apparence d'une roche feuilletée, quartzeuse
+et micacée, (_quartzum fornacum W._). Mais cette apparence est
+trompeuse; car on n'y trouve pas un atome de quartz: toutes les parties
+blanches qui donnent du feu contre l'acier, font du feldspath; et les
+parties grise écailleuses ne font point du mica, ce sont de lames minces
+du pétrosilex dont j'ai déjà parlé."
+
+Here is evidently what I would call petuntze strata, or porcelane stone,
+that is, strata formed by the deposits of such materials as might come
+from the _detritus_ of granite, arranged at the bottom of the sea, and
+consolidated by heat in the mineral regions. We have precisely such
+stratified masses in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh. I have also a
+specimen of the same kind, brought from the East Indies, in which there
+is the print of an organized body. I believe it to be of some coralline
+or zoophite.
+
+§ 1048. "Cette roche mélangée continue jusqu'à ce que le rocher
+s'éloigne un peu du grand chemin. Là, ce rocher se présente coupé à
+pic dans une grande étendue, et divisé par de grandes fentes obliques,
+à-peu-près parallèles entr'elles. Ces fentes partagent la montagne en
+grandes tranches de 50 à 60 pieds d'épaisseur, que de loin semblent être
+des couches. Mais lorsqu'on s'en approche, on voit, par le tissu même
+de la pierre feuilletée, que ses vraies couches font avec l'horizon des
+angles de 70 à 75 degré, et que ces grandes divisions sont de vraies
+fentes par lesquelles un grand nombre de couches consécutives sont
+coupées presque perpendiculairement à leurs plans. Les masses de rocher,
+comprises entre ces grandes fentes, sont encore divisées par d'autres
+fentes plus petites, dont la plupart sont paralleles aux grandes,
+d'autres leur sont obliques; mais toutes sont à très-peu-près
+perpendiculaires aux plans des couchés dont la montagne est composée."
+
+Here is a distinct view of that which may be found to take place in all
+consolidated strata, whatever be the composition of the stratum; and
+it is this appearance which is here maintained to be a physical
+demonstration, that those strata had been consolidated by means of
+heat softening their materials. In that case, those stratified
+bodies, contracting in cooling, form veins and fissures traversing
+perpendicularly their planes; and these veins are afterwards filled with
+mineral substances. These are what I have here distinguished as the
+_particular_ veins of mineral masses; things perfectly different from
+proper mineral or metallic veins, which are more general, as belonging
+to immense masses of those strata; and which had been formed, not from
+the contraction, but from the disrupture of those masses, and by the
+forcible injection of fluid mineral substances from below. Now these two
+species of veins, the particular and the general, although occasionally
+connected, must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one, we
+see the means which had been employed for the consolidation of the
+strata; in the other, we see that power by which the strata have been
+raised from the bottom of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.]
+
+Error never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from
+the accurate examination of every circumstance. It is not enough to
+have found appearances decisive of the question, with regard to the
+two suppositions which have been now considered, we may farther seek
+confirmation of that supposition which has been found alone consistent
+with appearances.
+
+If it be by means of heat and fusion that strata have been consolidated,
+then, in proportion to the degree of consolidation they have undergone
+from their original state, they should, _caeteris paribus_, abound more
+with separations in their mass. But this conclusion is found consistent
+with appearances. A stratum of porous sand-stone does not abound so much
+with veins and cutters as a similar stratum of marble, or even a
+similar stratum of sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
+therefore, as strata have been consolidated, they are in general
+intersected with veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata are
+deep in their perpendicular section, the veins are wide, and placed at
+greater distances. In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins are
+many, but proportionally narrow.
+
+It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be demonstrated, That all the
+solid strata of the globe have been condensed by means of heat, and
+hardened from a state of fusion. But this proposition is equally to
+be maintained from principles which are mechanical. The strata of the
+globe, besides being formed of earths, are composed of sand, of gravel,
+and fragments of hard bodies, all which may be considered as, in their
+nature, simple; but these strata are also found composed of bodies which
+are not simple, but are fragments of former strata, which had been
+consolidated, and afterwards were broken and worn by attrition, so as
+to be made gravel. Strata composed in this manner have been again
+consolidated; and now the question is, By what means?
+
+If strata composed of such various bodies had been consolidated, by any
+manner of concretion, from the fluidity of a dissolution, the hard and
+solid bodies must be found in their entire state, while the interstices
+between those constituent parts of the stratum are filled up. No partial
+fracture can be conceived as introduced into the middle of a solid mass
+of hard matter, without having been communicated from the surrounding
+parts. But such partial separations are found in the middle of those
+hard and solid masses; therefore, this compound body must have been
+consolidated by other means than that of concretion from a state of a
+solution.
+
+The Spanish marble already described, as well as many consolidated
+strata of siliceous gravel, of which I have specimens, afford the
+clearest evidence of this fact. These hard bodies are perfectly united
+together, in forming the most solid mass; the contiguous parts of some
+of the rounded fragments are interlaced together, as has already been
+observed; and there are partial shrinkings of the mass forming veins,
+traversing several fragments, but perfectly filled with the sparry
+substance of the mass, and sometimes with parts of the stone distinctly
+floating in the transparent body of spar. Now, there is not, besides
+heat or fusion, any known power in nature by which these effects might
+be produced. But such effects are general to all consolidated masses,
+although not always so well illustrated in a cabinet specimen.
+
+Thus we have discovered a truth that is confirmed by every appearance,
+so far as the nature of the subject now examined admits. We now return
+to the general operation, of forming continents of those materials which
+had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of
+Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+We seek to know that operation by means of which masses of loose
+materials, collected at the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
+surface, and transformed into solid land.
+
+We have found, that there is not in this globe (as a planet revolving
+in the solar system) any power or motion adapted to the purpose now in
+view; nor, were there such a power, could a mass of simply collected
+materials have continued any considerable time to resist the waves and
+currents natural to the sea, but must have been quickly carried away,
+and again deposited at the bottom of the ocean. But we have found, that
+there had been operations, natural to the bowels of this earth; by which
+those loose and unconnected materials have been cemented together, and
+consolidated into masses of great strength and hardness; those bodies
+are thus enabled to resist the force of waves and currents, and to
+preserve themselves, for a sufficient time, in their proper shape and
+place, as land above the general surface of the ocean.
+
+We now desire to know, how far those internal operations of the globe,
+by which solidity and stability are procured to the beds of loose
+materials, may have been also employed in raising up a continent of
+land, to remain above the surface of the sea.
+
+There is nothing so proper for the erection of land above the level of
+the ocean, as an expansive power of sufficient force, applied directly
+under materials in the bottom of the sea, under a mass that is proper
+for the formation of land when thus erected. The question is not, how
+such a power may be procured; such a power has probably been employed.
+If, therefore, such a power should be consistent with that which we
+found had actually been employed in preparing the erected mass; or,
+if such a power is to be reasonably concluded as accompanying those
+operations which we have found natural to the globe, and situated in the
+very place where this expansive power appears to be required, we should
+thus be led to perceive, in the natural operations of the globe, a power
+as efficacious for the elevation of what had been at the bottom of the
+sea into the place of land, as it is perfect for the preparation of
+those materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.
+
+In opposition to this conclusion, it will not be allowed to allege; that
+we are ignorant how such a power might be exerted under the bottom of
+the ocean; for, the present question is not, what had been the cause of
+heat, which has appeared to have been produced in that place, but if
+this power of heat, which has certainly been exerted at the bottom of
+the ocean for consolidating strata, had been employed also for another
+purpose, that is, for raising those strata into the place of land.
+
+We may, perhaps, account for the elevation of land, by the same cause
+with that of the consolidation of strata, already investigated, without
+explaining the means employed by nature in procuring the power of heat,
+or showing from what general source of action this particular power had
+been derived; but, by finding in subterranean heat a cause for any other
+change, besides the consolidation of porous or incoherent bodies, we
+shall generalise a fact, or extend our knowledge in the explanation of
+natural appearances.
+
+The power of heat for the expansion of bodies, is, so far as we know,
+unlimited; but, by the expansion of bodies placed under the strata at
+the bottom of the sea, the elevation of those strata may be effected;
+and the question now to be resolved regards the actual exertion of
+this power of expansion. How far it is to be concluded as having been
+employed in the production of this earth above the level of the sea.
+
+Before attempting to resolve that question, it may be proper to observe,
+there has been exerted an extreme degree of heat below the strata formed
+at the bottom of the sea; and this is precisely the action of a power
+required for the elevation of those heated bodies into a higher place.
+Therefore, if there is no other way in which we may conceive this event
+to have been brought about, consistent with the present state of things,
+or what actually appears, we shall have a right to conclude, that such
+had been the order of procedure in natural things, and that the
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
+consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.
+
+The consolidation of strata by means of fusion or the power of heat, has
+been concluded from the examination of nature, and from finding, that
+the present state of things is inconsistent with any other supposition.
+Now, again, we are considering the only power that may be conceived as
+capable of elevating strata from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
+a mass above the surface of the water. It is a truth unquestionable,
+that what had been originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
+the highest of our land. In explaining this appearance, therefore, no
+other alternative is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by the
+power of heat above the level of the present sea, or the surface of the
+ocean reduced many miles below the height at which it had subsisted
+during the collection and induration of the land which we inhabit.
+
+Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose no general power of
+subterraneous fire or heat, we leave to our theory no means for the
+retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its surface; if, on the other
+hand, we are to allow the general power of subterraneous heat, we cannot
+have much difficulty in supposing, either the surface of the sea to have
+subsided, or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts, to have been
+raised by a subterranean power above the level of its surface, according
+as appearances shall be found to require the one or other of those
+conclusions. Here, therefore, we are again remitted to the history of
+nature, in order to find matter of fact by which this question may be
+properly decided.
+
+If the present land had been discovered by the subsiding of the waters,
+there has not been a former land, from whence materials had been
+procured for the construction of the present, when at the bottom of the
+sea; for, there is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole land of
+the present earth having been formed evidently at the bottom of the sea.
+Neither could the natural productions of the sea have been accumulated,
+in the shape in which we now find them, on the surface of this earth;
+for, How should the Alps and Andes have been formed within the sea
+from the natural productions of the water? Consequently, this is a
+supposition inconsistent with every natural appearance.
+
+The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence of the former ocean,
+for the purpose of discovering the present land, is beset with more
+difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom of the former ocean;
+for, _first_, There is a place to provide for the retirement of the
+waters of the ocean; and, _2dly_, There is required a work of equal
+magnitude; this is, the swallowing up of that former continent, which
+had procured the materials of the present land.
+
+On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface of the ocean would but
+make the former land appear the higher; and, on the other, the sinking
+the body of the former land into the solid globe, so as to swallow up
+the greater part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
+would be at least a superfluous exertion of the power of nature. Such an
+operation as this would discover as little wisdom in the end elected, as
+in the means appropriated to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
+and worn away in the natural operations of the globe, Why make such a
+convulsion in the world in order to renew the land? If, again, the land
+naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary a power, in order to hide
+a former continent of land, and puzzle man?
+
+Let us now consider how far the other proposition, of strata being
+elevated by the power of heat above the level of the sea, may be
+confirmed from the examination of natural appearances.
+
+The strata formed at the bottom of the ocean are necessarily horizontal
+in their position, or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
+direction or extent. They may change, and gradually assume the nature of
+each other, so far as concerns the materials of which they are formed;
+but there cannot be any sudden change, fracture, or displacement,
+naturally in the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are cemented by
+the heat of fusion, and erected with an expansive power acting below,
+we may expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and
+contortion, in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a
+horizontal towards a vertical position.
+
+The strata of the globe are actually found in every possible position:
+For, from horizontal, they are frequently found vertical; from
+continuous, they are broken and separated in every possible direction;
+and, from a plane, they are bent and doubled. It is impossible that they
+could have originally been formed, by the known laws of nature, in their
+present state and position; and the power that has been necessarily
+required for their change, has not been inferior to that which might
+have been required for their elevation from the place in which they had
+been formed.
+
+In this cafe, natural appearances are not anomalous. They are, indeed,
+infinitely various, as they ought to be, according to the rule; but all
+those varieties in appearances conspire to prove one general truth, viz.
+That all which we see had been originally composed according to certain
+principles, established in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
+and that those regular compositions had been afterwards greatly changed
+by the operations of another power, which had introduced apparent
+confusion among things first formed in order and by rule.
+
+It is concerning the operation of this second power that we are now
+inquiring; and here the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
+mineral regions are as instructive, with regard to what had been
+transacted in a former period of time, as the order and regularity of
+those same regions are conclusive, in relation to the place in which a
+former state of things had produced that which, in its changed state, we
+now perceive.
+
+We are now to conclude, that the land on which we dwell had been
+elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which had been
+employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and
+preparing them for the purpose of the living world. This agent is matter
+actuated by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing force.
+
+If this has been the case, it will be reasonable to expect, that some of
+the expanded matter might be found condensed in the bodies which have
+been heated by that igneous vapour; and that matter, foreign to the
+strata, may have been thus introduced into the fractures and separations
+of those indurated masses.
+
+We have but to open our eyes to be convinced of this truth. Look into
+the sources of our mineral treasures; ask the miner, from whence has
+come the metal into his vein? Not from the earth or air above,--not from
+the strata which the vein traverses; these do not contain one atom of
+the minerals now considered. There is but one place from whence these
+minerals may have come; this is the bowels of the earth, the place of
+power and expansion, the place from whence must have proceeded that
+intense heat by which loose materials have been consolidated into rocks,
+as well as that enormous force by which the regular strata have been
+broken and displaced.
+
+Our attention is here peculiarly called upon, where we have the
+opportunity of examining those mineral bodies, which have immediately
+proceeded from the unknown region, that place of power and energy which
+we want to explore; for, if such is the system of the earth, that
+materials are first deposited at the bottom of the ocean, there to be
+prepared in a certain manner, in order to acquire solidity, and then to
+be elevated into the proper place of land, these mineral veins, which
+contain matter absolutely foreign to the surface of the earth, afford
+the most authentic information with regard to the operations which we
+want to understand. It is these veins which we are to consider as,
+in some measure, the continuation of that mineral region, which lies
+necessarily out of all possible reach of our examination. It is,
+therefore, peculiarly interesting to know the state in which things
+are to be found in this place, which may be considered as intermediate
+between the solid land, upon the one hand, and the unknown regions of
+the earth, upon the other.
+
+We are now to examine those mineral veins; and these may be considered,
+first, in relation to their form, independent of their substance or
+particular contents; and, secondly, in relation to the contained bodies,
+independent of their form.
+
+In examining consolidated strata, we remarked veins and cutters as a
+proof of the means by which those bodies had been consolidated. In that
+case, the formation of these veins is a regulated process, determined
+by the degree of fusion, and the circumstances of condensation or
+refrigeration. In respect of these, the mineral veins now to be examined
+are anomalous. They are; but we know not why or how. We see the effect;
+but, in that effect, we do not see the cause. We can say, negatively,
+that the cause of mineral veins is not that by which the veins and
+fissures of consolidated strata have been formed; consequently, that
+it is not the measured contraction and regulated condensation of the
+consolidated land which has formed those general mineral veins; however,
+veins, similar in many respects, have been formed by the cooperation of
+this cause.
+
+Having thus taken a view of the evident distinction between the veins or
+contractions that are particular to the consolidated body in which they
+are found, and those more general veins which are not limited to that
+cause, we may now consider what is general in the subject, or what is
+universal in these effects of which we wish to investigate the cause.
+
+The event of highest generalization or universality, in the form of
+those mineral veins, is fracture and dislocation. It is not, like that
+of the veins of strata, simple separation and measured contraction; it
+is violent fracture and unlimited dislocation. In the one case, the
+forming cause is in the body which is separated; for, after the body had
+been actuated by heat, it is by the reaction of the proper matter of the
+body, that the chasm which constitutes the vein is formed. In the other
+case, again, the cause is extrinsic in relation to the body in which the
+chasm is formed. There has been the most violent fracture and divulsion;
+but the cause is still to seek; and it appears not in the vein; for it
+is not every fracture and dislocation of the solid body of our earth, in
+which minerals, or the proper substances of mineral veins, are found.
+
+We are now examining matter of fact, real effects, from whence we would
+investigate the nature of certain events which do not now appear. Of
+these, two kinds occur; one which has relation to the hardness and
+solidity, or the natural constitution of the body; the other, to its
+shape or local situation. The first has been already considered; the
+last is now the subject of inquiry.
+
+But, in examining those natural appearances, we find two different kinds
+of veins; the one necessarily connected with the consolidating cause;
+the other with that cause of which we now particularly inquire. For,
+in those great mineral veins, violent fracture and dislocation is the
+principle; but there is no other principle upon which strata, or masses
+formed at the bottom of the sea, can be placed at a height above its
+surface. Hence, in those two different operations, of forming mineral
+veins, and erecting strata from a lower to a higher place, the principle
+is the same; for, neither can be done without violent fracture and
+dislocation.
+
+We now only want to know, how far it is by the same power, as well as
+upon the same principle, that these two operations have been made.
+An expansive force, acting from below, is the power most proper for
+erecting masses; but whether it is a power of the same nature with that
+which has been employed in forming mineral veins, will best appear in
+knowing the nature of their contents. These, therefore, may be now
+considered.
+
+Every species of fracture, and every degree of dislocation and
+contortion, may be perceived in the form of mineral veins; and there is
+no other general principle to be observed in examining their form. But,
+in examining their contents, some other principle may appear, so far as,
+to the dislocating power or force, there may be superadded matter, by
+which something in relation to the nature of the power may be known.
+If, for example, a tree or a rock shall be found simply split asunder,
+although there be no doubt with regard to some power having been applied
+in order to produce the effect, yet we are left merely to conjecture at
+the power. But when wedges of wood or iron, or frozen water, should be
+found lodged in the cleft, we might be enabled, from this appearance, to
+form a certain judgment with regard to the nature of the power which
+had been applied. This is the case with mineral veins. We find them
+containing matter, which indicates a cause; and every information in
+this case is interesting to the theory.
+
+The substances contained in mineral veins are precisely the same with
+those which, in the former section, we have considered as being made
+instrumental in the consolidation of strata; and they are found mixed
+and concreted in every manner possible.
+
+But, besides this evidence for the exertion of extreme heat, in that
+process by which those veins were filled, there is another important
+observation to be gathered from the inspection of this subject. There
+appears to have been a great mechanical power employed in the filling of
+these veins, as well as that necessarily required in making the first
+fracture and divulsion.
+
+This appears from the order of the contents, or filling of these veins,
+which is a thing often observed to be various and successive. But what
+it is chiefly now in view to illustrate, is that immense force which is
+manifested in the fracture and dispersion of the solid contents which
+had formerly filled those veins. Here we find fragments of rock and spar
+floating in the body of a vein filled with metallic substances; there,
+again, we see the various fragments of metallic masses floating in the
+sparry and siliceous contents.
+
+One thing is demonstrable from the inspection of the veins and their
+contents; this is, the successive irruptions of those fluid substances
+breaking the solid bodies which they meet, and floating those fragments
+of the broken bodies in the vein. It is very common to see three
+successive series of those operations; and all this may be perceived in
+a small fragment of stone, which a man of science may examine in his
+closet, often better than descending to the mine, where all the examples
+are found on an enlarged scale.
+
+Let us now consider what power would be required to force up, from the
+most unfathomable depth of the ocean, to the Andes or the Alps, a column
+of fluid metal and of stone. This power cannot be much less than that
+required to elevate the highest land upon the globe. Whether, therefore,
+we shall consider the general veins as having been filled by mineral
+steams, or by fluid minerals, an elevating power of immense force is
+still required, in order to form as well as fill those veins. But such a
+power acting under the consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea, is
+the only natural means for making those masses land.
+
+If such have been the operations that are necessary for the production
+of this land; and if these operations are natural to the globe of this
+earth, as being the effect of wisdom in its contrivance, we shall
+have reason to look for the actual manifestation of this truth in the
+phaenomena of nature, or those appearances which more immediately
+discover the actual cause in the perceived effect.
+
+To see the evidence of marble, a body that is solid, having been formed
+of loose materials collected at the bottom of the sea, is not always
+easy, although it may be made abundantly plain; and to be convinced that
+this calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in our fires, should
+have been brought into fusion by subterraneous heat, without suffering
+calcination, must require a chain of reasoning which every one is not
+able to attain[13]. But when fire bursts forth from the bottom of the
+sea, and when the land is heaved up and down, so as to demolish cities
+in an instant, and split asunder rocks and solid mountains, there
+is nobody but must see in this a power, which may be sufficient to
+accomplish every view of nature in erecting land, as it is situated in
+the place most advantageous for that purpose.
+
+[Note 13: Mr le Chevalier de Dolomieu, in considering the different
+effects of heat, has made the following observation; Journal de
+Physique, Mai 1792.
+
+"Je dis _le feu tel que nous l'employons_ pour distinguer le feu naturel
+des volcans, du feu de nos fourneaux et de celui de nos chalumeaux. Nous
+sommes obligés de donner une grande activité à son action pour suppléer
+et au volume qui ne seroit pas à notre disposition et au tems que nous
+sommes forcés de ménager, et cette manière d'appliquer une chaleur
+très-active, communique le mouvement et le désordre jusques dans les
+molécules constituantes. Agrégation et composition, tout est troublé.
+Dans les volcans la grand masse du feu supplée à son intensité, le
+tems remplace son activité, de manière qu'il tourmente moins les corps
+fournis à son action; il ménage leur composition en relâchant leur
+agrégation, et les pierres qui eut été rendues fluides par l'embrasement
+volcanique peuvent reprendre leur état primitif; la plupart des
+substances qu'un feu plus actif auroit expulsées y restent encore. Voilà
+pourquoi les laves ressemblent tellement aux pierres naturelles des
+espèces analogues, qu'elles ne peuvent en être distinguées; voilà
+également pourquoi les verres volcaniques eux-même renferment encore des
+substances élastiques qui les font boursoufler lorsque nous les fondons
+de nouveau, et pourquoi ces verres blanchissent aussi, pour lors, par
+la dissipation, d'une substance grasse qui a résisté à la chaleur des
+volcans, et que volatilise la chaleur par laquelle nous obtenons leur
+second fusion."
+
+No doubt, the long application of heat may produce changes in bodies
+very different from those which are occasioned by the sudden application
+of a more intense heat; but still there must be sufficient intensity in
+that power, so as to cause fluidity, without which no chemical change
+can be produced in bodies. The essential difference, however, between
+the natural heat of the mineral regions, and that which we excite upon
+the surface of the earth, consists in this; that nature applies heat
+under circumstances which we are not able to imitate, that is, under
+such compression as shall prevent the decomposition of the constituent
+substances, by the separation of the more volatile from the more fixed
+parts. This is a circumstance which, so far as I know, no chemist
+or naturalist has hitherto considered; and it is that by which the
+operations of the mineral regions must certainly be explained. Without
+attending to this great principle in the mineralizing operations
+of subterraneous fire, it is impossible to conceive the fusion and
+concretion of those various bodies, which we examine when brought up to
+the surface of the earth.]
+
+The only question, therefore, which it concerns us to decide at present,
+is, Whether those operations of extreme heat, and violent mechanic
+force, be only in the system as a matter of accident; or if, on the
+contrary, they are operations natural to the globe, and necessary in the
+production of such land as this which we inhabit? The answer to this is
+plain: These operations of the globe remain at present with undiminished
+activity, or in the fullness of their power.
+
+A stream of melted lava flows from the sides of Mount Aetna. Here is a
+column of weighty matter raised from a great depth below, to an immense
+height above, the level of the sea, and rocks of an enormous size
+are projected from its orifice some miles into the air. Every one
+acknowledges that here is the liquefying power and expansive force of
+subterranean fire, or violent heat. But, that Sicily itself had been
+raised from the bottom of the ocean, and that the marble called Sicilian
+Jasper, had its solidity upon the same principle with the lava, would
+stumble many a naturalist to acknowledge. Nevertheless, I have in my
+possession a table of this marble, from which it is demonstrable, that
+this calcareous stone had flowed, and been in such a state of fusion and
+fluidity as lava.
+
+Here is a comparison formed of two mineral substances, to which it is of
+the highest importance to attend. The solidity and present state of the
+one of these is commonly thought to be the operation of fire; of the
+other, again, it is thought to be that of water. This, however, is not
+the case. The immediate state and condition of both these bodies is now
+to be considered as equally the effect of fire or heat. The reason of
+our forming such a different judgment with regard to these two subjects
+is this; we see, in the one case, the more immediate connection of the
+cause and the effect, while, in the other, we have only the effects from
+whence we are in science to investigate the cause.
+
+But, if it were necessary always to see this immediate connection, in
+order to acknowledge the operation of a power which, at present, is
+extinguished in the effect, we should lose the benefit of science, or
+general principles, from whence particulars may be deduced, and we
+should be able to reason no better than the brute. Man is made for
+science; he reasons from effects to causes, and from causes to effects;
+but he does not always reason without error. In reasoning, therefore,
+from appearances which are particular, care must be taken how we
+generalise; we should be cautious not to attribute to nature, laws which
+may perhaps be only of our own invention.
+
+The immediate question now before us is not, If the subterraneous fire,
+or elevating power, which we perceive sometimes as operating with such
+energy, be the consolidating cause of strata formed at the bottom of the
+sea; nor, if that power be the means of making land appear above the
+general surface of the water? for, though this be the end we want to
+arrive at ultimately, the question at present in agitation respects the
+laws of nature, or the generality of particular appearances.
+
+Has the globe within it such an active power as fits it for the
+renovation of that part of its constitution which may be subject to
+decay? Are those powerful operations of fire, or subterraneous heat,
+which so often have filled us with terror and astonishment, to be
+considered as having always been? Are they to be concluded as proper to
+every part upon the globe, and as continual in the system of this earth?
+If these points in question shall be decided in the affirmative, we can
+be at no loss in ascertaining the power which has consolidated strata,
+nor in explaining the present situation of those bodies, which had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea. This, therefore, should be the object
+of our pursuit; and in order to have demonstration in a case of physical
+inquiry, we must again have recourse to the book of nature.
+
+The general tendency of heat is to produce fluidity and softness; as
+that of cold is, on the contrary, to harden soft and fluid bodies. But
+this softening power of heat is not uniform in its nature; it is made to
+act with very different effect, according to the nature of the substance
+to which it is applied. We are but limited in the art of increasing the
+heat or the cold of bodies; we find, however, extreme difference in
+their substances with respect to fusibility.
+
+A fusible substance, or mineral composition in a fluid state, is emitted
+from those places of the earth at which subterraneous fire and expansive
+force are manifested in those eruptive operations. In examining these
+emitted bodies, men of science find a character for such productions, in
+generalising the substance, and understanding the natural constitution
+of those bodies. It is in this manner that such a person, finding a
+piece of lava in any place of the earth, says with certainty, Here is a
+stone which had congealed from a melted state.
+
+Having thus found a distinguishing character for those fused substances
+called, in general, Lavas, and having the most visible marks for that
+which had been actually a volcano, naturalists, in examining different
+countries, have discovered the most undoubted proofs of many ancient
+volcanos, which had not been before suspected. Thus, volcanos will
+appear to be not a matter of accident, or as only happening in a
+particular place, they are general to the globe, so far as there is
+no place upon the earth that may not have an eruption of this kind;
+although it is by no means necessary for every place to have had those
+eruptions.
+
+Volcanos are natural to the globe, as general operations; but we are
+not to consider nature as having a burning mountain for an end in her
+intention, or as a principal purpose in the general system of this
+world. The end of nature in placing an internal fire or power of heat,
+and a force of irresistible expansion, in the body of this earth, is to
+consolidate the sediment collected at the bottom of the sea, and to form
+thereof a mass of permanent land above the level of the ocean, for the
+purpose of maintaining plants and animals. The power appointed for this
+purpose is, as on all other occasions, where the operation is important,
+and where there is any danger of a shortcoming, wisely provided
+in abundance; and there are contrived means for disposing of the
+redundancy. These, in the present case, are our volcanos.
+
+A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten superstitious people
+into fits of piety and devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities with
+destruction; a volcano should be considered as a spiracle to the
+subterranean furnace, in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation of
+land, and fatal effects of earthquakes; and we may rest assured, that
+they, in general, wisely answer the end of their intention, without
+being in themselves an end, for which nature had exerted such amazing
+power and excellent contrivance.
+
+Let us take a view of the most elevated places of the earth; if the
+present theory is just, it is there that we should find volcanos. But is
+not this the case? There are volcanos in the Andes; and round the Alps
+we find many volcanos, which are in France upon the one side, and in
+Germany upon the other, as well as upon the Italian side, where Vesuvius
+still continues to exhibit violent eruptions.
+
+It is not meant to allege, that it is only upon the summit of a
+continent volcanos should appear. Subterraneous fire has sometimes made
+its appearance in bursting from the bottom of the sea. But, even in
+this last case, land was raised from the bottom of the sea, before the
+eruption made its exit into the atmosphere. It must also be evident,
+that, in this case of the new island near Santorini, had the expansive
+power been retained, instead of being discharged, much more land might
+have been raised above the level of the ocean.
+
+Now, the eruption of that elastic force through the bottom of the sea,
+may be considered as a waste of power in the operations of the globe,
+where the elevation of indurated strata is an object in the exertion of
+that power; whereas, in the centre of a continent sufficiently elevated
+above the level of the sea, the eruption of that fiery vapour calculated
+to elevate the land, while it may occasionally destroy the habitations
+of a few, provides for the security and quiet possession of the many.
+
+In order to see the wisdom of this contrivance, let us consider the
+two extreme places at which this eruption of ignited matter may be
+performed. These are, on the one hand, within a continent of land, and,
+on the other, at the bottom of the ocean. In the one case, the free
+eruption of the expanding power should be permitted; because the purpose
+for which it had been calculated to exist has been accomplished. In
+the other, again, the free eruption of that powerful matter should be
+repressed; because there is reserved for that power much of another
+operation in that place. But, according to the wise constitution of
+things, this must necessarily happen. The eruption of the fiery
+vapour from volcanos on the continent or land, is interrupted only
+occasionally, by the melted bodies flowing in the subterraneous
+chimney; whereas, at the bottom of the ocean, the contact of the water
+necessarily tends to close the orifice, by accumulating condensed matter
+upon the weakest place.
+
+If this be a just theory of the natural operations of the globe, we
+shall have reason to expect, that great quantities of this melted
+matter, or fusible substance, may be found in form of lava, among the
+strata of the earth, where there are no visible marks of any volcano, or
+burning mountain, having existed. Here, therefore, is an important point
+to be determined; for, if it shall appear that much of this melted
+matter, analogous to lava, has been forced to flow among the strata
+which had been formed at the bottom of the sea, and now are found
+forming dry land above its surface, it will be allowed, that we have
+discovered the secret operations of nature concocting future land, as
+well as those by which the present habitable earth had been produced
+from the bottom of the abyss. Here, therefore, we shall at present rest
+the argument, with endeavouring to show that such is actually the case.
+
+It appears from Cronstedt's Mineralogy, that the rock-stone, called trap
+by the Swedes, the amygdaloides and the schwarts-stein of the Germans,
+are the same with the whin-stone of this country. This is also fully
+confirmed by specimens from Sweden, sent me by my friend Dr Gahn.
+Whatever, therefore, shall be ascertained with regard to our whin-stone,
+may be so far generalized or extended to the countries of Norway,
+Sweden, and Germany.
+
+The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same with the toad-stone of
+Derbyshire, which is of the amygdaloides species; it is also the same
+with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire, which is a simple
+whin-stone, or perfect trap. England, therefore, must be included in
+this great space of land, the mineral operations of which we explore;
+and also Ireland, of which the Giant's Causeway, and many others, are
+sufficient proof.
+
+In the south of Scotland, there is a ridge of hills, which extends
+from the west side of the island in Galloway to the east side in
+Berwickshire, composed of granite, of schistus, and of siliceous strata.
+The Grampians on the north, again, form another range of mountains of
+the same kind; and between these two great fields of broken, tumbled,
+and distorted strata, there lies a field of lesser hardness and
+consolidation, in general; but a field in which there is a great
+manifestation of subterraneous fire, and of exerted force.
+
+The strata in this space consist, in general, of sand-stone, coal,
+lime-stone or marble, iron-stone, and marl or argillaceous strata, with
+strata of analogous bodies, and the various compositions of these. But
+what is to the present purpose is this, that, through all this space,
+there are interspersed immense quantities of whinstone; a body which is
+to be distinguished as very different from lava; and now the disposition
+of this whin-stone is to be considered.
+
+Sometimes it is found in an irregular mass or mountain, as Mr Cronstedt
+has properly observed; but he has also said, that this is not the case
+in general. His words are: "It is oftener found in form of veins in
+mountains of another kind, running commonly in a serpentine manner,
+contrary or across to the direction of the rock itself."
+
+The origin of this form, in which the trap or whin-stone appears, is
+most evident to inspection, when we consider that this solid body had
+been in a fluid state, and introduced, in that state, among strata,
+which preserved their proper form. The strata appear to have been
+broken, and the two correspondent parts of those strata are separated to
+admit the flowing mass of whin-stone.
+
+A fine example of this kind may be seen upon the south side of the
+Earn, on the road to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands
+perpendicular, and appears many feet above the surface of the ground. It
+runs from that eastward, and would seem to be the same with that which
+crosses the river Tay, in forming Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser
+one of the same kind does below it. I have seen it at Lednoc upon the
+Ammon, where it forms a cascade in that river, about five or six
+miles west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from the Tay east through
+Strathmore, so that it may be considered as having been traced for
+twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to Drummond castle, perhaps much
+farther.
+
+Two small veins of the same kind, only two or three feet wide, may be
+seen in the bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the horizontal strata,
+the one is above St Bernard's well, the other immediately below it. But,
+more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the north of Irvine, there
+are to be seen upon the coast, between that and Scarmorly, in the space
+of about twenty miles, more than twenty or thirty such dykes (as they
+are called) of whin-stone. Some of them are of a great thickness; and,
+in some places, there is perceived a short one, running at right angles,
+and communicating with other two that run parallel.
+
+There is in this country, and in Derbyshire[14], another regular
+appearance of this stone, which Cronstedt has not mentioned. In this
+case, the strata are not broken in order to have the whin-stone
+introduced, they are separated, and the whin-stone is interjected in
+form of strata, having various degrees of regularity, and being of
+different thickness. On the south side of Edinburgh, I have seen, in
+little more than the space of a mile from east to west, nine or ten
+masses of whin-stone interjected among the strata. These masses of
+whin-stone are from three or four to an hundred feet thick, running
+parallel in planes inclined to the horizon, and forming with it an angle
+of about twenty or thirty degrees, as may be seen at all times in the
+hill of Salisbury Craggs.
+
+[Note 14: See Mr Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth.]
+
+Having thus described these masses, which have flowed by means of
+heat among the strata of the globe, strata which had been formed by
+subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will now be proper to examine
+the difference that subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as they
+may be termed, and the analogous bodies which are proper lavas, in
+having issued out of a volcano.[15]
+
+[Note 15: The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination of
+Aetna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed the distinction of
+these two different species of lavas; but without seeming to know the
+principle upon which this essential difference depends. No bias of
+system, therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's
+view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting to the
+present theory, as corresponding perfectly with the facts from whence it
+has been formed. It will be proper to give the account of these in his
+own words.
+
+La zéolite est très-commune dans certains laves de l'Ethna; il seroit
+peut-être possible d'y en rencontrer des morceaux aussi gros que ceux
+que fournit l'isle de Ferroé. Quoique cette substance semble ici
+appartenir aux laves, je ne dirai cependant point que toutes les
+zéolites soient volcaniques, ou unies à des matières volcaniques; celles
+que l'on trouve en Allemagne sont, dit-on, dans des circonstances
+différentes; mais je doit annoncer que je n'ai trouvé cette substance en
+Sicile, que dans les seules laves qui évidemment ont coulé dans la mer,
+et qui out été recouvertes par ses eaux. La zéolite des laves n'est
+point une déjection volcanique, ni une production du feu, ni même un
+matière que les laves aient enveloppée lorsqu'elles étoient fluides;
+elle est le résultat d'une opération et d'une combinaison postérieure,
+auxquelles les eaux de la mer ont concouru. Les laves qui n'ont pas été
+submergées, n'en contiennent jamais. J'ai trouvé ces observations si
+constantes, que par-tout où je rencontrois de la zéolite, j'étois sûr
+de trouver d'autres preuves de submersion, et partout où je voyois des
+laves recouvertes des dépôts de l'eau, j'étois sûr de trouver de la
+zéolite, et un de ces faits m'a toujours indiqué l'autre. Je me suis
+servi avec succès de cette observation pour diriger mes recherches, et
+pour connoître l'antiquité des laves. _Minéralogie de Volcans, par
+M. Faujas de Saint-Fond_. Here would appear to be the distinction of
+subterraneous lava, in which zeolite and calcareous spar may be found,
+and that which has flowed from a volcano, in which neither of these are
+ever observed.]
+
+There can be no doubt that these two different species of bodies have
+had the same origin, and that they are composed of the same materials
+nearly; but from the different circumstances Of their production, there
+is formed a character to these bodies, by which, they may be perfectly
+distinguished. The difference of those circumstances consists in this;
+the one has been emitted to the atmosphere in its fluid state the other
+only came to be exposed to the light in a long course of time, after it
+had congealed under the compression of an immense load of earth, and
+after certain operations, proper to the mineral regions, had been
+exercised upon the indurated mass. This is the cause of the difference
+between those erupted lavas, and our whin-stone, toad-stone, and the
+Swedish trap, which may be termed subterraneous lava. The visible
+effects of those different operations may now be mentioned.
+
+In the erupted lavas, those substances which are subject to calcine and
+vitrify in our fires, suffer similar changes, when delivered from a
+compression which had rendered them fixed, though in an extremely heated
+state. Thus, a lava in which there is much calcareous spar, when it
+comes to be exposed to the atmosphere, or delivered from the compressing
+force of its confinement, effervesces by the explosion of its fixed
+air; the calcareous earth, at the same time, vitrifies with the other
+substances. Hence such violent ebullition in volcanos, and hence the
+emission of so much pumice-stone and ashes, which are of the same
+nature.
+
+In the body of our whin-stone, on the contrary, there is no mark of
+calcination or vitrification. We frequently find in it much calcareous
+spar, or the _terra calcarea aerata_, which had been in a melted state
+by heat, and had been crystallized by congelation into a sparry form.
+Such is the _lapis amygdaloides_, and many of our whin-stone rocks,
+which contain pebbles crystallized and variously figured, both
+calcareous, siliceous, and of a mixture in which both these substances
+form distinct parts. The specimens of this kind, which I have from the
+whin-stone or porphyry rock of the Calton-hill, exhibit every species
+of mineral operation, in forming jasper, figured agate, and marble; and
+they demonstrate, that this had been performed by heat or fusion.
+
+I do not mean to say, that this demonstration is direct; it is
+conditional, and proceeds upon the supposition, that the basaltic or
+porphyry rock, in which those specimens are found, is a body which had
+been in a melted state. Now, this is a supposition for which I have
+abundance of evidence, were it required; but naturalists are now
+sufficiently disposed to admit that proposition; they even draw
+conclusions from this fact, which, I think, they are not sufficiently
+warranted in doing; that is, from this appearance, they infer the former
+existence of volcanos in those places. For my part, though I have made
+the most strict examination, I never saw any vestige of such an event.
+That there are, in other countries, evident marks of volcanos which
+have been long extinguished, is unquestionably true; but naturalists,
+imagining that there are no other marks of subterraneous fire and
+fusion, except in the production of a lava, attribute to a volcano, as
+a cause, these effects, which only indicate the exertion of that power
+which might have been the cause of a volcano.
+
+If the theory now given be just, a rock of marble is no less a mark
+of subterraneous fire and fusion, than that of the basaltes; and the
+flowing of basaltic streams among strata broken and displaced, affords
+the most satisfactory evidence of those operations by which the body of
+our land had been elevated above the surface of the sea; but it gives no
+proof that the eruptive force of mineral vapours had been discharged in
+a burning mountain. Now, this discharge is essential in the proper idea
+of a volcano.
+
+Besides this internal mark of an unerupted lava in the substance of the
+stone or body of the flowing mass, there are others which belong to it
+in common with all other mineral strata, consolidated by subterraneous
+fire, and changed from the place of their original formation; this is,
+the being broken and dislocated, and having veins of foreign matter
+formed in their separations and contractions.
+
+If these are mineral operations, proper to the lower regions of the
+earth, and exerted upon bodies under immense compression, such things
+will be sometimes found in the unerupted lavas, as well as in the
+contiguous bodies with which they are associated. If, on the contrary,
+these are operations proper to the surface of the earth, where the
+dissolving power of water and air take place, and where certain
+stalactical and ferruginous concretions are produced by these means;
+then, in erupted lavas, we should find mineral concretions, which
+concretions should be denied to bodies which had been consolidated at
+the bottom of the sea; that is to say, where, without the operation of
+subterraneous fire, no changes of that kind could have taken place, as
+has already been observed. But in the unerupted species of lava, that
+is to say, in our whin-stone, every species of mineral appearance is
+occasionally to be found. Let those who have the opportunity to examine,
+say, what arc to be found in proper lavas, that is, those of the erupted
+kind. Sir William Hamilton informed me, when I showed him those mineral
+veins and spars in our whin-stone, that he had never observed the like,
+in lavas We have now formed some conclusions with regard to the nature
+and production of those parts of the land of this globe which we
+have had the means of examining perfectly; but; from the accounts of
+travellers, and from, the specimens which are brought to us from distant
+parts, we have reason to believe, that all the rest of the earth is
+of the same nature with that which has been now considered. The great
+masses of the earth are the same every where; and all the different
+species of earths, of rocks or stone, which have as yet appeared, are to
+be found in the little space of this our island.
+
+It is true, that there are peculiar productions in the mineral kingdom
+which are rare, as being found only in few places; but these things are
+merely accidental in relation to the land, for they belong in property
+to those parts of the mineral region which we never see. Such are, the
+diamond of the east, the platina of the west, and the tin of Cornwall,
+Germany, and Sumatra. Gold and silver, though found in many countries,
+do not appear to be immediately necessary in the production of a
+habitable country. Iron, again, is universal in the operations of the
+globe, and is found often in that profusion which equals its utility.
+Between these two extremes, we find all other minerals, that is to say,
+here and there in moderate quantity, and apparently in some proportion
+to their use. But all these substances are to be considered as the
+vapours of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally in the crevices
+of the land; and it is only the rocks and strata (in which those mineral
+veins are found) that are now examined with regard to their original
+composition, at the bottom of the sea, as well as to that, operation by
+which those bodies had been indurated in their substance, and elevated
+from the place in which they had been formed.
+
+Thus, we have sufficient reason to believe, that, in knowing the
+construction of the land in Europe, we know the constitution of the land
+in every part of the globe. Therefore, we may proceed to form general
+conclusions, from the knowledge of the mineral region, thus acquired in
+studying those parts which are seen.
+
+Having thus found, _first_, That the consolidated and indurated masses
+of our strata had suffered the effects of violent heat and fusion;
+_2dly_, That those strata, which had been formed in a regular manner at
+the bottom of the sea, have been violently bended, broken, and removed
+from their original place and situation; and, _lastly_, Having now found
+the most indubitable proof, that the melting, breaking, and removing
+power of subterraneous fire, has been actually exerted upon this land
+which we examine, we cannot hesitate in ascribing these operations as a
+cause to those effects which are exposed to our view. Now, these may be
+considered as consisting in the solid state and present situation of
+those stratified bodies, originally formed by subsidence in the ocean;
+appearances which cannot, in reason, be ascribed to any other cause, and
+which, upon this principle, are perfectly explained.
+
+It is not meant to specify every particular in the means employed by
+nature for the elevation of our land. It is sufficient to have shown,
+that there is, in nature, means employed for the consolidating of
+strata, formed originally of loose and incoherent materials; and that
+those same means have also been employed in changing the place and
+situation of those strata. But how describe an operation which man
+cannot have any opportunity of perceiving? Or how imagine that, for
+which, perhaps, there are not proper data to be found? We only know,
+that the land is raised by a power which has for principle subterraneous
+heat; but, how that land is preserved in its elevated station, is a
+subject in which we have not even the means to form conjecture; at
+least, we ought to be cautious how we indulge conjecture in a subject
+where no means occur for trying that which is but supposition.
+
+We now proceed, from the facts which have been properly established, to
+reason with regard to the duration of this globe, or the general view of
+its operations, as a living world, maintaining plants and animals.
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+Philosophers observing an apparent disorder and confusion in the solid
+parts of this globe, have been led to conclude, that there formerly
+existed a more regular and uniform state, in the constitution of this
+earth; that there had happened some destructive change; and that the
+original structure of the earth had been broken and disturbed by some
+violent operation, whether natural, or from a super-natural cause. Now,
+all these appearances, from which conclusions of this kind have been
+formed, find the most perfect explanation in the theory which we have
+been endeavouring to establish; for they are the facts from whence we
+have reasoned, in discovering the nature and constitution of this earth:
+Therefore, there is no occasion for having recourse to any unnatural
+supposition of evil, to any destructive accident in nature, or to the
+agency of any preternatural cause, in explaining that which actually
+appears.
+
+It is necessary for a living or inhabited world, that this should
+consist of land and water. It is also necessary, that the land should be
+solid and stable, refilling, with great power, the violent efforts
+of the ocean; and, at the same time, that this solid land should be
+resolved by the influence of the sun and atmosphere, so as to decay,
+and thus become a soil for vegetation. But these general intentions are
+perfectly fulfilled in the constitution of our earth, which has been now
+investigated. This great body being formed of different mixed masses,
+having various degrees of hardness and solubility, proper soil for
+plants is supplied from the gradual resolution of the solid parts;
+fertility in those soils arises from the mixture of different elementary
+substances; and stability is procured to that vegetable world, by the
+induration of certain bodies, those rocks and stones, which protect the
+softer masses of clay and soil.
+
+In this manner, also, will easily be explained those natural appearances
+which diversify the surface of the earth for the use of plants and
+animals, and those objects which beautify the face of nature for the
+contemplation of mankind. Such are, the distinctions of mountains and
+valleys, of lakes and rivers, of dry barren deserts and rich watered
+plains, of rocks which stand apparently unimpaired by the lapse of time,
+and sands which fluctuate with the winds and tides. All these are the
+effects of steady causes; each of these has its proper purpose in the
+system of the earth; and in that system is contained another, which is
+that of living growing bodies, and of animated beings.
+
+But, besides this, man, the intellectual being, has, in this subject of
+the mineral kingdom, the means of gratifying the desire of knowledge, a
+faculty by which he is distinguished from the animal, and by which he
+improves his mind in knowing causes. Man is not satisfied, like the
+brute, in seeing things which are; he seeks to know how things have
+been, and what they are to be. It is with pleasure that he observes
+order and regularity in the works of nature, instead of being disgusted
+with disorder and confusion; and he is made happy from the appearance of
+wisdom and benevolence in the design, instead of being left to suspect
+in the Author of nature, any of that imperfection which he finds in
+himself.
+
+Let us now take a view of that system of mineral economy, in which may
+be perceived every mark of order and design, of provident wisdom and
+benevolence.
+
+We have been endeavouring to prove, that all the continents and islands
+of this globe had been raised above the surface of the ocean; we have
+also aimed at pointing out the cause of this translation of matter, as
+well as of the general solidity of that which is raised to our view;
+but however this theory shall be received, no person of observation can
+entertain a doubt, that all, or almost all we see of this earth, had
+been originally formed at the bottom of the sea. We have now another
+object in our view; this is to investigate the operations of the globe,
+at the time that the foundation of this land was laying in the waters of
+the ocean, and to trace the existence and the nature of things, before
+the present land appeared above the surface of the waters. We should
+thus acquire some knowledge of the system according to which this world
+is ruled, both in its preservation and production; and we might be thus
+enabled to judge, how far the mineral system of the world shall appear
+to be contrived with all the wisdom, which is so manifest in what are
+termed the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
+
+It must not be imagined that this undertaking is a thing unreasonable
+in its nature; or that it is a work necessarily beset with any
+unsurmountable difficulty; for, however imperfectly we may fulfill this
+end proposed, yet, so far as it is to natural causes that are to be
+ascribed the operations of former time, and so far as, from the present
+state of things, or knowledge of natural history, we have it in our
+power to reason from effect to cause, there are, in the constitution of
+the world, which we now examine, certain means to read the annals of a
+former earth.
+
+The object of inquiry being the operations of the globe, during the time
+that the present earth was forming at the bottom of the sea, we are now
+to take a very general view of nature, without descending into those
+particulars which so often occupy the speculations of naturalists, about
+the present state of things. We are not at present to enter into any
+discussion with regard to what are the primary and secondary mountains
+of the earth; we are not to consider what is the first, and what the
+last, in those things which now are seen; whatever is most ancient in
+the strata which we now examine, is supposed to be collecting at the
+bottom of the sea, during the period concerning which we are now to
+inquire.
+
+We have already considered those operations which had been necessary
+in forming our solid land, a body consisting of materials originally
+deposited at the bottom of the ocean; we are now to investigate the
+source from whence had come all those materials, from the collection of
+which the present land is formed; and from knowing the state in
+which those materials had existed, previously to their entering the
+composition of our strata, we shall learn something concerning the
+natural history of this world, while the present earth was forming in
+the sea.
+
+We have already observed, that all the strata of the earth are composed
+either from the calcareous relicts of sea animals, or from the
+collection of such materials as we find upon our shores. At a gross
+computation, there may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land, which
+is composed from the matter that had belonged to those animals. Now,
+what a multitude of living creatures, what a quantity of animal economy
+must have been required for producing a body of calcareous matter
+which is interspersed throughout all the land of the globe, and which
+certainly forms a very considerable part of that mass! Therefore, in
+knowing how those animals had lived, or with what they had been fed, we
+shall have learned a most interesting part of the natural history of
+this earth; a part which it is necessary to have ascertained, in order
+to see the former operations of the globe, while preparing the materials
+of the present land. But, before entering upon this subject, let us
+examine the other materials of which our land is formed.
+
+Gravel forms a part of those materials which compose our solid land; but
+gravel is no other than a collection of the fragments of solid stones
+worn round, or having their angular form destroyed by agitation in
+water, and the attrition upon each other, or upon similar hard bodies.
+Consequently, in finding masses of gravel in the composition of our
+land, we must conclude, that there had existed a former land, on which
+there had been transacted certain operations of wind and water, similar
+to those which are natural to the globe at present, and by which new
+gravel is continually prepared, as well as old gravel consumed or
+diminished by attrition upon our shores.
+
+Sand is the material which enters, perhaps in greatest quantity, the
+composition of our land. But sand, in general, is no other than small
+fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn or rounded more or less by
+attrition; consequently, the same natural history of the earth, which
+is investigated from the masses of gravel, is also applicable to those
+masses of sand which we find forming so large a portion of our present
+land throughout all the earth[16].
+
+[Note 16: Sand is a term that denotes no particular substance; although
+by it is commonly meant a siliceous substance, as being by far the most
+prevalent. Sand is one of the modifications, of size and shape, in a
+hard body or solid substance, which may be infinitely diversified. The
+next modification to be distinguished in mineral bodies is that of
+gravel; and this differs in no respect from sand, except in point of
+size. Next after gravel, in the order of ascent, come stones; and these
+bear nearly the same relation to gravel as gravel does to sand. Now,
+by stones is to be understood the fragments of rocks or solid mineral
+bodies; and there is a perfect gradation from those stones to sand.
+I have already endeavoured to explain the formation of those stony
+substances; and now I am treating of a certain system of circulation,
+which is to be found among minerals.
+
+M. de Luc censures me for not giving the origin of sand, of which I form
+the strata of the earth. He seems to have misunderstood my treatise. I
+do not pretend, as he does in his theory, to describe the beginning of
+things; I take things such as I find them at present, and from these
+I reason with regard to that which must have been. When, from a thing
+which is well known, we explain another which is less so, we then
+investigate nature; but when we imagine things without a pattern or
+example in nature, then, instead of natural history, we write only
+fable.
+
+M. de Luc, in the letter already mentioned, says, "that sand may be, and
+I think it is, a substance which has formed _strata_ by _precipitation
+in a liquid_." This is but an opinion, which may be either true or
+false. If it be true, it is an operation of the mineral kingdom of which
+I am ignorant. In all the sand which I have ever examined, I have never
+seen any that might not be referred to the species of mineral substance
+from which it had been formed. When this author shall have given us
+any kind of information with regard to the production of sand _by
+precipitation in a liquid_, it will then be time enough to think of
+forming the strata of the earth with that sand.]
+
+Clay is now to be considered as the last of those materials of which
+our strata are composed; but, in order to understand the nature of this
+ingredient, something must be premised.
+
+Clay is a mixture of different earths or hard substances, in an
+impalpable state. Those substances are chiefly the siliceous and
+aluminous earths. Other earths are occasionally mixed in clays, or
+perhaps always to be found in some small portion. But this does not
+affect the general character of clay; it only forms a special variety in
+the subject. A sensible or considerable portion of calcareous earth, in
+the composition of clay, constitutes a marl, and a sufficient admixture
+of sand, a loam.
+
+An indefinite variety of those compositions of clay form a large portion
+of the present strata, all indurated and consolidated in various
+degrees; but this great quantity of siliceous, argillaceous, and
+other compound substances, in form of earth or impalpable sediment,
+corresponds perfectly with that quantity of those same substances which
+must have been prepared in the formation of so much gravel and sand, by
+the attrition of those bodies in the moving waters.
+
+Therefore, from the consideration of those materials which compose the
+present land, we have reason to conclude, that, during the time this
+land was forming, by the collection of its materials at the bottom of
+the sea, there had been a former land containing materials similar to
+those which we find at present in examining the earth. We may also
+conclude, that there had been operations similar to those which we
+now find natural to the globe, and necessarily exerted in the actual
+formation of gravel, sand, and clay. But what we have now chiefly in
+view to illustrate is this, that there had then been in the ocean a
+system of animated beings, which propagated their species, and which
+have thus continued their several races to this day.
+
+In order to be convinced of that truth, we have but to examine the
+strata of our earth, in which we find the remains of animals. In this
+examination, we not only discover every genus of animal which at present
+exists in the sea, but probably every species, and perhaps some species
+with which at present we are not acquainted. There are, indeed,
+varieties in those species, compared with the present animals which we
+examine, but no greater varieties than may perhaps be found among the
+same species in the different quarters of the globe. Therefore, the
+system of animal life, which had been maintained in the ancient sea, had
+not been different from that which now subsists, and of which it belongs
+to naturalists to know the history.
+
+It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately supported from matter
+of vegetable production. Inflammable matter may be considered as the
+_pabulum_ of life. This is prepared in the bodies of living plants,
+particularly in their leaves exposed to the sun and light. This
+inflammable matter, on the contrary, is consumed in animal bodies, where
+it produces heat or light, or both. Therefore, however animal matter, or
+the pabulum of life, may circulate through a series of digesting powers,
+it is constantly impaired or diminishing in the course of this economy,
+and, without the productive power of plants, it would finally be
+extinguished.[17]
+
+[Note 17: See Dissertations on different subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part II.]
+
+The animals of the former world must have been sustained during
+indefinite successions of ages. The mean quantity of animal matter,
+therefore, must have been preserved by vegetable production, and the
+natural waste of inflammable substance repaired with continual addition;
+that is to say, the quantity of inflammable matter necessary to the
+animal consumption, must have been provided by means of vegetation.
+Hence we must conclude, that there had been a world of plants, as well
+as an ocean replenished with living animals.
+
+We are now, in reasoning from principles, come to a point decisive of
+the question, and which will either confirm the theory, if it be just,
+or confute our reasoning, if we have erred. Let us, therefore, open
+the book of Nature, and read in her records, if there had been a world
+bearing plants, at the time when this present world was forming at the
+bottom of the sea.
+
+Here the cabinets of the curious are to be examined; but here some
+caution is required, in order to distinguish things perfectly different,
+which sometimes are confounded.
+
+Fossil wood, to naturalists in general, is wood dug up from under
+ground, without inquiring whether this had been the production of the
+present earth, or that which had preceded it in the circulation of land
+and water. The question is important, and the solution of it is, in
+general, easy. The vegetable productions of the present earth, however
+deep they may be found buried beneath its surface, and however ancient
+they may appear, compared with the records of our known times, are new,
+compared with the solid land on which they grew; and they are only
+covered with the produce of a vegetable soil, or the alluvion of the
+present land on which we dwell, and on which they had grown. But the
+fossil bodies which form the present subject of inquiry, belonged to
+former land, and are found only in the sea-born strata of our present
+earth. It is to these alone that we appeal, in order to prove the
+certainty of former events.
+
+Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object now inquired after; that wood
+which had been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and there composed part
+of a stratum, which hitherto we have considered as only formed of the
+materials proper to the ocean. Now, what a profusion of this species of
+fossil wood is to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and even in
+the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers of polished stones! In some
+places, it would seem to be as common as the agate.
+
+I shall only mention a specimen in my own collection. It is wood
+petrified with calcareous earth, and mineralised with pyrites. This
+specimen of wood contains in itself, even without the stratum of stone
+in which it is embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
+It had been eaten or perforated by those sea worms which destroy the
+bottoms of our ships. There is the clearest evidence of this truth.
+Therefore, this wood had grown upon land which flood above the level of
+sea, while the present land was only forming at the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Wood is the most substantial part of plants, as shells are the more
+permanent part of marine animals. It is not, however, the woody part
+alone of the ancient vegetable world that is transmitted to us in
+the record of our mineral pages. We have the type of many species
+of foliage, and even of the most delicate flower; for, in this way,
+naturalists have determined, according to the Linnaean system, the
+species, or at least the genus, of the plant. Thus, the existence of a
+vegetable system at the period now in contemplation, so far from being
+doubtful, is a matter of physical demonstration.
+
+The profusion of this vegetable matter, delivered into the ocean, which
+then generated land, is also evidenced in the amazing quantities of
+mineral coal which is to be found in perhaps every region of the earth.
+
+Nothing can be more certain, than that all the coaly or bituminous
+strata have had their origin from the substance of vegetable bodies
+that grew upon the land. Those strata, tho', in general, perfectly
+consolidated, often separate horizontally in certain places; and there
+we find the fibrous or vascular structure of the vegetable bodies.
+Consequently, there is no doubt of fossil coal being a substance
+of vegetable production, however animal substances also may have
+contributed in forming this collection of oleaginous or inflammable
+matter.
+
+Having thus ascertained the state of a former earth, in which plants
+and animals had lived, as well as the gradual production of the present
+earth, composed from the materials of a former world, it must be
+evident, that here are two operations which are necessarily consecutive.
+The formation of the present earth necessarily involves the destruction
+of continents in the ancient world; and, by pursuing in our mind the
+natural operations of a former earth, we clearly see the origin of that
+land, by the fertility of which, we, and all the animated bodies of the
+sea, are fed. It is in like manner, that, contemplating the present
+operations of the globe, we may perceive the actual existence of those
+productive causes, which are now laying the foundation of land in the
+unfathomable regions of the sea, and which will, in time, give birth to
+future continents.
+
+But though, in generalising the operations of nature, we have arrived at
+those great events, which, at first sight, may fill the mind with
+wonder and with doubt, we are not to suppose, that there is any violent
+exertion of power, such as is required in order to produce a great event
+in little time; in nature, we find no deficiency in respect of time, nor
+any limitation with regard to power. But time is not made to flow in
+vain; nor does there ever appear the exertion of superfluous power, or
+the manifestation of design, not calculated in wisdom to effect some
+general end.
+
+The events now under consideration may be examined with a view to see
+this truth; for it may be inquired, Why destroy one continent in order
+to erect another? The answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a
+continent from having wearied of a subject which had given pleasure, or
+changed her purpose, whether for a better or a worse; neither does she
+erect a continent of land among the clouds, to show her power, or to
+amaze the vulgar man; Nature has contrived the productions of vegetable
+bodies, and the sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the gradual
+but sure destruction of a continent; that is to say, these two
+operations necessarily go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has nature
+ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one
+continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in
+the production of another; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for
+which the world above the surface of the sea is leveled with its bottom,
+are among the means employed in those operations, as well as the
+sustenance of those living beings is the proper end in view.
+
+Thus, in understanding the proper constitution of the present earth, we
+are led to know the source from whence had come all the materials which
+nature had employed in the construction of the world which appears; a
+world contrived in consummate wisdom for the growth and habitation of a
+great diversity of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly adapted
+to the purposes of man, who inhabits all its climates, who measures its
+extent, and determines its productions at his pleasure.
+
+The whole of a great object or event fills us with wonder and
+astonishment, when all the particulars, in the succession of which the
+whole had been produced, may be considered without the least emotion.
+When, for example, we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our mind is agitated
+with a crowd of ideas that highly entertains the person who understands
+the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone up to the top of a hill or
+mountain would give that person little pleasure or concern. We wonder at
+the whole operation of the pyramid, but not at any one particular part.
+
+The raising up of a continent of land from the bottom of the sea, is an
+idea that is too great to be conceived easily in all the parts of its
+operations, many of which are perhaps unknown to us; and, without being
+properly understood, so great an idea may appear like a thing that is
+imaginary. In like manner, the co-relative, or corresponding operation,
+the destruction of the land, is an idea that does not easily enter into
+the mind of man in its totality, although he is daily witness to part of
+the operation. We never see a river in a flood, but we must acknowledge
+the carrying away of part of our land, to be sunk at the bottom of the
+sea; we never see a storm upon the coast, but we are informed of a
+hostile attack of the sea upon our country; attacks which must, in time,
+wear away the bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations of our
+dwellings. Thus, great things are not understood without the analysing
+of many operations, and the combination of time with many events
+happening in succession.
+
+Let us now consider what is to be the subject of examination, and where
+it is that we are to observe those operations which must determine
+either the stability or the instability of this land on which we live.
+
+Our land has two extremities; the tops of the mountains, on the one
+hand, and the sea-shores, on the other: It is the intermediate space
+between these two, that forms the habitation of plants and animals.
+While there is a sea-shore and a higher ground there is that which is
+required in the system of the world: Take these away, and there would
+remain an aqueous globe, in which the world would perish. But, in the
+natural operations of the world, the land is perishing continually; and
+this is that which now we want to understand.
+
+Upon the one extremity of our land, there is no increase, or there is no
+accession of any mineral substance. That place is the mountain-top, on
+which nothing is observed but continual decay. The fragments of the
+mountain are removed in a gradual succession from the highest station to
+the lowest. Being arrived at the shore, and having entered the dominion
+of the waves, in which they find perpetual agitation, these hard
+fragments, which had eluded the resolving powers natural to the surface
+of the earth, are incapable of resisting the powers here employed for
+the destruction of the land. By the attrition of one hard body upon
+another, the moving stones and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
+that solid mass, which of itself had potential liability against the
+violence of the waves, affords the instruments of its own destruction,
+and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.
+
+In order to understand the system of the heavens, it is necessary to
+connect together periods of measured time, and the distinguished places
+of revolving bodies. It is thus that system may be observed, or wisdom,
+in the proper adapting of powers to an intention. In like manner, we
+cannot understand the system of the globe, without seeing that progress
+of things which is brought about in time, thus measuring the natural
+operations of the earth with those of the heavens. This is properly the
+business of the present undertaking.
+
+Our object is to know the time which had elapsed since the foundation of
+the present continent had been laid at the bottom of the ocean, to the
+present moment in which we speculate on these operations. The space is
+long; the data for the calculations are, perhaps, deficient: No matter;
+so far as we know our error, or the deficiency in our operation, we
+proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason. It is not given to man
+to know what things are truly in themselves, but only what those things
+are in his thought. We seek not to know the precise measure of any
+thing; we only understand the limits of a thing, in knowing what it is
+not, either on the one side or the other.
+
+We are investigating the age of the present earth, from the beginning of
+that body which was in the bottom of the sea, to the perfection of its
+nature, which we consider as in the moment of our existence; and we have
+necessarily another aera, which is collateral, or correspondent, in the
+progress of those natural events. This is the time required, in the
+natural operations of this globe, for the destruction of a former
+earth; an earth equally perfect with the present and an earth equally
+productive of growing plants and living animals. Now, it must appear,
+that, if we had a measure for the one of those corresponding operations,
+we would have an equal knowledge of the other.
+
+The formation of a future earth being in the bottom of the ocean, at
+depths unfathomable to man, and in regions far beyond the reach of his
+observation, here is a part of the process which cannot be taken as a
+principle in forming an estimate of the whole. But, in the destruction
+of the present earth, we have a process that is performed within the
+limits of our observation; therefore, in knowing the measure of this
+operation, we shall find the means of calculating what had passed on a
+former occasion, as well as what will happen in the composition of a
+future earth. Let us, therefore, now attempt to make this estimate of
+time and labour.
+
+The highest mountain may be levelled with the plain from whence it
+springs, without the loss of real territory in the land; but when the
+ocean makes encroachment on the basis of our earth, the mountain,
+unsupported, tumbles with its weight; and with the accession of hard
+bodies, moveable with the agitation of the waves, gives to the sea the
+power of undermining farther and farther into the solid basis of our
+land. This is the operation which is to be measured; this is the mean
+proportional by which we are to estimate the age of worlds that have
+terminated, and the duration of those that are but beginning.
+
+But how shall we measure the decrease of our land? Every revolution of
+the globe wears away some part of some rock upon some coast; but the
+quantity of that decrease, in that measured time, is not a measurable
+thing. Instead of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age. The age
+of man does no more in this estimate than a single year. He sees,
+that the natural course of things is to wear away the coast, with the
+attrition of the sand and stones upon the shore; but he cannot find a
+measure for this quantity which shall correspond to time, in order to
+form an estimate of the rate of this decrease.
+
+But man is not confined to what he sees; he has the experience of former
+men. Let us then go to the Romans and the Greeks in search of a measure
+of our coasts, which we may compare with the present state of things.
+Here, again, we are disappointed; their descriptions of the shores of
+Greece and of Italy, and their works upon the coast, either give no
+measure of a decrease, or are not accurate enough for such a purpose.
+
+It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity which escapes our notice,
+and which history cannot ascertain; and we might just as well attempt to
+measure the distance of the stars without a parallax, as to calculate
+the destruction of the solid land without a measure corresponding to the
+whole.
+
+The description which Polybius has given of the Pontus Euxinus, with
+the two opposite Bosphori, the Meotis, the Propontis, and the Port of
+Byzantium, are as applicable to the present state of things as they were
+at the writing of that history. The filling up of the bed of the
+Meotis, an event which, to Polybius, appeared not far off, must also be
+considered as removed to a very distant period, though the causes still
+continue to operate as before.
+
+But there is a thing in which history and the present state of things do
+not agree. It is upon the coast of Spain, where Polybius says there was
+an island in the mouth of the harbour of New Carthage. At present, in
+place of the island, there is only a rock under the surface of the
+water. It must be evident, however, that the loss of this small island
+affords no proper ground of calculation for the measure or rate of
+wasting which could correspond to the coast in general; as neither
+the quantity of what is now lost had been measured, nor its quality
+ascertained.
+
+Let us examine places much more exposed to the fury of the waves and
+currents than the coast of Carthagena, the narrow fretum, for example,
+between Italy and Sicily. It does not appear, that this passage is
+sensibly wider than when the Romans first had known it. The Isthmus of
+Corinth is also apparently the same at present as it had been two or
+three thousand years ago. Scilla and Charibdis remain now, as they had
+been in ancient times, rocks hazardous for coasting vessels which had to
+pass that strait.
+
+It is not meant by this to say, these rocks have not been wasted by the
+sea, and worn by the attrition of moving bodies, during that space of
+time; were this true, and that those rocks, the bulwarks of the land
+upon those coasts, had not been at all impaired from that period, they
+might remain for ever, and thus the system of interchanging the place of
+sea and land upon this globe might be frustrated. It is only meant
+to affirm, that the quantity which those rocks, or that coast, have
+diminished from the period of our history, has either been too small
+a thing for human observation, or, which is more probable, that no
+accurate measurement of the subject, by which this quantity of decrease
+might have been ascertained, had been taken and recorded. It must be
+also evident, that a very small operation of an earthquake would be
+sufficient to render every means of information, in this manner of
+mensuration, unsatisfactory or precarious.
+
+Pliny says Italy was distant from Sicily a mile and a half; but we
+cannot suppose that this measure was taken any otherwise than by
+computation, and such a measure is but little calculated to afford us
+the just means of a comparison with the present distance. He also says,
+indeed, that Sicily had been once joined with Italy. His words are:
+"Quondam Brutio agro cohaerens, mox interfuso mari avulsa.[18]" But all
+that we can conclude from this history of Pliny is, that, in all times,
+to people considering the appearances of those two approached coasts,
+it had seemed probable, that the sea formed a passage between the two
+countries which had been once united; in like manner as is still more
+immediately perceived, in that smaller disjunction which is made between
+the island of Anglesey and the continent of Wales.
+
+[Note 18: Lib. 3. cap. 8.]
+
+The port of Syracuse, with the island which forms the greater and
+lesser, and the fountain of Arethusa, the water of which the ancients
+divided from the sea with a wall, do not seem to be altered. From Sicily
+to the coast of Egypt, there is an uninterrupted course of sea for a
+thousand miles; consequently, the wind, in such a stretch of sea, should
+bring powerful waves against those coasts: But, on this coast of Egypt,
+we find the rock on which was formerly built the famous tower of Pharos;
+and also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste, the sea-bath,
+cut in the solid rock upon the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted
+immediately with the waves of the Mediterranean sea, are, to all
+appearance, the same at this day as they were in ancient times.[19]
+
+[Note 19: Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. Savary.]
+
+Many other such proofs will certainly occur, where the different parts
+of those coasts are examined by people of observation and intelligence.
+But it is enough for our present purpose, that this decrease of the
+coasts in general has not been observed; and that it is as generally
+thought, that the land is gaining upon the sea, as that the sea is
+gaining upon the land.
+
+To sum up the argument, we are certain, that all the coasts of the
+present continents are wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing away
+upon the whole; but this operation is so extremely slow, that we cannot
+find a measure of the quantity in order to form an estimate: Therefore,
+the present continents of the earth, which we consider as in a state of
+perfection, would, in the natural operations of the globe, require a
+time indefinite for their destruction.
+
+But, in order to produce the present continents, the destruction of a
+former vegetable world was necessary; consequently, the production of
+our present continents must have required a time which is indefinite.
+In like manner, if the former continents were of the same nature as the
+present, it must have required another space of time, which also is
+indefinite, before they had come to their perfection as a vegetable
+world.
+
+We have been representing the system of this earth as proceeding with
+a certain regularity, which is not perhaps in nature, but which is
+necessary for our clear conception of the system of nature. The
+system of nature is certainly in rule, although we may not know every
+circumstance of its regulation. We are under a necessity, therefore, of
+making regular suppositions, in order to come at certain conclusions
+which may be compared with the present state of things.
+
+It is not necessary that the present land should be worn away and
+wasted, exactly in proportion as new land shall appear; or, conversely,
+that an equal proportion of new land should always be produced as the
+old is made to disappear. It is only required, that at all times, there
+should be a just proportion of land and water upon the surface of the
+globe, for the purpose of a habitable world.
+
+Neither is it required in the actual system of this earth, that every
+part of the land should be dissolved in its structure, and worn away by
+attrition, so as to be floated in the sea. Parts of the land may often
+sink in a body below the level of the sea, and parts again may be
+restored, without waiting for the general circulation of land and water,
+which proceeds with all the certainty of nature, but which advances with
+an imperceptible progression. Many of such apparent irregularities may
+appear without the least infringement on the general system. That system
+is comprehended in the preparation of future land at the bottom of the
+ocean, from those materials which the dissolution and attrition of
+the present land may have provided, and from those which the natural
+operations of the sea afford.
+
+In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are not to limit nature with the
+uniformity of an equable progression, although it be necessary in our
+computations to proceed upon equalities. Thus also, in the use of means,
+we are not to prescribe to nature those alone which we think suitable
+for the purpose, in our narrow view. It is our business to learn of
+nature (that is by observation) the ways and means, which in her wisdom
+are adopted; and we are to imagine these only in order to find means for
+further information, and to increase our knowledge from the examination
+of things which actually have been. It is in this manner, that intention
+may be found in nature; but this intention is not to be supposed, or
+vainly imagined, from what we may conceive to be.
+
+We have been now supposing, that the beginning of our present earth had
+been laid in the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of the former
+land; but this was only for the sake of distinctness. The just view is
+this, that when the former land of the globe had been complete, so as
+to begin to waste and be impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the
+present land began to appear above the surface of the ocean. In this
+manner we suppose a due proportion to be always preserved of land and
+water upon the surface of the globe, for the purpose of a habitable
+world, such as this which we possess. We thus, also, allow time and
+opportunity for the translation of animals and plants to occupy the
+earth.
+
+But, if the earth on which we live, began to appear in the ocean at
+the time when the last began to be resolved, it could not be from the
+materials of the continent immediately preceding this which we examine,
+that the present earth had been constructed; for the bottom of the ocean
+must have been filled with materials before land could be made to appear
+above its surface.
+
+Let us suppose that the continent, which is to succeed our land, is at
+present beginning to appear above the water in the middle of the Pacific
+Ocean, it must be evident, that the materials of this great body, which
+is formed and ready to be brought forth, must have been collected from
+the destruction of an earth, which does not now appear. Consequently,
+in this true statement of the case, there is necessarily required the
+destruction of an animal and vegetable earth prior to the former land;
+and the materials of that earth which is first in our account, must have
+been collected at the bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted for
+the production of the present earth, when the land immediately preceding
+the present had arrived at its full extent.
+
+This, however, alters nothing with regard to the nature of those
+operations of the globe. The system is still the same. It only protracts
+the indefinite space of time in its existence, while it gives us a view
+of another distinct period of the living world; that is to say, the
+world which we inhabit is composed of the materials, not of the earth
+which was the immediate predecessor of the present, but of the earth
+which, in ascending from the present, we consider as the third, and
+which had preceded the land that was above the surface of the sea, while
+our present land was yet beneath the water of the ocean. Here are three
+distinct successive periods of existence, and each of these is, in our
+measurement of time, a thing of indefinite duration.
+
+We have now got to the end of our reasoning; we have no data further
+to conclude immediately from that which actually is: But we have got
+enough; we have the satisfaction to find, that in nature there is
+wisdom, system, and consistency. For having, in the natural history of
+this earth, seen a succession of worlds, we may from this conclude that
+there is a system in nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions
+of the planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they
+are intended to continue those revolutions. But if the succession of
+worlds is established in the system of nature, it is in vain to look for
+any thing higher in the origin of the earth. The result, therefore, of
+this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,--no
+prospect of an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN'S Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+A theory which is founded on a new principle, a theory which has to make
+its way in the public mind by overturning the opinions commonly received
+by philosophising men, and one which has nothing to recommend it but the
+truth of its principles, and the view of wisdom or design to which it
+leads, neither of which may perhaps be perceived by the generality of
+people, such a theory, I say, must meet with the strongest opposition
+from the prejudices of the learned, and from the superstition of those
+who judge not for themselves in forming their notions, but look up to
+men of science for authority. Such is the case with some part of the
+Theory of the Earth, which I have given, and which will probably give
+offence to naturalists who have espoused an opposite opinion. In order,
+then, to obtain the approbation of the public, it may not be enough to
+give a theory that should be true, or altogether unexceptionable it may
+be necessary to defend every point that shall be thought exceptionable
+by other theorists, and to show the fallacy of every learned objection
+that may be made against it. It is thus, in general, that truth and
+error are forced to struggle together, in the progress of science; and
+it is only in proportion as science removes erroneous conceptions, which
+are necessarily in the constitution of human knowledge, that truth will
+find itself established in natural philosophy.
+
+Mr Kirwan has written a dissertation, entitled, _Examination of the
+Supposed Igneous Origin of Stony Substances_, which was read in the
+Royal Irish Academy. The object of that dissertation is to state certain
+objections, which have occurred to him, against the Theory of the Earth
+published in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society; and he has
+attacked that theory in all the points where it appears to him to be
+vulnerable. It is to these objections that I am now to give an answer.
+The authority given to this dissertation, by the Royal Irish Academy,
+as well as the reputation of the author, make it necessary for me
+to endeavour to put in their true light the facts alleged in that
+performance, and to analyse the arguments employed, in order to judge of
+the reasoning by which the theory of mineral fusion is refuted in this
+Examination.
+
+A theory founded on truth, and formed according to the proper rules of
+science, can ever suffer from a strict examination, by which it would
+be but the more and more confirmed. But, where causes are to be traced
+through a chain of various complicated effects, an examination not
+properly conducted upon accurate analytical principles, instead of
+giving light upon a subject in which there had been obscurity and doubt,
+may only serve to perplex the understanding, and bring confusion into a
+subject which was before sufficiently distinct. To redress that evil,
+then, must require more labour and some address; and this is an
+inconveniency that may be looked for, more or less, in every
+controversial discussion.
+
+I do not mean to enter any farther into the defence of my theory in
+this chapter, than what is necessary to answer a man of science and
+respectability, who has stated his objections. The observations which
+he has made appear to me to be founded on nothing more than common
+prejudice, and misconceived notions of the subject. I am therefore
+to point out that erroneous train of reasoning, into which a hasty
+superficial view of things, perhaps, has led the patron of an opposite
+opinion to see my theory in an unfavourable light. This, however, is not
+all; for, that train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial with
+the crude and inconsiderate notion generally entertained, of solid
+mineral bodies having been formed by the infiltration of water into
+the earth, that no opportunity should be lost of exposing an erroneous
+manner of reasoning, which is employed in supporting a hypothesis
+founded upon certain operations of the surface of this earth that cannot
+be properly applied to the formation of mineral bodies. This object,
+therefore, so far as it may come in the way, will be attended to in
+this discussion, although I shall have another opportunity of farther
+enlarging upon that subject.
+
+Our author begins by examining a geological operation, the very opposite
+to that of mineral consolidation, and which would seem to have little
+connection with the subject of this dissertation. In my theory, I
+advanced two propositions with regard to the economy of this world:
+First, That the solid masses of this earth, when exposed to the
+atmosphere, decay, and are resolved into loose materials, of which the
+vegetable soil upon the surface is in part composed; and, secondly, That
+these loose materials are washed away by the currents of water, and
+thus carried at last into the sea. Our author says "Here are two
+suppositions, neither of which is grounded on facts;" and yet he has
+but the moment before made the following confession: "That the soil,
+however, receives an increase from some species of stones that moulder
+by exposition to the air cannot be denied, but there is no proof that
+all soil has arisen from decomposition."--Surely _all soil_, that
+is made from the _hard and compact_ body of the land, which is my
+proposition, must have arisen from _decomposition_; and I have no where
+said, that _all_ the soil of this earth is made from the decomposition
+or detritus of those stony substances; for, masses of looser sand and
+softer substances contribute still more to the formation of vegetable
+soils.
+
+With regard to the other proposition, our author says, "Soil is not
+constantly carried away by the water, even from mountains."--I have not
+said that it is _constantly_ washed away; for, while it is soil in which
+plants grow, it is not travelling to the sea, although it be on the road,
+and must there arrive in time. I have said, that it is _necessarily_
+washed away, that is, occasionally. M. de Luc's authority is then
+referred to, as refuting this operation of water and time upon the soil.
+Now, I cannot help here observing, that our author seems to have as
+much misapprehended M. de Luc's argument as he has done mine. That
+philosopher, in his letters to the Queen, has described most accurately
+the decay of the rocks and solid mountains of the Alps and Jura, and the
+travelling of their materials by water, although he does not carry them
+to the sea. It is true, indeed, that this author, who supposes the
+present earth on which we dwell very young, is anxious to make an earth,
+_in time_, that shall not decay nor be washed away at all; but that time
+is not come yet; therefore the authority, here given against my
+theory, is the speculative supposition, or mere opinion, of a natural
+philosopher, with regard to an event which may never come to pass, and
+which I shall have occasion to consider fully in another place.
+
+Our author had just now said, that I have advanced two suppositions,
+_neither of which is grounded on facts_: Now, with regard to the one, he
+has acknowledged, that the mouldering of stones takes place, which is
+the fact on which that proposition is grounded; and with regard to the
+other, the only authority given against it is founded expressly upon
+the moving of soil by means of the rain water, in order to make sloping
+plains of mountains. Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
+upon facts; and our author has founded his objections, first, upon a
+difficulty which he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon nothing but
+a visionary opinion, with regard to an earth which is not yet made, and
+which, when once made, is never more to change.
+
+After making some unimportant observations,--of all water not flowing
+into the sea,--and of the travelled materials being also deposited upon
+the plains, etc. our author thus proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our
+author relative to the imperfect constitution of the globe falls to the
+ground; and the pains he takes to learn, _by what means a decayed world
+may be renovated_, are superfluous."--The object of my theory is
+to show, that this decaying nature of the solid earth is the very
+_perfection_ of its constitution, as a living world; therefore, it
+was most proper that I should _take pains to learn_ by what means the
+decayed parts might be renovated. It is true, indeed, that this will be
+superfluous, when once that constitution of the earth, which M. de Luc
+thinks is preparing, shall be finished; but, in the mean time, while
+rivers carry the materials of our land, and while the sea impairs the
+coast, I may be allowed to suppose that this is the actual constitution
+of the earth.
+
+I cannot help here animadverting upon what seems to be our author's
+plan, in making these objections, which have nothing to do with his
+examination. He accuses me of giving this world a false or imperfect
+constitution, (in which the solid land is considered as resolvable, and
+the materials of that land as being washed away into the sea,) for no
+other reason, that I can see, but because this may imply the formation
+of a future earth, which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is now to
+deny the stratified construction of this present earth to have been made
+by the deposits of materials at the bottom of the sea, because that
+would prove the existence of a former earth, which is repugnant to his
+notion of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he says, to reason,
+and the tenor of the Mosaic history. Let me observe, in passing, that M.
+de Luc, of whose opinions our author expresses much approbation, thinks
+that he proves, from the express words and tenor of the Mosaic history,
+that the present earth was at the bottom of the sea not many years ago,
+and that the former earth had then disappeared.
+
+But, what does our author propose to himself, in refusing to admit my
+view of the operations which are daily transacting upon the surface of
+this earth, where there is nothing dark or in the least mysterious, as
+there may be in the mineral regions? Does he mean to say, that it is not
+the purpose of this world to provide soil for plants to grow in? Does
+he suppose that this soil is not moveable with the running water of the
+surface? and, Does he think that it is not necessary to replace that
+soil which is removed? This is all that I required in that constitution
+of the world which he has thus attacked; and I wish that he or any
+person would point out, in what respect I had demanded any thing
+unreasonable, or any thing that is not actually to be observed every
+day.
+
+Thus I have endeavoured to show, that our author has attacked my theory
+in a part where I believe it must be thought invulnerable; but this is
+only, I presume, in order that he may make an attack with more advantage
+upon another part, viz. the composition of strata from the materials of
+an earth thus worn out in the service of vegetation,--materials which
+are necessarily removed in order to make way for that change of things
+in which consists the active and living system of this world. If he
+succeed in this attempt to refute my theory of the original formation
+of strata, he would then doubtless find it more easy to persuade
+philosophers that the means which I employ in bringing those materials
+again to light, when transformed into such solid masses as the system of
+this earth requires, are extravagant, unnatural, and unnecessary. Let us
+then see how he sets about this undertaking.
+
+With regard to the composition of the earth, it is quoted from my
+theory, that _the solid parts of the globe are in general composed
+of sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of various
+compositions of these with other substances_; our author then adds,
+"This certainly cannot be affirmed as a fact, but rather the contrary;
+it holds only true of the surface, the basis of the greater part of
+Scotland is evidently a granitic rock, to say nothing of the continents,
+both of the Old and New World, according to the testimony of all
+mineralogists." This proposition, with regard to the general composition
+of the earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have maintained it as a
+fact, after the most scrupulous examination of all that, with the most
+diligent search, I have been able to see, and of all that authors
+have wrote intelligibly upon the subject. If, therefore, I have so
+misrepresented this great geological fact on which my theory is
+absolutely founded, I must have erred with open eyes; and my theory
+of the earth, like others which have gone before it, will, upon close
+examination, appear to be unfounded, as the dissertation now before us
+is endeavouring to represent it.
+
+Our author here, I think, alleges that the contrary to this, my
+fundamental proposition, is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
+an example in which his assertion (founded upon the testimony of all
+mineralogists), is illustrated. Now my geological proposition should
+certainly be applicable to Scotland, which is the country that I ought
+to be best acquainted with; consequently, if what our author here
+asserts be true, I would have deserved that blame which he is willing to
+throw on me. Let me then beg the readers attention for a moment, that I
+may justify myself from that charge, and place in its proper light this
+authority, upon so material a point in geology.
+
+I had examined Scotland from the one end to the other before I saw one
+stone of granite in its native place, I have moreover examined almost
+all England and Wales, (excepting Devonshire and Cornwall) without
+seeing more of granite than one spot, not many hundred yards of extent;
+this is at Chap; and I know, from information, that there is another
+small spot in the middle of England where it is just seen. But, let me
+be more particular with regard to Scotland, the example given in proof.
+
+I had travelled every road from the borders of Northumberland and
+Westmoreland to Edinburgh; from Edinburgh, I had travelled to
+Port-Patrick, and from that along the coast of Galloway and Airshire
+to Inverary in Argyleshire, and I had examined every spot between the
+Grampians and the Tweedale mountains from sea to sea, without seeing
+granite in its place. I had also travelled from Edinburgh by Grief,
+Rannock, Dalwhiny, Fort Augustus, Inverness, through east Ross and
+Caithness, to the Pentland-Frith or Orkney islands, without seeing one
+block of granite in its place. It is true, I met with it on my return
+by the east coast, when I just saw it, and no more, at Peterhead and
+Aberdeen; but that was all the granite I had ever seen when I wrote
+my Theory of the Earth. I have, since that time, seen it in different
+places; because I went on purpose to examine it, as I shall have
+occasion to describe in the course of this work.
+
+I may now with some confidence affirm, from my own observation, and from
+good information with regard to those places where I have not been,
+except the northwest corner, I may affirm, I say, that instead of the
+basis of the greatest part of Scotland being a granitic rock, which our
+author has maintained as an evident thing, there is very little of it
+that is so; not perhaps one five hundred part. So far also as I am to
+judge from my knowledge of the mineral construction of England and
+Wales, which I have examined with the greatest care, and from the
+mineral chart which my friend Mr Watt made for me from his knowledge of
+Cornwall, I would say that there is scarcely one five hundred part
+of Britain that has granite for its basis. All the rest, except the
+porphyry and basaltes, consists of stratified bodies, which are composed
+more or less of the materials which I mentioned, generally, in the above
+quotation, and which our author would dispute.
+
+But do not let me take the advantage of this error of our author with
+regard to the mineralogy of Scotland, and thus draw what may be thought
+an undue conclusion in favour of my general theory; let us go over and
+examine the continent of Europe, and see if it is any otherwise there
+than in Britain. From the granite of the Ural mountains, to that which
+we find in the Pyrenees, there is no reason, so far as I have been able
+to learn, to conclude that things are formed either upon any other
+principle, or upon a different scale. But, instead of one five hundred
+part, let us suppose there to be one fiftieth part of the earth in
+general resting upon granite, I could not have expressed myself
+otherwise than I have done; for, when I maintained that the earth in
+general consisted of stratified bodies, I said that this was only _nine
+tenths, or perhaps ninety-nine hundredths_ of the whole, and I mentioned
+that there were other masses of a different origin, which should be
+considered separately. Our author, on the contrary, asserts that the Old
+and New Worlds, as well as Scotland, are placed upon granite as a basis,
+which he says is according to the testimony of all mineralogists.
+I shall have occasion to examine this opinion of mineralogists, in
+comparing it with those masses of granite which appear to us; and I hope
+fully to refute the geological, as well as mineralogical notions with
+regard to that body. In the mean time, let me make the following
+reflection, which here naturally occurs.
+
+My Theory of the Earth is here examined,--not with the system of
+nature, or actual state of things, to which it certainly should have
+corresponded,--but with the systematic views of a person, who has formed
+his notions of geology from the vague opinion of others, and not from
+what he has seen. Had the question been, How far my theory agreed with
+other theories, our author might very properly have informed his readers
+that it was diametrically opposite to the opinions of mineralogists;
+but, this was no reason for concluding it to be erroneous; on the
+contrary, it is rather a presumption that I may have corrected the error
+of mineralogists who have gone before me, in like manner as it is most
+reasonable to presume that our author may have corrected mine. Let us
+then proceed to examine how far this shall appear to be the case.
+
+Our author has stated very fairly from the Theory, viz. _That all the
+strata of the earth, not only those consisting of calcareous masses, but
+others superincumbent on these, have had their origin at the bottom
+of the sea, by the collection of sand, gravel, shells, coralline, and
+crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays variously mixed, separated,
+and accumulated._ He then adds, "Various geological observations
+contradict this conclusion. There are many stratified mountains of
+argillaceous slate, gneiss, serpentine, jasper, and even marble, in
+which either sand, gravel, shells, coralline, or crustaceous bodies are
+never, or scarce ever found."
+
+Here our author seems to have deceived himself, by taking a very partial
+view of things which should be fully examined, and well understood,
+before general conclusions are to be drawn from those appearances; for,
+although those particular objects may not be visible in the strata which
+he has enumerated, or many others, they are found in those strata which
+are either immediately connected and alternated with them, or with
+similar strata; something to that purpose I think I have said; and, if
+I had not, it certainly requires no deep penetration to have seen this
+clear solution of that appearance of those objects not being found in
+every particular stratum. He says that those marks of known materials
+are never or scarce ever found;--by _scarce ever_ he surely means that
+they are sometimes found; but if they shall only _once_ be found, his
+argument is lost. I have not drawn my geological conclusion from every
+particle in strata being distinguishable, but from there being certain
+distinguishable particles in strata, and from our knowing what had been
+the former state and circumstances of those distinguished parts.
+
+If every stone or part of a stratum, in which those known objects are
+not immediately visible, must be considered as so _many geological
+observations that contradict my theory_, (of strata being formed from
+the materials of a former earth), then, surely every stone and every
+stratum which visibly contains any of those materials, must prove my
+theory. But if every stratum, where these are found in any part of it,
+is to be concluded as having had its origin at the bottom of the sea;
+and, if every concomitant stratum, though not having those objects
+visible or sufficiently distinct, must be considered as having had the
+same or a similar origin, that pretended contradiction of my theory
+comes to no more than this, that every individual stone does not bear
+in it the same or equal evidence of that general proposition which
+necessarily results from the attentive consideration of the whole,
+including every part.
+
+But to see how necessary it is to judge in this manner, not partially,
+but upon the whole, we may observe, that there are two ways by which the
+visible materials or distinguishable bodies of a former earth, not only
+_may_ be rendered invisible in the composition of our present earth,
+but _must_ be so upon many occasions. These are, _first_, by mechanical
+comminution, which necessarily happens, more or less, in that operation
+by which bodies are moved against one another, and thus transported from
+the land to the bottom of the deepest seas; _secondly_, by chemical
+operations, (whatever these may be, whether the action of water or of
+fire, or both), which are also necessarily employed for consolidating
+those loose materials, that are to form the rocks and stones of
+this earth, and by means of which those materials are to have their
+distinguishable shapes affected in all degrees and obliterated.
+Therefore, to demand the visible appearance of those materials in every
+stratum of the earth, or in every part of a stratum, is no other than to
+misunderstand the subject altogether. The geological observations,
+which have been thus alleged as contradicting my theory, are stratified
+bodies, containing proofs of the general origin which I attribute to the
+earth, but proofs which may not always be seen with equal facility as
+those which even convince the vulgar.
+
+Our author has surely perplexed himself with what writers of late have
+said concerning primitive mountains as they are called, a subject of
+deeper search, than is commonly imagined, as I hope to show in the
+course of this work. It is an interesting subject of investigation,
+as giving us the actual view of those operations of nature which, in
+forming my Theory of the Earth, more general principles had led me to
+conclude _might be_. But, it is a subject which, I am afraid, will lead
+me to give farther offence to our author, however innocent I may be in
+giving nothing but what I have from nature.
+
+The reason for saying so is this; I am blamed for having endeavoured
+to trace back the operations of this world to a remote period, by the
+examination of that which actually appears, contrary, as is alleged,
+"to reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic history, thus leading to an
+abyss, from which human reason recoils, etc." In a word, (says our
+author), "to make use of his own expression, _We find no vestige of
+a beginning._ Then this system of successive worlds must have been
+eternal." Such is the logic by which, I suppose, I am to be accused of
+atheism. Our author might have added, that I have also said--_we see
+no prospect of an end_; but what has all this to do with the idea of
+eternity? Are we, with our ideas of _time_, (or mere succession), to
+measure that of eternity, which never succeeded any thing, and which
+will never be succeeded? Are we thus to measure eternity, that boundless
+thought, with those physical notions of ours which necessarily limit
+both space and time? and, because we see not the beginning of created
+things, Are we to conclude that those things which we see have always
+been, or been without a cause? Our author would thus, inadvertently
+indeed, lead himself into that gulf of irreligion and absurdity into
+which, he alleges, I have _boldly plunged_.
+
+In examining this present earth, we find that it must have had its
+origin at the bottom of the sea, although our author seems willing to
+deny that proposition. Farther, in examining the internal construction
+of this stratified and sea-born mass, we find that it had been composed
+of the moved materials of a former earth; and, from the most accurate
+and extensive examination of those materials, which in many places are
+indeed much disguised, we are led necessarily to conclude, that there
+had been a world existing, and containing an animal, a vegetable, and a
+mineral system. But, in thus tracing back the natural operations which
+have succeeded each other, and mark to us the course of time past, we
+come to a period in which we cannot see any farther. This, however,
+is not the beginning of those operations which proceed in time and
+according to the wise economy of this world; nor is it the establishing
+of that, which, in the course of time, had no beginning; it is only the
+limit of our retrospective view of those operations which have come to
+pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme intelligence.
+
+My principal anxiety was to show how the constitution of this world
+had been wisely contrived; and this I endeavoured to do, not from
+supposition or conjecture, but from its answering so effectually the end
+of its intention, viz. the preserving of animal life, which we cannot
+doubt of being its purpose. Here then is a world that is not eternal,
+but which has been the effect of wisdom or design.
+
+With regard again to the prospective view of the creation, How are we to
+see the end of that wise system of things which so properly fulfils the
+benevolent intention of its maker,--in giving sustenance to the animal
+part, and information to intellectual beings, who, in these works of
+nature, read what much concerns their peace of mind,--their intellectual
+happiness? What then does our author mean, in condemning that
+comprehensive view which I have endeavoured to take of nature? Would he
+deny that there is to be perceived wisdom in the system of this world,
+or that a philosopher, who looks into the operations of nature, may not
+plainly read the power and wisdom of the Creator, without recoiling, as
+he says, from the abyss? The abyss, from which a man of science should
+recoil, is that of ignorance and error.
+
+I have thus shown, that, from not perceiving the wise disposition of
+things upon the surface of this earth for the preservation of vegetable
+bodies, our author has been led to deny the necessary waste of the
+present earth, and the consequent preparation of materials for the
+construction of another; I have also shown, that he denies the origin
+which I had attributed to the stratified parts of this earth, as having
+been the collection of moving materials from a former earth; and now
+I am come to consider the professed purpose of this paper, viz. the
+examination of solid stony substances which we find in those strata
+of our earth, as well as in more irregular masses. Here, no doubt, my
+theory would have been attacked with greater success, had our author
+succeeded in pointing out its error with regard to the original
+composition of those indurated bodies, to which I ascribe fusion as the
+cause of their solidity. For, if we should, according to our author's
+proposition, consider those consolidated bodies as having been
+originally formed in that solid state, here the door might be shut
+against any farther investigation;--But to what purpose?--Surely not to
+refute my theory, but to explode every physical inquiry farther on the
+subject, and thus to lead us back into the science of darkness and of
+scepticism. But let us proceed to see our author's sentiments on this
+subject.
+
+As I had proved from matter of fact, or the actual appearances of
+nature, that all the strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
+of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials which either come from
+the decaying land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
+that I should consider in what manner those spongy or porous bodies of
+loose materials, gathered together at the bottom of the sea, could have
+acquired that consolidated state in which we find them, now that they
+are brought up to our examination. Upon this occasion, our author says,
+"The particles which now form the solid parts of the globe need not be
+supposed to have originally been either spongy or porous, the interior
+parts at the depth of a few miles might have been originally, as at
+present, a solid mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition, we
+may then save ourselves the trouble of considering either how the strata
+of the earth have been formed or consolidated; for, they might have been
+so originally. But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen a piece of
+Derbyshire marble, or any other shell limestone, make that supposition?
+Here are, to the satisfaction of every body of common understanding who
+looks at them, bodies which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
+have evidently been formed at the bottom of the sea, and therefore which
+were not originally a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true, wrote a book
+to prove that those appearances were nothing but a _lusus naturae_; and,
+I suppose he meant, with our author, that those strata had been also
+originally, as at present, a solid mass.
+
+With regard to the consolidation of strata, that cardinal point for
+discussion, our author gives the following answer: "Abstracting from his
+own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very easy to satisfy our author on this
+head; the concreting and consolidating power in most cases arises from
+the mutual attraction of the component particles of stones to each
+other." This is an answer with regard to the _concreting power_, a
+subject about which we certainly are not here inquiring. Our author,
+indeed, has mentioned a _consolidating power_; but that is an improper
+expression; we are here inquiring, How the interstices, between the
+collected materials of strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, have
+been filled with a hard substance, instead of the fluid water which had
+originally occupied those spaces. Our author then continues; "If these
+particles leave any interstices, these are filled with water, which no
+ways obstructs their solidity when the points of contact are numerous;
+hence the decrepitation of many species of stones when heated."
+
+If I understand our author's argument, the particles of stone are, by
+their mutual attractions, to leave those hard and solid bodies which
+compose the strata, that is to say, those hard bodies are to dissolve
+themselves; but, To what purpose? This must be to fill up the
+interstices, which we must suppose occupied by the water. In that case,
+we should find the original interstices filled with the substances which
+had composed the strata, and we should find the water translated into
+the places of those bodies; here would be properly a transmutation, but
+no consolidation of the strata, such as we are here to look for, and
+such as we actually find among those strata. It may be very easy for
+our author to form those explanations of natural phenomena; it costs
+no tedious observation of facts, which are to be gathered with labour,
+patience, and attention; he has but to look into his own fancy, as
+philosophers did in former times, when they saw the abhorrence of a
+vacuum and explained the pump. It is thus that we are here told the
+consolidation of strata _arises from the mutual attraction of the
+component particles of stones to each other_; the power, by which the
+particles of solid stony bodies retain their places in relation to each
+other, and resist separation from the mass, may, no doubt, be properly
+enough termed their mutual attractions; but we are not here inquiring
+after that power; we are to investigate the power by which the particles
+of hard and stony bodies had been separated, contrary to their mutual
+attractions, in order to form new concretions, by being again brought
+within the spheres of action in which their mutual attractions might
+take place, and make them one solid body. Now, to say that this is by
+their mutual attraction, is either to misunderstand the proper question,
+or to give a most preposterous answer.
+
+It is not every one who is fit to reason with regard to abstract general
+propositions; I will now, therefore, state a particular case, in
+illustration of that proposition which has been here so improperly
+answered. The strata of Derbyshire marbles were originally immense
+collections at the bottom of the sea, of calcareous bodies consisting
+almost wholly of various fragments of the _entrochi_; and they were then
+covered with an indefinite number of other strata under which these
+_entrochi_ must have been buried. In this original state of those
+strata, I suppose the interstices between the fragments of the coralline
+bodies to have been left full of sea-water; at present we find those
+interstices completely filled with a most perfectly solid body of
+marble; and the question is, whether that consolidating operation
+has been the work of water and solution, by our naturalist's termed
+infiltration; or if it has been performed, as I have maintained, by the
+softening power or heat, or introduction of matter in the fluid state
+of fusion. Our author does not propose any other method for the
+consolidation of those loose and incoherent bodies, but he speaks of the
+_mutual attraction of the component particles of stone to each other_;
+Will that fill the interstices between the coralline bodies with solid
+marble, as well as consolidate the coralline bodies themselves? or, if
+it should, How are those interstices to be thus filled with a substance
+perfectly different from the deposited bodies, which is also frequently
+the case? But, how reason with a person who, with this consolidation of
+strata, confounds the well known operation by which the mortar, made
+with caustic lime and sand, becomes a hard body! One would imagine
+that he were writing to people of the last age, and not to chemical
+philosophers who know so well how that mortar is concreted.
+
+To my argument, That these porous strata are found _consolidated with
+every different species of mineral substance_, our author makes the
+following observation: "Here the difficulties to the supposition of an
+aqueous solution are placed in the strongest light; yet it must be owned
+that they partly arise from the author's own gratuitous supposition,
+that strata existed at the bottom of the sea previous to their
+consolidation;"--gratuitous supposition!--so far from being a
+supposition of any kind, it is a self evident proposition; the terms
+necessarily imply the conclusion. I beg the readers attention for a
+moment to this part of our author's animadversion, before proceeding to
+consider the whole; for, this is a point so essential in my theory,
+that if it be a gratuitous supposition, as is here asserted, it would
+certainly be in vain to attempt to build upon it the system of a world.
+
+That strata may exist, whether at the bottom of the sea, or any other
+where, without being consolidated, will hardly be disputed; for, they
+are actually found consolidated in every different degree. But, when
+strata are found consolidated, at what time is it that we are to suppose
+this event to have taken place, or this accident to have happened to
+them?--Strata are formed at the bottom of water, by the subsidence or
+successive deposits of certain materials; it could not therefore
+be during their formation that such strata had been consolidated;
+consequently, we must necessarily _conclude_, without any degree of
+_supposition_, that _strata had existed at the bottom of the sea
+previous to their consolidation_, unless our author can show how they
+may have been consolidated previous to their existing.
+
+This then is what our author has termed a gratuitous supposition of
+mine, and which, he adds, "is a circumstance which will not be allowed
+by the patrons of the aqueous origin of stony substances, as we have
+already seen."--I am perfectly at a loss to guess at what is here
+alluded to _by having been already seen_, unless it be that which I have
+already quoted, concerning things which have been never seen, that
+is, _those interior parts of the earth which were originally a solid
+mass_.--I have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;--a reasoning
+which is not founded upon any principle, which holds up nothing
+but chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing that is
+intelligible;--but, others, perhaps, may see this dissertation of our
+author's in a different light; therefore, it is my duty to analyse the
+argument, however insignificant it may seem to me.
+
+I have minutely examined all the stratified bodies which I have been
+able, during a lifetime, to procure, both in this country of Britain,
+and from all the quarters of the globe; and the result of my inquiry has
+been to conclude, that there is nothing among them in an original state,
+as the reader will see in the preceding chapter. With regard again to
+the masses which are not stratified, I have also given proof that they
+are not in their original state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine,
+and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction, I hope, upon that
+head, in the course of this work. I have therefore concluded, That there
+is nothing to be found in an original state, so far as we see, in the
+construction of this earth. But, our author answers, That the interior
+parts _might have been in an original state of solidity_.--So might
+they have been upon the surface of the earth, or on the summits of our
+mountains; but, we are not inquiring What they _might have been_, but
+What they truly _are_. It is from this actual state in which the solid
+parts of the earth are found, that I have endeavoured to trace back the
+different states in which they must have been; and, by generalising
+facts, I have formed a theory of the earth. If this be a wrong principle
+or manner of proceeding in a physical investigation, or if, proceeding
+upon that principle, I have made the induction by reasoning improperly
+on any occasion, let this be corrected by philosophers, who may reason
+more accurately upon the subject. But to oppose a physical investigation
+with this proposition, _that things might have been otherwise_, is to
+proceed upon a very different principle,--a principle which, instead of
+tending to bring light out of darkness, is only calculated to extinguish
+that light which we may have acquired.
+
+I shall afterwards have occasion to examine how far the philosophers,
+who attribute to aqueous solution the origin of stony substances, have
+proceeded in the same inductive manner of reasoning from effect to
+cause, as they ought to do in physical subjects, and not by feigning
+causes, or following a false analogy; in the mean time, I am to answer
+the objections which have been made to the theory of the earth.
+
+In opposition to the theory of consolidating bodies by fusion, our
+author has taken great pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
+for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find the means to make it
+burn had I those materials. Had our author read attentively my theory he
+would have observed, that I give myself little or no trouble about that
+fire, or take no charge with regard to the procuring of that power, as I
+have not founded my theory on the _supposition_ of subterraneous
+fire, however that fire properly follows as a conclusion from those
+appearances on which the theory is founded. My theory is founded upon
+the general appearances of mineral bodies, and upon this, that mineral
+bodies must necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I do not pretend
+to prove, demonstratively, that they had been even hot, however that
+conclusion also naturally follows from their having been in fusion. It
+is sufficient for me to demonstrate, That those bodies must have been,
+more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity, without any species
+of solution. I do not say that this fluidity had been without heat;
+but, if that had been the case, it would have answered equally well the
+purpose of my theory, so far as this went to explain the consolidation
+of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still repeat, must have been
+by simple fluidity, and not by any species of solution, or any other
+solvent than that universal one which permeates all bodies, and which
+makes them fluid.
+
+Our author has justly remarked the difficulty of fire burning below the
+earth and sea. It is not my purpose here to endeavour to remove those
+difficulties, which perhaps only exist in those suppositions which are
+made on this occasion; my purpose is to show, that he had no immediate
+concern with that question, in discussing the subject of the
+consolidation which we actually find in the strata of the earth, unless
+my theory, with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, had
+proceeded upon the supposition of a subterraneous fire. It is surely one
+thing to employ fire and heat to melt mineral bodies, in supposing this
+to be the cause of their consolidation, and another thing to acknowledge
+fire or heat as having been exerted upon mineral bodies, when it is
+clearly proved, from actual appearances, that those bodies had been in
+a melted state, or that of simple fluidity. Here are distinctions which
+would be thrown away upon the vulgar; but, to a man of science, who
+analyses arguments, and reasons strictly from effect to cause, this is,
+I believe, the proper way of coming at the truth. If the patrons of
+the aqueous origin of stony substances can give us any manner of
+scientifical, _i.e._ intelligible investigation of that process, it
+shall be attended to with the most rigid impartiality, even by a patron
+of the igneous origin of those substances, as he wishes above all things
+to distinguish, in the mineral operations, those which, on the one hand,
+had been the effect of water, from those which, on the other hand, had
+been the immediate effect of fire or fusion;--this has been my greatest
+study. But, while mineralists or geologists give us only mere opinions,
+What is science profited by such inconsequential observations, as are
+founded upon nothing but our vulgar notions? Is the figure of the
+earth, _e.g._ to be doubted, because, according to the common notion of
+mankind, the existence of an antipod is certainly to be denied?
+
+I am not avoiding to meet that question with regard to the providing
+of materials for such a mineral fire as may be required; no question I
+desire more to be asked to resolve; but it must not be in the manner
+that our author has put that question. He has included this supposed
+difficulty among a string of other arguments by which he would refute my
+theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, as if I
+had made that fire a necessary condition or a principle in forming my
+theory of consolidation. Now, it is precisely the reverse; and this is
+what I beg that mineral philosophers will particularly attend to, and
+not give themselves so much unnecessary trouble, and me so disagreeable
+a talk. I have proved that those stony substances have been in the fluid
+state of fusion; and from this, I have inferred the former existence of
+an internal heat, a subterraneous fire, or a certain cause of fusion by
+whatever name it shall be called, and by whatever means it shall have
+been procured. The nature of that operation by which strata had been
+consolidated, like that by which they had been composed, must, according
+to my philosophy, be decided by ocular demonstration; from examining the
+internal evidence which is to be found in those bodies as we see them in
+the earth; because the consolidating operation is not performed in our
+sight, no more than their stratification which our author has also
+denied to have been made, as I have said, by the deposits of materials
+at the bottom of the sea. Now, with regard to the means of procuring
+subterraneous fire, if the consolidating operation shall be thus decided
+to have been that of fusion, as I think I have fully shown, and for
+which I have as many witnesses, perhaps as there are mineral bodies,
+then our author's question, (how I am to procure a fire) in the way that
+he has put it, as an argument against the fusion, would be at least
+useless; for, though I should here confess my ignorance with regard to
+the means of procuring fire, the evidence of the melting operation, or
+former fluidity of those mineral bodies, would not be thereby in the
+least diminished. If again no such evidence for the fusion of those
+bodies shall appear, and it be concluded that they had been consolidated
+by the action of water alone, as our author seems inclined to maintain,
+he would have no occasion to start difficulties about the procuring of
+fire, in order to refute a theory which then would fall of itself as
+having no foundation.
+
+But in order to see this author's notion of the theory which he is here
+examining, it may be proper to give a specimen of his reasoning upon
+this subject of heat. He says, "That my supposition of heat necessary
+for consolidating strata is _gratuitous_, not only because it is
+unnecessary, as we have already shown, but also because it is
+inconsistent with our author's own theory." Let us now consider those
+two propositions. _First_, it is unnecessary, _as we have already
+shown_;--I have already taken particular notice of what we have been
+shown on this occasion, viz. That the earth at a certain depth _may
+have been originally in a solid state_; and, that, where it is to be
+consolidated, this is done by the _mutual attraction of the stony
+particles_. Here is all that we have been shown to make subterraneous
+heat, for the consolidation of strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly
+submit, if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral heat is a
+gratuitous supposition.
+
+Secondly, "_it is inconsistent with our author's own theory._" Here
+I would beg the readers attention to the reasoning employed on
+this occasion. He says, "according to him these strata, which were
+consolidated by heat, were composed of materials gradually worn from a
+preceding continent, casually and successively deposited in the sea;
+Where then will he find, and how will he suppose, to have been formed
+those enormous masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen, necessary to produce
+that immense heat necessary for the fusion of those vast mountains of
+stone now existing? All the coal, sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
+not form the 100,000 part of the materials deposited within one quarter
+of a mile under the surface of the earth; if, therefore, they were, as
+his hypothesis demands, carried off and mixed with the other materials,
+and not formed in vast and separate collections, they could never
+occasion, by their combustion, a heat capable of producing the smallest
+effect, much less those gigantic effects which he requires."
+
+Here is a comparative estimate formed between two things which have not
+any necessary relation; these are, the quantity of combustible materials
+found in the earth, on the one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
+necessary for hardening and consolidating strata, on the other. If this
+earth has been consolidated by the burning of combustible materials,
+there must have been a superfluity, so far as there is a certain
+quantity of these actually found unconsumed in the strata of the earth.
+Our author's conclusion is the very opposite; let us then see how he
+is to form his argument, by which he proves that the supposition of
+subterraneous heat for hardening bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary,
+as being inconsistent with my theory.
+
+According to my theory, the strata of this earth are composed of the
+materials which came from a former earth; particularly these combustible
+strata that contain plants which must have grown upon the land. Let
+us then suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with its combustible
+materials from this source, the vegetable bodies growing upon the
+surface of the land. Here is a source provided for the supplying of
+mineral fire, a source which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless
+we are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and the necessary
+ingredients; such as the matter of light, carbonic matter, and the
+hydrogenous principle. But it is not upon any deficiency of this kind
+that our author founds his estimate; it is upon the superfluity of
+combustible materials which is actually found in this earth, after it
+had been properly consolidated and raised above the surface of the sea.
+This is a method of reasoning calculated to convince only those who do
+not understand it; it is as if we should conclude that a person had died
+of want, because he had left provision behind him. Our author certainly
+means to employ nothing but the combustible minerals of the present
+earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire which is to concoct a future
+earth; in that case, I will allow that his provision is deficient; but
+this is not my theory.
+
+I am not here to enter into any argument concerning subterraneous
+fire; the reader will find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
+concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed previous to, and ever
+since, the formation of this earth,--that it exists in all its vigour
+at this day,--that there is, in the constitution of this earth, a
+superfluity of subterranean heat,--and that there is wisely provided a
+proper remedy against any destructive effect to the system, that might
+arise from that superabundant provision of this necessary agent. Had our
+author attended to the ocular proof that we have of the actual existence
+of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations which I have
+given of the effects of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must have
+seen that those arguments of his, with regard to the difficulty or
+impossibility of procuring that fire, can only show the error of his
+reasoning. I am far from supposing that my theory may be free from
+inconsistency or error; I am only maintaining that, in all his confident
+assertions, this author has not hitherto pointed any of these out.
+
+So far I have answered our author's objections as to consolidation, and
+I have given a specimen of his reasoning upon that subject; but with
+regard to my Theory of the Earth, although simple fluidity, without
+heat, would have answered the purpose of consolidating strata that had
+been formed at the bottom of the sea, it was necessary to provide a
+power for raising those consolidated strata from that low place to the
+summits of the continents; now, in supposing heat to be the cause of
+that fluidity which had been employed in the consolidation of those
+submarine masses, we find a power capable of erecting continents, and
+the only power, so far as I see, which natural philosophy can employ
+for that purpose. Thus I was led, from the consolidation of strata, to
+understand the nature of the elevating power, and, from the nature of
+that power, again to understand the cause of fluidity by which the rocks
+and stones of this earth had been consolidated.
+
+Having thus, without employing the evidence of any fire or _burning_,
+been necessarily led to conclude an extreme degree of heat exerted in
+the mineral regions, I next inquire how far there are any appearances
+from whence we might conclude whether that active subterraneous power
+still subsists, and what may be the nature of that power. When first I
+conceived my theory, naturalists were far from suspecting that basaltic
+rocks were of volcanic origin; I could not then have employed an
+argument from these rocks as I may do now, for proving that the fires,
+which we see almost daily issuing with such force from volcanos, are a
+continuation of that active cause which has so evidently been exerted
+in all times, and in all places, so far as have been examined of this
+earth.
+
+With regard to the degree of heat in that subterraneous fire, our
+author, after proving that combustible materials would not burn in the
+mineral regions, then says, that suppose they were to burn, this would
+be "incapable of forming a heat even equal to that of our common
+furnaces, as Mr Dolomieu has clearly shown to be the case with respect
+to volcanic heat." The place to which he alludes, I believe to be that
+which I have quoted from the Journal de Physique (Part I. page 139) to
+which I here beg leave to refer the reader. After what I have already
+said, this subject will appear to be of little concern to me; but, it
+must be considered, that my object, in these answers, is not so much to
+justify the theory which I have given, as it is to remove that prejudice
+which, to those who are not master of chemical and mineral subjects,
+will naturally arise from the opinion or authority of a scientific man,
+and a chemist; therefore, I think it my business to show how much he
+has misconceived the matter which he treats of, and how much he
+misunderstands the subject of my theory.
+
+Mr Dolomieu alleges that the volcanic fire operates in the melting of
+bodies, not by the intensity of its heat, which is the means employed by
+us in our operations, but in the long continuance of its action. But in
+that proposition, this philosopher is merely giving us his opinion; and,
+this opinion our author mistakes, I suppose, for the fact on which that
+opinion had been (perhaps reasonably) founded. The reader will see, in
+the place quoted, or in the _avant-propos_ to his _Mémoire sur les Iles
+Ponces_, the fact to be this; That the Chevalier Dolomieu finds those
+bodies which we either cannot melt in our fires, or which we cannot melt
+without changing them by calcination and vitrification, he finds, I say,
+these substances had actually been melted with his lavas; he also finds
+those substances, which are necessarily dissipated in our fires, to have
+been retained in those melted mineral substances. Had our author quoted
+the text, instead of giving us his own interpretation, he could not have
+offered a stronger confirmation of my theory; which certainly is not
+concerned with the particular intensity of volcanic fire, and far less
+with what may be the opinion of any naturalist with regard to that
+intensity, but only with the efficacy of that volcanic heat for the
+melting of mineral substances. Now this efficacy of volcanic fire, so
+far as we are to found upon the authority given on this occasion, is
+clearly confirmed by the observations of a most intelligent mineralist,
+and one who is actually a patron of the opposite theory to that which I
+have given. This being the state of the case, Must I not conclude, that
+our author has misunderstood the subject, and that he has been led to
+give a mutilated opinion of Mr Dolomieu, in order to refute my theory,
+when either the entire opinion, or the facts on which the opinion had
+been founded, would have confirmed it?
+
+I have thus endeavoured to put in its true light a species of reasoning,
+which, while it assumes the air and form of that inductive train of
+thought employed by men of science for the investigation of nature, is
+only fit to mislead the unwary, and, when closely examined, will appear
+to be inconsequential or unfounded. How mortifying then to find, that
+one may be employed almost a lifetime in generalising the phenomena of
+nature, or in gathering an infinity of evidence for the forming of a
+theory, and that the consequence of this shall only be to give offence,
+and to receive reproach from those who see not things in the same
+light!--While man has to learn, mankind must have different opinions.
+It is the prerogative of man to form opinions; these indeed are often,
+commonly I may say, erroneous; but they are commonly corrected, and it
+is thus that truth in general is made to appear.
+
+I wrote a general Theory for the inspection of philosophers, who
+doubtless will point out its errors; but this requires the study of
+nature, which is not the work of a day; and, in this political age, the
+study of nature seems to be but little pursued by our philosophers. In
+the mean time, there are, on the one hand, sceptical philosophers, who
+think there is nothing certain in nature, because there is misconception
+in the mind of man; on the other hand, there are many credulous
+amateurs, who go to nature to be entertained as we go to see a
+pantomime: But there are also superficial reasoning men, who think
+themselves qualified to write on subjects on which they may have read
+in books,--subjects which they may have seen in cabinets, and which,
+perhaps, they have just learned to name; without truly knowing what they
+see, they think they know those regions of the earth which never can be
+seen; and they judge of the great operations of the mineral kingdom,
+from having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom of a little
+crucible.
+
+In the Theory of the Earth which was published, I was anxious to warn
+the reader against the notion that subterraneous heat and fusion could
+be compared with that which we induce by our chemical operations
+on mineral substances here upon the surface of the earth; yet,
+notwithstanding all the precaution I had taken, our author has bestowed
+four quarto pages in proving to me, that our fires have an effect upon
+mineral substances different from that of the subterraneous power which
+I would employ.
+
+He then sets about combining metals with sulphur in the moist way, as if
+that were any more to his purpose than is the making of a stalactite for
+the explanation of marble. Silver and lead may be sulphurated, as he
+says, with hepatic gas; but, Has the sulphurated solid ores of those
+metals, and that of iron, been formed in the moist way, as in some
+measure they may be by the fusion of our fires? But, even suppose that
+this were the case, Could that explain a thousand other appearances
+which are inconsistent with the operation of water? We see aerated lead
+dissolved in the excavations of our mines, and again concreted by the
+separation of the evaporated solvent, in like manner as stalactical
+concretions are made of calcareous earth; but, so far from explaining
+mineral appearances, as having had their concretions formed in the same
+manner, here is the most convincing argument against it; for, among the
+infinite variety of mineral productions which we find in nature, Why
+does no other example of aqueous concretion ever occur upon the surface
+of the earth except those which we understand so well, and which we
+therefore know cannot be performed in the bodies of strata not exposed
+to the evaporation of the solvent, a circumstance which is necessary.
+
+I have given a very remarkable example of mineral fusion, in reguline
+manganese, (as the reader will see in page 68.) It is not that this
+example is more to the purpose of my theory than what may be found in
+every species of stone; but this example speaks so immediately to
+the common sense of mankind, (who are often convinced by a general
+resemblance of things, when they may not see the force of demonstration
+from an abstract principle) that I thought it deserved a place on that
+account, as well as being a curious example, But more particularly to my
+antagonist, who has been pleased (very improperly indeed) to try some
+part of my theory in the fire, here is an example which should have
+been absolutely in point, and without any manner of exception:--Has he
+acknowledged this?--No; he has, on the contrary, endeavoured to set this
+very example aside.
+
+On this occasion, he says, "Manganese has been found in a reguline state
+by M. de la Peyrouse, and in small grains, as when produced by fire.
+True; but it was mixed with a large quantity of iron, which is often,
+found in that form without any suspicion of fusion. A fire capable of
+melting quartz might surely produce it in larger masses." We have here
+a kind of two arguments, for removing the effect of this example; and I
+shall consider them separately.
+
+The first of these is, the not being suspected of having been in fusion;
+now, if this were to be admitted as an argument against the igneous
+origin of stony substances, it might have superseded the adducing of any
+other, for it is applicable perhaps to every mineral; but we must here
+examine the case more minutely.
+
+This argument, of the manganese being in a mine of iron, if I understand
+it rightly, amounts to this, that, as iron ore is not suspected of
+having been melted, therefore, we should doubt the manganese having been
+so. If this be our author's meaning, it is not the fair conclusion which
+the case admits of; for, so far as the manganese appears evidently to
+have been in a melted state, the iron ore should be _suspected_ of
+having been also in fusion, were there no other evidence of that fact.
+In science, however, it is not suspicion that should be employed in
+physical investigation; the question at present is; If the phenomena of
+the case correspond to the conclusion which the intelligent mineralist,
+who examined them, has formed? and, to this question, our author gives
+no direct answer. He says, _iron is often found in that form without any
+suspicion of fusion_. This is what I am now to answer.
+
+The form in which the manganese appears is one of the strongest proofs
+of those masses having been in fusion; and, if iron should ever be found
+in that form, it must give the same proof of mineral fusion as this
+example of manganese; let us then see the nature of this evidence. The
+form of the manganese is that of a fluid body collecting itself into a
+spherical figure by the cohesion or attraction of its particles, so far
+as may be admitted by other circumstances; but, being here refilled by
+the solid part on which it rests, this spherical body is flattened by
+the gravitation of its substance. Now here is a regular form, which
+demonstrates the masses to have been in the state of fusion; for, there
+is no other way in which that form of those reguline masses could have
+been induced.
+
+There now remains to be considered what our author has observed
+respecting the intensity of the fire and size of the masses. "A
+fire capable of melting quartz might surely produce it (meaning the
+manganese) in larger masses." M. de la Peyrouse says, that those masses
+were in all respects as if formed by art, only much larger, as the
+powers of nature exceed those of our laboratories. What then is it that
+is here meant to be disputed? We are comparing the operation of nature
+and that of art, and these are to be judged of by the product which we
+examine; but the quantity, in this case, or the size of the masses,
+makes no part of the evidence, and therefore is here most improperly
+mentioned by our author. With regard again to the nature of the fire by
+which the fusion had been produced, he is much mistaken if he imagines
+that the reduction of the reguline or metallic manganese depends upon
+the intensity of the heat; it depends upon circumstances proper for the
+separation of the oxygenating principle from the calx, in like manner as
+the calcination of calcareous spar must depend upon circumstances proper
+for allowing the separation of the carbonic acid or fixed air.
+
+But do not let us lose sight of our proper subject, by examining things
+foreign or not so immediately to the purpose. We are only inquiring if
+those flattened spheres of native manganese had been formed by water, or
+if it were by fusion; for, our author agrees that there is no other way.
+Why then does he endeavour to evade giving a direct answer, and fly away
+to consider the quantity of the product, as if that had any thing to do
+with, the question, or as if that quantity were not sufficient, neither
+of which is the case. In short, our author's whole observation, on this
+occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy, by insinuation, the
+force of an argument which proves the theory of mineral fusion; and that
+he wishes to render doubtful, by a species of sophistry, what in fair
+reasoning he cannot deny.
+
+Our author has written upon the subject of phlogiston; one would suppose
+that he should be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at least; let
+us see then what he has to observe upon that subject. He quotes from
+my Theory, that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon or near each
+other, and adhering to coal, or mixed with bitumen, etc. are found;
+circumstances that cannot be explained in the hypothesis of solution
+in the moist way.--He then answers;--"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
+which is not wonderful: But they are still less explicable in the
+hypothesis of dry solution, as must be apparent from what has been
+already said. How coal, an infusible substance, could be spread into
+strata by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."--It is only upon the
+last sentence that I am here to remark: This, I believe, will be a
+sufficient specimen of our author's understanding, with regard at least
+to my Theory which he is here examining.
+
+The reader will see what I have said upon the subject of coal, by
+turning back to the second section of the preceding chapter. I had given
+almost three quarto pages upon that subject, endeavouring to explain how
+all the different degrees of _infusibility_ were produced, by means of
+heat and distillation, in strata which had been originally more or less
+oily, bituminous, and _fusible_; and now our author says, that it is
+incomprehensible to him, how coal, _an infusible substance_, could be
+spread into strata by mere heat.--So it truly may, either to him or to
+any other person; but, it appears to me almost as incomprehensible, how
+a person of common understanding should read my Dissertation, and impute
+to it a thing so contrary to its doctrine.
+
+Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived view that our author
+seems to have taken of the two opposite theories, (_i. e_. of
+consolidation by means of heat, and by means of water alone,) than
+his observation upon the case of mineral alkali. To that irrefragable
+argument (which Dr Black suggested) in proof of this substance having
+been in a state of fusion in the mineral regions, our author makes the
+following reply; "What then will our author say of the vast masses
+of this salt which are found with their full quantity of water of
+crystallization?"--There is in this proposition, insignificant as it may
+seem, a confusion of ideas, which it certainly cannot be thought worth
+while to investigate; but, so far as the doctrine of the aqueous theory
+may be considered as here concerned, it will be proper that I should
+give some answer to the question so triumphantly put to me.
+
+Our author is in a mistake in supposing that Dr Black had written any
+thing upon the subject; he had only suggested the argument of this
+example of mineral alkali to me, as I have mentioned; and, the use I
+made of that argument was to corroborate the example I had given of sal
+gem. If, therefore, our author does not deny the inference from the
+state of that mineral alkali, his observation upon it must refer to
+something which this other example of his is to prove on the opposite
+side, or to support the aqueous instead of the igneous theory; and, this
+is a subject which I am always willing to examine in the most impartial
+manner, having a desire to know the true effect of aqueous solution in
+the consolidation of mineral bodies, and having no objection to allow it
+any thing which it can possibly produce, although denying that it can do
+every thing, as many mineralists seem to think.
+
+The question, with regard to this example of our author's of a mineral
+alkali with its water of crystallization, must be this, Whether those
+saline bodies had been concreted by the evaporation of the aqueous
+solvent with which they had been introduced, or by the congelation of
+that saline substance from a fluid state of fusion; for, surely, we are
+not to suppose those bodies to have been created in the place and state
+in which we find them. With regard to the evaporation or separation
+of the aqueous solvent, this may be easily conceived according to the
+igneous theory; but, the aqueous theory has not any means for the
+producing of that effect in the mineral regions, which is the only place
+we are here concerned with. Therefore, this example of a concreted body
+of salt, whatever it may prove in other respects, can neither diminish
+the evidence of my Theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony
+substances, nor can it contribute to support the opposite supposition of
+an aqueous origin to them.
+
+But to show how little reason our author had for exulting in that
+question which he so confidently proposed in order to defeat my
+argument, let us consider this matter a little farther. I will for a
+moment allow the aqueous theory to have the means for separating
+the water from the saline solution, and thus to concrete the saline
+substance in the bowels of the earth; this concretion then is to be
+examined with a view to investigate the last state of this body, which
+is to inform us with regard to those mineral operations. But, our author
+has not mentioned whether those masses appear to have been crystallised
+from the aqueous solution, or if they appear to have been congealed from
+the melted state of their _aqueous fusion_.--Has he ever thought of
+this? Now this is so material a point in the view with which that
+example has been held out to us, that, without showing that this salt
+had crystallised from the solution, he has no right to employ it as an
+example; and if, on the other hand, it should appear to have simply
+congealed from the state of aqueous fusion, then, instead of answering
+the purpose for which our author gave it, it would refute his
+supposition, as certainly as the example which I have given.
+
+So far I have reasoned upon the supposition of this alkali, with its
+water of crystallization, being truly a mineral concretion; but, I see
+no authority for such a supposition: It certainly may be otherwise;
+and, in that case, our author would have no more right to give it as an
+example in opposition to Dr Black's argument, than he would have to give
+the crystallization of sea-salt, on Turk's Island, in opposition to the
+example which I had given, of the salt rock, at Northwych in Cheshire,
+having been in the state of fusion.
+
+It certainly was incumbent on our author to have informed us, if those
+masses of salt were found in, what may be properly termed, their mineral
+state; or, if the state in which they are found at present had been
+produced by the influences of the atmosphere, transforming that saline
+substance from its mineral state, as happens upon so many other
+occasions; I am inclined to suspect that this last is truly the case.
+It may be thought illiberal in me to suppose a natural philosopher thus
+holding out an example that could only serve to lead us into error, or
+to mislead our judgment with regard to those two theories which is the
+subject of consideration. This certainly would be the case, almost
+on any other occasion; but, when I find every argument and example,
+employed in this dissertation, to be either unfounded or misjudged,
+Whether am I to conclude our author, on this occasion, to be consistent
+with himself, or not?
+
+I have but one article more to observe upon. I had given, as I thought,
+a kind of demonstration, from the internal evidence of the stone, that
+granite had been in the fluid state of fusion, and had concreted by
+crystallization and congelation from that melted state. This no doubt
+must be a stumbling block to those who maintain that granite mountains
+are the primitive parts of our earth; and who, like our author, suppose
+that "things may have been originally, as at present, in a solid state."
+It must also be a great, if not an invincible obstacle in the way of the
+aqueous theory, which thus endeavours to explain those granite veins
+that are found traversing strata, and therefore necessarily of a
+posterior formation.
+
+To remove that obstacle in the way of the aqueous theory, or to carry
+that theory over the obstacle which he cannot remove, our author
+undertakes to refute my theory with regard to the igneous origin of
+stony substances, by giving an example of granite formed upon the
+surface of the earth by means of water, or in what is called the
+moist way; and he closes his Dissertation with this example as an
+_experimentum crucis_. It is therefore necessary that I take this
+demonstration of our author into particular consideration; for, surely,
+independent of our controversy, which is perhaps of little moment, here
+is the most interesting experiment, as it is announced, that mineralogy
+could be enriched with.
+
+"To close this controversy," says our author, "I shall only add,
+that granite, recently formed in the moist way, has been frequently
+found."--Of that remarkable event, however, he has selected only one
+example. This is to be found upon the Oder; and the authority upon which
+our author has given it, is that of Lasius Hartz.
+
+The formation of a granite stone, from granite sand, by means of water,
+is inconsistent with our chemical knowledge of those mineral substances
+which constitute that stone; it is repugnant to the phenomena which
+appear from the inspection of the natural bodies of this kind; and it
+is directly contrary to the universal experience in granite countries,
+where, instead of any thing concreting, every thing is going into
+decay, from the loose stones and sand of granite, to the solid rock and
+mountains which are always in a state of degradation. Therefore, to have
+any credit given to such a story, would require the most scientific
+evidence in its favour. Now, in order that others may judge whether this
+has been the case in this example, I will transcribe what our author has
+said upon the subject; and then I will give the view in which it appears
+to me.
+
+He says, "a mole having been constructed in the Oder in the year 1723,
+350 feet long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at bottom, and 54 at
+the top, its sides only were granite, without any other cement than
+moss; the middle space was entirely filled with granite sand. In a short
+time this concreted into a substance so compact as to be impenetrable by
+water."--Here is an example, according to our author, of _granite formed
+in the moist way_. But now, I must ask to see the evidence of that fact;
+for, from what our author has told us, I do not even see reason to
+conclude that there was the least concretion, or any stone formed at
+all. A body of sand will be _so compacted as to be impenetrable by
+water_, with the introduction of a very little mud, and without any
+degree of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot be made to pass
+through such a body without compacting it so; and this every body finds,
+to their cost, who have attempted to make a filter of that kind.
+
+But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our author that there had been
+a petrifaction in this case; and, before I admit this example of the
+formation of granite, I must ask what sort of a granite it was;--whether
+of two, three, or four ingredients; and, how these were disposed. If,
+again, it were not properly a granite, but a stone formed of granite
+sand, What is the cementing substance?--Is it quartz, felt-spar, mica,
+or schorl?--or, Was it calcareous? If our author knows any thing about
+these necessary questions, Why has he not informed us, as minutely as
+he has done with regard to the dimensions of the mole, with which we
+certainly are less concerned? If, again, he knows no more about the
+matter than what he has informed us of, he must have strangely imposed
+upon himself, to suppose that he was giving us an example of the
+_formation of granite in the moist way_, when he has only described an
+effectual way of retaining water, by means of sand and mud.
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+In the first chapter I have given a general theory of the earth,
+with such proofs as I thought were sufficient for the information of
+intelligent men, who might satisfy themselves by examining the facts on
+which the reasoning in that theory had been founded.
+
+In the second chapter, I have endeavoured to remove the objections which
+have been made to that theory, by a strenuous patron of the commonly
+received opinion of mineralogists and geologists,--an opinion which, if
+not diametrically opposite, differs essentially from mine. But now I am
+to examine nature more particularly, in order to compare those different
+opinions with the actual state of things, on which every physical theory
+must be founded. Therefore, the opinions of other geologists should be
+clearly stated, that so a fair comparison may be made of theories which
+are to represent the system of this earth.
+
+Now, if I am to compare that which I have given as a theory of the
+earth, with the theories given by others under that denomination, I
+find so little similarity, in the things to be compared, that no other
+judgment could hence be formed, perhaps, than that they had little or no
+resemblance. I see certain treatises named Theories of the Earth; but, I
+find not any thing that entitles them to be considered as such, unless
+it be their endeavouring to explain certain appearances which are
+observed in the earth. That a proper theory of the earth should explain
+all those appearances is true; but, it does not hold, conversely, that
+the explanation of an appearance should constitute a theory of the
+earth. So far as the theory of the earth shall be considered as the
+philosophy or physical knowledge of this world, that is to say, a
+general view of the means by which the end or purpose is attained,
+nothing can be properly esteemed such a theory unless it lead, in some
+degree, to the forming of that general view of things. But now, let us
+see what we have to examine in that respect.
+
+We have, first, Burnet's Theory of the Earth. This surely cannot be
+considered in any other light than as a dream, formed upon the poetic
+fiction of a golden age, and that of iron which had succeeded it; at the
+same time, there are certain appearances in the earth which would, in a
+partial view of things, seem to justify that imagination. In Telliamed,
+again, we have a very ingenious theory, with regard to the production of
+the earth above the surface of the sea, and of the origin of those
+land animals which now inhabit that earth. This is a theory which has
+something in it like a regular system, such as we might expect to find
+in nature; but, it is only a physical romance, and cannot be considered
+in a serious view, although apparently better founded than most of that
+which has been wrote upon the subject.
+
+We have then a theory of a very different kind; this is that of the
+Count de Buffon. Here is a theory, not founded on any regular system,
+but upon an irregularity of nature, or an accident supposed to have
+happened to the sun. But, are we to consider as a theory of the earth,
+an accident by which a planetary body had been made to increase the
+number of these in the solar system? The circumvolution of a planetary
+body (allowing it to have happened in that manner) cannot form the
+system of a world, such as our earth exhibits; and, in forming a theory
+of the earth, it is required to see the aptitude of every part of this
+complicated machine to fulfil the purpose of its intention, and not to
+suppose the wise system of this world to have arisen from, the cooling
+of a lump of melted matter which had belonged to another body. When
+we consider the power and wisdom that must have been exerted in the
+contriving, creating, and maintaining this living world which sustains
+such a variety of plants and animals, the revolution of a mass of dead
+matter according to the laws of projectiles, although in perfect wisdom,
+is but like a unite among an infinite series of ascending numbers.
+
+After the theory of that eloquent writer, founded on a mere accident, or
+rather the error of a comet which produced the beautiful system of this
+world, M. de Luc, in his Theory of the earth, has given us the history
+of a disaster which befell this well contrived world;--a disaster which
+caused the general deluge, and which, without a miracle, must have
+undone a system of living beings that are so well adapted to the present
+state of things. But, surely, general deluges form no part of the theory
+of the earth; for, the purpose of this earth is evidently to maintain
+vegetable and animal life, and not to destroy them.
+
+Besides these imaginary great operations in the natural history of this
+earth, we have also certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists
+with regard to the effect of water, for explaining to us the
+consolidation of the loose materials of which the strata of the earth
+had been composed, and also for producing every other appearance, or any
+which shall happen to occur in the examination of the earth, and require
+to be explained. That this is no exaggerated representation, and
+that this is all we have as a theory, in the suppositions of those
+geologists, will appear from the following state of the case.
+
+They suppose water the agent employed in forming the solid bodies of the
+earth, and in producing those crystallised bodies which appear in
+the mineral kingdom. That this is a mere supposition will appear by
+considering; first, that they do not know how this agent water is to
+operate in producing those effects; nor have they any direct proof
+of the fact which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy; and,
+secondly, that they cannot tell us where this operation is to be
+performed. They cannot say that it is in the earth above the level of
+the sea: for, the same appearances are found as deep as we can examine
+below that level; besides, we see that water has the opposite effect
+upon the surface of the earth, through which it percolates dissolving
+soluble substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in preparing soil
+for plants. If, again, it be below the level of the sea, that strata of
+the earth are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration of that
+water which falls from the heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
+whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that place, must have been always
+full of water, consequently cannot admit of that supposed infiltration.
+
+But allowing those suppositions to be true, there is nothing in them
+like a theory of the earth,--a theory that should bring the operations
+of the world into the regularity of ends and means, and, by generalizing
+these regular events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
+forming a design; they are only an attempt to show how certain things,
+which we see, have happened without any perceivable design, or without
+any farther design than this particular effect which we perceive. If we
+believe that there is almighty power, and supreme wisdom employed for
+sustaining that beautiful system of plants and animals which is so
+interesting to us, we must certainly conclude, that the earth, on which
+this system of living things depends, has been constructed on principles
+that are adequate to the end proposed, and procure it a perfection which
+it is our business to explore. Therefore, a proper system of the earth
+should lead us to see that wise contraction, by which this earth is made
+to answer the purpose of its intention and to preserve itself from every
+accident by which the design of this living world might be frustrated as
+this world is an active scene, or a material machine moving in all its
+parts, we must see how this machine is so contrived, as either to have
+those parts to move without wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
+which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.
+
+A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a
+philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those
+hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency
+of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means
+wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as
+well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this
+manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of
+this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move
+perpetually in their orbits. It is not, therefore, simply by seeing the
+concretion of mineral bodies that a philosopher is to be gratified in
+his his intellectual pursuit, but by the contemplation of that system in
+which the necessary resolution of this earth, while at present it serves
+the purpose of vegetation, or the fertility of our soil, is the very
+means employed in furnishing the materials of future land.
+
+It is such a view as this that I have endeavoured to represent in the
+theory which I have given. I have there stated the present situation of
+things, by which we are led to perceive a former state; and, from that
+necessary progress of actual things, I have concluded a certain system
+according to which things will be changed, without any accident or
+error. It is by tracing this regular system in nature that a philosopher
+is to perceive the wisdom with which this world has been contrived; but,
+he must see that wisdom founded upon the aptitude of all the parts to
+fulfil the intention of the design; and that intention is to be deduced
+from the end which is known to be attained. Thus we are first to reason
+from effect to cause, in seeing the order of that which has already
+happened; and then, from those known causes, to reason forwards, so as
+to conceive that which is to come to pass in time. Such would be the
+philosophy of this earth, formed by the highest generalisation
+of phenomena, a generalisation which had required the particular
+investigation of inductive reasoning.
+
+That no such theory as this, founded upon water as an agent operating in
+the changes of this earth, has yet appeared, will, I believe be easily
+allowed. With regard again to fire as an agent in the mineral operations
+of this earth, geologists have formed no consistent theory. They see
+volcanoes in all the quarters of the globe, and from those burning
+mountains, they conjecture other mountains have been formed. But a
+burning mountain is only a matter of fact; and, they have not on this
+formed any general principle, for establishing what may be called a
+theory of the earth. Those who have considered subterraneous fires as
+producing certain effects, neither know how these have been procured,
+nor do they see the proper purpose for which they are employed in the
+system of this world. In this case, the agent fire is only seen as
+a destructive element, in like manner as deluges of water have been
+attributed by others to changes which have happened in the natural state
+of things. These operations are seen only as the accidents of nature,
+and not as part of that design by which the earth, which is necessarily
+wasted in the operations of the world, is to be repaired.
+
+So far from employing heat or subterraneous fire as an agent in the
+mineral operations of the earth, the volcanic philosophers do not
+even attempt to explain upon that principle the frequent nodules of
+calcareous, zeolite, and other spatose and agaty substances, in those
+basaltic bodies which they consider as lavas. Instead then of learning
+to see the operation of heat as a general principle of mineral
+consolidation and crystallization, the volcanic philosophers endeavour
+to explain those particular appearances, which they think inconsistent
+with fusion, by aqueous infiltration, no otherwise than other
+mineralists who do not admit the igneous origin of those basaltic
+bodies. Thus, that great agent, subterraneous heat, has never been
+employed by geologists, as a general principle in the theory of the
+earth; it has been only considered as an occasional circumstance, or as
+the accident of having certain mineral bodies, which are inflammable,
+kindled in the earth, without so much as seeing how that may be done.
+
+This agent heat, then, is a new principle to be employed in forming a
+theory of the earth; a principle that must have been in the constitution
+of this globe, when contrived to subsist as a world, and to maintain
+a system of living bodies perpetuating their species. It is therefore
+necessary to connect this great mineral principle, subterraneous fire
+or heat, with the other operations of the world, in forming a general
+theory. For, whether we are to consider those great and constant
+explosions of mineral fire as a principal agent in the design, or only
+as a casual event depending upon circumstances which give occasion to an
+operation of such magnitude, here is an object that must surely have its
+place in every general theory of the earth.
+
+In examining things which actually exist, and which have proceeded in a
+certain order, it is natural to look for that which had been first; man
+desires to know what had been the beginning of those things which now
+appear. But when, in forming a theory of the earth, a geologist shall
+indulge his fancy in framing, without evidence, that which had preceded
+the present order of things, he then either misleads himself, or writes
+a fable for the amusement of his reader. A theory of the earth, which
+has for object truth, can have no retrospect to that which had preceded
+the present order of this world; for, this order alone is what we have
+to reason upon; and to reason without data is nothing but delusion. A
+theory, therefore, which is limited to the actual constitution of this
+earth, cannot be allowed to proceed one step beyond the present order of
+things.
+
+But, having surveyed the order of this living world, and having
+investigated the progress of this active scene of life, death and
+circulation, we find ample data on which to found a train of the most
+conclusive reasoning with regard to a general design. It is thus that
+there is to be perceived another system of active things for the
+contemplation of our mind;--things which, though not immediately within
+our view, are not the less certain in being out of our sight; and things
+which must necessarily be comprehended in the theory of the earth, if we
+are to give stability to it as a world sustaining plants and animals.
+This is a mineral system, by which the decayed constitution of an earth,
+or fruitful surface of habitable land, may be continually renewed in
+proportion as it is wasted in the operations of this world.
+
+It is in this mineral system that I have occasion to compare the
+explanations, which I give of certain natural appearances, with the
+theories or explanations which have been given by others, and which are
+generally received as the proper theory of those mineral operations. I
+am, therefore, to examine those different opinions, respecting the
+means employed by nature for producing particular appearances in the
+construction of our land, appearances which must be explained in some
+consistent mineral theory.
+
+These appearances may all be comprehended under two heads, which are now
+to be mentioned, in order to see the importance of their explanation, or
+purpose which such an explanation is to serve in a theory of the earth.
+The first kind of these appearances is that of known bodies which we
+find composing part of the masses of our land, bodies whose natural
+history we know, as having existed in another state previous to the
+composition of this earth where they now are found; these are the
+relicts or parts of animal and vegetable bodies, and various stony
+substances broken and worn by attrition, all which had belonged to a
+former earth. By means of these known objects, we are to learn a great
+deal of the natural history of this earth; and, it is in tracing that
+history, from where we first perceive it, to the present state of
+things, that forms the subject of a geological and mineralogical theory
+of this earth. But, we are more especially enabled to trace those
+operations of the earth, by means of the second kind of appearances,
+which are now to be mentioned.
+
+These again are the evident changes which those known bodies have
+undergone, and which have been induced upon such collected masses of
+which those bodies constitute a part. These changes are of three sorts;
+_first_, the solid state, and various degrees of it, in which we now
+find those masses which had been originally formed by the collection of
+loose and incoherent materials; _secondly_, the subsequent changes which
+have evidently happened to those consolidated masses which have been
+broken and displaced, and which have had other mineral substances
+introduced into those broken and disordered parts; and, _lastly_, that
+great change of situation which has happened to this compound mass
+formed originally at the bottom of the sea, a mass which, after being
+consolidated in the mineral region, is now situated in the atmosphere
+above the surface of the sea.
+
+In this manner we are led to the system of the world, or theory of the
+earth in general; for, that great change of situation, which our land
+has undergone, cannot be considered as the work of accident, or any
+other than an essential part in the system of this world. It is
+therefore a proper view of the necessary connection and mutual
+dependence of all those different systems of changing things that forms
+the theory of this earth as a world, or as that active part of nature
+which the philosophy of this earth has to explore. The animal system is
+the first or last of these; next comes the vegetable system, on which
+the life of animals depends; then comes the system of this earth,
+composed of atmosphere, sea, and land, and comprehending the various
+chemical, mechanical, and meteorologically operations which take place
+upon that surface where vegetation must proceed; and, lastly, we have
+the mineral system to contemplate, a system in which the wasting surface
+of the earth is employed in laying the foundation of future land within
+the sea, and a system in which the mineral operations are employed in
+concocting that future land.
+
+Now, such must surely be the theory of this earth, if the land is
+continually wasting in the operations of this world; for, to acknowledge
+the perfection of those systems of plants and animals perpetuating their
+species, and to suppose the system of this earth on which they must
+depend, to be imperfect, and in time to perish, would be to reason
+inconsistently or absurdly. This is the view of nature that I would wish
+philosophers to take; but, there are certain prejudices of education or
+prepossession of opinion among them to be overcome, before they can be
+brought to see those fundamental propositions,--the wasting of the land,
+and the necessity of its renovation by the co-operation of the mineral
+system. Let us then consider how men of science, in examining the
+mineral state of things, and reasoning from those appearances by which
+we are to learn the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves
+with regard to physical causes, and formed certain mineralogical and
+geological theories, by which their judgment is so perverted, in
+examining nature, as to exclude them from the proper means of correcting
+their first erroneous notions, or render them blind to the clearest
+evidence of any other theory that is proposed.
+
+When men of science reason upon subjects where the ideas are distinct
+and definite, with terms appropriated to the ideas, they come to
+conclusions in which there is no difference of opinion. It is otherwise
+in physical subjects, where things are to be assimilated, in being
+properly compared; there, things are not always compared in similar and
+equal circumstances or conditions; and there, philosophers often draw
+conclusions beyond the analogy of the things compared, and thus judge
+without data. When, for example, they would form the physical induction,
+with regard to the effect of fire or water upon certain substances in
+the mineral regions, from the analogy of such events as may be observed
+upon the surface of the earth, they are apt to judge of things acting
+under different circumstances or conditions, consequently not producing
+similar effects; in which case, they are judging without reason, that
+is, instead of inductive reasoning from actual data or physical truth,
+they are forming data to themselves purely by supposition, consequently,
+so far as these, imagined data may be wrong, the physical conclusion, of
+these philosophers may be erroneous.
+
+It is thus that philosophers have judged, with regard to the effects of
+fire and water upon mineral substances below the bottom of the sea,
+from what their chemistry had taught them to believe concerning bodies
+exposed to those agents in the atmosphere or on the surface of the
+earth. If in those two cases the circumstances were the same, or
+similar, consequently the conditions of the action not changed, then,
+the inductive reasoning, which they employ in that comparison, would be
+just; but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have employed that
+inductive conclusion for the explanation of mineral appearances, without
+having reason to believe that those changed circumstances of the case
+should not make any difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
+have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning; consequently,
+instead of being a proper physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
+reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing things not properly analysed
+or distinguished, is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
+therefore, cannot be admitted as a part of any geological or mineral
+theory. Now I here maintain, that philosophers have judged in no other
+manner than by this false analogy, when they conclude that water is the
+agent by which mineral concretions have been formed. But it will be
+proper to state more particularly the case of that misunderstanding
+among mineral philosophers.
+
+In forming a geological theory, the general construction of this earth,
+and the materials of which it is composed, are such visible objects, and
+so evident to those who will take the pains to examine nature, that
+here is a subject in which there cannot be any doubt or difference of
+opinion. Neither can there be any dispute concerning the place and
+situation of mass when it was first formed or composed; for, this is
+clearly proved, from every concomitant circumstance, to have been at the
+bottom of the sea. The only question in this case, that can be made, is,
+How that mass comes now to be a solid body, and above the surface of the
+sea in which it had been formed?
+
+With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers have been so
+dissonant, so vague, and so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
+Some suppose the land to be discovered by the gradual retreat of the
+ocean, without proposing to explain to us from whence had come the known
+materials of a former earth, which compose the highest summits of the
+mountains in the highest continents of the earth. Others suppose the
+whole of a former earth to have subsided below the bottom even of the
+present sea, and together with it all the water of the former sea, from
+above the summits of the present mountains, which had then been at the
+bottom of the former sea. The placing of the bottom of the sea, or any
+part of it, in the atmosphere so as to be dry land, is no doubt a great
+operation to be performed, and a difficult task to be explained; but
+this is only an argument the more for philosophers to agree in adopting
+the most reasonable means.
+
+But though philosophers differ so widely in that point, this is not the
+case with regard to the concretion of mineral bodies; here mineralists
+seem to be almost all of one mind, at the same time without any reason,
+at least, without any other reason than that false analogy which they
+have inconsiderately formed from the operations of the surface of this
+earth. This great misunderstanding of mineralists has such an extensive
+and baneful effect in the judging of geological theories, that it
+will be proper here to explain how that has happened, and to shew the
+necessity of correcting that erroneous principle before any just opinion
+can be formed upon the subject.
+
+Fire and water are two great agents in the system of this earth; it is
+therefore most natural to look for the operation of those agents in the
+changes which are made on bodies in the mineral regions; and as the
+consolidated state of those bodies, which had been collected at the
+bottom of the sea, may have been supposed to be induced either by
+fusion, or by the concretion from a solution, we are to consider how far
+natural appearance lead to the conclusion of the one or other of those
+two different operations. Here, no doubt, we are to reason analogically
+from the known power and effects of those great agents; but, we must
+take care not to reason from a false analogy, by misunderstanding the
+circumstances of the case, or not attending to the necessary conditions
+in which those agents act.--We must not conclude that fire cannot burn
+in the mineral regions because our fires require the ventilation of the
+atmosphere; for, besides the actual exigence of mineral fire being a
+notorious matter of fact, we know that much more powerful means _may_
+be employed by nature, for that mineral purpose of exciting heat, than
+those which we practise.--We must not conclude that mineral marble is
+formed in the same manner as we see a similar stony substance produced
+upon the surface of the earth, unless we should have reason to suppose
+the analogy to be complete. But, this is the very error into which
+mineral philosophers have fallen; and this is the subject which I am now
+to endeavour to illustrate.
+
+The manner in which those philosophers have deceived themselves when
+reasoning upon the subject of mineral concretion, is this: They see,
+that by means of water a stony substance is produced; and, this stony
+body so much resembles mineral marble as to be hardly distinguishable in
+certain cases. These mineral philosophers then, reasoning in the manner
+of the vulgar, or without analysing the subject to its principle,
+naturally attribute the formation of the mineral marble to a cause
+of the same sort; and, the mineral marble being found so intimately
+connected with all other mineral bodies, we must necessarily conclude,
+in reasoning according to the soundest principles, that all those
+different substances had been concreted in the same manner. Thus, having
+once departed one step from the path of just investigation, our physical
+science is necessarily bewildered in the labyrinth of error. Let us
+then, in re-examining our data, point out where lies that first devious
+step which had been impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic acid gas,
+(as it is called), dissolves a certain portion of mild calcareous
+earth or marble; consequently such acidulated water, that is, water
+impregnated with this gas, will, by filtrating through calcareous
+substances, become saturated with that solution of marble; and, this
+solution is what is called a _petrifying water_. When this solution is
+exposed to the action of the atmosphere, the acid gas, by means of which
+the stony substance is dissolved, evaporates from the solution, in
+having a stronger attraction for the atmospheric air; it is then that
+the marble, or calcareous substance, concretes and crystallises,
+separating from the water in a sparry state, and forming a very solid
+stone by the successive accretion from the solution, as it comes to
+be exposed to the influence of the atmosphere in flowing over the
+accumulating body. Here is the source of their delusion; for, they do
+not distinguish properly the case of this solution of a stony substance
+concreting by means of the separation of its solvent, and the case of
+such a solution being in a place where that necessary condition cannot
+be supposed to exist; such as, e.g., the interstices among the particles
+of sand, clay, etc. deposited at the bottom of the sea, and accumulated
+in immense stratified masses.
+
+No example can better illustrate how pernicious it is to science to have
+admitted a false principle, on which a chain of reasoning is to proceed
+in forming a theory. Mineral philosophers have founded their theory upon
+that deceitful analogy, which they had concluded between the stalactical
+concretions of petrifying waters and the marble formed in the mineral
+regions; thus, blinded by prejudice, they shut the door against the
+clearest evidence; and it is most difficult to make them see the error
+of their principle. But this is not to be wondered at, when we consider
+how few among philosophising men remount to the first principles of
+their theory; and, unless they shall thus remount to that first step,
+in which the concreting operation of a dissolved stony substance
+is supposed to take place without the necessary conditions for the
+petrifying operation, it is impossible to be convinced that their
+theory, thus formed with regard to mineral concretion, is merely
+supposition, and has no foundation in matter of fact from whence it
+should proceed.
+
+But this is not all; for, even supposing their theory to be well founded
+and just, it is plainly contradicted by natural appearances. According
+to that theory of aqueous consolidation, all the stratified bodies, of
+which this earth in general consists, should be found in the natural
+order of their regular formation; but, instead of this, they are found
+every where disturbed in that order more or less; in many places this
+order and regularity is so disturbed as hardly to be acknowledged; in
+most places we find those stratified bodies broken, dislocated, and
+contorted, and this aqueous theory of mineralists has neither the means
+for attaining that end, were it required in their theory, nor have they
+any such purpose in their theory, were that end attainable by the means
+which they employ. Thus blinded by the prejudice of a false analogy,
+they do not even endeavour to gratify the human understanding (which
+naturally goes in quest of wisdom and design) by forming a hypothetical
+or specious theory of the mineral system; and they only amuse themselves
+with the supposition of an unknown operation of water for the
+explanation of their cabinet specimens, a supposition altogether
+ineffectual for the purpose of forming a habitable earth, and a
+supposition which is certainly contradicted by every natural appearance.
+
+Thus, in examining geological and mineralogical theories, I am laid
+under the disagreeable necessity of pointing out the errors of physical
+principles which are assumed, the prejudices of theoretical opinions
+which have been received, and the misconceived notions which
+philosophers entertain with regard to the system of nature, in which may
+be perceived no ineffectual operation, nor any destructive intention,
+but the wise and benevolent purpose of preserving the present order of
+this world. But, though thus misled with regard to the cause of things,
+naturalists are every where making interesting observations in the
+mineral kingdom, I shall therefore avail myself of that instructive
+information, for the confirmation of my theory.
+
+It may now be proper to consider what must be required, in order to have
+a geological and mineral theory established upon scientific principles,
+or on such grounds as must give conviction to those who will examine
+the subject; for, unless we may clearly see that there are means for
+attaining that desirable end, few philosophers will be persuaded to
+pursue this branch of knowledge.
+
+A theory is nothing but the generalization of particular facts; and, in
+a theory of the earth, those facts must be taken from the observations
+of natural history. Nature is considered as absolutely true; no error or
+contradiction can be found in nature. For, if such contradiction were
+truly found, if the stone, for example, which fell to day were to rise
+again to-morrow, there would be an end of natural philosophy, our
+principles would fail, and we would no longer investigate the rules of
+nature from our observations.
+
+Every natural appearance, therefore, which is explained, _i.e._ which is
+made to come into the order of things that happen, must so far confirm
+the theory to which it then belongs. But is it necessary, that every
+particular appearance, among minerals, should be thus explained in
+a general theory of the earth? And, is any appearance, which is not
+explained by it, to be considered as sufficient to discredit or confute
+a theory which corresponded with every other appearance? Here is a
+question which it would require some accuracy to resolve.
+
+If we knew all the powers of nature, and all the different conditions in
+which those powers may have their action varied, that is to say, if we
+were acquainted with every physical cause, then every natural effect, or
+all appearances upon the surface of this earth, might be explained in a
+theory that were just. But, seeing that this is far from being the case,
+and that there may be many causes of which we are as yet ignorant, as
+well as certain conditions in which the known action of powers may be
+varied, it must be evident, that a theory of the earth is not to be
+confuted by this argument alone, That there are, among natural bodies,
+certain appearances which are not explained by the theory. We must
+admit, that, not having all the data which natural philosophy requires,
+we cannot pretend to explain every thing which appears; and that our
+theories, which necessarily are imperfect, are not to be considered as
+erroneous when not explaining every thing which is in nature, but only
+when they are found contrary to or inconsistent with the laws of nature,
+which are known, and with which the case in question may be properly
+compared.
+
+But we may have different theories to compare with nature; and, in that
+case, the question is not, How far any of those theories should explain
+all natural appearances? but, How far any one particular theory might
+explain a phenomenon better than another? In this case of comparison, it
+will be evident, that if one theory explains natural appearances, then
+the opposite to that theory cannot be supposed to explain the same
+appearances. If for example, granite, porphyry, or basaltes, should be
+found naturally formed by fusion, the formation of those stones could
+not be supposed in any case as formed by water, although it could not
+be demonstrated that water is incapable of forming those mineral
+productions.
+
+In like manner, if those three bodies were proved to have been actually
+formed by water alone, then, in other cases where we should have no
+proof, they could not be supposed as having been formed by fire or
+fusion. It must be evident, that an equal degree of proof of those two
+different propositions would leave our judgment in suspence, unless that
+proof were perfect, in which case, we would have two different causes
+producing similar effects. But, if we shall have a sufficient proof
+upon the one side, and only a presumptive proof or probability upon the
+other, we must reject that probability or presumption, when opposed by
+a proof, although that proof were only an induction by reasoning from
+similar effects as following similar causes. _A fortiori_, if there be
+on one side a fair induction, without the least suspicion of error,
+and on the other nothing but a mere presumption founded upon a distant
+analogy, which could not even properly apply, then, the inductive proof
+would be as satisfactory as if there had not been any supposition on the
+opposite side.
+
+So far as a theory is formed in the generalization of natural
+appearances, that theory must be just, although it may not be perfect,
+as having comprehended every appearance; that is to say, a theory is
+not perfect until it be founded upon every natural appearance; in which
+case, those appearances will be explained by the theory. The theory of
+gravitation, though no ways doubtful, was not so perfect before the
+shape of this globe had been determined by actual measurement, and
+before the direction of the plummet had been tried upon Shihallion, as
+after those observations had been made. But a theory which should be
+merely hypothetical, or founded upon a few appearances, can only be
+received as a theory, after it has been found to correspond properly
+with nature; it would then be held a proper explanation of those natural
+appearances with which it corresponded; and, the more of those phenomena
+that were thus explained by the theory, the more would that, which had
+been first conjectural, be converted into a theory legitimately founded
+upon natural appearances.
+
+Matter of fact is that upon which science proceeds, by generalization,
+to form theory, for the purpose of philosophy, or the knowledge of all
+natural causes; and it is by the companion of these matters of fact with
+any theory, that such a theory will be tried. But, in judging of matter
+of fact, let us be cautious of deceiving ourselves, by substituting
+speculative reasoning in place of actual events.
+
+Nature, as the subject of our observation, consists of two sorts of
+objects; for, things are either active, when we perceive change to take
+place in consequence of such action, or they are quiescent, when we
+perceive no change to take place. Now, it is evident, that in judging
+of the active powers of nature from the quiescent objects of our
+information, we are liable to error, in misinterpreting the objects
+which we see; we thus form to ourselves false or erroneous opinion
+concerning the general laws of action, and the powers of nature. In
+comparing, therefore, generalised facts, or theory, with particular
+observations, there is required the greatest care, neither, on the one
+hand, to strain the appearances, so as to bring in to the theory a fact
+belonging to another class of things; nor, on the other, to condemn a
+proper theory, merely because that theory has not been extended to the
+explanation of every natural appearance.
+
+But, besides the misinterpretation of matters of fact, we are also to
+guard against the misrepresentation of natural appearances. Whether
+warped by the prejudice of partial and erroneous theory, or deceived by
+the inaccuracy of superficial observation, naturalists are apt to see
+things in an improper light, and thus to reason from principles which
+cannot be admitted, and, which often lead to false conclusions. A
+naturalist, for example, comes to examine a cavity in the mines, he
+there finds water dropping down all around him, and he sees the cavity
+all hung with siliceous crystals; he then concludes, without hesitation,
+that here is to be perceived cause and effect, or that he actually sees
+the formation of those crystallizations from the operation of water. It
+is thus that I have been told by men of great mineral knowledge, men who
+must have had the best education upon that subject of mineralogy, and
+who have the superintendance of great mineral concerns in Germany, that
+they had actually seen nature at work in that operation of forming
+rock-crystal;--they saw what I have now described; they could see no
+more; but, they saw what had convinced them of that which, there is
+every reason to believe, never happened. With regard to my theory,
+I wish for the most rigorous examination; and do not ask for any
+indulgence whatever, whether with regard to the principles on which the
+theory is built, or for the application of the theory to the explanation
+of natural appearances. But, let not geologists judge my theory by their
+imperfect notions of nature, or by those narrow views which they take of
+the present state of things;--let not mineralogists condemn my theory,
+for no other reason but because it does not correspond with their false
+principles, and those gratuitous suppositions by which they had been
+pleased to explain to themselves every thing before. First let them look
+into their own theory, and correct that erroneous principle, with regard
+to the action of water, or the assumption of unknown causes, upon which
+they have reasoned in forming their vague notions of the mineral region,
+before they can be properly qualified to examine, impartially, a theory
+which employs another principle. Every thing which has come under my
+observation shall be, as far as I can, faithfully related; nor shall I
+withhold those which neither the present theory, nor any other that I am
+acquainted with, can, I think, explain.
+
+Appearances cannot well be described except in relation to some theory
+or general arrangement of the subject; because the particular detail,
+of every part in a complicated appearance, would be endless and
+insignificant. When, however, any question in a theory depends upon the
+nature of an appearance, we cannot be too particular in describing that
+by which the question is to be decided. But though it be sometimes
+proper to be minute in a particular, it is always, and above all things,
+necessary to be distinct; and not to confound together things which are
+of different natures. For, though it be by finding similarity, in things
+which at first sight may seem different, that science is promoted and
+philosophy attained, yet, we must have a distinct view of those things
+which are to be assimilated; and surely the lowest state of knowledge
+in any subject, is the not distinguishing things which, though not to
+common observation different, are not truly the same.
+
+To confound, for example one stone with another, because they were both
+hard, friable, and heavy, would be to describe, with the superficial
+views of vulgar observation; whereas science specifies the weight and
+hardness, and thus accurately distinguishes the stone.
+
+Before naturalists had learned to distinguish what they saw, and to
+describe, in known terms, those natural appearances, a theorist must
+have generalised only from his proper observation. This has been my
+case. When I first conceived my theory, few naturalists could write
+intelligibly upon the subject; but that is long ago, and things are much
+altered since; now there are most enlightened men making observations,
+and communicating natural knowledge. I have the satisfaction, almost
+every day, to compare the theory, which I had formed from my proper
+observations, with the actual state of things in almost every quarter of
+the globe.
+
+Whether, therefore, we mean to try a theory by its application to
+such phenomena as are well understood, or to learn something from the
+application of particular phenomena to a well established theory,
+we shall always find it interesting to have appearances described;
+particularly such as may be referred to some general rule, as
+circumscribing it to certain conditions, or as finding rule in rule,
+that is to say, discovering those particular conditions in which the
+general laws of action may be affected.
+
+Instead, for example, of the rule which we find in the application of
+heat for the fusion and evaporation of mineral substances upon the
+surface of this earth, we may find it necessary to consider the effect
+which changed circumstances produce in the mineral regions, and occasion
+a change of that rule of action which we have learned from experience,
+when melting and evaporating those substances in the atmosphere or on
+the surface of the earth.
+
+It is in this manner that a theory, which was formed by the
+generalization of particular facts, comes to be a source of information,
+by explaining to us certain appearances which otherwise we could not
+understand. Thus, it was not the appearance of the tides that taught the
+theory of gravitation; it was the theory of gravitation that made us
+understand the appearance of the tides. In like manner, the law of
+gravitation, which was demonstrated from the motion of the moon in her
+orbit round this earth, when applied to the paths of comets, explained
+that appearance. Our theory, of a central fire, has been formed upon
+the consolidation of the strata of this earth; but this theory is to be
+applied for the explanation of various different appearances. In this
+manner, two different purposes will be served; the trying of the theory
+by its application to phenomena; and the explanation of phenomena by the
+principles laid open in the theory.
+
+I may repeat it; a theory of the earth must ultimately depend upon
+matter of fact or particular observation; but those observations must be
+distinct, and those distinguished things must be generalised. We have
+just now given for an example, a distinction among stones, in knowing
+them by their sensible qualities. But, besides distinguishing those
+objects, we are also to inquire into the origin and cause of those
+things which are distinguished. Here, again, we take into our aid the
+chemical as well as the mechanical properties of these several things;
+and hence learn to know on what their natural form and constitution may
+depend. Having thus attained the natural philosophy of stones, we next
+inquire into the place and application of those things in nature; and
+in this manner we acquire some knowledge with regard to the natural
+constitution of this earth. We find this earth composed of known things;
+it is therefore the operations, required in these compositions, which
+form the natural philosophy of this earth, considered as a body of solid
+land. But, the solid land is only one part of the globe; therefore,
+the philosophy of the globe proceeds still farther by knowing the
+constitution of this planetary body, as consisting of different parts
+united for a purpose, which is that of a world.
+
+The general theory of this earth as a world, will thus appear to be a
+complex thing, which however founded upon simple principles, contains
+many subjects of discussion, and requires attention to a variety of
+particulars. For, not only the great features of this earth are to be
+explained by the theory, but also the most minute appearance, such as
+are to be found, even with microscopic observation, in every particular
+part.
+
+Thus the nature, constitution, and cause of every particular appearance
+in the construction of this earth, are to be investigated in a
+geological theory, as well as that general constitution of the world in
+which all the particular parts are to be employed for a purpose.
+
+If the subject here examined shall be found properly explained, there
+will remain little doubt with regard to the justness of the theory,
+which will then be applicable to other appearances that may occur;
+although every appearance is not to be explained, in a manner equally
+satisfactory, by any theory which is not perfect.
+
+The first subject to be examined is the modern theory of primitive
+mountains. I have written several chapters upon that subject, having
+successively acquired more light in this interesting part of the theory,
+by observations of my own in several places of this country, as well as
+from the natural history of other countries. I shall give these nearly
+in the order in which they occurred, or had been written.
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+In the theory now given, the earth has been represented as a composition
+of different materials, which had existed in another form, and as the
+effect of natural operations; therefore, however various may be found
+the structure of our earth, and however dissimilar some parts of
+its composition may be in comparison with others, no part should be
+considered as original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive, in
+relation to second causes, _i.e._ physical operations by which those
+parts should have been formed. But it is pretended by naturalists, that
+there are certain primitive mountains in the earth, bodies which have
+had another origin than that of the general strata of the globe and
+subsequent masses; an origin, therefore, which cannot be considered as
+having been produced from natural operations, or as effected in the
+course of known causes. Now, if it can be made to appear, that there is
+no solid ground for this distinction; and if it can be shown, that there
+is truly no mineral body in this earth which may not have been produced
+by operations natural to the globe, we should thus procure a certain
+confirmation of the doctrine. This also will be the more interesting,
+in being deduced from a part of natural appearances, which seemed to be
+inconsistent with the theory.
+
+Certain masses or mountains of granite, are the only bodies of this
+earth which have apparently a certain pretension to this species
+of originality. These, therefore, must be now the subject of our
+examination.
+
+Granite, considered by itself, does not appear to have any claim to
+originality in its nature. It is composed of bodies which are capable of
+being analyzed; and these are then found to be compositions of different
+substances, which are also sometimes variously proportioned. The
+feldspar and the mica, for example, as well as the schorl, are found
+variously coloured in different granites, and coloured in various
+proportions. Besides the variety in the composition, or chemical mixture
+of the different bodies which compose granite, this rock admits of a
+great diversity, from the variety of its mechanical mixture, or from
+the different species of bodies which are its constituent parts. M. de
+Saussure, who has examined this subject perhaps more than any other
+person, and who has had the very best opportunities for this purpose,
+says, that this composition may be found in all the different
+combinations which may be produced by every possible composition of 7
+or 8 different kinds of stone, (page 108, Voyage dans les Alpes, etc.).
+Neither does this fill up the measure of its variety; for, another
+source of change is found in the grain of this rock stone; I have a
+specimen of this variety from the size almost of sand to that of some
+inches.
+
+Were granite, therefore, to be supposed as in the original state of its
+creation, nature would be considered as having operated in an indefinite
+diversity of ways, without that order and wisdom which we find in all
+her works; for here would be change without a principle, and variety
+without a purpose. There is no reason, however, to suppose granite
+original, more than any other composite rock, although we may be
+ignorant of the particular process in which it is formed, and although,
+comparatively in relation to certain other rocks, granite, or certain
+masses of this composition, may be found of a more ancient date.
+
+If granite be truly stratified, and those strata connected with the
+other strata of the earth, it can have no claim to originality; and
+the idea of primitive mountains, of late so much employed by natural
+philosophers, must vanish, in a more extensive view of the operations of
+the globe; but it is certain that granite, or a species of the same kind
+of stone, is thus found stratified. It is the _granit feuilletée_ of
+M. de Saussure, and, if I mistake not, what is called _gneis_ by the
+Germans. We have it also in our north alpine country of Scotland; of
+this I have specimens, but have not seen it in its place.
+
+Granite being thus found stratified, the masses of this stone cannot be
+allowed to have any right of priority over the schistus, its companion
+in the alpine countries, although M. de Saussure, whose authority I
+would revere, has given it for the following reason; that it is found
+the most centrical in the chains of high mountains, or in alpine
+countries. Now, supposing this fact to be general, as he has found it in
+the Alps, no argument for the priority of those masses can be founded
+either upon the height or the situation of those granite mountains; for
+the height of the mountain depends upon the solidity and strength of the
+stone. Now though it is not to be here maintained that granite is the
+most durable of those alpine rocks, yet as a mountain, either granite in
+general, or in particular, certain species of it, may be esteemed such,
+consequently, this massy stone, remaining highest in the mountainous
+region, will naturally be considered as the centre, and according to
+this rule, as having the pre-eminence in point of seniority.
+
+The rock which stands in competition with granite for the title of
+primitive in the order of mountains, is that micaceous stratified stone
+which is formed chiefly of quartz, but which admits of great variety
+like the granite. The difference between those two bodies does not
+consist in the materials of which they are composed, for, in their
+varieties, they may be in this respect the same, but in a certain
+regularity of composition, in this alpine stone, which evidently arises
+from stratification or subsidence in water.
+
+If we shall thus consider all the varieties of this alpine stone as
+being of one kind, and call it granite, then we shall distinguish in
+this body two different species, from whence perhaps some interesting
+conclusion may be formed with regard to the operations of the globe.
+These two species are, _first_, granite regular in its composition, or
+stratified in its construction; and, _secondly_, granite in mass, or
+irregular in its construction. Let us now endeavour to make use of these
+generalizations and distinctions.
+
+In examining the great diversity of our whinstone, trap, or basaltes, it
+is found at last to granulate into granite; at the same time those two
+different species of rock-stone may be distinguished. A perfect granite
+has not in its composition necessarily any argillaceous earth, farther
+than may be in the natural constitution of its distinct parts; whereas,
+a perfect basalt may have abundance of this substance, without any
+quartz or any siliceous body. A perfect granite, is, therefore, an
+extremely hard stone, having quartz and feldspar for its basis; but a
+perfect whin or basaltes may be extremely soft, so as to cut easily with
+a knife. In like manner granite is a composition which graduates into
+porphyry; but porphyry is only whinstone of a harder species. Therefore,
+though perfectly distinct, those three things graduate into each other,
+and may be considered as the same.
+
+Granite and whinstone, or basaltes, though distinct compositions, thus
+graduating into each other; and whinstone, as well as porphyry, being
+without doubt a species of lava, we may consider the granite which is
+found in mass without stratification, in like manner as we do the masses
+of whinstone, basaltes, or Swedish trap, as having flowed in the bowels
+of the earth, and thus been produced by the chance of place, without any
+proper form of its own, or in an irregular shape and construction. In
+this manner would be explained the irregular shape or structure of those
+granite masses; and thus great light would be thrown upon the waved
+structure of the stratified alpine stone, which, though it has not been
+made to flow, has been brought to a great degree of softness, so as to
+have the original straight lines of its stratification changed to
+those undulated or waving lines which are in some cases extremely much
+incurvated.
+
+It remains only to confirm this reasoning, upon our principles, by
+bringing actual observation to its support; and this we shall do from
+two of the best authorities. The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in describing
+the volcanic productions of Etna, mentions a lava which had flowed from
+that mountain, and which may be considered as a granite. But M. de
+Saussure has put this matter out of doubt by describing most accurately
+what he had seen both in the Alps and at the city of Lyons. These are
+veins of granite which have flowed from the contiguous mass into the
+stratified stone, and leave no doubt with regard to this proposition,
+that the granite had flowed in form of subterranean lava, although M. de
+Saussure has drawn a very different conclusion from this appearance. I
+have also a specimen from this country of a vein of granite in a granite
+stone, the vein being of a smaller grain than that of the rock which it
+traverses.[20]
+
+[Note 20: This is what I had wrote upon, the subject of granite, before
+I had acquired such ample testimony from my own observations upon
+that species of rock. I have given some notice, in the 3d vol. of the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh R.S. concerning the general result of
+those observations, which will be given particularly in the course of
+this work.]
+
+It will thus appear, that the doctrine which of late has prevailed, of
+primitive mountains, or something which should be considered as original
+in the construction of this earth, must be given up as a false view of
+nature, which has formed the granite upon the same principle with that
+of any other consolidated stratum; so far as the collection of different
+materials, and the subsequent fusion of the compound mass, are necessary
+operations in the preparation of all the solid masses of the earth.
+Whatever operations of the globe, therefore, may be concluded from the
+composition of granite masses, as well as of the alpine strata, these
+must be considered as giving us information with regard to the natural
+history of this earth; and they will be considered as important, in
+proportion as they disclose to us truths, which from other strata might
+not be so evident, or at all made known.
+
+Let us now examine the arguments, which, may be employed in favour of
+that supposition of primitive mountains.
+
+The observations, on which naturalists have founded that opinion of
+originality in some of the component parts of our earth, are these;
+_first_, They observe certain great masses of granite in which
+stratification is not to be perceived; this then they say is an original
+mass, and it is not to be derived from any natural operation of the
+globe; _secondly_, They observe considerable tracts of the earth
+composed of matter in the order of stratification as to its general
+composition, but not as to its particular position, the vertical
+position here prevailing, instead of the horizontal which is proper to
+strata formed in water; this, therefore, they also term primitive, and
+suppose it to be from another origin than that of the subsidence of
+materials moved in the waters of the globe; _lastly_, They observe both
+strata and masses of calcareous matter in which they cannot distinguish
+any marine body as is usual in other strata of the same substance; and
+these calcareous masses being generally connected with their primitive
+mountains, they have also included these collections of calcareous
+matter, in which marine bodies are not observed, among the primitive
+parts which they suppose to be the original construction of this globe.
+
+It may be proper to see the description of a calcareous alpine mountain.
+M. de Saussure gives us the following observations concerning a mountain
+of this kind in the middle of the Alps, where the water divides in
+running different ways towards the sea. It is in describing the passage
+of the Bon-Homme, (Tom. 2. V. dans les Alpes).
+
+"§ 759. Sur la droite ou au couchant de ces rochers, on voit une
+montagne calcaire étonnante dans ce genre par la hardiesse avec laquelle
+elle élève contre le ciel ses cimes aigues et tranchantes, taillées
+à angles vifs dans le costume des hautes cimes de granit. Elle est
+pourtant bien sûrement calcaire, je l'ai observée de près, et on
+rencontre sur cette route les blocs qui s'en détachent.
+
+"Cette pierre porte les caractères des calcaires les plus anciennes; sa
+couleur est grise, son grain assez fin, on n'y apperçoit aucun vestige
+de corps organisés; ses couches sont peu épaisses, ondées et coupées
+fréquemment par des fentes parallèles entr'elles et perpendiculaires à
+leurs plans. On trouve aussi parmi ces fragmens des brèches calcaires
+grises."
+
+Here is a mountain which will rank with the most primitive of the earth;
+But why? only because it is extremely consolidated without any mark of
+organised body. Had there been in this mountain but one single shell, we
+should not then have scrupled to conclude that the origin of this lofty
+mountain had been the same with every marble or limestone in the earth.
+But though, from the structure of this stone, there is no mark of its
+having been formed immediately of the calcareous parts of animals, there
+is every mark of those calcareous strata having been formed like other
+marbles by deposit in the waters of the globe.
+
+These two things are also homologated by the equal or perfect
+consolidation of their substance; for, as it is to be proved that
+all stratified marbles have been consolidated by the fusion of their
+substance, we must attribute the same consolidating cause to those
+alpine masses; the frequent veins that divide those calcareous strata
+which M. de Saussure has here described, also prove the nature of the
+consolidating cause, (see Chap. 1. page 111.).
+
+This mountain, considered by itself, may perhaps afford no data by which
+a naturalist might read the circumstances of its origin. But, Is a
+theory of the earth to be formed upon such a negative observation? and,
+Is there any particular in this mountain, that may not be shown in
+others of which the origin is not in any degree doubtful?
+
+It is not to be disputed, that there are parts of the solid body of our
+earth which may be considered as primary or prior, compared with others
+that are posterior, in relation to the time of their formation, and much
+less changed with regard to the state in which they had been originally
+formed:--But it is here denied, that there are any parts of the earth
+which do not appear to have had the same origin with all the rest, so
+far as this consists in the collection of materials deposited at the
+bottom of the waters[21]; for there is no solid mass of land that may
+not be traced to this origin, either from its composition, or from its
+local connection with other masses, the nature of which in this respect
+are known. We have already given examples of this from sufficient
+authority. The evidence, therefore, of those primary masses being
+original in relation to the natural operations of the globe, is reduced
+to this assertion, that there are no vestiges of organised bodies to be
+found in those primary masses. Let us now examine how far this testimony
+for the originality of those masses is to be admitted in fact and sound
+reasoning.
+
+[Note 21: There are no collection of those alpine masses in which may
+not be found in some of them sand, mica, and gravel; but these materials
+prove the existence of an earth, on which those fragments of greater
+masses had been formed, and more or less worn by attrition.]
+
+The matter in question at present is this, that there are certain tracts
+of countries in which no vestige of organised bodies are found; now, let
+us suppose the fact to be true or well grounded, Can we conclude
+from this that there had been originally no organised bodies in the
+composition of those masses?--Such a conclusion could only be formed in
+making a supposition, that every organised body deposited in a mass
+of matter, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, should be preserved
+without change, while the collected mass, in which it had been
+deposited, changes as much as possible by the operation both of fire and
+water. But this supposition is erroneous, and cannot be admitted; and
+the study of marbles will demonstrate this truth, that the calcareous
+relics of organised bodies are changed, in the consolidating operations
+of the globe, in every degree, from the smallest alteration to the
+greatest, when they become indistinguishable any farther to our sight.
+
+Therefore, from the supposition of no appearance of marine bodies in the
+pretended primitive masses, there is no sufficient evidence or reason to
+conclude, that those masses have not had a marine origin; because, the
+traces of organised bodies may be obliterated by the many subsequent
+operations of the mineral region; and which operations, the present
+state of those masses certify beyond dispute.
+
+We are now to examine the fact, how far the ground on which that false
+reasoning had been founded is strictly true.
+
+In the first place, then, it must be considered, that the alledged fact
+is nothing but a negative assertion, importing that no mark of organised
+bodies had been observed, in certain stones and strata which some
+naturalists have examined with that view. But, though many naturalists
+have looked for them without success, it does not follow that such marks
+may not be found; it indeed proves that such a task is difficult, and
+the success of it, to a particular, most precarious; accident, however,
+may bring about what the greatest industry has not been able to attain.
+Secondly, there is good reason to believe that this asserted negation
+is not absolutely true; for I have in my possession what I consider as
+proof of the contrary; I found it in Wales, and I think it is in what
+may be considered as primitive mountains;--it is the mark of shells in a
+stone of that kind.
+
+Thus, I had formed my opinion with regard to this alleged fact, long
+before I had seen any description either of the Alps or Pyrennean
+mountains; and now I have no reason to change that opinion. It may
+indeed be alleged, that the strata of marble or limestone, containing
+marine bodies found in those mountains, are secondary strata, and not
+the primitive. To this I can give no reply, as the descriptions given of
+those strata do not enable me to decide this point.
+
+At the village of Mat, under the Mont Blatten for example, there is a
+quarry of schistus or black slate, in which are often found the print
+and the bones of fishes. (Discours sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la
+Suisse, page 225.). If this may be considered as an alpine or primitive
+schistus, it would be decisive of the question: But it would require to
+have it well ascertained that this schistus is truly one of those which
+are esteemed primitive, or that it is properly connected with them.
+
+But though I cannot find in those interesting descriptions which we now
+have got, any one which is demonstrative of this truth, that calcareous
+marine objects are found in the primitive strata, this is not the
+case with regard to another object equally important in deciding this
+question, Whether the primitive strata are found containing the marks of
+organised bodies?
+
+M. de Dellancourt, in his _Observations Minéralogiques_, Journal de
+Physique Juillet 1786, in describing the mountains of Dauphiné, gives us
+the following fact with regard to those alpine vertical strata.
+
+"La pierre constituante de la montagne d'Oris est en général le _Kneifs_
+ou la roche feuilletée mica et quartz à couches plus ou moins ferrées
+quelquefois le schorl en roche pénétré de stéatite. Les couches varient
+infiniment quant à leur direction et à leur inclinaisons. Cette montagne
+est cultivée et riche dans certain cantons, surtout autour du village
+d'Oris, mais elle est très-escarpée dans beaucoup d'autres. Entre le
+village d'Oris et celui du Tresnay est une espèce de combe assez creuse
+formée par la chute des eaux des cimes supérieures des rochers. Cette
+combe offre beaucoup de schiste dont les couches font ou très-inclinées
+ou perpendiculaires. Entre ces couches il s'en est trouvé de plus noires
+que les autres et capable de brûler, mais difficilement. Les habitans
+ont extrait beaucoup de cette matière terreuse, et lui ont donné le nom
+de charbon de terre. Ils viennent même à bout de la faire brûler, et
+de s'en servir l'hiver en la mêlant avec du bois. Ce schiste noir
+particulier m'a paru exister principalement dans les endroits ou les
+eaux se sont infiltrées entre les couches perpendiculaires, et y ont
+entraîné diverse matières, et sur-tout des débris de végétaux que
+j'ai encore retrouvés à demi-noirs, pulvérulens et comme dans un état
+charbonneux."
+
+This formation of coal, by the infiltration of water and carrying in of
+vegetable bodies, certainly cannot be admitted of; consequently, from
+this description, there would seem to be strata of coal alternated with
+the alpine schisti. But the formation of mineral coal requires vegetable
+matter to have been deposited along with those earthy substances, at the
+bottom of the sea. The production of vegetable bodies, again, requires
+the constitution of sea and land, and the system of a living world,
+sustaining plants at least, if not animals.
+
+In this natural history of the alpine schisti, therefore, we have a
+most interesting fact, an example which is extremely rare. Seldom are
+calcareous organised bodies found among those alpine strata, but still
+more rarely, I believe, are the marks of vegetable bodies having
+contributed in the formation of those masses. But however rare this
+example, it is equally decisive of the question, Whether the alpine
+schisti have had a similar origin as the other strata of the globe,
+in which are found abundance of animal and vegetable bodies, or their
+relics? and we are authorised to say, that since those perfect alpine
+strata of Dauphiné have had that origin, all the alpine schisti of the
+globe have been originally formed in a similar manner. But to put this
+matter out of doubt:
+
+In this summer 1788, coming from the Isle of Man, Mr Clerk and I
+traveled through the alpine schistus country of Cumberland and
+Westmoreland. We found a limestone quarry upon the banks of Windermere,
+near the Low-wood Inn. I examined this limestone closely, but despaired
+of finding any vestige of organised body. The strata of limestone
+seem to graduate into the slate or schistus strata, between which the
+calcareous are placed. Fortunately, however, I at last found a fragment
+in which I thought to perceive the works of organised bodies in a
+sparry state; I told Mr Clerk so, and our landlord Mr Wright, who had
+accompanied us. I have brought home this specimen, which I have now
+ground and polished; and now it is most evidently full of fragments of
+entrochi. Mr Wright then told me he had seen evident impressions of
+marine objects, as I understood from the description, in the slate of
+those mountains; and he was to send me specimens so soon as he could
+procure them.
+
+Here is one specimen which at once overturns all the speculations formed
+upon that negative proposition. The schistus mountains of Cumberland
+were, in this respect, as perfect primitive mountains as any upon the
+earth, before this observation; now they have no claim upon that score,
+no more than any limestone formed of shells.
+
+When I first announced my belief that such objects in natural history
+might be found, I little thought to have seen it realised, to such a
+degree as has now happened in the little circle of my knowledge. In the
+summer 1791,
+
+Professor Playfair was to pass through Cumberland. I begged that he
+would inquire of Mr Wright, at the Low-wood Inn, for those objects which
+he was to endeavour to procure for me, and to examine the limestone
+quarry in which I had found the specimen with entrochi. He went through
+another part of those primary mountains, and has found examples of this
+kind in the schisti; concerning which he has written me the following
+account.
+
+"In a visit which I made to the Lakes of Cumberland in September 1791,
+in company with the Hon. Francis Charteris, I met with a limestone
+full of marine objects, though from its position it is certainly to be
+reckoned among the primary strata. The place where we found this stone
+was in the district of Lancashire, that is west of Windermere Lake, on
+the road from Ambleside to the north end of Coniston Lake, and not far
+from the point when you come in sight of the latter. Just about this
+spot we happened to meet with one of those people who serve as guides
+to travelers in those parts, and who told us, among other things, that
+stones with shells in them were often found not far from where we were
+then walking. We immediately began to look about for specimens of that
+kind, and soon met with several; the most remarkable of which was in a
+rock that rose a little above the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to
+the right of the road. It was a part of a limestone stratum, nearly
+vertical, and was full of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
+in a common secondary limestone. The strata on both sides had the same
+inclination, and were decidedly primary, consisting of the ordinary
+micaceous schistus. This however I need not remark to you, who know so
+well from your own observations that the whole of the country I am now
+speaking of has every character of a primary one. I, only mention it,
+that it may not be supposed that the rock in question was some fragment
+of a secondary stratum that remained, after the rest was washed away,
+superincumbent on the primary.
+
+"After I had seen this rock, I recollected that you had told me of
+something of the same kind that you saw in a quarry at Low-wood Inn; and
+it may be that both belonged to the same stratum or body of strata; for
+the direction of the strata, as nearly as I could observe, was from S.W.
+to N.E.; and this also is nearly the bearing of Low-wood from the place
+where we now were. I send you a specimen, which you can compare with
+those you brought from the lime quarry at Low-wood."
+
+I have examined this specimen, and find it to be the common schistus
+of that country, only containing many bivalve shells and fragments of
+entrochi and madrapore bodies, and mixed with pyrites.
+
+I have already observed that one single example of a shell, or of its
+print, in a schistus, or in a stone stratified among those vertical or
+erected masses, suffices to prove the origin of those bodies to have
+been, what I had maintained them to be, water formed strata erected from
+the bottom of the sea, like every other consolidated stratum of the
+earth. But now, I think, I may affirm, that there is not, or rarely, any
+considerable extent of country of that primary kind, in which some mark
+of this origin will not be found, upon careful examination; and now I
+will give my reason for this assertion. I have been examining the south
+alpine country of Scotland, occasionally, for more than forty years
+back, and I never could find any mark of an organised body in the
+schistus of those mountains. It is true that I know of only one place
+where limestone is found among the strata; this is upon Tweed-side near
+the Crook. This quarry I had carefully examined long ago, but could find
+no mark of any organised body in it. I suppose they now are working some
+other of the vertical strata near those which I had examined; for, in
+the summer 1792, I received a letter from Sir James Hall, which I shall
+now transcribe. It is dated at Moffat, June 2. 1792.
+
+"As I was riding yesterday between Noble-house and Crook, on the road to
+this place, I fell in with a quarry of alpine limestone; it consists of
+four or five strata, about three feet thick, one of them single, and the
+rest contiguous; they all stand between the strata of slate and schist
+that are at the place nearly vertical. In the neighbourhood, a slate
+quarry is worked of a pure blue slate; several of the strata of slate
+near the limestone are filled with fragments of limestone scattered
+about like the fragments of schist in the sandstone in the neighbourhood
+of the junction on our coast.[22]
+
+[Note 22: This has a reference to very curious observations which we
+made upon the east coast where these mountains terminate, and which I am
+to describe in the course of this work.]
+
+"Among the masses of limestone lately broken off for use, and having the
+fractures fresh, I found the forms of cockles quite distinct; and in
+great abundance.--I send you three pieces of this kind," etc.
+
+It may perhaps be alleged that those mountains of Cumberland and
+Tweedale are not the primary mountains, but composed of the secondary
+schistus, which is every where known to contain those objects belonging
+to a former earth. Naturalists who have not the opportunity of
+convincing themselves by their proper examination, must judge with
+regard to that geological fact by the description of others. Now it is
+most fortunate for natural history, that it has been in this range of
+mountains that we have discovered those marks of a marine origin; for,
+I shall afterwards have occasion to give the clearest light into this
+subject, from observations made in other parts of those same mountains
+of schist, by which it will be proved that they are the primary
+strata; and thus no manner of doubt will then remain in the minds
+of naturalists, who might otherwise suspect that we were deceiving
+ourselves, by mistaking the secondary for the primitive schistus.
+
+I have only farther to observe, that those schisti mountains of Wales,
+of Cumberland, and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where these
+marine objects have been found, consist, of that species of stone which
+in some places makes the most admirable slate for covering houses; and,
+in other parts, it breaks into blocks that so much resemble wood in
+appearance, that, without narrow inspection, it might pass for petrified
+wood.
+
+We are therefore to conclude that the marks of organised bodies in those
+primary mountains are certainly found; at the same time the general
+observation of naturalists has some foundation, so far as the marks of
+organised bodies are both rarely to be met with in those masses, and not
+easily distinguished as such when they are found.
+
+But this scarcity of marine objects is not confined to those primary
+mountains, as they are called; for among the most horizontal strata, or
+those of the latest production, there are many in which, it is commonly
+thought, no marine calcareous objects are to be found; and this is a
+subject that deserves to be more particularly considered, as the theory
+may thus receive some illustration.
+
+Sandstone, coal, and their accompanying strata, are thought to be
+destitute of calcareous marine productions, although many vestiges of
+plants or vegetable productions are there perceived. But this general
+opinion is neither accurate nor true; for though it be true that in the
+coal and sandstone strata it is most common to find marks of vegetable
+production, and rarely those calcareous bodies which are so frequent in
+the limestone, yet it is not unusual for coal to be accompanied
+with limestone formed of shells and corals, and also with ironstone
+containing many of those marine objects as well as wood. Besides,
+sandstone frequently contains objects which have been organised bodies,
+but which do not belong to the vegetable kingdom, at least to no plant
+which grows upon the land, but would seem to have been some species of
+zoophite perhaps unknown.
+
+I have also frequently seen the vestige of shells in sandstone, although
+in these strata the calcareous bodies are in general not perceived.
+The reason of this is evident. When there is a small proportion of the
+calcareous matter in the mass of sand which is pervious to steam and to
+the percolation of water, the calcareous bodies may be easily dissolved,
+and either carried away or dispersed in the mass; or even without being
+thus dispersed by means of solution, the calcareous matter may be
+absorbed by the siliceous substance of the stratum by means of fusion,
+or by heat and cementation. The fact is, that I have seen in sandstone
+the empty mould of marine shells with some siliceous crystallization,
+so far as I remember, which corresponded perfectly with that idea. The
+place I saw this was in a fine white sandstone accompanying the coal,
+upon the sea side at Brora in Sutherland.
+
+Mineralogy is much indebted to Mr Pallas for the valuable observations
+which he has given of countries so distant from the habitations of
+learned men. The physiology of the globe has also been enriched with
+some interesting observations from the labours of this learned traveller.
+But besides giving us facts, Mr Pallas has also reasoned upon the
+subject, and thus entered deep into the science of Cosmogeny; here it
+is that I am afraid he has introduced some confusion into the natural
+history of the earth, in not properly distinguishing the mineral
+operations of the globe, and those again which belong entirely to the
+surface of the earth; perhaps also in confounding the natural effects of
+water upon the surface of the earth, with those convulsions of the sea
+which may be properly considered as the accidental operations of the
+globe. This subject being strictly connected with the opinions of that
+philosopher with regard to primitive mountains, I am obliged to examine
+in this place matters which otherwise might have come more properly to
+be considered in another.
+
+M. Pallas in his _Observations sur la formation des montagnes_, (page
+48) makes the following observations.
+
+"J'ai déjà dit que _la bande de montagnes primitives schisteuses_
+hétérogènes, qui, par toute la terre, accompagne les chaînes
+granitiques, et comprend les roches quartzeuses et talceuses mixtes,
+trapézoïdes, serpentines, le schiste corne, les roches spathiques et
+cornées, les grais purs, le porphyre et le jaspre, tous rocs fêlés
+en couches, ou presque perpendiculaires, ou du moins très-rapidement
+inclinées, (les plus favorables à la filtration des eaux), semble
+aussi-bien que le granit, antérieure à la création organisée. Une raison
+très-forte pour appuyer cette supposition, c'est que la plupart de ces
+roches, quoique lamelleuse en façon d'ardoise, n'a jamais produit
+aux curieux la moindre trace de pétrifactions ou empreintes de corps
+organisés. S'il s'en est trouvé, c'est apparemment dans des fentes de
+ces roches où ces corps ont été apportés par un deluge, et encastrées
+apres dans une matière infiltrée, de même qu'on a trouvé des restes
+d'Eléphans dans le filon de la mine d'argent du Schlangenberg.[23] Les
+caractères par lesquels plusieurs de ces roches semblent avoir souffert
+des effets d'un feu-très-violent, les puissantes veines et amas des
+minéraux les plus riches qui se trouvent principalement dans la bande
+qui en est composée, leur position immédiate sur le granit, et même le
+passage, par lequel on voit souvent en grand, changer le granit en une
+des autres espèces; tout cela indique une origine bien plus ancienne,
+et des causes bien différentes de celles qui ont produit les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+[Note 23: This is a very natural way of reasoning when a philosopher
+finds a fact, related by some naturalists, that does not correspond with
+his theory or systematic view of things. Here our author follows the
+general opinion in concluding that no organised body should be found in
+their primitive strata; when, therefore, such an object is said to have
+been observed, it is supposed that there may have been some mistake with
+regard to the case, and that all the circumstances may not have been
+considered. This caution with regard to the inaccurate representation of
+facts, in natural history, is certainly extremely necessary; the relicts
+of an elephant found in a mineral vein, is certainly a fact of that
+kind, which should not be given as an example in geology without the
+most accurate scientifical examination of the subject.]
+
+Here M. Pallas gives his reason for supposing those mountains primitive
+or anterior to the operations of this globe as a living world; _first_,
+because they have not, in general, marks of animals or plants; and that
+it is doubtful if they ever properly contain those marks of organised
+bodies; _secondly_, because many of those rocks have the appearance of
+having suffered the effects of the most violent fire. Now, What are
+those effects? Is it in their having been brought into a fluid state of
+fusion. In that case, no doubt, they may have been much changed from the
+original state of their formation; but this is a very good reason why,
+in this changed state, the marks of organised bodies, which may have
+been in their original constitution, should be now effaced.
+
+The _third_ reason for supposing those mountains primitive, is taken
+from the metallic veins, which are found so plentifully in these masses.
+Now, had these masses been the only bodies in this earth in which those
+mineral veins were found, there might be some species of reason for
+drawing the conclusion, which is here formed by our philosopher. But
+nothing is so common (at least in England) as mineral veins in the
+strata of the latest formation, and in those which are principally
+formed of marine productions; consequently so far from serving the
+purpose for which this argument was employed, the mineral veins in the
+primitive mountains tend to destroy their originality, by assimilating
+them in some respect with every other mass of strata or mountain upon
+the globe.
+
+_Lastly_, M. Pallas here employs an argument taken from an appearance
+for which we are particularly indebted to him, and by which the
+arguments which have been already employed in denying the originality
+of granite is abundantly confirmed. It has been already alleged, that
+granite, porphyry, and whinstone, or trap, graduate into each other; but
+here M. Pallas informs us that he has found the granite not only changed
+into porphyry, but also into the other alpine compositions. How an
+argument for the originality of these mountains can be established upon
+those facts, I am not a little at a loss to conceive.
+
+The general mineralogical view of the Russian dominions, which we have,
+in this treatise, may now be considered with regard to that distinction
+made by naturalists, of primitive, secondary, and tertiary mountains, in
+order to see how far the observations of this well informed naturalist
+shall be found to confirm the theory of the earth which has been already
+given, or not.
+
+The Oural mountains form a very long chain, which makes the natural
+division betwixt Europe and Asia, to the north of the Caspian. If in
+this ridge, as a centre of elevation, and of mineral operations, we
+shall find the greatest manifestation of the violent exertion of
+subterraneous fire, or of consolidating and elevating operations; and if
+we shall perceive a regular appearance of diminution in the violence or
+magnitude of those operations, as the places gradually recede from
+this centre of active force; we may find some explanation of those
+appearances, without having recourse to conjectures which carry no
+scientific meaning, and which are more calculated to confound our
+acquired knowledge, than to form any valuable distinction of things. Let
+us consult M. Pallas how far this is the case, or not.
+
+After having told us that all those various alpine schisti, jaspers,
+porphyries, serpentines, etc. in those mountains, are found mutually
+convertible with granite, or graduating into each other, our author thus
+continues, (p. 50).
+
+"On entrevoit de certaines loix a l'égard de l'arrangement respectif
+de cet ordre secondaire d'anciennes roches, par tous les systèmes de
+montagnes qui appartiennent à l'Empire Russe. La chaîne Ouralique, par
+exemple, a du côté de l'Orient sur tout sa longueur, une très-grande
+abondance de schistes cornés, serpentins et talceux, riches en filons
+de cuivre, qui forment le principal accompagnement du granite, et en
+jaspres de diverses couleurs plus extérieurs et souvent comme entrelacés
+avec les premiers, mais formant des suites de montagnes entières, et
+occupant de très-grands espaces. De ce même côté, il y paraît beaucoup
+de quartz en grandes roches toutes pures, tant dans la principale chaîne
+que dans le noyau des montagnes de jaspre, et jusques dans la plaine.
+Les marbres spateux et veinés, percent en beaucoup d'endroits. La
+plupart de ces espèces ne paraissent point du tout à la lisière
+occidentale de la chaîne, qui n'est presque que de roche mélangée de
+schistes argileux, alumineux, phlogistique, etc. Les filons des mines
+d'or mêlées, les riches mines de cuivre en veines et chambrées, les
+mines de fer et d'aimant par amas et montagnes entières, sont l'apanage
+de la bande schisteuse orientale; tandis que l'occidentale n'a pour elle
+que des mines de fer de dépôts, et se montre généralement très-pauvre en
+métaux. Le granit de la chaîne qui borde la Sibérie, est recouvert du
+côté que nous connaissons de roches cornées de la nature des pierres à
+fusil, quelquefois tendant à la nature d'un grais fin et de schistes
+très-métallières de différente composition. Le jaspre n'y est qu'en
+filons, ou plans obliques, ce qui est très-rare pour la chaîne
+Ouralique, et s'observe dans la plus grande partie de la Sibérie, à
+l'exception de cette partie de sa chaîne qui passe près de la mer
+d'Okhotsk, ou le jaspre forme derechef des suites de montagnes, ainsi
+que nous venons de le dire des monts Ourals; mais comme cette roche
+tient ici le côté méridionale de la chaîne Sibérienne, et que nous
+ne lui connaissons point ce côté sur le reste de sa longueur, il se
+pourrait que le jaspre y fût aussi abondant. Il faudrait, au reste, bien
+plus de fouilles et d observations pour établir quelque chose de certain
+sur l'ordre respectif qu'observent ces roches."
+
+I would now ask, if in all this account of the gradation of rock from
+the Oural mountains to the sandy coast of the Baltic, there is to be
+observed any clear and distinctive mark of primitive, secondary, and
+tertiary, mountains, farther than as one stratum may be considered as
+either prior or posterior to another stratum, according to the order of
+superposition in which they are found. We have every where evident marks
+of the formation of strata by materials deposited originally in water;
+for the most part, there is sufficient proof that this water in which
+those materials had been deposited was the sea; we are likewise assured
+that the operations of this living world producing animals, must
+have, for a course of time, altogether inconceivably been exerted,
+in preparing materials for this mass; and, lastly, from the changed
+constitution of those masses, we may infer certain mineral operations
+that melt the substance and alter the position of those horizontal
+bodies. Such is the information which we may collect from this mineral
+description of the Russian Dominions.
+
+If we compare some of the Oural mountains with the general strata of
+the Russian plains, then, as to the contained minerals, we may find a
+certain diversity in those two places; at the same time, no greater
+perhaps than may be found betwixt two different bodies in those same
+plains, for example, chalk and flint. But when we consider those bodies
+of the earth, or solid strata of the globe, in relation to their proper
+structure and formation, we surely can find in this description nothing
+on which may be founded any solid opinion with regard to a different
+original, however important conclusions may perhaps be formed with
+regard to the operations of the globe, from the peculiar appearances
+found in alpine.
+
+From this detail of what is found in the Oural mountains, and in the
+gradation of country from those mountains to the plains of Russia, we
+have several facts that are worthy of observation. First extensive
+mountains of jasper. I have a specimen of this stone; it is striped red
+and green like some of our marly strata. It has evidently been formed of
+such argillaceous and siliceous materials, not only indurated, so as to
+lose its character, as an argillaceous stone, but to have been brought
+into that degree of fusion which produces perfect solidity. Of the same
+kind are those hornstein rocks of the nature of flint, sometimes tending
+to the nature of a fine sandstone. Here is the same induration of
+sandstone by means of fusion, that in the argillaceous strata has
+produced jasper. But oblique veins of jasper are represented as
+traversing these last strata; now this is a fact which is not
+conceivable in any other way, than by the injection or transfusion of
+the fluid jasper among those masses of indurated strata.
+
+All this belongs to the east side of the mountains. On the west, again,
+we find the same species of strata; only these are not changed to such a
+degree as to lose their original character or construction, and thus to
+be termed differently in mineralogy.
+
+Our author then proceeds. (p. 53.)
+
+"Nous pourrons parler plus décisivement sur les _montagnes secondaires
+et tertiaires_ de l'Empire, et c'est de celles-là, de la nature, de
+l'arrangement et du contenu de leurs couches, des grandes inégalités et
+de la forme du continent d'Europe et d'Asie, que l'on peut tirer avec
+plus de confiance quelques lumières sur les changemens arrivés aux
+terres habitables. Ces deux ordres de montagnes présentent la chronique
+de notre globe la plus ancienne, la moins sujette aux falsifications, et
+en même-tems plus lisible que le caractère des chaînes primitives;
+ce font les archives de la nature, antérieures aux lettres et aux
+traditions les plus reculées, qu'il étoit réservé à notre siècle
+observateur de feuiller, de commenter, et de mettre au jour, mais que
+plusieurs siècles après le nôtre n'épuiseront pas.
+
+"Dans toute l'étendue de vastes dominations Russes, aussi bien que
+dans l'Europe entière, les observateurs attentifs ont remarqué
+que généralement la band schisteuse des grandes chaînes se trouve
+immédiatement recouverte ou cottée par la _bande calcaire_. Celle-ci
+forme deux ordres de montagnes, très-différentes par la hauteur, la
+situation de leurs couches, et la composition de la pierre calcaire qui
+les compose; différence qui est très-évidente dans cette bande calcaire
+qui forme la lisière occidentale de toute la chaîne Ouralique, et dont
+le plan s'étend par tout le plat pays de la Russie. L'on observerait
+la même chose à l'orient de la chaîne, et dans toute l'étendue de la
+Sibérie, si les couches calcaires horizontales n'y étaient recouvertes
+par les dépôts postérieures, de façon qu'il ne paraît à la surface que
+les parties les plus faillantes de la bande, et si ce pays n'étoit trop
+nouvellement cultivé et trop peu exploité par des fouilles et autres
+opérations, que des hommes industrieux ont pratiqué dans les pays
+anciennement habités. Ce que je vais exposer sur les deux ordres de
+montagnes calcaires, se rapportera donc principalement à celles qui sont
+à l'occident de la chaîne Ouralique.
+
+"Ce côté de la dite chaîne consiste sur cinquante à cent verstes de
+largeur, de roche calcaire solide, d'un grain uni, qui tantôt ne
+contient aucune trace de productions marines, tantôt n'en conserve
+que des empreintes aussi légères qu'éparses. Cette roche s'élève en
+montagnes d'une hauteur très-considérable, irrégulières, rapides, et
+coupées de vallons escarpés. Ses couches, généralement épaisses, ne sont
+point de niveau, mais très-inclinées à l'horizon, paralleles, pour la
+plupart, à la direction de la chaîne, qui est aussi ordinairement celle
+de la bande schisteuse;--au lieu que du côté de l'orient les couches
+calcaires sont au sens de la chaîne en direction plus ou moins
+approchante de l'angle droite. L'on trouve dans ces hautes montagnes
+calcaires de fréquentes grottes et cavernes très-remarquables, tant
+par leur grandeur que par les belles congélations et crystallizations
+stalactiques dont elles s'ornent. Quelques-unes de ces grottes ne
+peuvent être attribuées qu'à quelque bouleversement des couches;
+d'autres semblent devoir leur origine à l'écoulement des sources
+souterraines qui ont amolli, rongé et charrié une partie de la roche qui
+en étoit susceptible.
+
+"En s'éloignant de la chaîne, on voit les couches calcaires s'aplanir
+assez rapidement, prendre une position horizontale, et devenir
+abondantes en toute forte de coquillages, de madrépores, et d'autres
+dépouilles marines. Telles on les voit par-tout dans les vallées les
+plus basses qui se trouvent aux pieds des montagnes (comme aux environs
+de la rivière d'Oufa); telles aussi, elles occupent tout l'étendue de la
+grande Russie, tant en collines qu'en plat pays; solides tantôt et comme
+semées de productions marines; tantôt toutes composées de coquilles et
+madrépores brisées, et de ce gravier calcaire qui se trouve toujours sur
+les parages ou la mer abonde en pareilles productions; tantôt, enfin,
+dissoutes en craie et en marines, et souvent entremêlées de couches de
+gravier et de cailloux roulés."
+
+How valuable for science to have naturalists who can distinguish
+properly what they see, and describe intelligibly that which they
+distinguish. In this description of the strata, from the chain of
+mountains here considered as primitive, to the plains of Russia, which
+are supposed to be of a tertiary formation, our naturalist presents us
+with another species of strata, which he has distinguished, on the one
+hand, in relation to the mountains at present in question, and on the
+other, with regard to the strata in the plains, concerning which there
+is at present no question at all. Now, let us see how these three things
+are so connected in their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
+links of the same chain.
+
+The primary and tertiary masses are bodies perfectly disconnected;
+and, without a medium by which they might be approached, they would be
+considered as things differing in all respects, consequently as having
+their origins of as opposite a nature as are their appearances. But the
+nature and formation of those bodies are not left in this obscurity;
+for, the secondary masses, which are interposed, participate so
+precisely of what is truly opposite and characteristic in the primary
+and tertiary masses, that it requires nothing more than to see this
+distinction of things in its true light, to be persuaded, that in those
+three different things we may perceive a certain gradation, which
+here takes place among the works of nature, and forms three steps
+distinguishable by a naturalist, although in reality nothing but the
+variable measure of similar operations.
+
+We are now to assimilate the primary and tertiary masses, which are so
+extremely different, by means of the secondary masses, which is the
+mean. The primary and tertiary differ in the following respects: The one
+of these contains the relicts of organised bodies which are not observed
+in the other. But in the species containing these distinguishable
+bodies, the natural structure and position of the mass is little
+affected, or not so much as to be called into doubt. This, however, is
+not the case with the other; the species in which organised bodies do
+not appear, is in general so indurated or consolidated in its structure,
+and changed in its position, that this common origin of those masses is
+by good naturalists, who have also carefully examined them, actually
+denied. Now, the secondary masses may be considered, not only as
+intermediate with respect to its actual place, as M. Pallas has
+represented it, but as uniting together the primary and tertiary, or as
+participating of the distinguishing characters of the other two. It
+is homologated with the primitive mountains, in the solidity of its
+substance and in the position of its strata; with the tertiary species,
+again, in its containing marks of organised bodies. How far this view
+of things is consistent with the theory of the earth now given, is
+submitted to the consideration of the unprejudiced.
+
+Let us see what our learned author has said farther on this subject,
+(page 65).
+
+"Je dois parler d'un ordre de montagnes très-certainement postérieur aux
+couches marines, puisque celles-ci, généralement lui servent de base.
+On n'a point jusqu'ici observé une suite de ces _montagnes tertiaires_,
+effet des catastrophes les plus modernes de notre globe, si marquée
+et si puissante, que celle qui accompagne la chaine Ouralique ou côté
+occidentale fur tout la longueur. Cette suite de montagnes, pour la
+plupart composées de grais, de marnes rougeâtres, entremêlées de couches
+diversement mixtes, forme une chaîne par-tout séparée par une vallée
+plus ou moins large de la bande de roche calcaire, dont nous avons
+parlé. Sillonnée et entrecoupée de fréquens vallons, elles s'élève
+souvent à plus de cent toises perpendiculaires, se répand vers les
+plaines de la Russie en traînées de collines, qui séparent les rivières,
+en accompagnant généralement la rive boréale ou occidentale, et dégénère
+enfin en déserts sableux qui occupent de grands espaces, et s'étendent
+surtout par longues bandes parallèles aux principales traces qui suivent
+les cours des rivieres. La principale force de ces montagnes tertiaires
+est plus près de la chaîne primitive par-tout le gouvernement
+d'Orenbourg et la Permie, ou elle consiste principalement en grais, et
+contient un fond inépuisable de mines de cuivre sableuses, argileuses,
+et autres qui se voient ordinairement dans les couches horizontales.
+Plus loin, vers la plaine, sont des suites de collines toutes marneuses,
+qui abondent autant en pierres gypseuses, que les autres en minerais
+cuivreux. Je n'entre pas dans le détail de celles-ci, qui indiquent
+sur-tout les sources salines; mais je dois dire des premières, qui
+abondent le plus et dont les plus hautes élévations des plaines, même
+celle de Moscou, sont formées, qu'elles contiennent très-peu de traces
+de productions marines, et jamais des amas entiers de ces corps, tels
+qu'une mer reposée pendant des siècles de suite a pu les accumuler dans
+les bancs calcaires. Rien, au contraire, de plus abondant dans ces
+montagnes de grais stratifié sur l'ancien plan calcaire, que des troncs
+d'arbres entières et des fragmens de bois pétrifié, souvent minéralisé
+par le cuivre ou le fer; des impressions de troncs de palmires, de
+tiges de plantes, de roseau, et de quelques fruits étrangers; enfin des
+ossemens d'animaux terrestres, si rares dans les couches calcaires. Les
+bois pétrifiés se trouvent jusques dans les collines de sable de la
+plaine; l'on en tire, entr'autres, des hauteurs sablonneuses aux
+environs de Sysran sur la Volga, changés en queux très-fin, qui a
+conservé jusqu'à la texture organique du bois, et remarquables sur-tout
+par les traces très-évidentes de ces vers rongeurs qui attaquent les
+vaisseaux, les pilotis et autres bois trempés dans la mer, et qui sont
+proprement originaires de la mer des Indes."
+
+This philosopher has now given us a view of what, according to the
+present fashion of mineral philosophy, he has termed _montagnes
+primitives, secondaires, et tertiaires_. The first consists in masses
+and strata, much indurated and consolidated, and greatly displaced in
+their position; but the character of which is chiefly taken from this,
+that they contain not any visible mark of animal or vegetable bodies.
+
+The second are formed in a great measure of marine productions, are
+often no less consolidated than those of the first class, and frequently
+no less changed in their natural shape and situation.
+
+The third again have for character, according to this learned theorist,
+the containing of those organised bodies which are proper to the earth,
+instead of those which in the second class had belonged to the sea;
+in other respects, surely there is no essential difference. It is not
+pretended that these tertiary strata had any other origin, than that of
+having been deposited in water; it is not so much as suspected, that
+this water had been any other than that of the sea; the few marine
+bodies which M. Pallas here acknowledges, goes at least to prove this
+fact: and with regard to the mineral operations which had been employed
+in consolidating those water formed strata, it is impossible not to be
+convinced that every effect visible in the other two are here also to be
+perceived.
+
+From this view of mineral bodies, taken from the extensive observations
+of the Russian dominions, and from the suppositions of geologists in
+relation to those appearances, we should be led to conclude that the
+globe of this earth had been originally nothing but an ocean, a world
+containing neither plant nor animal to live, to grow and propagate its
+species. In following a system founded on those appearances, we must
+next suppose, that to the sterile unorganised world there had succeeded
+an ocean stored with fish of every species. Here it would be proper to
+inquire what sustained those aquatic animals; for, in such a system as
+this, there is no provision made for continuing the life even of the
+individuals, far less of feeding the species while, in an almost
+infinite succession of individuals, they should form a continent of land
+almost composed of their _exuviae_.
+
+If fish can be fed upon water and stone; if siliceous bodies can, by
+the digesting powers of animals, be converted into argillaceous and
+calcareous earths; and if inflammable matter can be prepared without the
+intervention of vegetable bodies, we might erect a system in which this
+should be the natural order of things. But to form a system in direct
+opposition to every order of nature that we know, merely because we may
+suppose another order of things different from the laws of nature which
+we observe, would be as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in
+science, by which the speculations of philosophy are directed, as it
+would be contrary to common sense, by which the affairs of mankind are
+conducted.
+
+Still, however, to pursue our visionary system, after a continent had
+been formed from the relicts of those animals, living, growing, and
+propagating, during an indefinite series of ages, plants at last are
+formed; and, what is no less wonderful, those animals which had formed
+the earth then disappear; but, in compensation, we are to suppose, I
+presume, that terrestrial animals began. Let us now reason from those
+facts, without either constraining nature, which we know, or forming
+visionary systems, with regard to things which are unknown. It would
+appear, that at one period of time, or in one place, the matter of the
+globe may be deposited, in strata, without containing any organised
+bodies; at another time, or in another place, much animal matter may be
+deposited in strata, without any vegetable substance there appearing;
+but at another period, or at another time, strata may be formed with
+much vegetable matter, while there is hardly to be observed any animal
+body. What then are we to conclude upon the whole? That nature, forming
+strata, is subject to vicissitudes; and that it is not always the same
+regular operation with respect to the materials, although always forming
+strata upon the same principles. Consequently, upon the same spot in
+the sea, different materials may be accumulated at different periods of
+time, and, conversely, the same or similar materials may be collected in
+different places at the same time. Nothing more follows strictly from
+the facts on which we now are reasoning; and this is a conclusion which
+will be verified by every appearance, so far as I know.
+
+Of this I am certain, that in a very little space of this country, in
+many places, such a course of things is to be perceived. Nothing so
+common as to find alternated, over and over again, beds of sand-stone
+without animal bodies, beds of coal and schistus abounding with
+vegetable bodies, beds of lime-stone formed of shells and corals, and
+beds or particular strata of iron-stone containing sometimes vegetable
+sometimes animal bodies, or both. Here, indeed, the strata are most
+commonly inclined; it is seldom they are horizontal; consequently, as
+across the whole country, all the strata come up to the day, and may be
+seen in the beds of our rivers, we have an opportunity of observing that
+great variety which is in nature, and which we are not able to explain.
+This only is certain, from what we see, that there is nothing formed
+in one epoch of nature, but what has been repeated in another, however
+dissimilar may be the operations which had intervened between those
+several epochs.
+
+It must not be alleged, that the heights of the Oural mountains, or the
+hardness of their rocks, make an essential distinction between them
+and the argillaceous or arenaceous strata of the plains; solidity and
+hardness, as well as changes in their height and natural position, has
+been superinduced in operations posterior to the collection of those
+masses,--operations which may be formed in various degrees, even in the
+different parts of the same mass. If this is the case, there can be no
+difficulty in conceiving a stratum, which appears to be argillaceous
+or marly in the plains, to be found jasper in the Oural mountains. But
+there is nothing in the Oural mountains, that may not be found some
+where or other in the plains, although the soft and easily decomposing
+argillaceous strata be not found upon the Oural mountains, or the Alps,
+for this reason, that had those mountains been formed of such materials,
+there had not been a mountain there at this day.
+
+But surely the greatest possible error, with regard to the philosophy of
+this earth, would be to confound the sediment of a river with the strata
+of the globe; bodies deposited upon the surface of the earth, with those
+sunk at the bottom of the sea; and things which only form the travelled
+or transported soil, with those which constitute the substratum or the
+solid earth. How far M. Pallas has committed this oversight, I leave
+others to determine. After mentioning those strata in which wood is
+found petrified, and metallic minerals formed, he thus proceeds, (page
+69).
+
+"Dans ces mêmes dépôts sableux et souvent limoneux, gisent les restes
+des grands animaux de l'Inde: ces ossemens d'éléphans, de rhinocéros, de
+buffles monstrueux, dont on déterre tous les jours un si grand nombre,
+et qui font l'admiration des curieux. En Sibérie, où l'on à découvert le
+long de presque toutes les rivières ces restes d'animaux étrangers,
+et l'ivoire même bien conservé en si grande abondance, qu'il forme un
+article de commerce, en Sibérie, dis je, c'est aussi la couche la plus
+moderne de limon sablonneux qui leur sert de sépulture, et nulle part
+ces monumens étrangers sont si frequens, qu'aux endroits où la grande
+chaine, qui domine surtout la frontière méridionale de la Sibérie, offre
+quelque dépression, quelque ouverture considérable.
+
+"Ces grands ossemens, tantôt épars tantôt entassés par squelettes,
+et même par hécatombes, considérée dans leurs sites naturels, m'ont
+sur-tout convaincu de la réalité d'un déluge arrivé sur notre terre,
+d'une catastrophe, dont j'avoue n'avoir pu concevoir la vraisemblance
+avant d'avoir parcouru ces places, et vu, par moi-même, tout ce qui peut
+y servir de preuve à cet évènement mémorable[24]. Une infinité de ces
+ossemens couchés dans des lits mêlés de petites tellines calcinées, d'os
+de poissons, de glossopètres, de bois chargés d'ocre, etc. prouve déjà
+qu'ils ont été transportés par des inondations. Mais la carcasse d'un
+rhinocéros, trouvé avec sa peau entière, des restes de tendons, de
+ligamens, et de cartilages, dans les terres glacées des bords du
+Viloûi, dont j'ai déposé les parties les mieux conservées au cabinet de
+l'Académie, forme encore une preuve convaincante que ce devait être
+un mouvement d'inondation des plus violens et des plus rapides, qui
+entraîna jadis ces cadavres vers nos climats glacés, avant que la
+corruption eût le tems, d'en détruire les parties molles. Il seroit à
+souhaiter qu'un observateur parvint aux montagnes qui occupent l'espace
+entre les fleuves Indighirka et Koylma où selon le rapport des
+chasseurs, de semblables carcasses d'éléphans et d'autres animaux
+gigantesques encore revêtues de leurs peaux, ont été remarquées à
+plusieurs reprises."
+
+[Note 24: Voyez le Mémoire, imprimé dans le XVII. volume des nouveaux
+Commentaires de l'Académie Imperiale de Petersbourgh.]
+
+The question here turns upon this, Are the sea shells and glossopetrae,
+which are thus found deposited along with those skeletons, in their
+natural state, or are they petrified and mineralised. If the productions
+of the sea shall here be found collected along with bodies belonging to
+the surface of the earth, and which had never been within the limits of
+the sea, this would surely announce to us some strange catastrophe,
+of which it would be difficult, perhaps, to form a notion; if, on the
+contrary, those marine productions belong to the solid strata of the
+earth, in the resolution or decay of which they had been set at liberty,
+and were transported in the floods, our author would have no reason from
+those appearances to conclude, there had existed any other deluge than
+those produced by the waters of the land[25].
+
+[Note 25: Since writing this, I find my doubts in a great measure
+resolved, in reading M. Pallas's Journal, translated from the German by
+M. Gauthier de la Peyronie. What I had suspected is, I think, confirmed
+in the distinct account which M. Pallas has given of those occasions
+in which the bones of land animals and marine objects are found buried
+together. The marine objects are mineralised; consequently, they have
+proceeded from the decomposition of the solid strata; and, having been
+travelled in the running water of the surface of the earth, they must
+have been deposited in those beds of rivers, which now are dry, alongst
+with the bones, or the entire bodies of terrestrial animals, the remains
+of which are now found there. This argument, from the state of those
+marine bodies will not be allowed, perhaps by the generality of
+mineralists, who attribute to the operations of water every species of
+petrifaction or mineralisation; but, until some species of proof be
+given with regard to the truth of that theory, which vulgar error first
+suggested, I must reason from a theory, in proof of which I have given
+clear examples, and, I think, irrefragable arguments, which shall be
+more and more illustrated. Thus may be removed the necessity of a
+general deluge, or any great catastrophe, in order to bring together
+things so foreign to each other; but at the same time we would ascertain
+this fact, That formerly the Elephant and Rhinoceros had lived in
+Siberia. (See Voyage de Pallas, Tom. II. p. 377 and 403.)]
+
+Having thus endeavoured to remove this prevailing prejudice, of there
+being primitive parts in this earth, parts of which the composition and
+constitution are not to be explained upon the principles of natural
+philosophy, it will be proper to inquire, how far there may be in the
+theory, which has now been given, principles by which may be explained
+those appearances that have led natural philosophers to form
+conclusions, of there being in this earth parts whose origin may not be
+traced; and of there being parts whose origin may not be explained upon
+the same principles which apply so well to all the rest.
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+In the present theory, it is maintained, that there is no part of the
+earth which has not had the same origin, so far as this consists in that
+earth being collected at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards produced,
+as land, along with masses of melted substances, by the operation of
+mineral causes. But, though all those things be similar, or equal, as to
+the manner of their production, they are far from being so with regard
+to the periods of their original composition, or to the subsequent
+operations which they may have undergone.
+
+There is a certain order established for the progress of nature, for the
+succession of things, and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
+of this globe; and, the order of time is associated with this change of
+things. But it is not in equal portions that time is thus combined with
+dissimilar things, nor always found, in our estimation, as equally
+accompanying those which we reckon similar. The succession of light and
+darkness is that which, in those operations, appears to us most steady;
+the alternation of heat and cold comes next, but not with equal
+regularity in its periods. The succession of wet and dry upon the
+surface of the earth, though equally the work of nature and the effect
+of regular causes, is often to us irregular, when we look for equal
+periods in the course of things which are unequal. It is by equalities
+that we find order in things, and we wish to find order every where.
+
+The present object of our contemplation is the alternation of land
+and water upon the surface of this globe. It is only in knowing this
+succession of things, that natural appearances can be explained; and
+it is only from the examination of those appearances, that any certain
+knowledge of this operation is to be obtained. But how shall we acquire
+the knowledge of a system calculated for millions, not of years only,
+nor of the ages of man, but of the races of men, and the successions of
+empires? There is no question here with regard to the memory of man, of
+any human record, which continues the memory of man from age to age; we
+must read the transactions of time past, in the present state of natural
+bodies; and, for the reading of this character, we have nothing but
+the laws of nature, established in the science of man by his inductive
+reasoning.
+
+It has been in reasoning after this manner, that I have endeavoured to
+prove, that every thing which we now behold, of the solid parts of this
+earth, had been formerly at the bottom of the sea; and that there is, in
+the constitution of this globe, a power for interchanging sea and land.
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the system of this globe,
+we may next examine, how far there are to be found any marks of certain
+parts of our earth having more than once undergone that change of
+posture, or vicissitude of things, and of having had reiterated
+operations of the mineral kingdom changing their substance, as well as
+altering their positions in relation to the atmosphere and sea.
+
+Besides the gradual decay of solid land, exposed to the silent
+influences of the atmosphere, and to the violent operations of the
+waters moving upon the surface of the earth, there is a more sudden
+destruction that may be supposed to happen sometimes to our continents
+of land. In order to see this, it must be considered, that the
+continents of our earth are only raised above the level of the sea by
+the expansion of matter, placed below that land, and rarified in that
+place: We may thus consider our land as placed upon pillars, which may
+break, and thus restore the ancient situation of things when this land
+had been originally collected at the bottom of the ocean. It is not here
+inquired by what mechanism this operation is to be performed; it is
+certainly by the exertion of a subterranean power that the land is
+elevated from the place in which it had been formed; and nothing is more
+natural than to suppose the supports of the land in time to fail, or be
+destroyed in the course of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
+In that case, whatever were remaining of that land, which had for
+millions of ages past sustained plants and animals, would again be
+placed at the bottom of the sea; and strata of every different species
+might be deposited again upon that mass, which, from an atmospheric
+situation, is now supposed to be lower than the surface of the sea.
+
+Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated, or restored with the
+new superincumbent strata, consolidated in their texture and inclined in
+their position. In that case, the inferior mass must have undergone a
+double course of mineral changes and displacement; consequently, the
+effect of subterranean heat or fusion must be more apparent in this
+mass, and the marks of its original formation more and more obliterated.
+
+If, in examining our land, we shall find a mass of matter which had been
+evidently formed originally in the ordinary manner of stratification,
+but which is now extremely distorted in its structure, and displaced in
+its position,--which is also extremely consolidated in its mass, and
+variously changed in its composition,--which therefore has the marks
+of its original or marine composition extremely obliterated, and many
+subsequent veins of melted mineral matter interjected; we should then
+reason to suppose that here were masses of matter which, though not
+different in their origin from those that are gradually deposited at the
+bottom of the ocean, have been more acted upon by subterranean heat and
+the expanding power, that is to say, have been changed in a greater
+degree by the operations of the mineral region. If this conclusion shall
+be thought reasonable, then here is an explanation of all the peculiar
+appearances of the alpine schistus masses of our land, those parts which
+have been erroneously considered as primitive in the constitution of the
+earth.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that some parts of our earth may have
+undergone the vicissitudes of sea and land more than once, having been
+changed from the summit of a continent to the bottom of the sea, and
+again erected, with the rest of that bottom, into the place of land. In
+that case, appearances might be found to induce natural philosophers to
+conclude that there were in our land primary parts, which had not the
+marine origin which is generally to be acknowledged in the structure
+of this earth; and, by finding other masses, of marine origin,
+superincumbent upon those primary mountains, they might make strange
+suppositions in order to explain those natural appearances.
+
+Let us now see what has been advanced by those philosophers who, though
+they term these parts of the earth _primordial_, and not _primitive_, at
+the same time appear to deny to those parts an origin analogous to that
+of their secondary mountains, or strata that are aquiform in their
+construction.
+
+M. de Luc, after having long believed that the strata of the Alps had
+been formed like those of the low countries, at the bottom of the sea,
+gives an account of the occasion by which he was first confirmed in the
+opposite opinion.[26] Like a true philosopher, he gives us the reason of
+this change.
+
+[Note 26: Lettres Physique et Morales sur l'Histoire de la Terre, tom.
+2. pag. 206.]
+
+"Ce fut une espèce de _montagne_ très commune, et que j'avois souvent
+examinée qui dessilla mes yeux. La pierre qui la compose est de
+la classe appellée _schiste_; son caractère générique est d'être
+_feuilletée_; elle renferme _l'ardoise_ dont on couvre les toits. Ces
+_feuillets_ minces, qu'on peut prendre pour des _couches_, et qui le
+font en effet dans quelques pierres de ce genre, rappelloient toujours
+l'idée vague de dépôts des eaux. Mais il y a des masses dont la
+composition est plutôt par fibres que par feuillets, et dont le moëllon
+ressemble aux copeaux de bois d'un chantier. Le plus souvent aussi les
+feuillets sont situés en toute suite de sens dans une même _montagne_,
+et quelquefois même verticalement, Enfin il s'en trouve de si tortillés,
+qu'il est impossible de les regarder comme des dépôts de l'eau.
+
+"Ce fut donc cette espèce de montagne qui me persuada la première
+que toutes les montagnes n'avoient pas une même origine. Le lieu où
+j'abjurai mon erreur, étoit un de ces grands _chantiers_ pétrifiés, qui,
+par la variété du tortillement, et des zig-zags des fibres du moëllon
+qui le composoit, attira singulièrement mon attention. C'étoit un sort
+grand talus qui venoit d'une face escarpée; j'y montai pour m'approcher
+du rocher, et je remarquai, avec étonnement, des multitudes de paquets
+enchevêtrés les uns dans les autres, sans ordre ni direction fixe; les
+uns presqu'en rouleaux; les autres en zig-zag; et même ce qui, séparé de
+la montagne, eût peu être pris pour des _couches_, le trouvoit incliné
+de toute manière dans cette même face de rocher. _Non_, me dis-je alors
+à moi-même; _non, l'eau n'a pu faire cette montagne.... Ni celle-là
+donc_, ajoutai-je en regardant ailleurs.... _Et pourquoi mieux celle-là?
+Pourquoi toutes les montagnes devroient-elles être le produit des eaux,
+seulement parce qu'il y en a quelques-unes qui annoncent cette origine_?
+En effet, puis qu'on n'a songé aux eaux, comme cause des montagnes,
+que par les preuves évidentes que quelques-unes offroient de cette
+formation; pourquoi étendre cette conséquence à toutes, s'il y en
+a beaucoup qui manquent de ces caractères? C'est comme le dit Mr.
+d'Alembert, qu'on généralise ses premières remarques l'instant d'apres
+qu'on ne remarquoit rien."
+
+Science is indebted to this author for giving us so clear a picture
+of natural appearances, and of his own reasoning upon those facts, in
+forming his opinion; he thus leads astray no person of sound judgment,
+although he may be in error. The disposition of things in the present
+case are such, that, reasoning from his principles, this author could
+not see the truth; because he had not been persuaded, that aquiform
+strata could have been so changed by the chemical power of fusion, and
+the mechanical force of bending while in a certain state of softness.
+
+But though, in this case, the reasoning of this philosopher is to be
+justified, so far as he proceeded upon principles which could not lead
+him to the truth, his conduct is not so irreproachable in applying them
+to cases by which their fallacy might have been detected. This author
+acknowledges calcareous strata to be aquiform in their original; but,
+in those mountains which he has so much examined, he will find those
+aquiform bodies have undergone the same species of changes, which made
+him conclude that those schistus mountains had not been truly aquiform,
+as he at first had thought them. This would have led him to reason back
+upon his principles, and to say, _If one species of strata may be thus
+changed in its texture, and its shape, may not another be equally so?
+Therefore, may not the origin of both be similar_?
+
+But least I should do injustice to this author, to whom we are indebted
+for many valuable observations in natural history, I shall transcribe
+what he has said upon the subject, being persuaded that my readers will
+not think this improper in me, or impertinent to the argument.
+
+"Quand nous fumes une fois persuadés que la mer n'avoit pas fait
+toutes les _montagnes_, nous entreprîmes de découvrir les caractères
+distinctifs de celles qui lui devoient leur origine; et s'il étoit, par
+exemple, des matières qui leur fussent propres. Mais nous y trouvâmes
+les mêmes difficultés qu'on rencontre dans tout ce qu'on veut classer
+dans la nature. On peut bien distinguer entr'elles les choses qui
+ont fortement l'empreinte de leur classe; mais les confins échappent
+toujours.
+
+"C'est là, pour le dire en passant, ce qui a pu conduire quelques
+philosophes à imaginer cette _chaîne des êtres_ où ils supposent,
+que, de la pierre à l'homme et plus haut, les nuances sont réellement
+imperceptibles. Comme si, quoique les limites soyent cachées à nos sens,
+notre intelligence ne nous disoit pas, qu'il y a un _saut_, une distance
+même infinie, entre le plus petit degré d'organization _propageante_,
+et la matière unie par la simple cohésion: entre le plus petit degré de
+_sensibilité_, et la matière insensible: entre la plus petite capacité
+d'observer et de transmettre ses observations, et l'instinct constamment
+le même dans l'espèce. Toutes ces différences tranchées existent dans la
+nature; mais notre incapacité de rien connoître à fond, et la necessité
+où nous sommes de juger de tout sur des apparences, nous fait perdre
+presque toutes les limites, parce que sur ces bords, la plupart des
+phénomènes sont équivoques. Ainsi la plante nous paroît se rapprocher de
+la pierre, mais n'en approche jamais réellement.
+
+"On éprouve la même difficulté à classer les montagnes; et quoique
+depuis quelque tems plusieurs naturalistes ayent aussi observé qu'elles
+n'ont pas toutes la même origine, je ne vois pas qu'on soit parvenu à
+fixer des caractères infaillibles, pour les placer sûrement toutes dans
+leurs classes particulières.
+
+"Après avoir examiné attentivement cet objet, d'après les phénomènes que
+j'ai moi-même observés, et ce que j'ai appris par les observations des
+autres; j'ai vu que c'étoit là un champ très vaste, quand on vouloit
+l'embrasser en entier, et trop vaste pour moi, qui n'étoit pas libre d'y
+consacrer tout le tems qu'il exige. Je me suis donc replié sur mon objet
+principal, savoir _la cause qui a laissé des dépouilles marines dans nos
+continens_, et l'examen des hypothèses sur cette matière.
+
+"Les phénomènes ainsi limités, se réduisent à ceci: qu'il y a dans nos
+continens des montagnes visiblement formées par des _dépôts successifs
+de la mer_ et a l'égard des quelles il n'y a besoin de rien imaginer, si
+ce n'est la manière dont elles en sont sorties: qu'il y en a d'autres au
+contraire, qui ne portent aucun des caractères de cette cause, et qui,
+si elles ont été produites dans la _mer_, doivent être l'effet de toute
+autre cause que de simples dépôts successifs, et avoir même précédé
+l'existence des animaux marins. J'abandonne donc les classes confuses
+où ces caractères sont équivoques, jusqu'à ce qu'elles servent à fonder
+quelque hypothèse; ayant assez de ces deux classes très distinctes pour
+examiner d'apres elles tous les systèmes qui me sont connus.
+
+"Là où ces deux classes de montagnes sont mêlées, on remarque que celles
+qui sont formées par _couches_, et qui renferment des _corps marins_,
+recouvrent souvent celles de l'autre classe, mais n'en sont jamais
+recouvertes. On a donc naturellement conclu, que lors même que la _mer_
+auroit en quelque part à la formation des montagnes où l'on ne reconnoît
+pas son caractère, celles auxquelles elle a travaillé seule, en enlevant
+des matières dans certaines parties de son fond et les déposant dans
+d'autres, font au moins les dernières formées. On les a donc nommées
+_secondaires_, et les autres _primitives_.
+
+"J'adopterai la première de ces expressions; car c'est la même qui nous
+étoit venu à l'esprit à mon frère, et à moi longtemps avant que nous
+l'eussions vue employer; mais je substituerai celle de _primordiales à_
+_primitives_ pour l'autre classe de _montagnes_, afin de ne rien décider
+sur leur origine. Il est des _montagnes_, dont jusqu'à present on n'a pu
+démêler la cause: voila le fait. Je ne dirai donc pas qu'elles ont
+été créées ainsi, parce qu'en physique je ne dois pas employer des
+expressions sur lesquelles on ne s'entend pas. Sans doute cependant,
+que l'histoire naturelle ni la physique ne nous conduisent nullement à
+croire que notre globe ait existé de toute éternité; et lorsqu'il prit
+naissance, il fallut bien que la matière qui le composa fut de quelque
+nature, ou sous quelque première forme intégrante. Rien donc jusqu'ici
+n'empêche d'admettre que ces _montagnes_ que je nommerai _primordiales_,
+ne soient réellement _primitives_; je penche même pour cette opinion
+à l'égard de quelques unes. Mais il y a une très grande variété
+entr'elles; et quoiqu'elles soyent toutes également exclues de la classe
+_secondaire_, elles ne sont pas toutes semblables: il y en a même un
+grand nombre dont les matières ont une certaine configuration qui semble
+annoncer qu'elles ayent été molles et durcies ensuite, quoique par
+une toute autre cause que celle qui a agi pour former les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+Here I would beg leave to call the attention of philosophers to this
+observation of a naturalist who explains all petrification, and the
+consolidation of strata by aqueous infiltration. If he has here found
+reason to conclude that, in those primordial parts of the earth, there
+are a great number which, from their present configuration, must have
+been in a soft state and then hardened, and this by a quite different
+cause from that which he supposes had produced the consolidation and
+hardness of the secondary parts; this is entering precisely into my
+views of the subject, in ascribing all the consolidation of the earth,
+whether primary or secondary, to one general cause, and in tracing this
+cause, from its effects, to be no other than the fusion of those bodies.
+It must be evident, that if this philosopher has seen good reason for
+concluding such a softening cause, which had operated upon the primary
+parts, to be quite different from that which he ascribes to the
+consolidation of the secondary, which is the effect of water, it must
+then, I say, be evident that the softening cause of the primary parts,
+if not heat, by which every degree of fusion may be produced, must be an
+occult cause, one which cannot be admitted into natural philosophy.
+
+By thus choosing to consider mountains as of two distinct kinds, one
+aquiform which is understood, and the other primordial which is not to
+be known, we supersede the necessity of reconciling a theory with many
+appearances in nature which otherwise might be extremely inconvenient
+to our explanation, if not inconsistent with our system. Our author no
+doubt has thus relieved himself from a considerable difficulty in the
+philosophy of this earth, by saying here is a great part which is not
+to be explained. But I would beg leave to observe, that this form of
+discussion, with regard to a physical subject, is but a mere confession
+of our ignorance, and has no tendency to clear up another part of the
+subject of which one treats, however it may impress us with a favourable
+opinion of the theorist, in allowing him all the candour of the
+acknowledgement.
+
+The general result of the reasoning which we now have quoted, and what
+follows in his examination, seems to terminate in this; that there are
+various different compositions of mountains which this author cannot
+allow to be the production of the sea; but it is not upon account of
+the matter of which they are formed, or of the particular mixture and
+composition of those species of matter, of which the variety is almost
+indefinite. According to this philosopher, the distinction that we are
+to make of those primordial and secondary competitions, consists in
+this, that the first are in such a shape and structure as cannot be
+conceived to be formed by subsidence in water.
+
+M. de Saussure has carefully examined those same objects; and he seems
+inclined to think that they must have been the operation of the ocean;
+not in the common manner of depositing strata, but in some other way by
+crystallization. The present theory supposes all those masses formed
+originally in the ordinary manner, by the deposits or subsidence
+of materials transported in the waters, and that those strata were
+afterwards changed by operations proper to the mineral regions.
+
+But the subject of the present investigation goes farther, by inquiring
+if, in the operations of the globe, a primary and secondary class of
+bodies may be distinguished, so far as the one may have undergone the
+operations of the globe, or the vicissitudes of sea and land, oftener
+than the other, consequently must be anterior to the later productions
+both in time and operation, although the original of all those bodies
+be the same, and the operations of the earth, so far as we see in the
+effects, always proceed upon the same principles. This is an extensive
+view of nature to which few have turned their thoughts. But this is
+a subject to which the observations described by this author have
+evidently a reference.
+
+In his 113th letter, he has given us a view of one of those parts of the
+earth that are proper to be examined in determining this question so
+important in the genealogy of land, although no ways concerned in
+altering the principles upon which nature in forming continents must
+proceed.
+
+It is in describing the nature of the mountains about _Elbingerode_; and
+he begins in ascending from Hefeld.
+
+"Cette partie extérieure de la chaîne est _primordiale_: c'est du
+_granit_ à _Hereld_ et au commencement de la route; puis quand on passe
+dans d'autres vallées, on trouve les _schistes_ et la _roche grise_ dans
+tout le pied des montagnes: mais des qu'on est arrivé à une certain
+hauteur, on voit de la _pierre à chaux_ par couches étendue sur ces
+matières; et c'est elle qui forme le sommet de ces mêmes montagnes;
+tellement que la plaine élevée, qui conduit à _Elbingerode_, est
+entièrement de _pierre à chaux_, excepté dans sa partie la plus haute ou
+cette pierre est recouverte des mêmes _grès_ et sables _vitrescibles_
+qui sont sur le schiste du Bruchberg et sur la _pierre à chaux_ dans la
+_Hesse_ et le pays de Gottingue.
+
+"Les environs d'Elbingerode étant plus bas que ces parties recouvertes
+de matières vitrescibles, montrent la _pierre à chaux_ à nud; et l'on y
+trouve de très beaux marbres, dont les nuances jaunes, rouges et vertes
+sont souvent très vives, et embellies par les coupes des _corps marins_.
+
+"Cependant le schiste n'est pas enseveli partout sous ces dépôts de la
+mer; on le retrouve en quelques endroits, et même avec de _filons_.
+
+"Ainsi au milieu de ces matières _calcaires_ qui forment le sol montueux
+des environs _d'Elbingerode_, paroît encore le _schiste_ sur lequel
+elles ont été déposées: Et en montant à la partie la plus élevée de
+ces mêmes environs, on trouve que la _pierre à chaux_ est recouverte
+elle-même d'une _pierre sableuse_ grise par couches, dans laquelle on
+voit quantité de petits fragmens de _schiste_ posés de plat. C'est la
+que se trouve une des mines de _fer_ dont le minerai va en partie à la
+_Koningshutte_, mais en plus grande partie à la _Rothechutte_, qui n'est
+qu'à une lieue de distance. On perce d'abord la couche sableuse; sous
+elle se trouve de la _pierre à chaux_ grise; puis une couche de
+_pierre à chaux ferrugineuse_, remplie de _corps marins_, et surtout
+_d'entroques_: C'est cette _couche_ qui est ici le _minerai_; et elle
+appartient à la formation de cette éminence comme toutes les autres
+_couches_. Cette mine se nomme _bomshey_: elle n'est pas riche; mais
+elle sert de _fondant_ aux matières ferrugineuses tirées des filons des
+montagnes primordiales en même tems qu'elle leur ajoute son _fer_ dans
+la fonte. A quelque distance de là on a percé un autre puits; qui a
+transversé d'abord une sorte de pierre, que je ne saurois nommer, mais
+qui ressemble fort à une _lave_ poreuse. Au dessous de cette couche on a
+retrouvé la _pierre à chaux_ ordinaire; puis la _couche ferrugineuse_ y
+continue; mais elle diffère un peu de ce qu'elle est dans l'autre mine,
+une partie de sa substance étant convertie en _jaspe_.
+
+"Mais ce qui est digne de la plus grande attention dans cette contrée,
+est un filon peu distant nomme _Buchenberg_, qui appartient en partie au
+Roi, et en partie à Mr. le Comte de _Wernigerode_. La montagne en cette
+endroit montre une vallée artificielle de 70 à 80 pieds de profondeur,
+de 20 à 30 de largeur dans le haut, et de 400 toises en étendue. C'est
+le creusement qu'on a déjà fait en suivant ce _filon_ de _fer_, que l'on
+continue à exploiter de la même manière sur les terres de Mr. le Comte
+de _Wernigerode_. La matière propre de la montagne _est_ de _schiste_;
+et la vallée qui se forme de nouveau à mesure qu'on enlève la _gangue_
+du _filon_, a sûrement déjà existé dans la mer sous la forme d'une
+_fente_, qui a été remplie, et en particulier des ingrédiens dont on
+fait aujourd'hui le _fer_."
+
+Here is a supposition of our author that corresponds to nothing which
+has yet been observed any where else, so far as I know. It is concerning
+a mineral vein, one which does not appear to differ in any respect from
+other mineral veins, except in being worked in that open manner which
+has given our author an idea of its being a valley. He then supposes
+that valley (or rather empty vein) to have been in this mountain when at
+the bottom of the sea, and that this mineral vein had then been filled
+with those materials which now are found in that space between the two
+sides of the separated rock. This is a very different operation from
+that of infiltration, which is commonly supposed to be the method of
+filling mineral veins; but, we shall soon see the reason why our author
+has here deserted the common hypothesis, and has adopted another to
+serve the occasion, without appearing to have considered how perfectly
+inconsistent those two suppositions are to each other. That mineral
+veins have been filled with matter in a fluid state, is acknowledged by
+every body who has either looked at a mineral vein in the earth, or in a
+cabinet specimen; mineralists and geologists, in general, suppose this
+to have been done by means of solutions and concretions, a supposition
+by no means warranted by appearances, which, on the contrary, in general
+demonstrate that the materials of those veins had been introduced in the
+fluid state of fusion. But here is a new idea with regard to the filling
+of those veins; and, I would now beg the reader's attention to the facts
+which follow in this interesting description, and which have suggested
+that idea to our author.
+
+"Quand cette matière accidentelle est enlevée, on voit la coupe du
+_schiste_ des deux côtes de la _fente_, faisant un _toit_ et un _mur_,
+parce que la _fente_ n'est pas absolument verticale: des qu'il y a
+un peu d'inclinaison, on distingue un _toit_ et un mur, comme j'ai
+l'honneur de l'expliquer à V.M. On ne connoît point encore l'étendue de
+ce filon, ni dans sa profondeur, où l'on ne peut pas s'enfoncer beaucoup
+de cette manière, ni dans la longueur, selon laquelle on continue à
+l'exploiter.
+
+"Voilà donc un _filon_, à la rigueur de la définition que j'en ai donné
+à V.M. c'est à dire, une _fente_ dans la montagne naturelle, _comblée_
+de _matière_ étrangère. Mais ce qu'il y a d'extraordinaire ici, c'est
+que cette _matière_ vient de la _mer_: ce sont différentes _couches
+aquiformes_, dont quelques unes sont remplies de _corps marins_. Il y
+a des _couches_ d'une _terre martiale_ fort brune et sans liaison:
+d'autres, au contraire toujours _martiales_, sont très dures et
+renferment de très beau jaspe sanguin: d'autres enfin sont de vrai
+_marbre_ gris veinées de rouge. C'est dans ce marbre que font les _corps
+marins_, savoir des coquillages et des spongites; et il est lui-même
+martial comme tout le reste: les mineurs le nomment _Kubrimen_, et ne
+l'employent que comme un _fondant_ pour d'autres _minéraux de fer_.
+
+"A ce _filon_, s'en joignent d'autres plus embarrassans. Ils viennent du
+_toit_, qu'ils divisent par de larges _fentes_ comblées, aboutissantes
+au _filon_ principale. Ils font de même _calcaires_ et marins faits par
+_couches_; mais ces _couches_ ont une si grande inclinaison, que je ne
+puis les comprendre: il faut qu'il y ait eu d'étranges bouleversemens
+dans ces endroits-là[27].
+
+[Note 27: Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible to
+explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling of mineral
+veins, and their branches or ramifications, with marble containing marks
+of marine objects. But, if we shall suppose this marble to have been in
+the fluid state of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may
+easily conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its branches.
+The description here given of those appearances is by no means such as
+to enable us to judge particularly of this case, which surely merits the
+most accurate investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical
+demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances. I know that
+shells have been found within the body of veins in Germany; but, a
+stratification of those materials in a vein was never heard of before,
+so far as I know.]
+
+"Ces _fentes_ se sont faites, et ont été remplies, dans la _mer_;
+puisque les matières qui les remplissent sont de la classe de ses dépôts
+très connoissables, et qu'il contiennent des _dépouilles marines_. Mais
+ce qui embarrasse alors c'est que les autres _filons_ ne soyent pas dans
+le même cas. N'est ce point là encore un indice, que ces _fentes_ out
+été d'abord et principalement remplies de matières, poussées du fond par
+la même force qui secouoit les montagnes[28].
+
+[Note 28: But what is this power by which matter is to be forced from
+the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountains? For, unless we can
+form some idea of that power which, as a cause, we ascribe to the
+perceived effect, we either say nothing to the purpose, or we employ a
+preternatural cause. It is not sufficient to imagine a power capable of
+raising from the bottom of the sea the materials deposited in the abyss;
+it is also necessary to find a power capable of softening bodies which
+are hard, and of thus consolidating those masses which are formed of
+loose or unconnected materials. Such a power, indeed, the present theory
+assumes; and, so far as this shall be implied in the supposition of our
+author, it will thus have received a certain conformation.]
+
+"Ce _filon_ n'est pas le seul dans le _Hartz_ qui donne des signes
+_marins_. Il y en a un autre, qui même se rapproche davantage de
+la nature du commun des _filons_, et où l'on trouve aussi des
+_coquillages_. C'est celui de _Haus-Hartzbergerzug_, pres de
+_Clausthal_, où, dans les _Halles_ de quelques mines de plomb
+abandonnées, et dans une forte _d'ardoise_, on trouve de petites
+_moules_ ou _tellines_ striées, d'une espèce particulière que j'ai vue
+dans des _ardoises secondaires d'Arotzen_ en _Waldek_ et de _Sombernon_
+en _Bourgogne_. Il y a donc certainement quelques _filons_ faits par les
+dépôts de la _mer_ dans les _fentes_ de montagnes _primordiales_; comme
+au contraire il y a des _filons_ métalliques sans indices _marins_,
+dans des montagnes évidemment _secondaires_, telles que celles de
+_Derbyshire_, ou les _filons_ de _plomb_ traversent des couches de
+_pierre à chaux_."
+
+Here again our author seems to me to refute his own supposition, That a
+chasm in the schistus rock may have existed at the bottom of the sea,
+and been then filled from above with such materials as were transported
+by the moving water to that place, is not impossible; but nobody, who
+knows the nature of a common metallic vein, can ever suppose it to have
+been filled in that manner. Our author then adds, "On ne fait réellement
+que commencer dans ce genre d'observations, considérées quant à la
+Cosmologie; ainsi il ne faut point désespérer que tout cela ne se
+dévoile un jour, et que nous n'acquerrions ainsi un peu plus de
+connoissance sur ce qui se passoit dans la _mer ancienne_.
+
+"En revenant vers _Elbingerode_, nous retrouvâmes ces _schistes_, qui
+paroissent au travers des _marbres:_ ils sont donc la continuation de la
+masse _schisteuse_ à laquelle appartient le _filon_, dont je viens de
+parler. Ce _filon_ à été formé dans une _fente_, restée ouverte et vide:
+les dépôts de la _mer_ l'ont comblée, en même tems qu'ils formoient
+les couches de _marbre_, qui sont à l'extérieur. En effet, ce _filon_
+contient des _couches marines ferrugineuses_, de la même nature que
+celles des collines calcaires voisines formées sur le schiste.
+
+"Nous partîmes _d'Elbingerode_ dans l'après midi pour nous rapprocher
+de Clausthal. Notre chemin fut encore quelque tems sur des sommités
+_calcaires_; et avant que d'en sortir, nous trouvâmes une autre mine
+singulière à _Arenfeld_. C'est encore un vrai _filon_; mais dans une
+montagne de _pierre à chaux:_ C'est à-dire, que cette montagne a aussi
+été _fendue_, et que la _fente_ a été remplie d'une _gangue_. La matière
+de ce _filon_ est encore _calcaire_ en plus grande partie; mais
+cette _pierre à chaux_ distincte est _ferrugineuse_, et parsemée de
+concrétions de _jaspe_ comme celles _d'Elbingerode:_ on y trouve aussi
+une matière verdâtre, qui, comme le _jaspe_, ne fait pas effervescence
+avec l'eau forte."
+
+Here is a phenomenon which is altogether incompatible with the theory
+that this author has given us for the explanation of those appearances.
+He supposes empty crevices in the schistus mountains at the bottom of
+the sea; these crevices he supposes filled by the deposits of the sea,
+at the same time, and with the same materials with which the lime-stone
+strata were formed above the schistus mountains; but we find one of
+those same veins in these secondary calcareous strata. Now, tho' we
+should be disposed to allow, that, in the primordial mountain, of which
+we are supposed not to know the origin, there might have been empty
+crevices which were afterwards filled with materials transported by the
+sea, this cannot be admitted as taking place in the loose or incoherent
+materials deposited above the schistus. Consequently, this theory of our
+author, which is evidently erroneous with regard to the veins in the
+lime-stone, must, in the other case, be at least examined with a jealous
+eye.
+
+"Le haut de cette partie des montagnes _calcaires_ étoit encore
+recouvert de _sable_ et de grès _vitrescibles_: et continuant à marcher,
+sans aucune inflexion sensible, nous nous trouvâmes subitement sur les
+_schistes_; d'où nous montâmes plus rapidement. Puis traversant quelques
+petites vallées nous arrivâmes sur les montagnes qui appartiennent au
+prolongement du _Brocken_ ou _Blocksberg_. La matière dominante est
+alors le _granit_; mais il est tout en blocs le long de cette route, et
+ces blocs se trouvent à une telle distance de tout sommité intacte de
+cette pierre, qui est aisé de juger non seulement qu'ils ne sont pas
+dans leur place originaire, mais encore qu'il ne sont arrivés là par
+aucune des causes naturelles qui agissent dans les montagnes; savoir,
+la pesanteur, la pente, et le cours des eaux. Ce sont donc de violentes
+explosions qui ont dispersé ces blocs; et alors ils deviennent un
+nouveau trait cosmologique de quelque importance: car rien ne se meut,
+ni ne paroît s'être mu depuis bien des siècles, dans ces lieux qui
+montrent tant de désordre: un tapis de verdure couvre tout, en
+conservant les contours baroques du sol. Le bétail ne sauroit pâturer
+dans de telles prairies; mais l'industrieux montagnard fait y
+faucher[29].
+
+[Note 29: M. de Saussure endeavours to explain those appearances of
+transported blocks of granite by another cause; this is a certain
+_debacle_ of the waters of the earth, which I do not understand. M. de
+Luc again attempts to explain it by violent explosions; I suppose he
+means those of a volcano. But he has not given us the evidence upon
+which such an opinion may be founded, farther than by saying that those
+blocks could not have come there by the natural operations of the
+surface. By this must be meant, that, from the nearest summit of
+granite, there is not, at present, any natural means by which these
+blocks might be transported to that place. But it is not with the
+present state of things that we are concerned, in explaining the
+operations of a distant period. If the natural operations of the surface
+change the shape of things, as is clearly proved by every natural
+appearance, Why form an argument against a former transaction, upon the
+circumstances of the present state of things? Our author does not
+seem to perceive, that, from this mode of reasoning, there is is an
+insuperable objection to his violent explosions having been employed in
+producing those effects. For, had there been such a cause, the evidence
+of this must have remained; if the surface of the earth does not undergo
+great changes: If, again, this surface be in time much changed, How can
+we judge from the present shape, what might have been the former posture
+of things?
+
+This author, indeed, does not allow much time for the natural operations
+of the globe to change its surface; but, if things be not greatly
+removed from the state in which the violent operations of the globe had
+placed them, Why does he not point out to us the source of this great
+disorder which he there perceives? From what explosion will be explained
+the blocks of granite which are found upon the Jura, and which must have
+come from the mass of _Mont Blanc_? If these dispersed blocks of
+stone are to be explained by explosion, there must: have been similar
+explosions in other countries where there is not the smallest appearance
+of volcanic eruptions; for, around all our granite mountains, and I
+believe all others, there are found many blocks of granite, traveled at
+a great distance, and in all directions.]
+
+"_Oberbruck_, ou nous avions été la précédente fois, se trouva sur notre
+route, et nous y passames aussi la nuit, dans l'espérance de pouvoir
+monter le lendemain sur le _Brocken_; mais il fut encore enveloppé de
+nuages; ainsi nous continuâmes à marcher vers _Clausthal_, passant de
+nouveau par le _Bruchberg_, où le _sable_ et ses gres recouvrent le
+_schiste_; puis arrivant à une autre sommité, nous y trouvâmes la même
+pierre _sableuse_ par couches, mêlée de parcelles de _schiste_, que nous
+avions vue sur les montagnes _calcaires d'Elbingerode_. Il est donc
+toujours plus certain que le sol primordial de toutes ces montagnes
+existoit sous les eaux de l'ancienne mer; puisqu'il est recouvert de
+diverses fortes de dépôts, connus pour appartenir à la _mer_; et que les
+_fentes_ des _filons_ existoient dans cette _mer ancienne_; puisqu'elle
+en a rempli elle-même quelques unes, et qu'elle a recouvert de ses
+dépôts quelques autres _filons_ tout formés. Quant à celles des matières
+de ces _filons_, qui ne paroissent pas être _marines_ (et c'est de
+beaucoup la plus grande quantité), j'ai toujours plus de penchant d'en
+attribuer une partie à l'opération des _feux souterreins_, à mesure que
+je vois diminuer la probabilité de les assigner entièrement à _l'eau_.
+Mais quoi-qu'il en soit, ces gangues ne font pas de même date que les
+montagnes[30].
+
+[Note 30: I most willingly admit the justness of our author's view, if
+he thus perceives the operation of fire in the solids of our earth; but
+it is not for the reasons he has given us for discovering it here more
+than in other places; for there is not a mineral vein, (so far at least
+as I have seen), in which the appearances may be explained by any thing
+else besides the operation of fire or fusion. It is not easy to conceive
+in what manner our author had conceived the opinions which he has
+displayed in these letters. He had no opinion of this kind, or rather he
+was persuaded that subterraneous fire had no hand in the formation of
+this earth before he came to this place of the Hartz; here he finds
+certain appearances, by which he is confirmed in his former opinion,
+that water had operated in forming mineral veins; and then he forms the
+idea that subterraneous fire may have operated also. But, before the
+discovery of the chasms in the schistus mountains having been filled
+with the stratified materials of the sea, How had he supposed veins to
+be filled? If this philosopher had before no opinion of subterraneous
+fire, as instrumental in that operation, How comes he now to change that
+former opinion? For, unless it be the extraordinary manner of filling
+these open crevices in the mountains by matter deposited immediately
+from the sea, there is certainly no other appearance in this mineral
+country of the Hartz, that may not be found in any other, only perhaps
+upon a smaller scale.]
+
+"Le lendemain de notre arrivée a _Clausthal_, qui étoit le 13e, nous
+allâmes visiter d'autres mines de _fer_ en montagnes secondaires,
+situées au côté opposé du Hartz. Elles sont auprès de _Grund_ l'une
+des _villes de mines_, et près du lieu ou sortira la nouvelle _galerie
+d'écoulement_ à laquelle on travaille, etc.
+
+"Arrivés à _Grund_ les officiers mineurs vinrent, comme à l'ordinaire,
+accompagner Mons. de _Reden_ aux _mines_ de leur département. Celles-ci,
+sans être plus extraordinaires que celles qui nous avions vues à
+_Elbingerod_, ou sans aider mieux jusqu'ici à expliquer ce qu'elles ont
+toutes d'extraordinaire, nous donnent au moins des indices probables
+de grands accidens. Ces montagnes de _Grund_ sont encore de l'espèce
+remarquable, dont la base est de _schiste_, et le haut de _pierre à
+chaux_. Les mines qu'on y exploit sont de _fer_, et se trouvent dans
+cette matière _calcaire_; mais elles y sont sous des apparences
+tout-à-fait étranges. La montagne où nous les vîmes principalement le
+nomme _Iberg_. On y poursuit des masses de _pierre à fer_, de l'ensemble
+desquelles les mineurs ne peuvent encore se rendre compte d'une manière
+claire. Ils ont trouvé dans cette montagne des _ca__vernes_, qui
+ressemblent à l'encaissement de _sillons_ déjà exploités, ou non formés;
+c'est-à-dire, que ce sont des _fentes_ presque verticales, et vides, Le
+_minerai_ qu'ils poursuivent est en _Rognons_; c'est à dire, en grandes
+masses sans continuité décidée. Cependant ces masses semblent se
+succéder dans la montagne suivant une certaine direction; tellement que
+les mineurs savent déjà les chercher, par des indices d'habitude.
+La substance de cette _pierre à fer_ particulière renferme des
+crystallizations de diverses espèces. Il y a des _druses de quartz_, ou
+de petits cristaux de quartz qui tapissent des cavités; il y a aussi du
+_spath_ commun, et de celui qu'on nomme pesant; on y trouve enfin une
+forte de crystallization nommée _Eisenman_ (_homme de fer_) par les
+mineurs; se sont des amas de cristaux noir-âtres, qui ressemblent à
+des groupes de grandes lentilles plattes, et ces cristaux sont
+_ferrugineux_.
+
+"Entre les signes de bouleversement que renferme ce lieu, est un
+rocher nommé _Gebichensten_, qui est en _pierre à chaux_, ce que
+_l'Ebrenbreitstein_ de _Coblentz_ est en pierre sableuse: c'est-à-dire,
+que ses _couches_, remplies de _corps marins_, sont presque verticales;
+ceux de ces corps qu'on y trouve en plus grande quantité, sont des
+_madrépores_. Ce rocher s'élève comme un grand obélisque, au-dessus des
+_cavernes_, dont j'ai parlé; montrant par le côté ses _couches_, qui se
+trouvent, comme je l'ai dit, dans une situation presque verticale. Sa
+base est déjà bien minée, tant par les _cavernes_, que par la _pierre
+à fer_ qu'on en tire; et je ne me hasardai dessus, que parce que je me
+dis, qu'il y a des millions contre un à parier, que ce n'est pas le
+moment où il s'enfoncerait. Mais je n'en dirois pas autant, s'il
+s'agissoit de m'y loger à demeure.
+
+"Quoique tout ce lieu là soit fort remarquable, il se pourrait que ce
+ne fut qu'un phénomène particulier. Les _cavernes_ peuvent devoir leur
+origine à la même cause que celle de Schartzfeld; et le dérangement des
+rochers supérieurs à des enfoncemens occasionnés par ces _cavernes_.
+Rien n'est si difficile que de retracer aujourd'hui ces fortes
+d'accidens à cause des changemens que le tems y a opérés. S'ils sont
+arrivés sous les eaux de la _mer_, on conçoit aisément les altérations
+qui ont dû succéder; et si c'est depuis que nos continens sont à sec,
+les eaux encore, tant intérieures qu'extérieures, et la végétation, en
+ont beaucoup changé l'aspect."
+
+This author has a theory by which he explains to himself the former
+residence of the sea, above the summits of our mountains; this,
+however, is not the theory by which we are now endeavouring to explain
+appearances; we must therefore be allowed to reason from our own
+principles, in considering the facts here set forth by our author.
+
+Nothing, I think, is more evident, than that in this mineral country of
+the Hartz, we may find the clearest marks of fracture, elevation, and
+dislocation of the strata, and of the introduction of foreign matter
+among those separated bodies. All those appearances, our author would
+have to be nothing but some particular accident, which is not to enter
+into the physiology of the earth. I wish again to generalise these
+facts, by finding them universal in relation to the globe, and
+necessarily to be found in all the consolidated parts of our land.
+
+It was not to refute our author's reasoning that I have here introduced
+so much of his observations, but to give an extensive view of the
+mineral structure of this interesting country. This therefore being
+done, we now proceed to what is more peculiarly our business in this
+place, or the immediate subject of investigation, viz. the distinction
+of primary and secondary strata.
+
+"Dans le voisinage de cette montagne, il y a une autre fort
+intéressante, que je vis le jour suivant. Quoiqu'en traitant des
+volcans, j'aie démontré que la formation des montagnes, par soulèvement,
+étoit sans exemple dans les faits, et sans fondement dans la théorie, je
+ne laisseroi pas de m'arrêter au phénomène que présente cette montagne;
+parce qu'il prouvera directement que les _couches calcaires_ au moins,
+ont été formées _à la hauteur ou elles sont_; c'est-a-dire qu'elles
+n'ont pas été soulevées.
+
+"Voulant prendre l'occasion de mon retour à _Hanovre_, pour traverser
+les avant-corps du _Hartz_, dans quelque nouvelle direction; je résolus
+de faire ce voyage à cheval, et de prendre ma route droite vers
+_Hanovre_, au-travers des collines; ce qui me conduisit encore à _Grund_
+puis à _Münchehof Brunshausen, Engelade, Winsenburg_ et _Alfeld_, où
+enfin, traversant la _Leine_ j'entrai dans la grande route.
+
+"Je quittai donc _Clausthal_ (et avec bien du regret) le 14 au matin;
+et revenant d'abord à _Grund_, je le laissai sur ma droite, ainsi
+que _l'Iberg_; et plus loin, du même côté, une autre montagne nommée
+_Winterberg_ dont la base est _schiste_, et le sommet plus haut que
+Clausthal, entièrement composé de _couches calcaires_. De _Grund_ je
+montai vers une montagne nommée _Ost Kamp_; et je commençai là à donner
+une attention particulière au sol. Le long de mon chemin, je ne trouvai
+longtemps que des schistes, qui montroient leurs points en haut, comme à
+l'ordinaire, et avec tous leurs tortillemens de feuillets. Mais arrivé
+au haut de la montagne, j'y vis des carrières de _pierre à chaux_, où
+les couches absolument régulières, et qui ont peu d'épaisseur sur le
+_schiste_ suivent parfaitement les contours du _sommet_. Ces lits de
+_pierre à chaux_ n'ont certainement pas été soulevés du fond de la _mer_
+sur le dos des schistes; lors même qu'à cause de la grande inclinaison
+des feuillets de ceux-ci on voudroit le attribuer à quelque révolution
+telle que le _soulèvement_; (ce que je n'admettrois point). Car si ces
+lits _calcaires_, ayant été faits au fond de la _mer_, avoyent été
+soulevés avec les schistes, ne feroient-ils pas brisés et bouleversés
+comme eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il soi arrivé au schiste qui
+les porte, ces lits, et tous les autres de même genre qui sont au haut
+de ces montagnes, ont été déposées au niveau où ils sont; et que
+par conséquent la _mer_ les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le système de
+soulèvement perd son but, s'il tend à expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
+_couches_, formées par la mer, qui se trouvent maintenant si fort au
+dessus de son niveau. Il est évident que ces _couches_ n'ont pas été
+soulevées; mais que la _mer_ s'est _abaissée_. Or c'est là le grand
+point cosmologique à expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent à la
+structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles, n'appartiendront qu'à
+_l'histoire naturelle_, tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec celui-la."
+
+Here are two things to be considered; the interesting facts described
+by our author, and the inference that he would have us draw from those
+facts. It would appear from the facts, that the body of schistus below,
+and that of lime-stone above, had not undergone the same disordering
+operations, or by no means in the same degree. But our author has formed
+another conclusion; he says, that these lime-stone strata must have been
+formed precisely in the place and order in which they lie at present;
+and the reason for this is, because these strata appeared to him to
+follow perfectly the contour of the summit of this mountain. Now, had
+there been in the top of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed about
+with the schistus rock; and had this cavity been now found filled with
+horizontal strata, there might have been some shadow of reason for
+supposing those strata to have been deposited upon the top of the
+mountain. But to suppose, _first_, that shells and corals should be
+deposited upon the convex summit of a mountain which was then covered by
+the sea; _secondly_, that these moveable materials should remain upon
+the summit, while the sea had changed its place; and, _lastly_, that
+those shells and corals left by the sea upon the top of a mountain
+should become strata of solid limestone, and have also metallic veins
+in it, certainly holds of no principle of natural philosophy that I am
+acquainted with. If, therefore, such an appearance as this were to be
+employed either in illustration or confirmation of a theory, it
+would itself require to be explained; but this is a task that this
+cosmologists does not seem willing to undertake.
+
+He has formed a hypothesis for explaining the general appearance of that
+which was once the bottom of the sea being now found forming the summits
+of our mountains; but surely this philosopher will acknowledge, that
+those natural appearances, in any particular place, will be the same,
+whether we suppose the bottom of the sea to have been raised, as in the
+present theory, or the surface of the sea to have sunk according to his
+hypothesis. For, it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the earth
+to have been raised all this height, as to suppose all the rest of the
+surface of the globe to have sunk an equal space, while a small portion
+of the bottom of the sea, remaining here and there fixed in its place,
+became the highest portion of the globe. Consequently, whatever evidence
+this philosopher shall find in support of his theory of the present
+earth, (a subject which it is not our purpose to examine) it cannot be
+allowed that he has here brought any argument capable of disproving the
+elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition which other theories
+may require.
+
+I would now observe, in relation to the present theory, that so far
+as this author has reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
+conclusions will be found to confirm the present supposition, that there
+is to be perceived the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
+in the masses of this earth, without altering the general theory either
+with respect to the original formation of those masses, or to their
+posterior production.
+
+Here one of two things must be allowed; either that those strata
+of schistus had been broken and distorted under a mass of other
+superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent strata had been
+deposited upon the broken and distorted strata at the bottom of the sea.
+Our author, who has examined the subject, inclines to think, that this
+last has been the case. If, therefore, strata had been deposited upon
+broken and bare rocks of schistus, it is probable that these had been
+sunk in the sea after having been exposed to the atmosphere, and served
+the purpose of land upon the globe.[31]
+
+[Note 31: This is also supported by another very interesting observation
+contained in this letter. M. de Luc observes, that in this country the
+schistus is generally covered by strata of lime-stone, and that these
+lime-stone strata are again covered with those of sand-stone, in which
+are found a great many fragments of schistus lying flat. Therefore,
+while those sand-stone strata were collecting at the bottom of the sea,
+there had been rocks of schistus in some other place, from whence those
+fragments bad been detached.]
+
+An example of the same kind also occurs in the _Discours sur l'Histoire
+Naturelle de la Suisse_; and this author of the _Tableaux de la Suisse_
+has given a very distinct description of that appearance, which is
+perhaps the more to be valued as a piece of natural history, as this
+intelligent author does not pretend to any geological theory, but simply
+narrates what he has seen, with such pertinent observations on
+the subject as naturally must occur to a thinking person on the
+spot.--(Discours, etc. page 228. Entrée au pays de Grisons).
+
+"Du village d'Elen on continue à monter le reste du petit vallon pendant
+une lieue et demie parmi les mêmes espèces de pierres qu'on vient de
+décrire; en passant au travers de bois et de forêts de sapins et de
+quelques pâturages dont ce haut est couvert, on parvient au pied du
+Bundnerberg, montagne des grisons, qui forme la tête du vallon. On
+laisse à droite un fond ou espèce d'entonnoir, entouré de très-hautes
+montagnes inaccessibles, pour s'enfourrer à gauche entre des rochers qui
+font fort resserrés, où coule un torrent. Ce lieu seroit horreur si
+on ne se trouvoit accoutumé, par degrés, à voir de ces positions
+effrayantes: tout y est aride, il n'y a plus d'arbres ni de végétaux ce
+sont des rochers entassés les un sur les autres; ce lieu paroit d'autant
+plus affreux que le passage a été subit, et qu'en sortant de bois et des
+forêts, on se trouve tout-à-coup parmi ces rochers qui s'élèvent comme
+des murailles, et dont on ne voit pas la cime; cette gorge ou cette
+entrée qui se nomme Jetz, est la communication du Canton du Glaris aux
+Gritons; on a dit précédemment qu'il y en avoit une plus aisée par
+le Gros-Thal ou le grand vallon. Ce passage est très-curieux pour la
+Lithogeognosie, il est rare de trouver autant de phénomènes intéressans
+rassemblés, et des substances aussi variées par rapport à leurs
+positions; c'est le local qui mérite le plus d'être examiné en Suisse,
+et la plus difficile que nous ayons parcouru. On se souviendra que nous
+avons continuellement monté depuis Glaris, et que nous nous trouvons au
+pied de ces montagnes ou de ces pics étonnans qui dominent les hautes
+Alpes; on trouve ici la facilité peu commune de pouvoir examiner, et
+voir le pied ou les fondemens de ces colosses qui couronnent le globe,
+parce qu'ils sont ordinairement entourés de leurs débris et de leurs
+éboulemens qui en cachent le pied. Ici c'est une roche de schiste
+bleuâtre, dure et compact, traversée de filons de quartz blanc, et
+quelquefois jaunâtre, dans laquelle on a taillé un sentier pour pouvoir
+en franchir le pied. Cette roche s'élève à une hauteur prodigieuse,
+est presque verticale, et ces couches sont à quatre-vingt degrés
+d'inclinaison. L'imagination est effrayée de voir que de pareilles
+masses ayent pu être ébranlées et déplacées au point d'avoir fait
+presque un quart de conversion. Après avoir monté et suivi cette roche
+parmi les pierres et les décombres, une heure et demie, on trouve
+cette roche de schiste surmontée d'autres rochers fort hauts qui sont
+calcaires, et dont les lits sont fort horizontaux. Les schistes,
+qui sont directement sous les roches calcaires, conservent la même
+inclinaison qu'elles ont à leur pied."
+
+Here is an observation which certainly agrees with that given by M. de
+Luc, and would seem to confirm this conclusion, that strata had been
+deposited upon those _schisti_ after they had been changed from their
+natural or horizontal position, and become vertical; at the same time,
+this conclusion is not of necessary consequence, without examining
+concomitant appearances, and finding particular marks by which this
+operation might be traced; for the simply finding horizontal strata,
+placed above vertical or much inclined schiste, is not sufficient, of
+itself, to constitute that fact, while it is acknowledged that every
+species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion, is to be found among
+the displaced strata of the globe.
+
+Since writing this chapter, I am enabled to speak more decisively upon
+that point, having acquired more light upon the subject, as will appear
+in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct View of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+Having given a view of what seems to be the primary and secondary
+strata, from the observations of authors, and having given what was
+my opinion when I first wrote that chapter, I am now to treat of this
+subject from observations of my own, which I made since forming that
+opinion.
+
+From Portpatrick, on the west coast, to St Abb's Head, on the east,
+there is a tract of schistus mountains, in which the strata are
+generally much inclined, or approaching to the vertical situation; and
+it is in these inclined strata that geologists allege that there is not
+to be found any vestige of organised body. This opinion, however, I have
+now proved to be erroneous.
+
+There cannot be any doubt with regard to the original formation of those
+stratified bodies, as having been formed of the materials that are
+natural to this earth, viz. the detritus of former bodies; and as having
+been deposited in water, like the horizontal strata: For the substances
+and bodies of which they are visibly composed are no other than those
+which form the most regular horizontal strata, and which are continually
+traveling, or transported at the bottom of the sea, such as gravel, and
+sand, argillaceous and micaceous bodies.
+
+On each side of this ridge of mountains, which towards the east end is
+but narrow, there is a lower country composed of strata in general more
+horizontal; and among which strata, besides coal, there are also found
+the relics of organised bodies.
+
+Abstracting at present from any consideration of organised bodies among
+the materials of those strata, it may be affirmed, that the materials
+which form the strata in the mountains and in the low country, are
+similar, or of the same nature; that they have, in both places, been
+consolidated by the same means, viz. heat and fusion; and that the same
+or similar accidents have happened to them, such as change from their
+original position, and mineral veins traversing them in various shapes.
+Yet still there is a distinctive character for those two bodies, the
+alpine and the horizontal strata; for, while the horizontal position
+appears natural to the one, and the changes from that particular state
+to be only an accident, the vertical position appears to be more natural
+to the other, which is seldom found horizontal.
+
+Therefore, altho' it is unquestionable that the strata in the alpine and
+low countries had the same or a similar original, yet, as the vertical
+position, which is the greatest possible change in that respect, is more
+natural to the alpine strata, or only necessary in the natural order of
+those bodies, we are to consider this great disorder or change from the
+natural state of their original formation, as the proper character of
+those alpine strata. But then it is also necessary to include in this
+character a general hardness and solidity in those vertical strata,
+otherwise they would not have been properly alpine, or have resisted the
+wearing and washing powers of the globe, so as to have remained higher
+than the others; for, the vertical position, or great inclination of
+those strata, should rather have disposed them the more to dissolution
+and decay. Let us now see how far we shall be justified in that general
+conclusion, by the examination of those bodies.
+
+The fact is certain, that those alpine bodies are much harder, or less
+subject to dissolution and decay, than the horizontal strata. But this
+must be taken in the general, and will by no means apply to particular
+cases which might be compared. Nothing, for example, more solid than the
+lime-stones, or marbles, and iron-stones; nothing more hard or solid
+than the chirt or flint; and all these are found among the horizontal
+strata. But, while some strata among those horizontal beds are
+thus perfectly solid, others are found with so slight degrees of
+consolidation, that we should not be able to ascribe it to the proper
+cause, without that gradation of the effect, which leads us to impute
+the slightest degree of consolidation to the same operations that have
+produced the complete solidity. While, therefore, the most perfect
+solidity is found in certain strata, or occasionally among the
+horizontal bodies, this forms no part of their character in general, or
+cannot be considered as a distinctive mark, as it truly is with
+regard to the alpine strata. These last have a general character of
+consolidation and indissolubility, which is in a manner universal. We
+are, therefore, now to inquire into the cause of this distinction, and
+to form some hypothesis that may be tried by the actual state of things,
+in being compared with natural appearances.
+
+As the general cause of consolidation among mineral bodies, formed
+originally of loose materials, has been found to consist in certain
+degrees of fusion or cementation of those materials by means of heat;
+and as, in the examination of the horizontal strata we actually
+find very different degrees of consolidation in the several strata,
+independent of their positions in relation to height or depth, we have
+reason to believe that the heat, or consolidating operation, has not
+been equally employed in relation to them all.
+
+We are not now inquiring how an inferior stratum should have been heated
+in a lesser degree, or not consolidated, while a superior stratum had
+been consolidated in the most perfect manner; we are to reason upon a
+fact, which is, that the horizontal strata in general appear not to have
+been equally or universally consolidated; and this we must attribute to
+an insufficient exertion of the consolidating cause. But, so far as the
+erecting cause is considered as the same with that by which the elevated
+bodies were consolidated, and so far as the vertical situation is a
+proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous power, the strata
+which are most erected, should in general be found most consolidated.
+
+Nothing more certain than that there have been several repeated
+operations of the mineralising power exerted upon the strata
+in particular places; and all those mineral operations tend to
+consolidation: Therefore, the more the operations have been repeated in
+any place, the more we should find the strata consolidated, or changed
+from their natural state. Vertical strata have every appearance from
+whence we should be led to conclude, that much of the mineral power
+had been exerted upon them, in changing their original constitution or
+appearance. But the question now to be considered is this, How far
+it may appear that these masses of matter, which now seem to be so
+different from the ordinary strata of the globe, had been twice
+subjected to the mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
+and erected into the place of land, and afterwards sunk below the
+bottom of the sea, in order a second time to undergo the process of
+subterraneous heat, and again be elevated into the place where they now
+are found.
+
+It must be evident, here is a question that may not be easy to decide.
+It is not to the degree of any change to which bodies may be subject,
+that we are to appeal, in order to clear up the point in question,
+but to a regular course of operations, which must appear to have been
+successively transacted, and by which the different circumstances or
+situations of those masses are to be discovered in their present state.
+Now, though it does not concern the present theory that this question be
+decided, as it is nothing but a repetition of the same operations that
+we look for; nevertheless, it would be an interesting fact in the
+natural history of this earth; and it would add great lustre to a theory
+by which so great, so many operations were to be explained. I am far
+from being sanguine in my expectations of giving all the satisfaction
+in relation to this subject that I could wish; but it will be proper to
+state what I have lately learned with regard to so curious a question,
+that others, who shall have the opportunity, may be led to inquire, and
+that thus the natural history of the earth may be enlarged, by a proper
+investigation of its mineral operations.
+
+With this view I have often considered our schistus mountains, both in
+the north and south; but I never found any satisfactory appearance from
+whence conclusions could be formed, whether for the question or against
+it. The places I examined were those between the alpine countries and
+the horizontal strata; here, indeed, I have frequently found a confused
+mass, formed of the fragments of those alpine strata mixed with the
+materials of the horizontal bodies; but not having seen the proper shape
+and connection of those several deposits, I always suspended my judgment
+with regard to the particular operations which might have been employed
+in producing those appearances.
+
+I had long looked for the immediate junction of the secondary or low
+country strata with the alpine schistus, without finding it; the first
+place in which I observed it was at the north end of the island of
+Arran, at the mouth of Loch Ranza; it was upon the shore, where the
+inclined strata appeared bare, being; washed by the sea. It was but a
+very small part that I could see; but what appeared was most distinct.
+Here the schistus and the sandstone strata both rise inclined at an
+angle of about 45°; but these primary and secondary strata were inclined
+in almost opposite directions; and thus they met together like the
+two sides of a _lambda_, or the rigging of a house, being a little in
+disorder at the angle of their junction. From this situation of those
+two different masses of strata, it is evidently impossible that either
+of them could have been formed originally in that position; therefore, I
+could not here learn in what state the schistus strata had been in when
+those of the sand-stone, &c, had been superinduced.
+
+Such was the state of my mind, in relation to that subject:, when at
+Jedburgh upon a visit to a friend, after I had returned from Arran, and
+wrote the history of that journey; I there considered myself as among
+the horizontal strata which had first appeared after passing the Tweed,
+and before arriving at the Tiviot. The strata there, as in Berwickshire,
+which is their continuation to the east, are remarkably horizontal for
+Scotland; and they consist of alternated beds of sand-stone and marl, or
+argillaceous and micaceous strata. These horizontal strata are traversed
+in places with small veins of whin-stone, as well as greater masses
+forming rocks and hills of that material; but, except it be these, (of
+which there are some curious examples), I thought there could be nothing
+more of an interesting nature to observe. Chance, however, discovered to
+me what I could not have expected or foreseen.
+
+The river Tweed, below Melrose, discovers in its bed the vertical strata
+of the schistus mountains, and though here these indurated bodies are
+not veined with quartz as in many places of the mountains, I did not
+hesitate to consider them as the same species, that is to say, the marly
+materials indurated and consolidated in those operations by which they
+had been so much changed in their place and natural position. Afterwards
+in travelling south, and seeing the horizontal softer strata, I concluded
+that I had got out of the alpine country, and supposed that no more of
+the vertical strata were to be observed.
+
+The river Tiviot has made a wide valley as might have been expected, in
+running over thole horizontal strata of marly or decaying substances;
+and the banks of this river declining gradually are covered with gravel
+and soil, and show little of the solid strata of the country. This,
+however, is not the case with the Jed, which is to the southward of the
+Tiviot; that river, in many places, runs upon the horizontal strata, and
+undermines steep banks, which falling shows high and beautiful sections
+of the regular horizontal strata. The little rivulets also which fall
+into the Jed have hollowed out deep gullies in the land, and show the
+uniformity of the horizontal strata.
+
+In this manner I was disposed to look for nothing more than what I had
+seen among those mineral bodies, when one day, walking in the beautiful
+valley above the town of Jedburgh, I was surprised with the appearance
+of vertical strata in the bed of the river, where I was certain that
+the banks were composed of horizontal strata. I was soon satisfied with
+regard to this phenomenon, and rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling
+upon an object so interesting to the natural history of the earth, and
+which I had been long looking for in vain.
+
+Here the vertical strata, similar to those that are in the bed of
+the Tweed, appear; and above those vertical strata, are placed the
+horizontal beds, which extend along the whole country.
+
+The question which we would wish to have solved is this; if the vertical
+strata had been broken and erected under the superincumbent horizontal
+strata; or if, after the vertical strata had been broken and erected,
+the horizontal strata had been deposited upon the vertical strata,
+then forming the bottom of the sea. That strata, which are regular and
+horizontal in one place, should be found bended, broken, or disordered
+at another, is not uncommon; it is always found more or less in all our
+horizontal strata. Now, to what length this disordering operation might
+have been carried, among strata under others, without disturbing the
+order and continuity of those above, may perhaps be difficult to
+determine; but here, in this present case, is the greatest disturbance
+of the under strata, and a very great regularity among those above. Here
+at least is the most difficult case of this kind to conceive, if we are
+to suppose that the upper strata had been deposited before those below
+had been broken and erected.
+
+Let us now suppose that the under strata had been disordered at the
+bottom of the sea, before the superincumbent bodies were deposited; it
+is not to be well conceived, that the vertical strata should in that
+case appear to be cut off abruptly, and present their regular edges
+immediately under the uniformly deposited substances above. But, in the
+case now under consideration, there appears the most uniform section
+of the vertical strata, their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
+deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the vertical strata had been in
+at the time of this event, we can hardly suppose that they could have
+been so perfectly cut off, without any relict being left to trace that
+operation. It is much more probable to suppose, that the sea had washed
+away the relics of the broken and disordered strata, before those that
+are now superincumbent had been begun to be deposited. But we cannot
+suppose two such contrary operations in the same place, as that of
+carrying away the relics of those broken strata, and the depositing of
+sand and subtile earth in such a regular order. We are therefore led
+to conclude, that the bottom of the sea, or surface of those erected
+strata, had been in very different situations at those two periods, when
+the relics of the disordered strata had been carried away, and when the
+new materials had been deposited.
+
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the subject, it will be fair
+to suppose, that the disordered strata had been raised more or less
+above the surface of the ocean; that, by the effects of either rivers,
+winds, or tides, the surface of the vertical strata had been washed
+bare; and that this surface had been afterwards sunk below the influence
+of those destructive operations, and thus placed in a situation proper
+for the opposite effect, the accumulation of matter prepared and put in
+motion by the destroying causes.
+
+I will not pretend to say that this has all the evidence that should be
+required, in order to constitute a physical truth, or principle from
+whence we were to reason farther in our theory; but, as a simple fact,
+there is more probability for the thing having happened in that manner
+than in any other; and perhaps this is all that may be attained, though
+not all that were to be wished on the occasion. Let us now see how
+far any confirmation may be obtained from the examination of all the
+attending circumstances in those operations.
+
+I have already mentioned, that I had long observed great masses of
+_debris_, or an extremely coarse species of pudding-stone, situated on
+the south as well as north sides of those schistus mountains, where the
+alpine strata terminate in our view, and where I had been looking for
+the connection of those with the softer strata of the low country.
+It has surely been such appearances as these which have often led
+naturalists to see the formation of secondary and tertiary strata formed
+by the simple congestion of _debris_ from the mountains, and to suppose
+those masses consolidated by the operation of that very element by which
+they had been torn off from one place and deposited in another. I never
+before had data from whence to reason with regard to the natural history
+of those masses of gravel and sand which always appeared to me in an
+irregular shape, and not attended with such circumstances as might give
+light into their natural history; but now I have found what I think
+sufficient to explain those obscure appearances, and which at the same
+time will in some respect illustrate or confirm the conjecture which
+has now been formed with regard to the operations of the globe in those
+regions.
+
+In describing the vertical and horizontal strata of the Jed, no mention
+has been made of a certain pudding-stone, which is interposed between
+the two, lying immediately upon the one and under the other. This
+puddingstone corresponds entirely to that which I had found along
+the skirt of the schistus mountains upon the south side, in different
+places, almost from one end to the other. It is a confused mass of
+stones, gravel, and sand, with red marly earth; these are consolidated
+or cemented in a considerable degree, and thus form a stratum extremely
+unlike any thing which is to be found either above or below.
+
+When we examine the stones and gravel of which it is composed, these
+appear to have belonged to the vertical strata or schistus mountains.
+They are in general the hard and solid parts of those indurated
+strata, worn and rounded by attrition; particularly sand or marl-stone
+consolidated and veined with quartz, and many fragments of quartz, all
+rounded by attrition. In this pudding-stone of the Jed, I find also
+rounded lumps of porphyry, but have not perceived any of granite.[32]
+This however is not the case in the pudding-stone of the schistus
+mountains, for, where there is granite in the neighbourhood, there is
+also granite in the pudding-stone.
+
+[Note 32: A view of this object is seen in plate 3d. It is from a
+drawing taken by Mr Clerk of Eldin.]
+
+From this it will appear, that the schistus mountains or the vertical
+strata of indurated bodies had been formed, and had been wasted and worn
+in the natural operations of the globe, before the horizontal strata
+were begun to be deposited in those places; the gravel formed of those
+indurated broken bodies worn round by attrition evince that fact. But
+it also appears that the mineral operations of the globe, melting and
+consolidating bodies, had been exerted upon those deposited strata above
+the vertical bodies.
+
+This appears evidently from the examination of our pudding-stone. The
+vertical strata under it are much broken and injected with ferruginous
+spar; and this same spar has greatly penetrated the pudding-stone above,
+in which are found the various mineral appearances of that spar and iron
+ore.
+
+But those injecting operations reach no farther up among the marl strata
+in this place; and then would appear to have been confined to the
+pudding-stone. But in another place, about half a mile farther up the
+river, where a very deep section of the strata is discovered, there
+are two injections from below; the one is a thin vein of whin-stone or
+basaltes, full of round particles of steatites impregnated with copper;
+it is but a few inches wide, and proceeds in a kind of zigzag. The other
+appears to have been calcareous spar, but the greatest part of it is now
+dissolved out. The strata here descend to the bottom of the river, which
+is above the place of the pudding-stone and vertical strata. Neither are
+these last discoverable below the town of Jedburgh, at least so far as
+I have seen; and the line of division, or plane of junction of the
+vertical and horizontal strata, appears to decline more than the bed of
+the river.
+
+But it may be asked, how the horizontal strata above, among which are
+many very strong beds, have been consolidated. The answer to this
+question is plain. Those strata have been indurated or consolidated
+in no other manner than the general strata of the earth; these being
+actually the common strata of the globe; while the vertical or schistus
+strata are the ordinary strata still farther manufactured, (if we may be
+allowed the expression) in the vicissitude of things, and by the mineral
+operations of the globe. That those operations have been performed by
+subterraneous heat has been already proved; but I would now mention some
+particular appearances which are common or general to those strata, and
+which can only be explained upon that principle.
+
+The red marly earth is prevalent among those strata; and it is with this
+red ferruginous substance that many of the sand-stone strata are tinged.
+It is plain that there had been an uniform, deposits of that sand and
+tinging earth; and that, however different matter might be successively
+deposited, yet that each individual stratum should be nearly of the same
+colour or appearance, so far as it had been formed uniformly of the same
+subsiding matter. But, in the most uniform strata of red sand-stone,
+the fracture of the stone presents us with circular spots of a white or
+bluish colour; those little spheres are in all respects the same with
+the rest of the stone, they only want the tinging matter; and now it may
+be inquired how this has come about.
+
+To say that sphericles of white sand should have been formed by
+subsiding along with the red sand and earth which composed the uniform
+stratum whether of sand-stone or marl, (for it happens equally in both,)
+is plainly impossible, according to our notion of that operation in
+which there is nothing mysterious. Those foliated strata, which are of
+the most uniform nature, must have been gradually accumulated from the
+subsiding sand and earth; and the white or colourless places must have
+had their colour destroyed in the subsequent cementing operations. It
+is often apparent, that the discharging operation had proceeded from a
+centre, as some small matter may be perceived in that place. I know not
+what species of substance this has been, whether saline or phlogistic,
+but it must have had the power of either volatilising or changing the
+ferruginous or red tinging substance so as to make it lose its colour.
+
+I have only mentioned spherical spots for distinctness sake; but this
+discharging operation is found diversifying those strata in various
+ways, but always referable to the same or similar causes. Thus, in many
+of the veins or natural cracks of those strata, we find the colour
+discharged for a certain space within the strata; and we often see
+several of those spots united, each of them having proceeded from its
+own centre, and uniting where they approached. In the two veins above
+mentioned, of whin-stone and spar traversing the strata, the colour of
+the strata is, discharged more or less in the places contiguous with the
+veins.
+
+I am now to mention another appearance of a different kind. Those strata
+of marl are in general not much consolidated; but among, them there
+are sometimes found thin calcareous strata extremely consolidated,
+consequently much divided by veins. It is in the solid parts of those
+strata, perfectly disconnected from the veins, that there are frequent
+cavities curiously lined with crystals of different sorts, generally
+calcareous, sometimes containing also those that are siliceous, and
+often accompanied with pyrites. I am persuaded that the origin of those
+cavities may have been some hollow shells, such as _echini_ or some
+marine object; but that calcareous body has been so changed, that it is
+not now distinguishable; therefore, at present, I hold this opinion only
+as conjecture.
+
+Having, in my return to Edinburgh, traveled up the Tiviot, with a view
+to investigate this subject of primary and secondary operations of the
+earth, I found the vertical strata, or alpine schistus, in the bed of
+the river about two miles below Hawick. This was the third time I had
+seen those vertical bodies after leaving the mountains of Lauderdale.
+The first place was the bed of the river Tweed, at the new bridge below
+Melrose; but here no other covering is to be seen above those vertical
+strata besides the soil or traveled earth which conceals every thing
+except the rock in the bed of the river. The second place was Jedburgh,
+where I found the vertical strata covered with the horizontal sandstone
+and marl, as has been now described. The third place was the Tiviot, and
+this is that which now remains to be considered.
+
+Seeing the vertical strata in the bed of the river, I was desirous to
+know if those were immediately covered with the horizontal strata. This
+could not be discovered in the bed of the river where the rock was
+covered upon the banks with travelled earth. I therefore left the river,
+and followed the course of a brook which comes from the south side. I
+had not gone far up the bank, or former boundary of the Tiviot, when
+I had the satisfaction to find the vertical strata covered with the
+pudding-stone and marly beds as in the valley of the Jed.
+
+It will now be reasonable to suppose that all the schistus which we
+perceive, whether in the mountains or in the valleys, exposed to our
+view had been once covered with those horizontal strata which are
+observed in Berwickshire and Tiviotdale; and that, below all those
+horizontal strata in the level country, there is at present a body or
+basis of vertical or inclined schistus, on which the horizontal strata
+of a secondary order had been deposited. This is the conclusion that I
+had formed at Jedburgh, before I had seen the confirmation of it in the
+Tiviot; it is the only one that can be formed according to this view of
+things; and it must remain in the present state until more evidence be
+found by which the probability may be either increased or diminished.
+
+Since writing this, I have read, in the Esprit de Journaux, an abstract
+of a memoir of M. Voigt, upon the same subject, which I shall now
+transcribe.
+
+"La mer a commencé par miner les montagnes primitives dont les débris se
+sont précipités au fond. Ces débris forment la premiere couche qui est
+posée immédiatement sur les montagnes primitives. D'après l'ancien
+langage de mineurs, nous avons jusqu'aujourd'hui appellé cette couche
+_le sol mort rouge_, parce qu'il y a beaucoup de rouge dans son mélange,
+qu'elle forme le sol ou la base d'autres couches, et peut-être de
+toutes, qu'elle est entierement inutile et, en quelque facon, morte pour
+l'exploitation des mines. Plusieurs se sont efforcés de lui donner un
+nom harmonieux; mais ils ne l'ont pu sans occasionner des équivoques.
+Les mots _Brèche Puddinstone Conglomérations_, &_c_. désignent toujours
+des substances autres que cette espèce de pierre.
+
+"Il est très agréable de l'examiner dans les endroits où elle forme des
+montagnes entières. Cette couche est composée d'une quantité prodigieuse
+de pierres arrondies, agglutinées ensemble par une substance argileuse
+rouge et même grise, et le toute a acquis assez de dureté. On ne trouve
+dans sa composition aucune espèce de pierre qui, à en juger par les
+meilleures observations, puisse avoir été formée plus tard qu'elle;
+on n'y voit par-tout que des parties et des produit des montagnes
+primitives principalement de celles qui abondent le plus dans ces
+contrées. Le sol mort, par exemple, qui compose les montagnes des
+environs de Walbourg, près d'Eisenach, contient une quantité de gros
+morceaux de granit et de schiste micacé; c'est vraisemblablement parce
+que les montagnes primitives les plus voisines de Rhula, etc. sont,
+pour la plus part, formées de ces deux espèces de pierres. Près de
+Goldlauter, le sol mort consiste presque tout en porphyre, substance
+dont sont formées les montagnes primitives qui y dominent; et le
+Kiffauserberg dans la Thuringe a probablement reçu ces morceaux arrondis
+de schiste argileux des montagnes voisine du Hartz. Vous trouverez
+ici que le schiste argileux existoit déjà lorsque la mer a jetté les
+premiers fondemens de nos montagnes stratifiées. Je serois fort étonné
+que quelqu'un me montrât un sol mort qui contînt un morceaux de gypse,
+de marne, de pierre puante et autres. Quoiqu'il en soit il n'est pas
+aisé d'expliquer pourquoi on ne trouve point de corps marins pétrifiés
+dans cette espèce de pierre. C'est peut-être que, par l'immense quantité
+de pierres dures roulées dans le fond de la mer, ils ont été brisés
+avant qu'ils aient commencé de s'agglutiner ensemble. Mais on rencontre
+sur-tout au Kiffhauserberg des troncs d'arbres entiers pétrifiés; preuve
+qu'il y avoit déjà ou de la végétation avant que l'océan destructeur se
+fût emparé de ces cantons, ou du moins que quelques isles avoient existé
+au-dessus de la surface."
+
+Here we find the same observations in the mountains of Germany that
+I have been making with regard to those of Scotland. I have formerly
+observed masses of the same kind in the west of England, to the east of
+the Severn; but I could not discover any proper connection of that mass
+with the regular strata. I have also long observed it in many parts of
+Scotland, without being able to attain a sufficiently satisfactory idea
+with regard to those particulars by which the alternation of land and
+water, of the superficial and internal mineral operations of the globe,
+might be investigated.
+
+It will be very remarkable if similar appearances are always found upon
+the junction of the alpine with the level countries. Such an appearance,
+I am inclined to think, may be found in the Val d'Aoste, near Yvrée. M.
+de Saussure describes such a stone as having been employed in building
+the triumphal arch erected in honour of Augustus. "Cet arc qui étoit
+anciennement revêtu de marbre, est construit de grands quartiers d'une
+espèce assez singulière de poudingue ou de grès à gros grains. C'est une
+assemblage de fragmens, presque touts angulaires, de toutes sortes de
+roches primitives feuilletées, quartzeuses, micacées; les plus gros de
+ces fragmens n'atteignent pas le volume, d'une noisette. La plupart des
+édifices antiques de la cité l'Aoste et de ses environs, sont construits
+de cette matière; et les gens du pays sont persuadés que c'est une
+composition; mais j'en ai trouvé des rochers en place dans les montagnes
+au nord et au-dessus de la route d'Yvrée."
+
+We may now come to this general conclusion, that, in this example of
+horizontal and posterior strata placed upon the vertical _schisti_ which
+are prior in relation to the former, we obtain a further view into the
+natural history of this earth, more than what appears in the simple
+succession of one stratum above another. We know, in general, that all
+the solid parts of this earth, which come to our view, have either
+been formed originally by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, or been
+transfused in a melted state from the mineral regions among those solid
+bodies; but here we further learn, that the indurated and erected
+strata, after being broken and washed by the moving waters, had again
+been sunk below the sea, and had served as a bottom or basis on which to
+form a new structure of strata; and also, that those new or posterior
+strata had been indurated or cemented by the consolidating operations
+of the mineral region, and elevated from the bottom of the sea into the
+place of land, or considerably above the general surface of the waters.
+It is thus that we may investigate particular operations in the general
+progress of nature, which has for object to renovate the surface of the
+earth necessarily wasted in the operation of a world sustaining plants
+and animals.
+
+It is necessary to compare together every thing of this kind which
+occurs; it is first necessary to ascertain the fact of their being a
+prior and posterior formation of strata, with the mineral operations
+for consolidating those bodies formed by collection of the moveable
+materials; and, secondly, it is interesting to acquire all the data we
+can in order to form a distinct judgment of that progress of nature in
+which the solid body of our land is alternately removed from the bottom
+of the sea into the atmosphere, and sunk again at the bottom of the sea.
+
+I shall now transcribe what M. Schreiber has wrote in relation to
+this subject. It is in a memoir concerning the gold mine of Gardette,
+published in the Journal de Physique.
+
+"Avant de quitter la montagne de la Gardette qu'il me soit permis de
+rapporter une observation qui peut-être n'est pas dénuée de tout
+intérêt pour les naturalistes; je l'ai faite dans une galerie à environ
+cinquante-trois toises à l'ouest du principal puit laquelle a été
+poussée sur la ligne de réunion de la pierre calcaire, et du granit
+feuilleté ou gneiss pour fonder le filon dans cet endroit. Ce filon
+a six pouces d'épaisseur, et consiste en quartz entre-mêlé d'ochre
+martiale, de pyrite cuivreuse et galène. Cette dernière est souvent
+recouverte de chaux de plomb grise, et de petits cristaux de mine de
+plomb jaune donnant dans l'analyse un indice d'or. Ce filon finit à la
+réunion de la pierre calcaire au gneiss. Cette réunion se fait ici dans
+la direction d'une heure 6/8 de la boussole de raineur, et sous un
+inclinaison, occidentale de 26 degrés.
+
+"Mais ce qu'il y a de remarquable, c'est que le gneis ne participe en
+rien de la pierre calcaire quoiqu'il n'en soit séparé que par une couche
+d'une pouce d'épaisseur de terre argileuse et calcaire, tandis que le
+rocher calcaire renferme beaucoup de fragmens de granit et de gneis,
+dans le voisinage de cette réunion.
+
+"Cette observation prouve incontestablement que le granit et le gneis
+avoient déjà acquis une dureté capable de résister aux infiltration
+des parties calcaire, et qu'ils existoient à-peu-près tels qu'ils sont
+aujourd'hui lorsque la pierre calcaire commença à se former; autrement
+elle n'auroit pu saisir et envelopper des morceaux détachés de ces
+rochers auxquels on donne avec raison l'épithète de primitif ou de
+première formation."
+
+M. Schreiber continues his reasoning upon those mineral appearances, in
+adducing another argument, which I do not think equally conclusive. He
+says, "Le filon de la Gardette devoit pareillement exister avant la
+montagne calcaire, car s'il s'étoit formé apres, je ne voit pas la
+raison pour laquelle il s'y seroit arrêté court, et pourquoi il ne se
+seroit pas prolongé dans cette espèce de rocher." It is not necessary,
+in the formation of a vein, that it should proceed in traversing all the
+strata which then are superincumbent; it is reasonable to suppose, and
+consistent with observation to find them stop short in proceeding from
+one stratum to another. Had M. Schreiber found any pieces of the vein
+contained in the calcareous rock, he would have had good reason for
+that assertion; but, to conclude that fact from grounds which do not
+necessarily imply it, is not to be permitted in sound reasoning, if
+certainty is the object, and not mere probability.
+
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the subject.
+
+Having got a distinct view of the primary and secondary mineral bodies
+or strata of the globe, and having thus acquired a particular object to
+inquire after, with a view to investigate or illustrate this piece of
+natural history, I was considering where we might most probably succeed
+in finding the junction of the low country strata and alpine schistus.
+I inquired of Mr Hall of Whitehall, who had frequent opportunities of
+traversing those mountains which lie between his house in the Merse and
+Edinburgh; and I particularly entreated him to examine the bed of the
+Whittater, which he executed to my satisfaction.
+
+Mr Hall having had occasion to examine the Pease and Tour burns, in
+planning and superintending the great improvement of the post road upon
+Sir James Hall's estate while Sir James was abroad, he informed me that
+the junction of the schistus and sand-stone strata was to be found in
+the Tour burn. Professor Playfair and I had been intending a visit to
+Sir James Hall at Dunglass; and this was a motive, not so much to hasten
+our visit, as to chose the most proper time for a mineral expedition
+both upon the hills and along the sea shore.
+
+It was late in the spring 1788 when Sir James left town, and Mr Playfair
+and I went to Dunglass about the beginning of June. We had exceeding
+favourable weather during the most part of our expedition; and I now
+propose to give an account of the result of our observations.
+
+Dunglass burn is the boundary between the counties of East Lothian and
+Berwickshire; and it is almost the boundary between the vertical and
+horizontal strata. To the north-west of this burn and beautiful dean are
+situated the coal, lime-stone, marl, and sand-stone strata; they are
+found stretching away along the shore in a very horizontal direction
+for some time, but become more and more inclined as they approach the
+schistus of which the hills of Lammermuir to the south are composed.
+
+Though the boundary between the two things here in question be easily
+perceivable from the nature of the country at the first inspection, by
+the rising of the hills, yet this does not lead one precisely to the
+junction; and in the extensive common boundary of those two things, the
+junction itself is only to be perceived in few places, where the rock is
+washed bare by the rivers or the sea, and where this junction is exposed
+naked to our view. The sea is here wearing away the coast; and the bank,
+about 200 feet high, is gradually falling down, making in some places a
+steep declivity, in others a perpendicular cliff. St Abb's Head and Fast
+Castle are head lands projecting into the sea, and are the bulwarks of
+this shore, which is embayed to the westward, where the sea preys upon
+the horizontal strata. The solid strata are every where exposed either
+in the cliff or on the shore; we were therefore certain of meeting with
+the junction in going from Dunglass to Fast Castle, which is upon the
+schistus. But this journey can only be made by sea; and we first set out
+to examine the junction in the Tour and Pease burns, where we had been
+informed it was to be found.
+
+In the bottom of those rivulets the sand-stone and marly strata appear
+pretty much inclined, rising towards the schistus country. The two burns
+unite before they come to the shore; and it is about midway between this
+junction and the bridges which are thrown over those two hollows, that
+the junction is to be found.
+
+The schistus strata here approach towards vertical; and the sand-stone
+strata are greatly inclined. But this inclination of those two different
+strata are in opposite directions; neither does the horizontal section
+of those two different strata run parallel to the junction; that is to
+say, the intersection of those two different strata is a line inclined
+to the horizon.
+
+At Jedburgh the schistus was vertical, and the strata horizontal; and
+there was interposed a compound bed of pudding-stone, formed of various
+water-worn bodies, the gravel of the schistus strata, and porphyries.
+Here again, though we have not a regular pudding-stone, we have
+that which corresponds to it, as having been the effect of similar
+circumstances. These are the fracture and detritus of the schistus,
+while the strata were deposited upon the broken ends of the schistus at
+the bottom of the sea. Most of the fragments of the schistus have their
+angles sharp; consequently, they had not travelled far, or been much
+worn by attrition. But more or less does not alter the nature of an
+operation; and the pudding-stone, which at Jedburgh is interposed
+between the vertical schistus and horizontal strata, is here properly
+represented by the included fragments of schistus in the inclined
+strata.
+
+The line of this junction running, on the one hand, towards Fast Castle
+eastward, and, on the other, towards the head of Dunglass burn
+westward, our business was to pursue this object in those two different
+directions. But it was chiefly in the sea coast that was placed our
+expectations, having recollection of the great banks of gravel under
+which the strata are buried about Oldhamstocks, near which, from all
+appearances, the junction was to be expected.
+
+Having taken boat at Dunglass burn, we set out to explore the coast;
+and, we observed the horizontal sand-stone turn up near the Pease burn,
+lifting towards the schistus. We found the junction of that schistus
+with the red sand-stone and marly strata on the shore and sea bank, at
+St. Helens, corresponding in general with what we had observed in the
+burns to the westward. But, at Siccar Point, we found a beautiful
+picture of this junction washed bare by the sea. The sand-stone strata
+are partly washed away, and partly remaining upon the ends of the
+vertical schistus; and, in many places, points of the schistus strata
+are seen standing up through among the sand-stone, the greatest part of
+which is worn away. Behind this again we have a natural section of those
+sand-stone strata, containing fragments of the schistus.
+
+After this nothing appears but the schistus rocks, until sand-stone and
+marl again are found at Red-heugh above the vertical strata. From that
+bay to Fast Castle we had nothing to observe but the schistus, which is
+continued without interruption to St Abb's Head. Beyond this, indeed,
+there appears to be something above the schistus; and great blocks of a
+red whin-stone or basaltes come down from the height and lie upon the
+shore; but we could not perceive distinctly how the upper mass is
+connected with the vertical schistus which is continued below.
+
+Our attention was now directed to what we could observe with respect
+to the schisti, of which we had most beautiful views and most perfect
+sections. Here are two objects to be held in view, in making those
+observations; the original formation or stratification of the schisti,
+and the posterior operations by which the present state of things has
+been procured. We had remarkable examples for the illustration of both
+those subjects.
+
+With regard to the first, we have every where among the rocks many
+surfaces of the erected strata laid bare, in being separated. Here we
+found the most distinct marks of strata of sand modified by moving
+water. It is no other than that which we every day observe upon the
+sands of our own shore, when the sea has ebbed and left them in a waved
+figure, which cannot be mistaken. Such figures as these are extremely
+common in our sand-stone strata; but this is an object which I never had
+distinctly observed in the alpine schisti; although, considering that
+the original of those schisti was strata of sand, and formed in water,
+there was no reason to doubt of such a thing being found. But here the
+examples are so many and so distinct, that it could not fail to give us
+great satisfaction.
+
+We were no less gratified in our views with respect to the other object,
+the mineral operations by which soft strata, regularly formed in
+horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea, had been hardened and
+displaced. Fig. 4. represents one of those examples; it was drawn by Sir
+James Hall from a perfect section in the perpendicular cliff at Lumesden
+burn. Here is not only a fine example of the bendings of the strata, but
+also of a horizontal shift or hitch of those erected strata.
+
+St Abb's Head is a promontory which, at a distance, one would naturally
+conclude to be composed of the schisti, as is all the shore to that
+place; but, as we approached it, there was some difference to be
+perceived in the external appearance, it having a more rounded and
+irregular aspect. Accordingly, upon our arrival, we found this head-land
+composed of a different substance. It is a great mass of red whin-stone,
+of a very irregular structure and composition. Some of it is full of
+small pebbles of calcareous spar, surrounded with a coat of a coloured
+substance, different both from the whin-stone ground and the inclosed
+pebble. Here ended our expedition by water.
+
+Having thus found the junction of the sand-stone with the schistus
+or alpine strata to run in a line directed from Fast Castle to
+Oldhamstocks, or the heads of Dunglass burn, we set out to trace this
+burn, not only with a view to observe the junction, if it should there
+appear, but particularly to discover the source of many blocks of
+whin-stone, of all sizes, with which the bed of this burn abounds.
+
+The sand-stone and coal strata, which are nearly horizontal at the mouth
+of this burn, or on the coast, become inclined as we go up the course of
+the rivulet; and of this we have fine sections in the bank. The Dean of
+Dunglass is formed of precipitous and perpendicular rocks, through which
+the running water has worn its way more than a hundred feet deep; above
+this Dean the banks are steep and very high, but covered with
+soil, which here is a deep gravel. The burn runs all the way up to
+Oldhamstocks upon the sand-stone strata; but there, these are traversed
+by a high whin-stone dyke, which crosses the burn obliquely, as we found
+it on both banks though not in the bed of the burn; it is in the south
+bank below the village, and on the north above it. Here is the source
+of the whin-stone which we were looking for; it is the common blue
+basaltes, of the same nature with the Giant's Causeway, but with no
+regular columner appearance.
+
+Above Oldhamstocks we again found the sand-stone in the bank, but it
+soon disappeared under a deep cover of gravel, and the burn then divided
+into several rivulets which come from the hills. We traced the one which
+led most directly up to the mountains, in expectation of meeting with
+the schistus, at least, if not the junction of it with the sandstone.
+But in this we were disappointed. We did not however lose our labour;
+for, though the junction which we pursued be not here visible, we met
+with what made it sufficiently evident, and was at the same time an
+object far more interesting in our eyes.
+
+I have already quoted Mr Voigt's description of the _sol mort rouge_; he
+says, that in places it forms entire mountains; here we have a perfect
+example of the same thing; and the moment we saw it, we said, here is
+the _sol mort rouge_. We ascended to the top of the mountain through
+a gully of solid pudding-stone going into decay, and furnishing the
+country below with that great covering of gravel, soil, and water worn
+stones. We were now well acquainted with the pudding-stone, which is
+interposed between the horizontal and alpine strata; but from what we
+had seen to the eastward, we never should have dreamed of meeting with
+what we now perceived. What we had hitherto seen of this pudding-stone
+was but a few fragments of the schistus in the lower beds of sand-stone;
+here a mountain of water-worn schisti, imbedded in a red earth and
+consolidated, presented itself to our view. It was evident that the
+schisti mountains, from whence those fragments had come, had been prior
+to this secondary mass; but here is a secondary mountain equal in height
+to the primary, or schisti mountains, at the basis of which we had seen
+the strata superinduced on the shore. Still, however, every thing here
+is formed upon the same principle, and nothing here is altered except
+the scale on which the operation had been performed.
+
+Upon the coast, we have but a specimen of the pudding-stone; most of
+the fragments had their angles entire; and few of them are rounded by
+attrition. Here, on the contrary, the mountain is one pudding-stone;
+and most of the fragments are stones much rounded by attrition. But the
+difference is only in degree, and not in kind; the stones are the same,
+and the nature of the composition similar. Had we seen the mass of which
+this mountain is only a relict, (having been degraded by the hands of
+time), we should have found this pudding-stone at the bottom of
+our sand-stone strata; could we have penetrated below this mass of
+pudding-stone, we should have found our schistus which we left on the
+shore at St. Helens and in the Tour burn. In Tiviotdale the vertical
+schisti are covered with a bed of pudding-stone, the gravel of which had
+been much worn by attrition, but the thickness of that bed is small;
+here again the wearing operation has been great, and the quantity of
+those materials even more than in proportion to those operations. We
+returned perfectly satisfied; and Sir James Hall is to pursue this
+subject farther when he shall be in those mountains shooting muir game.
+
+We had now only one object more to pursue; this was to examine the south
+side of those mountains of Lammermuir upon the sea shore, in order
+to see the junction of the primary schistus with the coal strata
+of Berwickshire. Mr Hall was to meet us at the Press, and we were
+afterwards to go with him to Whitehall. We met accordingly; but the
+weather was rainy; and we went directly to Whitehall. I had often seen
+the pudding-stone in great masse; in the banks of the Whiteader, as
+it comes out of the mountains, but then I had not seen its connection
+neither, on the one hand, with the schisti, nor, on the other, with the
+sand-stone strata. We knew that at Lammerton upon the sea coast there
+was coal, and consequently the sand-stone strata; and reasoning upon
+those data we were sure that our proper course of investigation was to
+trace the river Ey to the shore, and then go south the coast in search
+of the junction of the schistus with the horizontal strata. This we
+executed as well as the weather would permit; but had it to regret,
+that the rainy season was not so favourable for our views, as it was
+agreeable to the country which had been suffering with the drought.
+
+It is needless now to enlarge upon this subject. I shall only mention
+that we found the red marly strata above the pudding-stone in the bed of
+the Ey and its branches; we then traced the schistus down the Ey, and
+found a mass of the most consolidated pudding-stone upon the coast to
+the north of the harbour of Eymouth. But this mass did not rest on the
+schistus; it is immediately upon a mass of whin-stone; and the schistus
+is in the harbour, so that this whin-stone mass seems to be here
+interposed between the pudding-stone and schistus. We then pursued
+the coast southwards until we found the junction of the schistus and
+sand-stone strata about two miles from Eymouth; but here the junction
+was not attended with any pudding-stone that we could perceive.
+
+Having found the same or similar appearances from the one end to the
+other, and on both sides of that range of mountains which run from sea
+to sea in the south of Scotland, we may now extend our view of this
+mineral operation in comprehending every thing of the same kind which we
+meet with in our island or any other distant country.
+
+Thus perhaps the pudding-stone of the south of England will be
+considered in the same light as having been formed of the _débri_ and
+_détritus_ of the flinty bodies.
+
+In the island of Arran, there is also a pudding-stone, even in some
+of the summits of the island, exactly upon the border of the schistus
+district, as will be described in the natural history of that island.
+This pudding-stone is composed of gravel formed of the hardest parts
+of the schistus and granite or porphyry mountains. That compound
+parasitical stone has been also again cemented by heat and fusion; I
+have a specimen in which there is a clear demonstration of that fact.
+One of the water-worn stones which had been rounded by attrition, has in
+this pudding-stone been broken and shifted, the one half slipping over
+the other, three quarters of an inch, besides other smaller slips in
+the same stone. But the two pieces are again cemented; or they had been
+shifted when the stone was in that soft state, by which the two pieces
+are made perfectly to cohere. Those shifts and veins, in this species of
+stone, are extremely instructive, illustrating the mineral operations of
+the globe.
+
+In like manner to the north of the Grampians, along the south side of
+Loch Ness, there are mountains formed of the debris of schistus and
+granite mountains, first manufactured into sand and gravel, and then
+consolidated into a pudding-stone, which is always formed upon the same
+principle. The same is also found upon the south side of those mountains
+in the shire of Angus.
+
+I may also give for example the African _Brechia_, which is a
+pudding-stone of the same nature. This stone is composed of granites or
+porphyries, serpentines and schisti, extremely indurated and perfectly
+consolidated. It is also demonstrable from the appearance in this stone
+that it has been in a softened state, from the shape and application
+of its constituent parts; and in a specimen of it which I have in my
+cabinet, there is also a demonstration of calcareous spar flowing among
+the gravel of the consolidated rock.
+
+This fact therefore of pudding-stone mountains, is a general fact, so
+far as it is founded upon observations that are made in Africa, Germany,
+and Britain. We may now reason upon this general fact, in order to see
+how far it countenances the idea of primitive mountains, on the one
+hand, or on the other supports the present theory, which admits of
+nothing primitive in the visible or examinable parts of the earth.
+
+To a person who examines accurately the composition of our mountains,
+which occupy the south of Scotland, no argument needs be used to
+persuade him that the bodies in question are not primitive; the thing
+is evident from inspection, as much as would be the ruins of an ancient
+city, although there were no record of its history. The visible
+materials, which compose for the most part the strata of our south
+alpine schisti, are so distinctly the _debris_ and _detritus_ of a
+former earth, and so similar in their nature with those which for the
+most part compose the strata on all hands acknowledged as secondary,
+that there can remain no question upon that head. The consolidation,
+again, of those strata, and the erection of them from their original
+position, and from the place in which they had been formed, is another
+question.
+
+But the acknowledging strata, which had been formed in the sea of loose
+materials, to be consolidated and raised into the place of land, is
+plainly giving up the idea of primitive mountains. The only question,
+therefore, which remains to be solved, must respect the order of things,
+in comparing the alpine schisti with the secondary strata; and this
+indeed forms a curious subject of investigation.
+
+It is plain that the schisti had been indurated, elevated, broken, and
+worn by attrition in water, before the secondary strata, which form the
+most fertile parts of our earth, had existed. It is also certain that
+the tops of our schistus mountains had been in the bottom of the sea
+at the time when our secondary strata had begun to be formed; for the
+pudding-stone on the top of our Lammermuir mountains, as well as the
+secondary strata upon the vertical schisti of the Alps and German
+mountains, affords the most irrefragable evidence of that fact.
+
+It is further to be affirmed, that this whole mass of water-formed
+materials, as well as the basis on which it rested, had been subjected
+to the mineral operations of the globe, operations by which the loose
+and incoherent materials are consolidated, and that which was the bottom
+of the sea made to occupy the station of land, and serve the purpose for
+which it is destined in the world. This also will appear evident, when
+it is considered that it has been from the appearances in this very
+land, independent of those of the alpine schisti, that the present
+theory has been established.
+
+By thus admitting a primary and secondary in the formation of our land,
+the present theory will be confirmed in all its parts. For, nothing but
+those vicissitudes, in which the old is worn and destroyed, and new
+land formed to supply its place, can explain that order which is to be
+perceived in all the works of nature; or give us any satisfactory
+idea with regard to that apparent disorder and confusion, which would
+disgrace an agent possessed of wisdom and working with design.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+The ideas of naturalists with regard to petrifaction are so vague and
+indistinct, that no proper answer can be given to them. They in general
+suppose water to be the solvent of bodies, and the vehicle of petrifying
+substances; but they neither say whether water be an universal
+menstruum, nor do they show in what manner a solid body has been formed
+in the bowels of the earth, from that solution. It may now be proper to
+examine this subject, not with a view to explain all those petrifactions
+of bodies which is performed in the mineral regions of the earth, those
+regions that are inaccessible to man, but to show that what has been
+wrote by naturalists, upon this subject, has only a tendency to corrupt
+science, by admitting the grossest supposition in place of just
+principle or truth, and to darken natural history by introducing an ill
+conceived theory in place of matter of fact.
+
+M. le Comte de Buffon has attempted to explain the crystallization
+of bodies, or production of mineral forms, by the accretion or
+juxtaposition of elementary bodies, which have only form in two
+dimensions, length and breadth; that is to say, that mineral concretions
+are composed of surfaces alone, and not of bodies. This however is only
+an attempt to explain, what we do not understand, by a proposition which
+is either evidently contradictory, or plainly inconceivable. It is
+true that this eloquent and ingenious author endeavours to correct the
+palpable absurdity of the proposition, by representing the constituent
+parts of the mineral bodies as "_de lames infiniment minces_;" but who
+is it does not see, that these infinitely thin plates are no other than
+bodies of three dimensions, contrary to the supposition; for, infinitely
+thin, means a certain thickness; but the smallest possible or assignable
+thickness differs as much from a perfect superficies as the greatest.
+
+M. de Luc has given us his ideas of petrifaction with sufficient
+precision of term and clearness of expression; his opinion, therefore,
+deserves to be examined; and, as his theory of petrifaction is equally
+applicable to every species of substance, it is necessary again to
+examine this subject, notwithstanding of what has been already said,
+in the first part of this work, concerning consolidation and mineral
+concretion from the fluid state of fusion.
+
+This author has perhaps properly exposed Woodward's Theory of
+Petrification in saying[33], "Son erreur à cet égard vient de ce qu'il
+n'a point réfléchi sur la manière dont se fait la _pétrifaction_. Il
+ramollit d'abord les _pierres_ pour y faire entrer les coquilles, sans
+bien connoître l'agent qu'il y employe; et il les duroit ensuite, sans
+réfléchir au comment." To avoid this error or defect, M. de Luc, in his
+Theory of Petrifaction, sets out with the acknowledged principle of
+cohesion; and, in order to consolidate strata of a porous texture, he
+supposes water carrying minute bodies of all shapes and sizes, and
+depositing them in such close contact as to produce solidity and
+concretion. Now, if Dr Woodward softened stones without a proper
+cause, M. de Luc, in employing the specious principle of cohesion, has
+consolidated them upon no better grounds; for, the application of this
+principle is as foreign to his purpose, as is that of magnetism. Bodies,
+it is true, cohere when their surfaces are closely applied to each
+other; But how apply this principle to consolidation?--only by supposing
+all the separate bodies, of which the solid is to be composed, to be
+in perfect contact in all their surfaces. But this, in other words,
+is supposing the body to be solid; and, to suppose the agent, water,
+capable of thus making hard bodies solid, is no other than having
+recourse to the fortuitous concourse of atoms to make a world; a thought
+which this author would surely hold in great contempt.
+
+[Note 33: Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+He then illustrates this operation of nature by those of art, in
+building walls which certainly become hard, and which, as our author
+seems to think, become solid. But this is only an imperfect or erroneous
+representation of this subject; for, mortar does not become hard upon
+the principle of petrification adopted by our author. Mortar, made of
+clay, instead of lime, will not acquire a stony hardness, nor ever, by
+means of water, will it be more indurated than by simply drying; neither
+will the most subtile powder of chalk, with water and sand, form any
+solid body, or a proper mortar. The induration of mortar arises from the
+solution of a stony substance, and the subsequent concretion of that
+dissolved matter, operations purely chemical. Now, if this philosopher,
+in his Theory of Petrifaction, means only to explain a chemical
+operation upon mechanical principles, why have recourse, for an example
+in this subject, to mineral bodies, the origin of which is questioned?
+Why does he not rather explain, upon this principle, the known
+concretion of some body, from a fluid state, or, conversely, the
+known solution of some concreted body? If again he means to explain
+petrifaction in the usual way, by a chemical operation, in that case,
+the application of his polished surfaces, so as to cohere, cannot take
+place until the dissolved body be separated from the fluid, by means of
+which it is transported from place to place in the mineral regions. But
+it is in this preliminary step that lies all the difficulty; for, could
+we see how every different substance might be dissolved, and every
+dissolved substance separated from its solvent at our pleasure, we
+should find no difficulty in admitting the cohesion of hard bodies,
+whether by means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or by the
+principle of general attraction, a principle which surely comprehends
+this particular, termed a cohesive power.
+
+It must not be alleged, that seeing we know not how water dissolves
+saline bodies, therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we know, may
+also dissolve crystal; and, if water thus dissolves a mineral substance
+in a manner unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit it, although
+we may not be able to imagine how. This kind of reasoning is only
+calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the same time, the reasoning of
+philosophers, concerning petrifaction, does not in general appear to be
+founded on any principle that is more sound. That water dissolves salt
+is a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not a fact; therefore, those
+two propositions, with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
+removed, and cannot be assimilated in sound physical reasoning. It is
+no more a truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than that we never
+have been able to detect the smallest disposition in water to dissolve
+crystal, flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege the possibility
+of water being capable of dissolving those bodies in the mineral
+regions, and of thus changing the substance of one body into another, as
+naturalists have supposed, contrary to their knowledge, or in order to
+explain appearances, is so far from tending to increase our science,
+that it is abandoning the human intellect to be bewildered in an error;
+it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep the scientific conscience,
+and making the soul of man insensible to the natural distress of
+conscious ignorance.
+
+But besides that negative argument concerning the insolubility of
+crystal, by which the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
+be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly concreted in the
+cavities of the most solid rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
+in the midst of granite mountains. But these masses of granite were
+formed by fusion; I hope that I shall give the most satisfactory proof
+of that truth: Consequently, here at least there is no occasion for the
+action of water in dissolving siliceous substances in one place, in
+order to concrete and crystallise it in another.
+
+In these cavities of the solid granite rock, where crystal is found
+regularly shooting from a basis which is the internal surface of the
+cavity, we find the other constituent substances of the granite also
+crystallised. I have those small cavities, in this rock, from the island
+of Arran, containing crystal, felt-spar, and mica, all crystallised in
+the same cavity[34]. But this is nothing to the _druzen_ or crystalline
+concretions, which are found in a similar manner among metallic and
+mineral substances in the veins and mines; there, every species of
+mineral and metallic substance, with every variety of mixture and
+composition, are found both concreted and crystallised together in every
+imaginable shape and situation.
+
+[Note 34: The Chevalier Dolomieu makes the following observation.
+Journal de Physique, Juillet 1791.
+
+"J'ai été étonné de trouver au centre d'un énorme massif de granit, que
+l'on avoit ouvert avec la poudre pour pratiquer un chemin, des
+morceaux, gros comme le poing et au dessous, de spath calcaire blanc,
+très-effervescent, en grandes écailles, ou lames entrecroisées. Il
+n'occupoit point des cavités particulières, il n'y paroissoit le
+produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des cavités, mais il étoit
+incorporé avec les feld-spath, le mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse
+avec eux, et ne pouvoit se rompre sans les entraîner avec lui."
+
+This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not been here
+introduced by infiltration, although that is the very method which he
+employs to form concretions, not only of spar but of crystal, zeolite,
+and pyrites, in the closest cavities of the most solid rocks of
+basaltes. These four substances in this stone were so mixed together
+that nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain the state in
+which they appeared; but, thinking that such a supposition could not
+be allowed, this naturalist, like a man of science when his data fail,
+leaves the matter without any interpretation of his own. This however is
+what he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he mistakes
+for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.]
+
+Here is an infinite operation, but an operation which is easily
+performed by the natural arrangement of substances acting freely in
+a fluid state, and concreting together, each substance, whether more
+simple or more compound, directing itself by its internal principle of
+attraction, and affecting mechanically those that are concreting around
+it.
+
+We see the very same thing happen under our eye, and precisely in the
+same manner. When a fluid mass of any mineral or metallic substance is
+made to congeal by sudden cooling on the outside, while the mass within
+is fluid, a cavity is thus sometimes formed by the contraction of the
+contained fluid; and in this cavity are found artificial _druzen_, as
+they may be called, being crystallizations similar to those which the
+mineral cavities exhibit in such beauty and perfection.
+
+Petrification and consolidation, in some degree, may doubtless be
+performed, in certain circumstances, by means of the solution of
+calcareous earth; but the examples given by M. de Luc, of those bodies
+of lime-stone and agate petrified in the middle of strata of loose or
+sandy materials, are certainly inexplicable upon any other principle
+except the fusion of those substances with which the bodies are
+petrified[35].
+
+[Note 35: Vid. Lettre 28 et Lettre 103. Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+This subject deserves the strictest attention; I propose it as a
+touchstone for every theory of petrification or perfect consolidation.
+First, There are found, among argillaceous strata, insulated bodies of
+iron-stone, perfectly consolidated; secondly, There are found, in strata
+of chalk and lime-stone, masses of insulated flints; thirdly, There
+are found, in strata of sea sand, masses of that sand cemented by a
+siliceous substance; fourthly, In the midst of blocks of sand-stone,
+there are found masses of loose or pure sand inclosed in crystallised
+cavities; and in this sand are found insulated masses of crystallised
+spar, including within them the sand, but without having the sparry
+or calcareous crystallization disturbed by it. There are also other
+globular masses of the same kind, where the sparry crystallization is
+either not to be observed, or appears only partially[36]: And now,
+lastly, In strata of shell-sand, there are found masses of consolidated
+lime-stone or marble. In all those cases, the consolidated bodies are
+perfectly insulated in the middle of strata, in which they must of
+necessity have been petrified or consolidated; the stratum around the
+bodies has not been affected by the petrifying substance, as there
+is not any vestige of it there; and here are examples of different
+substances, all conspiring to prove one uniform truth. Therefore, a
+general theory of petrification or consolidation of mineral bodies must
+explain this distinct fact, and not suffer it any longer to remain a
+_lusus naturae_.
+
+[Note 36: Mem. de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, an. 1775.]
+
+Let us now consider what it is that we have to explain, upon the
+supposition of those concretions being formed from a solution. We have,
+first, To understand what sort of a solution had been employed for the
+introducing of those various substances; secondly, How those concretions
+had been formed from such solutions within those bodies of strata; and,
+lastly, How such concretions could have been formed, without any vestige
+appearing of the same substance, or of the same operation, in the
+surrounding part of the stratum. Whatever may be the difficulty
+of explaining those particular appearances by means of fusion and
+mechanical force, it is plainly impossible to conceive those bodies
+formed in those places by infiltration, or any manner of concretion from
+a state of solution.
+
+Naturalists, in explaining the formation of stones, often use a chemical
+language which either has no proper meaning, or which will not apply to
+the subject of mineral operations. We know the chemical process by which
+one or two stony concretions may be formed among bodies passing from
+one state to another. When, therefore, a change from a former state of
+things in mineral bodies is judged by naturalists to have happened, the
+present state is commonly explained, or the change is supposed to have
+been made by means of a similar process, without inquiring if this had
+truly been the case or not. Thus their knowledge of chemistry has led
+naturalists to reason erroneously, in explaining things upon false
+principles. It would be needless to give an example of any one
+particular author in this respect; for, so far as I have seen, it
+appears to be almost general, every one copying the language of another,
+and no one understanding that language which has been employed.
+
+These naturalists suppose every thing done by means of solution in the
+mineral kingdom, and yet they are ignorant of those solvents. They
+conceive or they imagine concretions and crystallizations to be formed
+of every different substance, and in every place within the solid body
+of the earth, without considering how far the thing is possible which
+they suppose. They are constantly talking of operations which could only
+take place in the cavities of the earth above the level of the sea, and
+where the influence of the atmosphere were felt; and yet this is the
+very place which we have it in our power to examine, and where, besides
+the stalactite, and one or two more of the same kind, or formed on the
+same principle, they have never been able to discover one of the many
+which, according to their theory, ought always to be in action or
+effect. So far from knowing that general consolidating operation, which
+they suppose to be exerted in filling up the veins and cavities of the
+earth by means of the infiltrating water of the surface, they do not
+seem fully to understand the only operation of this kind which they see.
+The concretion of calcareous matter upon the surface of the earth is
+perhaps the only example upon which their theory is founded; and
+yet nothing can be more against it than the general history of this
+transaction.
+
+Calcareous matter, the great _vinculum_ of many mineral bodies, is in
+a perpetual state of dissolution and decay, in every place where the
+influences of air and water may pervade. The general tendency of this
+is to dissolve calcareous matter out of the earth, and deliver that
+solution into the sea. Were it possible to deny that truth, the
+very formation of stalactite, that operation which has bewildered
+naturalists, would prove it; for it is upon the general solubility of
+calcareous matter exposed to water that those cavities are formed, in
+which may be found such collections of stalactical concretion; and the
+general tendency of those operations is to waste the calcareous bodies
+through which water percolates. But how is the general petrifaction or
+consolidation of strata, below the surface of the sea, to be explained
+by the general dissolution of that consolidating substance in the
+earth above that level? Instead of finding a general petrifying or
+consolidating operation in the part of the earth which we are able to
+examine, we find the contrary operation, so far at least as relates to
+calcareous spar, and many other mineral bodies which are decomposed and
+dissolved upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Thus in the surface of the earth, above the level of the sea, no
+petrifying operation of a durable nature is found; and, were such an
+operation there found, it could not be general, as affecting every kind
+of substance. But, even suppose that such a general operation were found
+to take place in the earth above the level of the sea, where there might
+be a circulation of air and percolation of water, How could the strata
+of the earth below the level of the sea be petrified? This is a question
+that does not seem to have entered into the heads of our naturalists
+who attempt to explain petrifaction or mineral concretion from aqueous
+solutions. But the consolidation of loose and incoherent things,
+gathered together at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards raised
+into rocks of various sorts, forms by far the greatest example of
+petrification or mineral operation of this globe. It is this that must
+be explained in a mineral theory; and it is this great process of
+petrifaction to which the doctrine of infiltration, whether for the
+mechanical purpose of applying cohesive surfaces, or the chemical one of
+forming crystallizations and concretions, will not by any means apply.
+
+Nothing shows more how little true science has been employed for the
+explanation of phenomena, than the language of modern naturalists, who
+attribute, to stalactical and stalagmical operations, every superficial
+or distant resemblance to those calcareous bodies, the origin of which
+we know so well. It is not a mere resemblance that should homologate
+different things; there should be a specific character in every thing
+that is to be generalised. It will be our business to show that, in the
+false stalactites, there is not the distinctive character of those water
+formed bodies to be found.
+
+In the formation of stalactical concretions, besides the incrustation as
+well as crystallization of the stony substance from the aqueous vehicle
+by which it had been carried in the dissolved state, we have the other
+necessary accompanyments of the operation, or collateral circumstances
+of the case. Such, for example, is that tubular construction of the
+stalactite, first formed by the concretion of the calcareous substance
+upon the outside of the pendant gut of water exposed to the evaporation
+of the atmosphere; we then see the gradual filling up of that pervious
+tube through which the petrifying water had passed for a certain time;
+and, lastly, we see the continual accretion which this conducting body
+had received from the water running successively over every part of
+it. But among the infinite number of siliceous concretions and
+crystallizations, as well as those of an almost indefinite variety of
+other substances, all of which are attributed to solution, there is not
+the least vestige of any collateral operation, by which the nature of
+that concretion might be ascertained in the same manner. In all
+those cases, we see nothing but the concreted substances or their
+crystallizations; but, no mark of any solvent or incrusting process is
+to be perceived. On the contrary, almost all, or the greatest part
+of them, are so situated, and attended with such circumstances, as
+demonstrate the physical impossibility of that being the manner in which
+they had been concreted; for, they are situated within close cavities,
+through which nothing can pervade but heat, electricity, magnetism,
+etc.; and they fill those cavities more or less, from the thinnest
+incrustation of crystals to the full content of those cavities with
+various substances, all regularly concreted or crystallised according to
+an order which cannot apply to the concretion of any manner of solution.
+
+That there is, in the mineral system, an operation of water which may
+with great propriety be termed _infiltration_, I make no doubt. But this
+operation of water, that may be employed in consolidating the strata
+in the mineral regions, is essentially different from that which is
+inconsiderately employed or supposed by mineralists when they talk
+of infiltration; these two operations have nothing in common except
+employing the water of the surface of the earth to percolate a porous
+body. Now, the percolation of water may increase the porousness of that
+body which it pervades, but never can thus change it from a porous to a
+perfect solid body. But even the percolation of water through the strata
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, necessarily required, according to
+the supposition of naturalists, must be refused; for, the interstices of
+those strata are, from the supposition of the case, already filled with
+water; consequently, without first removing that stagnant water, it is
+in vain to propose the infiltration of any fluid from the surface.
+
+This is a difficulty which does not occur in our theory, where the
+strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, are to be afterwards heated
+by the internal fires of the earth. The natural consequence of those
+heating operations may be considered as the converting of the water
+contained in the strata into steam, and the expulsion of steam or
+vapour, by raising it up against the power of gravity, to be delivered
+upon the surface of the earth and again condensed to the state of water.
+
+Let us now conceive the strata, which had been deposited at the bottom
+of the sea, as exhausted of their water, and as communicating with the
+surface of the earth impregnated with water. Here again we have the
+power of gravity to operate in carrying down water to that place which
+had been before exhausted by the power of heat; and in this manner, by
+alternately employing those two great physical agents, we cannot doubt
+that nature may convey soluble substances from above, and deposit them
+below for the purpose of consolidating porous bodies, or of filling with
+saline and earthy matter those interstices which had been originally
+filled with water, when the strata were deposited at the bottom of the
+sea. How far any marks of this operation may be perceived, by carefully
+examining our mines and minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
+the contrary, whenever those examined objects were clear and distinct,
+with the concomitant circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
+always found the most certain marks of the solid bodies having concreted
+from the fluid state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude the case
+of infiltration having been previously employed; and I would intreat
+mineralists, who have the opportunity of examining the solid parts of
+the earth, to attend particularly to this distinction. But do not let
+them suppose that infiltration can be made to fill either the pores or
+veins of strata without the operation of mineral heat, or some such
+process by which the aqueous vehicle may be discharged.
+
+Not only are mineral philosophers so inconsiderate, in forming
+geological theories upon a mere supposition or false analogy, they
+have even proceeded, upon that erroneous theory, to form a geological
+supposition for explaining the appearances of strata and other stony
+masses in employing a particular physical operation, which is, that
+of _crystallization_[37]. Now crystallization may be considered as a
+species of elective concretion, by which every particular substance, in
+passing from a fluid to a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar
+external shape and internal arrangement of its parts, by which it is
+often distinguished. But, to suppose the solid mineral structure of the
+earth explained, like an enigma, by the word _crystallization_, is to
+misunderstand the science by which we would explain the subject of
+research; and, to form a general mineral theory thus upon that term,
+is an attempt to generalise without a reason. For, when it were even
+admitted that every solid body is crystallised, we thus know no more of
+the geology of this earth, or understand as little of the general theory
+of mineral concretion, as we did before;--we cannot, from that, say
+whether it be by the operation of solution or of fusion which had
+produced the perceived effect.
+
+[Note 37: Journal de Physique; Avril 1753.]
+
+M. de Carosi has wrote a treatise upon certain petrifactions[38]. In the
+doctrine of this treatise there is something new or extraordinary. It
+will therefore be proper to make some observations on it.
+
+[Note 38: Sur la Génération du Silex et du Quartz en partie.
+Observations faites en Pologne 1783, à Cracovie.]
+
+The object of this treatise is to describe the generation of silex and
+quartz, with their modifications or compositions, formed within mineral
+bodies of a different substance. The natural history contained in this
+little treatise is well described and sufficiently interesting. But It
+is chiefly in order to examine the means which, according to the theory
+of this treatise, are employed in petrifying bodies, that I consider it
+in this place.
+
+The first section of this treatise has for title, _Génération du Caillou
+et du Quartz de la terre calcaire pure_. It may be worth while to
+compare the natural history of this part of the earth with the flint and
+chert found in our chalk and lime-stone countries. I shall therefore
+transcribe what is worth observing upon that subject (p. 5.).
+
+"Nous rencontrons chez nous dans les parties le plus montagneuses, et
+les moins couvertes de terreau, ou tout-au plus de sable, entre de purs
+rochers calcaires une quantité incroyable de cailloux (silex) tant en
+boules, que veines, couches, et débris. Au premier coup d'oeil l'on
+s'imagine que ce font des débris de montagnes éloignées, qui y furent
+amenés par les eaux, mais, en examinant la chose de plus pres, on est
+convaincu, que ce sont tout au contraire, des parties détachées des
+montagnes de la contrée. Car il y a sur presque toute l'étendue de nos
+montagnes calcaires une couche, ou pour mieux dire, un banc composé
+de plusieurs couches de base calcaire, mais qui ou sont parsemées
+irrégulièrement de boules, de rognons, de veines, et de petits filons
+de silex, ou qui contiennent cette pierre en filon, veines, et couches
+parallèles, et régulièrement disposées. Les boules et rognons de silex
+y font depuis moins de la grandeur d'une petite noisette, jusqu'au
+diamètre de plus de six pouces de nôtre mesure. La plupart de ces boules
+tant qu'elles sont dans l'intérieur caché de la roche vive, et qu'elles
+n'ont rien souffert de l'impression de l'air, ont, pour l'ordinaire, une
+croûte de spath calcaire, au moyen de la quelle elles sont accrues à
+la roche mere; ou pour mieux dire la croûte spatheuse fait l'intermède
+entre le silex, et la roche calcaire, par où se fait le passage de l'une
+à l'autre. Mais ceci ne vaut que de boules de silex entièrement formées.
+C'est dont on peut même se convaincre à la vue, par beaucoup de pierres
+dont le pavé de la ville de Cracovie est composé. Mais là, ou le silex
+n'est pas encore entièrement achevé, la croûte spatheuse manque, en
+revanche on y voit évidemment le passage par degrés successifs de la
+roche calcaire au silex qui y est contenu, et les nuances de ce passage
+sont souvent si peu marquées que même les acides minéraux ne suffisent
+pas à les déterminer, ce n'est que le briquet, qui nous aide à les
+découvrir. On voit bien ou la pierre calcaire s'enfonce en couleur, l'on
+s'apperçoit, où sa dureté, ses cassures changent, mais, comme elle y
+souffre encore quelque impression des acides, l'on ne sauroit déterminer
+au juste le point, ou elle a déjà plus de la nature du silex, que de
+celle de la chaux, qu'en la frappant du briquet.
+
+"Tels sont les cailloux en boules et rognons avant leur état de
+perfection, il y aura même au milieu une partie de pierre calcaire non
+changée.
+
+"Ceux au contraire, ou la nature à achevé son ouvrage, ont une croûte de
+chaux endurcie, et sont purement du silex fini, mais de toutes couleurs,
+d'un grain et d'une texture plus ou moins fine, qui passe assez souvent
+par degrés dans les différentes variétés du noble silex. Ils ont, pour
+l'ordinaire, dans leur intérieur une cavité, mais pas toujours au
+centre, et qui vient apparemment de la consommation de cette partie
+calcaire qui y resta la dernière, et n'en fut changée ou dissolute et
+séparée, que lorsque le reste du silex étoit déjà entièrement fini. Ces
+cavités sont toujours, ou enduites de calcédoine en couche concentriques
+recouverte de petits cristaux fort brillans et durs de quartz, ou bien
+seulement de ces derniers-ci. Par-fois il y a aussi du spath calcaire
+crystallisé, mais cela est extrêmement rare. Quelque-fois enfin ces
+cavités sont remplies d'une noix de calcédoine. Je n'ai réussi qu'une
+seule fois en cassant un pareil silex en boule d'y trouver encore le
+reste de l'eau de crystallisation."
+
+The only remark that I would here make is this, that, if the
+crystallization of those close cavities in the _silex_ had at any time
+required water of solution, it must always have required it. But, if
+there had been water of solution contained in those close cavities, for
+the crystallization of the various things which are often found within
+them, How comes it that this water is almost never found? I have good
+reason to believe that water contained within a solid flint will not
+make its escape, as does that contained in the _anhydrites_ of Mount
+_Berico_, which are composed of a porous calcedony. But the siliceous
+crystallizations within close cavities is a curious subject, which we
+shall have occasion to examine more particularly in treating of agates.
+We now proceed to the next section, which is the generation of silex and
+quartz in marl, (p. 19.)
+
+"Il y a des contrées, chez nous, qui out des étendus assez considérables
+en long et en large, de montagnes de pierre de marne calcaire, dans
+lesquelles on rencontre le même phénomène que dans celles de chaux pure;
+c. a. d. nous y trouvons du silex de différentes variétés, et dans tous
+les degrés successifs de leur formation, et de leur perfection. Outre
+cela, nous y voyons encore quelque chose, qui semble nous conduire à
+la découverte des moyens, dont se sort la nature pour effecteur cette
+opération, et qui nous étoit caché dans les montagnes de chaux pure: ces
+bancs de pierre marnesilicieuse, contiennent une partie considérable de
+pyrites sulfureuses, qui non seulement y forment une grande quantité
+de petits sillons, mais toute la masse de la montagne est rempli de
+parcelles souvent presqu'imperceptibles de ce minéral. Ces pyrites sont
+évidemment des productions du phlogistique et de l'acide contenu dans la
+montagne.
+
+"L'eau, qui s'y trouve ordinairement en assez grande abondance, en
+détacha, extraha d'un et l'autre, et les combina après tous les deux
+ensemble. Cette même eau les dissout derechef, et en fait de nouvelles
+combinaisons. C'est ce qu'on voit évidemment là, ou la nature, ayant
+commencé ses opérations, il n'y est resté de la pyrite, qu'une portion
+de la partie inflammable liée à une base terrestre. Dans ces endroits
+la marne n'est que fort peu sensible aux acides, et de blanche qu'elle
+étoit, sa couleur est devenue presque noire. C'est là qu'on observe les
+différens degrés du changement de la marne en silex, contenant, même
+encore, par fois, de parties pyritéiques non détruites dans son
+intérieur. Et comme la nature forme ici, de même, que dans la chaux pure
+les silex, la plupart en boules ou rognons; comme les différent degrés
+de métamorphoses de la marne en silex, sont ici beaucoup plus nombreuses
+que là, de sorte qu'il y a des bandes entières, qui mériteroient plutôt
+d'être appellés bandes silicieuses, que marneuses; comme il y a, enfin,
+une grande quantité de pyrites, qu'ailleurs, il est très probable
+qu'elle se serve là du même moyen qu'ici pour opérer la métamorphose en
+question.
+
+"Ne nous précipitons, cependant, pas à en tirer plus de conséquences;
+poursuivons plutôt le fil de notre récit.
+
+"Le silex, qui se trouve ici, est non seulement de différents degrés de
+perfection, il est de plus d'une espèce. Il y a de la pierre à feu, 2 de
+la calcédoine, 3 des agathes, et 4 différentes nuances et passages des
+espèces ordinaires aux fines du silex.
+
+"La pierre à feu, est, ordinairement dans son état de perfection d'un
+grain assez fin, d'une couleur grise plus ou moins foncée, et même
+donnant, dans le noirâtre, plus ou moins diaphane; ses cassures sont
+concentriques ou coquillées, et sa masse est assez compacte. Outre sa
+conformation ordinaire en boules et rognons, elle fait presque toujours
+la noix de ursins marins, qui y font en grand nombre, et dont la
+coquille est le plus souvent, et presque toujours de spath calcaire,
+même au milieu d'une boule de silex parfait.
+
+"Les calcédoines et agathes de ces couches sont toujours (au moins, je
+ne les ai pas encore vues autrement) de coraux et autres corps marins
+pétrifiés. Donc, il faut que les couches de pierres roulées, d'où j'ai
+tiré ma collection citée plus haut, soyent des débris de montagne»
+détruites de cette espèce. Il y en a qui sont très parfaites comme
+celles qui composent ma collection, d'autres méritent plutôt d'être
+rangées parmi les passages du silex ordinaire, et ses espèces plus
+fines; d'autres encore sont, en effet, de vraies agathes, mais qui
+renferment dans leur intérieur plus ou moins de parties non parfaites
+presque calcaires, qui s'annoncent d'abord par leur couleur blanche,
+par leur gros grains relativement au reste, par leur opacité, par leur
+mollesse respective, et souvent même par leur sensibilité pour les
+acides minéraux. Mais celles, qui sont finies, quoiqu'elles ayent, pour
+la plupart, une couleur presque noire, ne laissent, cependant, pas
+d'avoir aussi des teintes plus claires comme brunâtres, verdâtres,
+rougeâtres, jaunâtres, bleuâtres, tachetées, veinées, etc. Leur clarté
+n'est pas moins variable, que leur couleur, il y en a de presqu'opaques,
+comme aussi de presque transparentes, sur tout là, ou la calcédoine
+prédomine.
+
+"Le quartz s'y trouve comme dans les pierres de la première section, c,
+a, d, crystallisé, en groupes dans de petites cavités; quelquefois aussi
+en veines. La calcédoine y est de même, ou bien en mamelons, ou bien en
+stalactites, lorsqu'elle a de la place pour s'y déposer.
+
+"Un phénomène encore plus curieux que cela est cette belle pyrite
+sulphureuse jaune, comme de l'or, qui est quelquefois parsemée par tout
+la substance de pétrifications agathisées, et qui apparemment y fut
+déposée après la dite métamorphose à la faveur des petits pores, qui y
+étoient restés ouverts."
+
+I would beg that mineralists, who use such language as this, would
+consider if it contains a distinct idea of the operation which they
+would thereby describe, or if it does not contain either a contradiction
+or an inconceivable proposition. It supposes a calcareous body to be
+metamorphosed, somehow by means of the mountain acid, into a siliceous
+body. But, finding many bodies of pyrites contained within that solid
+flint, it is said, that, when the calcareous body was flintified, there
+were left in it cavities which were afterwards filled with pyrites. Let
+us reflect a moment upon this doctrine. These cavities were first open
+to the outside of the flinty body; but now the pyrites with which they
+had been filled is insulated in the solid flint. Here three things are
+required; first, The calcareous body is to be flintified, at the same
+time leaving the body full of small cavities open to the outside;
+secondly, These cavities are to be filled with pyrites; lastly, These
+mineral bodies are to be so inclosed within the flint, as to leave no
+vestige of the former processes. This marly mountain itself, which had
+been formed of loose materials gathered together at the bottom of the
+sea, was first to be filled with pyrites, in various shapes, by means of
+the phlogistic and the acid of the mountain. Here is proposed to us an
+operation which is totally unknown, or of which we have no kind of
+idea. But, let us suppose pyrites formed in this mountain, (of whatever
+chemical substances), by means of water; Why should water again undo
+that pyrites, in order to form other concretions? And, Why should the
+flint be formed first with cavities, and then made solid, after pyrites
+had been introduced into those cavities of the agate, and, as our author
+expresses it, _parsemée pour toute la substance?_ Here are suppositions
+which are not only perfectly gratuitous, but are also inconsistent with
+any thing that we understand. This is not explaining nature; it is only
+feigning causes[39].
+
+[Note 39: The description of those insulated siliceous bodies,
+containing in their closed cavities all the usual concretions of
+calcedony and crystals, as well as full of small pyrites floating in the
+solid flint, are extremely interesting to a mineral system, or such a
+geological theory as should explain the present state of things in those
+strata that had been formed by deposits of known materials at the bottom
+of the sea; they are indeed such appearances as may be found, more or
+less, in all consolidated strata. But it is this author's explanation of
+that petrifaction which is our present object to consider; and, as he is
+so particular in giving us his theory upon the subject, it is easy to
+detect the error of his reasoning. Were those naturalists who explain
+things only in general, by saying that water is the agent, and
+infiltration the means employed by nature;--were these naturalists, I
+say, to give us as particular a description of their process, it would
+appear as inconsistent with the nature of things as that which we have
+from this author, who examines nature very minutely, and who sees
+distinctly that the infiltrating theory is inapplicable for the
+explanation of those petrifactions.]
+
+The third section has for title, "_Generation du Silex et Quartz de la
+Pierre Puante_." Here we find an example worthy of being recorded,
+as contributing to throw great light upon those mineral operations;
+however, the opinion of our author and mine, upon this subject, differ
+widely. He proceeds thus:
+
+"Cette pierre n'est, comme chacun le sçait, qu'une pierre calcaire
+contenant du bitume.
+
+"Nos montagnes n'en contiennent seulement pas de simples couches, mais
+il y en a même de grandes bancs fort épais.
+
+"Le caillou, ou silex qui s'y génère, forme, tantôt de gros blocs
+informes, qui occupent des cavités dans l'intérieure des montagnes,
+tantôt, enfin, en forme de filons.
+
+"J'ai remarqué cette métamorphose sur trois endroits différens, dans
+chacun des quels la nature a autrement opéré.
+
+"Sur l'un, la pierre puante fait un banc horizontal dans une montagne de
+pierre calcaire crystalline, ou d'une espèce de marbre, qui contient
+des couches et filons de métal. Ce banc de pierre puante y fait le toit
+d'une couche de galène de plomb et de pierre calaminaire, et dans ses
+cavités et fentes il y a non seulement des blocs de grandeur différente,
+mais aussi des veines et petites bandes courtes de silex, tant
+ordinaire, que noble c, a, d, de la pierre à feu, de calcédoine,
+d'agathes, et même d'une espèce de cornaline jaune et rouge pâle. Je ne
+m'arrêterai pas à en détailler les variétés, parce qu'elles sont trop
+accidentelles. Je ne les connois pas même toutes, il s'en faut de
+beaucoup, parce qu'elles se trouvent dans des anciennes mines négligées,
+peut être depuis plus d'un siècle, et par conséquent peu accessibles. Je
+ne doute, cependant pas, que, si l'on pouvoit mieux sonder le terrain,
+on y trouveroit bien plus encore du peu que j'ai cité. Parmi ce silex,
+il y a aussi de petites groupes et de petites veines de quartz solide et
+crystallisé.
+
+"Au second endroit la pierre puante fait un filon, ou si l'on veut,
+une couche ou bande verticale, qui partage la montagne en deux parties
+presqu'égales de l'épaisseur de trois aunes à peu près. La montagne,
+ou cela se voit est aussi une ancienne mine de cuivre et de plomb,
+consistant en plusieurs variétés de marbre, différent en couleur et en
+grain, déposées par couches les unes sur les autres. Le filon de silex
+est formé de feuilles alternatives de pierre puante et de silex, tous
+les deux de couleur brun de bois à peu prés; mais le silex est plus
+foncé que sa compagne. Ces feuilles alternatives, consistent d'autres
+bien plus minces encore, qui souvent n'ont pas l'épaisseur d'une ligne,
+mais ce qu'il y a de plus curieux, c'est que la même feuille est d'un
+but de pierre porque, qui, vers le milieu, passe successivement en
+silex, qui, à son tour, vers l'autre but, qui étoit exposé à l'air
+repasse par les mêmes gradations en une espèce de tuffe calcaire. Ce qui
+nous fait voir évidemment la génération et la destruction du silex, même
+avec une partie des moyens par lesquels elle s'opère. Comme l'endroit de
+cette découverte n'est accessible qu'à la superficie, je ne saurois dire
+s'il y a d'autres variétés de silex outre la dite. Il l'est à supposer
+autant par analogie, que par quelques morceaux qui ont de petites veines
+transversales d'une espèce de calcédoine, et qui sont, même, sur leur
+fentes, garnis de petits cristaux de roche. Mais ce qu'il y a de sur
+c'est que ce filon, parvenu à une certaine profondeur, s'ennoblit et
+contient du métal, c. a. d. de la galène de plomb, et de la pyrite
+cuivreuse, j'y en ai trouvés de morceaux, qui en font de preuves
+incontestables. Le caillou d'ici est un grain fin d'une texture forte,
+peu transparent, donne beaucoup d'étincelles au briquet, mais ses
+cassures sont écailleuses.
+
+"La montagne calcaire du troisième lieu a une couche de pierre puante
+épaisse de plusieurs aunes, qui, derechef contient de petites couches
+irrégulières et des bandes transversales de silex, qui ont jusques â
+six pouces passés d'épaisseur. La pierre puante est d'une couleur
+gris-brune, d'un grain assez fin, et d'un tissu assez dur; ses cassures
+sont irrégulières, mais plus la pierre s'approche du silex, plus elles
+donnent dans le coquillé. Le silex ordinaire est d'un brun de bois, d'un
+grain assez fin, et d'un tissu résistant, et ses cassures sont égales à
+la pierre porque. Ce n'est pas là la seule variété, il y a, aussi, de la
+calcédoine et des agathes de couleurs différentes. Même la pierre à
+feu est assez souvent traversée de veines de calcédoine, de quartz
+crystallisé, et de spath calcaire blanc en feuilles et en crystaux. Il
+arrive que la même veine est composée de ces trois espèces de pierres à
+la fois, de sorte que l'une semble passer dans l'autre, parce que les
+limites réciproques sont, souvent, assez indistinctes. Il est évident,
+que le silex est formé de la pierre puante, parce qu'on remarque ici
+les mêmes phénomènes dont j'ai parlé plus haut, c. a. d. les passages
+successifs de l'une dans l'autre pierre, tant en montant qu'en
+descendant."
+
+There is nothing particular in the siliceous mixture in this species of
+lime-stone, except the vein of that substance. It is evident that this
+vein, traversing the mountain, had been introduced in the fluid state
+of fusion. I do not mean to say, that, in this particular case now
+described, the evidence of that truth peculiarly appears; but that, from
+the general nature of mineral veins breaking and traversing the solid
+strata of the globe, no other conclusion can be formed; and that in
+the particulars of this example there is nothing that could lead us to
+suppose any other origin to the petrifactions contained in this vein
+of stinking lime-stone. It is plain, that our author has imagined to
+himself an unknown manner of executing his mineral metamorphoses. He
+sees plainly that the common notion of infiltration will not at all
+explain the evident confusion of those calcareous and siliceous bodies
+which appear to him to be metamorphosing into each other. Nothing,
+indeed, can explain those phenomena but a general cause of fluidity; and
+there is no such general cause besides that of heat or fusion.
+
+But to show how mineralists of great merit, gentlemen who have examined
+systematically and with some accuracy, may impose upon themselves in
+reasoning for the explanation of mineral appearances from limited
+notions of things, and from the supposition of these having been formed
+where they now are found, that is, upon the surface of the earth, I
+would beg leave to transcribe what this author has said upon this
+species of petrifaction. It is not that he is ignorant of what
+mineralists have already said upon the subject; it is because he sees
+the incompetency of their explanations in those particular cases; and
+that he would employ some other more effectual means. (p. 50.)
+
+"Toute terre calcaire à changer dans une autre doit, avant toute chose,
+être rendue réfractaire ce qui ne peut se faire qu'en la saturant avec
+un acide. Mais une terre simplement, saturée d'un acide, est d'une
+réduction fort aisée, vu que l'acide n'y tient pas trop fort, d'ailleurs
+ce n'est qu'un sel neutre terreux fort facile â dissoudre dans une
+quantité suffisante d'eau. Or pour rendre cette union plus constante, il
+faut que la terre alcaline s'assimile intimement à l'acide, ce qui ne
+se sera jamais sans un intermedeliant, qui homogène les parties de ce
+nouveau corps, et pour que cela ce fasse il est indispensable, qu'il
+s'opère une dissolution foncière des parties terrestres de la chaux, qui
+facilite l'ingress à l'acide, et à l'intermède pour qu'ils s'y lie bien
+fortement. Supposons qu'il se forme une liqueur savonneuse de l'acide et
+du phlogistique, que l'air fixe, mis en liberté, ouvre les interstices
+des parties qui constituent la terre alcaline, qu'apres cela cette
+liqueur savonneuse ayant l'entrée libre s'assimile à la terre en
+proportion requise, que l'eau, qui servoit de véhicule dans cette
+operation, s'évapore successivement, et emporte le superflu des
+ingrediens, pour qu'il se puisse opérer le rapprochement le plus exacte
+des parcelles ou molécules homogénées de nouveau corps qu'enfin les
+molécules les plus pures et les mieux affinées soyent réunies en forme
+liquide dans des cavités, et que par l'évaporation et séparation de
+l'eau, ou elles nageoient, il s'en forme des crystaux n'aurons-nous
+pas une boule de silex, avec de crystaux de quartz dans ses creux
+intérieurs."
+
+The supposed case is this; a calcareous body is to be metamorphosed
+into a siliceous nodule, having a cavity within it lined with quartz,
+crystals, etc. M. de Carosi means to inform us how this may be done.
+Now, as this process requires no other conditions than those that may
+be found upon the surface of this earth, the proper way to prove this
+hypothetical theory, would be to exhibit such a mineral body produced
+by those means. But, even supposing that such a process were to be
+exhibited, still it would remain to be explained, how this process,
+which requires conditions certainly not be found at the bottom of the
+sea, could be accomplished in that place, where the strata of the earth
+had been deposited, accumulated, consolidated, and metamorphosed.
+
+This mineral process, which has been now described, will no doubt revolt
+the opinions of many of our chemists as well as naturalists; and I
+should not have thought of transcribing it, but as an example of that
+inconclusive reasoning which prevails in mineralogical writings upon
+this subject.
+
+But this is not all. We have, upon this occasion, a most remarkable
+example of the fallaceous views that may be taken of things; and of the
+danger to science when men of sense and observation form suppositions
+for the explanation of appearances without that strict conformity with
+the principles of natural philosophy which is requited on all occasions.
+Both M. de Carosi, and also M. Macquart[40], to whom our author
+communicated his ideas and proper specimens, assert, that from their
+accurate experience, they find calcedony growing daily, not only in the
+solid body of gypsum, etc. while in the mine, but also in the solid
+stone when taktn out of the mine, and preserved in their cabinet.
+
+[Note 40: Vid. Essais de Minéralogie par M. Macquart.]
+
+What answer can be made to this positive testimony of these gentlemen,
+by a person who has not seen any such a thing, and who has not the
+opportunity of examining the cases in which those naturalists may have
+perhaps been led into some delusion? Were I however to conjecture upon a
+subject in which I have not any positive information, I should suppose
+that some part of the calcedony, like the _oculus mundi_ when dipped in
+water, may be so transparent, while containing some portion of humidity,
+that it is not easily distinguishable from the gypsum in which it is
+concreted; but that in having the humidity evaporated, by being taken
+out of the mine and exposed to the dry air, those portions of calcedony,
+which did not before appear, may be perceived by becoming more
+opaque[41].
+
+[Note 41: From the description given in this treatise, and from the
+drawings both of M. de Carosi and M. Macquart, I find a very valuable
+inference to be made, so much the more interesting, as I have not found
+any example of the like before. This arises from the intimate connection
+which is here to be perceived between agate and gypsum. Now, upon this
+principle, that the agate-calcedony had been formed by fusion, a truth
+which, from the general testimony of minerals, I must presume, it is
+plain, that those nodules of gypsum had been in the fluid state of
+fusion among those marly strata, and that the gypseous bodies had been
+penetrated variously with the siliceous substance of the calcedony.
+
+The description of those siliceous penetrations of gypsum is followed by
+this conclusion: "En voila assez, je crois pour faire voir que le silex
+ci-décrit est effectivement une émanation du gypse, et non pas une
+matière hétérogène amenée d'autre part et déposée, ou nous la voyons."
+In this instance our author had convinced himself that the calcedony
+concretions had not been formed, as he and other mineralists had before
+supposed, by means of infiltration; he has not, however, substituted
+any thing more intelligible in its stead. I do not pretend that we
+understand mineral fusion; but only that such mineral fusion is a thing
+demonstrable upon a thousand occasions; and that thus is to be explained
+the petrification and consolidation of the porous and naturally
+incoherent strata of the earth.]
+
+There is, however, a subject in which I can more freely accuse this
+author of being deceived. This naturalist says, that calcareous stones
+become silex by a certain chemical operation; and that those flinty
+bodies, in being exposed upon the surface of the earth, out of their
+natural bed, are again, by a contrary chemical operation, changed from
+flint to a calcareous substance. I will give it in his own words, (p.
+56.)
+
+"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progénéré de chaux, détaché de son
+lieu natal, et exposé aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit, reçoit de
+crevasses, perd sa transparence, devient, enfin, tout-à-fait opaque, le
+phlogistique s'en évapore, l'acide en est détaché, lavé, et de
+terre vitrescible, qu'il étoit, il redevient chaux, comme il étoit
+auparavant."
+
+Here is no question with regard to mere opinion, but to matter of fact;
+and, in this case, nothing is more evident, than that upon the surface
+of this earth, that is, in the examinable parts above the level of the
+sea, there is no transition either of calcareous bodies into flint,
+nor of flinty bodies into calcareous substance. Calcareous matter is
+constantly dissolved by water, when it is exposed to the washing of
+that fluid; and it is even dissolved out of the most perfect union or
+combination with siliceous substance, and the most solid composition of
+an insoluble body, as may be perceived in the decaying of feld-spar. A
+superficial view of flints, which have come out of a body of chalk, may
+have created such an opinion, which will not either bear the light of
+chemical or mineral investigation. The subject of these chalk flints
+will be minutely examined in its proper place.
+
+Our author has carefully examined the subject of flintification; and the
+country where he makes his observations would seem to be well disposed
+for such a research. He has had great opportunity and inclination to
+examine the subject which he writes upon; and he has given a distinct
+account of what be has seen. His description of the flintification of
+sand-stone is extremely interesting. I will therefore transcribe it,
+both as a valuable portion of natural history, and also in order to
+contrast this author's opinion, with regard to the means employed by
+nature in petrifying bodies, and that which I maintain to be the general
+consolidating operation of the globe. It is Section V. _Generation du
+Caillou du Silex du Grès, ou Pierre Sablonneuse_.
+
+"Tout grès est susceptible de cette métamorphose quant au grain et quant
+à la couleur; depuis la bréccia quartzeuse jusqu'à la pierre à rasoir;
+et depuis le grès blanc jusqu'au brun et presque noirâtre, tient ou non
+tient, dur, ou presque friable, c'est indifférent, toutes ces variétés
+donnent du silex, et surtout de la calcédoine, de la cornaline, et des
+agathes. Quant au ciment je l'y ai toujours remarqué calcaire et faisant
+effervescence avec les acides dans les endroits de la pierre qui
+n'étoient point encore changés; et jamais je n'ai vu ce changement dans
+du grès dont le ciment fut ou quartzeux ou argileux et réfractaire.
+Ainsi le ciment entre pour quelque chose dans ce changement.
+
+"Le commencement de cette métamorphose paroit (autant que j'ai pu
+l'observer dans mes débris roulés) se faire par le ciment, qui dissout
+là, où les agens eurent l'accès libre, rend les grains en quartz
+mobiles, les emporte, les mêle avec sa masse dense-liquide, les dissout,
+même en partie, et forme, dans cet état, des veines et de masses
+calcédonieuse, carneoliques, ou d'une autre espèce de silex, au milieu
+du grés peu, ou pas du tout, changé. Car autant que je puis voir, ce
+n'est pas par couches ou veines qu'elle s'opère, mais par boules et
+masses rond-oblongues. Au commencement ces veines et tâches sont fort
+minces, et le reste du grés n'est point du tout, ou à peine sensiblement
+changé hormis qu'il gagne, plus de consistence, à proportion du
+changement souffert. Mais à mesure que le silex y augmente et se
+perfectionne, on y apperçoit les degrés par lesquels a passé cette
+operation. Les nuance du passage d'une pierre à l'autre deviennent plus
+visibles, les veines et masses de silex grandissent au point, même,
+qu'il y a jusqu'aux trois quart du grés changé en silex clair comme de
+l'eau n'ayant que fort peu de grains de sable nageants dans sa masse.
+Des morceaux de cette espèce sont rares à la vérité, mais j'en ai,
+cependant, trouvé quelques uns. Ordinairement, dans les beaux morceaux,
+le silex fait la base, et le sable y est, comme nageant tantôt en grains
+séparés tantôt en parties et flocons. Dans les pieces moins belles, le
+sable fait la base, et le silex sert à la fois de ciment, et forme aussi
+plus ou moins de veines, qui traversent la masse en maintes et maintes
+directions. Mais si c'est un grès à gros grains, ou de la bréccia, alors
+le reste prend la nature silicieuse mêlé de sable fin, et les gros
+grains de quartz restent tels, qu'ils étoient, sans changer. J'ai
+déjà remarqué que cette métamorphose semble s'opérer, comme celle des
+cailloux d'origine calcaire en forme approchans la sphérique, il faut
+encore y a jouter, que j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle se fasse aussi du
+dedans en dehors, tout, comme la décomposition se fait du dehors au
+dedans.
+
+"Il arrive dans cette pierre, comme dans toute autre, qu'il se forme
+des crystallisations dans les cavités. Lorsqu'elles sont de silex, leur
+figure est toujours mamelonnée, mais leur eau ou pureté, leur grandeur
+et leur couleur n'est pas par tout égale. Il y en a qui sont grands, et
+de la plus pure calcédoine, d'autres sont petits et chaque goutte ou
+mamelon contient un grain de sable, de facon que cela a l'air d'un grès
+crystallisé en mamelons ou stalagmitique. D'autres encore sont, de
+calcédoine, mais recouverts d'une croûte, tantôt blanche qui fait
+effervescence avec l'acide minéral, et qui est, par conséquent, de
+nature calcaire; tantôt cette croûte est bleue foncée nuancée de
+bleu-celeste; tantôt, enfin, elle est noire, mais toutes les deux
+réfractaires. Outre ces crystallisations silicieuses, il y en a, quoique
+rarement, de quartzeuses, qui ou forment de petites veines de crystal,
+ou bien des groupes de crystaux quartzeux, ou qui enfin, enduisent les
+mamelons de silex."
+
+Our author then makes a specification of the different varieties; after
+which he continues, p. 69.
+
+"Après tout ceci, l'on conviendra j'espère, que nôtre grais est une
+pierre bien singulière, et surpassant, à bien des égards, le grais,
+faussement dit crystallisé, de Fontainebleau. La raison de la figure du
+grais François est fort évidente, c'est le spath calcaire, qui lui
+sert de ciment, qui la lui fit prendre; mais qu'est-ce qui opère les
+métamorphoses racontées dans notre grais siliceux? Seroit-ce son ciment
+calcaire ou marneux par les mêmes raisons, qui font changer la marne en
+silex? La chose est très-probable, et je n'en saurois pas même, deviner
+d'autre. En ce cas la nature auroit un moyen d'opérer par la voie
+humide, ce que nous faisons dans nos laboratoires en quelque façon, par
+la voie sèche, c, a, d, de fondre et liquéfier la terre vitrescible, au
+moyen des alcalis; secret que nous lui avons déjà arraché en partie, en
+faisant la liqueur silicieuse."
+
+"Je n'ose, cependant, décider pas même hypothétiquement, sur cette
+matière, pour n'avoir pu observer la nature dans ses ateliers, et parce
+que je ne possède que des pièces, qui détachées de leur lieu natal,
+depuis un très long-tems, furent exposées aux intempéries des saisons,
+où elles peuvent avoir souffert bien de changemens."
+
+There cannot be a more fair exposition of facts; and it is only our
+author's opinion of this mineral transmutation that I would controvert.
+I do not pretend to understand the manner of operating that our author
+here supposes nature to take. I only maintain, that here, as every where
+in general, the loose and incoherent strata of the globe have been
+petrified, that is, consolidated, by means of the fusion of their
+substances; and this I think is confirmed from the accurate description
+here given of the flintification of sand-stone. Here is described very
+distinctly an appearance which is very common or general on those
+occasions; this is the parts or particles of stone floating in the fluid
+siliceous substance, and there dissolving more or less.
+
+M. de Carosi describes very systematically the generation of silex,
+calcedony, onyx, and quartz, in calcareous earth, marl, gypsum,
+sand-stone, and also what he terms _terre glaise, ou de l'Argile_. It is
+in this last that we find a perfect analogy with what is so frequent in
+this country of Scotland. These are the agates, calcedonies, calcareous
+and zeolite nodules, which are found produced in our whin-stone
+or subterraneous lavas, that is, the amygdaloides of Crondstedt.
+Naturalists explain the formation of those nodular bodies differently.
+The Chevalier de Dolomieu supposes these rocks to have been erupted
+lavas, originally containing cavities; and that these cavities in the
+solid rock had been afterwards filled and crystallised, by means of
+infiltration, with the different substances which are found variously
+concreted and crystallised within the solid rocks. Our author, on the
+contrary, supposes these formed by a species of chemical transmutation
+of calcareous and argillaceous earths, which, if not altogether
+incomprehensible, is at least not in any degree, so far as I know, a
+thing to be understood.
+
+This is not the place where that subject of these particular rocks,
+which is extremely interesting, is to be examined. We shall afterwards
+have occasion to treat of that matter at large. It is sufficient here to
+observe, that our author finds occasion to generalise the formation of
+those petrifactions with the flintifications in calcareous and gypseous
+bodies. When, therefore, the formation of any of them shall be
+demonstrated, as having taken its origin in the fusion of those
+substances, this mode of operation, which is generalised in the
+consolidation of strata, will be properly inferred in all the rest.
+
+Petrifaction is a subject in which mineralogists have perhaps wandered
+more widely from the truth than in any other part of natural history;
+and the reason is plain. The mineral operations of nature lie in a part
+of the globe which is necessarily inaccessible to man, and where the
+powers of nature act under very different conditions from those which we
+find take place in the only situation where we can live. Naturalists,
+therefore, finding in stalactical incrustation a cause for the formation
+of stone, in many respects analogous to what is found in the strata of
+the earth, and which had come from the mineral region in a consolidated
+state, have, without due consideration, attributed to this cause all the
+appearances of petrifaction or mineral concretion. It has been one of
+the objects of this work to show that this operation of incrustation,
+or petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether ineffectual for
+producing mineral concretions; and that, even were it capable of forming
+those mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of this earth, formed
+by a deposit of travelled materials at the bottom of the sea, the
+conditions necessary to this incrustating process do not take place.
+
+Those enlightened naturalists who have of late been employed in
+carefully examining the evidences of mineral operations, are often
+staggered in finding appearances inconsistent with the received doctrine
+of infiltration; they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions, in
+order to explain that enigma. In giving examples of this kind. I have in
+view both to represent the natural history these mineralists furnish
+us with, which is extremely interesting, and also to show the various
+shapes in which error will proceed, when ingenious men are obliged to
+reason without some necessary principle in their science. We have just
+now had an example in Europe; I will next present the reader with one
+from Asia.
+
+M. Patrin, in his _Notice Minéralogique de la Daourie_, (Journal de
+Physique, Mars 1791) gives us a very distinct account of what he met
+with in that region. Describing the country of Doutchersk upon the river
+Argun, in Siberia, he proceeds thus:
+
+"Ces colines sont formées d'un hornstein gris qui paroit se convertir en
+pierre calcaire par l'action des météores; car tout celui qu'on prend
+hors du contact de l'air donne les plus vives étincelles, et ne fait pas
+la moindre effervescence avec les acides, même après avoir été calciné;
+et l'on observe celui qui est à découvert, passer, par nuances
+insensibles, jusqu'à l'état de pierre calcaire parfaite de couleur
+blanchâtre."
+
+Here M. Patrin has persuaded himself, probably from an imperfect
+examination of the subject, that there takes place a mineral
+metamorphosis, which certainly is not found in any other part of the
+earth, and for which he does not find any particular cause. The natural
+effect of the meteors, in other parts of the earth, is to dissolve the
+calcareous substance out of bodies exposed to those agents; and the
+gradation from the one of those two things to the other, which seems to
+be the data on which he had proceeded in forming his conclusion, is not
+sufficient to prove the metamorphosis, even were there not so strong a
+physical objection to it; for, it is by no means unusual for mineral
+bodies to graduate thus from one substance to another. However that be,
+this is not the principal object of the example[42].
+
+[Note 42: Here we have well informed naturalists reasoning with all the
+light of our present mineralogy, and maintaining, on the one hand, that
+gypsum is transformed into calcedony, by the operation of the meteors,
+or some such cause; and, on the other, that a siliceous substance is by
+the same means converted into lime-stone. What should we now conclude
+from this?--That calcareous and siliceous substances were mutually
+convertible. But then this is only in certain districts of Poland and
+Siberia. Every where, indeed, we find strange mixtures of calcareous and
+siliceous bodies; but neither mineralists nor chemists have, from these
+examples, ventured to affirm a metamorphosis, which might have spared
+them much difficulty in explaining those appearances.
+
+This is a subject that may be taken in very different lights. In one
+view, no doubt, there would appear to be absurdity in the doctrine of
+metamorphosis, as there is now a days acknowledged to be in that of
+_lusus naturae_; and those reasoning mineralists might thus, in the
+opinion of some philosophers, expose their theory to contempt and
+ridicule. This is not the light in which I view the subject. I give
+those gentlemen credit for diligently observing nature; and I applaud
+them for having the merit to reason for themselves, which would seem to
+be the case with few of the many naturalists who now speak and write
+upon the subject.
+
+Let us now draw an inference, with regard to this, in judging of the
+different theories. Either the received system concerning mineral
+operations is just, in which case those gentlemen, who employ a secret
+metamorphosis, may be to blame in laying it aside; or it is erroneous
+and deficient; and, in that case, they have the merit of distinguishing
+the error or deficiency of the prevailing system. How far they have seen
+the system of nature, in those examples which they have described,
+is another question. In the mean time, I am to avail myself of the
+testimony of those gentlemen of observation, by which the insufficiency
+at least of the received mineral system is acknowledged.]
+
+After speculating upon the effect of the ancient ocean upon the
+mountains of that country, he proceeds as follows:
+
+"Je laisse ces conjectures pour remarquer un fait singulier: la colline,
+qui est au nord de l'église de la fonderie, a son arrête composée de ce
+hornstein qui se décompose en pierre calcaire; mais ici, les parties,
+qui sont ainsi décomposées, offrent une substance calcédonieuse
+disposées par zones concentriques, comme on l'observe dans les agates
+d'oberstein; mais ce ne sont point ici des corps parasites formés par
+infiltration dans des cavités pré-existantes comme les agates; on voit
+que ce sont les parties constituantes de la roche qui, _par un
+travail interne_, et par une sorte de crystallisation, out pris cette
+disposition régulière (que ce mot de _crystallisation_ ne révolte point,
+j'appelle ainsi toute tendance à prendre une forme constante, polyèdre
+ou non polyèdre.) Les couches les plus voisine du centre sont nettes et
+distinctes; peu-à-peu elles le sont moins, et enfin elles s'évanouissent
+et se confondent avec le fond de la roche. Chaque assemblage de ces
+zones a une forme ronde ou ovale plus ou moins régulière de sept à huit
+pouces de diamètre.
+
+"Cela ressemble en grand à ce qu'on observe dans les pierres oeillées,
+et la cause est vraisemblablement la même. Je le répète, je regarde
+cette disposition régulière comme une véritable cristallisation, qui
+peut s'opérer et qui s'opère en effet dans l'intérieur des corp les plus
+solide, tant qu'ils sont fournis à l'action des agens de la nature.
+
+"Tous ceux qui visitent l'intérieur de la terre savent que les roches
+mêmes le plus compactes y sont intimement pénétrées d'humidité, et ce
+fluide n'est certainement pas l'eau pure; c'est l'agent qui opère toutes
+les agrégations, toutes les cristallisations, tous les travaux de la
+nature dans le règne minéral. On peut donc aisément concevoir qu'à la
+faveur de ce fluide, il règne, dans les parties les plus intimes des
+corps souterrains, une circulation qui fait continuellement changer de
+place aux élémens de la matière, jusqu'a ce que réunis par la force des
+affinités, les corpuscules similaires prennent la forme que la nature
+leur a assignée."
+
+Those nodular bodies or figured parts which are here inclosed in the
+rock, are evidently what may be called calcedony agates. M. Patrin is
+persuaded, from the examination of them, that they had not been formed
+in the manner of German agates, which he supposes is by mean of
+infiltration; and he has endeavoured to conceive another manner of
+operating, still however by means of water, which I suppose, according
+to this hypothesis, is to dissolve substances in one part, and deposits
+them in another, There must certainly be some great _desideratum_ in
+that mineral philosophy which is obliged to have recourse to such
+violent suppositions. First, water is not an universal solvent, as it
+would require to be, upon this supposition; secondly, were water allowed
+to be an universal menstruum, here is to be established a circulation
+that does not naturally arise from the mixture of water and earth; and,
+lastly, were this circulation to be allowed, it would not explain the
+variety which is found in the consolidation and concretion of mineral
+bodies.
+
+So long, therefore, as we are to explain natural appearances by
+reasoning from known principles, and not by ascribing those effects to
+preternatural causes, we cannot allow of this regular operation which
+M. Patrin alleges to be acting in the interior parts of the most solid
+bodies. This is indeed evident, that there has been a cause operating
+in the internal parts of the most solid bodies, a cause by which the
+elements, or constituent parts of those solid bodies, have been moved
+and regularly disposed, as this author very well observes must have been
+the case in our agates or eyed stones; but to ascribe to water this
+effect, or to employ either an ineffectual or an unknown cause, is not
+to reason philosophically with regard to the history of nature; it is to
+reason phantastically, and to imagine fable.
+
+M. Monnet has imagined a petrifying power in water very different
+from any that has hitherto been conceived, I believe, by natural
+philosophers, and I also believe, altogether inconsistent with
+experience or matter of fact; but as it is not without good reason that
+this naturalist has been induced to look out for a petrifying cause
+different from any hitherto supposed, and as he has endeavoured very
+properly to refute the systems of petrification hitherto received,
+I would beg leave to transcribe his reasoning upon the subject in
+corroboration of the present theory of consolidation by the means of
+fusion.
+
+It is upon occasion of describing one of the species of alpine stone
+or schistus which contains quartzy particles. _Nouveau voyage
+minéralogique, etc._ Journal de Physique Aoust 1784.
+
+"Il y a loin de cette pierre, que je regarde comme une variété de roches
+ardoisées, aux véritable ardoises. La composition de toutes ces pierres
+est due aux terres quartzeuses et argileuses, et à la terre talqueuse,
+que je démontrerai un jour être une espèce particulière et distincte des
+autres, qui constitue les bonnes ardoises, et fait, ainsi que le quartz,
+qu'elles résistent aux injures de l'air, sans s'effleurir, comme je
+ferai voir que cette terre, qu'on désignera sous la dénomination de
+terre talqueuse, si l'on veut, résiste au grand feu sans se fondre. Les
+différences de toutes ces pierres, quoique composées des mêmes matières,
+mais dans des proportions différentes, sont frappantes, et pourroient
+faire croire qu'elles n'appartiennent pas à ce genre. Mais qui ne voit
+ici que toutes ces différences, ou ces variétés, ne sont dues qu'aux
+modifications de la matière première, qu'elle a éprouvées, soit en se
+mêlant avec des matières hétérogènes, prévenantes du débris des êtres
+qui ont existé, comme l'argile, par exemple, qui, de l'aveu de presque
+tous les naturalistes, est le produit de l'organization des plantes, ou
+soit en se mêlant avec de la matière déjà solidifiée depuis long-temps?
+Or nous ne craignons pas de dire, ce que nous avons dit plusieurs fois
+quand l'occasion s'en est présentée, que cette matière unique, que
+se modifie selon les occasions et les circonstances, et qui prend
+un caractère analogue au matières qu'elle rencontre, est l'eau, que
+beaucoup de naturalistes cherchent vainement ailleurs. Ils ne peuvent
+comprendre, malgré les exemples frappans qui pourroient les porter à
+adopter cette opinion, que ce fluide général soit l'élément des corps
+solides du règne minéral, comme il est de ceux du règne végétal et du
+règne animal. L'on cherche sérieusement, par des expériences chimiques,
+à découvrir si l'eau est susceptible de se convertir en terre comme
+si la nature n'avoit pas d'autre moyen que nous de la faire passer de
+l'état fluide à l'état solide. Voyez le spath calcaire et le quartz
+transparens; est il à présumer qu'ils ne sont que le résultat du dépôt
+des matières terreuses fait par les eaux? Mais, dans ce ca-là encore,
+il faut supposer que l'eau qui est restée entre ces partie s'est
+solidifiée; car, qu'est-elle donc devenue, et quel est donc le lien qui
+a uni ces parties et leur a fait prendre une forme régulière? Il est
+vrai qu'on nous parle d'un suc lapidifique; mais c'est-la un être de
+raison, dont il seroit bien plus difficile d'établir l'existence, que de
+croire à la solidification de l'eau. On nous donne cependant comme un
+principe certain que l'eau charie d'un lieu à un autre les matières
+qu'il a dissoutes, et qu'elle les dépose à la maniere des sels. Mais
+c'est supposer une chose démentie par l'experience; savoir, que l'eau
+ait la propriété de dissoudre les matières terreuses, telles que la
+quartzeuse. A la vérité, M. Auchard de Berlin y joint de l'air fixe;
+mais cet air fixe ne sauroit tenir en dissolution un atome de quartz
+dans l'eau; et quelle qu'ait été l'exactitude de ceux qui ont répété
+les expériences de M. Auchard, on n'a pu réussir à imiter la nature,
+c'est-à-dire, à former des cristaux quartzeux, comme il a annoncé. Que
+l'eau ait la faculté de tenir en dissolution quelques petites parties
+de terre calcaire, au moyen de cet air fixe, il n'en faut pas conclure
+qu'elle puisse former de cette maniere tous les cristaux calcaires, sans
+que l'eau elle-même y concoure pour sa part; car ce seroit conclure
+quelque fois que la partie seroit égale au tout. Voyez ces géodes
+calcaire et argileuses, qui renferment des cristaux nombreux de quartz
+ou de spath calcaire; ne sont ils que le résultat du dépôt de l'eau
+qui y a été renfermée, ou que la cristallization pure et simple des
+molécules que vous supposez avoir été tenues en dissolution par cette
+eau? Il naîtroit de cette opinion une foule d'objections qu'il seroit
+impossible de résoudre. Cependant M. Guettard, dans la minéralogie du
+Dauphiné, qui vient de paroître, ouvrage très-estimable à beaucoup
+d'égards, explique, selon cette maniere de penser, la formation de
+cristallizations quartzeuses qu'on trouve dans certaines géodes de
+cette province, et celle des mines de cristal des hautes montagnes. En
+supposant même comme vraie l'explication qu'il en donne, on trouveroit
+en cela un des plus grands problème, et des plus difficiles à résoudre
+qu'il y ait en minéralogie; car d'abord il faudroit expliquer comment un
+si petite quantité d'eau que celle qui a été renfermée dans les géodes,
+et celle qui est parvenue dans les fentes des rochers, ont pu fournir
+un si grande quantité de matière que celle qui constitue ces
+cristallisations, et ce qui n'est pas le moins difficile à concevoir,
+comment l'eau a pu charrier cette matière à travers tant de matières
+différentes, et la conserver précisément pour cette destination;
+comment, par exemple, l'eau est venue déposer de la terre quartzeuse
+dans les masses énormes de pierres calcaires, qui forment la côté qui
+domine le village de Champigny, à quatre lieues de Paris, au delà de
+Saint-maur; car s'il nous faut citer un exemple frappant de cette
+singularité, et à portée d'être vue des naturalistes qui sont dans la
+capitale, je ne puis mieux faire que de citer cette côté, une des plus
+curieuses de la France, et que je me propose de fair connoître en détail
+dans la troisième partie de la minéralogie de la France. On verra,
+dis-je, dans cette bonne pierre à chaux, et une de plus pure des
+environs de Paris, de très-abondantes cristallisations de quartz
+transparent, et quelque fois de belle eau, que les ouvriers sont forcés
+de séparer de la partie calcaire, à laquelle elles adhèrent fortement.
+Mais c'est trop nous arrêter à combattre une opinion qui doit son
+origine aux premières idées qu'ont eues les premiers observateurs en
+minéralogie, qui se détruira d'elle même comme tant d'autres dont il
+nous reste à peine le souvenir."
+
+We find here an accurate naturalist, and a diligent observer, who, in
+conformity with what my sentiments are upon the subject, thinks it
+impossible that the crystallizations in close cavities, and concretions
+of different solid substances within each other, which so frequently
+occur in the mineral regions, could have been produced, by means of
+solution and crystallization, from a fluid vehicle. But what has he
+now substituted in place of this solution, in order to explain
+appearances?--a mere supposition, viz. that nature may have the power
+of converting water, in those secret places, into some other thing; or
+rather that the substance of water is here converted into every other
+thing; for, though he has only mentioned quartz and calcareous spar,
+what mineral substance is there that may not be found in those close
+cavities? They are actually almost all, not even excepting gold; for,
+small grains of gold are inclosed within the cavities of a porous stone,
+in the Siberian mine. Now, for what purpose should nature, (to the power
+of which we are not to set a limit) have such an object in view as
+to convert water into every thing, unless it were to confound human
+understanding? For, so far as human experience has been as yet able to
+reach, there would appear to be certain elementary substances; and among
+these is water, or the principles of that fluid[43]. But because water
+is so generally found in bodies, and so necessarily in most of the
+operations of this world, why convert it into every other thing? Surely,
+for no better reason than that there has not occurred to this mineralist
+any other way of explaining certain natural appearances which aqueous
+solution could not produce. Here is no dispute about a matter of fact;
+it is on all hands allowed, that in certain cavities, inaccessible to
+any thing but heat and cold, we find mineral concretions, which contain
+no water, and which, according to the known operations of nature, water
+could not have produced; must we therefore have recourse to water acting
+according to no known principle, that is to say, are we to explain
+nature by a preternatural cause?
+
+[Note 43: Water is now considered by men of science, as a compound
+substance; this doctrine, which seems to follow so necessarily from the
+experiments of the French philosophers, must be tried by the growing
+light of chemical science. In the oxygenating operation of inflammable
+and combustible bodies when burning, those ingenious chemists overlooked
+the operation of _phlogistic matter_, which has no weight, and
+which escapes on that occasion, as I have had occasion to show in a
+dissertation upon phlogiston, and in the Philosophy of Light, Heat,
+and Fire. How far this view, which I have given of those interesting
+experiments, may lead to the explanation of other collateral phenomena,
+such as that of the water produced, I will not pretend to conjecture.
+One thing is evident, that if the weight of the water, procured in
+burning inflammable and vital air, be equal to that of those two gasses,
+we would then have reason to conclude, either that water were a compound
+substance, or that vital air, and inflammable vapour were compounds of
+water and the matter of light, or solar substance.]
+
+I dare say that this is not the view that M. Monnet takes of the
+subject, when he thinks to explain to himself the concretion of
+those different substances by means of water; but, according to my
+apprehension of the matter, his theory, when sifted to the bottom, will
+bear no other construction; and, unless he shall consider water like the
+matter of heat, as capable of producing the fluidity of fusion, and of
+being also again abstracted from the fluid, by pervading the most solid
+body, which would then be a substance different from water, he must
+employ this aqueous substance as a menstruum or solvent for solid
+bodies, in the same manner as has been done by those naturalists whom
+he he justly censure, and conform to those erroneous ideas which first
+observations, or inaccurate knowledge of minerals, may have suggested to
+former naturalists.
+
+It is the dissolution and concretion of siliceous substance, no
+doubt, that gives such difficulty to our naturalists in explaining
+petrifaction: they have, however, something apparently in their favour,
+which it may be proper now to mention.
+
+In the _first_ place, although siliceous substance is not soluble, so
+far as we know, by simple water, it is soluble by means of alkaline
+substance; consequently, it is possible that it may be dissolved in the
+earth.
+
+_Secondly_, The water of Giezer in Iceland, actually petrifies bodies
+which are alternately imbibed with that hot water and exposed to the
+air. This water, therefore, not only contains siliceous substance in a
+dissolved state, but deposits this again, either by means of cooling,
+or being aerated, or of evaporating. Consequently, without knowing the
+principle upon which it proceeds, we here perceive a natural operation
+by which siliceous petrifaction may be performed.
+
+_Lastly_, We have another principle for the dissolution of siliceous
+substance. This is the fluor acid which volatilises the siliceous
+substance. This, however, requires certain conditions, which cannot be
+found as a general cause in the mineral regions.
+
+Thus we would seem to have every thing necessary for explaining the
+concretion and crystallization of siliceous bodies, provided we could
+find the proper conditions requisite for that operation; for whether it
+shall be by means of acid or alkaline substances that siliceous matter
+is to be dissolved, volatilised, and transported from one place to
+another, it is necessary that those dissolving substances should be
+present upon those occasions. Nor is it sufficient only to dissolve the
+siliceous substance which is to be transported; the necessary conditions
+for the concretion again of the dissolved substances, whatever these may
+be, are also absolutely required for this operation. Now, though those
+requisite conditions may be, upon many occasions, allowed in the earth,
+it is not according to the theory of our modern naturalists, who explain
+petrifaction upon the principles of simple infiltration of water,
+that any advantage can be taken of those conditions; nor are natural
+appearances to be explained without employing more complicated chemical
+agents in the mineral regions.
+
+To this subject of the petrifactions of Giezier, I may now add the
+information which we have received in consequence of a new voyage from
+this country to Iceland.
+
+When Sir Joseph Banks returned from his expedition to Iceland, he landed
+at this place; and, having brought specimens of the petrifications of
+Giezer, Dr Black and I first discovered that these were of a siliceous
+substance. I have always conjectured that the water of Giezer must be
+impregnated with flinty matter by means of an alkaline substance, and
+so expressed my opinion in the Theory of the Earth published in the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society. We have therefore been very
+desirous of procuring some of that water, in order to have it analysed.
+
+An opportunity favourable to our views has occurred this summer. Mr
+Stanley set out from this place with the same purpose of examining
+Iceland. He was so good as to ask of Dr Black and I what inquiries we
+would incline that he should make. We have now, by the favour of this
+gentleman, obtained specimens of the petrifactions of Giezer; and, what
+is still more interesting, we have procured some of the water of those
+petrifying boiling springs.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that the boiling water which is ejected
+from those aqueous volcanoes, if we may use the expression, is endued
+with the quality of forming two different species of petrifaction or
+incrustation; for, besides the siliceous bodies, of which we had before
+received specimens, the same stream of water incrustates its channel
+with a calcareous substance. All the specimens which I have seen consist
+of incrustation, some purely siliceous, some calcareous, and others
+mixed of those two, more or less.
+
+Dr Black has been analysing the water; and he finds in it siliceous
+matter dissolved by an alkaline substance, in the manner of liquor
+silicum[44]. My conjecture has thus been verified.
+
+[Note 44: See Trans. of the Edin. Royal Society.]
+
+It must not be alleged that nature may operate in the mineral regions,
+as she does here upon the surface in the case of Giezer. Such an
+argument as this, however sound it may be in general, will not apply to
+the subject of which we treat at present. There is no question about
+the limiting the powers of nature; we are only considering nature as
+operating in a certain determined manner, viz. by water acting simply
+upon the loose materials of the land deposited at the bottom of the
+sea, and accumulated in regular strata, one upon another, to the most
+enormous depth or thickness. This is the situation and condition of
+things in which nature is to operate; and we are to find the means of
+consolidating those strata, and concreting every species of substance
+in almost every possible composition, according to some known physical
+principle. Here is an operation which is limited; for, we must reason
+strictly, according to the laws of nature, in the case which we have
+under consideration; and we cannot suppose nature as ever transgressing
+those laws.
+
+It is acknowledged, that, by means sometimes of an aeriform, sometimes
+of an alkaline, perhaps also of an acid substance, calcareous matter is
+dissolved in the earth, and certain metallic substances, such as lead
+and iron. This solution also, upon particular occasions, (where the
+proper conditions for separating the solvent from the dissolved
+substance exist), forms certain concretions; these are sometimes a mere
+incrustation, as in the case of the siliceous incrustation of Giezer,
+sometimes again in a crystallised or sparry form, as in the case of
+stalactical concretions. But here is no question of those cases where
+the proper conditions may be found; first, of dissolving the substance
+which is afterwards to be concreted; secondly, of separating the
+menstruum from the dissolved substance; and, lastly, of removing the
+fluid deprived of its solution, and of supplying a new solution in its
+room; the question is, how far those concretions are formed where those
+conditions do not take place. Now, this last case is that of almost all
+mineral concretions.
+
+It must not be here alleged that certain concretions have been found in
+mines posterior to these having been worked by man; consequently, that
+those concretions have been formed by nothing but the infiltration of
+water. In those cases, where such concretions are truly found, I am
+persuaded that all the conditions proper to that operation will also
+be found; and it is only, I believe, in those cases where such proper
+conditions may be found, that this aqueous concretion ever appears. Now,
+if we shall except calcareous stalactite, and the bog ore of iron, How
+seldom is it that any appearance of those aqueous mineral concretion
+ever is found? Those very few cases in which they are found, afford the
+strongest proof against these being operations general to the globe, or
+proper mineral concretions; because it is only where all the necessary
+conditions conspire in each contributing its part, that the effect is
+accomplished; and this is a thing which cannot possibly take place in
+the aquiform strata below the surface of the sea. But, without attending
+to this clear distinction of things perfectly different, naturalists are
+apt to see false analogies, and thus in generalising to form the most
+erroneous theories.
+
+I shall now give an example of this fallaceous manner of reasoning; it
+is in the case of certain mineral appearances which are erroneously
+considered as stalactical concretions.
+
+The only true stalactical bodies are of a calcareous substance; they are
+formed by water containing this substance in a dissolved state; and the
+principles upon which this particular concretion is formed are well
+known. It is therefore easy to compare other concretions, which may have
+some superficial resemblance to these stalactical bodies, in order to
+see if they have proceeded upon the same principle of concretion from
+a dissolved state, or by water depositing its dissolved substance in a
+similar manner.
+
+There are two different mineral substances which give appearances of
+this sort. These are certain concretions of calcedony, and also of
+iron-ore, which are thought to have such resemblance to stalactical
+concretions as, by some superficial observers, to be reckoned of the
+same kind. It is now proposed to show that those conclusions are not
+well founded; and that, in this case of calcedony and iron-ore, it could
+not be upon the principle of stalactical concretion that the bodies now
+in question had their forms.
+
+The principle upon which calcareous substance is dissolved in water, and
+made to concrete by the evaporation of the acid substance, or fixed
+air by which it had been dissolved, is too well known to require any
+explanation in this place; we are only to consider the sensible effects
+of those operations of which we know so well the proper conditions.
+
+There are just two distinct views under which we may consider all
+stalactical concretions formed; these are the incrustation of
+the calcareous substance concreting upon a foreign body, and the
+incrustation of the same substance upon itself. By the first any manner
+of shape may be formed, provided there be a solid body, upon the surface
+of which the calcareous solution is made to pass. By the second, again,
+we have various forms; but we know the principles upon which they had
+been made. These are the shape and motions of the fluid which gives the
+calcareous concretion. Now, these principles are always to be perceived,
+more or less, in all the bizarre or fantastical, as well as regular
+shapes which are produced by stalactical concretions. At present, we
+shall confine our views to one particular shape, which is simple,
+regular, and perfectly understood wherever it is formed.
+
+Drops of water falling from a roof, and forming stalactite, produce
+first tubular bodies, and then gradually consolidate and increase those
+pendulous bodies by incrustation. These appearances are thought to be
+observed in the calcedony and ferruginous concretions, which has led
+some mineralists to conclude, that those concretions had been formed
+in the same manner, by means of water. We are now to show that these
+mineral appearances are not analogous to stalactites in their formation,
+and that they have evidently been formed in a different manner.
+
+It must be evident, that, in the formation of those pendulous bodies,
+each distinct stalactite must be formed by a separate drop of water;
+consequently, that no more stalactites can be formed in a given space,
+than there could have subsisted separate drops of water. Now, a drop of
+water is a very determined thing; and thus we have a principle by which
+to judge of those mistaken appearances.
+
+Let us suppose the gut of water to be but one eighth of an inch,
+although it is a great deal more, we should have no stalactites formed
+nearer to each other than that measure of space. But those mineral
+concretions, which are supposed to be stalactical, are contained in half
+that space, or are nearer to each other than the tenth or twentieth of
+an inch. I have them like needles, and in every degree of proximity or
+contiguity, at the same time that they are perfectly solid. Therefore,
+it is plainly impossible that they could have been formed upon this
+principle of calcareous stalactite. But, it is only by this false
+resemblance, that any argument can be formed for the concretion of those
+bodies from an aqueous solution; in every other respect they are true
+mineral concretions; and, that these have had a very different origin,
+has been already the subject of investigation, and will be more
+particularly examined in the course of this work.
+
+The term _infiltration_, which has been much employed for explaining
+mineral appearances, is too vague, imperfect, or unexplicit, for
+science, whether as the means of knowing nature, or the subject of
+confutation. This is not the case with that of stalactite; here is
+a term that implies a certain natural operation, or a most distinct
+process for attaining a certain end; and we know the principles upon
+which it proceeds, as well as the several steps that may be traced in
+the general result. It is an operation which has not only been analysed
+to its principles; it is also a process which is performed by man,
+proceeding on his acquired knowledge. Now, were this operation common to
+the mineral regions, as it is proper to the surface of this earth; we
+could not remain in any degree of suspense with regard to the origin of
+those mineral bodies; for, having the true clue of knowledge, we should
+be able to unravel the most intricate and mysterious appearance. But, so
+far from this being the case, the more we come to inquire into nature,
+and employ this principle, the less we find it applicable, and the more
+involved in darkness is our science.
+
+The places where these false appearances of stalactite are found, are
+precisely those in which, from the nature of things, all possibility for
+such an operation is excluded. For, How can this take place within a
+closs cavity in the mineral regions? The term _vegetation_ may as well
+be employed for the explanation of those appearances: But what would
+now be said of such an explication? It is high time that science were
+properly applied to the natural history of this earth, and mineralists
+not allowed to impose upon themselves with false reasoning, or to please
+themselves with the vain attempt of explaining visible effects by
+unknown causes.
+
+Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting petrifaction or mineral
+concretion, as I have now exposed, opinions that are not founded on any
+sound physical principle, authorise me to conclude that they are all
+erroneous. If this be admitted, it will follow that we have no proof
+of any proper mineral concretion except that which had proceeded by
+congelation from the fluid state of fusion. This has been the doctrine
+which I have held out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will be more
+and more confirmed as we come to examine particular mineral appearances.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+In the first chapter, I have given a perfect mark by which to judge,
+of every consolidated stratum, how far that had been the operation or
+effect of water alone, or if it had been that of heat and fusion. This
+is the particular veins or divisions of the consolidated stratum,
+arising from the contraction of the mass, distended by heat, and
+contracted in cooling. It is not an argument of greater or lesser
+probability; it is a physical demonstration; but, so far as I see, it
+would appear to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.
+Time, however, will open the eyes of men; science will some day find
+admittance into the cabinet of the curious. I will therefore now give
+another proof,--not of the consolidation of mineral bodies by means
+of fusion, for there is no mineral body in which that proof is not
+found,--but of the inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the
+appearances of bodies, where not only fusion had been employed for the
+consolidation, but where the application of heat is necessary, and along
+with it the circumstances proper for _distillation_.
+
+Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water issuing from the earth,
+one forming calcareous incrustations, the other depositing bituminous
+substances. Here is enough for them to make the theory of a world; on
+the one hand, solid marble is explained, on the other, solid coal.
+Ignorance suspects not error; their first step is to reason upon a false
+principle;--no matter, were they only to reason far enough, they would
+soon find their error by the absurdity into which it lands them. The
+misfortune is, they reason no farther; they have explained mineralogy
+by infiltration; and they content themselves with viewing the beautiful
+specimens in their cabinet, the supposed product of solution and
+crystalization. How shall we inform such observators; How reason with
+those who attend not to an argument!
+
+As naturalists have explained all mineral concretions from aqueous or
+other solution, and attributed to infiltration the formation of those
+stony bodies in which there are marks of their original composition,
+so have they explained to themselves, I suppose, the origin of those
+bituminous bodies which are found among the strata of the earth. In the
+case of stony substances, I have shown how unfounded all their theories
+are for the production of those concretions, crystallizations, and
+consolidated bodies. I am here to examine the subject of inflammable and
+combustible bodies, which I believe have been little considered by those
+theorists who suppose mineral bodies consolidated by infiltration. It is
+here that we shall find an infinite difference between the aqueous and
+igneous theories; for, we shall find it impossible to explain by the one
+certain operations which must have necessarily required the great agent
+generally employed in the other.
+
+The subject of this chapter is a touch-stone for every theory of the
+earth. In every quarter of this globe, perhaps in every extensive
+country, bituminous strata are to be found; they are alternated with
+those which are called aquiform, or which had been evidently formed by
+subsidence of certain moved materials at the bottom of the sea; so far,
+therefore, all those strata have had the same origin. In this point
+I think I may assert, that all the different theories at present are
+agreed; and it is only concerning certain transformations of those
+strata, since their original collection, that have been ascribed to
+different causes.
+
+Of these transformations, which the strata must have undergone, there
+are two kinds; one in relation to change of place and position; the
+other in relation to solidity or consistence. It is only the last of
+those two changes which is here to be the subject of consideration;
+because, with regard to the first, there is nothing peculiar in these
+bituminous strata to throw any light, in that respect, upon the others.
+This is not the case with regard to the transformation in their chemical
+character and consistence; bituminous bodies may not be affected by
+chemical agents, such as fire and water, in the same manner as the
+argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and such other strata that are
+alternated with the bituminous; and thus we may find the means for
+investigating the nature of that agent by which those strata in general
+have been transformed in their substance; or we may find means for the
+detecting of false theories which may have been formed with regard
+to those operations in which the original deposits of water had been
+changed.
+
+We have had but two theories, with regard to the transformation of
+those bodies which have had a known origin, or to the change of their
+substance and consistence; the one of these which I have given is that
+of heat or fusion; the other, which I wish to be compared with mine,
+is that of water and infiltration. It is by this last that all authors
+hitherto, in one shape or another, have endeavoured to explain the
+changes that those strata must have undergone since the time of their
+first formation at the bottom of the sea. They indiscriminately apply
+the doctrine of infiltration to those strata of mineral coal as to any
+other; they say that bituminous matter is infiltrated with the water,
+impregnates certain strata of earth with bituminous matter, and thus
+converts them into mineral coal, and bituminous strata. This is not
+reasoning physically, or by the inductive method of proceeding upon
+matter of fact; it is reasoning fantastically, or by making gratuitous
+supposition founded merely on imagination. It was thus that natural
+philosophers reasoned before the age of science; the wonder now is,
+how men of science, in the present enlightened age, should suffer such
+language of ignorance and credulity to pass uncensured.
+
+The subject which I am now to treat of consists of peculiar strata of
+the earth, bodies which we may investigate through all the stages of
+their change, which is extreme; for, from vegetable bodies produced upon
+the habitable earth, they are now become a mineral body, and the most
+perfect coal,--a thing extremely different from what it had been, and
+a thing which cannot be supposed to have been accomplished by the
+operation of water alone, or any other agent in nature with which we
+are acquainted, except the action of fire or heat. It is therefore
+impossible for a philosopher, reasoning upon actual physical principles,
+not to acknowledge in this a complete proof of the theory which has been
+given, and a complete refutation of that aqueous operation which has
+been so inconsiderately supposed as consolidating the strata of the
+earth, and forming the various mineral concretions which are found in
+that great body.
+
+To see this, it will be sufficient to trace the progress of vegetable
+and animal substances, (bodies which had certainly lived by means of a
+former earth), to this changed state in which they have become perfect
+mineral bodies, and constitute a part of the present earth. For, as
+these changes are perfectly explained by the one theory, and absolutely
+inconsistent with the other, there arises from this a conviction that
+must be irresistible to a person who can give proper attention to a
+chain of reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+But if we thus succeed to illustrate the theory of the earth by the
+natural history of those particular strata, we have but one step farther
+to make in order to bring all the other parts of the earth, whether
+stratified or not, into the most perfect consistence with the theory;
+now this step, it will be most easy to make; and I shall now mention
+it, that so the reader may keep it in his view: Pyrites is a
+sulphureo-metallic substance, which cannot be produced by means of
+water, a substance which the influences of the atmosphere decomposes or
+separates into its elements, and which even our imperfect art may
+be considered as able to produce, by means of fusion in our fires.
+Therefore, the finding of this creature of fire intimately connected
+with those consolidated strata of mineral coal, adds the greatest
+confirmation, were it necessary, to the doctrine of those mineral bodies
+having been consolidated by fusion. This confirmation, however, is
+not necessary, and it is not the only thing which I am at present to
+illustrate in that doctrine. What I have now in view is, to homologate
+the origin of those coal strata, with the production of every other
+mineral substance, by heat or fusion; and this is what the intimate
+connection of pyrites with those strata will certainly accomplish. This
+will be done in the following manner:
+
+Pyrites is not only found in great masses along with the coal strata; it
+is contained in the veins which traverse those strata, and in the minute
+ramifications of those veins, which are occasioned by the contraction of
+the mass, and generally divide it into small cubical pieces; but besides
+that extrinsic connection, (as it may be called,) with the stratum of
+coal, pyrites is found intimately connected with that solid body, in
+being mixed with its substance. If, therefore, it were proved, that
+either the one or other of those two substances had been consolidated by
+fusion, the other must be acknowledged as having had the same origin;
+but now I am to prove, from the natural history of mineral coal, that
+pyrites had been there formed by fusion; and then, by means of the
+known origin of that sulphureo-metallic substance, we shall extend our
+knowledge to the origin of every other mineral body.
+
+The process of this argument is as follows: Every mineral body, I
+believe, without exception, will be found so intimately connected with
+pyrites, that these two things must be concluded as having been together
+in a fluid state, and that, whatever may have been the cause of fluidity
+in the one, this must have also caused the fluidity in the other;
+consequently, whatever shall be proved with regard to the mineral
+operations of pyrites, must be considered as proved of every other
+mineral substance. But, from the connection of pyrites with mineral
+coal, it is to be proved that the origin of this metallic body had been
+fusion; and then it will appear, that all other mineral bodies must have
+been more or less in fusion, or that they must have been consolidated
+by means of heat, and not by any manner of solution or aqueous
+infiltration. I therefore now proceed to take a view of the natural
+history of coal strata,--a subject which mineralogists seem not inclined
+to engage with, although the most ample data are to be found for that
+investigation.
+
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+Fossil coal is the species of stratum best understood with regard to its
+accidents, as being much sought after; at least, this is the case in
+many parts of Britain, where it supplies the place of wood for burning.
+This fossil body has the most distinguished character; for, being
+inflammable or combustible in its nature, there is no other species of
+stratum that may be confounded with it.
+
+But, though coal be thus the most distinguishable mineral, and that
+which is best understood in the science of mining, it is perhaps the
+most difficult to be treated of in the science of mineralogy; for,
+not having properly any distinguishable parts, we have nothing in the
+natural constitution of this body, as we have in most other strata, to
+lead us to the knowledge of its original state or first formation.
+
+The varieties of coal are distinguished by their different manner of
+burning; but, from appearances of this kind, no perfect judgement can be
+formed with regard to the specific manner in which those strata had been
+made; although, from chemical principles, some conclusion may be drawn
+concerning certain changes which they have undergone since they had been
+formed.
+
+Thus we have one species of coal which is extremely fusible, abounds
+with oil, and consequently is inflammable; we have another species again
+which is perfectly fixed and infusible in the fire; therefore, we may
+conclude upon principle, that, however, both those coals must have
+undergone the operation of heat and fusion, in bringing them to their
+present state, it is only the last that has become so much evaporated as
+to become perfectly fixed, or so perfectly distilled, as to have been
+reduced to a caput mortuum.
+
+The argument here employed is founded upon this fact; that, from the
+fusible species of coal, a caput mortuum may be formed by distillation,
+and that this chemical production has every essential quality, or every
+peculiar property, of the fixed and infusible species; although, from
+the circumstances of our operation, this caput mortuum may not have
+precisely the exterior appearance of the natural coal. But, we have
+reason to believe, it is not in the nature of things to change the
+infusible species, so as to make it fusible or oily. Now, that this body
+was not formed originally in its present state, must appear from this,
+that the stratum here considered is perfectly solid; but, without
+fusion, this could not have been attained; and the coal is now supposed
+to be infusible. Consequently, this fixed substance, which is now,
+properly speaking, a perfect coal, had been originally an oily
+bituminous or fusible substance. It is now a fixed substance, and an
+infusible coal; therefore, it must have been by means of heat and
+distillation that it had been changed, from the original state in which
+this stratum had been formed.
+
+We have thus, in the examination of coal strata upon chemical
+principles, received a certain lesson in geology, although this does not
+form a proper distinction by which to specify those strata in general,
+or explain the variety of that mineral. For, in this manner, we
+could only distinguish properly two species of those strata; the one
+bituminous or inflammable; the other proper coal, burning without smoke
+or flame. Thus it will appear that, as this quality of being perfectly
+charred is not originally in the constitution of the stratum, but an
+accident to which some strata of every species may have been subjected,
+we could not class them by this property without confounding together
+strata which had differences in their composition or formation.
+Therefore, we are led to inquire after some other distinction, which may
+be general to strata of fossil coal, independent of those changes which
+this substance may have undergone after it had been formed in a stratum.
+
+Perfect mineral coal being a body of undistinguishable parts, it is only
+in its resolution that we may analyse it, and this is done by burning.
+Thus, in analysing coal by burning, we have, in the ashes alone, that by
+which one species of coal may be distinguished from another; and, if we
+should consider pure coal as having no ashes of itself, we should then,
+in the weight of its ashes, have a measure of the purity of the coal,
+this being inversely as the quantity of the ashes. Now, though this be
+not accurately true, as the purest coal must have some ashes proper to
+itself, yet, as this is a small matter compared with the quantity of
+earthy matter that may be left in burning some species of coal, this
+method of analysis may be considered as not far removed from the truth.
+
+But, in distinguishing fossil coal by this species of chemical analysis,
+not only is there to be found a perfect or indefinite gradation from a
+body which is perfectly combustible to one that is hardly combustible in
+any sensible degree, we should also fall into an inconveniency similar
+to that already mentioned, of confounding two things extremely different
+in their nature, a bituminous body, and a perfect charcoal. Thus, if we
+shall found our distinction upon the fusibility and different degree of
+having been charred, we shall confound fossil coals of very different
+degrees of value in burning, or of very different compositions as
+strata; if, again, we found it upon the purity of composition, in
+judging from the ashes, we shall confound fossil bodies of very
+different qualities, the one burning with much smoke and flame, the
+other without any; the one fusible almost like wax, the other fixed and
+infusible as charcoal.
+
+It will now appear, that what cannot be done in either the one or other
+of those two methods, may in a great degree, or with considerable
+propriety, be performed in employing both.
+
+Thus, whether for the economical purposes of life, or the natural
+history of fossil coal, those strata should be considered both with
+regard to the purity of their composition as inflammable matter
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, and to the changes which they
+have afterwards undergone by the operation of subterranean heat and
+distillation.
+
+We have now considered the original matter of which coal strata are
+composed to be of two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as being
+perfectly inflammable or combustible; the other an earthy matter,
+with which proper coal may be variously mixed in its composition, or
+intimately connected, in subsiding from that suspended state by which it
+had been carried in the ocean. It is a matter of great importance, in
+the physiology of this globe, to know that the proper substance of coal
+may be thus mixed with heterogeneous bodies; for, supposing that this
+earthy matter, which has subsided in the water along with coal, be no
+farther connected with the combustible substance of those strata, than
+that it had floated in the waters of the ocean, and subsided _pari
+passu_ with the proper materials of the coal, we hence learn a great
+deal with regard to the state in which the inflammable matter must have
+been at the time of its formation into strata. This will appear by
+considering, that we find schistus mixed with coal in the most equal or
+uniform manner, and in almost every conceivable degree, from the purest
+coal to the most perfect schistus. Hence we have reason to conclude,
+that, at the formation of those strata, the bituminous matter, highly
+subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the earth subsiding in the
+water.
+
+Not only is the bituminous matter of coal found mixed in every different
+proportion with the earthy or uninflammable materials of strata, but the
+coaly or bituminous composition is found with perhaps every different
+species of substance belonging to strata. This is certain, that we have
+the coaly matter intimately mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous
+strata.
+
+Thus it will appear, that it is no proper explanation of the formation
+of coal strata, to say that vegetable matter is the basis of those
+strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance proper for the formation
+of bituminous matter is produced, it remains to know by what means, from
+a vegetable body, this bituminous matter is produced, and how it comes
+to be diffused in that subtile state by which it may be uniformly mixed
+with the most impalpable earth in water. Could we once resolve this
+question, every other appearance might be easily explained. Let us
+therefore now endeavour to discover a principle for the resolving of
+this problem.
+
+There are two ways in which vegetable bodies may be, in part at least,
+resolved into that subtilised state of bituminous matter after which we
+inquire; the one of these is by means of fire, the other by water. We
+shall now consider these severally as the means of forming bituminous
+strata, although they may be both employed by nature in this work.
+
+When vegetable bodies are made to burn, there is always more or less of
+a fuliginous substance formed; but this fuliginous substance is no
+other than a bituminous body in that subtilised state in which it is
+indefinitely divided, and may be mixed uniformly with any mass of matter
+equally subtilised with itself. But this is precisely what we want, in
+order to compose the strata of coal in question. If, therefore, there
+were to be found in the ocean such a fund of this fuliginous substance
+as might suffice for the formation of bituminous strata, no difficulty
+would be left in explaining the original of fossil coal. But tho'
+sufficient quantity of this fuliginous matter might not be found for the
+explanation of natural appearances, yet there cannot be a doubt that
+more or less of this matter must be produced in the mineral operations
+of the globe, and be found precisely in that place where it is required
+for the forming of those strata of coal.
+
+In order to conceive this, we are to consider, that there are actually
+great quantities of coal strata in a charred state, which indicates
+that all their more volatile oleaginous or fuliginous matter had been
+separated by force of subterranean heat; and, we are to suppose that
+this had been transacted at the bottom of the ocean: Consequently, a
+subtile oleaginous, bituminous, or fuliginous substance, must have been
+diffused in that ocean; and this bituminous matter would be employed in
+forming other strata, which were then deposited at the bottom of the
+waters.
+
+But besides this quantity of bituminous matter which is necessarily
+formed in the mineral operations of the earth, and with regard to the
+quantity of which we can never form a proper estimate, there must enter
+into this same calculation all the fuliginous matter that is formed in
+burning bodies upon the surface of this earth. This bituminous matter of
+smoke is first delivered into the atmosphere, but ultimately it must
+be settled at the bottom of the sea. Hence though, compared with the
+quantity that we think required, each revolution of the globe produces
+but a little in our estimation, yet the progress of time, in reforming
+worlds, may produce all that is necessary in the formation of our
+strata.
+
+There now remains to explain the other way in which bituminous matter
+may be obtained from vegetable bodies, that is, by means of water. For
+this purpose we must begin with a part of natural history that will
+throw some light upon the subject.
+
+All the rivers in Scotland run into the sea tinged with a brown
+substance; this is most evident in some of them after a flood, and while
+yet the river is swelled; but, in travelling to the north of Scotland
+in the summer season, without any rain, I saw all the rivers, without
+exception, of a brown colour, compared with a river of more clear water.
+This colour proceeds from the moss water, as it is called, which runs
+into the rivers, or the infusion of that vegetable substance which
+forms combustible turf, called peat. Now, this moss water leaves, upon
+evaporation, a bituminous substance, which very much resembles fossil
+coal. Therefore, in order to employ this vegetable infusion, delivered
+into the ocean for the purpose of forming bituminous strata at its
+bottom, it is only required to make this bituminous matter separate and
+subside.
+
+If now we consider the immense quantity of inflammable vegetable
+substance, dissolved in water, that is carried into the sea by all the
+rivers of the earth, and the indefinite space of time during which those
+rivers have been pouring in that oily matter into the sea; and if we
+consider, that the continual action of the sun and atmosphere upon this
+oily substance tends, by inspissation, to make it more and more dense or
+bituminous, we cannot hesitate in supposing a continual separation
+of this bituminous matter or inspissated oil from the water, and
+a precipitation of it to the bottom of the sea. This argument is
+corroborated by considering, that, if it were otherwise, the water of
+the sea must have, during the immense time that rivers are proved
+to have run, be strongly impregnated with that oily or bituminous
+substance; but this does not appear; therefore we are to conclude, that
+there must be the means of separating that substance from the water in
+which it had been dissolved.
+
+If there is thus, from the continual perishing of animal and vegetable
+bodies upon the surface of this earth and in the sea, a certain supply
+of oily or bituminous matter given to the ocean, then, however small a
+portion of this shall be supposed the whole oily or inflammable matter
+produced upon the surface of the earth, or however long time it may
+require for thus producing a stratum or considerable body of coal,
+we must still see in this a source of the materials proper for the
+production of that species of strata in the bottom of the sea.
+
+We have now considered the proper materials of which pure fossil coal
+is chiefly formed; we have at present to consider what should be the
+appearances of such a substance as this collected at the bottom of the
+sea, and condensed or consolidated by compression and by heat. We should
+thus have a body of a most uniform structure, black, breaking with a
+polished surface, and more or less fusible in the fire, or burning with
+more or less smoke and flame, in proportion as it should be distilled
+or inspissated, less or more, by subterranean heat. But this is the
+description of our purest fossil coals, which burn in giving the
+greatest quantity of heat, and leave the smallest quantity of ashes.
+
+In order to form another regular species of coal, let us suppose that,
+along with the bituminous substance now considered, there shall be
+floating in the water of the ocean a subtile earthy substance, and that
+these two different substances shall subside together in an uniform
+manner, to produce a stratum which shall be covered with immense weight,
+compressed, condensed, and consolidated as before, we should thus have
+produced a most homogeneous or uniform body to appearance, but not so
+in reality. The mixture of heterogeneous matter, in this case, is too
+minute to be discovered simply by inspection; it must require deep
+reflection upon the subject, with the help of chemical analysis,
+to understand the constitution of this body, and judge of all the
+circumstances or particulars in which it differs from the former. It is
+worth while to examine this subject with some attention, as it will give
+the most instructive view of the composition of bituminous strata, both
+those which are not considered as coal, and also the different species
+of that mineral body.
+
+In the first place then, if the mixture of those two different
+substances had been sufficiently perfect, and the precipitation uniform,
+the solid body of coal resulting from this mixture, would not only
+appear homogeneous, but might break equally or regularly in all
+directions; but the fracture of this coal must visibly differ from the
+former, so far as the fracture of this heterogeneous coal cannot have
+the polished surface of the pure bituminous body; for, the earthy matter
+that is interposed among the bituminous particles must affect the
+fracture in preventing its surface from being perfectly smooth. This
+imperfect plane of the fracture may be improved by polishing; in which
+case the body might be sufficiently smooth to have an agreeable polish;
+but it cannot have a perfect polish like a homogeneous body, or appear
+with that glassy surface which is naturally in the fracture of the pure
+bituminous coal.
+
+But this is also a perfect description of that species of coal which is
+called in England Kennel coal, and in Scotland Parrot coal. It is so
+uniform in its substance that it is capable of being formed on the
+turning loom; and it receives a certain degree of polish, resembling
+bodies of jet.
+
+Thus, we have a species of coal in which we shall find but a small
+degree of fusibility, although it may not be charred in any degree.
+Such an infusible coal may therefore contain a great deal of aqueous
+substance, and volatile oily matter; consequently may burn with smoke
+and flame. But this same species of coal may also occasionally be
+charred more or less by the operation of subterranean heat; and, in
+that case, we should have a variety of coal which could only be
+distinguished, from a similar state of pure bituminous coal, by the
+ashes which they leave in burning. At least, this must be the case, when
+both species are, by sufficient distillation, reduced to the state of
+what may be properly termed a chemical coal.
+
+But in the natural state of its composition, we find those strata of
+kennel or parrot coal, possessing a peculiar property, which deserves to
+be considered, as still throwing more light upon the subject.
+
+We have been representing these strata of coal as homogeneous to
+appearance, and as breaking indifferently in all directions; this last,
+perhaps, is not so accurate; for they would seem to break chiefly into
+two directions, that is, either parallel or perpendicular to the bed.
+Thus we have this coal commonly in rectangular pieces, in which it
+is extremely difficult to distinguish the direction of the bed, or
+stratification of the mass. By an expert eye, however, this may be in
+general, or at least sometimes, distinguished, and then, by knowing
+the habit of the coal in burning, a person perfectly ignorant of the
+philosophy of the matter may exhibit a wonderful sagacity, or even of
+power over future events, in applying this body to fire; for, at his
+pleasure, and unknown to those who are not in the secret; he may
+apparently, in equal circumstances, make this coal either kindle
+quietly, or with violent cracking and explosions, throwing its splinters
+at a distance.
+
+The explanation lies in this, that, though the rectangular mass of coal
+appears extremely uniform in its structure, it is truly a stratified
+mass; it is therefore affected, by the sudden approach of fire in a very
+different manner, according as the edge of the stratum, which is seen in
+four of the sides of this supposed cube, shall be applied to the fire,
+or the other two sides, which are in the line of the stratum, or
+parallel to the bed of coal. The reason of this phenomenon now remains
+to be considered.
+
+When the edge of the coal is exposed to the fire, the stratification of
+the coal is opened gradually by the heat and expanding vapours, as a
+piece of wood, of a similar shape, would be by means of wedges placed in
+the end way of the timber. The coal then kindles quietly, and quickly
+flames, while the mass of this bituminous schistus is opening like the
+leaves of a book, and thus exhibits an appearance in burning extremely
+like wood. But let the fire be applied to the middle of the bed, instead
+of the edge of the leaves, and we shall see a very different appearance;
+for here the expanded aqueous vapours, confined between the _laminae_,
+form explosions, in throwing off splinters from the kindling mass; and
+this mass of coal takes fire with much noise and disturbance.
+
+The ashes of this coal may be determined as to quality, being in general
+a subtile white earth; but, as to quantity, the measure of that earth
+produces an indefinite variety in this species of coal; for, from the
+kennel or parrot coal, which is valuable for its burning with much
+flame, to that black schistus which our masons use in drawing upon
+stone, and which, though combustible in some degree, is not thought to
+be a coal, there is a perfect gradation, in which coal may be found with
+every proportion of this earthy alloy.
+
+Among the lowest species of this combustible schistus are those
+argillaceous strata in Yorkshire from whence they procure alum in
+burning great heaps of this stone, which also contains sulphur, to
+impregnate the aluminous earth with its acid. We have also, in this
+country, strata which differ from those aluminous schisti only in the
+nature of the earth, with which the bituminous sediment is mixed. In
+the strata now considered, the earth, precipitated with the bituminous
+matter, being calcareous, has produced a limestone, which, after burning
+especially, is perfectly fissile.
+
+Therefore, with regard to the composition of mineral coal, the theory
+is this. That inflammable, vegetable, and animal substances, in a
+subtilised state, had subsided in the sea, being mixed more or less with
+argillaceous, calcareous, and other earthy substances in an impalpable
+state. Now, the chemical analysis of fossil coal justifies that theory;
+for, in the distillation of the inflammable or oily coal, we procure
+volatile alkali, as might be naturally expected.
+
+Thus we have considered fossil coal as various, both in its state and
+composition; we have described coal which is of the purest composition,
+as well as that which is most impure or earthy; and we have shown that
+there is a gradation, from the most bituminous state in which those
+strata had been formed in being deposited at the bottom of the sea,
+to the most perfect state of a chemical coal, to which they have been
+brought by the operation of subterranean fire or heat.
+
+We have been hitherto considering fossil coal as formed of the
+impalpable parts of inflammable bodies, united together by pressure, and
+made to approach in various degrees to the nature of a chemical coal,
+by means of subterranean heat; because, from the examination of those
+strata, many of them have evidently been formed in this manner.
+But vegetable bodies macerated in water, and then consolidated by
+compression, form a substance of the same kind, almost undistinguishable
+from some species of fossil coal. We have an example of this in our turf
+pits or peat mosses; when this vegetable substance has been compressed
+under a great load of earth, which sometimes happens, it is much
+consolidated, and hardens, by drying, into a black body, not afterwards
+dilutable or penetrated by water, and almost undistinguishable in
+burning from mineralised bodies of the same kind.
+
+Also, when fossil wood has been condensed by compression and changed by
+the operation of heat, as it is frequently found in argillaceous strata,
+particularly in the aluminous rock upon the coast of Yorkshire, it
+becomes a jet almost undistinguishable from some species of fossil coal.
+
+There cannot therefore be a doubt, that if this vegetable substance,
+which is formed by the collection of wood and plants in water upon the
+surface of the earth, were to be found in the place of fossil coal, and
+to undergo the mineral operations of the globe, it must at least augment
+the quantity of those strata, though it should not form distinct strata
+by itself.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that vegetable bodies and their impalpable
+parts are things too far distant in the scale of magnitude to be
+supposed as subsiding together in the ocean; and this would certainly be
+a just observation with regard to any other species of bodies: But the
+nature of vegetable bodies is to be floatant in water; so that we may
+suppose them carried at any distance from the shore; consequently, the
+size of the body here makes no difference with regard to the place or
+order in which these are to be deposited.
+
+The examination of fossil coal fully confirms those reasonable
+suppositions. For, _first_, The strata that attend coal, whether the
+sandstone or the argillaceous strata, commonly, almost universally,
+abound with the most distinct evidence of vegetable substances; this
+is the impressions of plants which are found in their composition.
+_Secondly_, There is much fossil coal, particularly that termed in
+England clod coal, and employed in the iron foundry, that shows
+abundance of vegetable bodies in its composition. The strata of this
+coal have many horizontal interstices, at which the more solid shining
+coal is easily separated; here the fibrous structure of the compressed
+vegetable bodies is extremely visible; and thus no manner of doubt
+remains, that at least a part of this coal had been composed of the
+vegetable bodies themselves, whatever may have been the origin of the
+more compact parts where nothing is to be distinguished.
+
+The state in which we often find fossil wood in strata gives reason to
+conclude that this body of vegetable production, in its condensed state,
+is in appearance undistinguishable from fossil coal, and may be also in
+great quantity; as, for example, the Bovey coal in Devonshire.
+
+Thus the strata of fossil coal would appear to be formed by the
+subsidence of inflammable matter of every species at the bottom of the
+sea, in places distant from the shore, or where there had been much
+repose, and where the lightest and most floatant bodies have been
+deposited together. This is confirmed in examining those bodies of
+fossil coal; for, though there are often found beds of sand-stone
+immediately above and below the stratum of the coal, we do not find any
+sand mixed in the strata of the coal itself.
+
+Having found the composition of coal to be various, but all included
+within certain rules which have been investigated, we may perceive in
+this an explanation of that diversity which is often observed among the
+various strata of one bed of coal. Even the most opposite species of
+composition may be found in the thickness of one bed, although of very
+little depth, that is to say, the purest bituminous coal may, in the
+same bed, be conjoined with that which is most earthy.
+
+Fossil coal is commonly alternated with regular sand-stone and
+argillaceous strata; but these are very different bodies; therefore,
+it may perhaps be inquired how such different substances came to be
+deposited in the same place of the ocean. The answer to this is easy; we
+do not pretend to trace things from their original to the place in which
+they had been ultimately deposited at the bottom of the sea. It is
+enough that we find the substance of which we treat delivered into
+the sea, and regularly deposited at the bottom, after having been
+transported by the currents of the ocean. Now the currents of the ocean,
+however regular they may be for a certain period of time, and however
+long this period may be protracted, naturally change; and then the
+currents, which had given birth to one species of stratum in one place,
+will carry it to another; and the sediment which the moment before
+had formed a coal stratum, or a bed of that bituminous matter, may
+be succeeded either with the sediment of an argillaceous stratum, or
+covered over with a bed of sand, brought by the changed current of the
+sea.
+
+We have now considered all the appearances of coal strata, so far as
+these depend upon the materials, and their original collection. But,
+as those bituminous strata have been changed in their substance by the
+operation of subterranean heat and inspissation, we are now to look for
+the necessary consequences of this change in the body of the stratum;
+and also for other mineral operations common to fossil coal with
+consolidated strata of whatever species.
+
+If coal, like other mineral strata, have been inspissated and
+consolidated by subterranean heat, we should find them traversed with
+veins and fissures; and, if the matter found in those veins and fissures
+corresponds to that found in similar places of other strata, every
+confirmation will be hence given to the theory that can be expected from
+the consideration of those bituminous strata. But this is the case; we
+find those fissures filled both with calcareous, gypseous, and pyritous
+substances. Therefore, we have reason to conclude, that the strata of
+fossil coal, like every other indurated or consolidated body in the
+earth, has been produced, _first_, by means of water preparing and
+collecting materials proper for the construction of land; and,
+_secondly_, by the operation of internal fire or subterranean heat
+melting and thus consolidating every known substance of the globe.
+
+Not only are those sparry and pyritous substances, which are more
+natural to coal strata, found forming veins traversing those strata in
+various directions, but also every other mineral vein may occasionally
+be found pervading coal mines, or traversing bituminous strata. Gold,
+silver, copper, lead, calamine, have all, in this manner, been found in
+coal.
+
+There remains now only to consider those bituminous strata of fossil
+coal in relation to that change of situation which has happened more
+or less to every stratum which we examine; but which is so much better
+known in those of coal, by having, from their great utility in the arts
+of life, become a subject for mining, and thus been traced in the earth
+at great expense, and for a long extent.
+
+Coal strata, which had been originally in a horizontal position, are now
+found sometimes standing in an erect posture, even almost perpendicular
+to the plane in which they had been formed. Miners therefore distinguish
+coal strata according as they deem them to approach to the one or other
+of those two extremes, in terming them either flat or edge seams or
+veins. Thus, it will appear, that every possible change from the
+original position of those strata may have happened, and are daily found
+from our experience in those mines.
+
+But besides the changed position of those strata, in departing from the
+horizontal line or flat position in which they had been formed, there is
+another remarkable change, termed by miners a _trouble_ in the coal. The
+consideration of this change will further illustrate the operations of
+nature in placing that which had been at the bottom of the sea above its
+surface.
+
+Strata, that are in one place regularly inclined, may be found bended,
+or irregularly inclined, in following their course. Here then is a
+source of irregularity which often materially effects the estimates
+of miners, judging from what they see, of those parts which are to be
+explored; and this is an accident which they frequently experience.
+
+But, without any change in the general direction of the stratum, miners
+often find their coal broke off abruptly, those two parts being placed
+upon a higher and lower situation in respect to each other, if flat
+beds, or separated laterally if they are edge seams. This is by miners
+termed a _slip, hitch_, or _dyke_.
+
+These irregularities may either be attended with an injected body of
+subterraneous lava or basaltes, here termed whin-stone, or they may not
+be attended, at least apparently, _i.e._ immediately, with any such
+accident. But experienced miners know, that, in approaching to any of
+those injected masses of stone, which are so frequent in this country,
+their coal is more and more subject to be troubled.
+
+As there is, in this country of Scotland, two different species of
+mountains or hills, one composed both in matter and manner exactly
+similar to the Alps of Switzerland, the other of whin-stone, basaltic
+rock, or subterraneous lava; and as the fossil coal, argillaceous and
+sand-stone strata, are found variously connected with those hills,
+nothing can tend more to give a proper understanding, with regard to the
+construction of the land in general, of the globe than a view of those
+different bodies, which are here found much mixed together in a little
+space of country, thus exhibiting, as it were in miniature, what may be
+found in other parts of the world, upon a larger scale, but not upon any
+other principle. I will therefore endeavour to give a short description
+of the mineral state of this country with regard to coal, so far as my
+experience and memory will serve.
+
+This country might very properly be considered as consisting of primary
+and secondary mountains; not as supposing the primary mountains original
+and inexplicable in their formation, any more than those of the latest
+production, but as considering the one to be later in point of time, or
+posterior in the progress of things. The first are those which commonly
+form the alpine countries, consisting of various schisti, of quartzy
+stone, and granites. The second, again, are the whinstone or basaltic
+hills scattered up and down the low country, and evidently posterior to
+the strata of that country, which they break, elevate, and displace.
+
+Thus there are in this country, as well as every where else, three
+things to be distinguished; first, the alpine or elevated country;
+secondly, the flat or low country; and, thirdly, that which has been of
+posterior formation to the strata which it traverses, in whatever shape
+or quality; whether as a mountain, or only as a vein; whether as a
+basaltes, a porphyry, or a granite, or only as a metal, a siliceous
+substance, or a spar.
+
+Those three things which are here distinguished do not differ with
+regard to the chemical character of their substances; for, in each of
+these, every different substance is to be found, more or less; and it
+is not in being composed of materials peculiar to itself, that makes an
+alpine country be distinguished from a flat country; it is chiefly in
+the changes which the strata of the alpine country have been made to
+undergo, posterior to their original collection, that the rocks of the
+alpine country differ from those of the flat country.
+
+But the observation that is most to the purpose of the present subject
+of bituminous strata, is this; it is chiefly in the strata of the flat
+country that fossil coal are found; there are none that I know of in
+all the alpine countries of Scotland; and it is always among the strata
+peculiar to the flat country that fossil coal is found. Now, this
+appearance cannot be explained by saying that the materials of mineral
+coal had not existed in the world while those primary strata were formed
+in the sea. I have already shown, (chap. 4.) that there had been the
+same system of a world, producing plants, and thus maintaining animals,
+while the primary strata were formed in the sea; I have even adduced an
+example of coal strata among those primary schisti, although this be an
+extremely rare occurrence: Consequently, we are under the necessity of
+looking out for some other cause.
+
+If the changes which have been evidently superinduced in the strata of
+alpine countries arise from the repeated operations of subterranean
+fire, or to the extreme degree in which those strata have been affected
+by this consolidating and elevating cause, it will be natural to suppose
+that the bituminous or combustible part among those stratifications, may
+have been mostly consumed upon some occasion during those various and
+long continued operations; whereas, in the flat beds of the low country,
+although there is the most perfect evidence for the exertion of heat in
+the consolidation of those strata, the general quantity of this has been
+a little thing, compared with the universal manifestation of this cause
+in the operations of the alpine countries, the strata of which have been
+so much displaced in their situations and positions.
+
+To illustrate this, strata of sand-stone are found in both the alpine
+and flat countries of Scotland. About Leadhills, for example, there are
+abundance of those strata; but, in the flat country, the generality of
+the sand-stone is so little changed as to appear to every enlightened
+naturalist aquiform strata; whereas the most enlightened of those
+philosophers will not perhaps attribute the same original to a similar
+composition in the alpine country, which is so much changed from its
+original state. It is not because there had been wanting a sufficient
+degree of heat to consolidate the sand-stone in the coal country; for I
+can show specimens of sand-stone almost contiguous with coal, that have
+been extremely much consolidated in this manner. But this is only a
+particular stratum; and the general appearance of the sand-stone, as
+well as other strata in the coal countries, is that of having been
+little affected by those subterranean operations of heat by which those
+bodies in the alpine country have been changed in their structure,
+shape, and position.
+
+If we shall thus allow the principle of consolidation, consequently also
+of induration, to have been much exerted upon the strata of the alpine
+country, and but moderately or little upon those of the low country of
+Scotland, we shall evidently see one reason, perhaps the only one, for
+the lesser elevation of the one country above the level of the sea, than
+the other. This is because the one resists the powers which have been
+employed in leveling what has been raised from the bottom of the sea,
+more than the other; consequently, we find more of the one remaining
+above the level of the sea than of the other.
+
+Let us now take the map of Scotland, in order to observe the mixture of
+those two different species of countries, whereof the one is generally
+low and flat, the other high and mountainous; the one more or less
+provided with fossil coal, the other not.
+
+From St Abb's Head, on the east of Scotland, to the Mull of Galloway,
+on the west, there runs a ridge of mountains of granite, quartz, and
+schistus strata, which contain not coal. On each side of this ridge we
+find coal countries; Northumberland, on the one side, and, on the other,
+the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and the Lothians; the one is a mountainous
+country, the others are comparatively low or flat countries. Let us now
+draw another alpine line from Buchan and Caithness, upon the east, to
+the island of Jura, on the west; this traverses a mountainous country
+destitute of coal, and, so far as I know, of any marks of marine bodies.
+But, on each side of this great alpine ridge, we find the hard country
+skirted with one which is lower, flatter, or of a softer nature,
+in which coal is found, upon the one side, in the shires of Fife,
+Clackmannan, and Stirling; and, on the other, in that hollow which runs
+from the Murray Frith south-west, in a straight line, directed upon the
+end of Mull, and composed, for the most part, of water very little above
+the level of the sea. Here, to be sure, the coal is scarce, or not so
+evident; but there is coal upon the sea coast in several places of this
+great Bay betwixt Buchan and Caithness; and the lowness of the country,
+across this part of the island, is almost sufficient testimony that it
+had been composed of softer materials.
+
+Thus the coal country of Scotland may be considered as in one band
+across the island, and included in the counties of Ayr, Lanark, and all
+those which border upon the Frith of Forth. Now, in all this tract of
+coal and tender strata, we do not find ridges of alpine stone or primary
+mountains, but we find many hills of solid rock, little mountains, from
+500 to 1000 feet high; such as that beautiful conical hill North Berwick
+Law, Torpender Law, Arthur's Seat, the Lowmands, and others of inferior
+note. That is to say, the whole of this included space, both sea and
+land, has been invaded from below with melted masses of whin-stone,
+breaking up through the natural strata of the country, and variously
+embossing the surface of the earth at present, when all the softer
+materials, with which those subterranean lavas had been covered, are
+washed away or removed from those summits of the country. Hence there is
+scarcely a considerable tubercle, with which this country also abounds,
+that may not be found containing a mass of whin-stone as a nucleus.
+
+But besides those insulated masses of whinstone that form a gradation
+from a mountain to a single rock, such, for example, as that on which
+the Castle of Edinburgh is built, we find immense quantities of the same
+basaltic rock interjected among the natural strata, always breaking and
+disordering them, but often apparently following their directions for a
+considerable space with some regularity. We also find dykes of the same
+substance bisecting the strata like perpendicular veins of rock; and, in
+some places, we see the connection of these rocks of the same substance,
+which thus appear to be placed in such a different form in relation to
+the strata.
+
+It will thus appear, that the regular form, and horizontal direction of
+strata throughout this country of coal, now under contemplation, has
+been broken and disordered by the eruption and interjection of those
+masses of basaltic stone or subterraneous lava; and thus may be
+explained not only the disorders and irregularities of coal strata, but
+also the different qualities of this bituminous substance from its
+more natural state to that of a perfect coal or fixed infusible and
+combustible substance burning without smoke. This happens sometimes to a
+part of a coal stratum which approaches the whin-stone.
+
+Having thus stated the case of combustible or bituminous strata, I would
+ask those naturalists, who adhere to the theory of infiltration and the
+operation of water alone, how they are to conceive those strata formed
+and consolidated. They must consider, that here are immense bodies of
+those combustible strata, under hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathoms
+of sand-stone, iron-stone, argillaceous and calcareous strata. If they
+are to suppose bituminous bodies collected at the bottom of the sea,
+they must say from whence that bitumen had come; for, with regard to the
+strata below those bituminous bodies, above them, and between them,
+we see perfectly from whence had come the materials of which they are
+formed. They cannot say that it is from a collection of earthy matter
+which had been afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for, although
+we find many of those earthy strata variously impregnated with the
+bituminous and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy and the
+bituminous matter had subsided together; besides, there are many of
+those coaly and bituminous strata in which there is no more than two or
+three _per cent._ of earthy matter or ashes after burning; therefore
+the strata must have been formed of bituminous matter, and not simply
+impregnated with it.
+
+To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow them to form their strata,
+which certainly is the case in great part, by the collection of
+vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say, in what manner they are
+to consolidate those bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
+pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous veins of spar and pyrites,
+which traverse those strata in all directions, to be formed in
+those bodies consolidated by the compression of the superincumbent
+masses?--Here is a manifest inconsistency, which proves that it could
+not be. But, even were we to suppose all those difficulties to be over
+come, there is still an impossibility in the way of that inconsiderate
+theory, and this will appear more fully in the following chapter.
+
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+There is not perhaps a greater difference among the various qualities of
+bodies than that which may be observed to subsist between the burning of
+those two substances, that is, the inflammable bodies on the one hand,
+and those that are combustible on the other. I have treated of that
+distinction in Dissertations upon subjects of Natural Philosophy, part
+3d. where I have considered the different effects of those two kinds
+of bodies upon the incident light; and, in a Dissertation upon the
+Philosophy of Fire, etc. I have distinguished those two kinds of
+substances in relation to their emitting, in burning, the fixed light
+which had constituted a part of those inflammable and combustible
+bodies.
+
+All animals and vegetable bodies contain both those different chemical
+substances united; and this phlogistic composition is an essential part
+in every animal and vegetable substance. There are to be found in those
+bodies particular substances, which abound more or less with one of
+those species of phlogistic matter, but never is the one species of
+those burning substances to be found naturally, in animal and vegetable
+bodies, without being associated with the other; and it is all that the
+chemical art can do to separate them in a great degree upon occasion.
+Pure ardent spirit may perhaps be considered as containing the one, and
+the most perfect coal the other; the chemical principle of the one
+is proper carbonic matter; and of the other it is the hydrogeneous
+principle, or that of inflammable air.
+
+Thus we so far understand the composition of animal and vegetable
+substances which burn or maintain our fires; we also understand the
+chemical analysis of those bodies, in separating the inflammable from
+the combustible substance, or the volatile from the fixed matter, the
+oil from what is the proper coal. It is by distillation or evaporation,
+the effect of heat, that this separatory operation is performed; and we
+know no other means by which this may be done. Therefore, wherever we
+find peculiar effects of that separatory operation, we have a right to
+infer the proper cause.
+
+The subject, which we are to consider in this section, is not the
+composition of strata in those of mineral coal, but the transformation
+of those, which had been originally inflammable bodies, into bodies
+which are only combustible, an end which is to be attained by the
+separation of their volatile or inflammable substances. In the last
+section, I have shown of what materials the strata of mineral coal had
+been originally formed; these are substances containing abundance of
+inflammable oil or bitumen, as well as carbonic matter which is properly
+combustible; and this is confirmed by the generality of those strata,
+which, though perfectly consolidated by fusion, retain still their
+inflammable and fusible qualities. But now the object of investigation
+is that mineral operation by which some of those strata, or some parts
+of a fusible and inflammable stratum, have been so changed as to become
+infusible and only combustible.
+
+We have now examined those strata which may be considered as either
+proper mineral coal, or as only a bituminous schistus; we are now to
+class along with these another species of this kind of matter, which has
+had a similar origin, although it may assume a different character.
+
+According to the common observations of mankind, the eminent quality by
+which coal is to be distinguished, is the burning of that substance,
+or its capacity for making a fire. Therefore, however similar in other
+respects, a substance which had not that eminent quality of coal could
+hardly be considered as being allied to it; far less could it be
+supposed, as being in every other respect the same. We are however
+to endeavour to show, that there are truly substances of this kind,
+substances which to common observation, having none of the properties of
+coal with respect to fire, consequently, no utility for the purpose of
+burning, might be considered as another species of mineral, while at the
+same time they are truly at bottom a composition very little different
+from those which we have considered as the most perfect coal.
+
+It must be recollected that we have distinguished coal in general as
+of two different species, one perfect or proper coal, containing no
+perceptible quantity of either oil or phlegm; the other as burning with
+smoke and flame, consequently containing both aqueous and oleaginous
+substances which it emits in distillation. It is the first of these
+which we are now to consider more particularly, in order to see the
+varieties which may be found in this species of mineral substance.
+
+When that bituminous fossil, which is the common coal of this country,
+is submitted to heat it is subject to melt more or less, and emits smoke
+which is composed of water and oil. If it be thus completely distilled,
+it becomes a perfect coal of a porous or spongy texture. Such a
+substance as this is extremely rare among minerals; I have however found
+it. It is in the harbour of Ayr, where a whinstone dyke traverses the
+coal strata, and includes some of that substance in the state of coals
+or cinder. I pointed this out many years ago to Dr Black; and lately I
+showed it to Professor Playfair.
+
+But the culm of South Wales, the Kilkenny coal of Ireland, and the blind
+coal of Scotland, notwithstanding that these are a perfect coal, or
+charred to a coal, have nothing of the porous construction of the
+specimen which I have just now mentioned; they are perfectly solid, and
+break with a smooth shining surface like those which emit smoke and
+flame.
+
+Here is therefore a mineral operation in the preparation of those coals
+which we cannot imitate; and here is the clearest evidence of the
+operation of mineral fire or heat, although we are ignorant of the
+reason why some coal strata are charred, while others are not, and why,
+in some particular cases, the charred coal may be porous or spongy like
+our coals, while in general those blind coals (as they are called) are
+perfectly solid in their structure.
+
+But to what I would call more particularly the attention of mineral
+philosophers is this, that it is inconceivable to have this effect
+produced by means of water; we might as well say that heat were to be
+the cause of ice. The production of coal from vegetable bodies, in which
+that phlogistic substance is originally produced, or from animal bodies
+which have it from that source, is made by heat, and by no other means,
+so far as we know. But, even heat alone is not sufficient to effect that
+end, or make a perfect coal; the phlogistic body, which is naturally
+compound, consisting of both inflammable and combustible substances,
+must be separated chemically, and this must be the operation of heat
+under the proper circumstances for distillation or evaporation.
+
+Here is the impossibility which in the last chapter I have alleged the
+aqueous theory has to struggle against; and here is one of the absolute
+proofs of the igneous theory. Not only must the aqueous part of those
+natural phlogistic bodies be evaporated, in order to their becoming
+coal, but the oily parts must also, by a still increased degree of heat,
+be evaporated, or separated by distillation from the combustible part.
+Here, therefore, is evidently the operation of heat, not simply that
+of fusion in contradiction to the fluidity of aqueous solution, but
+in opposition to any effect of water, as requiring the absence or
+separation of that aqueous substance.
+
+But those natural appearances go still farther to confirm our theory,
+which, upon all occasions, considers the compression upon the bodies
+that are submitted to the operation of heat, in the mineral regions, as
+having the greatest efficacy in modifying that operation. Coal strata,
+which are in the neighbourhood of each other, being of those two
+opposite species, the one fusible and inflammable, the other infusible
+and combustible, afford the clearest proof of the efficacy of
+compression; for, it is evident, that the coal, which was once
+bituminous or fusible, cannot be charred without the distillation of
+that substance; therefore, prevent the distillation by compression and
+the charring operation cannot proceed, whatever should be the intensity
+of the heat; and then, fusion alone must be the effect upon the
+bituminous body. But now, as we have both those species of coal in the
+vicinity of each other, and even the same strata of coal part charred,
+while the rest is not, this natural appearance, so far from being a
+stumbling block, as it must be to the opposite theory, is most clearly
+explained by the partial escape of vapours from the mineral regions, and
+thus confirms the theory with regard to the efficacy of compression.
+
+It is owing to the solidity of those natural charred coals, and the want
+of oil, that they are so very difficult of kindling; but, when once
+kindled in sufficient quantity, they make a fire which is very durable.
+There are even some of them which, to common observation, seem to be
+altogether incombustible. I have of this kind a specimen from a stratum
+at Stair, which shall be afterwards mentioned.
+
+M. Struve, in the Journal de Physique for January 1790, describes a
+mineral which he calls _plombagine charbonneuse ou hexaëdre_; and gives
+for reason, _parce qu'elle ressemble extrêmement au charbon de pierre
+schisteux, ou d'hexaëdre_. He says farther, "Il est très commun, dans
+une roche qui forme un passage entre les granits et les brèches, qu'on
+n'a trouvée jusqu'a présent qu'on masses roulées dans le pays de Vaud."
+He concludes his paper thus: "Ce fossile singulier ne paroît pas
+appartenir à la Suisse seule. J'ai dans ce moment devant les yeux une
+substance parfaitement semblable, si on excepte la couleur qui tient le
+milieu entre le gris de fer et le rouge modéré; elle vient du pays de
+Gotha de la Friedrischs-grube, proche d'Umneau. On le regarde comme un
+eisenrahm uni à du charbon de pierre."
+
+The specimen which I have from Stair upon the water of Ayr, so far as I
+can understand, perfectly resembles this _plombagine_ of M. Struve. It
+consumes very slowly in the fire, and deflagrates like plumbago with
+nitre. Now this comes from a regular coal stratum; and what is more
+remarkable, in this stratum is contained a true plumbago, Farther up the
+country, the Earl of Dumfries has also a mine containing plumbago along
+with other coal strata; and though the plumbago of these two mines have
+not all the softness and beauty of the mineral of the same species from
+Cumberland, they are nevertheless perfect plumbago.
+
+I have a specimen of steatetical whinstone or basaltes from some part of
+Cumberland, in which is contained many nodules of the most perfect and
+beautiful plumbago. It is dispersed through this stone in rounded masses
+of all sizes from a nut to a pin's head; and many of these are mixed
+with pyrites. There is therefore reason to believe that this plumbago
+had been in fusion.
+
+Now, if we consider that every species of coal and every species of
+plumbago are equally, that is, perfectly combustible, and yield, in
+burning, the same volatile principles, differing only perhaps a little
+in the small quantity of fixed matter which remains, we shall be
+inclined to believe, that they have all the same origin in a vegetable
+substance; and that they are diversified by some very small composition
+of other matter. This being allowed, one thing is certain, that it is by
+the operation of mineral fire or heat that those combustible substances,
+however composed, have been brought to their present state of coal,
+although we are ignorant of the circumstances by which their differences
+and their peculiar chemical and mechanical qualities have been produced.
+
+Let us resume in a few words. There is not perhaps one substance in the
+mineral kingdom by which the operation of subterraneous heat is, to
+common understanding, better exemplified than that of mineral coal.
+Those strata are evidently a deposit of inflammable substances which all
+come originally from vegetable bodies. In this state of their formation,
+those coal strata must all be oleagenous or bituminous. In many of them,
+however, these volatile parts are found wanting; and, the stratum is
+found in the state of the most perfect coal or caput mortuum. There, is,
+I presume, no other means to be found by which this eminent effect could
+be produced, except by distillation; and, this distillation perhaps
+proceeded under the restraining force of an immense compression.
+
+To this theory it must not be objected, that all the strata of coal,
+which are found in the same place or neighbourhood, are not reduced to
+that caput mortuum or perfect coaly state. The change from a bituminous
+to a coaly substance can only take place in proportion as the
+distillation of the volatile parts is permitted. Now this distillation
+must be permitted, if any passage can be procured from the inflammable
+body submitted to the operation of subterraneous heat; and, one stratum
+of coal may find vent for the passage of those vapours, through some
+crevice which is not open to another. In this way, doubtless, some of
+those bodies have been inspissated or reduced to a fixed coal, while
+others, at a little distance, have retained most of their volatile
+parts.
+
+We cannot doubt of this distilling operation in the mineral regions,
+when we consider that in most places of the earth we find the evident
+effects of such distillation of oily substances in the naphta and
+petroleum that are constantly emitted along with water in certain
+springs. These oily substances are no other than such as may be
+procured, in a similar manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal
+strata; we have therefore every proof of this mineral operation that the
+nature of things admit of. We have also sufficient evidence that those
+fusible and inflammable coals, which have not been distilled to a caput
+mortuum, had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous heat,
+because we find those fusible coals subject to be injected with pyrites,
+as well as the more perfect coal.
+
+If we now consider those various appearances of mineral bodies which
+are thus explained by the theory of mineral fire, or exertion of
+subterraneous heat, appearances which it is impossible to reconcile by
+any supposition of aqueous solution, or that unintelligible language
+of mineral infiltration which has of late prevailed, we shall be fully
+satisfied, that there is a uniform system in nature of providing a power
+in the mineral regions, for consolidating the loose materials deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, and for erecting those masses of mineralized
+substances into the place of land; we shall thus be led to admire the
+wisdom of nature, providing for the continuation of this living world,
+and employing those very means by which, in a more partial view of
+things, this beautiful structure of an inhabited earth seems to be
+necessarily going into destruction.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME 1 (OF
+4)***
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4), by James Hutton</title>
+<style type=text/css>
+
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4), by
+James Hutton</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4)</p>
+<p>Author: James Hutton</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 9, 2004  [eBook #12861]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME 1 (OF 4)***</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Renald Levesque,<br>
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THEORY
+OF THE
+EARTH</h1>
+
+<h4>WITH PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.</h4><br>
+
+<h2><i>By JAMES HUTTON, M.D. &amp; F.R.S.E.</i></h2><br><br>
+
+<h4>IN FOUR PARTS.</h4>
+
+<h4>EDINBURGH<br>
+<br>
+1795</h4>
+
+<h2>VOL. I.</h2><br><br>
+
+<h3>CONTENTS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>PART I.</p>
+
+<p><i>THEORY OF THE EARTH; with the Examination
+of different Opinions on that</i>
+<i>Subject.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. I.</p>
+
+<p><i>THEORY OF THE EARTH; or an Investigation
+of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration
+of Land upon the Globe</i></p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Prospect of the Subject to be
+treated of</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>An Investigation of the Natural
+Operations employed in consolidating
+the Strata of the Globe</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>Investigation of the Natural
+Operations employed in the Production
+of Land above the Surface of the Sea</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. IV.&mdash;<i>System of Decay and Renovation
+observed in the Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. II.</p>
+
+<p><i>An Examination of Mr KIRWAN's Objections
+to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. III.</p>
+
+<p><i>Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories,
+in general</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. IV.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Supposition of Primitive Mountains
+refuted</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. V.</p>
+
+<p><i>Concerning that which may be termed the
+Primary Part of the Present Earth</i>.</p>
+
+<p>CHAP. VI.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Theory of interchanging Sea and
+Land, illustrated by an Investigation of
+the Primary and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>A distinct view of the Primary
+and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>The Theory confirmed from
+Observations made on purpose to elucidate
+the Subject</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. VII.</p>
+
+<p><i>Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction,
+or Mineral Concretion</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>CHAP. VIII.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the
+Formation of Bituminous Strata, investigated</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Purpose of this Inquiry</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>Natural History of Coal Strata,
+and Theory of this Geological Operation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>The Mineralogical Operations
+of the Earth illustrated from the
+Theory of Fossil Coal</i>.</p>
+
+<br><br>
+
+
+<h3>PART I.</h3><br>
+
+<h2>THEORY OF THE EARTH;</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH THE<br>
+
+<i>EXAMINATION</i><br>
+
+OF<br>
+
+<i>DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THAT SUBJECT</i>.</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<h4>IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.</h4><br><br>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+
+<p><i>THEORY of the EARTH; or an Investigation of
+the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution,
+and Restoration, of Land upon the
+Globe.</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p>SECTION I.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>When we trace the parts of which this
+terrestrial system is composed, and
+when we view the general connection of those
+several parts, the whole presents a machine of
+a peculiar construction by which it is adapted
+to a certain end. We perceive a fabric, erected
+in wisdom, to obtain a purpose worthy of
+the power that is apparent in the production
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>We know little of the earth's internal parts,
+or of the materials which compose it at any
+considerable depth below the surface. But
+upon the surface of this globe, the more inert
+matter is replenished with plants, and with
+animal and intellectual beings.</p>
+
+<p>Where so many living creatures are to ply
+their respective powers, in pursuing the end
+for which they were intended, we are not to
+look for nature in a quiescent state; matter
+itself must be in motion, and the scenes of life
+a continued or repeated series of agitations and
+events.</p>
+
+<p>This globe of the earth is a habitable world;
+and on its fitness for this purpose, our sense of
+wisdom in its formation must depend. To
+judge of this point, we must keep in view, not
+only the end, but the means also by which that
+end is obtained. These are, the form of the
+whole, the materials of which it is composed,
+and the several powers which concur, counteract,
+or balance one another, in procuring the
+general result.</p>
+
+<p>The form and constitution of the mass are
+not more evidently calculated for the purpose
+of this earth as a habitable world, than are the
+various substances of which that complicated
+body is composed. Soft and hard parts variously
+combine to form a medium consistence,
+adapted to the use of plants and animals; wet
+and dry are properly mixed for nutrition, or
+the support of those growing bodies; and hot
+and cold produce a temperature or climate no
+less required than a soil: Insomuch, that there
+is not any particular, respecting either the qualities
+of the materials, or the construction of
+the machine, more obvious to our perception,
+than are the presence and efficacy of design and
+intelligence in the power that conducts the work.</p>
+
+<p>In taking this view of things, where ends
+and means are made the object of attention,
+we may hope to find a principle upon which
+the comparative importance of parts in the system
+of nature may be estimated, and also a rule
+for selecting the object of our inquiries. Under
+this direction, science may find a fit subject
+of investigation in every particular, whether
+of <i>form</i>, <i>quality</i>, or <i>active power</i>, that presents
+itself in this system of motion and of life;
+and which, without a proper attention to this
+character of the system, might appear anomalous
+and incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only by seeing those general operations
+of the globe which depend upon its peculiar
+construction as a machine, but also by
+perceiving how far the particulars, in the construction
+of that machine, depend upon the general
+operations of the globe, that we are enabled
+to understand the constitution of this earth
+as a thing formed by design. We shall thus
+also be led to acknowledge an order, not unworthy
+of Divine wisdom, in a subject which,
+in another view, has appeared as the work of
+chance, or as absolute disorder and confusion.</p>
+
+<p>To acquire a general or comprehensive view
+of this mechanism of the globe, by which it is
+adapted to the purpose of being a habitable
+world, it is necessary to distinguish three different
+bodies which compose the whole. These
+are, a solid body of earth, an aqueous body of
+sea, and an elastic fluid of air.</p>
+
+<p>It is the proper shape and disposition of these
+three bodies that form this globe into a habitable
+world; and it is the manner in which
+these constituent bodies are adjusted to each
+other, and the laws of action by which they
+are maintained in their proper qualities and
+respective departments, that form the Theory
+of the machine which we are now to examine.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin with some general sketch of
+the particulars now mentioned.</p>
+
+<p><i>1st</i>, There is a central body in the globe.
+This body supports those parts which come to
+be more immediately exposed to our view, or
+which may be examined by our sense and observation.
+This first part is commonly supposed
+to be solid and inert; but such a conclusion
+is only mere conjecture; and we shall
+afterwards find occasion, perhaps, to form another
+judgment in relation to this subject, after
+we have examined strictly, upon scientific
+principles, what appears upon the surface, and
+have formed conclusions concerning that
+which must have been transacted in some
+more central part.</p>
+
+<p><i>2dly</i>, We find a fluid body of water. This,
+by gravitation, is reduced to a spherical form,
+and by the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation,
+is become oblate. The purpose of this
+fluid body is essential in the constitution of the
+world; for, besides affording the means of
+life and motion to a multifarious race of animals,
+it is the source of growth and circulation
+to the organized bodies of this earth, in being
+the receptacle of the rivers, and the fountain
+of our vapours.</p>
+
+<p><i>3dly</i>, We have an irregular body of land
+raised above the level of the ocean. This, no
+doubt, is the smallest portion of the globe;
+but it is the part to us by far most interesting.
+It is upon the surface of this part that plants
+are made to grow; consequently, it is by virtue
+of this land that animal life, as well as
+vegetation, is sustained in this world.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, We have a surrounding body of atmosphere,
+which completes the globe. This
+vital fluid is no less necessary, in the constitution
+of the world, than are the other parts;
+for there is hardly an operation upon the surface
+of the earth, that is not conducted or
+promoted by its means. It is a necessary condition
+for the sustenance of fire; it is the
+breath of life to animals; it is at least an instrument
+in vegetation; and, while it contributes
+to give fertility and health to things that
+grow, it is employed in preventing noxious
+effects from such as go into corruption. In
+short, it is the proper means of circulation for
+the matter of this world, by raising up the
+water of the ocean, and pouring it forth upon
+the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the mechanism of the globe: Let
+us now mention some of those powers by
+which motion is produced, and activity procured
+to the mere machine.</p>
+
+<p>First, There is the progressive force, or
+moving power, by which this planetary body,
+if solely actuated, would depart continually
+from the path which it now pursues, and thus
+be for ever removed from its end, whether as
+a planetary body, or as a globe sustaining
+plants and animals, which may be termed a
+living world.</p>
+
+<p>But this moving body is also actuated by gravitation,
+which inclines it directly to the central
+body of the sun. Thus it is made to revolve
+about that luminary, and to preserve its path.</p>
+
+<p>It is also upon the same principles, that each
+particular part upon the surface of this globe,
+is alternately exposed to the influence of light
+and darkness, in the diurnal rotation of the
+earth, as well as in its annual revolution. In
+this manner are produced the vicissitudes of
+night and day, so variable in the different latitudes
+from the equator to the pole, and so
+beautifully calculated to equalise the benefits
+of light, so variously distributed in the different
+regions of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Gravitation, and the <i>vis infita</i> of matter, thus
+form the first two powers distinguishable in the
+operations of our system, and wisely adapted to
+the purpose for which they are employed.</p>
+
+<p>We next observe the influence of light and
+heat, of cold and condensation. It is by means
+of these two powers that the various operations
+of this living world are more immediately
+transacted; although the other powers
+are no less required, in order to produce or
+modify these great agents in the economy of
+life, and system of our changing things.</p>
+
+<p>We do not now inquire into the nature of
+those powers, or investigate the laws of light
+and heat, of cold and condemnation, by which
+the various purposes of this world are accomplished;
+we are only to mention those effects
+which are made sensible to the common understanding
+of mankind, and which necessarily
+imply a power that is employed. Thus, it
+is by the operation of those powers that the
+varieties of season in spring and autumn are
+obtained, that we are blessed with the vicissitudes
+of summer's heat and winter's cold, and
+that we possess the benefit of artificial light
+and culinary fire.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus bountifully provided with the
+necessaries of life; we are supplied with things
+conducive to the growth and preservation of
+our animal nature, and with fit subjects to
+employ and to nourish our intellectual powers.</p>
+
+<p>There are other actuating powers employed
+in the operations of this globe, which we are
+little more than able to enumerate; such are
+those of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous
+heat or mineral fire.</p>
+
+<p>Powers of such magnitude or force, are not
+to be supposed useless in a machine contrived
+surely not without wisdom; but they are
+mentioned here chiefly on account of their
+general effect; and it is sufficient to have
+named powers, of which the actual existence
+is well known, but of which the proper use in
+the constitution of the world is still obscure.
+The laws of electricity and magnetism have
+been well examined by philosophers; but the
+purposes of those powers in the economy of
+the globe have not been discovered. Subterraneous
+fire, again, although the most conspicuous
+in the operations of this world, and
+often examined by philosophers, is a power
+which has been still less understood, whether
+with regard to its efficient or final cause. It
+has hitherto appeared more like the accident
+of natural things, than the inherent property
+of the mineral region. It is in this last light,
+however, that I wish to exhibit it, as a great
+power acting a material part in the operations
+of the globe, and as an essential part in the
+constitution of this world.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus surveyed the machine in general,
+with those moving powers, by which
+its operations, diversified almost <i>ad infinitum</i>,
+are performed. Let us now confine our view,
+more particularly, to that part of the machine
+on which we dwell, that so we may consider
+the natural consequences of those operations
+which, being within our view, we are better
+qualified to examine.</p>
+
+<p>This subject is important to the human
+race, to the possessor of this world, to the intelligent
+being Man, who foresees events to
+come, and who, in contemplating his future
+interest, is led to inquire concerning causes,
+in order that he may judge of events which
+otherwise he could not know.</p>
+
+<p>If, in pursuing this object, we employ our
+skill in research, not in forming vain conjectures;
+and if <i>data</i> are to be found, on which
+Science may form just conclusions, we should
+not long remain in ignorance with respect to
+the natural history of this earth, a subject on
+which hitherto opinion only, and not evidence,
+has decided: For in no subject, perhaps,
+is there naturally less defect of evidence,
+although philosophers, led by prejudice, or
+misguided by false theory, may have neglected
+to employ that light by which they should
+have seen the system of this world.</p>
+
+<p>But to proceed in pursuing a little farther
+our general or preparatory ideas. A solid
+body of land could not have answered the
+purpose of a habitable world; for, a soil is necessary
+to the growth of plants; and a soil is
+nothing but the materials collected from the
+destruction of the solid land. Therefore, the
+surface of this land, inhabited by man, and
+covered with plants and animals, is made by nature
+to decay, in dissolving from that hard and,
+compact state in which it is found below the
+soil; and this soil is necessarily washed away,
+by the continual circulation of the water, running
+from the summits of the mountains towards
+the general receptacle of that fluid.
+The heights of our land are thus levelled
+with the shores; our fertile plains are formed
+from the ruins of the mountains; and those
+travelling materials are still pursued by the moving
+water, and propelled along the inclined
+surface of the earth<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> These moveable materials,
+delivered into the sea, cannot, for a long
+continuance, rest upon the shore; for, by the
+agitation of the winds, the tides and currents,
+every moveable thing is carried farther and farther
+along the shelving bottom of the sea, towards
+the unfathomable regions of the ocean.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag1"> (return) </a> M. de Luc, in his second letter to me, published in
+the Monthly Review for 1790, says, "You ought to
+have proved that both gravel and sand are carried from
+our continents to the sea; which, on the contrary, I
+shall prove not to be the case." He then endeavours
+to prove his assertion, by observing, that, in certain places
+where there is not either sufficient declivity in the surface,
+or force in the running water, gravel and sand are made
+to rest, and do not travel to the sea. This surely is a fact
+to which I most readily assent; but, on the other hand,
+I hope he will acknowledge, that, where there is sufficient
+declivity in the surface, or force in the running water,
+sand, gravel, and stones, are travelled upon the land, and
+are thus carried into the sea&mdash;at last. This is all that my
+theory requires, and this is what I believe will be admitted,
+without any farther proof on my part.</blockquote>
+
+<p>If the vegetable soil is thus constantly removed
+from the surface of the land, and if its
+place is thus to be supplied from the dissolution
+of the solid earth, as here represented, we
+may perceive an end to this beautiful machine;
+an end, arising from no error in its
+constitution as a world, but from that destructibility
+of its land which is so necessary in the
+system of the globe, in the economy of life
+and vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>The immense time necessarily required for
+this total destruction of the land, must not be
+opposed to that view of future events, which
+is indicated by the surest facts, and most approved
+principles. Time, which measures
+every thing in our idea, and is often deficient
+to our schemes, is to nature endless and as
+nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
+it had existence; and, as the natural course of
+time, which to us seems infinite, cannot be
+bounded by any operation that may have an
+end, the progress of things upon this globe,
+that is, the course of nature, cannot be limited
+by time, which must proceed in a continual
+succession. We are, therefore, to consider as
+inevitable the deduction of our land, so far
+as effected by those operations which are necessary
+in the purpose of the globe, considered
+as a habitable world; and, so far as we have
+not examined any other part of the economy
+of nature, in which other operations and a
+different intention might appear.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the globe of this
+earth as a machine, constructed upon chemical
+as well as mechanical principles, by which
+its different parts are all adapted, in form, in
+quality, and in quantity, to a certain end; an
+end attained with certainty or success; and an
+end from which we may perceive wisdom, in
+contemplating the means employed.</p>
+
+<p>But is this world to be considered thus
+merely as a machine, to last no longer than
+its parts retain their present position, their
+proper forms and qualities? Or may it not
+be also considered as an organized body?
+such as has a constitution in which the necessary
+decay of the machine is naturally repaired,
+in the exertion of those productive powers
+by which it had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>This is the view in which we are now to
+examine the globe; to see if there be, in the
+constitution of this world, a reproductive operation,
+by which a ruined constitution may be
+again repaired, and a duration or stability thus
+procured to the machine, considered as a world
+sustaining plants and animals.</p>
+
+<p>If no such reproductive power, or reforming
+operation, after due inquiry, is to be found
+in the constitution of this world, we should
+have reason to conclude, that the system of
+this earth has either been intentionally made
+imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite
+power and wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an important question, therefore,
+with regard to the constitution of this globe;
+a question which, perhaps, it is in the power
+of man's sagacity to resolve; and a question
+which, if satisfactorily resolved, might add
+some lustre to science and the human intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Animated with this great, this interesting
+view, let us strictly examine our principles,
+in order to avoid fallacy in our reasoning;
+and let us endeavour to support our attention,
+in developing a subject that is vast in its extent,
+as well as intricate in the relation of parts
+to be stated.</p>
+
+<p>The globe of this earth is evidently made
+for man. He alone, of all the beings which
+have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and
+every part; he alone is capable of knowing
+the nature of this world, which he thus possesses
+in virtue of his proper right; and he
+alone can make the knowledge of this system
+a source of pleasure, and the means of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Man alone, of all the animated beings which
+enjoy the benefits of this earth, employs the
+knowledge which he there receives, in leading
+him to judge of the intention of things,
+as well as of the means by which they are
+brought about; and he alone is thus made to
+enjoy, in contemplation as well as sensual
+pleasure, all the good that may be observed in
+the constitution of this world; he, therefore,
+should be made the first subject of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if we are to take the written history
+of man for the rule by which we should judge
+of the time when the species first began, that
+period would be but little removed from the
+present state of things. The Mosaic history
+places this beginning of man at no great distance;
+and there has not been found, in natural
+history, any document by which a high
+antiquity might be attributed to the human
+race. But this is not the case with regard to
+the inferior species of animals, particularly
+those which inhabit the ocean and its shores.
+We find, in natural history, monuments which
+prove that those animals had long existed;
+and we thus procure a measure for the computation
+of a period of time extremely remote,
+though far from being precisely ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>In examining things present, we have data
+from which to reason with regard to what has
+been; and, from what has actually been, we
+have data for concluding with regard to that
+which is to happen hereafter. Therefore,
+upon the supposition that the operations of
+nature are equable and steady, we find, in natural
+appearances, means for concluding a certain
+portion of time to have necessarily elapsed,
+in the production of those events of which
+we see the effects.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals
+of every kind in the solid body of our
+earth, a natural history of those animals is
+formed, which includes a certain portion of
+time; and, for the ascertaining this portion of
+time, we must again have recourse to the regular
+operations of this world. We shall thus
+arrive at facts which indicate a period to
+which no other species of chronology is able
+to remount.</p>
+
+<p>In what follows, therefore, we are to examine
+the construction of the present earth,
+in order to understand the natural operations
+of time past; to acquire principles, by which
+we may conclude with regard to the future
+course of things, or judge of those operations,
+by which a world, so wisely ordered, goes into
+decay; and to learn, by what means such
+a decayed world may be renovated, or the
+waste of habitable land upon the globe repaired.</p>
+
+<p>This, therefore, is the object which we are
+to have in view during this physical investigation;
+this is the end to which are to be directed
+all the steps in our cosmological pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>The solid parts of the globe are, in general,
+composed of sand, of gravel, of argillaceous
+and calcareous strata, or of the various compositions
+of these with some other substances,
+which it is not necessary now to mention.
+Sand is separated and sized by streams and
+currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition
+of stones agitated in water; and marly,
+or argillaceous strata, have been collected, by
+subsiding in water with which those earthy
+substances had been floated. Thus, so far as
+the earth is formed of these materials, that solid
+body would appear to have been the production
+of water, winds, and tides.</p>
+
+<p>But that which renders the original of our
+land clear and evident, is the immense quantities
+of calcareous bodies which had belonged
+to animals, and the intimate connection of
+these masses of animal production with the
+other strata of the land. For it is to be proved,
+that all these calcareous bodies, from the collection
+of which the strata were formed, have
+belonged to the sea, and were produced in it.</p>
+
+<p>We find the marks of marine animals in the
+most solid parts of the earth; consequently,
+those solid parts have been formed after the
+ocean was inhabited by those animals which
+are proper to that fluid medium. If, therefore,
+we knew the natural history of those
+solid parts, and could trace the operations of
+the globe, by which they had been formed,
+we would have some means for computing
+the time through which those species of animals
+have continued to live. But how shall
+we describe a process which nobody has seen
+performed, and of which no written history
+gives any account? This is only to be investigated,
+<i>first</i>, in examining the nature of those
+solid bodies, the history of which we want to
+know; and, 2<i>dly</i>, In examining the natural
+operations of the globe, in order to see if there
+now actually exist such operations, as, from
+the nature of the solid bodies, appear to have
+been necessary to their formation.</p>
+
+<p>But, before entering more particularly into
+those points of discussion, by which the question
+is to be resolved, let us take a general
+view of the subject, in order to see what it is
+which science and observation must decide.</p>
+
+<p>In all the regions of the globe, immense
+masses are found, which, though at present in
+the most solid state, appear to have been formed
+by the collection of the calcareous <i>exuviae</i>
+of marine animals. The question at present
+is not, in what manner those collections of
+calcareous relics have become a perfect solid
+body, and have been changed from an animal
+to a mineral substance; for this is a subject
+that will be afterwards considered; we are
+now only inquiring, if such is truly the origin
+of those mineral masses.</p>
+
+<p>That all the masses of marble or limestone
+are composed of the calcareous matter of marine
+bodies, may be concluded from the following
+facts:</p>
+
+<p>1<i>st</i>, There are few beds of marble or limestone,
+in which may not be found some of
+those objects which indicate the marine origin
+of the mass. If, for example, in a mass
+of marble, taken from a quarry upon the top
+of the Alps or Andes<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a>, there shall be found
+one cockle-shell, or piece of coral, it must be
+concluded, that this bed of stone had been
+originally formed at the bottom of the sea, as
+much as another bed which is evidently composed
+almost altogether of cockle-shells and
+coral. If one bed of limestone is thus found
+to have been of a marine origin, every concomitant
+bed of the same kind must be also
+concluded to have been formed in the same
+Manner.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag2"> (return) </a> "Cette sommité élevée de 984 toises au dessus de
+notre lac, et par conséquent de 1172 au dessus de la
+mer, est remarquable en ce que l'on y voit des fragmens
+d'huîtres pétrifiés.&mdash;Cette montagne est dominée par
+un rocher escarpé, qui s'il n'est pas inaccessible, est du
+moins d'un bien difficile accès; il paroît presqu'entièrement
+composé de coquillages pétrifiés, renfermés dans
+un roc calcaire, ou marbre grossier noirâtre. Les fragmens
+qui s'en détachent, et que l'on rencontre en montant
+à la Croix de fer, sont remplis de <i>turbinites</i> de différentes
+espèces." M. DE SAUSSURE, <i>Voyage dans les
+Alpes</i>, p. 394.</blockquote>
+
+<p>We thus shall find the greatest part of the
+calcareous masses upon this globe to have originated
+from marine calcareous bodies; for
+whether we examine marbles, limestones, or
+such solid masses as are perfectly changed from
+the state of earth, and are become compact
+and hard, or whether we examine the soft,
+earthy, chalky or marly strata, of which so
+much of this earth is composed, we still find
+evident proofs, that those beds had their origin
+from materials deposited at the bottom of
+the sea; and that they have the calcareous
+substance which they contain, from the same
+source as the marbles or the limestones.</p>
+
+<p>2<i>dly</i>, In those calcareous strata, which are
+evidently of marine origin, there are many
+parts that are of a sparry structure, that is to
+say, the original texture of those beds, in such
+places, has been dissolved, and a new structure
+has been assumed, which is peculiar to a
+certain state of the calcareous earth. This
+change is produced by crystallisation, in consequence
+of a previous state of fluidity, which
+has so disposed the concreting parts, as to allow
+them to assume a regular shape and structure
+proper to that substance. A body, whose
+external form has been modified by this process,
+is called a <i>crystal</i>; one whose internal
+arrangement of parts is determined by it, is said
+to be of a <i>sparry structure</i>; and this is known
+from its fracture.</p>
+
+<p>3<i>dly</i>, There are, in all the regions of the
+earth, huge masses of calcareous matter, in
+that crystalline form of sparry state, in which
+perhaps no vestige can be found of any organised
+body, nor any indication that such calcareous
+matter had belonged to animals; but
+as, in other masses, this sparry structure, or
+crystalline state, is evidently assumed by the
+marine calcareous substances, in operations
+which are natural to the globe, and which are
+necessary to the consolidation of the strata, it
+does not appear, that the sparry masses, in
+which no figured body is formed, have been
+originally different from other masses, which,
+being only crystallised in part, and in part still
+retaining their original form, leave ample
+evidence of their marine origin<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag3"> (return) </a> M. de Saussure, describing the marble of Aigle,
+says, "Les tables polies de ce marbre présentent fréquemment
+des coquillages, dont la plupart sont des peignes
+striés, et de très-beaux madrépores. Tous ces
+corps marins on pris entierement la nature et le grain
+même du marbre, on n'y voit presque jamais la coquille
+sous sa forme originaire."</blockquote>
+
+<p>We are led, in this manner, to conclude,
+that all the strata of the earth, not only those
+consisting of such calcareous masses, but others
+superincumbent upon these, have had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea, by the collection
+of sand and gravel, of shells, of coralline
+and crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays,
+variously mixed, or separated and accumulated.
+Here is a general conclusion, well authenticated
+in the appearances of nature, and
+highly important in the natural history of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The general amount of our reasoning is this,
+that nine-tenths, perhaps, or ninety-nine hundredths
+of this earth, so far as we see, have
+been formed by natural operations of the
+globe, in collecting loose materials, and depositing
+them at the bottom of the sea; consolidating
+those collections in various degrees,
+and either elevating those consolidated masses
+above the level on which they were formed,
+or lowering the level of that sea.</p>
+
+<p>There is a part of the solid earth which we
+may at present neglect, not as being persuaded
+that this part may not also be found to
+come under the general rule of formation with
+the rest, but as considering this part to be of
+no consequence in forming a general rule,
+which shall comprehend almost the whole,
+without doing it absolutely. This excluded
+part consists of certain mountains and masses
+of granite. These are thought to be still older
+in their formation, and are said never to
+be found superincumbent on strata which
+must be acknowledged as the productions of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found the greater part, if not
+the whole, of the solid land to have been originally
+composed at the bottom of the sea, we
+may now, in order to form a proper idea of
+these operations, suppose the whole of this seaborn
+land to be again dispersed along the bottom
+of the ocean, the surface of which would
+rise proportionally over the globe. We would
+thus have a spheroid of water, with granite
+rocks and islands scattered here and there.
+But this would not be the world which we
+inhabit; therefore, the question now is, how
+such continents, as we actually have upon the
+globe, could be erected above the level of the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that no motion of the
+sea, caused by this earth revolving in the solar
+system, could bring about that end; for
+let us suppose the axis of the earth to be
+changed from the present poles, and placed in
+the equinoctial line, the consequence of this
+might, indeed, be the formation of a continent
+of land about each new pole, from
+whence the sea would run towards the new
+equator; but all the rest of the globe would
+remain an ocean. Some new points might
+be discovered, and others, which before appeared
+above the surface of the sea, would be
+sunk by the rising of the water; but, on the
+whole, land could only be gained substantially
+at the poles. Such a supposition, as this, if
+applied to the present state of things, would
+be destitute of every support, as being incapable
+of explaining what appears.</p>
+
+<p>But even allowing that, by the changed axis
+of the earth, or any other operation of the
+globe, as a planetary body revolving in the
+solar system, great continents of land could
+have been erected from the place of their formation,
+the bottom of the sea, and placed in
+a higher elevation, compared with the surface
+of that water, yet such a continent as this
+could not have continued stationary for many
+thousand years; nor could a continent of this
+kind have presented to us, every where within
+its body, masses of consolidated marble,
+and other mineral substances, in a state as different
+as possible from that in which they
+were, when originally collected together in
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, besides an operation, by
+which the earth at the bottom of the sea
+should be converted into an elevated land, or
+placed high above the level of the ocean, there
+is required, in the operations of the globe, a
+consolidating power, by which the loose materials
+that had subsided from water, should
+be formed into masses of the most perfect solidity,
+having neither water nor vacuity between
+their various constituent parts, nor in
+the pores of those constituent parts themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an operation of the globe, whether
+chemical or mechanical, which is necessarily
+connected with the formation of our present
+continents: Therefore, had we a proper understanding
+of this secret operation, we might
+thereby be enabled to form an opinion, with
+regard to the nature of that unknown power,
+by which the continents have been placed
+above the surface of that water wherein they
+had their birth.</p>
+
+<p>If this consolidating operation be performed
+at the bottom of the ocean, or under great
+depths of the earth, of which our continents
+are composed, we cannot be witnesses to this
+mineral process, or acquire the knowledge of
+natural causes, by immediately observing the
+changes which they produce; but though we
+have not this immediate observation of those
+changes of bodies, we have, in science, the
+means of reasoning from distant events; consequently,
+of discovering, in the general
+powers of nature, causes for those events of
+which we see the effects.</p>
+
+<p>That the consolidating operation, in general,
+lies out of the reach of our immediate observation,
+will appear from the following truth:
+All the consolidated masses, of which we now
+inquire into the cause, are, upon the surface
+of the earth, in a state of general decay, although
+the various natures of those bodies admit
+of that dissolution in very different degrees<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>From every view of the subject, therefore,
+we are directed to look into those consolidated
+masses themselves, in order to find principles
+from whence to judge of those operations by
+which they had attained their hardness or
+consolidated state.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that nothing but the
+most general acquaintance with the laws of
+acting substances, and with those of bodies
+changing by the powers of nature, can enable
+us to set about this undertaking with any reasonable
+prospect of success; and here the science
+of Chemistry must be brought particularly
+to our aid; for this science, having for
+its object the changes produced upon the sensible
+qualities, as they are called, of bodies,
+by its means we may be enabled to judge of
+that which is possible according to the laws of
+nature, and of that which, in like manner, we
+must consider as impossible.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag4"> (return) </a> Stalactical and certain ferruginous concretions may seem
+to form an exception to the generality of this proposition.
+But an objection of this kind could only arise from a partial
+view of things; for the concretion here is only temporary;
+it is in consequence of a solution, and it is to be followed
+by a dissolution, which will be treated of in its proper place.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Whatever conclusions, therefore, by means
+of this science, shall be attained, in just reasoning
+from natural appearances, this must be
+held as evidence, where more immediate proof
+cannot be obtained; and, in a physical subject,
+where things actual are concerned, and
+not the imaginations of the human mind, this
+proof will be considered as amounting to a
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<h3>SECTION II.</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Investigation of the Natural Operations
+employed in consolidating the Strata of the
+Globe.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>We are now about to investigate those mineral
+operations of the globe by which the qualities
+of hardness and solidity, consequently
+of strength and durability, are procured to
+great bodies of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>That those qualities are not original to such
+bodies, but actually superinduced in the natural
+operations of the earth, will appear from
+the examination of some of the hardest and
+most solid of those mineral bodies. In such
+masses, (for example of flint and agate,) we
+find included shells and coralline bodies. Consequently,
+there must be a natural operation
+in the globe for consolidating and hardening
+its soft and loose materials. It is concerning
+the nature of this consolidating operation that
+we are now to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>There are just two ways in which porous
+or spongy bodies can be consolidated, and by
+which substances may be formed into masses
+of a natural shape and regular structure; the
+one of these is simple <i>congelation</i> from a fluid
+state, by means of cold; the other is <i>accretion</i>;
+and this includes a separatory operation, as
+well as that by which the solid body is to be
+produced. But in whichever of these ways
+solidity shall be procured, it must be brought
+about by first inducing fluidity, either immediately
+by the action of heat, or mediately
+with the assistance of a solvent, that is, by the
+operation of solution. Therefore, fire and
+water may be considered as the general agents
+in this operation, which we would explore.</p>
+
+<p>Heat has been already mentioned as a general
+power, and as acting in all the different
+parts of the globe; I would now wish more
+particularly to call the attention of the reader
+to subterraneous fire, or heat, as a powerful
+agent in the mineral regions, and as a cause
+necessarily belonging to the internal constitution
+of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is not our purpose at present to inquire
+into the particular nature of this power of
+subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
+and analogy of the internal fire with
+that which is so necessary to our life, and
+which acts so great a part upon the surface of
+the earth, this being reserved for the last part.
+Our intention in here mentioning it, is only
+to dispose the mind to look for active powers
+or efficient causes, in that part of the earth
+which has been commonly considered as passive
+and inert, but which will be found extremely
+active, and the source of mighty revolutions
+in the fate of land.</p>
+
+<p>There may, indeed, be some difficulty in
+conceiving all the modifications of this mineral
+power; but as, on the one hand, we are
+not arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose
+of explaining events, or certain appearances
+which are not understood; so, on the
+other, we must not refuse to admit the action
+of a known power, when this is properly
+suggested in the appearances of things; and,
+though we may not understand all the modifications,
+or the whole capacity and regulation
+of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect
+the appropriating to it, as a cause, those
+effects which are natural to it, and which, so
+far as we know, cannot belong to any other.
+On all occasions, we are to judge from what
+we know; and, we are only to avoid concluding
+from our suppositions, in cases where
+evidence or real information is necessarily required.
+The subject now considered, subterraneous
+fire, will afford an example of that
+truth; and, a general view of this great natural
+power will here find a proper place, before
+the application of it for the explanation of
+natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>No event is more the object of our notice,
+or more interesting as a subject for our study,
+than is the burning of a fire: But, the more
+that philosophers have studied this subject, the
+more they seem to differ as to the manner in
+which that conspicuous event is to be explained.
+Therefore, being so ignorant with
+regard to that fire of which we see the origin
+as well as the more immediate effects, how
+cautious should we be in judging the nature
+of subterraneous fire from the burning of bodies,
+a subject which we so little understand.</p>
+
+<p>But, though the cause of fire in general, or
+the operations of that power in its extreme
+degrees, be for us a subject involved in much
+obscurity, this is not the case with regard to
+the more common effects of heat; and, tho'
+the actual existence of subterraneous fire, as
+the cause of light and heat, might be a thing
+altogether problematical in our opinion; yet,
+as to other effects, there are some of these
+from which the action of that liquefying power
+may be certainly concluded as having taken
+place within the mineral region, although the
+cause should be in every other respect a thing
+to us unknown. In that case, where the operation
+or effect is evident, and cannot be disputed,
+to refuse to admit the power in question,
+merely because we had not seen it act,
+or because we know not every rule which it
+may observe in acting, would be only to found
+an argument upon our ignorance; it would
+be to misunderstand the nature of investigating
+physical truths, which must proceed by reasoning
+from effect to cause.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge is extremely limited with
+regard to the effects of heat in bodies, while
+acting under different conditions, and in various
+degrees. But though our knowledge in
+these respects is limited, our judgment with
+regard to the efficacy of this power of heat is
+in its nature positive, and contains not any
+thing that is doubtful or uncertain. All mankind,
+who have the opportunity, know that
+the hard substance of ice is by heat converted
+into water, wherein no hardness remains;
+and the profound philosophy of Dr Black, in
+relation to the subject of <i>latent heat</i>, as that of
+Sir Isaac Newton, in relation to the weight of
+bodies, is not necessary to convince the world
+that in the one case ice will melt, and in the
+other, that heavy bodies will move when unsupported.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in the abstract doctrine of <i>latent
+heat</i>, the ingenuity of man has discovered
+a certain measure for the quantity of those
+commutable effects which are perceived; and
+though this be a progress of science far above
+the apprehension of the vulgar, yet still, that
+solid bodies are changed into fluids, by the
+power of heat, is the same unalterable judgment,
+which the savage forms as well as the
+philosopher. Here, therefore, are evident effects,
+which mankind in general attribute to
+the power of heat; and it is from those
+known effects that we are to investigate subterraneous
+fire, or to generalise the power of
+heat, as acting in the interior parts, as well as
+on the surface of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>If, indeed, there were any other cause for
+fluidity besides the operation of fire or the
+power of heat, in that case the most evident
+proof, with regard to the flowing, or former
+fluidity, of mineral bodies, would draw to no
+conclusion in proving the existence of mineral
+fire; but when we have not the smallest
+reason for conjecturing any other cause, or
+the least doubt with regard to that which, in
+the doctrine of latent heat, has been properly
+investigated, the proofs which we shall bring,
+of fusion in all the minerals of this earth, must
+be held as proofs of mineral fire, in like manner
+as the proof of subterraneous fire would
+necessarily imply mineral fusion as its natural
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have, in our physical investigation,
+several points in view. First, from the
+present state of things, to infer a former state
+of fusion among mineral bodies. Secondly,
+from that former fusion, to infer the actual
+existence of mineral fire in the system of the
+earth. And, lastly, from the acknowledged
+fact of subterraneous fire as a cause, to reason
+with regard to the effects of that power in
+mineral bodies.</p>
+
+<p>But besides the power or effect of subterraneous
+heat in bodies which are unorganised,
+and without system, in the construction of
+their different parts, we have to investigate
+the proper purpose of this great agent in the
+system of this world, which may be considered
+as a species of organised body. Here,
+therefore, final causes are to be brought into
+view, as well as those which are efficient.
+Now, in a subject involved with so much obscurity,
+as must be for us the internal regions
+of the globe, the consideration of efficient and
+final causes may contribute mutually to each
+others evidence, when separately the investigation
+of either might be thought unsatisfactory
+or insufficient.</p>
+
+<p>So far it seemed necessary to premise with
+regard to the great mineral power which we
+are to employ as an agent in the system of
+this earth; and it may be now observed, that
+it is in the proper relation of this power of heat
+and the fluidity or softness of bodies, as cause
+and effect, that we are to find a physical principle
+or argument for detecting those false
+theories of the earth that have been only imagined,
+and not properly founded on fact or
+observation. It is also by means of this principle,
+that we shall be enabled to form a true
+theory of the mineral region, in generalising
+particular effects to a common cause.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now proceed in endeavouring to decide
+this important question, viz. By what
+active principle is it, that the present state of
+things, which we observe in the strata of the
+earth, a state so very different from that in
+which those bodies had been formed originally,
+has been brought about?</p>
+
+<p>Two causes have been now proposed for
+the consolidating of loose materials which had
+been in an incoherent state; these are, on the
+one hand, fire; or, on the other, water, as
+the means of bringing about that event. We
+are, therefore, to consider well, what may be
+the consequences of consolidation by the one
+or other of those agents; and what may be
+the respective powers of those agents with respect
+to this operation.</p>
+
+<p>If we are not informed in this branch of
+science, we may gaze without instruction upon
+the most convincing proofs of what we
+want to attain. If our knowledge is imperfect,
+we may form erroneous principles, and
+deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to
+those works of nature, which are wisely calculated
+for our instruction.</p>
+
+<p>The strata, formed at the bottom of the sea,
+are to be considered as having been consolidated,
+either by aqueous solution and crystallization,
+or by the effect of heat and fusion.
+If it is in the first of these two ways that the
+solid strata of the globe have attained to their
+present state, there will be a certain uniformity
+observable in the effects; and there will be
+general laws, by which this operation must
+have been conducted. Therefore, knowing
+those general laws, and making just observations
+with regard to the natural appearances
+of those consolidated masses, a philosopher, in
+his closet, should be able to determine, what
+may, and what may not have been transacted
+in the bowels of the earth, or below the bottom
+of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now endeavour to ascertain what
+may have been the power of water, acting
+under fixed circumstances, operating upon
+known substances, and conducting to a certain
+end.</p>
+
+<p>The action of water upon all different substances
+is an operation with which we are
+familiar.  We have it in our power to apply
+water in different degrees of heat for the solution
+of bodies, and under various degrees of
+compression; consequently, there is no reason
+to conclude any thing mysterious in the operations
+of the globe, which are to be performed
+by means of water, unless an immense
+compressing power should alter the nature of
+those operations. But compression alters the
+relation of evaporation only with regard to
+heat, or it changes the degree of heat which
+water may be made to sustain; consequently,
+we  are to look for no occult quality in
+water acting upon bodies at the bottom of
+the deepest ocean, more than what can be
+observed in experiments which we have it in
+our power to try.</p>
+
+<p>With regard again to the effect of time:
+Though the continuance of time may do
+much in those operations which are extremely
+slow, where no change, to our observation,
+had appeared to take place, yet, where it is
+not in the nature of things to produce the
+change in question, the unlimited course of
+time would be no more effectual, than the
+moment by which we measure events in our
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>Water being the general medium in which
+bodies collected at the bottom of the sea are
+always contained, if those masses of collected
+matter are to be consolidated by solution, it
+must be by the dissolution of those bodies in
+that water as a menstruum, and by the concretion
+or crystallization of this dissolved matter,
+that the spaces, first occupied by water in
+those masses, are afterwards to be filled with
+a hard and solid substance; but without some
+other power, by which the water contained
+in those cavities and endless labyrinths of the
+strata, should be separated in proportion as it
+had performed its task, it is inconceivable
+how those masses, however changed from the
+state of their first subsidence, should be absolutely
+consolidated, without any visible or
+fluid water in their composition.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this difficulty of having the water
+separated from the porous masses which are
+to be consolidated, there is another with
+which, upon this supposition, we have to
+struggle. This is, From whence should come
+the matter with which the numberless cavities
+in those masses are to be filled?</p>
+
+<p>The water in the cavities and interstices of
+those bodies composing strata, must be in a
+stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
+upon the surfaces of those cavities which are
+to be filled up. But with what are they to
+be filled? Not with water; they are full of
+that already: Not with the substance of the
+bodies which contain that water; this would
+be only to make one cavity in order to fill up
+another. If, therefore, the cavities of the
+strata are to be filled with solid matter, by
+means of water, there must be made to pass
+through those porous masses, water impregnated
+with some other substances in a dissolved
+state; and the aqueous menstruum must
+be made to separate from the dissolved substance,
+and to deposit the same in those cavities
+through which the solution moves.</p>
+
+<p>By such a supposition as this, we might
+perhaps explain a partial consolidation of
+those strata; but this is a supposition, of
+which the case under consideration does not
+admit; for in the present case, which is that
+of materials accumulated at the bottom of the
+ocean, there is not proper means for separating
+the dissolved matter from the water included
+in those enormous masses; nor are
+there any means by which a circulation in
+those masses may be formed. In this case,
+therefore, where the means are not naturally
+in the supposition, a philosopher, who is to
+explain the phenomenon by the natural operation
+of water in this situation, must not have
+recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
+to assist his supposition which cannot be
+admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea, in the
+manner now considered, operations are required
+unnatural to this place; consequently,
+not to be supposed, in order to support a hypothesis.</p>
+
+<p>But now, instead of inquiring how far water
+may be supposed instrumental in the consolidation
+of strata which were originally of
+a loose texture, we are to consider how far
+there may be appearances in those consolidated
+bodies, by which it might be concluded,
+whether or not the present state of their consolidation
+has been actually brought about by
+means of that agent.</p>
+
+<p>If water had been the menstruum by which
+the consolidating matter was introduced into
+the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies
+could only be found consolidated with such
+substances as water is capable of dissolving;
+and these substances would be found only in
+such a state as the simple separation of the
+solvent water might produce.</p>
+
+<p>In this case, the consolidation of strata
+would be extremely limited; for we cannot
+allow more power to water than we find it
+has in nature; nor are we to imagine to ourselves
+unlimited powers in bodies, on purpose
+to explain those appearances by which we
+should be made to know the powers of nature.
+Let us, therefore, attend, with every
+possible circumspection, to the appearances of
+those bodies, by means of which we are to
+investigate the principles of mineralogy, and
+know the laws of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The question now before us concerns the
+consolidating substances of strata. Are these
+such as will correspond to the dissolving
+power of water, and to the state in which
+these substances might be left by the separation
+of their menstruum? No; far, far from
+this supposition is the conclusion that necessarily
+follows from natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>We have strata consolidated by calcareous
+spar, a thing perfectly distinguishable from the
+stalactical concretion of calcareous earth, in
+consequence of aqueous solution. We have
+strata made solid by the formation of fluor,
+a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
+water. We have strata consolidated with
+sulphureous and bituminous substances, which
+do not correspond to the solution of water.
+We have strata consolidated with siliceous
+matter, in a state different from that under
+which it has been observed, on certain occasions,
+to be deposited by water. We have
+strata consolidated by feld-spar, a substance
+insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated
+by almost all the various metallic substances,
+with their almost endless mixtures
+and sulphureous compositions; that is to say,
+we find, perhaps, every different substance
+introduced into the interstices of strata which
+had been formed by subsidence at the bottom
+of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>If it is by means of water that those interstices
+have been filled with those materials,
+water must be, like fire, an universal solvent,
+or cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely
+our opinion of water in relation to its
+chemical character. But there is no necessity
+thus to violate our chemical principles, in order
+to explain certain natural appearances;
+more especially if those appearances may be
+explained in another manner, consistently
+with the known laws of nature.</p>
+
+<p>If, again, it is by means of heat and fusion
+that the loose and porous structure of strata
+shall be supposed to have been consolidated,
+then every difficulty which had occurred in
+reasoning upon the power or agency of water
+is at once removed. The loose and discontinuous
+body of a stratum may be closed by
+means of softness and compression; the porous
+structure of the materials may be consolidated,
+in a similar manner, by the fusion of
+their substance; and foreign matter may be
+introduced into the open structure of strata,
+in form of steam or exhalation, as well as in
+the fluid state of fusion; consequently, heat
+is an agent competent for the consolidation of
+strata, which water alone is not. If, therefore,
+such an agent could be found acting in
+the natural place of strata, we must pronounce
+it proper to bring about that end.</p>
+
+<p>The examination of nature gives countenance
+to this supposition, so far as strata are
+found consolidated by every species of substance,
+and almost every possible mixture of
+those different substances; consequently, however
+difficult it may appear to have this application
+of heat, for the purpose of consolidating
+strata formed at the bottom of the
+ocean, we cannot, from natural appearances,
+suppose any other cause, as having actually
+produced the effects which are now examined.</p>
+
+<p>This question, with regard to the means of
+consolidating the strata of the globe, is, to natural
+history, of the greatest importance; and
+it is essential in the theory now proposed to
+be given of the mineral system. It would,
+therefore, require to be discussed with some
+degree of precision in examining the particulars;
+but of these, there is so great a field,
+and the subject is so complicated in its nature,
+that volumes might be written upon particular
+branches only, without exhausting what
+might be laid upon the subject; because the
+evidence, though strong in many particulars,
+is chiefly to be enforced by a multitude of
+facts, conspiring, in a diversity of ways, to
+point out one truth, and by the impossibility
+of reconciling all these facts, except by means
+of one supposition.</p>
+
+<p>But, as it is necessary to give some proof
+of that which is to be a principle in our reasoning
+afterwards, I shall now endeavour to
+generalise the subject as much as possible, in
+order to answer that end, and, at the same
+time, to point out the particular method of
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>There are to be found, among the various
+strata of the globe, bodies formed of two different
+kinds of substances, <i>siliceous</i> bodies, and
+those which may be termed <i>sulphureous</i> or
+<i>phlogistic</i>. With one or other, or both of
+those we substances, every different consolidated
+stratum of the globe will be found so
+intimately mixed, or closely connected, that
+it must be concluded, by whatever cause those
+bodies of siliceous and sulphureous matter had
+been changed from a fluid to a concreted
+state, the strata must have been similarly affected
+by the same cause.</p>
+
+<p>These two species of bodies, therefore, the
+siliceous and the sulphureous, may now be
+examined, in relation to the causes of their
+concretion, with a view to determine, what
+has been the general concreting or consolidating
+power, which has operated universally
+in the globe; and particularly to show, it has
+not been by means of any fluid solution, that
+strata in general have been consolidated, or
+that those particular substances have been
+crystallized and concreted.</p>
+
+<p>Siliceous matter, physically speaking, is not
+soluble in water; that is to say, in no manner
+of way have we been enabled to learn, that
+water has the power of dissolving this matter.</p>
+
+<p>Many other substances, which are so little
+soluble in water, that their solubility could
+not be otherwise detected of themselves, are
+made to appear soluble by means of siliceous
+matter; such is feld-spar, one of the component
+parts of rock-granite.</p>
+
+<p>Feld-spar is a compound of siliceous, argillaceous,
+and calcareous earth, intimately united
+together. This compound siliceous body
+being, for ages, exposed to the weather, the
+calcareous part of it is dissolved, and the siliceous
+part is  left in form of a soft white earth.
+But whether this dissolution is performed by
+pure water, or by means also of an acid, may
+perhaps be questioned. This, however, is
+certain, that we must consider siliceous substances
+as insoluble in water.</p>
+
+<p>The water of Glezer in Iceland undoubtedly
+contains this substance in solution; but
+there is no reason to believe, that it is here
+dissolved by any other than the natural means;
+that is, an alkaline substance, by which siliceous
+bodies may be rendered soluble in water<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag5"> (return) </a> This conjecture, which I had thus formed, has been
+fully confirmed by the accurate analysis of those waters.
+See vol. 3d. of the Phil. Trans. of Edin.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It may be, therefore, asserted, that no siliceous
+body having the hardness of flint, nor
+any crystallization of that substance, has ever
+been formed, except by fusion. If, by any
+art, this substance shall be dissolved in simple
+water, or made to crystallise from any solution,
+in that case, the assertion which has been here
+made may be denied. But where there is not
+the vestige of any proof, to authorise the supposition
+of flinty matter being dissolved by water,
+or crystallized from that solution, such an
+hypothesis cannot be admitted, in opposition
+to general and evident appearances<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag6"> (return) </a>  The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious
+theory for the solution of siliceous substances in water (Journal de Physique, Mai 1792.).
+This theory has not been taken up merely at a
+venture, but is founded upon very accurate and interesting
+chemical experiments. Hitherto, however, the nature
+of the siliceous substance is not sufficiently known, to enable
+us to found, upon chemical principles, the mineral
+operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be
+dissolved, or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline
+salt, and that it may be also volatilised by means of the
+fluor acid, is almost all that we know upon the subject.
+But this is saying no more in relation to the mineral operations
+employed upon the siliceous substance, than it
+would be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this
+metal is dissolved by aqua regia.
+
+<p>It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may
+have its menstruum, by means of which it may be retained
+with water in a dissolved state; but from this it does
+not follow, that it is by the means of aqueous solutions of
+all those mineral bodies, that nature operates the consolidation
+of bodies, which we find actually accomplished with
+all those different substances. It is the business of this
+work to show, that from all appearances in the mineral
+regions, as well as those upon the surface in the atmosphere,
+the supposition, of that manner of consolidating
+bodies by solution, is inconsistent both with natural appearances,
+and also with chemical principles.</p>
+
+<p>Our ingenious author, who has, with, great diligence as
+well as an enlightened mind, observed the operations of
+nature upon the surface of the earth, here says, "ce n'est
+pas sans étonnement que je remarque depuis long-temps
+que jamais aucune eau qui coule à la surface de la terre
+n'attaque le quartz, aucune n'en tient en dissolution,
+pendant que celles qui circulent intérieurement le corrodent
+aussi souvent qu'elles le déposent."&mdash;How dangerous
+it is in science for ingenious men to allow themselves
+to form conclusions, which the principles on which
+they reason do not strictly warrant, we have a remarkable
+example in the present case.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Dolomieu sees no corrosion of quartz, or solution
+of that substance, upon the surface of the earth;
+from this, then, he concludes, that siliceous substance is
+not dissolved in that situation of things. On the other
+hand, he finds siliceous bodies variously concreted among
+the solid strata of the earth; and, from this he concludes,
+that siliceous substance has been both dissolved by water
+in the strata, and also there again concreted and crystallised
+in having been separated from the water. This is
+certainly what we all perceive; but we do not all allow
+ourselves to draw such inconclusive inferences from our
+premises. Notwithstanding the greatest accuracy of our
+observations, quartz may be dissolvable in a minute degree
+by water, upon the surface of this earth; and, all the appearances
+of siliceous bodies, in the mineral regions, where
+we cannot immediately see the operation, may be better
+explained by fusion than by aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>But, from his chemical experiments, our author has
+conjectured that there may be a phlogistic substance, by
+means of which the siliceous earth is dissolved when in
+darkness; and that this solvent loses its power, if exposed
+to the light of day. I have one observation to oppose
+to this ingenious theory. Under deep black mosses,
+through which no ray of light can penetrate, every condition
+for dissolving siliceous bodies should be found, according
+to the supposition in question; neither will sufficient
+time be found wanting, in those deep mosses, upon
+the summits of our mountains; yet, examine the matter
+of fact? not the smallest solution is to be perceived in the
+siliceous parts of the stones which are found under those
+mosses, but every particle of iron is dissolved, so that the
+surface of every stone is white, and nothing but the siliceous
+earth of the feld-spar, and perhaps the argillaceous,
+is left.</p>
+
+<p>Here we have in this author an instructive example:
+No person, in my opinion, has made such enlightened or
+scientific experiments, or such judicious observations with
+regard to the nature of siliceous substance, as a compound
+thing; no person reasons more distinctly in general, or
+sees more clearly the importance of his principles; yet,
+with regard to mineral concretions, how often has he been
+drawn thus inadvertently into improper generalization!
+I appeal to the analogy which, in this treatise, he has
+formed, between the stalactical concretions upon the surface
+of the earth, and the mineral concretions of siliceous
+substance. As an example of the great lights, and penetrating
+genius, of this assiduous studier of nature, I refer
+to the judicious observations which he has made upon the
+subject of aluminous earth, in this dissertation.</p>
+
+<p>I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking,
+in the origin of this globe of our earth, a general
+principle of fluidity or solution in water, like the alkahest
+of the alchymists, by means of which the different substances
+in the chemical constitution of precious stones
+might have been united as well as crystallised. One would
+have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the
+operations of subterraneous fire, would have perceived,
+that there is but one general principle of fluidity or dissolution,
+and that this is heat.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous
+bodies, which is indirect, arising from the in
+dissolubility of that substance in water, there
+is another, which is more direct, being founded
+upon appearances which are plainly inconsistent
+with any other supposition, except that
+of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof
+I mean is, the penetration of many bodies with
+a flinty substance, which, according to every
+collateral circumstance, must have been performed
+by the flinty matter in a simply fluid
+state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.</p>
+
+<p>These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in
+strata both of chalk and sand. It requires but
+inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
+that flinty matter could be conveyed into the
+middle of those strata, by a menstruum in
+which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in
+that place, without the smallest trace of deposition
+in the surrounding parts.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this argument taken from what
+does not appear, the actual form in which those
+flinty masses are found, demonstrates, <i>first</i>,
+That they have been introduced among those
+strata in a fluid state, by injection from some
+other place. 2<i>dly</i>, That they have been dispersed
+in a variety of ways among those strata,
+then deeply immersed at the bottom of the
+sea; and, <i>lastly</i>, That they have been there congealed
+from the state of fusion, and have remained
+in that situation, while those strata have
+been removed from the bottom of the ocean to
+the surface of the present land.</p>
+
+<p>To describe those particular appearances
+would draw this paper beyond the bounds of
+an essay. We must, therefore, refer those who
+would inquire more minutely into the subject,
+to examine the chalk-countries of France and
+England, in which the flint is found variously
+formed; the land-hills interspersed among those
+chalk-countries, which have been also injected
+by melted flint; and the pudding-stone of England,
+which I have not seen in its natural situation.
+More particularly, I would recommend
+an examination of the insulated masses of stone,
+found in the sand-hills by the city of Brussels;
+a stone which is formed by an injection of
+flint among sand, similar to that which, in a
+body of gravel, had formed the pudding-stone
+of England<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag7"> (return) </a>  Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
+would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.</blockquote>
+
+<p>All these examples would require to be examined
+upon the spot, as a great part of the
+proof for the fusion of the flinty substance,
+arises, in my opinion, from the form in which
+those bodies are found, and the state of the
+surrounding parts. But there are specimens
+brought from many different places, which
+contain, in themselves, the most evident marks
+of this injection of the flinty substance in a
+fluid state. These are pieces of fossil wood,
+penetrated with a siliceous substance, which are
+brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh
+in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from these specimens, that there
+has sometimes been a prior penetration of the
+body of wood, either with irony matter, or
+calcareous substance. Sometimes, again, which
+is the case with that of Lochneagh, there does
+not seem to have been any penetration of those
+two substances. The injected flint appears to
+have penetrated the body of this wood, immersed
+at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
+compression of water. This appears
+from the wood being penetrated partially, some
+parts not being penetrated at all.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in the limits between those two parts,
+we have the most convincing proofs, that it
+had been flint in a simple fluid state which
+had penetrated the wood, and not in a state of
+solution.</p>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, Because, however little of the wood
+is left unpenetrated, the division is always distinct
+between the injected part and that which
+is not penetrated by the fluid flint. In this
+case, the flinty matter has proceeded a certain
+length, which is marked, and no farther; and,
+beyond this boundary, there is no partial impregnation,
+nor a gradation of the flintifying
+operation, as must have been the case if siliceous
+matter had been deposited from a solution.
+2<i>dly</i>, The termination of the flinty impregnation
+has assumed such a form, precisely, as
+would naturally happen from a fluid flint penetrating
+that body.</p>
+
+<p>In other specimens of this mineralising operation,
+fossil wood, penetrated, more or less,
+with ferruginous and calcareous substances,
+has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty
+substance. In this case, with whatever different
+substances the woody body shall be supposed
+to have been penetrated in a state of solution
+by water, the regular structure of the
+plant would still have remained, with its vacuities,
+variously filled with the petrifying substances,
+separated from the aqueous menstruum,
+and deposited in the vascular structure of the
+wood. There cannot be a doubt with regard
+to the truth of this proposition; for, as it is, we
+frequently find parts of the consolidated wood,
+with the vascular structure remaining perfectly
+in its natural shape and situation; but if it
+had been by aqueous solution that the wood
+had been penetrated and consolidated, all the
+parts of that body would be found in the same
+natural shape and situation.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, is far from being the case;
+for while, in some parts, the vascular structure
+is preserved entire, it is also evident, that, in
+general, the woody structure is variously broken
+and dissolved by the fusion and crystallization
+of the flint. There are so many and
+such various convincing examples of this, that,
+to attempt to describe them, would be to exceed
+the bounds prescribed for this dissertation;
+but such specimens are in my possession, ready
+for the inspection of any person who may desire
+to study the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We may now proceed to consider sulphureous
+substances, with regard to their solubility
+in water, and to the part which these bodies
+have acted in consolidating the strata of the
+globe.</p>
+
+<p>The sulphureous substances here meant to
+be considered, are substances not soluble in,
+water, so far as we know, but fusible by heat,
+and inflammable or combustible by means of
+heat and vital air. These substances are of two
+kinds; the one more simple, the other more
+compound.</p>
+
+<p>The most simple kind is composed of two
+different substances, viz. phlogiston, with certain
+specific substances; from which result, on
+the one hand, sulphur, and, on the other, proper
+coal and metals. The more compound
+sort, again, is oily matter, produced by vegetables,
+and forming bituminous bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>first</i> of these is found naturally combined
+with almost all metallic substances, which
+are then said to be mineralised with sulphur.
+Now, it is well known, that this mineralising
+operation is performed by means of heat or fusion;
+and there is no person skilled in chemistry
+that will pretend to say, this may be done
+by aqueous solution. The combination of iron
+and sulphur, for example, may easily be performed
+by fusion; but, by aqueous solution,
+this particular combination is again resolved,
+and forms an acido-metallic, that is, a vitriolic
+substance, after the phlogiston (by means of
+which it is insoluble in water) has been separated
+from the composition, by the assistance
+of vital air.</p>
+
+<p>The variety of these sulphureo-metallic substances,
+in point of composition, is almost indefinite;
+but, unless they were all soluble in
+water, this could not have happened by the action
+of that solvent. If we shall allow any one
+of those bodies to have been formed by the
+fluidity of heat, they must all have been formed
+in the same manner; for there is such a
+chain of connection among those bodies in the
+mineral regions, that they must all have been
+composed, either, on the one hand, by aqueous
+solution, or, on the other, by means of heat
+and fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Here, for example, are crystallised together
+in one mass, 1<i>st, Pyrites</i>, containing sulphur,
+iron, copper; 2<i>dly, Blend</i>, a composition of
+iron, sulphur, and calamine; 3<i>dly, Galena</i>,
+consisting of lead and sulphur; 4<i>thly, Marmor
+metallicum</i>, being the terra ponderosa, saturated
+with the vitriolic acid; a substance insoluble in
+water; 5<i>thly, Fluor</i>, a saturation of calcareous
+earth, with a peculiar acid, called the <i>acid of
+spar</i>, also insoluble in water; 6<i>thly, Calcareous
+spar</i>, of different kinds, being calcareous earth
+saturated with fixed air, and something besides,
+which forms a variety in this substance; <i>lastly,
+Siliceous substance</i>, or <i>Quartz crystals</i>. All these
+bodies, each possessing its proper shape, are
+mixed in such a manner as it would be endless
+to describe, but which may be expressed in general
+by saying, that they are mutually contained
+in, and contain each other.</p>
+
+<p>Unless, therefore; every one of these different
+substances may be dissolved in water, and
+crystallised from it, it is in vain to look for the
+explanation of these appearances in the operations
+of nature, by the means of aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, heat being capable of
+rendering all these substances fluid, they may
+be, with the greatest simplicity, transported
+from one place to another; and they may be
+made to concrete altogether at the same time,
+and distinctly separate in any place. Hence,
+for the explanation of those natural appearances,
+which are so general, no further conditions
+are required, than the supposition of a sufficient
+intensity of subterraneous fire or heat, and a
+sufficient degree of compression upon those bodies,
+which are to be subjected to that violent
+heat, without calcination or change. But, so
+far as this supposition is not gratuitous, the
+appearances of nature will be thus explained.</p>
+
+<p>I shall only mention one specimen, which
+must appear most decisive of the question. It
+is, I believe, from an Hungarian mine. In this
+specimen, petro-silex, pyrites, and cinnabar, are
+so mixed together, and crystallised upon each
+other, that it is impossible to conceive any one
+of those bodies to have had its fluidity and concretion
+from a cause which had not affected
+the other two. Now, let those who would
+deny the fusion of this siliceous body explain
+how water could dissolve these three different
+bodies, and deposit them in their present shape.
+If, on the contrary, they have not the least
+shadow of reason for such a gratuitous supposition,
+the present argument must be admitted
+in its full force.</p>
+
+<p>Sulphur and metals are commonly found
+combined in the mineral regions. But this
+rule is not universal; for they are also frequently
+in a separate state. There is not, perhaps, a
+metal, among the great number which are now
+discovered, that may not be found native, as
+they are called, or in their metallic state.</p>
+
+<p>Metallic substances are also thus found in
+some proportion to the disposition of the particular
+metals, to resist the mineralising operations,
+and to their facility of being metallised
+by fire and fusion. Gold, which refuses
+to be mineralised with sulphur, is found generally
+in its native state. Iron, again, which
+is so easily mineralised and scorified, is seldom
+found in its malleable state. The other metals
+are all found more or less mineralised,
+though some of them but rarely in the native
+state.</p>
+
+<p>Besides being found with circumstances thus
+corresponding to the natural facility, or to the
+impediments attending the metallization of
+those different calces, the native metals are
+also found in such a shape, and with such
+marks, as can only agree with the fusion of
+those bodies; that is to say, those appearances
+are perfectly irreconcilable with any manner
+of solution and precipitation.</p>
+
+<p>For the truth of this assertion, among a
+thousand other examples, I appeal to that famous
+mass of native iron discovered by Mr
+Pallas in Siberia. This mass being so well
+known to all the mineralists of Europe, any
+comment upon its shape and structure will be
+unnecessary<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag8"> (return) </a> Since this Dissertation was written, M. de la Peyrouse
+has discovered a native manganese. The circumstances
+of this mineral are so well adapted for illustrating
+the present doctrine, and so well related by M. de la Peyrouse,
+that I should be wanting to the interest of mineral
+knowledge, were I not to give here that part of his Memoir.
+
+<p>"Lorsque je fis insérer dans le journal de physique de
+l'année 1780, au mois de Janvier, une Dissertation contenant
+la classification des mines de manganèse, je ne connoissois
+point, à cette époque, la mine de manganèse native.
+Elle a la couleur de son régule: Elle salit les doigts
+de la même teinte. Son tissu parait aussi lamelleux, et les
+lames semblent affecter une sorte de divergence. Elle a
+ainsi que lui, l'éclat métallique; comme lui elle se laisse
+aplatir sous le marteau, et s'exfolie si l'on redouble les
+coups; mais une circonstance qui est trop frappante
+pour que je l'omette, c'est la figure de la manganèse
+native, si prodigieusement conforme à celle du régule,
+qu'on s'y laisseroit tromper, si la mine n'étoit encore
+dans sa gangue: figure très-essentielle à observer ici,
+parce qu'elle est due à la nature même de la manganèse.
+En effet, pour réduire toutes les mines en général, il
+faut employer divers flux appropriés. Pour la réduction
+de la manganèse, bien loin d'user de ce moyen,
+il faut, au contraire, éloigner tout flux, produire la fusion,
+par la seule violence et la promptitude du feu.
+Et telle est la propension naturelle et prodigieuse de la
+manganèse à la vitrification, qu'on n'a pu parvenir encore
+à réduire son régule en un seul culot; on trouve
+dans le creuset plusieurs petits boutons, qui forment
+autant de culots séparés. Dans la mine de manganèse
+native, elle n'est point en une seule masse; elle est disposée
+également en plusieurs culots séparés, et un peu
+aplatis, comme ceux que l'art produit; beaucoup plus
+gros, à la vérité, parce que les agens de la nature
+doivent avoir une autre énergie, que ceux de nos laboratoires;
+et cette ressemblance si exacte, semble devoir
+vous faire penser que la mine native à été produite par
+le feu, tout comme son régule. La présence de la
+chaux argentée de la manganèse, me permettroit de
+croire que la nature n'a fait que réduire cette chaux.
+Du reste, cette mine native est très-pure, et ne contient
+aucune partie attirable à l'aimant. Cette mine, unique
+jusqu'à ce moment, vient, tout comme les autres manganèse
+que j'ai décrites, des mines de fer de <i>Sem</i>, dans
+la vallée de <i>Viedersos</i>, en Comté de Foix."&mdash;<i>Journal de
+Physique, Janvier 1786</i>.</blockquote>
+
+<p>We come now to the <i>second</i> species of inflammable
+bodies called oily or bituminous.
+These substances are also found variously mixed
+with mineral bodies, as well as forming
+strata of themselves; they are, therefore, a
+proper subject for a particular examination.</p>
+
+<p>In the process of vegetation, there are produced
+oily and resinous substances; and, from
+the collection of these substances at the bottom
+of the ocean, there are formed strata, which
+have afterwards undergone various degrees of
+beat, and have been variously changed, in consequence
+of the effects of that heat, according
+as the distillation of the more volatile parts of
+those bodies has been suffered to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand this, it must be considered,
+that, while immersed in water, and
+under insuperable compression, the vegetable,
+oily, and resinous substances, would appear to
+be unalterable by heat; and it is only in proportion
+as certain chemical separations take
+place, that these inflammable bodies are changed
+in their substance by the application of
+heat. Now, the most general change of this
+kind is in consequence of evaporation, or the
+distillation of their more volatile parts, by
+which oily substances become bituminous, and
+bituminous substances become coaly.</p>
+
+<p>There is here a gradation which may be
+best understood, by comparing the extremes.</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand, we know by experiment,
+that oily and bituminous substances can be
+melted and partly changed into vapour by
+heat, and that they become harder and denser,
+in  proportion as the more volatile parts have
+evaporated from them. On the other hand,
+coaly substances are destitute of fusibility and
+volatility, in proportion as they have been
+exposed to greater degrees of heat, and to
+other circumstances favourable to the dissipation
+of their more volatile and fluid parts.</p>
+
+<p>If, therefore, in mineral bodies, we find the
+two extreme states of this combustible substance,
+and also the intermediate states, we
+must either conclude, that this particular operation
+of heat has been thus actually employed in
+nature, or we must explain those appearances
+by some other means, in as satisfactory a manner,
+and so as shall be consistent with other
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>In this case, it will avail nothing to have
+recourse to the false analogy of water dissolving
+and crystallising salts, which has been so
+much employed for the explanation of other
+mineral appearances. The operation here in
+question is of a different nature, and necessarily
+requires both the powers of heat and proper
+conditions for evaporation.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, in order to decide the point,
+with regard to what is the power in nature
+by which mineral bodies have become solid,
+we have but to find bituminous substance in
+the most complete state of coal, intimately connected
+with some other substance, which is
+more generally found consolidating the strata,
+and assisting in the concretion of mineral substances.
+But I have in my possession the most
+undoubted proof of this kind. It is a mineral
+vein, or cavity, in which are blended together
+coal of the most fixed kind, quartz and marmor
+metallicum. Nor is this all; for the specimen
+now referred to is contained in a rock
+of this kind, which every naturalist now-a-days
+will allow to have congealed from a fluid
+state of fusion. I have also similar specimens
+from the same place, in which the coal is not
+of that fixed and infusible kind which burns
+without flame or smoke, but is bituminous or
+inflammable coal.</p>
+
+<p>We have hitherto been resting the argument
+upon a single point, for the sake of simplicity
+or clearness, not for want of those circumstances
+which shall be found to corroborate
+the theory. The strata of fossil coal are found
+in almost every intermediate state, as well as
+in those of bitumen and charcoal. Of the one
+kind is that fossil coal which melts or becomes
+fluid upon receiving heat; of the other, is that
+species of coal, found both in Wales and Scotland,
+which is perfectly infusible in the fire,
+and burns like coals, without flame or smoke.
+The one species abounds in oily matter, the
+other has been distilled by heat, until it has
+become a <i>caput mortuum</i>, or perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>The more volatile parts of these bituminous
+bodies are found in their separate state on
+some occasions. There is a stratum of limestone
+in Fifeshire, near Raith, which, though
+but slightly tinged with a black colour, contains
+bituminous matter, like pitch, in many
+cavities, which are lined with calcareous spar
+crystallised. I have a specimen of such a
+cavity, in which the bitumen is in sphericles,
+or rounded drops, immersed in the calcareous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is to be observed, that, if the cavity
+in the solid limestone or marble, which is lined
+with calcareous crystals containing pyrites,
+had been thus encrusted by means of the filtration
+of water, this water must have dissolved
+calcareous spar, pyrites, and bitumen. But
+these natural appearances would not even be
+explained by this dissolution and supposed filtration
+of those substances. There is also required,
+<i>first</i>, A cause for the separation of
+those different substances from the aqueous
+menstruum in which they had been dissolved;
+<i>2dly</i>, An explanation of the way in which a
+dissolved bitumen should be formed into round
+hard bodies of the most solid structure; and,
+<i>lastly</i>, Some probable means for this complicated
+operation being performed, below the
+bottom of the ocean, in the close cavity of a
+marble stratum.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the additional proof, from the facts
+relating to the bituminous substances, conspiring
+with that from the phenomena of other
+bodies, affords the strongest corroboration of
+this opinion, that the various concretions found
+in the internal parts of strata have not been
+occasioned by means of aqueous solution, but
+by the power of heat and operation of simple
+fusion, preparing those different substances to
+concrete and crystallise in cooling.</p>
+
+<p>The arguments which have been now employed
+for proving that strata have been consolidated
+by the power of heat, or by the
+means of fusion, have been drawn chiefly
+from the insoluble nature of those consolidating
+substances in relation to water, which is
+the only general menstruum that can be allowed
+for the mineral regions. But there are
+found, in the mineral kingdom, many solid
+masses of saltgem, which is a soluble substance.
+It may be now inquired, How far these masses,
+which are not infrequent in the earth, tend
+either to confirm the present theory, or, on
+the contrary, to give countenance to that
+which supposes water the chief instrument in
+consolidating strata.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of salt at the bottom of the
+sea, without the assistance of subterranean fire,
+is not a thing unsupposable, as at first sight it
+might appear. Let us but suppose a rock
+placed across the gut of Gibraltar, (a case nowise
+unnatural), and the bottom of the Mediterranean
+would be certainly filled with salt,
+because the evaporation from the surface of
+that sea exceeds the measure of its supply.</p>
+
+<p>But strata of salt, formed in this manner at
+the bottom of the sea, are as far from being
+consolidated by means of aqueous solution, as
+a bed of sand in the same situation; and we
+cannot explain the consolidation of such a
+stratum of salt by means of water, without
+supposing subterranean heat employed, to evaporate
+the brine which would successively occupy
+the interstices of the saline crystals. But
+this, it may be observed, is equally departing
+from the natural operation of water, as the
+means for consolidating the sediment of the
+ocean, as if we were to suppose the same thing
+done by heat and fusion. For the question is
+not, If subterranean heat be of sufficient intensity
+for the purpose of consolidating strata
+by the fusion of their substances; the question
+is, Whether it be by means of this agent, subterranean
+heat, or by water alone, without the
+operation of a melting heat, that those materials
+have been variously consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>The example now under consideration,
+consolidated mineral salt, will serve to throw
+some light upon the subject; for, as it is to
+be shown, that this body of salt had been consolidated
+by perfect fusion, and not by means
+of aqueous solution, the consolidation of strata
+of indissoluble substances, by the operation of
+a melting heat, will meet with all that confirmation
+which the consistency of natural appearances
+can give.</p>
+
+<p>The salt rock in Cheshire lies in strata of
+red marl. It is horizontal in its direction.
+I do not know its thickness, but it is dug
+thirty or forty feet deep. The body of
+this rock is perfectly solid, and the salt, in
+many places, pure, colourless, and transparent,
+breaking with a sparry cubical structure. But
+the greatest part is tinged by the admixture of
+the marl, and that in various degrees, from
+the slightest tinge of red, to the most perfect
+opacity. Thus, the rock appears as if it had
+been a mass of fluid salt, in which had been
+floating a quantity of marly substance, not
+uniformly mixed, but every where separating
+and subsiding from the pure saline substance.</p>
+
+<p>There is also to be observed a certain regularity
+in this separation of the tinging from
+the colourless substance, which, at a proper
+distance, gives to the perpendicular section of
+the rock a distinguishable figure in its structure.
+When looking at this appearance near
+the bottom of the rock, it, at first, presented
+me with the figure of regular stratification;
+but, upon examining the whole mass of rock,
+I found, that it was only towards the bottom
+that this stratified appearance took place; and
+that, at the top of the rock, the most beautiful
+and regular figure was to be observed; but a
+figure the most opposite to that of stratification.
+It was all composed of concentric circles;
+and these appeared to be the section of
+a mass, composed altogether of concentric
+spheres, like those beautiful systems of configuration
+which agates so frequently present
+us with in miniature. In about eight or ten
+feet from the top, the circles growing large,
+were blended together, and gradually lost their
+regular appearance, until, at a greater depth,
+they again appeared in resemblance of a stratification.</p>
+
+<p>This regular arrangement of the floating
+marly substance in the body of salt, which is
+that of the structure of a coated pebble, or that
+of concentric spheres, is altogether inexplicable
+upon any other supposition, than the
+perfect fluidity or fusion of the salt, and the
+attractions and repulsions of the contained substances.
+It is in vain to look, in the operations
+of solution and evaporation, for that
+which nothing but perfect fluidity or fusion
+can explain.</p>
+
+<p>This example of a mineral salt congealed
+from a melted state, may be confirmed from
+another which I have from Dr Black, who
+suggested it to me. It is an alkaline salt,
+found in a mineral state, and described in the
+Philosophical Transactions, <i>anno</i> 1771. But
+to understand this specimen, something must
+be premised with regard to the nature of fossil
+alkali.</p>
+
+<p>The fossil alkali crystallises from a dissolved
+state, in combining itself with a large portion
+of the water, in the manner of alum; and, in
+this case, the water is essential to the constitution
+of that transparent crystalline body; for,
+upon the evaporation of the water, the transparent
+salt loses its solidity, and becomes a
+white powder. If, instead of being gently
+dried, the crystalline salt is suddenly exposed
+to a sufficient degree of heat, that is, somewhat
+more than boiling water, it enters into
+the state of aqueous fusion, and it boils, in
+emitting the water by means of which it had
+been crystallised in the cold, and rendered
+fluid in that heated state. It is not possible to
+crystallise this alkaline salt from a dissolved
+state, without the combination of that quantity
+of water, nor to separate that water without
+destroying its crystalline state.</p>
+
+<p>But in this mineral specimen, we have a
+solid crystalline salt, with a structure which,
+upon fracture, appears to be sparry and radiated,
+something resembling that of zeolite. It
+contains no water in its crystallization, but
+melts in a sufficient heat, without any aqueous
+fusion. Therefore, this salt must have
+been in a fluid state of fusion, immediately
+before its congelation and crystallization.</p>
+
+<p>It would be endless to give examples of
+particular facts, so many are the different natural
+appearances that occur, attended with a
+variety of different circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>There is one, however, which is peculiarly
+distinct, admits of sufficiently accurate description,
+and contains circumstances from
+which conclusions may be drawn with clearness.
+This is the ironstone, which is commonly
+found among the argillaceous strata,
+attendant upon fossil coal, both in Scotland
+and in England.</p>
+
+<p>This stone is generally found among the
+bituminous schistus, or black argillaceous strata,
+either in separate masses of various shapes
+and sizes, or forming of itself strata which are
+more or less continuous in their direction
+among the schistus or argillaceous beds.</p>
+
+<p>This mineral contains, in general, from 40
+to 50 <i>per cent.</i> of iron, and it loses near one
+third of its weight in calcination. Before calcination
+it is of a grey colour, is not penetrable
+by water, and takes a polish. In this
+state, therefore, it is perfectly solid; but being
+calcined, it becomes red, porous, and tender.</p>
+
+<p>The fact to be proved with regard to these
+iron-stones is this, That they have acquired
+their solid state from fusion, and not in concreting
+from any aqueous solution.</p>
+
+<p>To abridge this disquisition, no argument
+is to be taken from contingent circumstances,
+(which, however, are often found here as well
+as in the case of marbles); such only are to
+be employed as are general to the subject, and
+arise necessarily from the nature of the operation.</p>
+
+<p>It will be proper to describe a species of
+these stones, which is remarkably regular in
+its form. It is that found at Aberlady, in
+East Lothian.</p>
+
+<p>The form of these iron-stones is that of an
+oblate or much compressed sphere, and the
+size from two or three inches diameter to
+more than a foot. In the circular or horizontal
+section, they present the most elegant
+septarium<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a>; and, from the examination of
+this particular structure, the following conclusions
+may be drawn.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9">
+</a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag9"> (return) </a>
+See <a href="#p1">Plate I.</a></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>First</i>, That, the septa have been formed by
+the uniform contraction of the internal parts
+of the stone, the volume of the central parts
+diminishing more than that of the circumference;
+by this means, the separations of the
+stone diminish, in a progression from the
+center towards the circumference.</p>
+
+<p><i>2d</i>, That there are only two ways in which
+the septa must have received the spar or spatthose
+ore with which they are filled, more or
+less, either, <i>first</i> By insinuation into the cavity
+of the septa after these were formed; or,
+<i>2dly</i>, By separation from the substance of the
+stone, at the same time that the septa were
+forming.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Were the first supposition true, appearances
+would be observable, showing that the sparry
+substance had been admitted, either through
+the porous structure of the stone, or through
+proper apertures communicating from without.
+Now, if either one or other of these
+had been the case, and that the stone had been
+consolidated from no other cause than concretion
+from a dissolved state, that particular
+structure of the stone, by means of which the
+spar had been admitted, must appear at present
+upon an accurate examination.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, is not the case, and we may
+rest the argument here. The septa reach not
+the circumference; the surface of the stone
+is solid and uniform in every part; and there
+is not any appearance of the spar in the argillaceous
+bed around the stone.</p>
+
+<p>It, therefore, necessarily follows, that the
+contraction of the iron-stone, in order to form
+septa, and the filling of these cavities with
+spar, had proceeded<i>pari passu</i>; and that this
+operation must have been brought about by
+means of fusion, or by congelation from a
+state of simple fluidity and expansion.</p>
+
+<p>It is only further to be observed, that all
+the arguments which have been already employed,
+concerning mineral concretions from
+a simply fluid state, or that of fusion, here
+take place. I have septaria of this kind, in
+which, besides pyrites, iron-ore, calcareous
+spar, and another that is ferruginous and compound,
+there is contained siliceous crystals; a
+case which is not so common. I have them
+also attended with circumstances of concretion
+and crystallization, which, besides being extremely
+rare, are equally curious and interesting.</p>
+
+<p>There is one fact more which is well worth
+our attention, being one of those which are
+so general in the mineral regions. It is the
+crystallizations which are found in close cavities
+of the most solid bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more common than this appearance.
+Cavities are every where found closely
+lined with crystallizations, of every different
+substance which may be supposed in those
+places. These concretions are well known to
+naturalists, and form part of the beautiful specimens
+which are preserved in the cabinets of
+collectors, and which the German mineralists
+have termed <i>Drusen</i>. I shall only particularise
+one species, which may be described upon
+principle, and therefore may be a proper subject
+on which to reason, for ascertaining the
+order of production in certain bodies. This
+body, which we are now to examine, is of
+the agate species.</p>
+
+<p>We have now been considering the means
+employed by nature in consolidating strata
+which were originally of an open structure;
+but in perfectly solid strata we find bodies of
+agate, which have evidently been formed in
+that place where they now are found. This
+fact, however, is not still that of which we
+are now particularly to inquire; for this, of
+which we are to treat, concerns only a cavity
+within this agate; now, whatever may have
+been the origin of the agate itself, we are to
+show, from what appears within its cavity,
+that the crystallizations which are found in
+this place had arisen from a simply fluid state,
+and not from that of any manner of solution.</p>
+
+<p>The agates now in question are those of
+the coated kind, so frequent in this country,
+called pebbles. Many of these are filled with
+a siliceous crystallization, which evidently
+proceeds from the circumference towards the
+centre. Many of them, again, are hollow.
+Those cavities are variously lined with crystallized
+substances; and these are the object
+of the present examination.</p>
+
+<p>But before describing what is found within,
+it is necessary to attend to this particular
+circumstance, that the cavity is perfectly inclosed
+with many solid coats, impervious to
+air or water, but particularly with the external
+cortical part, which is extremely hard,
+takes the highest polish, and is of the most
+perfect solidity, admitting the passage of nothing
+but light and heat.</p>
+
+<p>Within these cavities, we find, <i>1st</i>, The
+coat of crystals with which this cavity is always
+lined; and this is general to all substances
+concreting, in similar circumstances,
+from a state of fusion; for when thus at liberty
+they naturally crystallise. <i>2dly</i>, We
+have frequently a subsequent crystallization,
+resting on the first, and more or less immersed
+in it. <i>3dly</i>, There is also sometimes a
+third crystallization, superincumbent on the
+second, in like manner as the second was on
+the first. I shall mention some particulars.</p>
+
+<p>I have one specimen, in which the primary
+crystals are siliceous, the secondary thin foliaceous
+crystals of deep red but transparent iron-ore,
+forming elegant figures, that have the
+form of roses. The tertiary crystallization is
+a frosting of small siliceous crystals upon the
+edges of the foliaceous crystals.</p>
+
+<p>In other specimens, there is first a lining of
+colourless siliceous crystals, then another lining
+of amethystine crystals, and sometimes
+within that, fuliginous crystals. Upon these
+fuliginous and amethystine crystals are many
+sphericles or hemispheres of red compact iron-ore,
+like haematites.</p>
+
+<p>In others, again, the primary crystals are
+siliceous, and the secondary calcareous. Of
+this kind, I have one which has, upon the
+calcareous crystals, beautiful transparent siliceous
+crystals, and iron sphericles both upon
+all these crystals, and within them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, I have an agate formed of various
+red and white coats, and beautifully figured.
+The cavity within the coated part of the pebble
+is filled up without vacuity, first, with colourless
+siliceous crystals; secondly, with fuliginous
+crystals; and, lastly, with white or
+colourless calcareous spar. But between the
+spar and crystals there are many sphericles,
+seemingly of iron, half sunk into each of
+these two different substances.</p>
+
+<p>From these facts, I may now be allowed to
+draw the following conclusions:</p>
+
+<p>1<i>st</i>, That concretion had proceeded from the
+surface of the agate body inwards. This necessarily
+follows from the nature of those figured
+bodies, the figures of the external coats always
+determining the shape of those within, and
+never, contrarily, those within affecting those
+without.</p>
+
+<p>2<i>dly</i>, That when the agate was formed,
+the cavity then contained every thing which
+now is found within it, and nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>3<i>dly</i>, That the contained substances must
+have been in a fluid state, in order to their
+crystallizing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, That as this fluid state had not been
+the effect of solution in a menstruum, it must
+have been fluidity from heat and fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now make one general observation
+and argument with regard to the formation
+of those various coated, concreted, crystallized,
+and configured bodies. Were the crystallization
+and configuration found to proceed
+from a central body, and to be directed from
+that centre outwards, then, without inquiring
+into collateral appearances, and other proofs
+with regard to the natural concretion of those
+substances, we might suppose that these concretions
+might have proceeded from that central
+body gradually by accretion, and that the
+concreting and crystallizing substances might
+have been supplied from a fluid which had
+before retained the concreting substance in solution;
+in like manner as the crystallizations
+of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
+that saccharine substance, and are termed candies,
+are formed upon the threads which are
+extended in the crystallizing vessel for that
+purpose. But if, on the contrary, we are to
+consider those mineral bodies as spheres of
+alternate coats, composed of agate, crystal,
+spars, etc.; and if all those crystallizations
+have their <i>bases</i> upon the uncrystallized coat
+which is immediately external to it, and their
+<i>apices</i> turned inwards into the next internal
+solid coat, it is not possible to conceive that a
+structure of this kind could have been formed
+in any manner from a solution. But this
+last manner is the way without exception in
+which those mineral bodies are found; therefore
+we are to conclude, that the concretion
+of those bodies had proceeded immediately
+from a state of fusion or simple fluidity.</p>
+
+<p>In granite these cavities are commonly lined
+with the crystal corresponding to the constituent
+substances of the stone, viz. quartz,
+feld-spar, and mica or talk. M. de Saussure,
+(Voyages dans les Alpes, tom. ii. §722.),
+says, "On trouve fréquemment des amas
+considérables de spath calcaire, crystallisé
+dans les grottes ou se forme le crystal de
+roche; quoique ces grottes soient renfermées
+dans le coeur des montagnes d'un
+granit vif, &amp; qu'on ne voie aucun roc calcaire
+au dessus de ces montagnes."</p>
+
+<p>So accurate an observer, and so complete a
+naturalist, must have observed how the extraneous
+substance had been introduced into this
+cavity, had they not been formed together
+the cavity and the calcareous crystals. That
+M. de Saussure perceived no means for that
+introduction, will appear from what immediately
+follows in that paragraph. "Ces rocs
+auroient-ils été détruits, ou bien ce spath
+n'est il que le produit d'une sécrétion des
+parties calcaires que l'on fait êtres dispersées
+entre les divers élémens du granit?"</p>
+
+<p>Had M. de Saussure allowed himself to
+suppose all those substances in fusion, of which
+there cannot be a doubt, he would soon have
+resolved both this difficulty, and also that of
+finding molybdena crystallized along with
+feld-spar, in a cavity of this kind. §718.</p>
+
+<p>To this argument, taken from the close cavities
+in our agates, I am now to add another
+demonstration. It is the case of the calcedony
+agate, containing a body of calcareous
+spar; here it is to be shown, that, while the
+calcareous body was altogether inclosed within
+the calcedony nodular body, these two
+substances had been perfectly soft, and had
+mutually affected each others shape, in concreting
+from a fluid state. In order to see
+this, we are to consider that both those substances
+have specific shapes in which they
+concrete from the third state; the sparry
+structure of the one is well known; the spherical
+or mammelated crystallization of the calcedony,
+is no less conspicuous; this last is,
+in the present case, spherical figures, which
+are some of them hemispheres, or even more.
+The figures which we have now in contemplation
+are so distinctly different as cannot be
+mistaken; the one is a rhombic figure bounded
+by planes; the other is a most perfect
+spherical form; and both these are specific figures,
+belonging respectively to the crystallization
+of those two substances.</p>
+
+<p>The argument now to be employed for
+proving that those two bodies had concreted
+from the fluid state of fusion, and not from
+any manner of solution, is this: That, were
+the one of those bodies to be found impressing
+the other with its specific figure, we must
+conclude that the impressing body had concreted
+or crystallized while the impressed body
+was in a soft or fluid state; and that, if
+they are both found mutually impressing and
+impressed by each other, they must have both
+been in the fluid and concreting state together.
+Now the fact is, that the calcareous
+body is perfectly inclosed within the solid calcedony,
+and that they are mutually impressed
+by each others specific figure, the sparry
+structure of the calcareous body impressing
+the calcedony with its type of planes and angles,
+at the same time that, in other parts, the
+spherical figures of the calcedony enter the
+solid body of the spar, and thus impress their
+mammelated figures into that part which is
+contiguous. It is therefore inconceivable,
+that these appearances could have been produced
+in any other manner than by those two
+bodies concreting from a simply fluid state.</p>
+
+<p>There are in jaspers and agates many other
+appearances, from whence the fusion of those
+substances may be concluded with great certainty
+and precision; but it is hoped, that
+what has been now given may suffice for
+establishing that proposition without any
+doubt.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be here objected, That there
+are frequently found siliceous crystals and amethysts
+containing water; and that it is impossible
+to confine water even in melted glass.
+It is true, that here, at the surface of the
+earth, melted glass cannot, in ordinary circumstances,
+be made to receive and inclose
+condensed water; but let us only suppose a
+sufficient degree of compression in the body
+of melted glass, and we can easily imagine it
+to receive and confine water as well as any
+other substance. But if, even in our operations,
+water, by means of compression, may
+be made to endure the heat of red hot iron
+without being converted into vapour, what
+may not the power of nature be able to perform?
+The place of mineral operations is not
+on the surface of the earth; and we are not
+to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
+the powers of nature by the measure of
+our own.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag10"> (return) </a> This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
+the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral
+substances, that I beg the particular attention of the reader
+to that subject. The effect of compression upon
+compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
+heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established
+principle in natural philosophy. This, like every other
+physical principle, is founded upon matter of fact or experience;
+we find, that many compound substances may
+with heat be easily changed, by having their more volatile
+parts separated when under a small compression; but
+these substances are preserved without change when sufficiently
+compressed. Our experiments of this kind are
+necessarily extremely limited; they are not, however, for
+that reason, the less conclusive. The effects of increasing
+degrees of heat are certainly prevented by increasing degrees
+of compression; but the rate at which the different
+effects of those powers proceed, or the measure of those
+different degrees of increase that may be made without
+changing the constitution of the compound substance, are
+not known; nor is there any limit to be set to that operation,
+so far as we know. Consequently, it is a physical
+principle, That the evaporation of volatile substances by
+heat, or the reparation of them from a compound substance,
+consequently the effect of fire in changing that
+compound substance, may be absolutely prevented by
+means of compression.
+
+<p>It now remains to be considered, how far there is reason
+to conclude that there had been sufficient degrees of
+compression in the mineral regions, for the purpose of
+melting the various substances with which we find strata
+consolidated, without changing the chemical constitution
+of those compound substances.</p>
+
+<p>Had I, in reasoning <i>a priori</i>, asserted, That all mineral
+bodies might have been melted without change, when under
+sufficient compression, there might have arisen, in the
+minds of reasoning men, some doubt with regard to the
+certainty of that proposition, however probable it were to
+be esteemed: But when, in reasoning <i>a posteriori</i>, it is
+found that all mineral bodies have been actually melted,
+then, all that is required to establish the proposition on
+which I have founded my theory, is to see that there must
+have been immense degrees of compression upon the subjects
+in question; for we neither know the degree of heat
+which had been employed, nor that of compression by
+which the effect of the heat must have been modified.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in order to see that there had been immense compression,
+we have but to consider that the formation of
+the strata, which are to be consolidated, was at the bottom
+of the ocean, and that this place is to us unfathomable.
+If it be farther necessary to show that it had been
+at such unfathomable depth strata were consolidated, it
+will be sufficient to observe, it is not upon the surface of
+the earth, or above the level of the sea, that this mineral
+operation can take place; for, it is there that those consolidated
+bodies are redissolved, or necessarily going into
+decay, which is the opposite to that operation which we
+are now inquiring after; therefore, if they were consolidated
+in any other place than at the bottom of the sea, it
+must have been between that place of their formation and
+the surface of the sea; but that is a supposition which we
+have not any reason to make; therefore, we must conclude
+that it was at the bottom of the ocean those stratified
+bodies had been consolidated.</blockquote>
+
+<p>To conclude this long chemico-mineral disquisition,
+I have specimens in which the mixture
+of calcareous, siliceous, and metallic substances,
+in almost every species of concretion
+which is to be found in mineral bodies, may
+be observed, and in which there is exhibited,
+in miniature, almost every species of mineral
+transaction, which, in nature, is found upon
+a scale of grandeur and magnificence. They
+are nodules contained in the whin-stone, porphyry,
+or basaltes of the Calton-hill, by Edinburgh;
+a body which is to be afterwards
+examined, when it will be found to have
+flowed, and to have been in fusion, by the
+operation of subterraneous heat.</p>
+
+<p>This evidence, though most conclusive with
+regard to the application of subterraneous heat,
+as the means employed in bringing into fusion
+all the different substances with which strata
+may be found consolidated, is not directly a
+proof that strata had been consolidated by the
+fusion of their proper substance. It was necessary
+to see the general nature of the evidence,
+for the universal application of subterraneous
+heat, in the fusion of every kind of
+mineral body. Now, that this has been done,
+we may give examples of strata consolidated
+without the introduction of foreign matter,
+merely by the softening or fusion of their own
+materials.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose, we may consider two different
+species of strata, such as are perfectly
+simple in their nature, of the most distinct substances,
+and whose origin is perfectly understood,
+consequently, whose subsequent changes
+may be reasoned upon with certainty and clearness.
+These are the siliceous and calcareous
+strata; and these are the two prevailing substances
+of the globe, all the rest being, in comparison
+of these, as nothing; for unless it be
+the bituminous or coal strata, there is hardly
+any other which does not necessarily contain
+more or less of one or other of these two substances.
+If, therefore, it can be shown, that
+both of those two general strata have been
+consolidated by the simple fusion of their substance,
+no <i>desideratum</i> or doubt will remain,
+with regard to the nature of that operation
+which has been transacted at great depths of
+the earth, places to which all access is denied
+to mortal eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to prove, <i>first</i>, That those strata
+have been consolidated by simple fusion;
+and, <i>2dly</i>, That this operation is universal, in
+relation to the strata of the earth, as having
+produced the various degrees of solidity or
+hardness in these bodies.</p>
+
+<p>I shall first remark, that a fortuitous collection
+of hard bodies, such as gravel and sand,
+can only touch in points, and cannot, while
+in that hard state, be made to correspond so
+precisely to each others shape as to consolidate
+the mass. But if these hard bodies should be
+softened in their substance, or brought into a
+certain degree of fusion, they might be adapted
+mutually to each other, and thus consolidate
+the open structure of the mass. Therefore,
+to prove the present point, we have but
+to exhibit specimens of siliceous and calcareous
+strata which have been evidently consolidated
+in this manner.</p>
+
+<p>Of the first kind, great varieties occur in
+this country. It is, therefore, needless to describe
+these particularly. They are the consolidated
+strata of gravel and sand, often containing
+abundance of feld-spar, and thus graduating
+into granite; a body, in this respect,
+perfectly similar to the more regular strata
+which we now examine.</p>
+
+<p>The second kind, again, are not so common
+in this country, unless we consider the shells
+and coralline bodies in our lime-stones, as exhibiting
+the same example, which indeed they
+do. But I have a specimen of marble from
+Spain, which may be described, and which
+will afford the most satisfactory evidence of
+the fact in question.</p>
+
+<p>This Spanish marble may be considered as
+a species of pudding-stone, being formed of
+calcareous gravel; a species of marble which,
+from Mr Bowles' Natural History, appears to
+be very common in Spain. The gravel of
+which this marble is composed, consists of
+fragments of other marbles of different kinds.
+Among these, are different species of <i>oolites</i>
+marble, some shell marbles, and some composed
+of a chalky substance, or of undistinguishable
+parts. But it appears, that all these
+different marbles had been consolidated or
+made hard, then broken into fragments, rolled
+and worn by attrition, and thus collected together,
+along with some sand or small siliceous
+bodies, into one mass. Lastly, This compound
+body is consolidated in such a manner
+as to give the most distinct evidence, that this
+had been executed by the operation of heat or
+simple fusion.</p>
+
+<p>The proof I give is this, That besides the
+general conformation of those hard bodies, so
+as to be perfectly adapted to each other's
+shape, there is, in some places, a mutual indentation
+of the different pieces of gravel into
+each other; an indentation which resembles
+perfectly that junction of the different bones
+of the <i>cranium</i>, called sutures, and which must
+have necessarily required a mixture of those
+bodies while in a soft or fluid state.</p>
+
+<p>This appearance of indentation is by no
+means singular, or limited to one particular
+specimen. I have several specimens of different
+marbles, in which fine examples of this
+species of mixture may be perceived. But in
+this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone,
+where the mutual indentation is made
+between two pieces of hard stone, worn round
+by attrition, the softening or fusion of these
+two bodies is not simply rendered probable,
+but demonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus proved, that those strata had
+been consolidated by simple fusion, as proposed,
+we now proceed to show, that this mineral
+operation had been not only general, as being
+found in all the regions of the globe, but
+universal, in consolidating our earth in all the
+various degrees, from loose and incoherent
+shells and sand, to the most solid bodies of the
+siliceous and calcareous substances.</p>
+
+<p>To exemplify this in the various collections
+and mixtures of sands, gravels, shells, and corals,
+were endless and superfluous. I shall only
+take, for an example, one simple homogeneous
+body, in order to exhibit it in the various
+degrees of consolidation, from the state of
+simple incoherent earth to that of the most solid
+marble. It must be evident that this is
+chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but
+which may be also found consolidated in every
+different degree.</p>
+
+<p>Through the middle of the Isle of Wight,
+there runs a ridge of hills of indurated chalk.
+This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly
+west into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle
+towards Dorchester, perhaps beyond that
+place. The sea has broke through this ridge
+at the west end of the Isle of Wight, where
+columns of the indurated chalk remain, called
+the Needles; the same appearance being found
+upon the opposite shore in Dorsetshire.</p>
+
+<p>In this field of chalk, we find every gradation
+of that soft earthy substance to the most
+consolidated body of this indurated ridge,
+which is not solid marble, but which has lost
+its chalky property, and has acquired a kind
+of stony hardness.</p>
+
+<p>We want only further to see this cretaceous
+substance in its most indurated and consolidated
+state; and this we have in the north of
+Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway.
+I have examined cargoes of this lime-stone
+brought to the west of Scotland, and find the
+most perfect evidence of this body having
+been once a mass of chalk, which is now a
+solid marble.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the
+strata of the earth have been, in many places,
+consolidated, we must conclude, that all the
+degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite,
+have been brought about by the same means.</p>
+
+<p>Now, that all the strata of the mineral regions,
+which are those only now examined,
+have been consolidated in some degree, is a
+fact for which no proof can be offered here,
+but must be submitted to experience and inquiry;
+so far, however, as they shall be considered
+as consolidated in any degree, which
+they certainly are in general, we have investigated
+the means which had been employed in
+that mineral operation.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the concretions of
+particular bodies, and the general consolidation
+of strata; but it may be alleged, that there is
+a great part of the solid mass of this earth not
+properly comprehended among those bodies
+which have been thus proved to be consolidated
+by means of fusion. The body here alluded
+to is granite; a mass which is not generally
+stratified, and which, being a body perfectly
+solid, and forming some part in the
+structure of this earth, deserves to be considered.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of granite, as a part of the structure
+of the earth, is too intricate a subject to
+be here considered, where we only seek to
+prove the fusion of a substance from the evident
+marks which are to be observed in a body.
+We shall, therefore, only now consider
+one particular species of granite; and if this
+shall appear to have been in a fluid state of fusion,
+we may be allowed to extend this property
+to all the kind.</p>
+
+<p>The species now to be examined comes from
+the north country, about four or five miles west
+from Portfoy, on the road to Huntly. I have
+not been upon the spot, but am informed that
+this rock is immediately connected or continuous
+with the common granite of the country.
+This indeed appears in the specimens
+which I have got; for, in some of these, there
+is to be perceived a gradation from the regular
+to the irregular sort.</p>
+
+<p>This rock may indeed be considered, in
+some respects, as a porphyry; for it has an
+evident ground, which is feld-spar, in its sparry
+state; and it is, in one view, distinctly maculated
+with quartz, which is transparent, but
+somewhat dark-coloured<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11">
+</a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag11"> (return) </a>
+See: <a href="#p2">Plate II. fig. 1. 2. 3.</a>*</blockquote>
+
+<p>Considered as a porphyry, this specimen is
+no less singular than as a granite. For, instead
+of a siliceous ground, maculated with the
+rhombic feld-spar, which is the common state
+of porphyry, the ground is uniformly crystallised,
+or a homogeneous regular feld-spar, maculated
+with the transparent siliceous substance.
+But as, besides the feld-spar and quartz, which
+are the constituent parts of the stone, there is
+also mica, in some places, it may, with propriety,
+be termed a granite.
+
+<p>The singularity of this specimen consists,
+not in the nature or proportions of its constituent
+parts, but in the uniformity of the sparry
+ground, and the regular shape of the quartz
+mixture. This siliceous substance, viewed in
+one direction, or longitudinally, may be considered
+as columnar, prismatical, or continued
+in lines running nearly parallel. These columnar
+bodies of quartz are beautifully impressed
+with a figure on the sides, where they are in
+contact with the spar. This figure is that of
+furrows or channels, which are perfectly parallel,
+and run across the longitudinal direction
+of the quartz. This is represented in fig. 4.
+This striated figure is only seen when, by
+fracture, the quartz is separated from the contiguous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>But what I would here more particularly
+represent is, the transverse section of those
+longitudinal siliceous bodies These are seen
+in fig. 1. 2. and 3. They have not only separately
+the forms of certain typographic
+characters, but collectively give the regular
+lineal appearance of types set in writing.</p>
+
+<p>It is evident from the inspection of this fossil,
+that the sparry and siliceous substances had
+been mixed together in a fluid state; and that
+the crystallization of the sparry substance,
+which is rhombic, had determined the regular
+structure of the quartz, at least in some directions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the siliceous substance is to be considered
+as included in the spar, and as figured,
+according to the laws of crystallization proper
+to the sparry ground; but the spar is also to
+be found included in the quartz. It is not,
+indeed, always perfectly included or inclosed
+on all sides; but this is sometimes the case, or
+it appears so in the section. Fig. 5. 6. 7. 8.
+9. and 10. are those cases magnified, and represent
+the different figured quartz inclosing
+the feld-spar. In one of them, the feld-spar,
+which is contained within the quartz, contains
+also a small triangle of quartz, which it
+incloses. Now, it is not possible to conceive
+any other way in which those two substances,
+quartz and feld-spar, could be thus concreted,
+except by congelation from a fluid
+state, in which they had been mixed.</p>
+
+<p>There is one thing more to be observed
+with regard to this curious species of granite.
+It is the different order or arrangement of the
+crystallization or internal structure of the feld-spar
+ground, in two contiguous parts of the
+same mass. This is to be perceived in the
+polished surface of the stone, by means of the
+reflection of light.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain direction in which, viewing
+the stone, when the light falls with a proper
+obliquity, we see a luminous reflection
+from the internal parts of the stone. This
+arises from the reflecting surfaces of the sparry
+structure or minute cracks, all turned in
+one direction, consequently, giving that luminous
+appearance only in one point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Now, all the parts of the stone in which
+the figured quartz is directed in the same
+manner, or regularly placed in relation to each
+other, present that shining appearance to the
+eye at one time, or in the same point of direction.
+But there are parts of the mass, which,
+though immediately contiguous and properly
+continuous, have a different disposition
+of the figured quartz; and these two distinguished
+masses, in the same surface of the polished
+stone, give to the eye their shining appearance
+in very different directions. Fig. 3.
+shows two of those figured and shining masses,
+in the same plane or polished surface.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that, as the crystallization
+of the sparry structure is the figuring
+cause of the quartz bodies, there must be observed
+a certain correspondency between those
+two things, the alinement (if I may be allowed
+the expression) of the quartz, and the shining
+of the sparry ground. It must also appear,
+that at the time of congelation of the
+fluid spar, those two contiguous portions had
+been differently disposed in the crystallization
+of their substance. This is an observation
+which I have had frequent opportunities of
+making, with respect to masses of calcareous
+spar.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, therefore, whether we
+shall consider granite as a stratum or as an irregular
+mass, whether as a collection of several
+materials, or as the separation of substances
+which had been mixed, there is sufficient
+evidence of this body having been consolidated
+by means of fusion, and in no other
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus led to suppose, that the power
+of heat and operation of fusion must have been
+employed in consolidating strata of loose materials,
+which had been collected together and
+amassed at the bottom of the ocean. It will,
+therefore, be proper to consider, what are the
+appearances in consolidated strata that naturally
+should follow, on the one hand, from fluidity
+having been, in this manner, introduced
+by means of heat, and, on the other, from the
+interstices being filled by means of solution;
+that so we may compare appearances with the
+one and other of those two suppositions, in
+order to know that with which they may be
+only found consistent.</p>
+
+<p>The consolidation of strata with every different
+kind of substance was found to be inconsistent
+with the supposition, that aqueous
+solution had been the means employed for this
+purpose. This appearance, on the contrary,
+is perfectly consistent with the idea, that the
+fluidity of these bodies had been the effect of
+heat; for, whether we suppose the introduction
+of foreign matter into the porous mass of
+a stratum for its consolidation, or whether we
+shall suppose the materials of the mass acquiring
+a degree of softness, by means of which,
+together with an immense compression, the
+porous body might be rendered solid; the
+power of heat, as the cause of fluidity and vapour,
+is equally proper and perfectly competent.
+Here, therefore, appearances are as decidedly
+in favour of the last supposition, as
+they had been inconsistent with the first.</p>
+
+<p>But if strata have been consolidated by
+means of aqueous solution, these masses should
+be found precisely in the same state as when
+they were originally deposited from the water.
+The perpendicular section of those masses
+might show the compression of the bodies included
+in them, or of which they are composed;
+but the horizontal section could not
+contain any separation of the parts of the stratum
+from one another.</p>
+
+<p>If, again, strata have been consolidated by
+means of heat, acting in such a manner as to
+soften their substance, then, in cooling, they
+must have formed rents or separations of their
+substance, by the unequal degrees of contraction
+which the contiguous strata may have
+suffered. Here is a most decisive mark by
+which the present question must be determined.</p>
+
+<p>There is not in nature any appearance more
+distinct than this of the perpendicular fissures
+and separations in strata. These are generally
+known to workmen by the terms of veins
+or backs and cutters; and there is no consolidated
+stratum that wants these appearances.
+Here is, therefore, a clear decision of the
+question, Whether it has been by means of
+heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that
+collections of loose bodies at the bottom of
+the sea have been consolidated into the hardest
+rocks and most perfect marbles<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag12"> (return) </a> This subject is extremely interesting, both to the
+theory of the earth, and to the science cf the mining art;
+I will now illustrate that theory, with an authority which I
+received after giving this dissertation to the Royal Society.
+It is in the second volume of M. de Saussure's <i>voyages dans
+les Alpes</i>. Here I find proper examples for illustrating that
+subject of mineralogy; and I am happy to have this opportunity
+of giving the reasoning of a man of science upon
+the subject, and the opinion of a person who is in every
+respect so well qualified to judge upon a point of this
+kind.
+
+<p>The first example is of a marble in the Alps, (<i>voyages
+dans les Alpes.</i>) tom. 2. page 271.</p>
+
+<p>"La pâte de ces brèches est tantôt blanche, tantôt
+grise, et les fragmens qui y font renfermés font, les
+uns blancs, les autres gris, d'autres roux, et presque toujours
+d'une couleur différente de celle de la pâte qui
+les lit. Ils sont tous de nature calcaire; tels étaient au
+moins tous ceux que j'ai pus observer; et ce qu'il-y-a de
+remarquable, c'est qu'ils sont tous posés dans le sens des
+feuillets de la pierre; on diroit en les voyant, qu'ils
+ont tous été comprimés et écrasés dans le même sens.
+Cette même pierre est mêlée de mica, sur-tout dans les
+interstices des couches et entre les fragmens et la pâte
+qui les réunit; mais on ne voit point de mica dans les
+fragmens eux-mêmes. On trouve aussi dans ces brèches
+des infiltrations de quartz. Cette pierre est coupée
+par des fréquentes fissures perpendiculaires aux plans
+des couches. On voit clairement que ces fentes out
+été formées par l'inégal affaissement des couches, et
+non par une retraite spontanée: car les morceaux ou
+fragmens étrangers sont tous partagés et coupés net par
+ces fissures au lieu que dans les divisions naturelles des
+couches, ces mêmes fragmens sont entiers et saillans au
+dehors de la surface. Les noeuds de quartz et les divers
+crystaux, que renferment les roches feuilletées,
+présentent le même phénomène, et l'on peut en tirer
+la même conséquence; ils font partagés dans les fentes,
+et entiers dans les séparations des couches."</p>
+
+<p>He finds those particular strata in the other side of the
+mountain <i>col de la Seigne</i>, and gives us the following observations:</p>
+
+<p>"Plus bas on passe entre deux bancs de ces mêmes
+brèches, entre lesquels sont interposées des couches d'ardoises
+noires et de grès feuilletés micacés, dont la situation
+est la même.</p>
+
+<p>"On retrouve encore ces brèches vers le has de la descente,
+au pied de pyramides calcaires dont j'ai parlé
+plus haut. Je trouvai en 1774 de très-jolis crystaux de
+roche qui s'étaient formés dans les fentes de cette
+brèche. Il y avoit même un mélange de quartz et de
+mica qui s'étoit moulé dans quelques-une de ces fentes.
+C'étoit donc une roche semblable aux primitives, et
+pourtant d'une formation postérieure à celle de la pierre
+calcaire. Et quel système pourroit nous persuader que
+la nature ne puisse encore produire ce qu'elle a produit
+autrefois!"</p>
+
+<p>M. de Saussure has here given us an example of a calcareous
+Braccia, as he calls it, but which is rather a pudding
+stone, with veins or contractions of the mass. He
+does not seem to understand these as consequences of the
+consolidation of those strata; this, however, is the only
+light in which these appearances may be explained, when
+those bodies are thus divided without any other separation
+in the mass.</p>
+
+<p>The second example is found in the vertical strata of
+those mountains through which the Rhône has made its
+way in running from the great valley of the <i>Vallais</i> towards
+the lake of Geneva. (Chapitre xlviii.)</p>
+
+<p>"C'est une espèce de pétrosilex gris, dur, sonore, un
+peu transparent, qui se débite en feuillets minces parfaitement
+plans et réguliers. Ces feuillets, ou plutôt
+ces couches, courent à 35 degrés du nord par est, en
+montant du coté de l'ouest sous un angle de 80 degrés.
+Ces couches sont coupées par des fentes qui leur sont à-peu-près
+perpendiculaires et qui le sont aussi à l'horizon.
+Cette pierre s'emploie aux mêmes usage que l'ardoise,
+mais elle est beaucoup plus forte et plus durable, parce
+qu'elle est plus dure et moins accessible aux impressions
+de l'eau et de l'air.</p>
+
+<p>§ 1047. "Ces pétrosilex feuilletés changent peu-à-peu
+de nature, en admettant dans les interstices de leurs
+feuillets des parties de feldspath. Ils out alors l'apparence
+d'une roche feuilletée, quartzeuse et micacée,
+(<i>quartzum fornacum W.</i>). Mais cette apparence est
+trompeuse; car on n'y trouve pas un atome de quartz:
+toutes les parties blanches qui donnent du feu contre
+l'acier, font du feldspath; et les parties grise écailleuses
+ne font point du mica, ce sont de lames minces du pétrosilex
+dont j'ai déjà parlé."</p>
+
+<p>Here is evidently what I would call petuntze strata, or
+porcelane stone, that is, strata formed by the deposits of
+such materials as might come from the <i>detritus</i> of granite,
+arranged at the bottom of the sea, and consolidated by
+heat in the mineral regions. We have precisely such stratified
+masses in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh. I have
+also a specimen of the same kind, brought from the East
+Indies, in which there is the print of an organized body.
+I believe it to be of some coralline or zoophite.</p>
+
+<p>§ 1048. "Cette roche mélangée continue jusqu'à ce
+que le rocher s'éloigne un peu du grand chemin. Là,
+ce rocher se présente coupé à pic dans une grande étendue,
+et divisé par de grandes fentes obliques, à-peu-près
+parallèles entr'elles. Ces fentes partagent la montagne
+en grandes tranches de 50 à 60 pieds d'épaisseur,
+que de loin semblent être des couches. Mais lorsqu'on
+s'en approche, on voit, par le tissu même de la pierre
+feuilletée, que ses vraies couches font avec l'horizon des
+angles de 70 à 75 degré, et que ces grandes divisions
+sont de vraies fentes par lesquelles un grand nombre de
+couches consécutives sont coupées presque perpendiculairement
+à leurs plans. Les masses de rocher, comprises
+entre ces grandes fentes, sont encore divisées par
+d'autres fentes plus petites, dont la plupart sont paralleles
+aux grandes, d'autres leur sont obliques; mais
+toutes sont à très-peu-près perpendiculaires aux plans
+des couchés dont la montagne est composée."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a distinct view of that which may be found to
+take place in all consolidated strata, whatever be the composition
+of the stratum; and it is this appearance which is
+here maintained to be a physical demonstration, that those
+strata had been consolidated by means of heat softening
+their materials. In that case, those stratified bodies, contracting
+in cooling, form veins and fissures traversing perpendicularly
+their planes; and these veins are afterwards
+filled with mineral substances. These are what I have
+here distinguished as the <i>particular</i> veins of mineral masses;
+things perfectly different from proper mineral or metallic
+veins, which are more general, as belonging to immense
+masses of those strata; and which had been formed,
+not from the contraction, but from the disrupture of those
+masses, and by the forcible injection of fluid mineral substances
+from below. Now these two species of veins, the
+particular and the general, although occasionally connected,
+must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one,
+we see the means which had been employed for the
+consolidation of the strata; in the other, we see that
+power by which the strata have been raised from the bottom
+of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Error never can be consistent, nor can truth
+fail of having support from the accurate examination
+of every circumstance. It is not
+enough to have found appearances decisive of
+the question, with regard to the two suppositions
+which have been now considered, we
+may farther seek confirmation of that supposition
+which has been found alone consistent
+with appearances.</p>
+
+<p>If it be by means of heat and fusion that
+strata have been consolidated, then, in proportion
+to the degree of consolidation they have
+undergone from their original state, they
+should, <i>caeteris paribus</i>, abound more with
+separations in their mass. But this conclusion
+is found consistent with appearances. A stratum
+of porous sand-stone does not abound so
+much with veins and cutters as a similar stratum
+of marble, or even a similar stratum of
+sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
+therefore, as strata have been consolidated,
+they are in general intersected with
+veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata
+are deep in their perpendicular section, the
+veins are wide, and placed at greater distances.
+In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins
+are many, but proportionally narrow.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be
+demonstrated, That all the solid strata of the
+globe have been condensed by means of heat,
+and hardened from a state of fusion. But this
+proposition is equally to be maintained from
+principles which are mechanical. The strata
+of the globe, besides being formed of earths,
+are composed of sand, of gravel, and fragments
+of hard bodies, all which may be considered
+as, in their nature, simple; but these
+strata are also found composed of bodies which
+are not simple, but are fragments of former
+strata, which had been consolidated, and afterwards
+were broken and worn by attrition, so
+as to be made gravel. Strata composed in
+this manner have been again consolidated;
+and now the question is, By what means?</p>
+
+<p>If strata composed of such various bodies
+had been consolidated, by any manner of concretion,
+from the fluidity of a dissolution, the
+hard and solid bodies must be found in their
+entire state, while the interstices between those
+constituent parts of the stratum are filled up.
+No partial fracture can be conceived as introduced
+into the middle of a solid mass of hard
+matter, without having been communicated
+from the surrounding parts. But such partial
+separations are found in the middle of those
+hard and solid masses; therefore, this compound
+body must have been consolidated by
+other means than that of concretion from a
+state of a solution.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish marble already described, as
+well as many consolidated strata of siliceous
+gravel, of which I have specimens, afford the
+clearest evidence of this fact. These hard
+bodies are perfectly united together, in forming
+the most solid mass; the contiguous parts
+of some of the rounded fragments are interlaced
+together, as has already been observed;
+and there are partial shrinkings of the mass
+forming veins, traversing several fragments,
+but perfectly filled with the sparry substance
+of the mass, and sometimes with parts of the
+stone distinctly floating in the transparent body
+of spar. Now, there is not, besides heat or
+fusion, any known power in nature by which
+these effects might be produced. But such
+effects are general to all consolidated masses,
+although not always so well illustrated in a
+cabinet specimen.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have discovered a truth that is
+confirmed by every appearance, so far as the
+nature of the subject now examined admits.
+We now return to the general operation, of
+forming continents of those materials which
+had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>SECTION III.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Investigation of the Natural Operations employed
+in the Production of Land above the
+Surface of the Sea.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>We seek to know that operation by means of
+which masses of loose materials, collected at
+the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
+surface, and transformed into solid land.</p>
+
+<p>We have found, that there is not in this
+globe (as a planet revolving in the solar system)
+any power or motion adapted to the
+purpose now in view; nor, were there such
+a power, could a mass of simply collected
+materials have continued any considerable
+time to resist the waves and currents natural to
+the sea, but must have been quickly carried
+away, and again deposited at the bottom of
+the ocean. But we have found, that there
+had been operations, natural to the bowels of
+this earth; by which those loose and unconnected
+materials have been cemented together,
+and consolidated into masses of great strength
+and hardness; those bodies are thus enabled
+to resist the force of waves and currents, and
+to preserve themselves, for a sufficient time,
+in their proper shape and place, as land above
+the general surface of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>We now desire to know, how far those internal
+operations of the globe, by which solidity
+and stability are procured to the beds of
+loose materials, may have been also employed
+in raising up a continent of land, to remain
+above the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing so proper for the erection
+of land above the level of the ocean, as an expansive
+power of sufficient force, applied directly
+under materials in the bottom of the
+sea, under a mass that is proper for the formation
+of land when thus erected. The
+question is not, how such a power may be
+procured; such a power has probably been
+employed. If, therefore, such a power should
+be consistent with that which we found had
+actually been employed in preparing the erected
+mass; or, if such a power is to be reasonably
+concluded as accompanying those operations
+which we have found natural to the
+globe, and situated in the very place where
+this expansive power appears to be required,
+we should thus be led to perceive, in the natural
+operations of the globe, a power as efficacious
+for the elevation of what had been at
+the bottom of the sea into the place of land,
+as it is perfect for the preparation of those
+materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to this conclusion, it will not
+be allowed to allege; that we are ignorant
+how such a power might be exerted under
+the bottom of the ocean; for, the present
+question is not, what had been the cause of
+heat, which has appeared to have been produced
+in that place, but if this power of heat,
+which has certainly been exerted at the bottom
+of the ocean for consolidating strata, had
+been employed also for another purpose, that
+is, for raising those strata into the place of
+land.</p>
+
+<p>We may, perhaps, account for the elevation
+of land, by the same cause with that of
+the consolidation of strata, already investigated,
+without explaining the means employed
+by nature in procuring the power of heat, or
+showing from what general source of action
+this particular power had been derived; but,
+by finding in subterranean heat a cause for
+any other change, besides the consolidation of
+porous or incoherent bodies, we shall generalise
+a fact, or extend our knowledge in the
+explanation of natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The power of heat for the expansion of
+bodies, is, so far as we know, unlimited; but,
+by the expansion of bodies placed under the
+strata at the bottom of the sea, the elevation
+of those strata may be effected; and the question
+now to be resolved regards the actual exertion
+of this power of expansion. How far
+it is to be concluded as having been employed
+in the production of this earth above the level
+of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Before attempting to resolve that question,
+it may be proper to observe, there has been
+exerted an extreme degree of heat below the
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea; and
+this is precisely the action of a power required
+for the elevation of those heated bodies into a
+higher place. Therefore, if there is no other
+way in which we may conceive this event to
+have been brought about, consistent with the
+present state of things, or what actually appears,
+we shall have a right to conclude, that
+such had been the order of procedure in natural
+things, and that the strata formed at the
+bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
+consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.</p>
+
+<p>The consolidation of strata by means of
+fusion or the power of heat, has been concluded
+from the examination of nature, and from
+finding, that the present state of things is inconsistent
+with any other supposition. Now,
+again, we are considering the only power that
+may be conceived as capable of elevating strata
+from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
+a mass above the surface of the water. It is
+a truth unquestionable, that what had been
+originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
+the highest of our land. In explaining
+this appearance, therefore, no other alternative
+is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by
+the power of heat above the level of the present
+sea, or the surface of the ocean reduced
+many miles below the height at which it had
+subsisted during the collection and induration
+of the land which we inhabit.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose
+no general power of subterraneous fire
+or heat, we leave to our theory no means for
+the retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its
+surface; if, on the other hand, we are to allow
+the general power of subterraneous heat,
+we cannot have much difficulty in supposing,
+either the surface of the sea to have subsided,
+or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts,
+to have been raised by a subterranean power
+above the level of its surface, according as appearances
+shall be found to require the one or
+other of those conclusions. Here, therefore,
+we are again remitted to the history of nature,
+in order to find matter of fact by which this
+question may be properly decided.</p>
+
+<p>If the present land had been discovered by
+the subsiding of the waters, there has not been
+a former land, from whence materials had
+been procured for the construction of the present,
+when at the bottom of the sea; for, there
+is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole
+land of the present earth having been formed
+evidently at the bottom of the sea. Neither
+could the natural productions of the sea have
+been accumulated, in the shape in which we
+now find them, on the surface of this earth;
+for, How should the Alps and Andes have
+been formed within the sea from the natural
+productions of the water? Consequently, this
+is a supposition inconsistent with every natural
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence
+of the former ocean, for the purpose of discovering
+the present land, is beset with more
+difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom
+of the former ocean; for, <i>first</i>, There is
+a place to provide for the retirement of the
+waters of the ocean; and, <i>2dly</i>, There is required
+a work of equal magnitude; this is,
+the swallowing up of that former continent,
+which had procured the materials of the present
+land.</p>
+
+<p>On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface
+of the ocean would but make the former
+land appear the higher; and, on the other,
+the sinking the body of the former land into
+the solid globe, so as to swallow up the greater
+part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
+would be at least a superfluous exertion
+of the power of nature. Such an operation
+as this would discover as little wisdom
+in the end elected, as in the means appropriated
+to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
+and worn away in the natural operations of
+the globe, Why make such a convulsion in the
+world in order to renew the land? If, again,
+the land naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary
+a power, in order to hide a former
+continent of land, and puzzle man?</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider how far the other proposition,
+of strata being elevated by the power
+of heat above the level of the sea, may be confirmed
+from the examination of natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The strata formed at the bottom of the
+ocean are necessarily horizontal in their position,
+or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
+direction or extent. They may change,
+and gradually assume the nature of each other,
+so far as concerns the materials of which they
+are formed; but there cannot be any sudden
+change, fracture, or displacement, naturally in
+the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are
+cemented by the heat of fusion, and erected
+with an expansive power acting below, we
+may expect to find every species of fracture,
+dislocation, and contortion, in those bodies,
+and every degree of departure from a horizontal
+towards a vertical position.</p>
+
+<p>The strata of the globe are actually found
+in every possible position: For, from horizontal,
+they are frequently found vertical; from
+continuous, they are broken and separated in
+every possible direction; and, from a plane,
+they are bent and doubled. It is impossible
+that they could have originally been formed,
+by the known laws of nature, in their present
+state and position; and the power that has
+been necessarily required for their change, has
+not been inferior to that which might have
+been required for their elevation from the
+place in which they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>In this cafe, natural appearances are not
+anomalous. They are, indeed, infinitely various,
+as they ought to be, according to the
+rule; but all those varieties in appearances
+conspire to prove one general truth, viz. That
+all which we see had been originally composed
+according to certain principles, established
+in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
+and that those regular compositions had been
+afterwards greatly changed by the operations
+of another power, which had introduced apparent
+confusion among things first formed in
+order and by rule.</p>
+
+<p>It is concerning the operation of this second
+power that we are now inquiring; and here
+the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
+mineral regions are as instructive, with regard
+to what had been transacted in a former period
+of time, as the order and regularity of those
+same regions are conclusive, in relation to the
+place in which a former state of things had
+produced that which, in its changed state, we
+now perceive.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to conclude, that the land on
+which we dwell had been elevated from a
+lower situation by the same agent which had
+been employed in consolidating the strata, in
+giving them stability, and preparing them for
+the purpose of the living world. This agent
+is matter actuated by extreme heat, and expanded
+with amazing force.</p>
+
+<p>If this has been the case, it will be reasonable
+to expect, that some of the expanded
+matter might be found condensed in the bodies
+which have been heated by that igneous
+vapour; and that matter, foreign to the strata,
+may have been thus introduced into the fractures
+and separations of those indurated masses.</p>
+
+<p>We have but to open our eyes to be convinced
+of this truth. Look into the sources
+of our mineral treasures; ask the miner, from
+whence has come the metal into his vein?
+Not from the earth or air above,&mdash;not from
+the strata which the vein traverses; these do
+not contain one atom of the minerals now
+considered. There is but one place from
+whence these minerals may have come; this
+is the bowels of the earth, the place of power
+and expansion, the place from whence must
+have proceeded that intense heat by which loose
+materials have been consolidated into rocks,
+as well as that enormous force by which the
+regular strata have been broken and displaced.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention is here peculiarly called upon,
+where we have the opportunity of examining
+those mineral bodies, which have
+immediately proceeded from the unknown
+region, that place of power and energy which
+we want to explore; for, if such is the system
+of the earth, that materials are first deposited
+at the bottom of the ocean, there to be prepared
+in a certain manner, in order to acquire
+solidity, and then to be elevated into the proper
+place of land, these mineral veins, which
+contain matter absolutely foreign to the surface
+of the earth, afford the most authentic information
+with regard to the operations which
+we want to understand. It is these veins
+which we are to consider as, in some measure,
+the continuation of that mineral region, which
+lies necessarily out of all possible reach of our
+examination. It is, therefore, peculiarly interesting
+to know the state in which things
+are to be found in this place, which may be
+considered as intermediate between the solid
+land, upon the one hand, and the unknown
+regions of the earth, upon the other.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to examine those mineral
+veins; and these may be considered, first, in
+relation to their form, independent of their
+substance or particular contents; and, secondly,
+in relation to the contained bodies, independent
+of their form.</p>
+
+<p>In examining consolidated strata, we remarked
+veins and cutters as a proof of the means
+by which those bodies had been consolidated.
+In that case, the formation of these veins is
+a regulated process, determined by the degree
+of fusion, and the circumstances of condensation
+or refrigeration. In respect of these, the
+mineral veins now to be examined are anomalous.
+They are; but we know not why
+or how. We see the effect; but, in that effect,
+we do not see the cause. We can say,
+negatively, that the cause of mineral veins is
+not that by which the veins and fissures of
+consolidated strata have been formed; consequently,
+that it is not the measured contraction
+and regulated condensation of the consolidated
+land which has formed those general
+mineral veins; however, veins, similar in
+many respects, have been formed by the cooperation
+of this cause.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus taken a view of the evident
+distinction between the veins or contractions
+that are particular to the consolidated body in
+which they are found, and those more general
+veins which are not limited to that cause, we
+may now consider what is general in the subject,
+or what is universal in these effects of
+which we wish to investigate the cause.</p>
+
+<p>The event of highest generalization or universality,
+in the form of those mineral veins,
+is fracture and dislocation. It is not, like that
+of the veins of strata, simple separation and
+measured contraction; it is violent fracture
+and unlimited dislocation. In the one case,
+the forming cause is in the body which is separated;
+for, after the body had been actuated
+by heat, it is by the reaction of the proper
+matter of the body, that the chasm which
+constitutes the vein is formed. In the other
+case, again, the cause is extrinsic in relation to
+the body in which the chasm is formed.
+There has been the most violent fracture and
+divulsion; but the cause is still to seek; and
+it appears not in the vein; for it is not every
+fracture and dislocation of the solid body of
+our earth, in which minerals, or the proper
+substances of mineral veins, are found.</p>
+
+<p>We are now examining matter of fact, real
+effects, from whence we would investigate the
+nature of certain events which do not now
+appear. Of these, two kinds occur; one
+which has relation to the hardness and solidity,
+or the natural constitution of the body;
+the other, to its shape or local situation. The
+first has been already considered; the last is
+now the subject of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>But, in examining those natural appearances,
+we find two different kinds of veins;
+the one necessarily connected with the consolidating
+cause; the other with that cause of
+which we now particularly inquire. For, in
+those great mineral veins, violent fracture and
+dislocation is the principle; but there is no
+other principle upon which strata, or masses
+formed at the bottom of the sea, can be placed
+at a height above its surface. Hence, in those
+two different operations, of forming mineral
+veins, and erecting strata from a lower to a
+higher place, the principle is the same; for,
+neither can be done without violent fracture
+and dislocation.</p>
+
+<p>We now only want to know, how far it is
+by the same power, as well as upon the same
+principle, that these two operations have been
+made. An expansive force, acting from below,
+is the power most proper for erecting
+masses; but whether it is a power of the same
+nature with that which has been employed in
+forming mineral veins, will best appear in
+knowing the nature of their contents. These,
+therefore, may be now considered.</p>
+
+<p>Every species of fracture, and every degree
+of dislocation and contortion, may be perceived
+in the form of mineral veins; and there is
+no other general principle to be observed in
+examining their form. But, in examining
+their contents, some other principle may appear,
+so far as, to the dislocating power or
+force, there may be superadded matter, by
+which something in relation to the nature of
+the power may be known. If, for example,
+a tree or a rock shall be found simply split
+asunder, although there be no doubt with regard
+to some power having been applied in
+order to produce the effect, yet we are left
+merely to conjecture at the power. But when
+wedges of wood or iron, or frozen water,
+should be found lodged in the cleft, we might
+be enabled, from this appearance, to form a
+certain judgment with regard to the nature of
+the power which had been applied. This is
+the case with mineral veins. We find them
+containing matter, which indicates a cause;
+and every information in this case is interesting
+to the theory.</p>
+
+<p>The substances contained in mineral veins
+are precisely the same with those which, in
+the former section, we have considered as being
+made instrumental in the consolidation of
+strata; and they are found mixed and concreted
+in every manner possible.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this evidence for the exertion
+of extreme heat, in that process by which
+those veins were filled, there is another important
+observation to be gathered from the
+inspection of this subject. There appears to
+have been a great mechanical power employed
+in the filling of these veins, as well as that
+necessarily required in making the first fracture
+and divulsion.</p>
+
+<p>This appears from the order of the contents,
+or filling of these veins, which is a
+thing often observed to be various and successive.
+But what it is chiefly now in view
+to illustrate, is that immense force which is
+manifested in the fracture and dispersion of
+the solid contents which had formerly filled
+those veins. Here we find fragments of rock
+and spar floating in the body of a vein filled
+with metallic substances; there, again, we see
+the various fragments of metallic masses floating
+in the sparry and siliceous contents.</p>
+
+<p>One thing is demonstrable from the inspection
+of the veins and their contents; this is,
+the successive irruptions of those fluid substances
+breaking the solid bodies which they
+meet, and floating those fragments of the broken
+bodies in the vein. It is very common
+to see three successive series of those operations;
+and all this may be perceived in a
+small fragment of stone, which a man of
+science may examine in his closet, often better
+than descending to the mine, where all
+the examples are found on an enlarged scale.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what power would be
+required to force up, from the most unfathomable
+depth of the ocean, to the Andes
+or the Alps, a column of fluid metal and of
+stone. This power cannot be much less than
+that required to elevate the highest land upon
+the globe. Whether, therefore, we shall consider
+the general veins as having been filled
+by mineral steams, or by fluid minerals, an
+elevating power of immense force is still required,
+in order to form as well as fill those
+veins. But such a power acting under the
+consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea,
+is the only natural means for making those
+masses land.</p>
+
+<p>If such have been the operations that are
+necessary for the production of this land;
+and if these operations are natural to the
+globe of this earth, as being the effect of wisdom
+in its contrivance, we shall have reason
+to look for the actual manifestation of this
+truth in the phaenomena of nature, or those
+appearances which more immediately discover
+the actual cause in the perceived effect.</p>
+
+<p>To see the evidence of marble, a body that
+is solid, having been formed of loose materials
+collected at the bottom of the sea, is not
+always easy, although it may be made abundantly
+plain; and to be convinced that this
+calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in
+our fires, should have been brought into fusion
+by subterraneous heat, without suffering
+calcination, must require a chain of reasoning
+which every one is not able to attain<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a>. But
+when fire bursts forth from the bottom of the
+sea, and when the land is heaved up and down,
+so as to demolish cities in an instant, and split
+asunder rocks and solid mountains, there is
+nobody but must see in this a power, which
+may be sufficient to accomplish every view of
+nature in erecting land, as it is situated in the
+place most advantageous for that purpose.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag13"> (return) </a> Mr le Chevalier de Dolomieu, in considering the different
+effects of heat, has made the following observation;
+Journal de Physique, Mai 1792.
+
+<p>"Je dis <i>le feu tel que nous l'employons</i> pour distinguer
+le feu naturel des volcans, du feu de nos fourneaux et
+de celui de nos chalumeaux. Nous sommes obligés de
+donner une grande activité à son action pour suppléer
+et au volume qui ne seroit pas à notre disposition et au
+tems que nous sommes forcés de ménager, et cette manière
+d'appliquer une chaleur très-active, communique
+le mouvement et le désordre jusques dans les molécules
+constituantes. Agrégation et composition, tout est
+troublé. Dans les volcans la grand masse du feu supplée
+à son intensité, le tems remplace son activité, de
+manière qu'il tourmente moins les corps fournis à son
+action; il ménage leur composition en relâchant leur
+agrégation, et les pierres qui eut été rendues fluides par
+l'embrasement volcanique peuvent reprendre leur état
+primitif; la plupart des substances qu'un feu plus actif
+auroit expulsées y restent encore. Voilà pourquoi les
+laves ressemblent tellement aux pierres naturelles des
+espèces analogues, qu'elles ne peuvent en être distinguées;
+voilà également pourquoi les verres volcaniques
+eux-même renferment encore des substances élastiques
+qui les font boursoufler lorsque nous les fondons de
+nouveau, et pourquoi ces verres blanchissent aussi, pour
+lors, par la dissipation, d'une substance grasse qui a résisté
+à la chaleur des volcans, et que volatilise la chaleur
+par laquelle nous obtenons leur second fusion."</p>
+
+<p>No doubt, the long application of heat may produce
+changes in bodies very different from those which are
+occasioned by the sudden application of a more intense
+heat; but still there must be sufficient intensity in that
+power, so as to cause fluidity, without which no chemical
+change can be produced in bodies. The essential difference,
+however, between the natural heat of the mineral
+regions, and that which we excite upon the surface of the
+earth, consists in this; that nature applies heat under circumstances
+which we are not able to imitate, that is, under
+such compression as shall prevent the decomposition of
+the constituent substances, by the separation of the more
+volatile from the more fixed parts. This is a circumstance
+which, so far as I know, no chemist or naturalist
+has hitherto considered; and it is that by which the operations
+of the mineral regions must certainly be explained.
+Without attending to this great principle in the mineralizing
+operations of subterraneous fire, it is impossible
+to conceive the fusion and concretion of those various bodies,
+which we examine when brought up to the surface
+of the earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The only question, therefore, which it concerns
+us to decide at present, is, Whether those
+operations of extreme heat, and violent mechanic
+force, be only in the system as a matter
+of accident; or if, on the contrary, they are
+operations natural to the globe, and necessary
+in the production of such land as this which
+we inhabit? The answer to this is plain:
+These operations of the globe remain at present
+with undiminished activity, or in the fullness
+of their power.</p>
+
+<p>A stream of melted lava flows from the sides
+of Mount Aetna. Here is a column of weighty
+matter raised from a great depth below, to
+an immense height above, the level of the sea,
+and rocks of an enormous size are projected
+from its orifice some miles into the air. Every
+one acknowledges that here is the liquefying
+power and expansive force of subterranean
+fire, or violent heat. But, that Sicily itself had
+been raised from the bottom of the ocean, and
+that the marble called Sicilian Jasper, had its
+solidity upon the same principle with the lava,
+would stumble many a naturalist to acknowledge.
+Nevertheless, I have in my possession
+a table of this marble, from which it is demonstrable,
+that this calcareous stone had flowed,
+and been in such a state of fusion and fluidity
+as lava.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a comparison formed of two mineral
+substances, to which it is of the highest importance
+to attend. The solidity and present
+state of the one of these is commonly thought
+to be the operation of fire; of the other, again,
+it is thought to be that of water. This, however,
+is not the case. The immediate state and
+condition of both these bodies is now to be
+considered as equally the effect of fire or heat.
+The reason of our forming such a different
+judgment with regard to these two subjects is
+this; we see, in the one case, the more immediate
+connection of the cause and the effect,
+while, in the other, we have only the effects
+from whence we are in science to investigate
+the cause.</p>
+
+<p>But, if it were necessary always to see this
+immediate connection, in order to acknowledge
+the operation of a power which, at present, is
+extinguished in the effect, we should lose the
+benefit of science, or general principles, from
+whence particulars may be deduced, and we
+should be able to reason no better than the
+brute. Man is made for science; he reasons
+from effects to causes, and from causes to effects;
+but he does not always reason without
+error. In reasoning, therefore, from appearances
+which are particular, care must be taken
+how we generalise; we should be cautious not
+to attribute to nature, laws which may perhaps
+be only of our own invention.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate question now before us is
+not, If the subterraneous fire, or elevating
+power, which we perceive sometimes as operating
+with such energy, be the consolidating
+cause of strata formed at the bottom of the
+sea; nor, if that power be the means of making
+land appear above the general surface of
+the water? for, though this be the end we want
+to arrive at ultimately, the question at present
+in agitation respects the laws of nature, or the
+generality of particular appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Has the globe within it such an active power
+as fits it for the renovation of that part of its
+constitution which may be subject to decay?
+Are those powerful operations of fire, or subterraneous
+heat, which so often have filled us
+with terror and astonishment, to be considered
+as having always been? Are they to be concluded
+as proper to every part upon the globe,
+and as continual in the system of this earth?
+If these points in question shall be decided in
+the affirmative, we can be at no loss in ascertaining
+the power which has consolidated strata,
+nor in explaining the present situation of
+those bodies, which had their origin at the bottom
+of the sea. This, therefore, should be the
+object of our pursuit; and in order to have demonstration
+in a case of physical inquiry, we
+must again have recourse to the book of nature.</p>
+
+<p>The general tendency of heat is to produce
+fluidity and softness; as that of cold is, on the
+contrary, to harden soft and fluid bodies. But
+this softening power of heat is not uniform in
+its nature; it is made to act with very different
+effect, according to the nature of the substance
+to which it is applied. We are but limited in
+the art of increasing the heat or the cold of
+bodies; we find, however, extreme difference
+in their substances with respect to fusibility.</p>
+
+<p>A fusible substance, or mineral composition
+in a fluid state, is emitted from those places of
+the earth at which subterraneous fire and expansive
+force are manifested in those eruptive
+operations. In examining these emitted bodies,
+men of science find a character for such
+productions, in generalising the substance, and
+understanding the natural constitution of those
+bodies. It is in this manner that such a person,
+finding a piece of lava in any place of
+the earth, says with certainty, Here is a stone
+which had congealed from a melted state.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found a distinguishing character
+for those fused substances called, in general,
+Lavas, and having the most visible marks for
+that which had been actually a volcano, naturalists,
+in examining different countries, have
+discovered the most undoubted proofs of many
+ancient volcanos, which had not been before
+suspected. Thus, volcanos will appear to be
+not a matter of accident, or as only happening
+in a particular place, they are general to the
+globe, so far as there is no place upon the earth
+that may not have an eruption of this kind;
+although it is by no means necessary for every
+place to have had those eruptions.</p>
+
+<p>Volcanos are natural to the globe, as general
+operations; but we are not to consider nature
+as having a burning mountain for an end
+in her intention, or as a principal purpose in
+the general system of this world. The end of
+nature in placing an internal fire or power of
+heat, and a force of irresistible expansion, in
+the body of this earth, is to consolidate the
+sediment collected at the bottom of the sea,
+and to form thereof a mass of permanent land
+above the level of the ocean, for the purpose
+of maintaining plants and animals. The power
+appointed for this purpose is, as on all other
+occasions, where the operation is important,
+and where there is any danger of a shortcoming,
+wisely provided in abundance; and
+there are contrived means for disposing of the
+redundancy. These, in the present case, are
+our volcanos.</p>
+
+<p>A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten
+superstitious people into fits of piety and
+devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities
+with destruction; a volcano should be considered
+as a spiracle to the subterranean furnace,
+in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation
+of land, and fatal effects of earthquakes; and
+we may rest assured, that they, in general,
+wisely answer the end of their intention, without
+being in themselves an end, for which nature
+had exerted such amazing power and excellent
+contrivance.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a view of the most elevated
+places of the earth; if the present theory is
+just, it is there that we should find volcanos.
+But is not this the case? There are volcanos
+in the Andes; and round the Alps we find
+many volcanos, which are in France upon the
+one side, and in Germany upon the other, as
+well as upon the Italian side, where Vesuvius
+still continues to exhibit violent eruptions.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant to allege, that it is only upon
+the summit of a continent volcanos should
+appear. Subterraneous fire has sometimes made
+its appearance in bursting from the bottom of
+the sea. But, even in this last case, land was
+raised from the bottom of the sea, before the
+eruption made its exit into the atmosphere. It
+must also be evident, that, in this case of the
+new island near Santorini, had the expansive
+power been retained, instead of being discharged,
+much more land might have been raised
+above the level of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the eruption of that elastic force
+through the bottom of the sea, may be considered
+as a waste of power in the operations
+of the globe, where the elevation of indurated
+strata is an object in the exertion of that power;
+whereas, in the centre of a continent sufficiently
+elevated above the level of the sea, the eruption
+of that fiery vapour calculated to elevate
+the land, while it may occasionally destroy
+the habitations of a few, provides for the security
+and quiet possession of the many.</p>
+
+<p>In order to see the wisdom of this contrivance,
+let us consider the two extreme places
+at which this eruption of ignited matter may
+be performed. These are, on the one hand,
+within a continent of land, and, on the other,
+at the bottom of the ocean. In the one case,
+the free eruption of the expanding power
+should be permitted; because the purpose for
+which it had been calculated to exist has been
+accomplished. In the other, again, the free
+eruption of that powerful matter should be
+repressed; because there is reserved for that
+power much of another operation in that place.
+But, according to the wise constitution of
+things, this must necessarily happen. The
+eruption of the fiery vapour from volcanos
+on the continent or land, is interrupted only
+occasionally, by the melted bodies flowing in
+the subterraneous chimney; whereas, at the
+bottom of the ocean, the contact of the water
+necessarily tends to close the orifice, by accumulating
+condensed matter upon the weakest
+place.</p>
+
+<p>If this be a just theory of the natural operations
+of the globe, we shall have reason to
+expect, that great quantities of this melted
+matter, or fusible substance, may be found in
+form of lava, among the strata of the earth,
+where there are no visible marks of any volcano,
+or burning mountain, having existed.
+Here, therefore, is an important point to be
+determined; for, if it shall appear that much
+of this melted matter, analogous to lava, has
+been forced to flow among the strata which
+had been formed at the bottom of the sea, and
+now are found forming dry land above its surface,
+it will be allowed, that we have discovered
+the secret operations of nature concocting
+future land, as well as those by which the present
+habitable earth had been produced from
+the bottom of the abyss. Here, therefore, we
+shall at present rest the argument, with endeavouring
+to show that such is actually the case.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from Cronstedt's Mineralogy,
+that the rock-stone, called trap by the Swedes,
+the amygdaloides and the schwarts-stein of
+the Germans, are the same with the whin-stone
+of this country. This is also fully confirmed
+by specimens from Sweden, sent me
+by my friend Dr Gahn. Whatever, therefore,
+shall be ascertained with regard to our
+whin-stone, may be so far generalized or extended
+to the countries of Norway, Sweden,
+and Germany.</p>
+
+<p>The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same
+with the toad-stone of Derbyshire, which is of
+the amygdaloides species; it is also the same
+with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire,
+which is a simple whin-stone, or perfect trap.
+England, therefore, must be included in this
+great space of land, the mineral operations of
+which we explore; and also Ireland, of which
+the Giant's Causeway, and many others, are
+sufficient proof.</p>
+
+<p>In the south of Scotland, there is a ridge of
+hills, which extends from the west side of the
+island in Galloway to the east side in Berwickshire,
+composed of granite, of schistus,
+and of siliceous strata. The Grampians on
+the north, again, form another range of
+mountains of the same kind; and between
+these two great fields of broken, tumbled, and
+distorted strata, there lies a field of lesser hardness
+and consolidation, in general; but a field
+in which there is a great manifestation of subterraneous
+fire, and of exerted force.</p>
+
+<p>The strata in this space consist, in general,
+of sand-stone, coal, lime-stone or marble, iron-stone,
+and marl or argillaceous strata, with
+strata of analogous bodies, and the various
+compositions of these. But what is to the
+present purpose is this, that, through all this
+space, there are interspersed immense quantities
+of whinstone; a body which is to be distinguished
+as very different from lava; and
+now the disposition of this whin-stone is to be
+considered.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it is found in an irregular mass
+or mountain, as Mr Cronstedt has properly observed;
+but he has also said, that this is not
+the case in general. His words are: "It is
+oftener found in form of veins in mountains
+of another kind, running commonly
+in a serpentine manner, contrary or across
+to the direction of the rock itself."</p>
+
+<p>The origin of this form, in which the trap
+or whin-stone appears, is most evident to inspection,
+when we consider that this solid
+body had been in a fluid state, and introduced,
+in that state, among strata, which preserved
+their proper form. The strata appear to have
+been broken, and the two correspondent parts
+of those strata are separated to admit the flowing
+mass of whin-stone.</p>
+
+<p>A fine example of this kind may be seen
+upon the south side of the Earn, on the road
+to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands
+perpendicular, and appears many feet above
+the surface of the ground. It runs from that
+eastward, and would seem to be the same with
+that which crosses the river Tay, in forming
+Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser one of
+the same kind does below it. I have seen it
+at Lednoc upon the Ammon, where it forms
+a cascade in that river, about five or six miles
+west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from
+the Tay east through Strathmore, so that it
+may be considered as having been traced for
+twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to
+Drummond castle, perhaps much farther.</p>
+
+<p>Two small veins of the same kind, only
+two or three feet wide, may be seen in the
+bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the
+horizontal strata, the one is above St Bernard's
+well, the other immediately below it. But,
+more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the
+north of Irvine, there are to be seen upon the
+coast, between that and Scarmorly, in the
+space of about twenty miles, more than twenty
+or thirty such dykes (as they are called) of
+whin-stone. Some of them are of a great
+thickness; and, in some places, there is perceived
+a short one, running at right angles,
+and communicating with other two that run
+parallel.</p>
+
+<p>There is in this country, and in Derbyshire<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a>,
+another regular appearance of this stone,
+which Cronstedt has not mentioned. In this
+case, the strata are not broken in order to have
+the whin-stone introduced, they are separated,
+and the whin-stone is interjected in form of
+strata, having various degrees of regularity,
+and being of different thickness. On the
+south side of Edinburgh, I have seen, in little
+more than the space of a mile from east to
+west, nine or ten masses of whin-stone interjected
+among the strata. These masses of whin-stone
+are from three or four to an hundred feet
+thick, running parallel in planes inclined to
+the horizon, and forming with it an angle of
+about twenty or thirty degrees, as may be
+seen at all times in the hill of Salisbury
+Craggs.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag14"> (return) </a> See Mr Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus described these masses, which
+have flowed by means of heat among the strata
+of the globe, strata which had been formed
+by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will
+now be proper to examine the difference that
+subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as
+they may be termed, and the analogous bodies
+which are proper lavas, in having issued out
+of a volcano.<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag15"> (return) </a> The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination
+of Aetna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed
+the distinction of these two different species of lavas;
+but without seeming to know the principle upon
+which this essential difference depends. No bias of system,
+therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's
+view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting
+to the present theory, as corresponding perfectly
+with the facts from whence it has been formed. It will
+be proper to give the account of these in his own words.
+
+<p>La zéolite est très-commune dans certains laves de
+l'Ethna; il seroit peut-être possible d'y en rencontrer des
+morceaux aussi gros que ceux que fournit l'isle de Ferroé.
+Quoique cette substance semble ici appartenir aux laves, je
+ne dirai cependant point que toutes les zéolites soient volcaniques,
+ou unies à des matières volcaniques; celles que
+l'on trouve en Allemagne sont, dit-on, dans des circonstances
+différentes; mais je doit annoncer que je n'ai
+trouvé cette substance en Sicile, que dans les seules laves
+qui évidemment ont coulé dans la mer, et qui out été recouvertes
+par ses eaux. La zéolite des laves n'est point une
+déjection volcanique, ni une production du feu, ni même
+un matière que les laves aient enveloppée lorsqu'elles
+étoient fluides; elle est le résultat d'une opération et d'une
+combinaison postérieure, auxquelles les eaux de la mer ont
+concouru. Les laves qui n'ont pas été submergées, n'en
+contiennent jamais. J'ai trouvé ces observations si constantes,
+que par-tout où je rencontrois de la zéolite, j'étois
+sûr de trouver d'autres preuves de submersion, et partout
+où je voyois des laves recouvertes des dépôts de l'eau, j'étois
+sûr de trouver de la zéolite, et un de ces faits m'a
+toujours indiqué l'autre. Je me suis servi avec succès de
+cette observation pour diriger mes recherches, et pour
+connoître l'antiquité des laves. <i>Minéralogie de Volcans,
+par M. Faujas de Saint-Fond</i>. Here would appear to be
+the distinction of subterraneous lava, in which zeolite and
+calcareous spar may be found, and that which has flowed
+from a volcano, in which neither of these are ever observed.</blockquote>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that these two different
+species of bodies have had the same
+origin, and that they are composed of the
+same materials nearly; but from the different
+circumstances Of their production, there is
+formed a character to these bodies, by which,
+they may be perfectly distinguished. The
+difference of those circumstances consists in
+this; the one has been emitted to the atmosphere
+in its fluid state the other only came to
+be exposed to the light in a long course of
+time, after it had congealed under the compression
+of an immense load of earth, and after
+certain operations, proper to the mineral regions,
+had been exercised upon the indurated
+mass. This is the cause of the difference between
+those erupted lavas, and our whin-stone,
+toad-stone, and the Swedish trap, which may
+be termed subterraneous lava. The visible effects
+of those different operations may now
+be mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the erupted lavas, those substances which
+are subject to calcine and vitrify in our fires,
+suffer similar changes, when delivered from a
+compression which had rendered them fixed,
+though in an extremely heated state. Thus,
+a lava in which there is much calcareous spar,
+when it comes to be exposed to the atmosphere,
+or delivered from the compressing force
+of its confinement, effervesces by the explosion
+of its fixed air; the calcareous earth, at
+the same time, vitrifies with the other substances.
+Hence such violent ebullition in volcanos,
+and hence the emission of so much pumice-stone
+and ashes, which are of the same
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>In the body of our whin-stone, on the contrary,
+there is no mark of calcination or vitrification.
+We frequently find in it much calcareous
+spar, or the <i>terra calcarea aerata</i>,
+which had been in a melted state by heat, and
+had been crystallized by congelation into a
+sparry form. Such is the <i>lapis amygdaloides</i>,
+and many of our whin-stone rocks, which
+contain pebbles crystallized and variously figured,
+both calcareous, siliceous, and of a mixture
+in which both these substances form distinct
+parts. The specimens of this kind,
+which I have from the whin-stone or porphyry
+rock of the Calton-hill, exhibit every
+species of mineral operation, in forming jasper,
+figured agate, and marble; and they demonstrate,
+that this had been performed by
+heat or fusion.</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to say, that this demonstration
+is direct; it is conditional, and proceeds
+upon the supposition, that the basaltic or porphyry
+rock, in which those specimens are
+found, is a body which had been in a melted
+state. Now, this is a supposition for which I
+have abundance of evidence, were it required;
+but naturalists are now sufficiently disposed to
+admit that proposition; they even draw conclusions
+from this fact, which, I think, they
+are not sufficiently warranted in doing; that
+is, from this appearance, they infer the former
+existence of volcanos in those places. For my
+part, though I have made the most strict examination,
+I never saw any vestige of such an
+event. That there are, in other countries,
+evident marks of volcanos which have been
+long extinguished, is unquestionably true; but
+naturalists, imagining that there are no other
+marks of subterraneous fire and fusion, except
+in the production of a lava, attribute to a volcano,
+as a cause, these effects, which only indicate
+the exertion of that power which might
+have been the cause of a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>If the theory now given be just, a rock of
+marble is no less a mark of subterraneous fire
+and fusion, than that of the basaltes; and the
+flowing of basaltic streams among strata broken
+and displaced, affords the most satisfactory
+evidence of those operations by which the
+body of our land had been elevated above the
+surface of the sea; but it gives no proof that
+the eruptive force of mineral vapours had
+been discharged in a burning mountain. Now,
+this discharge is essential in the proper idea of
+a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this internal mark of an unerupted
+lava in the substance of the stone or body of
+the flowing mass, there are others which belong
+to it in common with all other mineral
+strata, consolidated by subterraneous fire, and
+changed from the place of their original formation;
+this is, the being broken and dislocated,
+and having veins of foreign matter
+formed in their separations and contractions.</p>
+
+<p>If these are mineral operations, proper to
+the lower regions of the earth, and exerted
+upon bodies under immense compression, such
+things will be sometimes found in the unerupted
+lavas, as well as in the contiguous
+bodies with which they are associated. If,
+on the contrary, these are operations proper
+to the surface of the earth, where the dissolving
+power of water and air take place, and
+where certain stalactical and ferruginous concretions
+are produced by these means; then,
+in erupted lavas, we should find mineral concretions,
+which concretions should be denied
+to bodies which had been consolidated at the
+bottom of the sea; that is to say, where, without
+the operation of subterraneous fire, no
+changes of that kind could have taken place,
+as has already been observed. But in the
+unerupted species of lava, that is to say, in our
+whin-stone, every species of mineral appearance
+is occasionally to be found. Let those
+who have the opportunity to examine, say,
+what arc to be found in proper lavas, that is,
+those of the erupted kind. Sir William Hamilton
+informed me, when I showed him those
+mineral veins and spars in our whin-stone,
+that he had never observed the like, in lavas
+We have now formed some conclusions
+with regard to the nature and production of
+those parts of the land of this globe which we
+have had the means of examining perfectly;
+but; from the accounts of travellers, and from,
+the specimens which are brought to us from
+distant parts, we have reason to believe, that
+all the rest of the earth is of the same nature
+with that which has been now considered.
+The great masses of the earth are the same
+every where; and all the different species of
+earths, of rocks or stone, which have as yet
+appeared, are to be found in the little space
+of this our island.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that there are peculiar productions
+in the mineral kingdom which are rare,
+as being found only in few places; but these
+things are merely accidental in relation to the
+land, for they belong in property to those
+parts of the mineral region which we never
+see. Such are, the diamond of the east, the
+platina of the west, and the tin of Cornwall,
+Germany, and Sumatra. Gold and silver,
+though found in many countries, do not appear
+to be immediately necessary in the production
+of a habitable country. Iron, again,
+is universal in the operations of the globe, and
+is found often in that profusion which equals
+its utility. Between these two extremes, we
+find all other minerals, that is to say, here and
+there in moderate quantity, and apparently in
+some proportion to their use. But all these
+substances are to be considered as the vapours
+of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally
+in the crevices of the land; and it is only the
+rocks and strata (in which those mineral veins
+are found) that are now examined with regard
+to their original composition, at the bottom
+of the sea, as well as to that, operation by
+which those bodies had been indurated in their
+substance, and elevated from the place in which
+they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, we have sufficient reason to believe,
+that, in knowing the construction of the land
+in Europe, we know the constitution of the
+land in every part of the globe. Therefore,
+we may proceed to form general conclusions,
+from the knowledge of the mineral region,
+thus acquired in studying those parts which
+are seen.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found, <i>first</i>, That the consolidated
+and indurated masses of our strata had
+suffered the effects of violent heat and fusion;
+<i>2dly</i>, That those strata, which had been formed
+in a regular manner at the bottom of the
+sea, have been violently bended, broken, and
+removed from their original place and situation;
+and, <i>lastly</i>, Having now found the most
+indubitable proof, that the melting, breaking,
+and removing power of subterraneous fire, has
+been actually exerted upon this land which
+we examine, we cannot hesitate in ascribing
+these operations as a cause to those effects
+which are exposed to our view. Now, these
+may be considered as consisting in the solid
+state and present situation of those stratified
+bodies, originally formed by subsidence in the
+ocean; appearances which cannot, in reason,
+be ascribed to any other cause, and which,
+upon this principle, are perfectly explained.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant to specify every particular
+in the means employed by nature for the elevation
+of our land. It is sufficient to have
+shown, that there is, in nature, means employed
+for the consolidating of strata, formed
+originally of loose and incoherent materials;
+and that those same means have also been
+employed in changing the place and situation
+of those strata. But how describe an operation
+which man cannot have any opportunity of
+perceiving? Or how imagine that, for which,
+perhaps, there are not proper data to be found?
+We only know, that the land is raised by a
+power which has for principle subterraneous
+heat; but, how that land is preserved in its
+elevated station, is a subject in which we have
+not even the means to form conjecture; at
+least, we ought to be cautious how we indulge
+conjecture in a subject where no means occur
+for trying that which is but supposition.</p>
+
+<p>We now proceed, from the facts which
+have been properly established, to reason with
+regard to the duration of this globe, or the
+general view of its operations, as a living
+world, maintaining plants and animals.</p>
+
+<h3>SECTION IV.</h3>
+
+<p><i>System of Decay and Renovation observed in
+the Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Philosophers observing an apparent disorder
+and confusion in the solid parts of this
+globe, have been led to conclude, that there
+formerly existed a more regular and uniform
+state, in the constitution of this earth; that
+there had happened some destructive change;
+and that the original structure of the earth had
+been broken and disturbed by some violent
+operation, whether natural, or from a super-natural
+cause. Now, all these appearances,
+from which conclusions of this kind have been
+formed, find the most perfect explanation in
+the theory which we have been endeavouring
+to establish; for they are the facts from whence
+we have reasoned, in discovering the nature
+and constitution of this earth: Therefore,
+there is no occasion for having recourse to
+any unnatural supposition of evil, to any destructive
+accident in nature, or to the agency
+of any preternatural cause, in explaining that
+which actually appears.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary for a living or inhabited
+world, that this should consist of land and
+water. It is also necessary, that the land
+should be solid and stable, refilling, with great
+power, the violent efforts of the ocean; and,
+at the same time, that this solid land should be
+resolved by the influence of the sun and atmosphere,
+so as to decay, and thus become a soil
+for vegetation. But these general intentions
+are perfectly fulfilled in the constitution of our
+earth, which has been now investigated. This
+great body being formed of different mixed
+masses, having various degrees of hardness
+and solubility, proper soil for plants is supplied
+from the gradual resolution of the solid parts;
+fertility in those soils arises from the mixture
+of different elementary substances; and stability
+is procured to that vegetable world, by the
+induration of certain bodies, those rocks and
+stones, which protect the softer masses of clay
+and soil.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner, also, will easily be explained
+those natural appearances which diversify
+the surface of the earth for the use of plants
+and animals, and those objects which beautify
+the face of nature for the contemplation of
+mankind. Such are, the distinctions of mountains
+and valleys, of lakes and rivers, of dry
+barren deserts and rich watered plains, of
+rocks which stand apparently unimpaired by
+the lapse of time, and sands which fluctuate
+with the winds and tides. All these are the
+effects of steady causes; each of these has its
+proper purpose in the system of the earth;
+and in that system is contained another, which
+is that of living growing bodies, and of animated
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides this, man, the intellectual being,
+has, in this subject of the mineral kingdom,
+the means of gratifying the desire of
+knowledge, a faculty by which he is distinguished
+from the animal, and by which he
+improves his mind in knowing causes. Man
+is not satisfied, like the brute, in seeing things
+which are; he seeks to know how things
+have been, and what they are to be. It is
+with pleasure that he observes order and regularity
+in the works of nature, instead of being
+disgusted with disorder and confusion;
+and he is made happy from the appearance of
+wisdom and benevolence in the design, instead
+of being left to suspect in the Author of nature,
+any of that imperfection which he finds
+in himself.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take a view of that system of
+mineral economy, in which may be perceived
+every mark of order and design, of provident
+wisdom and benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>We have been endeavouring to prove, that
+all the continents and islands of this globe
+had been raised above the surface of the ocean;
+we have also aimed at pointing out the cause
+of this translation of matter, as well as of the
+general solidity of that which is raised to our
+view; but however this theory shall be received,
+no person of observation can entertain
+a doubt, that all, or almost all we see of
+this earth, had been originally formed at the
+bottom of the sea. We have now another
+object in our view; this is to investigate the
+operations of the globe, at the time that the
+foundation of this land was laying in the
+waters of the ocean, and to trace the existence
+and the nature of things, before the present
+land appeared above the surface of the waters.
+We should thus acquire some knowledge of
+the system according to which this world is
+ruled, both in its preservation and production;
+and we might be thus enabled to judge, how
+far the mineral system of the world shall appear
+to be contrived with all the wisdom,
+which is so manifest in what are termed the
+animal and vegetable kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be imagined that this undertaking
+is a thing unreasonable in its nature; or
+that it is a work necessarily beset with any unsurmountable
+difficulty; for, however imperfectly
+we may fulfil this end proposed, yet, so
+far as it is to natural causes that are to be ascribed
+the operations of former time, and so
+far as, from the present state of things, or
+knowledge of natural history, we have it in
+our power to reason from effect to cause, there
+are, in the constitution of the world, which
+we now examine, certain means to read the
+annals of a former earth.</p>
+
+<p>The object of inquiry being the operations
+of the globe, during the time that the present
+earth was forming at the bottom of the sea,
+we are now to take a very general view of
+nature, without descending into those particulars
+which so often occupy the speculations
+of naturalists, about the present state of things.
+We are not at present to enter into any discussion
+with regard to what are the primary
+and secondary mountains of the earth; we
+are not to consider what is the first, and what
+the last, in those things which now are seen;
+whatever is most ancient in the strata which
+we now examine, is supposed to be collecting
+at the bottom of the sea, during the period
+concerning which we are now to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>We have already considered those operations
+which had been necessary in forming
+our solid land, a body consisting of materials
+originally deposited at the bottom of the ocean;
+we are now to investigate the source from
+whence had come all those materials, from the
+collection of which the present land is formed;
+and from knowing the state in which
+those materials had existed, previously to their
+entering the composition of our strata, we
+shall learn something concerning the natural
+history of this world, while the present earth
+was forming in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have already observed, that all the strata
+of the earth are composed either from the
+calcareous relicts of sea animals, or from the
+collection of such materials as we find upon
+our shores. At a gross computation, there
+may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land,
+which is composed from the matter that had
+belonged to those animals. Now, what a
+multitude of living creatures, what a quantity
+of animal economy must have been required
+for producing a body of calcareous matter
+which is interspersed throughout all the land
+of the globe, and which certainly forms a very
+considerable part of that mass! Therefore,
+in knowing how those animals had lived, or
+with what they had been fed, we shall have
+learned a most interesting part of the natural
+history of this earth; a part which it is necessary
+to have ascertained, in order to see the
+former operations of the globe, while preparing
+the materials of the present land. But,
+before entering upon this subject, let us examine
+the other materials of which our land is
+formed.</p>
+
+<p>Gravel forms a part of those materials
+which compose our solid land; but gravel is
+no other than a collection of the fragments of
+solid stones worn round, or having their angular
+form destroyed by agitation in water,
+and the attrition upon each other, or upon similar
+hard bodies. Consequently, in finding
+masses of gravel in the composition of our
+land, we must conclude, that there had existed
+a former land, on which there had been
+transacted certain operations of wind and water,
+similar to those which are natural to the
+globe at present, and by which new gravel is
+continually prepared, as well as old gravel consumed
+or diminished by attrition upon our
+shores.</p>
+
+<p>Sand is the material which enters, perhaps
+in greatest quantity, the composition of our
+land. But sand, in general, is no other than
+small fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn
+or rounded more or less by attrition; consequently,
+the same natural history of the earth,
+which is investigated from the masses of gravel,
+is also applicable to those masses of sand
+which we find forming so large a portion of
+our present land throughout all the earth<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag16"> (return) </a> Sand is a term that denotes no particular substance;
+although by it is commonly meant a siliceous substance, as
+being by far the most prevalent. Sand is one of the modifications,
+of size and shape, in a hard body or solid substance,
+which may be infinitely diversified. The next
+modification to be distinguished in mineral bodies is that
+of gravel; and this differs in no respect from sand, except
+in point of size. Next after gravel, in the order of
+ascent, come stones; and these bear nearly the same relation
+to gravel as gravel does to sand. Now, by stones is
+to be understood the fragments of rocks or solid mineral
+bodies; and there is a perfect gradation from those stones
+to sand. I have already endeavoured to explain the formation
+of those stony substances; and now I am treating
+of a certain system of circulation, which is to be found
+among minerals.
+
+<p>M. de Luc censures me for not giving the origin of
+sand, of which I form the strata of the earth. He seems
+to have misunderstood my treatise. I do not pretend, as
+he does in his theory, to describe the beginning of things;
+I take things such as I find them at present, and from
+these I reason with regard to that which must have been.
+When, from a thing which is well known, we explain
+another which is less so, we then investigate nature; but
+when we imagine things without a pattern or example in
+nature, then, instead of natural history, we write only
+fable.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc, in the letter already mentioned, says, "that
+sand may be, and I think it is, a substance which has
+formed <i>strata</i> by <i>precipitation in a liquid</i>." This is but an
+opinion, which may be either true or false. If it be true,
+it is an operation of the mineral kingdom of which I am
+ignorant. In all the sand which I have ever examined, I
+have never seen any that might not be referred to the
+species of mineral substance from which it had been formed.
+When this author shall have given us any kind of
+information with regard to the production of sand <i>by precipitation
+in a liquid</i>, it will then be time enough to think
+of forming the strata of the earth with that sand.*</blockquote>
+
+<p>Clay is now to be considered as the last of
+those materials of which our strata are composed;
+but, in order to understand the nature
+of this ingredient, something must be premised.</p>
+
+<p>Clay is a mixture of different earths or
+hard substances, in an impalpable state. Those
+substances are chiefly the siliceous and aluminous
+earths. Other earths are occasionally
+mixed in clays, or perhaps always to be found
+in some small portion. But this does not affect
+the general character of clay; it only
+forms a special variety in the subject. A sensible
+or considerable portion of calcareous
+earth, in the composition of clay, constitutes
+a marl, and a sufficient admixture of sand, a
+loam.</p>
+
+<p>An indefinite variety of those compositions
+of clay form a large portion of the present
+strata, all indurated and consolidated in various
+degrees; but this great quantity of siliceous,
+argillaceous, and other compound substances,
+in form of earth or impalpable sediment, corresponds
+perfectly with that quantity of those
+same substances which must have been prepared
+in the formation of so much gravel and
+sand, by the attrition of those bodies in the
+moving waters.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, from the consideration of those
+materials which compose the present land, we
+have reason to conclude, that, during the time
+this land was forming, by the collection of its
+materials at the bottom of the sea, there had
+been a former land containing materials similar
+to those which we find at present in examining
+the earth. We may also conclude,
+that there had been operations similar to those
+which we now find natural to the globe, and
+necessarily exerted in the actual formation of
+gravel, sand, and clay. But what we have now
+chiefly in view to illustrate is this, that there
+had then been in the ocean a system of animated
+beings, which propagated their species,
+and which have thus continued their several
+races to this day.</p>
+
+<p>In order to be convinced of that truth, we
+have but to examine the strata of our earth,
+in which we find the remains of animals. In
+this examination, we not only discover every
+genus of animal which at present exists in the
+sea, but probably every species, and perhaps
+some species with which at present we are not
+acquainted. There are, indeed, varieties in
+those species, compared with the present animals
+which we examine, but no greater varieties
+than may perhaps be found among the
+same species in the different quarters of the
+globe. Therefore, the system of animal life,
+which had been maintained in the ancient sea,
+had not been different from that which now
+subsists, and of which it belongs to naturalists
+to know the history.</p>
+
+<p>It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately
+supported from matter of vegetable
+production. Inflammable matter may be considered
+as the <i>pabulum</i> of life. This is prepared
+in the bodies of living plants, particularly
+in their leaves exposed to the sun and
+light. This inflammable matter, on the contrary,
+is consumed in animal bodies, where it
+produces heat or light, or both. Therefore,
+however animal matter, or the pabulum of
+life, may circulate through a series of digesting
+powers, it is constantly impaired or diminishing
+in the course of this economy, and,
+without the productive power of plants, it
+would finally be extinguished.<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag17"> (return) </a> See Dissertations on different subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part II.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The animals of the former world must
+have been sustained during indefinite successions
+of ages. The mean quantity of animal
+matter, therefore, must have been preserved
+by vegetable production, and the natural waste
+of inflammable substance repaired with continual
+addition; that is to say, the quantity of
+inflammable matter necessary to the animal
+consumption, must have been provided by
+means of vegetation. Hence we must conclude,
+that there had been a world of plants,
+as well as an ocean replenished with living
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>We are now, in reasoning from principles,
+come to a point decisive of the question, and
+which will either confirm the theory, if it be
+just, or confute our reasoning, if we have erred.
+Let us, therefore, open the book of Nature,
+and read in her records, if there had been
+a world bearing plants, at the time when this
+present world was forming at the bottom of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here the cabinets of the curious are to be
+examined; but here some caution is required,
+in order to distinguish things perfectly different,
+which sometimes are confounded.</p>
+
+<p>Fossil wood, to naturalists in general, is
+wood dug up from under ground, without
+inquiring whether this had been the production
+of the present earth, or that which had
+preceded it in the circulation of land and water.
+The question is important, and the solution
+of it is, in general, easy. The vegetable
+productions of the present earth, however
+deep they may be found buried beneath
+its surface, and however ancient they may appear,
+compared with the records of our known
+times, are new, compared with the solid land
+on which they grew; and they are only covered
+with the produce of a vegetable soil, or
+the alluvion of the present land on which we
+dwell, and on which they had grown. But
+the fossil bodies which form the present subject
+of inquiry, belonged to former land, and
+are found only in the sea-born strata of our
+present earth. It is to these alone that we
+appeal, in order to prove the certainty of former
+events.</p>
+
+<p>Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object
+now inquired after; that wood which had
+been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and
+there composed part of a stratum, which hitherto
+we have considered as only formed of
+the materials proper to the ocean. Now, what
+a profusion of this species of fossil wood is
+to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and
+even in the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers
+of polished stones! In some places, it
+would seem to be as common as the agate.</p>
+
+<p>I shall only mention a specimen in my own
+collection. It is wood petrified with calcareous
+earth, and mineralised with pyrites.
+This specimen of wood contains in itself, even
+without the stratum of stone in which it is
+embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
+It had been eaten or perforated by
+those sea worms which destroy the bottoms of
+our ships. There is the clearest evidence of
+this truth. Therefore, this wood had grown
+upon land which flood above the level of
+sea, while the present land was only forming
+at the bottom of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Wood is the most substantial part of plants,
+as shells are the more permanent part of marine
+animals. It is not, however, the woody
+part alone of the ancient vegetable world that
+is transmitted to us in the record of our mineral
+pages. We have the type of many species
+of foliage, and even of the most delicate
+flower; for, in this way, naturalists have determined,
+according to the Linnaean system,
+the species, or at least the genus, of the plant.
+Thus, the existence of a vegetable system at
+the period now in contemplation, so far from
+being doubtful, is a matter of physical demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>The profusion of this vegetable matter, delivered
+into the ocean, which then generated
+land, is also evidenced in the amazing quantities
+of mineral coal which is to be found in
+perhaps every region of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more certain, than that all
+the coaly or bituminous strata have had their
+origin from the substance of vegetable bodies
+that grew upon the land. Those strata, tho',
+in general, perfectly consolidated, often separate
+horizontally in certain places; and there
+we find the fibrous or vascular structure of
+the vegetable bodies. Consequently, there is
+no doubt of fossil coal being a substance of
+vegetable production, however animal substances
+also may have contributed in forming
+this collection of oleaginous or inflammable
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus ascertained the state of a former
+earth, in which plants and animals had
+lived, as well as the gradual production of the
+present earth, composed from the materials
+of a former world, it must be evident, that
+here are two operations which are necessarily
+consecutive. The formation of the present
+earth necessarily involves the destruction of
+continents in the ancient world; and, by pursuing
+in our mind the natural operations of a
+former earth, we clearly see the origin of that
+land, by the fertility of which, we, and all
+the animated bodies of the sea, are fed. It is
+in like manner, that, contemplating the present
+operations of the globe, we may perceive
+the actual existence of those productive causes,
+which are now laying the foundation of land
+in the unfathomable regions of the sea, and
+which will, in time, give birth to future continents.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in generalising the operations
+of nature, we have arrived at those great
+events, which, at first sight, may fill the mind
+with wonder and with doubt, we are not to
+suppose, that there is any violent exertion of
+power, such as is required in order to produce
+a great event in little time; in nature, we find
+no deficiency in respect of time, nor any limitation
+with regard to power. But time is not
+made to flow in vain; nor does there ever
+appear the exertion of superfluous power, or
+the manifestation of design, not calculated in
+wisdom to effect some general end.</p>
+
+<p>The events now under consideration may
+be examined with a view to see this truth;
+for it may be inquired, Why destroy one
+continent in order to erect another? The
+answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a
+continent from having wearied of a subject
+which had given pleasure, or changed her
+purpose, whether for a better or a worse;
+neither does she erect a continent of land
+among the clouds, to show her power, or to
+amaze the vulgar man; Nature has contrived
+the productions of vegetable bodies, and the
+sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the
+gradual but sure destruction of a continent;
+that is to say, these two operations necessarily
+go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has
+nature ordered things in the economy of this
+world, that the destruction of one continent is
+not brought about without the renovation of
+the earth in the production of another; and
+the animal and vegetable bodies, for which
+the world above the surface of the sea is levelled
+with its bottom, are among the means
+employed in those operations, as well as the
+sustenance of those living beings is the proper
+end in view.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in understanding the proper constitution
+of the present earth, we are led to
+know the source from whence had come all
+the materials which nature had employed in
+the construction of the world which appears;
+a world contrived in consummate wisdom for
+the growth and habitation of a great diversity
+of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly
+adapted to the purposes of man, who inhabits
+all its climates, who measures its extent,
+and determines its productions at his pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of a great object or event fills
+us with wonder and astonishment, when all
+the particulars, in the succession of which the
+whole had been produced, may be considered
+without the least emotion. When, for example,
+we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our
+mind is agitated with a crowd of ideas that
+highly entertains the person who understands
+the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone
+up to the top of a hill or mountain would
+give that person little pleasure or concern.
+We wonder at the whole operation of the pyramid,
+but not at any one particular part.</p>
+
+<p>The raising up of a continent of land from
+the bottom of the sea, is an idea that is too
+great to be conceived easily in all the parts of
+its operations, many of which are perhaps unknown
+to us; and, without being properly
+understood, so great an idea may appear like
+a thing that is imaginary. In like manner,
+the co-relative, or corresponding operation,
+the destruction of the land, is an idea that
+does not easily enter into the mind of man in
+its totality, although he is daily witness to
+part of the operation. We never see a river
+in a flood, but we must acknowledge the carrying
+away of part of our land, to be sunk at
+the bottom of the sea; we never see a storm
+upon the coast, but we are informed of a hostile
+attack of the sea upon our country; attacks
+which must, in time, wear away the
+bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations
+of our dwellings. Thus, great things are not
+understood without the analysing of many
+operations, and the combination of time with
+many events happening in succession.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what is to be the subject
+of examination, and where it is that we
+are to observe those operations which must
+determine either the stability or the instability
+of this land on which we live.</p>
+
+<p>Our land has two extremities; the tops of
+the mountains, on the one hand, and the sea-shores,
+on the other: It is the intermediate
+space between these two, that forms the habitation
+of plants and animals. While there is
+a sea-shore and a higher ground there is that
+which is required in the system of the world:
+Take these away, and there would remain an
+aqueous globe, in which the world would
+perish. But, in the natural operations of the
+world, the land is perishing continually; and
+this is that which now we want to understand.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the one extremity of our land, there
+is no increase, or there is no accession of any
+mineral substance. That place is the mountain-top,
+on which nothing is observed but
+continual decay. The fragments of the mountain
+are removed in a gradual succession from
+the highest station to the lowest. Being arrived
+at the shore, and having entered the dominion
+of the waves, in which they find perpetual
+agitation, these hard fragments, which
+had eluded the resolving powers natural to
+the surface of the earth, are incapable of resisting
+the powers here employed for the destruction
+of the land. By the attrition of one
+hard body upon another, the moving stones
+and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
+that solid mass, which of itself had potential
+liability against the violence of the waves, affords
+the instruments of its own destruction,
+and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand the system of the
+heavens, it is necessary to connect together
+periods of measured time, and the distinguished
+places of revolving bodies. It is thus that
+system may be observed, or wisdom, in the
+proper adapting of powers to an intention.
+In like manner, we cannot understand the
+system of the globe, without seeing that progress
+of things which is brought about in
+time, thus measuring the natural operations of
+the earth with those of the heavens. This is
+properly the business of the present undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>Our object is to know the time which had
+elapsed since the foundation of the present
+continent had been laid at the bottom of the
+ocean, to the present moment in which we
+speculate on these operations. The space is
+long; the data for the calculations are, perhaps,
+deficient: No matter; so far as we know our
+error, or the deficiency in our operation, we
+proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason.
+It is not given to man to know what
+things are truly in themselves, but only what
+those things are in his thought. We seek not
+to know the precise measure of any thing; we
+only understand the limits of a thing, in knowing
+what it is not, either on the one side or
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>We are investigating the age of the present
+earth, from the beginning of that body which
+was in the bottom of the sea, to the perfection
+of its nature, which we consider as in the moment
+of our existence; and we have necessarily
+another aera, which is collateral, or correspondent,
+in the progress of those natural
+events. This is the time required, in the natural
+operations of this globe, for the destruction
+of a former earth; an earth equally perfect
+with the present and an earth equally
+productive of growing plants and living animals.
+Now, it must appear, that, if we had a
+measure for the one of those corresponding
+operations, we would have an equal knowledge
+of the other.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of a future earth being in
+the bottom of the ocean, at depths unfathomable
+to man, and in regions far beyond the
+reach of his observation, here is a part of the
+process which cannot be taken as a principle
+in forming an estimate of the whole. But, in
+the destruction of the present earth, we have
+a process that is performed within the limits of
+our observation; therefore, in knowing the
+measure of this operation, we shall find the
+means of calculating what had passed on a former
+occasion, as well as what will happen in
+the composition of a future earth. Let us,
+therefore, now attempt to make this estimate
+of time and labour.</p>
+
+<p>The highest mountain may be levelled with
+the plain from whence it springs, without the
+loss of real territory in the land; but when
+the ocean makes encroachment on the basis of
+our earth, the mountain, unsupported, tumbles
+with its weight; and with the accession of
+hard bodies, moveable with the agitation of
+the waves, gives to the sea the power of undermining
+farther and farther into the solid
+basis of our land. This is the operation which
+is to be measured; this is the mean proportional
+by which we are to estimate the age of
+worlds that have terminated, and the duration
+of those that are but beginning.</p>
+
+<p>But how shall we measure the decrease of
+our land? Every revolution of the globe wears
+away some part of some rock upon some coast;
+but the quantity of that decrease, in that measured
+time, is not a measurable thing. Instead
+of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age.
+The age of man does no more in this estimate
+than a single year. He sees, that the natural
+course of things is to wear away the coast,
+with the attrition of the sand and stones upon
+the shore; but he cannot find a measure for
+this quantity which shall correspond to time,
+in order to form an estimate of the rate of this
+decrease.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not confined to what he sees;
+he has the experience of former men. Let us
+then go to the Romans and the Greeks in
+search of a measure of our coasts, which we
+may compare with the present state of things.
+Here, again, we are disappointed; their descriptions
+of the shores of Greece and of Italy,
+and their works upon the coast, either give
+no measure of a decrease, or are not accurate
+enough for such a purpose.</p>
+
+<p>It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity
+which escapes our notice, and which history
+cannot ascertain; and we might just as
+well attempt to measure the distance of the
+stars without a parallax, as to calculate the destruction
+of the solid land without a measure
+corresponding to the whole.</p>
+
+<p>The description which Polybius has given
+of the Pontus Euxinus, with the two opposite
+Bosphori, the Meotis, the Propontis, and the
+Port of Byzantium, are as applicable to the
+present state of things as they were at the writing
+of that history. The filling up of the bed
+of the Meotis, an event which, to Polybius,
+appeared not far off, must also be considered
+as removed to a very distant period, though
+the causes still continue to operate as before.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a thing in which history and
+the present state of things do not agree. It is
+upon the coast of Spain, where Polybius says
+there was an island in the mouth of the harbour
+of New Carthage. At present, in place
+of the island, there is only a rock under the
+surface of the water. It must be evident, however,
+that the loss of this small island affords no
+proper ground of calculation for the measure
+or rate of wasting which could correspond to
+the coast in general; as neither the quantity
+of what is now lost had been measured, nor
+its quality ascertained.</p>
+
+<p>Let us examine places much more exposed
+to the fury of the waves and currents than the
+coast of Carthagena, the narrow fretum, for
+example, between Italy and Sicily. It does
+not appear, that this passage is sensibly wider
+than when the Romans first had known it.
+The Isthmus of Corinth is also apparently the
+same at present as it had been two or three
+thousand years ago. Scilla and Charibdis remain
+now, as they had been in ancient times,
+rocks hazardous for coasting vessels which had
+to pass that strait.</p>
+
+<p>It is not meant by this to say, these rocks
+have not been wasted by the sea, and worn
+by the attrition of moving bodies, during that
+space of time; were this true, and that those
+rocks, the bulwarks of the land upon those
+coasts, had not been at all impaired from that
+period, they might remain for ever, and thus
+the system of interchanging the place of sea
+and land upon this globe might be frustrated.
+It is only meant to affirm, that the quantity
+which those rocks, or that coast, have diminished
+from the period of our history, has either
+been too small a thing for human observation,
+or, which is more probable, that no
+accurate measurement of the subject, by which
+this quantity of decrease might have been ascertained,
+had been taken and recorded. It
+must be also evident, that a very small operation
+of an earthquake would be sufficient to
+render every means of information, in this
+manner of mensuration, unsatisfactory or precarious.</p>
+
+<p>Pliny says Italy was distant from Sicily a
+mile and a half; but we cannot suppose that
+this measure was taken any otherwise than by
+computation, and such a measure is but little
+calculated to afford us the just means of a comparison
+with the present distance. He also
+says, indeed, that Sicily had been once joined
+with Italy. His words are: "Quondam Brutio
+agro cohaerens, mox interfuso mari avulsa.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a>"
+But all that we can conclude from
+this history of Pliny is, that, in all times, to
+people considering the appearances of those
+two approached coasts, it had seemed probable,
+that the sea formed a passage between the two
+countries which had been once united; in like
+manner as is still more immediately perceived,
+in that smaller disjunction which is made between
+the island of Anglesey and the continent
+of Wales.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag18"> (return) </a> Lib. 3. cap. 8.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The port of Syracuse, with the island which
+forms the greater and lesser, and the fountain
+of Arethusa, the water of which the ancients
+divided from the sea with a wall, do not seem
+to be altered. From Sicily to the coast of
+Egypt, there is an uninterrupted course of sea
+for a thousand miles; consequently, the wind,
+in such a stretch of sea, should bring powerful
+waves against those coasts: But, on this coast
+of Egypt, we find the rock on which was formerly
+built the famous tower of Pharos; and
+also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste,
+the sea-bath, cut in the solid rock upon
+the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted immediately
+with the waves of the Mediterranean
+sea, are, to all appearance, the same at this day
+as they were in ancient times.<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag19"> (return) </a> Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. Savary.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Many other such proofs will certainly occur,
+where the different parts of those coasts
+are examined by people of observation and intelligence.
+But it is enough for our present
+purpose, that this decrease of the coasts in general
+has not been observed; and that it is as
+generally thought, that the land is gaining upon
+the sea, as that the sea is gaining upon the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the argument, we are certain,
+that all the coasts of the present continents are
+wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing
+away upon the whole; but this operation is so
+extremely slow, that we cannot find a measure
+of the quantity in order to form an estimate:
+Therefore, the present continents of the earth,
+which we consider as in a state of perfection,
+would, in the natural operations of the globe,
+require a time indefinite for their destruction.</p>
+
+<p>But, in order to produce the present continents,
+the destruction of a former vegetable
+world was necessary; consequently, the production
+of our present continents must have
+required a time which is indefinite. In like
+manner, if the former continents were of the
+same nature as the present, it must have required
+another space of time, which also is
+indefinite, before they had come to their perfection
+as a vegetable world.</p>
+
+<p>We have been representing the system of
+this earth as proceeding with a certain regularity,
+which is not perhaps in nature, but
+which is necessary for our clear conception of
+the system of nature. The system of nature is
+certainly in rule, although we may not know
+every circumstance of its regulation. We are
+under a necessity, therefore, of making regular
+suppositions, in order to come at certain
+conclusions which may be compared with the
+present state of things.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary that the present land
+should be worn away and wasted, exactly in
+proportion as new land shall appear; or, conversely,
+that an equal proportion of new land
+should always be produced as the old is made
+to disappear. It is only required, that at all
+times, there should be a just proportion of
+land and water upon the surface of the globe,
+for the purpose of a habitable world.</p>
+
+<p>Neither is it required in the actual system
+of this earth, that every part of the land
+should be dissolved in its structure, and worn
+away by attrition, so as to be floated in the
+sea. Parts of the land may often sink in a
+body below the level of the sea, and parts
+again may be restored, without waiting for
+the general circulation of land and water,
+which proceeds with all the certainty of nature,
+but which advances with an imperceptible
+progression. Many of such apparent irregularities
+may appear without the least infringement
+on the general system. That system
+is comprehended in the preparation of future
+land at the bottom of the ocean, from
+those materials which the dissolution and attrition
+of the present land may have provided,
+and from those which the natural operations
+of the sea afford.</p>
+
+<p>In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are
+not to limit nature with the uniformity of an
+equable progression, although it be necessary
+in our computations to proceed upon equalities.
+Thus also, in the use of means, we are
+not to prescribe to nature those alone which
+we think suitable for the purpose, in our narrow
+view. It is our business to learn of nature
+(that is by observation) the ways and
+means, which in her wisdom are adopted;
+and we are to imagine these only in order to
+find means for further information, and to increase
+our knowledge from the examination
+of things which actually have been. It is in
+this manner, that intention may be found in
+nature; but this intention is not to be supposed,
+or vainly imagined, from what we may
+conceive to be.</p>
+
+<p>We have been now supposing, that the beginning
+of our present earth had been laid in
+the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of
+the former land; but this was only for the
+sake of distinctness. The just view is this,
+that when the former land of the globe had
+been complete, so as to begin to waste and be
+impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the
+present land began to appear above the surface
+of the ocean. In this manner we suppose a
+due proportion to be always preserved of land
+and water upon the surface of the globe, for
+the purpose of a habitable world, such as this
+which we possess. We thus, also, allow time
+and opportunity for the translation of animals
+and plants to occupy the earth.</p>
+
+<p>But, if the earth on which we live, began
+to appear in the ocean at the time when the
+last began to be resolved, it could not be from
+the materials of the continent immediately preceding
+this which we examine, that the present
+earth had been constructed; for the bottom
+of the ocean must have been filled with
+materials before land could be made to appear
+above its surface.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose that the continent, which is
+to succeed our land, is at present beginning to
+appear above the water in the middle of the
+Pacific Ocean, it must be evident, that the materials
+of this great body, which is formed and
+ready to be brought forth, must have been
+collected from the destruction of an earth,
+which does not now appear. Consequently,
+in this true statement of the case, there is necessarily
+required the destruction of an animal
+and vegetable earth prior to the former land;
+and the materials of that earth which is first
+in our account, must have been collected at
+the bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted
+for the production of the present earth,
+when the land immediately preceding the present
+had arrived at its full extent.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, alters nothing with regard
+to the nature of those operations of the globe.
+The system is still the same. It only protracts
+the indefinite space of time in its existence,
+while it gives us a view of another
+distinct period of the living world; that is to
+say, the world which we inhabit is composed
+of the materials, not of the earth which was
+the immediate predecessor of the present, but
+of the earth which, in ascending from the present,
+we consider as the third, and which had
+preceded the land that was above the surface
+of the sea, while our present land was yet beneath
+the water of the ocean. Here are three
+distinct successive periods of existence, and
+each of these is, in our measurement of time,
+a thing of indefinite duration.</p>
+
+<p>We have now got to the end of our reasoning;
+we have no data further to conclude immediately
+from that which actually is: But
+we have got enough; we have the satisfaction
+to find, that in nature there is wisdom,
+system, and consistency. For having, in the
+natural history of this earth, seen a succession
+of worlds, we may from this conclude that
+there is a system in nature; in like manner as,
+from seeing revolutions of the planets, it is
+concluded, that there is a system by which
+they are intended to continue those revolutions.
+But if the succession of worlds is
+established in the system of nature, it is in
+vain to look for any thing higher in the origin
+of the earth. The result, therefore, of this
+physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of
+a beginning,&mdash;no prospect of an end.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p><i>An Examination of Mr KIRWAN'S Objections
+to the Igneous Origin of Stony Substances</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>A theory which is founded on a new
+principle, a theory which has to make
+its way in the public mind by overturning the
+opinions commonly received by philosophising
+men, and one which has nothing to recommend
+it but the truth of its principles,
+and the view of wisdom or design to which it
+leads, neither of which may perhaps be perceived
+by the generality of people, such a
+theory, I say, must meet with the strongest
+opposition from the prejudices of the learned,
+and from the superstition of those who judge
+not for themselves in forming their notions,
+but look up to men of science for authority.
+Such is the case with some part of the Theory
+of the Earth, which I have given, and
+which will probably give offence to naturalists
+who have espoused an opposite opinion.
+In order, then, to obtain the approbation of
+the public, it may not be enough to give a
+theory that should be true, or altogether unexceptionable
+it may be necessary to defend
+every point that shall be thought exceptionable
+by other theorists, and to show the fallacy
+of every learned objection that may be made
+against it. It is thus, in general, that truth
+and error are forced to struggle together, in
+the progress of science; and it is only in proportion
+as science removes erroneous conceptions,
+which are necessarily in the constitution
+of human knowledge, that truth will find itself
+established in natural philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Kirwan has written a dissertation, entitled,
+<i>Examination of the Supposed Igneous
+Origin of Stony Substances</i>, which was read in
+the Royal Irish Academy. The object of that
+dissertation is to state certain objections, which
+have occurred to him, against the Theory of
+the Earth published in the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh Royal Society; and he has attacked
+that theory in all the points where it appears
+to him to be vulnerable. It is to these
+objections that I am now to give an answer.
+The authority given to this dissertation, by
+the Royal Irish Academy, as well as the reputation
+of the author, make it necessary for
+me to endeavour to put in their true light
+the facts alleged in that performance, and
+to analyse the arguments employed, in order
+to judge of the reasoning by which the
+theory of mineral fusion is refuted in this
+Examination.</p>
+
+<p>A theory founded on truth, and formed
+according to the proper rules of science, can
+ever suffer from a strict examination, by
+which it would be but the more and more
+confirmed. But, where causes are to be traced
+through a chain of various complicated
+effects, an examination not properly conducted
+upon accurate analytical principles, instead
+of giving light upon a subject in which there
+had been obscurity and doubt, may only serve
+to perplex the understanding, and bring confusion
+into a subject which was before sufficiently
+distinct. To redress that evil, then,
+must require more labour and some address;
+and this is an inconveniency that may be looked
+for, more or less, in every controversial
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p>I do not mean to enter any farther into the
+defence of my theory in this chapter, than
+what is necessary to answer a man of science
+and respectability, who has stated his objections.
+The observations which he has made
+appear to me to be founded on nothing more
+than common prejudice, and misconceived
+notions of the subject. I am therefore to point
+out that erroneous train of reasoning, into
+which a hasty superficial view of things, perhaps,
+has led the patron of an opposite opinion
+to see my theory in an unfavourable
+light.  This, however, is not all; for, that
+train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial
+with the crude and inconsiderate notion
+generally entertained, of solid mineral bodies
+having been formed by the infiltration of water
+into the earth, that no opportunity should
+be lost of exposing an erroneous manner of
+reasoning, which is employed in supporting a
+hypothesis founded upon certain operations of
+the surface of this earth that cannot be properly
+applied to the formation of mineral bodies.
+This object, therefore, so far as it may
+come in the way, will be attended to in this
+discussion, although I shall have another opportunity
+of farther enlarging upon that subject.</p>
+
+<p>Our author begins by examining a geological
+operation, the very opposite to that of
+mineral consolidation, and which would seem
+to have little connection with the subject of
+this dissertation. In my theory, I advanced
+two propositions with regard to the economy
+of this world: First, That the solid masses
+of this earth, when exposed to the atmosphere,
+decay, and are resolved into loose materials,
+of which the vegetable soil upon the
+surface is in part composed; and, secondly,
+That these loose materials are washed away
+by the currents of water, and thus carried at
+last into the sea. Our author says "Here are
+two suppositions, neither of which is grounded
+on facts;" and yet he has but the moment
+before made the following confession:
+"That the soil, however, receives an increase
+from some species of stones that moulder by
+exposition to the air cannot be denied, but
+there is no proof that all soil has arisen from
+decomposition."&mdash;Surely <i>all soil</i>, that is
+made from the <i>hard and compact</i> body of the
+land, which is my proposition, must have
+arisen from <i>decomposition</i>; and I have no where
+said, that <i>all</i> the soil of this earth is made from
+the decomposition or detritus of those stony
+substances; for, masses of looser sand and softer
+substances contribute still more to the formation
+of vegetable soils.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the other proposition, our
+author says, "Soil is not constantly carried
+away by the water, even from mountains."&mdash;I
+have not said that it is <i>constantly</i> washed
+away; for, while it is soil in which plants
+grow, it is not travelling to the sea, although
+it be on the road, and must there arrive in
+time. I have said, that it is <i>necessarily</i> washed
+away, that is, occasionally. M. de Luc's authority
+is then referred to, as refuting this
+operation of water and time upon the soil.
+Now, I cannot help here observing, that our
+author seems to have as much misapprehended
+M. de Luc's argument as he has done
+mine. That philosopher, in his letters to the
+Queen, has described most accurately the decay
+of the rocks and solid mountains of the
+Alps and Jura, and the travelling of their materials
+by water, although he does not carry
+them to the sea. It is true, indeed, that this
+author, who supposes the present earth on
+which we dwell very young, is anxious to
+make an earth, <i>in time</i>, that shall not decay
+nor be washed away at all; but that time is
+not come yet; therefore the authority, here
+given against my theory, is the speculative
+supposition, or mere opinion, of a natural philosopher,
+with regard to an event which may
+never come to pass, and which I shall have
+occasion to consider fully in another place.</p>
+
+<p>Our author had just now said, that I have
+advanced two suppositions, <i>neither of which
+is grounded on facts</i>: Now, with regard to the
+one, he has acknowledged, that the mouldering
+of stones takes place, which is the fact on
+which that proposition is grounded; and with
+regard to the other, the only authority given
+against it is founded expressly upon the moving
+of soil by means of the rain water, in
+order to make sloping plains of mountains.
+Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
+upon facts; and our author has founded
+his objections, first, upon a difficulty which
+he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon
+nothing but a visionary opinion, with regard
+to an earth which is not yet made, and which,
+when once made, is never more to change.</p>
+
+<p>After making some unimportant observations,&mdash;of
+all water not flowing into the sea,&mdash;and
+of the travelled materials being also deposited
+upon the plains, etc. our author thus
+proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our author
+relative to the imperfect constitution
+of the globe falls to the ground; and the
+pains he takes to learn, <i>by what means a
+decayed world may be renovated</i>, are superfluous."&mdash;The
+object of my theory is to
+show, that this decaying nature of the solid
+earth is the very <i>perfection</i> of its constitution,
+as a living world; therefore, it was most proper
+that I should <i>take pains to learn</i> by what
+means the decayed parts might be renovated.
+It is true, indeed, that this will be superfluous,
+when once that constitution of the earth, which
+M. de Luc thinks is preparing, shall be finished;
+but, in the mean time, while rivers carry
+the materials of our land, and while the sea
+impairs the coast, I may be allowed to suppose
+that this is the actual constitution of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot help here animadverting upon
+what seems to be our author's plan, in making
+these objections, which have nothing to do
+with his examination. He accuses me of
+giving this world a false or imperfect constitution,
+(in which the solid land is considered
+as resolvable, and the materials of that land
+as being washed away into the sea,) for no
+other reason, that I can see, but because this
+may imply the formation of a future earth,
+which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is
+now to deny the stratified construction of this
+present earth to have been made by the deposits
+of materials at the bottom of the sea, because
+that would prove the existence of a former
+earth, which is repugnant to his notion
+of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he
+says, to reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic
+history. Let me observe, in passing, that M.
+de Luc, of whose opinions our author expresses
+much approbation, thinks that he proves,
+from the express words and tenor of the Mosaic
+history, that the present earth was at the
+bottom of the sea not many years ago, and
+that the former earth had then disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>But, what does our author propose to himself,
+in refusing to admit my view of the operations
+which are daily transacting upon the
+surface of this earth, where there is nothing
+dark or in the least mysterious, as there may
+be in the mineral regions? Does he mean to
+say, that it is not the purpose of this world to
+provide soil for plants to grow in? Does he
+suppose that this soil is not moveable with the
+running water of the surface? and, Does he
+think that it is not necessary to replace that
+soil which is removed? This is all that I required
+in that constitution of the world which
+he has thus attacked; and I wish that he or
+any person would point out, in what respect
+I had demanded any thing unreasonable, or
+any thing that is not actually to be observed
+every day.</p>
+
+<p>Thus I have endeavoured to show, that our
+author has attacked my theory in a part where
+I believe it must be thought invulnerable;
+but this is only, I presume, in order that he
+may make an attack with more advantage
+upon another part, viz. the composition of
+strata from the materials of an earth thus worn
+out in the service of vegetation,&mdash;materials
+which are necessarily removed in order to
+make way for that change of things in which
+consists the active and living system of this
+world. If he succeed in this attempt to refute
+my theory of the original formation of
+strata, he would then doubtless find it more
+easy to persuade philosophers that the means
+which I employ in bringing those materials
+again to light, when transformed into such
+solid masses as the system of this earth requires,
+are extravagant, unnatural, and unnecessary.
+Let us then see how he sets about
+this undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the composition of the earth,
+it is quoted from my theory, that <i>the solid
+parts of the globe are in general composed of
+sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata,
+or of various compositions of these with other
+substances</i>; our author then adds, "This certainly
+cannot be affirmed as a fact, but rather
+the contrary; it holds only true of the
+surface, the basis of the greater part of
+Scotland is evidently a granitic rock, to say
+nothing of the continents, both of the Old
+and New World, according to the testimony
+of all mineralogists." This proposition,
+with regard to the general composition of the
+earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have
+maintained it as a fact, after the most scrupulous
+examination of all that, with the most diligent
+search, I have been able to see, and
+of all that authors have wrote intelligibly upon
+the subject. If, therefore, I have so misrepresented
+this great geological fact on which
+my theory is absolutely founded, I must have
+erred with open eyes; and my theory of the
+earth, like others which have gone before it,
+will, upon close examination, appear to be unfounded,
+as the dissertation now before us is
+endeavouring to represent it.</p>
+
+<p>Our author here, I think, alleges that the
+contrary to this, my fundamental proposition,
+is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
+an example in which his assertion (founded
+upon the testimony of all mineralogists),
+is illustrated. Now my geological proposition
+should certainly be applicable to Scotland,
+which is the country that I ought to be best
+acquainted with; consequently, if what our
+author here asserts be true, I would have deserved
+that blame which he is willing to
+throw on me. Let me then beg the readers
+attention for a moment, that I may justify
+myself from that charge, and place in its proper
+light this authority, upon so material a
+point in geology.</p>
+
+<p>I had examined Scotland from the one end
+to the other before I saw one stone of granite
+in its native place, I have moreover examined
+almost all England and Wales, (excepting Devonshire
+and Cornwall) without seeing more
+of granite than one spot, not many hundred
+yards of extent; this is at Chap; and I know,
+from information, that there is another small
+spot in the middle of England where it is
+just seen. But, let me be more particular with
+regard to Scotland, the example given in
+proof.</p>
+
+<p>I had travelled every road from the borders
+of Northumberland and Westmoreland to
+Edinburgh; from Edinburgh, I had travelled
+to Port-Patrick, and from that along the coast
+of Galloway and Airshire to Inverary in Argyleshire,
+and I had examined every spot between
+the Grampians and the Tweedale mountains
+from sea to sea, without seeing granite
+in its place. I had also travelled from Edinburgh
+by Grief, Rannock, Dalwhiny, Fort Augustus,
+Inverness, through east Ross and
+Caithness, to the Pentland-Frith or Orkney
+islands, without seeing one block of granite in
+its place. It is true, I met with it on my
+return by the east coast, when I just saw it,
+and no more, at Peterhead and Aberdeen;
+but that was all the granite I had ever seen
+when I wrote my Theory of the Earth. I
+have, since that time, seen it in different places;
+because I went on purpose to examine it, as I
+shall have occasion to describe in the course
+of this work.</p>
+
+<p>I may now with some confidence affirm,
+from my own observation, and from good information
+with regard to those places where I
+have not been, except the northwest corner,
+I may affirm, I say, that instead of the basis of
+the greatest part of Scotland being a granitic
+rock, which our author has maintained as an
+evident thing, there is very little of it that is
+so; not perhaps one five hundred part. So
+far also as I am to judge from my knowledge
+of the mineral construction of England and
+Wales, which I have examined with the greatest
+care, and from the mineral chart which
+my friend Mr Watt made for me from his
+knowledge of Cornwall, I would say that there
+is scarcely one five hundred part of Britain
+that has granite for its basis. All the rest,
+except the porphyry and basaltes, consists of
+stratified bodies, which are composed more or
+less of the materials which I mentioned, generally,
+in the above quotation, and which our
+author would dispute.</p>
+
+<p>But do not let me take the advantage of
+this error of our author with regard to the
+mineralogy of Scotland, and thus draw what
+may be thought an undue conclusion in favour
+of my general theory; let us go over
+and examine the continent of Europe, and see
+if it is any otherwise there than in Britain.
+From the granite of the Ural mountains, to
+that which we find in the Pyrenees, there is
+no reason, so far as I have been able to learn,
+to conclude that things are formed either upon
+any other principle, or upon a different scale.
+But, instead of one five hundred part, let us
+suppose there to be one fiftieth part of the
+earth in general resting upon granite, I could
+not have expressed myself otherwise than I
+have done; for, when I maintained that the
+earth in general consisted of stratified bodies,
+I said that this was only <i>nine tenths, or perhaps
+ninety-nine hundredths</i> of the whole, and
+I mentioned that there were other masses of a
+different origin, which should be considered
+separately. Our author, on the contrary, asserts
+that the Old and New Worlds, as well as
+Scotland, are placed upon granite as a basis,
+which he says is according to the testimony of
+all mineralogists. I shall have occasion to
+examine this opinion of mineralogists, in comparing
+it with those masses of granite which
+appear to us; and I hope fully to refute the
+geological, as well as mineralogical notions
+with regard to that body. In the mean time,
+let me make the following reflection, which
+here naturally occurs.</p>
+
+<p>My Theory of the Earth is here examined,&mdash;not
+with the system of nature, or actual
+state of things, to which it certainly should
+have corresponded,&mdash;but with the systematic
+views of a person, who has formed his notions
+of geology from the vague opinion of
+others, and not from what he has seen. Had
+the question been, How far my theory agreed
+with other theories, our author might very
+properly have informed his readers that it was
+diametrically opposite to the opinions of mineralogists;
+but, this was no reason for concluding
+it to be erroneous; on the contrary,
+it is rather a presumption that I may have
+corrected the error of mineralogists who have
+gone before me, in like manner as it is most
+reasonable to presume that our author may
+have corrected mine. Let us then proceed
+to examine how far this shall appear to be the
+case.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has stated very fairly from the
+Theory, viz. <i>That all the strata of the earth,
+not only those consisting of calcareous masses, but
+others superincumbent on these, have had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea, by the collection
+of sand, gravel, shells, coralline, and crustaceous
+bodies, and of earths and clays variously
+mixed, separated, and accumulated.</i> He then
+adds, "Various geological observations contradict
+this conclusion. There are many
+stratified mountains of argillaceous slate,
+gneiss, serpentine, jasper, and even marble,
+in which either sand, gravel, shells, coralline,
+or crustaceous bodies are never, or
+scarce ever found."</p>
+
+<p>Here our author seems to have deceived
+himself, by taking a very partial view of
+things which should be fully examined, and
+well understood, before general conclusions
+are to be drawn from those appearances; for,
+although those particular objects may not be
+visible in the strata which he has enumerated,
+or many others, they are found in those strata
+which are either immediately connected and
+alternated with them, or with similar strata;
+something to that purpose I think I have said;
+and, if I had not, it certainly requires no deep
+penetration to have seen this clear solution of
+that appearance of those objects not being found
+in every particular stratum. He says that
+those marks of known materials are never or
+scarce ever found;&mdash;by <i>scarce ever</i> he surely
+means that they are sometimes found; but if
+they shall only <i>once</i> be found, his argument
+is lost. I have not drawn my geological
+conclusion from every particle in strata being
+distinguishable, but from there being certain
+distinguishable particles in strata, and from our
+knowing what had been the former state and
+circumstances of those distinguished parts.</p>
+
+<p>If every stone or part of a stratum, in which
+those known objects are not immediately visible,
+must be considered as so <i>many geological
+observations that contradict my theory</i>, (of strata
+being formed from the materials of a former
+earth), then, surely every stone and every
+stratum which visibly contains any of those
+materials, must prove my theory. But if
+every stratum, where these are found in any
+part of it, is to be concluded as having had
+its origin at the bottom of the sea; and, if
+every concomitant stratum, though not having
+those objects visible or sufficiently distinct,
+must be considered as having had the same or
+a similar origin, that pretended contradiction
+of my theory comes to no more than this, that
+every individual stone does not bear in it the
+same or equal evidence of that general proposition
+which necessarily results from the attentive
+consideration of the whole, including
+every part.</p>
+
+<p>But to see how necessary it is to judge in
+this manner, not partially, but upon the whole,
+we may observe, that there are two ways by
+which the visible materials or distinguishable
+bodies of a former earth, not only <i>may</i> be rendered
+invisible in the composition of our present
+earth, but <i>must</i> be so upon many occasions.
+These are, <i>first</i>, by mechanical comminution,
+which necessarily happens, more or
+less, in that operation by which bodies are
+moved against one another, and thus transported
+from the land to the bottom of the
+deepest seas; <i>secondly</i>, by chemical operations,
+(whatever these may be, whether the
+action of water or of fire, or both), which are
+also necessarily employed for consolidating
+those loose materials, that are to form the
+rocks and stones of this earth, and by means
+of which those materials are to have their distinguishable
+shapes affected in all degrees and
+obliterated. Therefore, to demand the visible
+appearance of those materials in every stratum
+of the earth, or in every part of a stratum,
+is no other than to misunderstand the
+subject altogether. The geological observations,
+which have been thus alleged as contradicting
+my theory, are stratified bodies,
+containing proofs of the general origin which
+I attribute to the earth, but proofs which may
+not always be seen with equal facility as those
+which even convince the vulgar.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has surely perplexed himself
+with what writers of late have said concerning
+primitive mountains as they are called, a
+subject of deeper search, than is commonly
+imagined, as I hope to show in the course of
+this work. It is an interesting subject of investigation,
+as giving us the actual view of
+those operations of nature which, in forming
+my Theory of the Earth, more general principles
+had led me to conclude <i>might be</i>. But,
+it is a subject which, I am afraid, will lead me
+to give farther offence to our author, however
+innocent I may be in giving nothing but what
+I have from nature.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for saying so is this; I am
+blamed for having endeavoured to trace back
+the operations of this world to a remote period,
+by the examination of that which actually
+appears, contrary, as is alleged, "to
+reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic history,
+thus leading to an abyss, from which human
+reason recoils, etc." In a word, (says
+our author), "to make use of his own expression,
+<i>We find no vestige of a beginning.</i>
+Then this system of successive worlds must
+have been eternal." Such is the logic by
+which, I suppose, I am to be accused of atheism.
+Our author might have added, that I have
+also said&mdash;<i>we see no prospect of an end</i>; but what
+has all this to do with the idea of eternity?
+Are we, with our ideas of <i>time</i>, (or mere succession),
+to measure that of eternity, which
+never succeeded any thing, and which will
+never be succeeded? Are we thus to measure
+eternity, that boundless thought, with
+those physical notions of ours which necessarily
+limit both space and time? and, because
+we see not the beginning of created things,
+Are we to conclude that those things which
+we see have always been, or been without a
+cause? Our author would thus, inadvertently
+indeed, lead himself into that gulf of irreligion
+and absurdity into which, he alleges,
+I have <i>boldly plunged</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In examining this present earth, we find
+that it must have had its origin at the bottom
+of the sea, although our author seems willing
+to deny that proposition. Farther, in examining
+the internal construction of this stratified
+and sea-born mass, we find that it had
+been composed of the moved materials of
+a former earth; and, from the most accurate
+and extensive examination of those materials,
+which in many places are indeed much disguised,
+we are led necessarily to conclude,
+that there had been a world existing, and
+containing an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral
+system. But, in thus tracing back the
+natural operations which have succeeded each
+other, and mark to us the course of time past,
+we come to a period in which we cannot see
+any farther. This, however, is not the beginning
+of those operations which proceed in
+time and according to the wise economy of
+this world; nor is it the establishing of that,
+which, in the course of time, had no beginning;
+it is only the limit of our retrospective
+view of those operations which have come to
+pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme
+intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>My principal anxiety was to show how the
+constitution of this world had been wisely
+contrived; and this I endeavoured to do, not
+from supposition or conjecture, but from its
+answering so effectually the end of its intention,
+viz. the preserving of animal life, which
+we cannot doubt of being its purpose. Here
+then is a world that is not eternal, but which
+has been the effect of wisdom or design.</p>
+
+<p>With regard again to the prospective view of
+the creation, How are we to see the end of
+that wise system of things which so properly
+fulfils the benevolent intention of its maker,&mdash;in
+giving sustenance to the animal part,
+and information to intellectual beings, who,
+in these works of nature, read what much
+concerns their peace of mind,&mdash;their intellectual
+happiness? What then does our author
+mean, in condemning that comprehensive view
+which I have endeavoured to take of nature?
+Would he deny that there is to be perceived
+wisdom in the system of this world, or that a
+philosopher, who looks into the operations of
+nature, may not plainly read the power and
+wisdom of the Creator, without recoiling, as he
+says, from the abyss? The abyss, from which
+a man of science should recoil, is that of ignorance
+and error.</p>
+
+<p>I have thus shown, that, from not perceiving
+the wise disposition of things upon the
+surface of this earth for the preservation of
+vegetable bodies, our author has been led to
+deny the necessary waste of the present earth,
+and the consequent preparation of materials
+for the construction of another; I have also
+shown, that he denies the origin which I had
+attributed to the stratified parts of this earth,
+as having been the collection of moving materials
+from a former earth; and now I am
+come to consider the professed purpose of this
+paper, viz. the examination of solid stony
+substances which we find in those strata of our
+earth, as well as in more irregular masses.
+Here, no doubt, my theory would have been
+attacked with greater success, had our author
+succeeded in pointing out its error with regard
+to the original composition of those indurated
+bodies, to which I ascribe fusion as
+the cause of their solidity. For, if we should,
+according to our author's proposition, consider
+those consolidated bodies as having been originally
+formed in that solid state, here the
+door might be shut against any farther investigation;&mdash;But
+to what purpose?&mdash;Surely not
+to refute my theory, but to explode every
+physical inquiry farther on the subject, and
+thus to lead us back into the science of darkness
+and of scepticism. But let us proceed to
+see our author's sentiments on this subject.</p>
+
+<p>As I had proved from matter of fact, or
+the actual appearances of nature, that all the
+strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
+of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials
+which either come from the decaying
+land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
+that I should consider in what manner
+those spongy or porous bodies of loose materials,
+gathered together at the bottom of the
+sea, could have acquired that consolidated
+state in which we find them, now that they
+are brought up to our examination. Upon
+this occasion, our author says, "The particles
+which now form the solid parts of the globe
+need not be supposed to have originally
+been either spongy or porous, the interior
+parts at the depth of a few miles might
+have been originally, as at present, a solid
+mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition,
+we may then save ourselves the
+trouble of considering either how the strata
+of the earth have been formed or consolidated;
+for, they might have been so originally.
+But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen
+a piece of Derbyshire marble, or any other
+shell limestone, make that supposition? Here
+are, to the satisfaction of every body of common
+understanding who looks at them, bodies
+which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
+have evidently been formed at the bottom of
+the sea, and therefore which were not originally
+a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true,
+wrote a book to prove that those appearances
+were nothing but a <i>lusus naturae</i>; and, I suppose
+he meant, with our author, that those
+strata had been also originally, as at present, a
+solid mass.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the consolidation of strata,
+that cardinal point for discussion, our author
+gives the following answer: "Abstracting
+from his own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very
+easy to satisfy our author on this head; the
+concreting and consolidating power in most
+cases arises from the mutual attraction of
+the component particles of stones to each
+other." This is an answer with regard to
+the <i>concreting power</i>, a subject about which
+we certainly are not here inquiring. Our
+author, indeed, has mentioned a <i>consolidating
+power</i>; but that is an improper expression; we
+are here inquiring, How the interstices, between
+the collected materials of strata, deposited at
+the bottom of the sea, have been filled
+with a hard substance, instead of the fluid water
+which had originally occupied those spaces.
+Our author then continues; "If these
+particles leave any interstices, these are filled
+with water, which no ways obstructs
+their solidity when the points of contact
+are numerous; hence the decrepitation of
+many species of stones when heated."</p>
+
+<p>If I understand our author's argument, the
+particles of stone are, by their mutual attractions,
+to leave those hard and solid bodies
+which compose the strata, that is to say, those
+hard bodies are to dissolve themselves; but, To
+what purpose? This must be to fill up the interstices,
+which we must suppose occupied by
+the water. In that case, we should find the
+original interstices filled with the substances
+which had composed the strata, and we should
+find the water translated into the places of
+those bodies; here would be properly a transmutation,
+but no consolidation of the strata,
+such as we are here to look for, and such as we
+actually find among those strata. It may be
+very easy for our author to form those explanations
+of natural phenomena; it costs no tedious
+observation of facts, which are to be
+gathered with labour, patience, and attention;
+he has but to look into his own fancy, as philosophers
+did in former times, when they saw
+the abhorrence of a vacuum and explained
+the pump. It is thus that we are here told
+the consolidation of strata <i>arises from the mutual
+attraction of the component particles of
+stones to each other</i>; the power, by which the
+particles of solid stony bodies retain their
+places in relation to each other, and resist separation
+from the mass, may, no doubt, be
+properly enough termed their mutual attractions;
+but we are not here inquiring after that
+power; we are to investigate the power by
+which the particles of hard and stony bodies
+had been separated, contrary to their mutual
+attractions, in order to form new concretions,
+by being again brought within the spheres of
+action in which their mutual attractions might
+take place, and make them one solid body.
+Now, to say that this is by their mutual attraction,
+is either to misunderstand the proper question,
+or to give a most preposterous answer.</p>
+
+<p>It is not every one who is fit to reason with
+regard to abstract general propositions; I will
+now, therefore, state a particular case, in illustration
+of that proposition which has been
+here so improperly answered. The strata of
+Derbyshire marbles were originally immense
+collections at the bottom of the sea, of calcareous
+bodies consisting almost wholly of various
+fragments of the <i>entrochi</i>; and they were
+then covered with an indefinite number of
+other strata under which these <i>entrochi</i> must
+have been buried. In this original state of
+those strata, I suppose the interstices between
+the fragments of the coralline bodies to have
+been left full of sea-water; at present we find
+those interstices completely filled with a most
+perfectly solid body of marble; and the
+question is, whether that consolidating operation
+has been the work of water and solution,
+by our naturalist's termed infiltration; or if it
+has been performed, as I have maintained, by
+the softening power or heat, or introduction
+of matter in the fluid state of fusion. Our
+author does not propose any other method for
+the consolidation of those loose and incoherent
+bodies, but he speaks of the <i>mutual attraction
+of the component particles of stone to
+each other</i>; Will that fill the interstices between
+the coralline bodies with solid marble,
+as well as consolidate the coralline bodies
+themselves? or, if it should, How are those
+interstices to be thus filled with a substance
+perfectly different from the deposited bodies,
+which is also frequently the case? But, how
+reason with a person who, with this consolidation
+of strata, confounds the well known
+operation by which the mortar, made with
+caustic lime and sand, becomes a hard body!
+One would imagine that he were writing to
+people of the last age, and not to chemical
+philosophers who know so well how that
+mortar is concreted.</p>
+
+<p>To my argument, That these porous strata
+are found <i>consolidated with every different species
+of mineral substance</i>, our author makes the
+following observation: "Here the difficulties
+to the supposition of an aqueous solution
+are placed in the strongest light; yet
+it must be owned that they partly arise from
+the author's own gratuitous supposition,
+that strata existed at the bottom of the sea
+previous to their consolidation;"&mdash;gratuitous
+supposition!&mdash;so far from being a supposition
+of any kind, it is a self evident proposition;
+the terms necessarily imply the conclusion.
+I beg the readers attention for a
+moment to this part of our author's animadversion,
+before proceeding to consider the
+whole; for, this is a point so essential in my
+theory, that if it be a gratuitous supposition,
+as is here asserted, it would certainly be in
+vain to attempt to build upon it the system of
+a world.</p>
+
+<p>That strata may exist, whether at the bottom
+of the sea, or any other where, without
+being consolidated, will hardly be disputed;
+for, they are actually found consolidated in
+every different degree. But, when strata are
+found consolidated, at what time is it that we
+are to suppose this event to have taken place,
+or this accident to have happened to them?
+&mdash;Strata are formed at the bottom of water,
+by the subsidence or successive deposits of certain
+materials; it could not therefore be
+during their formation that such strata had
+been consolidated; consequently, we must necessarily
+<i>conclude</i>, without any degree of <i>supposition</i>,
+that <i>strata had existed at the bottom of
+the sea previous to their consolidation</i>, unless
+our author can show how they may have been
+consolidated previous to their existing.</p>
+
+<p>This then is what our author has termed a
+gratuitous supposition of mine, and which, he
+adds, "is a circumstance which will not be
+allowed by the patrons of the aqueous origin
+of stony substances, as we have already
+seen."&mdash;I am perfectly at a loss to guess at
+what is here alluded to <i>by having been already
+seen</i>, unless it be that which I have already
+quoted, concerning things which have been
+never seen, that is, <i>those interior parts of the
+earth which were originally a solid mass</i>.&mdash;I
+have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;&mdash;a
+reasoning which is not founded upon
+any principle, which holds up nothing but
+chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing
+that is intelligible;&mdash;but, others, perhaps,
+may see this dissertation of our author's
+in a different light; therefore, it is my duty
+to analyse the argument, however insignificant
+it may seem to me.</p>
+
+<p>I have minutely examined all the stratified
+bodies which I have been able, during a lifetime,
+to procure, both in this country of Britain,
+and from all the quarters of the globe;
+and the result of my inquiry has been to
+conclude, that there is nothing among them
+in an original state, as the reader will see in
+the preceding chapter. With regard again to
+the masses which are not stratified, I have also
+given proof that they are not in their original
+state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine,
+and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction,
+I hope, upon that head, in the course of
+this work. I have therefore concluded, That
+there is nothing to be found in an original
+state, so far as we see, in the construction of
+this earth. But, our author answers, That
+the interior parts <i>might have been in an original
+state of solidity</i>.&mdash;So might they have
+been upon the surface of the earth, or on the
+summits of our mountains; but, we are not
+inquiring What they <i>might have been</i>, but
+What they truly <i>are</i>. It is from this actual
+state in which the solid parts of the earth are
+found, that I have endeavoured to trace back
+the different states in which they must have
+been; and, by generalising facts, I have formed
+a theory of the earth. If this be a
+wrong principle or manner of proceeding in
+a physical investigation, or if, proceeding upon
+that principle, I have made the induction by
+reasoning improperly on any occasion, let this
+be corrected by philosophers, who may reason
+more accurately upon the subject. But to
+oppose a physical investigation with this proposition,
+<i>that things might have been otherwise</i>,
+is to proceed upon a very different principle,&mdash;a
+principle which, instead of tending to
+bring light out of darkness, is only calculated
+to extinguish that light which we may have
+acquired.</p>
+
+<p>I shall afterwards have occasion to examine
+how far the philosophers, who attribute to
+aqueous solution the origin of stony substances,
+have proceeded in the same inductive
+manner of reasoning from effect to cause, as
+they ought to do in physical subjects, and not
+by feigning causes, or following a false analogy;
+in the mean time, I am to answer the
+objections which have been made to the
+theory of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In opposition to the theory of consolidating
+bodies by fusion, our author has taken great
+pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
+for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find
+the means to make it burn had I those materials.
+Had our author read attentively my
+theory he would have observed, that I give
+myself little or no trouble about that fire, or
+take no charge with regard to the procuring
+of that power, as I have not founded my
+theory on the <i>supposition</i> of subterraneous fire,
+however that fire properly follows as a conclusion
+from those appearances on which the
+theory is founded. My theory is founded
+upon the general appearances of mineral bodies,
+and upon this, that mineral bodies must
+necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I
+do not pretend to prove, demonstratively, that
+they had been even hot, however that conclusion
+also naturally follows from their having
+been in fusion. It is sufficient for me to demonstrate,
+That those bodies must have been,
+more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity,
+without any species of solution. I do not say
+that this fluidity had been without heat; but,
+if that had been the case, it would have answered
+equally well the purpose of my theory,
+so far as this went to explain the consolidation
+of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still
+repeat, must have been by simple fluidity, and
+not by any species of solution, or any other
+solvent than that universal one which permeates
+all bodies, and which makes them
+fluid.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has justly remarked the difficulty
+of fire burning below the earth and sea.
+It is not my purpose here to endeavour to remove
+those difficulties, which perhaps only
+exist in those suppositions which are made on
+this occasion; my purpose is to show, that he
+had no immediate concern with that question,
+in discussing the subject of the consolidation
+which we actually find in the strata of the
+earth, unless my theory, with regard to the
+igneous origin of stony substances, had proceeded
+upon the supposition of a subterraneous
+fire. It is surely one thing to employ
+fire and heat to melt mineral bodies, in supposing
+this to be the cause of their consolidation,
+and another thing to acknowledge fire
+or heat as having been exerted upon mineral
+bodies, when it is clearly proved, from actual
+appearances, that those bodies had been in a
+melted state, or that of simple fluidity. Here
+are distinctions which would be thrown away
+upon the vulgar; but, to a man of science,
+who analyses arguments, and reasons strictly
+from effect to cause, this is, I believe, the proper
+way of coming at the truth. If the patrons
+of the aqueous origin of stony substances
+can give us any manner of scientifical, <i>i.e.</i>
+intelligible investigation of that process, it shall
+be attended to with the most rigid impartiality,
+even by a patron of the igneous origin of
+those substances, as he wishes above all things
+to distinguish, in the mineral operations, those
+which, on the one hand, had been the effect
+of water, from those which, on the other hand,
+had been the immediate effect of fire or fusion;&mdash;this
+has been my greatest study. But,
+while mineralists or geologists give us only
+mere opinions, What is science profited by
+such inconsequential observations, as are founded
+upon nothing but our vulgar notions? Is
+the figure of the earth, <i>e.g.</i> to be doubted,
+because, according to the common notion of
+mankind, the existence of an antipod is certainly
+to be denied?</p>
+
+<p>I am not avoiding to meet that question
+with regard to the providing of materials for
+such a mineral fire as may be required; no
+question I desire more to be asked to resolve;
+but it must not be in the manner that our author
+has put that question. He has included
+this supposed difficulty among a string of
+other arguments by which he would refute
+my theory with regard to the igneous origin
+of stony substances, as if I had made that fire
+a necessary condition or a principle in forming
+my theory of consolidation. Now, it is precisely
+the reverse; and this is what I beg that
+mineral philosophers will particularly attend
+to, and not give themselves so much unnecessary
+trouble, and me so disagreeable a talk. I
+have proved that those stony substances have
+been in the fluid state of fusion; and from
+this, I have inferred the former existence of
+an internal heat, a subterraneous fire, or a certain
+cause of fusion by whatever name it shall
+be called, and by whatever means it shall
+have been procured. The nature of that operation
+by which strata had been consolidated,
+like that by which they had been composed,
+must, according to my philosophy, be decided
+by ocular demonstration; from examining the
+internal evidence which is to be found in those
+bodies as we see them in the earth; because
+the consolidating operation is not performed
+in our sight, no more than their stratification
+which our author has also denied to have been
+made, as I have said, by the deposits of materials
+at the bottom of the sea. Now, with
+regard to the means of procuring subterraneous
+fire, if the consolidating operation shall
+be thus decided to have been that of fusion,
+as I think I have fully shown, and for which
+I have as many witnesses, perhaps as there are
+mineral bodies, then our author's question,
+(how I am to procure a fire) in the way that
+he has put it, as an argument against the fusion,
+would be at least useless; for, though I
+should here confess my ignorance with regard
+to the means of procuring fire, the evidence
+of the melting operation, or former fluidity of
+those mineral bodies, would not be thereby in
+the least diminished. If again no such evidence
+for the fusion of those bodies shall appear,
+and it be concluded that they had been
+consolidated by the action of water alone, as
+our author seems inclined to maintain, he
+would have no occasion to start difficulties
+about the procuring of fire, in order to refute
+a theory which then would fall of itself as
+having no foundation.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to see this author's notion of
+the theory which he is here examining, it
+may be proper to give a specimen of his
+reasoning upon this subject of heat. He says,
+"That my supposition of heat necessary for
+consolidating strata is <i>gratuitous</i>, not only
+because it is unnecessary, as we have already
+shown, but also because it is inconsistent
+with our author's own theory." Let
+us now consider those two propositions. <i>First</i>,
+it is unnecessary, <i>as we have already shown</i>;&mdash;
+I have already taken particular notice of what
+we have been shown on this occasion, viz.
+That the earth at a certain depth <i>may have
+been originally in a solid state</i>; and, that,
+where it is to be consolidated, this is done by
+the <i>mutual attraction of the stony particles</i>.
+Here is all that we have been shown to make
+subterraneous heat, for the consolidation of
+strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly submit,
+if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral
+heat is a gratuitous supposition.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, "<i>it is inconsistent with our author's
+own theory.</i>" Here I would beg the
+readers attention to the reasoning employed
+on this occasion. He says, "according to
+him these strata, which were consolidated
+by heat, were composed of materials gradually
+worn from a preceding continent, casually
+and successively deposited in the sea;
+Where then will he find, and how will he
+suppose, to have been formed those enormous
+masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen,
+necessary to produce that immense heat necessary
+for the fusion of those vast mountains
+of stone now existing? All the coal,
+sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
+not form the 100,000 part of the materials
+deposited within one quarter of a mile under
+the surface of the earth; if, therefore,
+they were, as his hypothesis demands, carried
+off and mixed with the other materials,
+and not formed in vast and separate collections,
+they could never occasion, by their
+combustion, a heat capable of producing
+the smallest effect, much less those gigantic
+effects which he requires."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a comparative estimate formed between
+two things which have not any necessary
+relation; these are, the quantity of combustible
+materials found in the earth, on the
+one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
+necessary for hardening and consolidating strata,
+on the other. If this earth has been consolidated
+by the burning of combustible materials,
+there must have been a superfluity, so
+far as there is a certain quantity of these actually
+found unconsumed in the strata of the
+earth. Our author's conclusion is the very
+opposite; let us then see how he is to form
+his argument, by which he proves that the
+supposition of subterraneous heat for hardening
+bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary, as
+being inconsistent with my theory.</p>
+
+<p>According to my theory, the strata of this
+earth are composed of the materials which
+came from a former earth; particularly these
+combustible strata that contain plants which
+must have grown upon the land. Let us then
+suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with
+its combustible materials from this source,
+the vegetable bodies growing upon the surface
+of the land. Here is a source provided
+for the supplying of mineral fire, a source
+which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless we
+are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and
+the necessary ingredients; such as the matter
+of light, carbonic matter, and the hydrogenous
+principle. But it is not upon any deficiency
+of this kind that our author founds his estimate;
+it is upon the superfluity of combustible
+materials which is actually found in this
+earth, after it had been properly consolidated
+and raised above the surface of the sea. This is
+a method of reasoning calculated to convince
+only those who do not understand it; it is as
+if we should conclude that a person had died
+of want, because he had left provision behind
+him. Our author certainly means to employ
+nothing but the combustible minerals of the
+present earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire
+which is to concoct a future earth; in that
+case, I will allow that his provision is deficient;
+but this is not my theory.</p>
+
+<p>I am not here to enter into any argument
+concerning subterraneous fire; the reader will
+find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
+concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed
+previous to, and ever since, the formation
+of this earth,&mdash;that it exists in all its vigour
+at this day,&mdash;that there is, in the constitution
+of this earth, a superfluity of subterranean
+heat,&mdash;and that there is wisely provided
+a proper remedy against any destructive effect
+to the system, that might arise from that
+superabundant provision of this necessary
+agent. Had our author attended to the ocular
+proof that we have of the actual existence
+of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations
+which I have given of the effects
+of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must
+have seen that those arguments of his, with
+regard to the difficulty or impossibility of procuring
+that fire, can only show the error of
+his reasoning. I am far from supposing that
+my theory may be free from inconsistency or
+error; I am only maintaining that, in all his
+confident assertions, this author has not hitherto
+pointed any of these out.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have answered our author's objections
+as to consolidation, and I have given
+a specimen of his reasoning upon that subject;
+but with regard to my Theory of the Earth,
+although simple fluidity, without heat, would
+have answered the purpose of consolidating
+strata that had been formed at the bottom of
+the sea, it was necessary to provide a power
+for raising those consolidated strata from that
+low place to the summits of the continents;
+now, in supposing heat to be the cause of that
+fluidity which had been employed in the consolidation
+of those submarine masses, we find
+a power capable of erecting continents, and
+the only power, so far as I see, which natural
+philosophy can employ for that purpose. Thus
+I was led, from the consolidation of strata,
+to understand the nature of the elevating
+power, and, from the nature of that power,
+again to understand the cause of fluidity by
+which the rocks and stones of this earth had
+been consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus, without employing the evidence
+of any fire or <i>burning</i>, been necessarily
+led to conclude an extreme degree of heat
+exerted in the mineral regions, I next inquire
+how far there are any appearances from
+whence we might conclude whether that active
+subterraneous power still subsists, and
+what may be the nature of that power.
+When first I conceived my theory, naturalists
+were far from suspecting that basaltic rocks
+were of volcanic origin; I could not then
+have employed an argument from these rocks
+as I may do now, for proving that the fires,
+which we see almost daily issuing with such
+force from volcanos, are a continuation of
+that active cause which has so evidently been
+exerted in all times, and in all places, so far
+as have been examined of this earth.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the degree of heat in that
+subterraneous fire, our author, after proving
+that combustible materials would not burn in
+the mineral regions, then says, that suppose
+they were to burn, this would be "incapable
+of forming a heat even equal to that of our
+common furnaces, as Mr Dolomieu has
+clearly shown to be the case with respect to
+volcanic heat." The place to which he
+alludes, I believe to be that which I have
+quoted from the Journal de Physique (Part I.
+page 139) to which I here beg leave to refer
+the reader. After what I have already said,
+this subject will appear to be of little concern
+to me; but, it must be considered, that my
+object, in these answers, is not so much to
+justify the theory which I have given, as it
+is to remove that prejudice which, to those
+who are not master of chemical and mineral
+subjects, will naturally arise from the opinion
+or authority of a scientific man, and a chemist;
+therefore, I think it my business to show
+how much he has misconceived the matter
+which he treats of, and how much he misunderstands
+the subject of my theory.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Dolomieu alleges that the volcanic
+fire operates in the melting of bodies, not by
+the intensity of its heat, which is the means
+employed by us in our operations, but in the
+long continuance of its action. But in that
+proposition, this philosopher is merely giving
+us his opinion; and, this opinion our author
+mistakes, I suppose, for the fact on which that
+opinion had been (perhaps reasonably) founded.
+The reader will see, in the place quoted,
+or in the <i>avant-propos</i> to his <i>Mémoire sur les
+Iles Ponces</i>, the fact to be this; That the Chevalier
+Dolomieu finds those bodies which we
+either cannot melt in our fires, or which we
+cannot melt without changing them by calcination
+and vitrification, he finds, I say, these
+substances had actually been melted with his
+lavas; he also finds those substances, which
+are necessarily dissipated in our fires, to have
+been retained in those melted mineral substances.
+Had our author quoted the text, instead
+of giving us his own interpretation, he could
+not have offered a stronger confirmation of
+my theory; which certainly is not concerned
+with the particular intensity of volcanic fire,
+and far less with what may be the opinion of
+any naturalist with regard to that intensity,
+but only with the efficacy of that volcanic
+heat for the melting of mineral substances.
+Now this efficacy of volcanic fire, so far as we
+are to found upon the authority given on this
+occasion, is clearly confirmed by the observations
+of a most intelligent mineralist, and one
+who is actually a patron of the opposite theory
+to that which I have given. This being the
+state of the case, Must I not conclude, that
+our author has misunderstood the subject, and
+that he has been led to give a mutilated opinion
+of Mr Dolomieu, in order to refute my
+theory, when either the entire opinion, or the
+facts on which the opinion had been founded,
+would have confirmed it?</p>
+
+<p>I have thus endeavoured to put in its true
+light a species of reasoning, which, while it
+assumes the air and form of that inductive
+train of thought employed by men of science
+for the investigation of nature, is only fit to
+mislead the unwary, and, when closely examined,
+will appear to be inconsequential or
+unfounded. How mortifying then to find,
+that one may be employed almost a lifetime
+in generalising the phenomena of nature, or
+in gathering an infinity of evidence for the
+forming of a theory, and that the consequence
+of this shall only be to give offence, and to
+receive reproach from those who see not things
+in the same light!&mdash;While man has to learn,
+mankind must have different opinions. It is
+the prerogative of man to form opinions;
+these indeed are often, commonly I may say,
+erroneous; but they are commonly corrected,
+and it is thus that truth in general is made to
+appear.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote a general Theory for the inspection
+of philosophers, who doubtless will point out
+its errors; but this requires the study of nature,
+which is not the work of a day; and, in
+this political age, the study of nature seems to
+be but little pursued by our philosophers. In
+the mean time, there are, on the one hand,
+sceptical philosophers, who think there is nothing
+certain in nature, because there is misconception
+in the mind of man; on the other
+hand, there are many credulous amateurs,
+who go to nature to be entertained as we go
+to see a pantomime: But there are also superficial
+reasoning men, who think themselves
+qualified to write on subjects on which they
+may have read in books,&mdash;subjects which they
+may have seen in cabinets, and which, perhaps,
+they have just learned to name; without
+truly knowing what they see, they think
+they know those regions of the earth which
+never can be seen; and they judge of the
+great operations of the mineral kingdom, from
+having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom
+of a little crucible.</p>
+
+<p>In the Theory of the Earth which was
+published, I was anxious to warn the reader
+against the notion that subterraneous heat and
+fusion could be compared with that which we
+induce by our chemical operations on mineral
+substances here upon the surface of the
+earth; yet, notwithstanding all the precaution
+I had taken, our author has bestowed four
+quarto pages in proving to me, that our fires
+have an effect upon mineral substances different
+from that of the subterraneous power
+which I would employ.</p>
+
+<p>He then sets about combining metals with
+sulphur in the moist way, as if that were any
+more to his purpose than is the making of a
+stalactite for the explanation of marble. Silver
+and lead may be sulphurated, as he says, with
+hepatic gas; but, Has the sulphurated solid
+ores of those metals, and that of iron, been
+formed in the moist way, as in some measure
+they may be by the fusion of our fires?
+But, even suppose that this were the case,
+Could that explain a thousand other appearances
+which are inconsistent with the operation
+of water? We see aerated lead dissolved
+in the excavations of our mines, and again
+concreted by the separation of the evaporated
+solvent, in like manner as stalactical concretions
+are made of calcareous earth; but, so far
+from explaining mineral appearances, as having
+had their concretions formed in the same
+manner, here is the most convincing argument
+against it; for, among the infinite variety
+of mineral productions which we find in
+nature, Why does no other example of aqueous
+concretion ever occur upon the surface of
+the earth except those which we understand
+so well, and which we therefore know cannot
+be performed in the bodies of strata not exposed
+to the evaporation of the solvent, a circumstance
+which is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>I have given a very remarkable example of
+mineral fusion, in reguline manganese, (as the
+reader will see in page 68.) It is not that this
+example is more to the purpose of my theory
+than what may be found in every species of
+stone; but this example speaks so immediately
+to the common sense of mankind, (who are
+often convinced by a general resemblance of
+things, when they may not see the force of
+demonstration from an abstract principle) that
+I thought it deserved a place on that account,
+as well as being a curious example, But more
+particularly to my antagonist, who has been
+pleased (very improperly indeed) to try some
+part of my theory in the fire, here is an example
+which should have been absolutely in
+point, and without any manner of exception:&mdash;Has
+he acknowledged this?&mdash;No; he has,
+on the contrary, endeavoured to set this very
+example aside.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, he says, "Manganese has
+been found in a reguline state by M. de la
+Peyrouse, and in small grains, as when produced
+by fire. True; but it was mixed
+with a large quantity of iron, which is often,
+found in that form without any suspicion of
+fusion. A fire capable of melting quartz
+might surely produce it in larger masses."
+We have here a kind of two arguments, for
+removing the effect of this example; and I
+shall consider them separately.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these is, the not being suspected
+of having been in fusion; now, if this
+were to be admitted as an argument against
+the igneous origin of stony substances, it might
+have superseded the adducing of any other,
+for it is applicable perhaps to every mineral;
+but we must here examine the case more minutely.</p>
+
+<p>This argument, of the manganese being in
+a mine of iron, if I understand it rightly,
+amounts to this, that, as iron ore is not suspected
+of having been melted, therefore, we
+should doubt the manganese having been so.
+If this be our author's meaning, it is not the
+fair conclusion which the case admits of; for,
+so far as the manganese appears evidently to
+have been in a melted state, the iron ore should
+be <i>suspected</i> of having been also in fusion, were
+there no other evidence of that fact. In science,
+however, it is not suspicion that should
+be employed in physical investigation; the
+question at present is; If the phenomena of the
+case correspond to the conclusion which the
+intelligent mineralist, who examined them,
+has formed? and, to this question, our author
+gives no direct answer. He says, <i>iron is often
+found in that form without any suspicion of fusion</i>.
+This is what I am now to answer.</p>
+
+<p>The form in which the manganese appears
+is one of the strongest proofs of those masses
+having been in fusion; and, if iron should
+ever be found in that form, it must give the
+same proof of mineral fusion as this example
+of manganese; let us then see the nature of
+this evidence. The form of the manganese is
+that of a fluid body collecting itself into a
+spherical figure by the cohesion or attraction
+of its particles, so far as may be admitted by
+other circumstances; but, being here refilled
+by the solid part on which it rests, this spherical
+body is flattened by the gravitation of its
+substance. Now here is a regular form, which
+demonstrates the masses to have been in the
+state of fusion; for, there is no other way in
+which that form of those reguline masses could
+have been induced.</p>
+
+<p>There now remains to be considered what
+our author has observed respecting the intensity
+of the fire and size of the masses. "A
+fire capable of melting quartz might surely
+produce it (meaning the manganese) in larger
+masses." M. de la Peyrouse says, that
+those masses were in all respects as if formed
+by art, only much larger, as the powers of nature
+exceed those of our laboratories. What
+then is it that is here meant to be disputed?
+We are comparing the operation of nature
+and that of art, and these are to be judged of
+by the product which we examine; but the
+quantity, in this case, or the size of the masses,
+makes no part of the evidence, and therefore
+is here most improperly mentioned by our author.
+With regard again to the nature of the
+fire by which the fusion had been produced,
+he is much mistaken if he imagines that the
+reduction of the reguline or metallic manganese
+depends upon the intensity of the heat;
+it depends upon circumstances proper for the
+separation of the oxygenating principle from
+the calx, in like manner as the calcination of
+calcareous spar must depend upon circumstances
+proper for allowing the separation of the
+carbonic acid or fixed air.</p>
+
+<p>But do not let us lose sight of our proper
+subject, by examining things foreign or not
+so immediately to the purpose. We are only
+inquiring if those flattened spheres of native
+manganese had been formed by water, or if it
+were by fusion; for, our author agrees that
+there is no other way. Why then does he
+endeavour to evade giving a direct answer,
+and fly away to consider the quantity of the
+product, as if that had any thing to do with,
+the question, or as if that quantity were not
+sufficient, neither of which is the case. In
+short, our author's whole observation, on this
+occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy,
+by insinuation, the force of an argument
+which proves the theory of mineral fusion;
+and that he wishes to render doubtful,
+by a species of sophistry, what in fair reasoning
+he cannot deny.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has written upon the subject of
+phlogiston; one would suppose that he should
+be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at
+least; let us see then what he has to observe
+upon that subject. He quotes from my Theory,
+that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon
+or near each other, and adhering to coal, or
+mixed with bitumen, etc. are found; circumstances
+that cannot be explained in the
+hypothesis of solution in the moist way.&mdash;He
+then answers;&mdash;"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
+which is not wonderful: But they
+are still less explicable in the hypothesis of
+dry solution, as must be apparent from what
+has been already said.  How coal, an infusible
+substance, could be spread into strata
+by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."&mdash;It
+is only upon the last sentence that I am
+here to remark: This, I believe, will be a sufficient
+specimen of our author's understanding,
+with regard at least to my Theory which
+he is here examining.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will see what I have said upon
+the subject of coal, by turning back to the second
+section of the preceding chapter. I had
+given almost three quarto pages upon that
+subject, endeavouring to explain how all the
+different degrees of <i>infusibility</i> were produced,
+by means of heat and distillation, in strata
+which had been originally more or less oily,
+bituminous, and <i>fusible</i>; and now our author
+says, that it is incomprehensible to him, how
+coal, <i>an infusible substance</i>, could be spread into
+strata by mere heat.&mdash;So it truly may, either
+to him or to any other person; but, it
+appears to me almost as incomprehensible,
+how a person of common understanding should
+read my Dissertation, and impute to it a thing
+so contrary to its doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived
+view that our author seems to have taken
+of the two opposite theories, (<i>i. e</i>. of consolidation
+by means of heat, and by means of
+water alone,) than his observation upon the
+case of mineral alkali. To that irrefragable argument
+(which Dr Black suggested) in proof
+of this substance having been in a state of fusion
+in the mineral regions, our author makes
+the following reply; "What then will our
+author say of the vast masses of this salt
+which are found with their full quantity of
+water of crystallization?"&mdash;There is in this
+proposition, insignificant as it may seem, a
+confusion of ideas, which it certainly cannot
+be thought worth while to investigate; but,
+so far as the doctrine of the aqueous theory
+may be considered as here concerned, it will
+be proper that I should give some answer to
+the question so triumphantly put to me.</p>
+
+<p>Our author is in a mistake in supposing that
+Dr Black had written any thing upon the subject;
+he had only suggested the argument of
+this example of mineral alkali to me, as I have
+mentioned; and, the use I made of that argument
+was to corroborate the example I had
+given of sal gem. If, therefore, our author
+does not deny the inference from the state of
+that mineral alkali, his observation upon it
+must refer to something which this other example
+of his is to prove on the opposite side,
+or to support the aqueous instead of the igneous
+theory; and, this is a subject which I am
+always willing to examine in the most impartial
+manner, having a desire to know the true
+effect of aqueous solution in the consolidation
+of mineral bodies, and having no objection to
+allow it any thing which it can possibly produce,
+although denying that it can do every
+thing, as many mineralists seem to think.</p>
+
+<p>The question, with regard to this example
+of our author's of a mineral alkali with its water
+of crystallization, must be this, Whether
+those saline bodies had been concreted by the
+evaporation of the aqueous solvent with which
+they had been introduced, or by the congelation
+of that saline substance from a fluid state
+of fusion; for, surely, we are not to suppose
+those bodies to have been created in the place
+and state in which we find them. With regard
+to the evaporation or separation of the
+aqueous solvent, this may be easily conceived
+according to the igneous theory; but, the
+aqueous theory has not any means for the
+producing of that effect in the mineral regions,
+which is the only place we are here concerned
+with. Therefore, this example of a concreted
+body of salt, whatever it may prove in other
+respects, can neither diminish the evidence of
+my Theory with regard to the igneous origin
+of stony substances, nor can it contribute to
+support the opposite supposition of an aqueous
+origin to them.</p>
+
+<p>But to show how little reason our author
+had for exulting in that question which he so
+confidently proposed in order to defeat my
+argument, let us consider this matter a little
+farther. I will for a moment allow the aqueous
+theory to have the means for separating
+the water from the saline solution, and thus
+to concrete the saline substance in the bowels
+of the earth; this concretion then is to be examined
+with a view to investigate the last state
+of this body, which is to inform us with regard
+to those mineral operations. But, our
+author has not mentioned whether those masses
+appear to have been crystallised from the
+aqueous solution, or if they appear to have
+been congealed from the melted state of their
+<i>aqueous fusion</i>.&mdash;Has he ever thought of
+this? Now this is so material a point in the
+view with which that example has been held
+out to us, that, without showing that this
+salt had crystallised from the solution, he
+has no right to employ it as an example; and
+if, on the other hand, it should appear to have
+simply congealed from the state of aqueous
+fusion, then, instead of answering the purpose
+for which our author gave it, it would refute
+his supposition, as certainly as the example
+which I have given.</p>
+
+<p>So far I have reasoned upon the supposition
+of this alkali, with its water of crystallization,
+being truly a mineral concretion; but, I see
+no authority for such a supposition: It certainly
+may be otherwise; and, in that case,
+our author would have no more right to give
+it as an example in opposition to Dr Black's
+argument, than he would have to give the
+crystallization of sea-salt, on Turk's Island, in
+opposition to the example which I had given,
+of the salt rock, at Northwych in Cheshire,
+having been in the state of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly was incumbent on our author
+to have informed us, if those masses of salt
+were found in, what may be properly termed,
+their mineral state; or, if the state in which
+they are found at present had been produced
+by the influences of the atmosphere, transforming
+that saline substance from its mineral
+state, as happens upon so many other occasions;
+I am inclined to suspect that this last
+is truly the case. It may be thought illiberal
+in me to suppose a natural philosopher thus
+holding out an example that could only serve
+to lead us into error, or to mislead our judgment
+with regard to those two theories which
+is the subject of consideration. This certainly
+would be the case, almost on any other occasion;
+but, when I find every argument and
+example, employed in this dissertation, to be
+either unfounded or misjudged, Whether am
+I to conclude our author, on this occasion, to
+be consistent with himself, or not?</p>
+
+<p>I have but one article more to observe upon.
+I had given, as I thought, a kind of demonstration,
+from the internal evidence of the
+stone, that granite had been in the fluid state
+of fusion, and had concreted by crystallization
+and congelation from that melted state.
+This no doubt must be a stumbling block to
+those who maintain that granite mountains
+are the primitive parts of our earth; and who,
+like our author, suppose that "things may
+have been originally, as at present, in a
+solid state." It must also be a great, if not
+an invincible obstacle in the way of the aqueous
+theory, which thus endeavours to explain
+those granite veins that are found traversing
+strata, and therefore necessarily of a posterior
+formation.</p>
+
+<p>To remove that obstacle in the way of the
+aqueous theory, or to carry that theory over
+the obstacle which he cannot remove, our author
+undertakes to refute my theory with regard
+to the igneous origin of stony substances,
+by giving an example of granite formed upon
+the surface of the earth by means of water, or
+in what is called the moist way; and he
+closes his Dissertation with this example as an
+<i>experimentum crucis</i>. It is therefore necessary
+that I take this demonstration of our author
+into particular consideration; for, surely, independent
+of our controversy, which is perhaps
+of little moment, here is the most interesting
+experiment, as it is announced, that
+mineralogy could be enriched with.</p>
+
+<p>"To close this controversy," says our author,
+"I shall only add, that granite, recently
+formed in the moist way, has been frequently
+found."&mdash;Of that remarkable event,
+however, he has selected only one example.
+This is to be found upon the Oder; and the
+authority upon which our author has given
+it, is that of Lasius Hartz.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of a granite stone, from granite
+sand, by means of water, is inconsistent
+with our chemical knowledge of those mineral
+substances which constitute that stone; it
+is repugnant to the phenomena which appear
+from the inspection of the natural bodies of
+this kind; and it is directly contrary to the
+universal experience in granite countries,
+where, instead of any thing concreting, every
+thing is going into decay, from the loose
+stones and sand of granite, to the solid rock
+and mountains which are always in a state of
+degradation. Therefore, to have any credit
+given to such a story, would require the most
+scientific evidence in its favour. Now, in order
+that others may judge whether this has
+been the case in this example, I will transcribe
+what our author has said upon the subject;
+and then I will give the view in which it appears
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>He says, "a mole having been constructed
+in the Oder in the year 1723, 350 feet
+long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at
+bottom, and 54 at the top, its sides only
+were granite, without any other cement
+than moss; the middle space was entirely
+filled with granite sand. In a short time
+this concreted into a substance so compact
+as to be impenetrable by water."&mdash;Here is
+an example, according to our author, of <i>granite
+formed in the moist way</i>. But now, I
+must ask to see the evidence of that fact; for,
+from what our author has told us, I do not
+even see reason to conclude that there was the
+least concretion, or any stone formed at all.
+A body of sand will be <i>so compacted as to be
+impenetrable by water</i>, with the introduction
+of a very little mud, and without any degree
+of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot
+be made to pass through such a body without
+compacting it so; and this every body finds,
+to their cost, who have attempted to make a
+filter of that kind.</p>
+
+<p>But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our
+author that there had been a petrifaction in
+this case; and, before I admit this example
+of the formation of granite, I must ask what
+sort of a granite it was;&mdash;whether of two,
+three, or four ingredients; and, how these
+were disposed. If, again, it were not properly
+a granite, but a stone formed of granite
+sand, What is the cementing substance?&mdash;Is
+it quartz, felt-spar, mica, or schorl?&mdash;or, Was
+it calcareous? If our author knows any thing
+about these necessary questions, Why has
+he not informed us, as minutely as he
+has done with regard to the dimensions of
+the mole, with which we certainly are less
+concerned? If, again, he knows no more
+about the matter than what he has informed
+us of, he must have strangely imposed upon
+himself, to suppose that he was giving us an
+example of the <i>formation of granite in the
+moist way</i>, when he has only described an effectual
+way of retaining water, by means of
+sand and mud.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. III.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories,
+in general</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the first chapter I have given a general
+theory of the earth, with such proofs as I
+thought were sufficient for the information of
+intelligent men, who might satisfy themselves
+by examining the facts on which the reasoning
+in that theory had been founded.</p>
+
+<p>In the second chapter, I have endeavoured
+to remove the objections which have been
+made to that theory, by a strenuous patron of
+the commonly received opinion of mineralogists
+and geologists,&mdash;an opinion which, if not
+diametrically opposite, differs essentially from
+mine. But now I am to examine nature
+more particularly, in order to compare those
+different opinions with the actual state of
+things, on which every physical theory must
+be founded. Therefore, the opinions of other
+geologists should be clearly stated, that so a
+fair comparison may be made of theories
+which are to represent the system of this
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if I am to compare that which I
+have given as a theory of the earth, with the
+theories given by others under that denomination,
+I find so little similarity, in the things
+to be compared, that no other judgment could
+hence be formed, perhaps, than that they had
+little or no resemblance. I see certain treatises
+named Theories of the Earth; but, I find not
+any thing that entitles them to be considered
+as such, unless it be their endeavouring to
+explain certain appearances which are observed
+in the earth. That a proper theory of
+the earth should explain all those appearances
+is true; but, it does not hold, conversely, that
+the explanation of an appearance should constitute
+a theory of the earth. So far as the
+theory of the earth shall be considered as the
+philosophy or physical knowledge of this
+world, that is to say, a general view of the
+means by which the end or purpose is attained,
+nothing can be properly esteemed such a
+theory unless it lead, in some degree, to the
+forming of that general view of things. But
+now, let us see what we have to examine in
+that respect.</p>
+
+<p>We have, first, Burnet's Theory of the
+Earth. This surely cannot be considered in
+any other light than as a dream, formed upon
+the poetic fiction of a golden age, and that of
+iron which had succeeded it; at the same
+time, there are certain appearances in the
+earth which would, in a partial view of things,
+seem to justify that imagination. In Telliamed,
+again, we have a very ingenious theory,
+with regard to the production of the earth
+above the surface of the sea, and of the origin
+of those land animals which now inhabit
+that earth. This is a theory which has something
+in it like a regular system, such as we
+might expect to find in nature; but, it is only
+a physical romance, and cannot be considered
+in a serious view, although apparently
+better founded than most of that which has
+been wrote upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We have then a theory of a very different
+kind; this is that of the Count de Buffon.
+Here is a theory, not founded on any regular
+system, but upon an irregularity of nature, or
+an accident supposed to have happened to the
+sun. But, are we to consider as a theory of
+the earth, an accident by which a planetary
+body had been made to increase the number
+of these in the solar system? The circumvolution
+of a planetary body (allowing it to have
+happened in that manner) cannot form the
+system of a world, such as our earth exhibits;
+and, in forming a theory of the earth, it is required
+to see the aptitude of every part of
+this complicated machine to fulfil the purpose
+of its intention, and not to suppose the
+wise system of this world to have arisen from,
+the cooling of a lump of melted matter which
+had belonged to another body. When we
+consider the power and wisdom that must
+have been exerted in the contriving, creating,
+and maintaining this living world which sustains
+such a variety of plants and animals, the
+revolution of a mass of dead matter according
+to the laws of projectiles, although in perfect
+wisdom, is but like a unite among an infinite
+series of ascending numbers.</p>
+
+<p>After the theory of that eloquent writer,
+founded on a mere accident, or rather the error
+of a comet which produced the beautiful
+system of this world, M. de Luc, in his Theory
+of the earth, has given us the history of a
+disaster which befell this well contrived world;&mdash;a
+disaster which caused the general deluge,
+and which, without a miracle, must have undone
+a system of living beings that are so
+well adapted to the present state of things.
+But, surely, general deluges form no part of
+the theory of the earth; for, the purpose of
+this earth is evidently to maintain vegetable
+and animal life, and not to destroy them.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these imaginary great operations in
+the natural history of this earth, we have also
+certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists
+with regard to the effect of water, for explaining
+to us the consolidation of the loose
+materials of which the strata of the earth had
+been composed, and also for producing every
+other appearance, or any which shall happen
+to occur in the examination of the earth, and
+require to be explained. That this is no exaggerated
+representation, and that this is all
+we have as a theory, in the suppositions of
+those geologists, will appear from the following
+state of the case.</p>
+
+<p>They suppose water the agent employed in
+forming the solid bodies of the earth, and in
+producing those crystallised bodies which appear
+in the mineral kingdom. That this is a
+mere supposition will appear by considering;
+first, that they do not know how this agent
+water is to operate in producing those effects;
+nor have they any direct proof of the fact
+which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy;
+and, secondly, that they cannot tell us
+where this operation is to be performed. They
+cannot say that it is in the earth above the
+level of the sea: for, the same appearances
+are found as deep as we can examine below
+that level; besides, we see that water has the
+opposite effect upon the surface of the earth,
+through which it percolates dissolving soluble
+substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in
+preparing soil for plants. If, again, it be below
+the level of the sea, that strata of the earth
+are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration
+of that water which falls from the
+heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
+whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that
+place, must have been always full of water,
+consequently cannot admit of that supposed
+infiltration.</p>
+
+<p>But allowing those suppositions to be true,
+there is nothing in them like a theory of the
+earth,&mdash;a theory that should bring the operations
+of the world into the regularity of ends
+and means, and, by generalizing these regular
+events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
+forming a design; they are only an
+attempt to show how certain things, which we
+see, have happened without any perceivable
+design, or without any farther design than this
+particular effect which we perceive. If we
+believe that there is almighty power, and supreme
+wisdom employed for sustaining that
+beautiful system of plants and animals which
+is so interesting to us, we must certainly conclude,
+that the earth, on which this system of
+living things depends, has been constructed
+on principles that are adequate to the end proposed,
+and procure it a perfection which it is
+our business to explore. Therefore, a proper
+system of the earth should lead us to see that
+wise contraction, by which this earth is made
+to answer the purpose of its intention and to
+preserve itself from every accident by which
+the design of this living world might be frustrated
+as this world is an active scene.
+or a material machine moving in all its parts,
+we must see how this machine is so contrived,
+as either to have those parts to move without
+wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
+which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.</p>
+
+<p>A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself,
+may interest a philosopher to study; but,
+when he comes to see the necessity of those
+hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth,
+or for the permanency of the land on which
+we dwell, and when he finds that there are
+means wisely provided for the renovation of
+this necessary decaying part, as well as that of
+every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates
+this manifestation of design, and thus
+connects the mineral system of this earth with
+that by which the heavenly bodies are made
+to move perpetually in their orbits. It is not,
+therefore, simply by seeing the concretion of
+mineral bodies that a philosopher is to be gratified
+in his his intellectual pursuit, but by the
+contemplation of that system in which the
+necessary resolution of this earth, while at
+present it serves the purpose of vegetation,
+or the fertility of our soil, is the very means
+employed in furnishing the materials of future
+land.</p>
+
+<p>It is such a view as this that I have endeavoured
+to represent in the theory which
+I have given. I have there stated the present
+situation of things, by which we are led to
+perceive a former state; and, from that necessary
+progress of actual things, I have concluded
+a certain system according to which
+things will be changed, without any accident
+or error. It is by tracing this regular system
+in nature that a philosopher is to perceive the
+wisdom with which this world has been contrived;
+but, he must see that wisdom founded
+upon the aptitude of all the parts to fulfil
+the intention of the design; and that intention
+is to be deduced from the end which is
+known to be attained. Thus we are first to
+reason from effect to cause, in seeing the order
+of that which has already happened; and
+then, from those known causes, to reason forwards,
+so as to conceive that which is to come
+to pass in time. Such would be the philosophy
+of this earth, formed by the highest generalisation
+of phenomena, a generalisation
+which had required the particular investigation
+of inductive reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>That no such theory as this, founded upon
+water as an agent operating in the changes of
+this earth, has yet appeared, will, I believe
+be easily allowed. With regard again to fire
+as an agent in the mineral operations of this
+earth, geologists have formed no consistent
+theory. They see volcanoes in all the quarters
+of the globe, and from those burning
+mountains, they conjecture other mountains
+have been formed. But a burning mountain
+is only a matter of fact; and, they have not
+on this formed any general principle, for establishing
+what may be called a theory of the
+earth. Those who have considered subterraneous
+fires as producing certain effects, neither
+know how these have been procured, nor do
+they see the proper purpose for which they
+are employed in the system of this world.
+In this case, the agent fire is only seen as a
+destructive element, in like manner as deluges
+of water have been attributed by others to
+changes which have happened in the natural
+state of things. These operations are seen only
+as the accidents of nature, and not as part
+of that design by which the earth, which is
+necessarily wasted in the operations of the
+world, is to be repaired.</p>
+
+<p>So far from employing heat or subterraneous
+fire as an agent in the mineral operations
+of the earth, the volcanic philosophers do not
+even attempt to explain upon that principle
+the frequent nodules of calcareous, zeolite,
+and other spatose and agaty substances, in those
+basaltic bodies which they consider as lavas.
+Instead then of learning to see the operation
+of heat as a general principle of mineral consolidation
+and crystallization, the volcanic philosophers
+endeavour to explain those particular
+appearances, which they think inconsistent
+with fusion, by aqueous infiltration, no otherwise
+than other mineralists who do not admit
+the igneous origin of those basaltic bodies.
+Thus, that great agent, subterraneous heat, has
+never been employed by geologists, as a general
+principle in the theory of the earth; it
+has been only considered as an occasional circumstance,
+or as the accident of having certain
+mineral bodies, which are inflammable,
+kindled in the earth, without so much as seeing
+how that may be done.</p>
+
+<p>This agent heat, then, is a new principle
+to be employed in forming a theory of the
+earth; a principle that must have been in the
+constitution of this globe, when contrived to
+subsist as a world, and to maintain a system of
+living bodies perpetuating their species. It is
+therefore necessary to connect this great mineral
+principle, subterraneous fire or heat,
+with the other operations of the world, in
+forming a general theory. For, whether we
+are to consider those great and constant explosions
+of mineral fire as a principal agent in
+the design, or only as a casual event depending
+upon circumstances which give occasion
+to an operation of such magnitude, here is an
+object that must surely have its place in every
+general theory of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In examining things which actually exist,
+and which have proceeded in a certain order,
+it is natural to look for that which had been
+first; man desires to know what had been the
+beginning of those things which now appear.
+But when, in forming a theory of the earth,
+a geologist shall indulge his fancy in framing,
+without evidence, that which had preceded
+the present order of things, he then either
+misleads himself, or writes a fable for the
+amusement of his reader. A theory of the
+earth, which has for object truth, can have no
+retrospect to that which had preceded the present
+order of this world; for, this order alone
+is what we have to reason upon; and to reason
+without data is nothing but delusion. A
+theory, therefore, which is limited to the actual
+constitution of this earth, cannot be allowed
+to proceed one step beyond the present
+order of things.</p>
+
+<p>But, having surveyed the order of this living
+world, and having investigated the progress
+of this active scene of life, death and circulation,
+we find ample data on which to
+found a train of the most conclusive reasoning
+with regard to a general design. It is thus
+that there is to be perceived another system.
+of active things for the contemplation of our
+mind;&mdash;things which, though not immediately
+within our view, are not the less certain
+in being out of our sight; and things which
+must necessarily be comprehended in the
+theory of the earth, if we are to give stability
+to it as a world sustaining plants and animals.
+This is a mineral system, by which the decayed
+constitution of an earth, or fruitful surface
+of habitable land, may be continually renewed
+in proportion as it is wasted in the operations
+of this world.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this mineral system that I have occasion
+to compare the explanations, which I
+give of certain natural appearances, with the
+theories or explanations which have been
+given by others, and which are generally received
+as the proper theory of those mineral
+operations. I am, therefore, to examine those
+different opinions, respecting the means employed
+by nature for producing particular appearances
+in the construction of our land, appearances
+which must be explained in some
+consistent mineral theory.</p>
+
+<p>These appearances may all be comprehended
+under two heads, which are now to be
+mentioned, in order to see the importance of
+their explanation, or purpose which such an
+explanation is to serve in a theory of the earth.
+The first kind of these appearances is that of
+known bodies which we find composing part
+of the masses of our land, bodies whose natural
+history we know, as having existed in
+another state previous to the composition of
+this earth where they now are found; these
+are the relicts or parts of animal and vegetable
+bodies, and various stony substances broken
+and worn by attrition, all which had belonged
+to a former earth. By means of these known
+objects, we are to learn a great deal of the
+natural history of this earth; and, it is in
+tracing that history, from where we first perceive
+it, to the present state of things, that
+forms the subject of a geological and mineralogical
+theory of this earth. But, we are
+more especially enabled to trace those operations
+of the earth, by means of the second
+kind of appearances, which are now to be
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>These again are the evident changes which
+those known bodies have undergone, and
+which have been induced upon such collected
+masses of which those bodies constitute a
+part. These changes are of three sorts; <i>first</i>,
+the solid state, and various degrees of it, in
+which we now find those masses which had
+been originally formed by the collection of
+loose and incoherent materials; <i>secondly</i>, the
+subsequent changes which have evidently
+happened to those consolidated masses which
+have been broken and displaced, and which
+have had other mineral substances introduced
+into those broken and disordered parts; and,
+<i>lastly</i>, that great change of situation which has
+happened to this compound mass formed originally
+at the bottom of the sea, a mass which,
+after being consolidated in the mineral region,
+is now situated in the atmosphere above the
+surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner we are led to the system of
+the world, or theory of the earth in general;
+for, that great change of situation, which our
+land has undergone, cannot be considered as
+the work of accident, or any other than an
+essential part in the system of this world. It
+is therefore a proper view of the necessary
+connection and mutual dependence of all those
+different systems of changing things that forms
+the theory of this earth as a world, or as that
+active part of nature which the philosophy of
+this earth has to explore. The animal system
+is the first or last of these; next comes the
+vegetable system, on which the life of animals
+depends; then comes the system of this earth,
+composed of atmosphere, sea, and land, and
+comprehending the various chemical, mechanical,
+and meteorologically operations which
+take place upon that surface where vegetation
+must proceed; and, lastly, we have the mineral
+system to contemplate, a system in which
+the wasting surface of the earth is employed
+in laying the foundation of future land within
+the sea, and a system in which the mineral
+operations are employed in concocting that
+future land.</p>
+
+<p>Now, such must surely be the theory of this
+earth, if the land is continually wasting in the
+operations of this world; for, to acknowledge
+the perfection of those systems of plants and
+animals perpetuating their species, and to suppose
+the system of this earth on which they must
+depend, to be imperfect, and in time to perish,
+would be to reason inconsistently or absurdly.
+This is the view of nature that I would wish
+philosophers to take; but, there are certain
+prejudices of education or prepossession of
+opinion among them to be overcome, before
+they can be brought to see those fundamental
+propositions,&mdash;the wasting of the land, and
+the necessity of its renovation by the co-operation
+of the mineral system. Let us then
+consider how men of science, in examining
+the mineral state of things, and reasoning from
+those appearances by which we are to learn
+the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves
+with regard to physical causes, and formed
+certain mineralogical and geological theories,
+by which their judgment is so perverted,
+in examining nature, as to exclude them from
+the proper means of correcting their first erroneous
+notions, or render them blind to the
+clearest evidence of any other theory that is
+proposed.</p>
+
+<p>When men of science reason upon subjects
+where the ideas are distinct and definite, with
+terms appropriated to the ideas, they come to
+conclusions in which there is no difference of
+opinion. It is otherwise in physical subjects,
+where things are to be assimilated, in being
+properly compared; there, things are not
+always compared in similar and equal circumstances
+or conditions; and there, philosophers
+often draw conclusions beyond the analogy of
+the things compared, and thus judge without
+data. When, for example, they would form
+the physical induction, with regard to the effect
+of fire or water upon certain substances
+in the mineral regions, from the analogy of
+such events as may be observed upon the surface
+of the earth, they are apt to judge of
+things acting under different circumstances or
+conditions, consequently not producing similar
+effects; in which case, they are judging without
+reason, that is, instead of inductive reasoning
+from actual data or physical truth, they
+are forming data to themselves purely by supposition,
+consequently, so far as these, imagined
+data may be wrong, the physical conclusion,
+of these philosophers may be erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that philosophers have judged,
+with regard to the effects of fire and water
+upon mineral substances below the bottom of
+the sea, from what their chemistry had taught
+them to believe concerning bodies exposed to
+those agents in the atmosphere or on the surface
+of the earth. If in those two cases the
+circumstances were the same, or similar, consequently
+the conditions of the action not
+changed, then, the inductive reasoning, which
+they employ in that comparison, would be just;
+but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have
+employed that inductive conclusion for the explanation
+of mineral appearances, without having
+reason to believe that those changed circumstances
+of the case should not make any
+difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
+have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning;
+consequently, instead of being a proper
+physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
+reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing
+things not properly analysed or distinguished,
+is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
+therefore, cannot be admitted as a part
+of any geological or mineral theory. Now I
+here maintain, that philosophers have judged
+in no other manner than by this false analogy,
+when they conclude that water is the agent by
+which mineral concretions have been formed.
+But it will be proper to state more particularly
+the case of that misunderstanding among mineral
+philosophers.</p>
+
+<p>In forming a geological theory, the general
+construction of this earth, and the materials of
+which it is composed, are such visible objects,
+and so evident to those who will take the pains
+to examine nature, that here is a subject in
+which there cannot be any doubt or difference
+of opinion. Neither can there be any dispute
+concerning the place and situation of
+mass when it was first formed or composed;
+for, this is clearly proved, from every concomitant
+circumstance, to have been at the bottom
+of the sea. The only question in this
+case, that can be made, is, How that mass
+comes now to be a solid body, and above the
+surface of the sea in which it had been formed?</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers
+have been so dissonant, so vague, and
+so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
+Some suppose the land to be discovered by the
+gradual retreat of the ocean, without proposing
+to explain to us from whence had come the
+known materials of a former earth, which
+compose the highest summits of the mountains
+in the highest continents of the earth.
+Others suppose the whole of a former earth to
+have subsided below the bottom even of the
+present sea, and together with it all the water
+of the former sea, from above the summits of
+the present mountains, which had then been
+at the bottom of the former sea. The placing
+of the bottom of the sea, or any part of it, in
+the atmosphere so as to be dry land, is no
+doubt a great operation to be performed, and
+a difficult task to be explained; but this is only
+an argument the more for philosophers to
+agree in adopting the most reasonable means.</p>
+
+<p>But though philosophers differ so widely in
+that point, this is not the case with regard to
+the concretion of mineral bodies; here mineralists
+seem to be almost all of one mind, at
+the same time without any reason, at least,
+without any other reason than that false analogy
+which they have inconsiderately formed
+from the operations of the surface of this earth.
+This great misunderstanding of mineralists has
+such an extensive and baneful effect in the
+judging of geological theories, that it will be
+proper here to explain how that has happened,
+and to show the necessity of correcting that
+erroneous principle before any just opinion
+can be formed upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Fire and water are two great agents in the
+system of this earth; it is therefore most natural
+to look for the operation of those agents
+in the changes which are made on bodies in
+the mineral regions; and as the consolidated
+state of those bodies, which had been collected
+at the bottom of the sea, may have been
+supposed to be induced either by fusion, or by
+the concretion from a solution, we are to consider
+how far natural appearance lead to the
+conclusion of the one or other of those two
+different operations. Here, no doubt, we are
+to reason analogically from the known power
+and effects of those great agents; but, we must
+take care not to reason from a false analogy,
+by misunderstanding the circumstances of the
+case, or not attending to the necessary conditions
+in which those agents act.&mdash;We must not
+conclude that fire cannot burn in the mineral
+regions because our fires require the ventilation
+of the atmosphere; for, besides the actual
+exigence of mineral fire being a notorious matter
+of fact, we know that much more powerful
+means <i>may</i> be employed by nature, for that
+mineral purpose of exciting heat, than those
+which we practise.&mdash;We must not conclude
+that mineral marble is formed in the same manner
+as we see a similar stony substance produced
+upon the surface of the earth, unless we
+should have reason to suppose the analogy to
+be complete. But, this is the very error into
+which mineral philosophers have fallen; and
+this is the subject which I am now to endeavour
+to illustrate.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which those philosophers
+have deceived themselves when reasoning upon
+the subject of mineral concretion, is this:
+They see, that by means of water a stony substance
+is produced; and, this stony body so
+much resembles mineral marble as to be hardly
+distinguishable in certain cases. These mineral
+philosophers then, reasoning in the manner
+of the vulgar, or without analysing the subject
+to its principle, naturally attribute the formation
+of the mineral marble to a cause of the
+same sort; and, the mineral marble being found
+so intimately connected with all other mineral
+bodies, we must necessarily conclude, in reasoning
+according to the soundest principles,
+that all those different substances had been
+concreted in the same manner. Thus, having
+once departed one step from the path of just
+investigation, our physical science is necessarily
+bewildered in the labyrinth of error. Let us
+then, in re-examining our data, point out where
+lies that first devious step which had been
+impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic
+acid gas, (as it is called), dissolves a certain
+portion of mild calcareous earth or marble;
+consequently such acidulated water, that is, water
+impregnated with this gas, will, by filtrating
+through calcareous substances, become saturated
+with that solution of marble; and, this
+solution is what is called a <i>petrifying water</i>.
+When this solution is exposed to the action of
+the atmosphere, the acid gas, by means of which
+the stony substance is dissolved, evaporates from
+the solution, in having a stronger attraction for
+the atmospheric air; it is then that the marble,
+or calcareous substance, concretes and crystallises,
+separating from the water in a sparry state,
+and forming a very solid stone by the successive
+accretion from the solution, as it comes to
+be exposed to the influence of the atmosphere
+in flowing over the accumulating body. Here
+is the source of their delusion; for, they do
+not distinguish properly the case of this solution
+of a stony substance concreting by means
+of the separation of its solvent, and the case of
+such a solution being in a place where that necessary
+condition cannot be supposed to exist;
+such as, e.g., the interstices among the particles
+of sand, clay, etc. deposited at the bottom of
+the sea, and accumulated in immense stratified
+masses.</p>
+
+<p>No example can better illustrate how pernicious
+it is to science to have admitted a false
+principle, on which a chain of reasoning is to
+proceed in forming a theory. Mineral philosophers
+have founded their theory upon that
+deceitful analogy, which they had concluded
+between the stalactical concretions of petrifying
+waters and the marble formed in the mineral
+regions; thus, blinded by prejudice,
+they shut the door against the clearest evidence;
+and it is most difficult to make them see the
+error of their principle. But this is not to be
+wondered at, when we consider how few among
+philosophising men remount to the first principles
+of their theory; and, unless they shall
+thus remount to that first step, in which the
+concreting operation of a dissolved stony substance
+is supposed to take place without the
+necessary conditions for the petrifying operation,
+it is impossible to be convinced that their
+theory, thus formed with regard to mineral
+concretion, is merely supposition, and has no
+foundation in matter of fact from whence it
+should proceed.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all; for, even supposing their
+theory to be well founded and just, it is plainly
+contradicted by natural appearances. According
+to that theory of aqueous consolidation,
+all the stratified bodies, of which this earth in
+general consists, should be found in the natural
+order of their regular formation; but, instead
+of this, they are found every where disturbed
+in that order more or less; in many
+places this order and regularity is so disturbed
+as hardly to be acknowledged; in most places
+we find those stratified bodies broken, dislocated,
+and contorted, and this aqueous theory
+of mineralists has neither the means for attaining
+that end, were it required in their theory,
+nor have they any such purpose in their theory,
+were that end attainable by the means
+which they employ. Thus blinded by the
+prejudice of a false analogy, they do not even
+endeavour to gratify the human understanding
+(which naturally goes in quest of wisdom
+and design) by forming a hypothetical or specious
+theory of the mineral system; and they
+only amuse themselves with the supposition of
+an unknown operation of water for the explanation
+of their cabinet specimens, a supposition
+altogether ineffectual for the purpose of
+forming a habitable earth, and a supposition
+which is certainly contradicted by every natural
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in examining geological and mineralogical
+theories, I am laid under the disagreeable
+necessity of pointing out the errors of
+physical principles which are assumed, the prejudices
+of theoretical opinions which have
+been received, and the misconceived notions
+which philosophers entertain with regard to
+the system of nature, in which may be perceived
+no ineffectual operation, nor any destructive
+intention, but the wise and benevolent
+purpose of preserving the present order of
+this world. But, though thus misled with
+regard to the cause of things, naturalists are
+every where making interesting observations
+in the mineral kingdom, I shall therefore
+avail myself of that instructive information,
+for the confirmation of my theory.</p>
+
+<p>It may now be proper to consider what
+must be required, in order to have a geological
+and mineral theory established upon scientific
+principles, or on such grounds as must
+give conviction to those who will examine the
+subject; for, unless we may clearly see that
+there are means for attaining that desirable
+end, few philosophers will be persuaded to
+pursue this branch of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>A theory is nothing but the generalization
+of particular facts; and, in a theory of the
+earth, those facts must be taken from the observations
+of natural history. Nature is considered
+as absolutely true; no error or contradiction
+can be found in nature. For, if such
+contradiction were truly found, if the stone,
+for example, which fell to day were to rise
+again to-morrow, there would be an end of
+natural philosophy, our principles would fail,
+and we would no longer investigate the rules
+of nature from our observations.</p>
+
+<p>Every natural appearance, therefore, which
+is explained, <i>i.e.</i> which is made to come into
+the order of things that happen, must so far
+confirm the theory to which it then belongs.
+But is it necessary, that every particular appearance,
+among minerals, should be thus explained
+in a general theory of the earth?
+And, is any appearance, which is not explained
+by it, to be considered as sufficient to discredit
+or confute a theory which corresponded
+with every other appearance? Here is a
+question which it would require some accuracy
+to resolve.</p>
+
+<p>If we knew all the powers of nature, and all
+the different conditions in which those powers
+may have their action varied, that is to say,
+if we were acquainted with every physical
+cause, then every natural effect, or all appearances
+upon the surface of this earth, might be
+explained in a theory that were just. But,
+seeing that this is far from being the case, and
+that there may be many causes of which we
+are as yet ignorant, as well as certain conditions
+in which the known action of powers
+may be varied, it must be evident, that a
+theory of the earth is not to be confuted by
+this argument alone, That there are, among
+natural bodies, certain appearances which are
+not explained by the theory. We must admit,
+that, not having all the data which natural
+philosophy requires, we cannot pretend to
+explain every thing which appears; and that
+our theories, which necessarily are imperfect,
+are not to be considered as erroneous when
+not explaining every thing which is in nature,
+but only when they are found contrary
+to or inconsistent with the laws of nature,
+which are known, and with which the case in
+question may be properly compared.</p>
+
+<p>But we may have different theories to compare
+with nature; and, in that case, the
+question is not, How far any of those theories
+should explain all natural appearances? but,
+How far any one particular theory might explain
+a phenomenon better than another? In
+this case of comparison, it will be evident, that
+if one theory explains natural appearances,
+then the opposite to that theory cannot be
+supposed to explain the same appearances. If
+for example, granite, porphyry, or basaltes,
+should be found naturally formed by fusion,
+the formation of those stones could not be
+supposed in any case as formed by water, although
+it could not be demonstrated that
+water is incapable of forming those mineral
+productions.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner, if those three bodies were
+proved to have been actually formed by water
+alone, then, in other cases where we should
+have no proof, they could not be supposed as
+having been formed by fire or fusion. It
+must be evident, that an equal degree of proof
+of those two different propositions would leave
+our judgment in suspence, unless that proof
+were perfect, in which case, we would have
+two different causes producing similar effects.
+But, if we shall have a sufficient proof upon
+the one side, and only a presumptive proof
+or probability upon the other, we must reject
+that probability or presumption, when opposed
+by a proof, although that proof were only
+an induction by reasoning from similar effects
+as following similar causes. <i>A fortiori</i>,
+if there be on one side a fair induction, without
+the least suspicion of error, and on the
+other nothing but a mere presumption founded
+upon a distant analogy, which could not
+even properly apply, then, the inductive proof
+would be as satisfactory as if there had not
+been any supposition on the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p>So far as a theory is formed in the generalization
+of natural appearances, that theory
+must be just, although it may not be perfect,
+as having comprehended every appearance;
+that is to say, a theory is not perfect until it
+be founded upon every natural appearance;
+in which case, those appearances will be explained
+by the theory. The theory of gravitation,
+though no ways doubtful, was not so
+perfect before the shape of this globe had
+been determined by actual measurement, and
+before the direction of the plummet had been
+tried upon Shihallion, as after those observations
+had been made. But a theory which
+should be merely hypothetical, or founded
+upon a few appearances, can only be received
+as a theory, after it has been found to correspond
+properly with nature; it would then
+be held a proper explanation of those natural
+appearances with which it corresponded; and,
+the more of those phenomena that were thus
+explained by the theory, the more would that,
+which had been first conjectural, be converted
+into a theory legitimately founded upon natural
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Matter of fact is that upon which science
+proceeds, by generalization, to form theory,
+for the purpose of philosophy, or the knowledge
+of all natural causes; and it is by the
+companion of these matters of fact with any
+theory, that such a theory will be tried. But,
+in judging of matter of fact, let us be cautious
+of deceiving ourselves, by substituting speculative
+reasoning in place of actual events.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, as the subject of our observation,
+consists of two sorts of objects; for, things
+are either active, when we perceive change to
+take place in consequence of such action, or
+they are quiescent, when we perceive no
+change to take place. Now, it is evident,
+that in judging of the active powers of nature
+from the quiescent objects of our information,
+we are liable to error, in misinterpreting the
+objects which we see; we thus form to ourselves
+false or erroneous opinion concerning
+the general laws of action, and the powers of
+nature. In comparing, therefore, generalised
+facts, or theory, with particular observations,
+there is required the greatest care, neither, on
+the one hand, to strain the appearances, so as
+to bring in to the theory a fact belonging to
+another class of things; nor, on the other, to
+condemn a proper theory, merely because
+that theory has not been extended to the explanation
+of every natural appearance.</p>
+
+<p>But, besides the misinterpretation of matters
+of fact, we are also to guard against
+the misrepresentation of natural appearances.
+Whether warped by the prejudice of partial
+and erroneous theory, or deceived by the inaccuracy
+of superficial observation, naturalists
+are apt to see things in an improper light,
+and thus to reason from principles which cannot
+be admitted, and, which often lead to false
+conclusions. A naturalist, for example, comes
+to examine a cavity in the mines, he there
+finds water dropping down all around him,
+and he sees the cavity all hung with siliceous
+crystals; he then concludes, without hesitation,
+that here is to be perceived cause and
+effect, or that he actually sees the formation
+of those crystallizations from the operation of
+water. It is thus that I have been told by
+men of great mineral knowledge, men who
+must have had the best education upon that
+subject of mineralogy, and who have the superintendance
+of great mineral concerns in
+Germany, that they had actually seen nature
+at work in that operation of forming rock-crystal;&mdash;they
+saw what I have now described;
+they could see no more; but, they saw
+what had convinced them of that which, there
+is every reason to believe, never happened.
+With regard to my theory, I wish for the
+most rigorous examination; and do not ask
+for any indulgence whatever, whether with
+regard to the principles on which the theory
+is built, or for the application of the theory
+to the explanation of natural appearances.
+But, let not geologists judge my theory by
+their imperfect notions of nature, or by those
+narrow views which they take of the present
+state of things;&mdash;let not mineralogists condemn
+my theory, for no other reason but because
+it does not correspond with their false
+principles, and those gratuitous suppositions
+by which they had been pleased to explain to
+themselves every thing before. First let them
+look into their own theory, and correct that
+erroneous principle, with regard to the action
+of water, or the assumption of unknown causes,
+upon which they have reasoned in forming
+their vague notions of the mineral region,
+before they can be properly qualified to examine,
+impartially, a theory which employs
+another principle. Every thing which has
+come under my observation shall be, as far as
+I can, faithfully related; nor shall I withhold
+those which neither the present theory,
+nor any other that I am acquainted with, can,
+I think, explain.</p>
+
+<p>Appearances cannot well be described except
+in relation to some theory or general arrangement
+of the subject; because the particular
+detail, of every part in a complicated appearance,
+would be endless and insignificant.
+When, however, any question in a theory depends
+upon the nature of an appearance, we
+cannot be too particular in describing that by
+which the question is to be decided. But
+though it be sometimes proper to be minute
+in a particular, it is always, and above all
+things, necessary to be distinct; and not to
+confound together things which are of different
+natures. For, though it be by finding
+similarity, in things which at first sight may
+seem different, that science is promoted and
+philosophy attained, yet, we must have a distinct
+view of those things which are to be assimilated;
+and surely the lowest state of knowledge
+in any subject, is the not distinguishing
+things which, though not to common observation
+different, are not truly the same.</p>
+
+<p>To confound, for example one stone with
+another, because they were both hard, friable,
+and heavy, would be to describe, with the superficial
+views of vulgar observation; whereas
+science specifies the weight and hardness,
+and thus accurately distinguishes the stone.</p>
+
+<p>Before naturalists had learned to distinguish
+what they saw, and to describe, in known
+terms, those natural appearances, a theorist
+must have generalised only from his proper
+observation. This has been my case. When
+I first conceived my theory, few naturalists
+could write intelligibly upon the subject; but
+that is long ago, and things are much altered
+since; now there are most enlightened men
+making observations, and communicating natural
+knowledge. I have the satisfaction, almost
+every day, to compare the theory, which
+I had formed from my proper observations,
+with the actual state of things in almost every
+quarter of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Whether, therefore, we mean to try a theory
+by its application to such phenomena as are
+well understood, or to learn something from
+the application of particular phenomena to a
+well established theory, we shall always find
+it interesting to have appearances described;
+particularly such as may be referred to some
+general rule, as circumscribing it to certain
+conditions, or as finding rule in rule, that is to
+say, discovering those particular conditions in
+which the general laws of action may be affected.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, for example, of the rule which
+we find in the application of heat for the fusion
+and evaporation of mineral substances upon
+the surface of this earth, we may find it
+necessary to consider the effect which changed
+circumstances produce in the mineral regions,
+and occasion a change of that rule of action
+which we have learned from experience,
+when melting and evaporating those substances
+in the atmosphere or on the surface of the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this manner that a theory, which
+was formed by the generalization of particular
+facts, comes to be a source of information,
+by explaining to us certain appearances which
+otherwise we could not understand. Thus, it
+was not the appearance of the tides that taught
+the theory of gravitation; it was the theory of
+gravitation that made us understand the appearance
+of the tides. In like manner, the law
+of gravitation, which was demonstrated from
+the motion of the moon in her orbit round
+this earth, when applied to the paths of comets,
+explained that appearance. Our theory,
+of a central fire, has been formed upon
+the consolidation of the strata of this earth;
+but this theory is to be applied for the explanation
+of various different appearances. In
+this manner, two different purposes will be
+served; the trying of the theory by its application
+to phenomena; and the explanation of
+phenomena by the principles laid open in the
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>I may repeat it; a theory of the earth must
+ultimately depend upon matter of fact or particular
+observation; but those observations must
+be distinct, and those distinguished things must
+be generalised. We have just now given for
+an example, a distinction among stones, in
+knowing them by their sensible qualities. But,
+besides distinguishing those objects, we are also
+to inquire into the origin and cause of those
+things which are distinguished. Here, again,
+we take into our aid the chemical as well
+as the mechanical properties of these several
+things; and hence learn to know on what their
+natural form and constitution may depend.
+Having thus attained the natural philosophy
+of stones, we next inquire into the place and
+application of those things in nature; and in
+this manner we acquire some knowledge with
+regard to the natural constitution of this earth.
+We find this earth composed of known things;
+it is therefore the operations, required in these
+compositions, which form the natural philosophy
+of this earth, considered as a body of solid
+land. But, the solid land is only one part
+of the globe; therefore, the philosophy of the
+globe proceeds still farther by knowing the
+constitution of this planetary body, as consisting
+of different parts united for a purpose,
+which is that of a world.</p>
+
+<p>The general theory of this earth as a world,
+will thus appear to be a complex thing, which
+however founded upon simple principles, contains
+many subjects of discussion, and requires
+attention to a variety of particulars. For, not
+only the great features of this earth are to be
+explained by the theory, but also the most minute
+appearance, such as are to be found, even
+with microscopic observation, in every particular
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the nature, constitution, and cause
+of every particular appearance in the construction
+of this earth, are to be investigated
+in a geological theory, as well as that general
+constitution of the world in which all
+the particular parts are to be employed for a
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>If the subject here examined shall be found
+properly explained, there will remain little
+doubt with regard to the justness of the theory,
+which will then be applicable to other appearances
+that may occur; although every
+appearance is not to be explained, in a manner
+equally satisfactory, by any theory which
+is not perfect.</p>
+
+<p>The first subject to be examined is the modern
+theory of primitive mountains. I have
+written several chapters upon that subject, having
+successively acquired more light in this
+interesting part of the theory, by observations
+of my own in several places of this country,
+as well as from the natural history of other
+countries. I shall give these nearly in the order
+in which they occurred, or had been written.</p>
+
+<br>
+<p>CHAP. IV.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the theory now given, the earth has been
+represented as a composition of different
+materials, which had existed in another form,
+and as the effect of natural operations; therefore,
+however various may be found the structure
+of our earth, and however dissimilar some
+parts of its composition may be in comparison
+with others, no part should be considered as
+original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive,
+in relation to second causes, <i>i.e.</i> physical
+operations by which those parts should have
+been formed. But it is pretended by naturalists,
+that there are certain primitive mountains
+in the earth, bodies which have had
+another origin than that of the general strata
+of the globe and subsequent masses; an origin,
+therefore, which cannot be considered as having
+been produced from natural operations, or
+as effected in the course of known causes.
+Now, if it can be made to appear, that there
+is no solid ground for this distinction; and if
+it can be shown, that there is truly no mineral
+body in this earth which may not have been
+produced by operations natural to the globe,
+we should thus procure a certain confirmation
+of the doctrine. This also will be the
+more interesting, in being deduced from a
+part of natural appearances, which seemed to
+be inconsistent with the theory.</p>
+
+<p>Certain masses or mountains of granite, are
+the only bodies of this earth which have
+apparently a certain pretension to this species
+of originality. These, therefore, must be now
+the subject of our examination.</p>
+
+<p>Granite, considered by itself, does not appear
+to have any claim to originality in its
+nature. It is composed of bodies which are
+capable of being analysed; and these are then
+found to be compositions of different substances,
+which are also sometimes variously proportioned.
+The feldspar and the mica, for example,
+as well as the schorl, are found variously
+coloured in different granites, and coloured
+in various proportions. Besides the
+variety in the composition, or chemical mixture
+of the different bodies which compose
+granite, this rock admits of a great diversity,
+from the variety of its mechanical mixture,
+or from the different species of bodies which
+are its constituent parts. M. de Saussure, who
+has examined this subject perhaps more than
+any other person, and who has had the very
+best opportunities for this purpose, says, that
+this composition may be found in all the
+different combinations which may be produced
+by every possible composition of 7 or 8 different
+kinds of stone, (page 108, Voyage dans
+les Alpes, etc.). Neither does this fill up the
+measure of its variety; for, another source of
+change is found in the grain of this rock
+stone; I have a specimen of this variety from
+the size almost of sand to that of some inches.</p>
+
+<p>Were granite, therefore, to be supposed
+as in the original state of its creation, nature
+would be considered as having operated in an
+indefinite diversity of ways, without that order
+and wisdom which we find in all her
+works; for here would be change without a
+principle, and variety without a purpose.
+There is no reason, however, to suppose granite
+original, more than any other composite
+rock, although we may be ignorant of the particular
+process in which it is formed, and although,
+comparatively in relation to certain
+other rocks, granite, or certain masses of this
+composition, may be found of a more ancient
+date.</p>
+
+<p>If granite be truly stratified, and those strata
+connected with the other strata of the earth,
+it can have no claim to originality; and the
+idea of primitive mountains, of late so much
+employed by natural philosophers, must vanish,
+in a more extensive view of the operations
+of the globe; but it is certain that granite,
+or a species of the same kind of stone, is thus
+found stratified. It is the <i>granit feuilletée</i> of
+M. de Saussure, and, if I mistake not, what is
+called <i>gneis</i> by the Germans. We have it
+also in our north alpine country of Scotland;
+of this I have specimens, but have not seen it
+in its place.</p>
+
+<p>Granite being thus found stratified, the
+masses of this stone cannot be allowed to have
+any right of priority over the schistus, its
+companion in the alpine countries, although M.
+de Saussure, whose authority I would revere,
+has given it for the following reason; that it
+is found the most centrical in the chains of
+high mountains, or in alpine countries. Now,
+supposing this fact to be general, as he has
+found it in the Alps, no argument for the
+priority of those masses can be founded either
+upon the height or the situation of those granite
+mountains; for the height of the mountain
+depends upon the solidity and strength of
+the stone. Now though it is not to be here
+maintained that granite is the most durable of
+those alpine rocks, yet as a mountain, either
+granite in general, or in particular, certain
+species of it, may be esteemed such, consequently,
+this massy stone, remaining highest
+in the mountainous region, will naturally be
+considered as the centre, and according to this
+rule, as having the pre-eminence in point of
+seniority.</p>
+
+<p>The rock which stands in competition with
+granite for the title of primitive in the order
+of mountains, is that micaceous stratified stone
+which is formed chiefly of quartz, but which
+admits of great variety like the granite. The
+difference between those two bodies does not
+consist in the materials of which they are composed,
+for, in their varieties, they may be in
+this respect the same, but in a certain regularity
+of composition, in this alpine stone, which evidently
+arises from stratification or subsidence
+in water.</p>
+
+<p>If we shall thus consider all the varieties of
+this alpine stone as being of one kind, and
+call it granite, then we shall distinguish in this
+body two different species, from whence perhaps
+some interesting conclusion may be formed
+with regard to the operations of the globe.
+These two species are, <i>first</i>, granite regular in
+its composition, or stratified in its construction;
+and, <i>secondly</i>, granite in mass, or irregular
+in its construction. Let us now endeavour
+to make use of these generalizations
+and distinctions.</p>
+
+<p>In examining the great diversity of our
+whinstone, trap, or basaltes, it is found at
+last to granulate into granite; at the same time
+those two different species of rock-stone may
+be distinguished. A perfect granite has not
+in its composition necessarily any argillaceous
+earth, farther than may be in the natural constitution
+of its distinct parts; whereas, a perfect
+basalt may have abundance of this substance,
+without any quartz or any siliceous
+body. A perfect granite, is, therefore, an extremely
+hard stone, having quartz and feldspar
+for its basis; but a perfect whin or basaltes
+may be extremely soft, so as to cut easily
+with a knife. In like manner granite is a
+composition which graduates into porphyry;
+but porphyry is only whinstone of a harder
+species. Therefore, though perfectly distinct,
+those three things graduate into each other,
+and may be considered as the same.</p>
+
+<p>Granite and whinstone, or basaltes, though
+distinct compositions, thus graduating into
+each other; and whinstone, as well as porphyry,
+being without doubt a species of lava,
+we may consider the granite which is found
+in mass without stratification, in like manner
+as we do the masses of whinstone, basaltes, or
+Swedish trap, as having flowed in the bowels
+of the earth, and thus been produced by the
+chance of place, without any proper form of
+its own, or in an irregular shape and construction.
+In this manner would be explained the
+irregular shape or structure of those granite
+masses; and thus great light would be thrown
+upon the waved structure of the stratified alpine
+stone, which, though it has not been
+made to flow, has been brought to a great
+degree of softness, so as to have the original
+straight lines of its stratification changed to
+those undulated or waving lines which are in
+some cases extremely much incurvated.</p>
+
+<p>It remains only to confirm this reasoning,
+upon our principles, by bringing actual observation
+to its support; and this we shall do
+from two of the best authorities. The Chevalier
+de Dolomieu, in describing the volcanic
+productions of Etna, mentions a lava which
+had flowed from that mountain, and which
+may be considered as a granite. But M. de
+Saussure has put this matter out of doubt by
+describing most accurately what he had seen
+both in the Alps and at the city of Lyons.
+These are veins of granite which have flowed
+from the contiguous mass into the stratified
+stone, and leave no doubt with regard to this
+proposition, that the granite had flowed in form
+of subterranean lava, although M. de Saussure
+has drawn a very different conclusion from
+this appearance. I have also a specimen from
+this country of a vein of granite in a granite
+stone, the vein being of a smaller grain than
+that of the rock which it traverses.<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag20"> (return) </a> This is what I had wrote upon, the subject of granite,
+before I had acquired such ample testimony from my
+own observations upon that species of rock. I have given
+some notice, in the 3d vol. of the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh R.S. concerning the general result of those
+observations, which will be given particularly in the course
+of this work.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It will thus appear, that the doctrine which
+of late has prevailed, of primitive mountains,
+or something which should be considered as
+original in the construction of this earth, must
+be given up as a false view of nature, which
+has formed the granite upon the same principle
+with that of any other consolidated stratum;
+so far as the collection of different materials,
+and the subsequent fusion of the compound
+mass, are necessary operations in the
+preparation of all the solid masses of the earth.
+Whatever operations of the globe, therefore,
+may be concluded from the composition of
+granite masses, as well as of the alpine strata,
+these must be considered as giving us information
+with regard to the natural history of
+this earth; and they will be considered as important,
+in proportion as they disclose to us
+truths, which from other strata might not be
+so evident, or at all made known.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now examine the arguments, which,
+may be employed in favour of that supposition
+of primitive mountains.</p>
+
+<p>The observations, on which naturalists have
+founded that opinion of originality in some
+of the component parts of our earth, are these;
+<i>first</i>, They observe certain great masses of granite
+in which stratification is not to be perceived;
+this then they say is an original mass,
+and it is not to be derived from any natural
+operation of the globe; <i>secondly</i>, They observe
+considerable tracts of the earth composed of
+matter in the order of stratification as to its
+general composition, but not as to its particular
+position, the vertical position here prevailing,
+instead of the horizontal which is proper
+to strata formed in water; this, therefore,
+they also term primitive, and suppose it to be
+from another origin than that of the subsidence
+of materials moved in the waters of the globe;
+<i>lastly</i>, They observe both strata and masses of
+calcareous matter in which they cannot distinguish
+any marine body as is usual in other
+strata of the same substance; and these calcareous
+masses being generally connected with
+their primitive mountains, they have also included
+these collections of calcareous matter,
+in which marine bodies are not observed,
+among the primitive parts which they suppose
+to be the original construction of this globe.</p>
+
+<p>It may be proper to see the description of
+a calcareous alpine mountain. M. de Saussure
+gives us the following observations concerning
+a mountain of this kind in the middle of
+the Alps, where the water divides in running
+different ways towards the sea. It is in describing
+the passage of the Bon-Homme,
+(Tom. 2. V. dans les Alpes).</p>
+
+<p>"§ 759. Sur la droite ou au couchant de
+ces rochers, on voit une montagne calcaire
+étonnante dans ce genre par la hardiesse
+avec laquelle elle élève contre le ciel ses
+cimes aigues et tranchantes, taillées à angles
+vifs dans le costume des hautes cimes de
+granit. Elle est pourtant bien sûrement calcaire,
+je l'ai observée de près, et on rencontre
+sur cette route les blocs qui s'en détachent.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette pierre porte les caractères des calcaires
+les plus anciennes; sa couleur est
+grise, son grain assez fin, on n'y apperçoit
+aucun vestige de corps organisés; ses couches
+sont peu épaisses, ondées et coupées fréquemment
+par des fentes parallèles entr'elles
+et perpendiculaires à leurs plans. On trouve
+aussi parmi ces fragmens des brèches calcaires
+grises."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a mountain which will rank with
+the most primitive of the earth; But why?
+only because it is extremely consolidated without
+any mark of organised body. Had there
+been in this mountain but one single shell, we
+should not then have scrupled to conclude that
+the origin of this lofty mountain had been the
+same with every marble or limestone in the
+earth. But though, from the structure of this
+stone, there is no mark of its having been
+formed immediately of the calcareous parts of
+animals, there is every mark of those calcareous
+strata having been formed like other marbles
+by deposit in the waters of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>These two things are also homologated by
+the equal or perfect consolidation of their substance;
+for, as it is to be proved that all stratified
+marbles have been consolidated by the
+fusion of their substance, we must attribute the
+same consolidating cause to those alpine masses;
+the frequent veins that divide those calcareous
+strata which M. de Saussure has here
+described, also prove the nature of the consolidating
+cause, (see Chap. 1. page 111.).</p>
+
+<p>This mountain, considered by itself, may
+perhaps afford no data by which a naturalist
+might read the circumstances of its origin.
+But, Is a theory of the earth to be formed upon
+such a negative observation? and, Is there
+any particular in this mountain, that may not
+be shown in others of which the origin is not
+in any degree doubtful?</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be disputed, that there are parts
+of the solid body of our earth which may be
+considered as primary or prior, compared with
+others that are posterior, in relation to the time
+of their formation, and much less changed with
+regard to the state in which they had been originally
+formed:&mdash;But it is here denied, that
+there are any parts of the earth which do not
+appear to have had the same origin with all
+the rest, so far as this consists in the collection
+of materials deposited at the bottom of the waters<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a>;
+for there is no solid mass of land that
+may not be traced to this origin, either from
+its composition, or from its local connection
+with other masses, the nature of which in this
+respect are known. We have already given
+examples of this from sufficient authority.
+The evidence, therefore, of those primary masses
+being original in relation to the natural
+operations of the globe, is reduced to this assertion,
+that there are no vestiges of organised
+bodies to be found in those primary masses.
+Let us now examine how far this testimony
+for the originality of those masses is to be admitted
+in fact and sound reasoning.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag21"> (return) </a> There are no collection of those alpine masses in
+which may not be found in some of them sand, mica, and
+gravel; but these materials prove the existence of an earth,
+on which those fragments of greater masses had been formed,
+and more or less worn by attrition.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The matter in question at present is this,
+that there are certain tracts of countries in
+which no vestige of organised bodies are found;
+now, let us suppose the fact to be true or well
+grounded, Can we conclude from this that
+there had been originally no organised bodies
+in the composition of those masses?&mdash;Such a
+conclusion could only be formed in making a
+supposition, that every organised body deposited
+in a mass of matter, whether homogeneous
+or heterogeneous, should be preserved
+without change, while the collected mass, in
+which it had been deposited, changes as much
+as possible by the operation both of fire and
+water. But this supposition is erroneous, and
+cannot be admitted; and the study of marbles
+will demonstrate this truth, that the calcareous
+relics of organised bodies are changed, in the
+consolidating operations of the globe, in every
+degree, from the smallest alteration to the
+greatest, when they become indistinguishable
+any farther to our sight.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, from the supposition of no appearance
+of marine bodies in the pretended
+primitive masses, there is no sufficient evidence
+or reason to conclude, that those masses have
+not had a marine origin; because, the traces
+of organised bodies may be obliterated by the
+many subsequent operations of the mineral
+region; and which operations, the present
+state of those masses certify beyond dispute.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to examine the fact, how far
+the ground on which that false reasoning had
+been founded is strictly true.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, then, it must be considered,
+that the alleged fact is nothing but a negative
+assertion, importing that no mark of
+organised bodies had been observed, in certain
+stones and strata which some naturalists have
+examined with that view. But, though many
+naturalists have looked for them without success,
+it does not follow that such marks may
+not be found; it indeed proves that such a
+task is difficult, and the success of it, to a particular,
+most precarious; accident, however,
+may bring about what the greatest industry has
+not been able to attain. Secondly, there is
+good reason to believe that this asserted negation
+is not absolutely true; for I have in my
+possession what I consider as proof of the contrary;
+I found it in Wales, and I think it is
+in what may be considered as primitive mountains;&mdash;it
+is the mark of shells in a stone of
+that kind.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, I had formed my opinion with regard
+to this alleged fact, long before I had seen
+any description either of the Alps or Pyrennean
+mountains; and now I have no reason to
+change that opinion. It may indeed be alleged,
+that the strata of marble or limestone,
+containing marine bodies found in those mountains,
+are secondary strata, and not the primitive.
+To this I can give no reply, as the descriptions
+given of those strata do not enable
+me to decide this point.</p>
+
+<p>At the village of Mat, under the Mont Blatten
+for example, there is a quarry of schistus
+or black slate, in which are often found the
+print and the bones of fishes. (Discours sur
+l'Histoire Naturelle de la Suisse, page 225.). If
+this may be considered as an alpine or primitive
+schistus, it would be decisive of the question:
+But it would require to have it well ascertained
+that this schistus is truly one of those
+which are esteemed primitive, or that it is properly
+connected with them.</p>
+
+<p>But though I cannot find in those interesting
+descriptions which we now have got, any
+one which is demonstrative of this truth, that
+calcareous marine objects are found in the primitive
+strata, this is not the case with regard
+to another object equally important in deciding
+this question, Whether the primitive strata
+are found containing the marks of organised
+bodies?</p>
+
+<p>M. de Dellancourt, in his <i>Observations Minéralogiques</i>,
+Journal de Physique Juillet 1786,
+in describing the mountains of Dauphiné,
+gives us the following fact with regard to
+those alpine vertical strata.</p>
+
+<p>"La pierre constituante de la montagne
+d'Oris est en général le <i>Kneifs</i> ou la roche
+feuilletée mica et quartz à couches plus ou
+moins ferrées quelquefois le schorl en roche
+pénétré de stéatite. Les couches varient infiniment
+quant à leur direction et à leur
+inclinaisons. Cette montagne est cultivée
+et riche dans certain cantons, surtout autour
+du village d'Oris, mais elle est très-escarpée
+dans beaucoup d'autres. Entre le village
+d'Oris et celui du Tresnay est une espèce de
+combe assez creuse formée par la chute des
+eaux des cimes supérieures des rochers. Cette
+combe offre beaucoup de schiste dont les
+couches font ou très-inclinées ou perpendiculaires.
+Entre ces couches il s'en est trouvé
+de plus noires que les autres et capable de
+brûler, mais difficilement. Les habitans ont
+extrait beaucoup de cette matière terreuse,
+et lui ont donné le nom de charbon de terre.
+Ils viennent même à bout de la faire brûler,
+et de s'en servir l'hiver en la mêlant avec
+du bois. Ce schiste noir particulier m'a paru
+exister principalement dans les endroits ou
+les eaux se sont infiltrées entre les couches
+perpendiculaires, et y ont entraîné diverse
+matières, et sur-tout des débris de végétaux
+que j'ai encore retrouvés à demi-noirs, pulvérulens
+et comme dans un état charbonneux."</p>
+
+<p>This formation of coal, by the infiltration
+of water and carrying in of vegetable bodies,
+certainly cannot be admitted of; consequently,
+from this description, there would seem to
+be strata of coal alternated with the alpine
+schisti. But the formation of mineral coal
+requires vegetable matter to have been deposited
+along with those earthy substances, at
+the bottom of the sea. The production of
+vegetable bodies, again, requires the constitution
+of sea and land, and the system of a living
+world, sustaining plants at least, if not animals.</p>
+
+<p>In this natural history of the alpine schisti,
+therefore, we have a most interesting fact, an
+example which is extremely rare. Seldom
+are calcareous organised bodies found among
+those alpine strata, but still more rarely, I believe,
+are the marks of vegetable bodies having
+contributed in the formation of those masses.
+But however rare this example, it is equally
+decisive of the question, Whether the alpine
+schisti have had a similar origin as the other
+strata of the globe, in which are found abundance
+of animal and vegetable bodies, or their
+relics? and we are authorised to say, that since
+those perfect alpine strata of Dauphiné have
+had that origin, all the alpine schisti of the
+globe have been originally formed in a similar
+manner. But to put this matter out of doubt:</p>
+
+<p>In this summer 1788, coming from the Isle
+of Man, Mr Clerk and I travelled through the
+alpine schistus country of Cumberland and
+Westmoreland. We found a limestone quarry
+upon the banks of Windermere, near the Low-wood
+Inn. I examined this limestone closely,
+but despaired of finding any vestige of organised
+body. The strata of limestone seem to
+graduate into the slate or schistus strata, between
+which the calcareous are placed. Fortunately,
+however, I at last found a fragment
+in which I thought to perceive the works of
+organised bodies in a sparry state; I told Mr
+Clerk so, and our landlord Mr Wright, who
+had accompanied us. I have brought home
+this specimen, which I have now ground and
+polished; and now it is most evidently full of
+fragments of entrochi. Mr Wright then told
+me he had seen evident impressions of marine
+objects, as I understood from the description,
+in the slate of those mountains; and he was
+to send me specimens so soon as he could procure
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Here is one specimen which at once overturns
+all the speculations formed upon that
+negative proposition. The schistus mountains
+of Cumberland were, in this respect, as perfect
+primitive mountains as any upon the earth,
+before this observation; now they have no
+claim upon that score, no more than any limestone
+formed of shells.</p>
+
+<p>When I first announced my belief that such
+objects in natural history might be found, I
+little thought to have seen it realised, to such a
+degree as has now happened in the little circle
+of my knowledge. In the summer 1791,</p>
+
+<p>Professor Playfair was to pass through Cumberland.
+I begged that he would inquire of
+Mr Wright, at the Low-wood Inn, for those
+objects which he was to endeavour to procure
+for me, and to examine the limestone quarry
+in which I had found the specimen with entrochi.
+He went through another part of those
+primary mountains, and has found examples
+of this kind in the schisti; concerning which
+he has written me the following account.</p>
+
+<p>"In a visit which I made to the Lakes of
+Cumberland in September 1791, in company
+with the Hon. Francis Charteris, I
+met with a limestone full of marine objects,
+though from its position it is certainly to be
+reckoned among the primary strata. The
+place where we found this stone was in the
+district of Lancashire, that is west of Windermere
+Lake, on the road from Ambleside
+to the north end of Coniston Lake, and
+not far from the point when you come in
+sight of the latter. Just about this spot we
+happened to meet with one of those people
+who serve as guides to travellers in those
+parts, and who told us, among other things,
+that stones with shells in them were often
+found not far from where we were then
+walking. We immediately began to look
+about for specimens of that kind, and soon
+met with several; the most remarkable of
+which was in a rock that rose a little above
+the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to the
+right of the road. It was a part of a limestone
+stratum, nearly vertical, and was full
+of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
+in a common secondary limestone. The
+strata on both sides had the same inclination,
+and were decidedly primary, consisting
+of the ordinary micaceous schistus. This
+however I need not remark to you, who
+know so well from your own observations
+that the whole of the country I am now
+speaking of has every character of a primary
+one. I, only mention it, that it may
+not be supposed that the rock in question
+was some fragment of a secondary stratum
+that remained, after the rest was washed
+away, superincumbent on the primary.</p>
+
+<p>"After I had seen this rock, I recollected
+that you had told me of something of the
+same kind that you saw in a quarry at Low-wood
+Inn; and it may be that both belonged
+to the same stratum or body of strata;
+for the direction of the strata, as nearly as
+I could observe, was from S.W. to N.E.;
+and this also is nearly the bearing of Low-wood
+from the place where we now were.
+I send you a specimen, which you can compare
+with those you brought from the lime
+quarry at Low-wood."</p>
+
+<p>I have examined this specimen, and find it
+to be the common schistus of that country,
+only containing many bivalve shells and fragments
+of entrochi and madrapore bodies, and
+mixed with pyrites.</p>
+
+<p>I have already observed that one single example
+of a shell, or of its print, in a schistus,
+or in a stone stratified among those vertical or
+erected masses, suffices to prove the origin of
+those bodies to have been, what I had maintained
+them to be, water formed strata erected
+from the bottom of the sea, like every other
+consolidated stratum of the earth. But now,
+I think, I may affirm, that there is not, or
+rarely, any considerable extent of country of
+that primary kind, in which some mark of
+this origin will not be found, upon careful examination;
+and now I will give my reason for
+this assertion. I have been examining the south
+alpine country of Scotland, occasionally, for
+more than forty years back, and I never could
+find any mark of an organised body in the
+schistus of those mountains. It is true that I
+know of only one place where limestone is
+found among the strata; this is upon Tweed-side
+near the Crook. This quarry I had carefully
+examined long ago, but could find no
+mark of any organised body in it. I suppose
+they now are working some other of the vertical
+strata near those which I had examined;
+for, in the summer 1792, I received a letter
+from Sir James Hall, which I shall now transcribe.
+It is dated at Moffat, June 2. 1792.</p>
+
+<p>"As I was riding yesterday between Noble-house
+and Crook, on the road to this place,
+I fell in with a quarry of alpine limestone;
+it consists of four or five strata, about three
+feet thick, one of them single, and the rest
+contiguous; they all stand between the strata
+of slate and schist that are at the place
+nearly vertical. In the neighbourhood, a
+slate quarry is worked of a pure blue slate;
+several of the strata of slate near the limestone
+are filled with fragments of limestone
+scattered about like the fragments of schist
+in the sandstone in the neighbourhood of
+the junction on our coast.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag22"> (return) </a> This has a reference to very curious observations which
+we made upon the east coast where these mountains terminate,
+and which I am to describe in the course of this
+work.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Among the masses of limestone lately
+broken off for use, and having the fractures
+fresh, I found the forms of cockles quite
+distinct; and in great abundance.&mdash;I send
+you three pieces of this kind," etc.</p>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be alleged that those mountains
+of Cumberland and Tweedale are not
+the primary mountains, but composed of the secondary
+schistus, which is every where known
+to contain those objects belonging to a former
+earth. Naturalists who have not the opportunity
+of convincing themselves by their proper
+examination, must judge with regard to that
+geological fact by the description of others.
+Now it is most fortunate for natural history,
+that it has been in this range of mountains that
+we have discovered those marks of a marine
+origin; for, I shall afterwards have occasion to
+give the clearest light into this subject, from
+observations made in other parts of those same
+mountains of schist, by which it will be proved
+that they are the primary strata; and thus
+no manner of doubt will then remain in the
+minds of naturalists, who might otherwise suspect
+that we were deceiving ourselves, by mistaking
+the secondary for the primitive schistus.</p>
+
+<p>I have only farther to observe, that those
+schisti mountains of Wales, of Cumberland,
+and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where
+these marine objects have been found, consist,
+of that species of stone which in some places
+makes the most admirable slate for covering
+houses; and, in other parts, it breaks into
+blocks that so much resemble wood in appearance,
+that, without narrow inspection, it might
+pass for petrified wood.</p>
+
+<p>We are therefore to conclude that the marks
+of organised bodies in those primary mountains
+are certainly found; at the same time the
+general observation of naturalists has some
+foundation, so far as the marks of organised
+bodies are both rarely to be met with in those
+masses, and not easily distinguished as such
+when they are found.</p>
+
+<p>But this scarcity of marine objects is not
+confined to those primary mountains, as they
+are called; for among the most horizontal
+strata, or those of the latest production, there
+are many in which, it is commonly thought,
+no marine calcareous objects are to be found;
+and this is a subject that deserves to be more
+particularly considered, as the theory may thus
+receive some illustration.</p>
+
+<p>Sandstone, coal, and their accompanying
+strata, are thought to be destitute of calcareous
+marine productions, although many vestiges
+of plants or vegetable productions are there
+perceived. But this general opinion is neither
+accurate nor true; for though it be true that
+in the coal and sandstone strata it is most common
+to find marks of vegetable production,
+and rarely those calcareous bodies which are
+so frequent in the limestone, yet it is not unusual
+for coal to be accompanied with limestone
+formed of shells and corals, and also
+with ironstone containing many of those marine
+objects as well as wood. Besides, sandstone
+frequently contains objects which have
+been organised bodies, but which do not belong
+to the vegetable kingdom, at least to no
+plant which grows upon the land, but would
+seem to have been some species of zoophite
+perhaps unknown.</p>
+
+<p>I have also frequently seen the vestige of
+shells in sandstone, although in these strata
+the calcareous bodies are in general not perceived.
+The reason of this is evident. When
+there is a small proportion of the calcareous
+matter in the mass of sand which is pervious
+to steam and to the percolation of water, the
+calcareous bodies may be easily dissolved, and
+either carried away or dispersed in the mass;
+or even without being thus dispersed by means
+of solution, the calcareous matter may be absorbed
+by the siliceous substance of the stratum
+by means of fusion, or by heat and cementation.
+The fact is, that I have seen in
+sandstone the empty mould of marine shells
+with some siliceous crystallization, so far as I
+remember, which corresponded perfectly with
+that idea. The place I saw this was in a fine
+white sandstone accompanying the coal, upon
+the sea side at Brora in Sutherland.</p>
+
+<p>Mineralogy is much indebted to Mr Pallas
+for the valuable observations which he has
+given of countries so distant from the habitations
+of learned men. The physiology of the
+globe has also been enriched with some interesting
+observations from the labours of this
+learned traveller. But besides giving us facts,
+Mr Pallas has also reasoned upon the subject,
+and thus entered deep into the science of Cosmogeny;
+here it is that I am afraid he has
+introduced some confusion into the natural
+history of the earth, in not properly distinguishing
+the mineral operations of the globe,
+and those again which belong entirely to the
+surface of the earth; perhaps also in confounding
+the natural effects of water upon the
+surface of the earth, with those convulsions of
+the sea which may be properly considered as
+the accidental operations of the globe. This
+subject being strictly connected with the opinions
+of that philosopher with regard to primitive
+mountains, I am obliged to examine in
+this place matters which otherwise might have
+come more properly to be considered in
+another.</p>
+
+<p>M. Pallas in his <i>Observations sur la formation
+des montagnes</i>, (page 48) makes the following
+observations.</p>
+
+<p>"J'ai déjà dit que <i>la bande de montagnes
+primitives schisteuses</i> hétérogènes, qui, par
+toute la terre, accompagne les chaines granitiques,
+et comprend les roches quartzeuses
+et talceuses mixtes, trapézoïdes, serpentines,
+le schiste corne, les roches spathiques et cornées,
+les grais purs, le porphyre et le jaspre,
+tous rocs fêlés en couches, ou presque perpendiculaires,
+ou du moins très-rapidement
+inclinées, (les plus favorables à la filtration
+des eaux), semble aussi-bien que le granit,
+antérieure à la création organisée. Une raison
+très-forte pour appuyer cette supposition,
+c'est que la plupart de ces roches,
+quoique lamelleuse en façon d'ardoise, n'a
+jamais produit aux curieux la moindre trace
+de pétrifactions ou empreintes de corps organisés.
+S'il s'en est trouvé, c'est apparemment
+dans des fentes de ces roches où ces
+corps ont été apportés par un deluge, et
+encastrées apres dans une matière infiltrée,
+de même qu'on a trouvé des restes d'Eléphans
+dans le filon de la mine d'argent du
+Schlangenberg.<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> Les caractères par lesquels
+plusieurs de ces roches semblent avoir
+souffert des effets d'un feu-très-violent, les
+puissantes veines et amas des minéraux les
+plus riches qui se trouvent principalement
+dans la bande qui en est composée, leur position
+immédiate sur le granit, et même le
+passage, par lequel on voit souvent en grand,
+changer le granit en une des autres espèces;
+tout cela indique une origine bien plus
+ancienne, et des causes bien différentes de
+celles qui ont produit les montagnes secondaires."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag23"> (return) </a> This is a very natural way of reasoning when a philosopher
+finds a fact, related by some naturalists, that does
+not correspond with his theory or systematic view of
+things. Here our author follows the general opinion in
+concluding that no organised body should be found in
+their primitive strata; when, therefore, such an object is
+said to have been observed, it is supposed that there may
+have been some mistake with regard to the case, and that all
+the circumstances may not have been considered. This
+caution with regard to the inaccurate representation of
+facts, in natural history, is certainly extremely necessary;
+the relicts of an elephant found in a mineral vein, is certainly
+a fact of that kind, which should not be given as an
+example in geology without the most accurate scientifical
+examination of the subject.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Here M. Pallas gives his reason for supposing
+those mountains primitive or anterior to
+the operations of this globe as a living world;
+<i>first</i>, because they have not, in general, marks
+of animals or plants; and that it is doubtful
+if they ever properly contain those marks of
+organised bodies; <i>secondly</i>, because many of
+those rocks have the appearance of having
+suffered the effects of the most violent fire.
+Now, What are those effects? Is it in their
+having been brought into a fluid state of fusion.
+In that case, no doubt, they may have
+been much changed from the original state of
+their formation; but this is a very good
+reason why, in this changed state, the marks
+of organised bodies, which may have been in
+their original constitution, should be now effaced.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>third</i> reason for supposing those
+mountains primitive, is taken from the metallic
+veins, which are found so plentifully in
+these masses. Now, had these masses been
+the only bodies in this earth in which those
+mineral veins were found, there might be
+some species of reason for drawing the conclusion,
+which is here formed by our philosopher.
+But nothing is so common (at least in
+England) as mineral veins in the strata of the
+latest formation, and in those which are principally
+formed of marine productions; consequently
+so far from serving the purpose for
+which this argument was employed, the mineral
+veins in the primitive mountains tend to
+destroy their originality, by assimilating them
+in some respect with every other mass of strata
+or mountain upon the globe.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, M. Pallas here employs an argument
+taken from an appearance for which we
+are particularly indebted to him, and by which
+the arguments which have been already employed
+in denying the originality of granite is
+abundantly confirmed. It has been already
+alleged, that granite, porphyry, and whinstone,
+or trap, graduate into each other;
+but here M. Pallas informs us that he has
+found the granite not only changed into porphyry,
+but also into the other alpine compositions.
+How an argument for the originality
+of these mountains can be established upon
+those facts, I am not a little at a loss to conceive.</p>
+
+<p>The general mineralogical view of the Russian
+dominions, which we have, in this treatise,
+may now be considered with regard to
+that distinction made by naturalists, of primitive,
+secondary, and tertiary mountains, in order
+to see how far the observations of this
+well informed naturalist shall be found to confirm
+the theory of the earth which has been
+already given, or not.</p>
+
+<p>The Oural mountains form a very long
+chain, which makes the natural division betwixt
+Europe and Asia, to the north of the
+Caspian. If in this ridge, as a centre of elevation,
+and of mineral operations, we shall find
+the greatest manifestation of the violent exertion
+of subterraneous fire, or of consolidating
+and elevating operations; and if we shall perceive
+a regular appearance of diminution in
+the violence or magnitude of those operations,
+as the places gradually recede from this centre
+of active force; we may find some explanation
+of those appearances, without having recourse
+to conjectures which carry no scientific meaning,
+and which are more calculated to confound
+our acquired knowledge, than to form
+any valuable distinction of things. Let us
+consult M. Pallas how far this is the case, or
+not.</p>
+
+<p>After having told us that all those various
+alpine schisti, jaspers, porphyries, serpentines,
+etc. in those mountains, are found mutually
+convertible with granite, or graduating into
+each other, our author thus continues, (p. 50).</p>
+
+<p>"On entrevoit de certaines loix à l'égard
+de l'arrangement respectif de cet ordre secondaire
+d'anciennes roches, par tous les
+systèmes de montagnes qui appartiennent à
+l'Empire Russe. La chaîne Ouralique, par
+exemple, a du côté de l'Orient sur tout sa
+longueur, une très-grande abondance de
+schistes cornés, serpentins et talceux, riches
+en filons de cuivre, qui forment le principal
+accompagnement du granite, et en jaspres
+de diverses couleurs plus extérieurs et
+souvent comme entrelacés avec les premiers,
+mais formant des suites de montagnes
+entières, et occupant de très-grands
+espaces. De ce même côté, il y paraît
+beaucoup de quartz en grandes roches toutes
+pures, tant dans la principale chaîne que
+dans le noyau des montagnes de jaspre, et
+jusques dans la plaine. Les marbres spateux
+et veinés, percent en beaucoup d'endroits.
+La plupart de ces espèces ne paraissent
+point du tout à la lisière occidentale
+de la chaîne, qui n'est presque que de
+roche mélangée de schistes
+argileux, alumineux, phlogistique, etc. Les
+filons des mines d'or mêlées, les riches mines
+de cuivre en veines et chambrées, les
+mines de fer et d'aimant par amas et montagnes
+entières, sont l'apanage de la bande
+schisteuse orientale; tandis que l'occidentale
+n'a pour elle que des mines de fer de
+dépôts, et se montre généralement très-pauvre
+en métaux. Le granit de la chaîne
+qui borde la Sibérie, est recouvert du côté
+que nous connaissons de roches cornées de
+la nature des pierres à fusil, quelquefois
+tendant à la nature d'un grais fin et de
+schistes très-métallières de différente composition.
+Le jaspre n'y est qu'en filons, ou
+plans obliques, ce qui est très-rare pour la
+chaîne Ouralique, et s'observe dans la plus
+grande partie de la Sibérie, à l'exception
+de cette partie de sa chaîne qui passe près
+de la mer d'Okhotsk, ou le jaspre forme
+derechef des suites de montagnes, ainsi que
+nous venons de le dire des monts Ourals;
+mais comme cette roche tient ici le côté
+méridionale de la chaîne Sibérienne, et que
+nous ne lui connaissons point ce côté sur le
+reste de sa longueur, il se pourrait que le
+jaspre y fût aussi abondant. Il faudrait,
+au reste, bien plus de fouilles et d observations
+pour établir quelque chose de certain
+sur l'ordre respectif qu'observent ces
+roches."</p>
+
+<p>I would now ask, if in all this account of
+the gradation of rock from the Oural mountains
+to the sandy coast of the Baltic, there is to
+be observed any clear and distinctive mark of
+primitive, secondary, and tertiary, mountains,
+farther than as one stratum may be considered
+as either prior or posterior to another stratum,
+according to the order of superposition
+in which they are found. We have every
+where evident marks of the formation of strata
+by materials deposited originally in water;
+for the most part, there is sufficient proof that
+this water in which those materials had been
+deposited was the sea; we are likewise assured
+that the operations of this living world
+producing animals, must have, for a course of
+time, altogether inconceivably been exerted,
+in preparing materials for this mass; and,
+lastly, from the changed constitution of those
+masses, we may infer certain mineral operations
+that melt the substance and alter the position
+of those horizontal bodies. Such is the
+information which we may collect from this
+mineral description of the Russian Dominions.</p>
+
+<p>If we compare some of the Oural mountains
+with the general strata of the Russian
+plains, then, as to the contained minerals, we
+may find a certain diversity in those two
+places; at the same time, no greater perhaps
+than may be found betwixt two different
+bodies in those same plains, for example, chalk
+and flint. But when we consider those bodies
+of the earth, or solid strata of the globe, in relation
+to their proper structure and formation,
+we surely can find in this description nothing
+on which may be founded any solid opinion
+with regard to a different original, however
+important conclusions may perhaps be formed
+with regard to the operations of the globe,
+from the peculiar appearances found in alpine.</p>
+
+<p>From this detail of what is found in the
+Oural mountains, and in the gradation of
+country from those mountains to the plains of
+Russia, we have several facts that are worthy
+of observation. First extensive mountains of
+jasper. I have a specimen of this stone; it is
+striped red and green like some of our marly
+strata. It has evidently been formed of such
+argillaceous and siliceous materials, not only
+indurated, so as to lose its character, as an argillaceous
+stone, but to have been brought into
+that degree of fusion which produces perfect
+solidity. Of the same kind are those
+hornstein rocks of the nature of flint, sometimes
+tending to the nature of a fine sandstone.
+Here is the same induration of sandstone
+by means of fusion, that in the argillaceous
+strata has produced jasper. But oblique
+veins of jasper are represented as traversing
+these last strata; now this is a fact which is
+not conceivable in any other way, than by the
+injection or transfusion of the fluid jasper
+among those masses of indurated strata.</p>
+
+<p>All this belongs to the east side of the
+mountains. On the west, again, we find the
+same species of strata; only these are not changed
+to such a degree as to lose their original
+character or construction, and thus to be termed
+differently in mineralogy.</p>
+
+<p>Our author then proceeds. (p. 53.)</p>
+
+<p>"Nous pourrons parler plus décisivement
+sur les <i>montagnes secondaires et tertiaires</i> de
+l'Empire, et c'est de celles-là, de la nature,
+de l'arrangement et du contenu de leurs
+couches, des grandes inégalités et de la
+forme du continent d'Europe et d'Asie, que
+l'on peut tirer avec plus de confiance quelques
+lumières sur les changemens arrivés
+aux terres habitables. Ces deux ordres de
+montagnes présentent la chronique de notre
+globe la plus ancienne, la moins sujette aux
+falsifications, et en même-tems plus lisible
+que le caractère des chaînes primitives; ce
+font les archives de la nature, antérieures
+aux lettres et aux traditions les plus reculées,
+qu'il étoit réservé à notre siècle observateur
+de feuiller, de commenter, et de
+mettre au jour, mais que plusieurs siècles
+après le nôtre n'épuiseront pas.</p>
+
+<p>"Dans toute l'étendue de vastes dominations
+Russes, aussi bien que dans l'Europe
+entière, les observateurs attentifs ont remarqué
+que généralement la band schisteuse
+des grandes chaînes se trouve immédiatement
+recouverte ou cottée par la <i>bande calcaire</i>.
+Celle-ci forme deux ordres de montagnes,
+très-différentes par la hauteur, la situation
+de leurs couches, et la composition
+de la pierre calcaire qui les compose; différence
+qui est très-évidente dans cette bande
+calcaire qui forme la lisière occidentale de
+toute la chaîne Ouralique, et dont le plan
+s'étend par tout le plat pays de la Russie.
+L'on observerait la même chose à l'orient
+de la chaîne, et dans toute l'étendue de la
+Sibérie, si les couches calcaires horizontales
+n'y étaient recouvertes par les dépôts postérieures,
+de façon qu'il ne paraît à la surface
+que les parties les plus faillantes de la
+bande, et si ce pays n'étoit trop nouvellement
+cultivé et trop peu exploité par des
+fouilles et autres opérations, que des hommes
+industrieux ont pratiqué dans les pays anciennement
+habités. Ce que je vais exposer
+sur les deux ordres de montagnes calcaires,
+se rapportera donc principalement à celles
+qui sont à l'occident de la chaîne Ouralique.</p>
+
+<p>"Ce côté de la dite chaîne consiste sur cinquante
+à cent verstes de largeur, de roche
+calcaire solide, d'un grain uni, qui tantôt
+ne contient aucune trace de productions
+marines, tantôt n'en conserve que des empreintes
+aussi légères qu'éparses. Cette
+roche s'élève en montagnes d'une hauteur
+très-considérable, irrégulières, rapides, et coupées
+de vallons escarpés. Ses couches, généralement
+épaisses, ne sont point de niveau,
+mais très-inclinées à l'horizon, paralleles,
+pour la plupart, à la direction de la chaîne,
+qui est aussi ordinairement celle de la bande
+schisteuse;&mdash;au lieu que du côté de l'orient
+les couches calcaires sont au sens de la chaîne
+en direction plus ou moins approchante de
+l'angle droite. L'on trouve dans ces hautes
+montagnes calcaires de fréquentes grottes et
+cavernes très-remarquables, tant par leur
+grandeur que par les belles congélations et
+crystallizations stalactiques dont elles s'ornent.
+Quelques-unes de ces grottes ne peuvent
+être attribuées qu'à quelque bouleversement
+des couches; d'autres semblent devoir
+leur origine à l'écoulement des sources souterraines
+qui ont amolli, rongé et charrié
+une partie de la roche qui en étoit susceptible.</p>
+
+<p>"En s'éloignant de la chaîne, on voit les
+couches calcaires s'aplanir assez rapidement,
+prendre une position horizontale, et devenir
+abondantes en toute forte de coquillages, de
+madrépores, et d'autres dépouilles marines.
+Telles on les voit par-tout dans les vallées
+les plus basses qui se trouvent aux pieds des
+montagnes (comme aux environs de la rivière
+d'Oufal; telles aussi, elles occupent
+tout l'étendue de la grande Russie, tant en
+collines qu'en plat pays; solides tantôt et
+comme semées de productions marines;
+tantôt toutes composées de coquilles et madrépores
+brisées, et de ce gravier calcaire
+qui se trouve toujours sur les parages ou la
+mer abonde en pareilles productions; tantôt,
+enfin, dissoutes en craie et en marines, et
+souvent entremêlées de couches de gravier
+et de cailloux roulés."</p>
+
+<p>How valuable for science to have naturalists
+who can distinguish properly what they
+see, and describe intelligibly that which they
+distinguish. In this description of the strata,
+from the chain of mountains here considered
+as primitive, to the plains of Russia, which are
+supposed to be of a tertiary formation, our naturalist
+presents us with another species of strata,
+which he has distinguished, on the one
+hand, in relation to the mountains at present
+in question, and on the other, with regard to
+the strata in the plains, concerning which there
+is at present no question at all. Now, let us
+see how these three things are so connected in
+their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
+links of the same chain.</p>
+
+<p>The primary and tertiary masses are bodies
+perfectly disconnected; and, without a medium
+by which they might be approached, they
+would be considered as things differing in all
+respects, consequently as having their origins
+of as opposite a nature as are their appearances.
+But the nature and formation of those
+bodies are not left in this obscurity; for, the
+secondary masses, which are interposed, participate
+so precisely of what is truly opposite
+and characteristic in the primary and tertiary
+masses, that it requires nothing more than to
+see this distinction of things in its true light,
+to be persuaded, that in those three different
+things we may perceive a certain gradation,
+which here takes place among the works of
+nature, and forms three steps distinguishable
+by a naturalist, although in reality nothing
+but the variable measure of similar operations.</p>
+
+<p>We are now to assimilate the primary and
+tertiary masses, which are so extremely different,
+by means of the secondary masses,
+which is the mean. The primary and tertiary
+differ in the following respects: The one
+of these contains the relicts of organised bodies
+which are not observed in the other. But in
+the species containing these distinguishable
+bodies, the natural structure and position of the
+mass is little affected, or not so much as to be
+called into doubt. This, however, is not the
+case with the other; the species in which organised
+bodies do not appear, is in general so
+indurated or consolidated in its structure, and
+changed in its position, that this common origin
+of those masses is by good naturalists, who
+have also carefully examined them, actually
+denied. Now, the secondary masses may be
+considered, not only as intermediate with respect
+to its actual place, as M. Pallas has represented
+it, but as uniting together the primary
+and tertiary, or as participating of the
+distinguishing characters of the other two. It
+is homologated with the primitive mountains,
+in the solidity of its substance and in the position
+of its strata; with the tertiary species, again,
+in its containing marks of organised bodies.
+How far this view of things is consistent with
+the theory of the earth now given, is submitted
+to the consideration of the unprejudiced.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see what our learned author has said
+farther on this subject, (page 65).</p>
+
+<p>"Je dois parler d'un ordre de montagnes
+très-certainement postérieur aux couches
+marines, puisque celles-ci, généralement lui
+servent de base. On n'a point jusqu'ici
+observé une suite de ces <i>montagnes tertiaires</i>,
+effet des catastrophes les plus modernes de
+notre globe, si marquée et si puissante, que
+celle qui accompagne la chaine Ouralique
+ou côté occidentale fur tout la longueur.
+Cette suite de montagnes, pour la plupart
+composées de grais, de marnes rougeâtres,
+entremêlées de couches diversement mixtes,
+forme une chaîne par-tout séparée par une
+vallée plus ou moins large de la bande de
+roche calcaire, dont nous avons parlé. Sillonnée
+et entrecoupée de fréquens vallons,
+elles s'élève souvent à plus de cent toises
+perpendiculaires, se répand vers les plaines
+de la Russie en traînées de collines, qui séparent
+les rivières, en accompagnant généralement
+la rive boréale ou occidentale, et
+dégénère enfin en déserts sableux qui occupent
+de grands espaces, et s'étendent surtout
+par longues bandes parallèles aux principales
+traces qui suivent les cours des rivieres.
+La principale force de ces montagnes tertiaires
+est plus près de la chaîne primitive par-tout le
+gouvernement d'Orenbourg et la Permie, ou
+elle consiste principalement en grais, et contient
+un fond inépuisable de mines de cuivre
+sableuses, argileuses, et autres qui se
+voient ordinairement dans les couches horizontales.
+Plus loin, vers la plaine, sont
+des suites de collines toutes marneuses, qui
+abondent autant en pierres gypseuses, que
+les autres en minerais cuivreux. Je n'entre
+pas dans le détail de celles-ci, qui indiquent
+sur-tout les sources salines; mais je
+dois dire des premières, qui abondent le
+plus et dont les plus hautes élévations des
+plaines, même celle de Moscou, sont formées,
+qu'elles contiennent très-peu de traces
+de productions marines, et jamais des
+amas entiers de ces corps, tels qu'une mer
+reposée pendant des siècles de suite a pu
+les accumuler dans les bancs calcaires. Rien,
+au contraire, de plus abondant dans ces
+montagnes de grais stratifié sur l'ancien
+plan calcaire, que des troncs d'arbres entières
+et des fragmens de bois pétrifié, souvent
+minéralisé par le cuivre ou le fer; des
+impressions de troncs de palmires, de tiges
+de plantes, de roseau, et de quelques fruits
+étrangers; enfin des ossemens d'animaux
+terrestres, si rares dans les couches calcaires.
+Les bois pétrifiés se trouvent jusques dans les
+collines de sable de la plaine; l'on en tire,
+entr'autres, des hauteurs sablonneuses aux
+environs de Sysran sur la Volga, changés
+en queux très-fin, qui a conservé jusqu'à
+la texture organique du bois, et remarquables
+sur-tout par les traces très-évidentes de
+ces vers rongeurs qui attaquent les vaisseaux,
+les pilotis et autres bois trempés dans la
+mer, et qui sont proprement originaires de
+la mer des Indes."</p>
+
+<p>This philosopher has now given us a view
+of what, according to the present fashion of
+mineral philosophy, he has termed <i>montagnes
+primitives, secondaires, et tertiaires</i>. The first
+consists in masses and strata, much indurated
+and consolidated, and greatly displaced in their
+position; but the character of which is chiefly
+taken from this, that they contain not any
+visible mark of animal or vegetable bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The second are formed in a great measure
+of marine productions, are often no less consolidated
+than those of the first class, and frequently
+no less changed in their natural shape
+and situation.</p>
+
+<p>The third again have for character, according
+to this learned theorist, the containing of
+those organised bodies which are proper to
+the earth, instead of those which in the second
+class had belonged to the sea; in other respects,
+surely there is no essential difference.
+It is not pretended that these tertiary strata
+had any other origin, than that of having been
+deposited in water; it is not so much as suspected,
+that this water had been any other
+than that of the sea; the few marine bodies
+which M. Pallas here acknowledges, goes at
+least to prove this fact: and with regard to
+the mineral operations which had been employed
+in consolidating those water formed
+strata, it is impossible not to be convinced that
+every effect visible in the other two are here
+also to be perceived.</p>
+
+<p>From this view of mineral bodies, taken
+from the extensive observations of the Russian
+dominions, and from the suppositions of geologists
+in relation to those appearances, we
+should be led to conclude that the globe of
+this earth had been originally nothing but an
+ocean, a world containing neither plant nor
+animal to live, to grow and propagate its
+species. In following a system founded on
+those appearances, we must next suppose, that
+to the sterile unorganised world there had succeeded
+an ocean stored with fish of every
+species. Here it would be proper to inquire
+what sustained those aquatic animals; for, in
+such a system as this, there is no provision
+made for continuing the life even of the individuals,
+far less of feeding the species while,
+in an almost infinite succession of individuals,
+they should form a continent of land almost
+composed of their <i>exuviae</i>.</p>
+
+<p>If fish can be fed upon water and stone; if
+siliceous bodies can, by the digesting powers
+of animals, be converted into argillaceous
+and calcareous earths; and if inflammable
+matter can be prepared without the intervention
+of vegetable bodies, we might erect a
+system in which this should be the natural
+order of things. But to form a system in direct
+opposition to every order of nature that
+we know, merely because we may suppose
+another order of things different from the
+laws of nature which we observe, would be
+as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in
+science, by which the speculations of philosophy
+are directed, as it would be contrary to
+common sense, by which the affairs of mankind
+are conducted.</p>
+
+<p>Still, however, to pursue our visionary system,
+after a continent had been formed from
+the relicts of those animals, living, growing,
+and propagating, during an indefinite series of
+ages, plants at last are formed; and, what is
+no less wonderful, those animals which had
+formed the earth then disappear; but, in compensation,
+we are to suppose, I presume, that
+terrestrial animals began. Let us now reason
+from those facts, without either constraining
+nature, which we know, or forming visionary
+systems, with regard to things which are unknown.
+It would appear, that at one period
+of time, or in one place, the matter of the
+globe may be deposited, in strata, without containing
+any organised bodies; at another time,
+or in another place, much animal matter may
+be deposited in strata, without any vegetable
+substance there appearing; but at another period,
+or at another time, strata may be formed
+with much vegetable matter, while there is
+hardly to be observed any animal body.
+What then are we to conclude upon the
+whole? That nature, forming strata, is subject
+to vicissitudes; and that it is not always
+the same regular operation with respect to the
+materials, although always forming strata upon
+the same principles. Consequently, upon
+the same spot in the sea, different materials
+may be accumulated at different periods of
+time, and, conversely, the same or similar materials
+may be collected in different places at
+the same time. Nothing more follows strictly
+from the facts on which we now are reasoning;
+and this is a conclusion which will be
+verified by every appearance, so far as I know.</p>
+
+<p>Of this I am certain, that in a very little
+space of this country, in many places, such a
+course of things is to be perceived.  Nothing
+so common as to find alternated, over and over
+again, beds of sand-stone without animal bodies,
+beds of coal and schistus abounding with vegetable
+bodies, beds of lime-stone formed of shells
+and corals, and beds or particular strata of iron-stone
+containing sometimes vegetable sometimes
+animal bodies, or both. Here, indeed,
+the strata are most commonly inclined; it is
+seldom they are horizontal; consequently, as
+across the whole country, all the strata come
+up to the day, and may be seen in the beds
+of our rivers, we have an opportunity of observing
+that great variety which is in nature,
+and which we are not able to explain. This
+only is certain, from what we see, that there
+is nothing formed in one epoch of nature,
+but what has been repeated in another, however
+dissimilar may be the operations which
+had intervened between those several epochs.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged, that the heights of
+the Oural mountains, or the hardness of their
+rocks, make an essential distinction between
+them and the argillaceous or arenaceous strata
+of the plains; solidity and hardness, as well
+as changes in their height and natural position,
+has been superinduced in operations posterior
+to the collection of those masses,&mdash;operations
+which may be formed in various degrees,
+even in the different parts of the same mass.
+If this is the case, there can be no difficulty in
+conceiving a stratum, which appears to be argillaceous
+or marly in the plains, to be found
+jasper in the Oural mountains. But there is
+nothing in the Oural mountains, that may not
+be found some where or other in the plains,
+although the soft and easily decomposing argillaceous
+strata be not found upon the Oural
+mountains, or the Alps, for this reason, that
+had those mountains been formed of such materials,
+there had not been a mountain there at
+this day.</p>
+
+<p>But surely the greatest possible error, with
+regard to the philosophy of this earth, would
+be to confound the sediment of a river with
+the strata of the globe; bodies deposited upon
+the surface of the earth, with those sunk at
+the bottom of the sea; and things which only
+form the travelled or transported soil, with
+those which constitute the substratum or the
+solid earth. How far M. Pallas has committed
+this oversight, I leave others to determine.
+After mentioning those strata in which wood
+is found petrified, and metallic minerals formed,
+he thus proceeds, (page 69).</p>
+
+
+<p>"Dans ces mêmes dépôts sableux et souvent
+limoneux, gisent les restes des grands
+animaux de l'Inde: ces ossemens d'éléphans,
+de rhinocéros, de buffles monstrueux,
+dont on déterre tous les jours un si grand
+nombre, et qui font l'admiration des curieux.
+En Sibérie, où l'on à découvert le
+long de presque toutes les rivières ces restes
+d'animaux étrangers, et l'ivoire même bien
+conservé en si grande abondance, qu'il forme
+un article de commerce, en Sibérie, dis
+je, c'est aussi la couche la plus moderne de
+limon sablonneux qui leur sert de sépulture,
+et nulle part ces monumens étrangers sont
+si frequens, qu'aux endroits où la grande
+chaine, qui domine surtout la frontière méridionale
+de la Sibérie, offre quelque dépression,
+quelque ouverture considérable.</p>
+
+<p>"Ces grands ossemens, tantôt épars tantôt
+entassés par squelettes, et même par hécatombes,
+considérée dans leurs sites naturels,
+m'ont sur-tout convaincu de la réalité d'un
+déluge arrivé sur notre terre, d'une catastrophe,
+dont j'avoue n'avoir pu concevoir
+la vraisemblance avant d'avoir parcouru ces
+places, et vu, par moi-même, tout ce qui
+peut y servir de preuve à cet évènement
+mémorable<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a>. Une infinité de ces ossemens
+couchés dans des lits mêlés de petites
+tellines calcinées, d'os de poissons, de glossopètres,
+de bois chargés d'ocre, etc. prouve
+déjà qu'ils ont été transportés par des inondations.
+Mais la carcasse d'un rhinocéros,
+trouvé avec sa peau entière, des restes
+de tendons, de ligamens, et de cartilages,
+dans les terres glacées des bords du Viloûi,
+dont j'ai déposé les parties les mieux conservées
+au cabinet de l'Académie, forme encore
+une preuve convaincante que ce devait
+être un mouvement d'inondation des
+plus violens et des plus rapides, qui entraîna
+jadis ces cadavres vers nos climats
+glacés, avant que la corruption eût le tems,
+d'en détruire les parties molles. Il seroit
+à souhaiter qu'un observateur parvint aux
+montagnes qui occupent l'espace entre les
+fleuves Indighirka et Koylma où selon le
+rapport des chasseurs, de semblables carcasses
+d'éléphans et d'autres animaux gigantesques
+encore revêtues de leurs peaux,
+ont été remarquées à plusieurs reprises."</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag24"> (return) </a> Voyez le Mémoire, imprimé dans le XVII. volume
+des nouveaux Commentaires de l'Académie Imperiale de
+Petersbourgh.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The question here turns upon this, Are the
+sea shells and glossopetrae, which are thus
+found deposited along with those skeletons,
+in their natural state, or are they petrified and
+mineralised. If the productions of the sea
+shall here be found collected along with bodies
+belonging to the surface of the earth, and
+which had never been within the limits of the
+sea, this would surely announce to us some
+strange catastrophe, of which it would be difficult,
+perhaps, to form a notion; if, on the
+contrary, those marine productions belong to
+the solid strata of the earth, in the resolution
+or decay of which they had been set at liberty,
+and were transported in the floods, our author
+would have no reason from those appearances to
+conclude, there had existed any other deluge
+than those produced by the waters of the land<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag25"> (return) </a> Since writing this, I find my doubts in a great measure
+resolved, in reading M. Pallas's Journal, translated
+from the German by M. Gauthier de la Peyronie. What
+I had suspected is, I think, confirmed in the distinct account
+which M. Pallas has given of those occasions in
+which the bones of land animals and marine objects are
+found buried together. The marine objects are mineralised;
+consequently, they have proceeded from the decomposition
+of the solid strata; and, having been travelled in the running
+water of the surface of the earth, they must have been
+deposited in those beds of rivers, which now are dry, alongst
+with the bones, or the entire bodies of terrestrial animals,
+the remains of which are now found there. This argument,
+from the state of those marine bodies will not be allowed,
+perhaps by the generality of mineralists, who attribute
+to the operations of water every species of petrifaction
+or mineralisation; but, until some species of proof be
+given with regard to the truth of that theory, which vulgar
+error first suggested, I must reason from a theory, in
+proof of which I have given clear examples, and, I think,
+irrefragable arguments, which shall be more and more illustrated.
+Thus may be removed the necessity of a general
+deluge, or any great catastrophe, in order to bring together
+things so foreign to each other; but at the same
+time we would ascertain this fact, That formerly the Elephant
+and Rhinoceros had lived in Siberia. (See Voyage
+de Pallas, Tom. II. p. 377 and 403.)</blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus endeavoured to remove this
+prevailing prejudice, of there being primitive
+parts in this earth, parts of which the composition
+and constitution are not to be explained
+upon the principles of natural philosophy, it
+will be proper to inquire, how far there may
+be in the theory, which has now been given,
+principles by which may be explained those
+appearances that have led natural philosophers
+to form conclusions, of there being in this
+earth parts whose origin may not be traced;
+and of there being parts whose origin may
+not be explained upon the same principles
+which apply so well to all the rest.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. V.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Concerning that which may be termed the
+Primary Part of the Present Earth</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the present theory, it is maintained, that
+there is no part of the earth which has not
+had the same origin, so far as this consists in
+that earth being collected at the bottom of the
+sea, and afterwards produced, as land, along
+with masses of melted substances, by the operation
+of mineral causes. But, though all
+those things be similar, or equal, as to the
+manner of their production, they are far from
+being so with regard to the periods of their
+original composition, or to the subsequent
+operations which they may have undergone.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain order established for the
+progress of nature, for the succession of things,
+and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
+of this globe; and, the order of time is
+associated with this change of things. But it
+is not in equal portions that time is thus combined
+with dissimilar things, nor always found,
+in our estimation, as equally accompanying
+those which we reckon similar. The succession
+of light and darkness is that which, in
+those operations, appears to us most steady;
+the alternation of heat and cold comes next,
+but not with equal regularity in its periods.
+The succession of wet and dry upon the surface
+of the earth, though equally the work of
+nature and the effect of regular causes, is often
+to us irregular, when we look for equal periods
+in the course of things which are unequal.
+It is by equalities that we find order in things,
+and we wish to find order every where.</p>
+
+<p>The present object of our contemplation is
+the alternation of land and water upon the
+surface of this globe. It is only in knowing
+this succession of things, that natural appearances
+can be explained; and it is only from
+the examination of those appearances, that
+any certain knowledge of this operation is to
+be obtained. But how shall we acquire the
+knowledge of a system calculated for millions,
+not of years only, nor of the ages of man, but
+of the races of men, and the successions of
+empires? There is no question here with regard
+to the memory of man, of any human
+record, which continues the memory of man
+from age to age; we must read the transactions
+of time past, in the present state of natural
+bodies; and, for the reading of this
+character, we have nothing but the laws of
+nature, established in the science of man by
+his inductive reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>It has been in reasoning after this manner,
+that I have endeavoured to prove, that every
+thing which we now behold, of the solid parts
+of this earth, had been formerly at the bottom
+of the sea; and that there is, in the constitution
+of this globe, a power for interchanging
+sea and land. If this shall be admitted as a
+just view of the system of this globe, we may
+next examine, how far there are to be found
+any marks of certain parts of our earth having
+more than once undergone that change of
+posture, or vicissitude of things, and of having
+had reiterated operations of the mineral kingdom
+changing their substance, as well as altering
+their positions in relation to the atmosphere
+and sea.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the gradual decay of solid land, exposed
+to the silent influences of the atmosphere,
+and to the violent operations of the
+waters moving upon the surface of the earth,
+there is a more sudden destruction that may
+be supposed to happen sometimes to our continents
+of land. In order to see this, it must
+be considered, that the continents of our earth
+are only raised above the level of the sea by
+the expansion of matter, placed below that
+land, and rarefied in that place: We may thus
+consider our land as placed upon pillars, which
+may break, and thus restore the ancient situation
+of things when this land had been originally
+collected at the bottom of the ocean. It
+is not here inquired by what mechanism this
+operation is to be performed; it is certainly
+by the exertion of a subterranean power that
+the land is elevated from the place in which
+it had been formed; and nothing is more natural
+than to suppose the supports of the land
+in time to fail, or be destroyed in the course
+of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
+In that case, whatever were remaining
+of that land, which had for millions of
+ages past sustained plants and animals, would
+again be placed at the bottom of the sea; and
+strata of every different species might be deposited
+again upon that mass, which, from an
+atmospheric situation, is now supposed to be
+lower than the surface of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated,
+or restored with the new superincumbent
+strata, consolidated in their texture
+and inclined in their position. In that case,
+the inferior mass must have undergone a
+double course of mineral changes and displacement;
+consequently, the effect of subterranean
+heat or fusion must be more apparent
+in this mass, and the marks of its original
+formation more and more obliterated.</p>
+
+<p>If, in examining our land, we shall find a
+mass of matter which had been evidently
+formed originally in the ordinary manner of
+stratification, but which is now extremely distorted
+in its structure, and displaced in its
+position,&mdash;which is also extremely consolidated
+in its mass, and variously changed in its
+composition,&mdash;which therefore has the marks
+of its original or marine composition extremely
+obliterated, and many subsequent veins of melted
+mineral matter interjected; we should then
+reason to suppose that here were masses
+of matter which, though not different in their
+origin from those that are gradually deposited
+at the bottom of the ocean, have been more
+acted upon by subterranean heat and the expanding
+power, that is to say, have been
+changed in a greater degree by the operations
+of the mineral region. If this conclusion
+shall be thought reasonable, then here is an
+explanation of all the peculiar appearances of
+the alpine schistus masses of our land, those
+parts which have been erroneously considered
+as primitive in the constitution of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>We are thus led to suppose, that some parts
+of our earth may have undergone the vicissitudes
+of sea and land more than once, having
+been changed from the summit of a continent
+to the bottom of the sea, and again erected,
+with the rest of that bottom, into the place of
+land. In that case, appearances might be found
+to induce natural philosophers to conclude that
+there were in our land primary parts, which
+had not the marine origin which is generally
+to be acknowledged in the structure of this
+earth; and, by finding other masses, of marine
+origin, superincumbent upon those primary
+mountains, they might make strange suppositions
+in order to explain those natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now see what has been advanced by
+those philosophers who, though they term
+these parts of the earth <i>primordial</i>, and not
+<i>primitive</i>, at the same time appear to deny to
+those parts an origin analogous to that of their
+secondary mountains, or strata that are aquiform
+in their construction.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc, after having long believed that
+the strata of the Alps had been formed like
+those of the low countries, at the bottom of
+the sea, gives an account of the occasion by
+which he was first confirmed in the opposite
+opinion.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> Like a true philosopher, he gives
+us the reason of this change.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag26"> (return) </a> Lettres Physique et Morales sur l'Histoire de la
+Terre, tom. 2. pag. 206.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ce fut une espèce de <i>montagne</i> très commune,
+et que j'avois souvent examinée qui
+dessilla mes yeux. La pierre qui la compose
+est de la classe appellée <i>schiste</i>; son caractère
+générique est d'être <i>feuilletée</i>; elle
+renferme <i>l'ardoise</i> dont on couvre les toits.
+Ces <i>feuillets</i> minces, qu'on peut prendre
+pour des <i>couches</i>, et qui le font en effet
+dans quelques pierres de ce genre, rappelloient
+toujours l'idée vague de dépôts des
+eaux. Mais il y a des masses dont la composition
+est plutôt par fibres que par feuillets,
+et dont le moëllon ressemble aux copeaux
+de bois d'un chantier. Le plus souvent
+aussi les feuillets sont situés en toute
+suite de sens dans une même <i>montagne</i>, et
+quelquefois même verticalement, Enfin il
+s'en trouve de si tortillés, qu'il est impossible
+de les regarder comme des dépôts de
+l'eau.</p>
+
+<p>"Ce fut donc cette espèce de montagne
+qui me persuada la première que toutes les
+montagnes n'avoient pas une même origine.
+Le lieu où j'abjurai mon erreur, étoit un
+de ces grands <i>chantiers</i> pétrifiés, qui, par la
+variété du tortillement, et des zig-zags des
+fibres du moëllon qui le composoit, attira
+singulièrement mon attention. C'étoit un
+sort grand talus qui venoit d'une face escarpée;
+j'y montai pour m'approcher du rocher,
+et je remarquai, avec étonnement, des
+multitudes de paquets enchevêtrés les uns
+dans les autres, sans ordre ni direction fixe;
+les uns presqu'en rouleaux; les autres en
+zig-zag; et même ce qui, séparé de la montagne,
+eût peu être pris pour des <i>couches</i>,
+le trouvoit incliné de toute manière dans
+cette même face de rocher. <i>Non</i>, me dis-je
+alors à moi-même; <i>non, l'eau n'a pu faire
+cette montagne.... Ni celle-là donc</i>, ajoutai-je
+en regardant ailleurs.... <i>Et pourquoi
+mieux celle-là? Pourquoi toutes les montagnes
+devroient-elles être le produit des
+eaux, seulement parce qu'il y en a quelques-unes
+qui annoncent cette origine</i>? En effet,
+puis qu'on n'a songé aux eaux, comme
+cause des montagnes, que par les preuves
+évidentes que quelques-unes offroient de
+cette formation; pourquoi étendre cette
+conséquence à toutes, s'il y en a beaucoup
+qui manquent de ces caractères? C'est
+comme le dit Mr. d'Alembert, qu'on généralise
+ses premières remarques l'instant
+d'apres qu'on ne remarquoit rien."</p>
+
+<p>Science is indebted to this author for giving
+us so clear a picture of natural appearances,
+and of his own reasoning upon those facts, in
+forming his opinion; he thus leads astray no
+person of sound judgment, although he may
+be in error. The disposition of things in the
+present case are such, that, reasoning from his
+principles, this author could not see the truth;
+because he had not been persuaded, that aquiform
+strata could have been so changed by the
+chemical power of fusion, and the mechanical
+force of bending while in a certain state of
+softness.</p>
+
+<p>But though, in this case, the reasoning of
+this philosopher is to be justified, so far as he
+proceeded upon principles which could not
+lead him to the truth, his conduct is not so
+irreproachable in applying them to cases by
+which their fallacy might have been detected.
+This author acknowledges calcareous strata to
+be aquiform in their original; but, in those
+mountains which he has so much examined,
+he will find those aquiform bodies have undergone
+the same species of changes, which made
+him conclude that those schistus mountains
+had not been truly aquiform, as he at first had
+thought them. This would have led him to
+reason back upon his principles, and to say,
+<i>If one species of strata may be thus changed in
+its texture, and its shape, may not another be
+equally so? Therefore, may not the origin of
+both be similar</i>?</p>
+
+<p>But least I should do injustice to this author,
+to whom we are indebted for many valuable
+observations in natural history, I shall transcribe
+what he has said upon the subject, being
+persuaded that my readers will not think
+this improper in me, or impertinent to the argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Quand nous fumes une fois persuadés
+que la mer n'avoit pas fait toutes les <i>montagnes</i>,
+nous entreprîmes de découvrir les
+caractères distinctifs de celles qui lui devoient
+leur origine; et s'il étoit, par exemple,
+des matières qui leur fussent propres.
+Mais nous y trouvâmes les mêmes
+difficultés qu'on rencontre dans tout ce
+qu'on veut classer dans la nature. On peut
+bien distinguer entr'elles les choses qui ont
+fortement l'empreinte de leur classe; mais
+les confins échappent toujours.</p>
+
+<p>"C'est là, pour le dire en passant, ce qui a
+pu conduire quelques philosophes à imaginer
+cette <i>chaîne des êtres</i> où ils supposent,
+que, de la pierre à l'homme et plus haut,
+les nuances sont réellement imperceptibles.
+Comme si, quoique les limites soyent cachées
+à nos sens, notre intelligence ne nous
+disoit pas, qu'il y a un <i>saut</i>, une distance
+même infinie, entre le plus petit degré d'organization
+<i>propageante</i>, et la matière unie
+par la simple cohésion: entre le plus petit
+degré de <i>sensibilité</i>, et la matière insensible:
+entre la plus petite capacité d'observer et de
+transmettre ses observations, et l'instinct
+constamment le même dans l'espèce. Toutes
+ces différences tranchées existent dans la
+nature; mais notre incapacité de rien connoître
+à fond, et la necessité où nous sommes
+de juger de tout sur des apparences,
+nous fait perdre presque toutes les limites,
+parce que sur ces bords, la plupart des phénomènes
+sont équivoques. Ainsi la plante
+nous paroît se rapprocher de la pierre, mais
+n'en approche jamais réellement.</p>
+
+<p>"On éprouve la même difficulté à classer
+les montagnes; et quoique depuis quelque
+tems plusieurs naturalistes ayent aussi observé
+qu'elles n'ont pas toutes la même origine,
+je ne vois pas qu'on soit parvenu à
+fixer des caractères infaillibles, pour les
+placer sûrement toutes dans leurs classes
+particulières.</p>
+
+<p>"Après avoir examiné attentivement cet
+objet, d'après les phénomènes que j'ai moi-même
+observés, et ce que j'ai appris par les
+observations des autres; j'ai vu que c'étoit
+là un champ très vaste, quand on vouloit
+l'embrasser en entier, et trop vaste pour moi,
+qui n'étois pas libre d'y consacrer tout le
+tems qu'il exige. Je me suis donc replié
+sur mon objet principal, savoir <i>la cause qui
+a laissé des dépouilles marines dans nos continens</i>,
+et l'examen des hypothèses sur cette
+matière.</p>
+
+<p>"Les phénomènes ainsi limités, se réduisent
+à ceci: qu'il y a dans nos continens
+des montagnes visiblement formées par des
+<i>dépôts successifs de la mer</i> et a l'égard des
+quelles il n'y a besoin de rien imaginer, si
+ce n'est la manière dont elles en sont sorties:
+qu'il y en a d'autres au contraire, qui
+ne portent aucun des caractères de cette
+cause, et qui, si elles ont été produites dans
+la <i>mer</i>, doivent être l'effet de toute autre
+cause que de simples dépôts successifs, et
+avoir même précédé l'existence des animaux
+marins. J'abandonne donc les classes confuses
+où ces caractères sont équivoques, jusqu'à
+ce qu'elles servent à fonder quelque
+hypothèse; ayant assez de ces deux classes
+très distinctes pour examiner d'apres elles
+tous les systèmes qui me sont connus.</p>
+
+<p>"Là où ces deux classes de montagnes
+sont mêlées, on remarque que celles qui
+sont formées par <i>couches</i>, et qui renferment
+des <i>corps marins</i>, recouvrent souvent celles
+de l'autre classe, mais n'en sont jamais recouvertes.
+On a donc naturellement conclu,
+que lors même que la <i>mer</i> auroit en
+quelque part à la formation des montagnes
+où l'on ne reconnoît pas son caractère, celles
+auxquelles elle a travaillé seule, en enlevant
+des matières dans certaines parties
+de son fond et les déposant dans d'autres,
+font au moins les dernières formées. On
+les a donc nommées <i>secondaires</i>, et les autres
+<i>primitives</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"J'adopterai la première de ces expressions;
+car c'est la même qui nous étoit venu à
+l'esprit à mon frère, et à moi longtemps
+avant que nous l'eussions vue employer;
+mais je substituerai celle de <i>primordiales à</i>
+<i>primitives</i> pour l'autre classe de <i>montagnes</i>,
+afin de ne rien décider sur leur origine. Il
+est des <i>montagnes</i>, dont jusqu'à present on
+n'a pu démêler la cause: voila le fait. Je
+ne dirai donc pas qu'elles ont été créées
+ainsi, parce qu'en physique je ne dois pas
+employer des expressions sur lesquelles on
+ne s'entend pas. Sans doute cependant,
+que l'histoire naturelle ni la physique ne
+nous conduisent nullement à croire que notre
+globe ait existé de toute éternité; et
+lorsqu'il prit naissance, il fallut bien que la
+matière qui le composa fut de quelque nature,
+ou sous quelque première forme intégrante.
+Rien donc jusqu'ici n'empêche
+d'admettre que ces <i>montagnes</i> que je nommerai
+<i>primordiales</i>, ne soient réellement
+<i>primitives</i>; je penche même pour cette
+opinion à l'égard de quelques unes. Mais
+il y a une très grande variété entr'elles; et
+quoiqu'elles soyent toutes également exclues
+de la classe <i>secondaire</i>, elles ne sont pas
+toutes semblables: il y en a même un
+grand nombre dont les matières ont une
+certaine configuration qui semble annoncer
+qu'elles ayent été molles et durcies ensuite,
+quoique par une toute autre cause que celle
+qui a agi pour former les montagnes secondaires."</p>
+
+<p>Here I would beg leave to call the attention
+of philosophers to this observation of
+a naturalist who explains all petrification, and
+the consolidation of strata by aqueous infiltration.
+If he has here found reason to conclude
+that, in those primordial parts of the earth,
+there are a great number which, from their
+present configuration, must have been in a
+soft state and then hardened, and this by a
+quite different cause from that which he supposes
+had produced the consolidation and
+hardness of the secondary parts; this is entering
+precisely into my views of the subject,
+in ascribing all the consolidation of the
+earth, whether primary or secondary, to one
+general cause, and in tracing this cause, from
+its effects, to be no other than the fusion of
+those bodies. It must be evident, that if this
+philosopher has seen good reason for concluding
+such a softening cause, which had operated
+upon the primary parts, to be quite different
+from that which he ascribes to the consolidation
+of the secondary, which is the effect of
+water, it must then, I say, be evident that the
+softening cause of the primary parts, if not
+heat, by which every degree of fusion may be
+produced, must be an occult cause, one which
+cannot be admitted into natural philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>By thus choosing to consider mountains as
+of two distinct kinds, one aquiform which is
+understood, and the other primordial which is
+not to be known, we supersede the necessity of
+reconciling a theory with many appearances
+in nature which otherwise might be extremely
+inconvenient to our explanation, if not inconsistent
+with our system. Our author no
+doubt has thus relieved himself from a considerable
+difficulty in the philosophy of this
+earth, by saying here is a great part which is
+not to be explained. But I would beg leave
+to observe, that this form of discussion, with
+regard to a physical subject, is but a mere confession
+of our ignorance, and has no tendency
+to clear up another part of the subject of
+which one treats, however it may impress us
+with a favourable opinion of the theorist, in
+allowing him all the candour of the acknowledgement.</p>
+
+<p>The general result of the reasoning which
+we now have quoted, and what follows in
+his examination, seems to terminate in this;
+that there are various different compositions
+of mountains which this author cannot
+allow to be the production of the sea; but it
+is not upon account of the matter of which
+they are formed, or of the particular mixture
+and composition of those species of matter, of
+which the variety is almost indefinite. According
+to this philosopher, the distinction
+that we are to make of those primordial and
+secondary competitions, consists in this, that
+the first are in such a shape and structure as
+cannot be conceived to be formed by subsidence
+in water.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Saussure has carefully examined
+those same objects; and he seems inclined to
+think that they must have been the operation
+of the ocean; not in the common manner of
+depositing strata, but in some other way by
+crystallization. The present theory supposes
+all those masses formed originally in the ordinary
+manner, by the deposits or subsidence of
+materials transported in the waters, and that
+those strata were afterwards changed by operations
+proper to the mineral regions.</p>
+
+<p>But the subject of the present investigation
+goes farther, by inquiring if, in the operations
+of the globe, a primary and secondary class of
+bodies may be distinguished, so far as the one
+may have undergone the operations of the
+globe, or the vicissitudes of sea and land, oftener
+than the other, consequently must be anterior
+to the later productions both in time
+and operation, although the original of all those
+bodies be the same, and the operations of the
+earth, so far as we see in the effects, always
+proceed upon the same principles. This is an
+extensive view of nature to which few have
+turned their thoughts. But this is a subject
+to which the observations described by this
+author have evidently a reference.</p>
+
+<p>In his 113th letter, he has given us a view
+of one of those parts of the earth that are proper
+to be examined in determining this question
+so important in the genealogy of land,
+although no ways concerned in altering the
+principles upon which nature in forming continents
+must proceed.</p>
+
+<p>It is in describing the nature of the mountains
+about <i>Elbingerode</i>; and he begins in ascending
+from Hefeld.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette partie extérieure de la chaîne est
+<i>primordiale</i>: c'est du <i>granit</i> à <i>Hereld</i> et au
+commencement de la route; puis quand on
+passe dans d'autres vallées, on trouve les
+<i>schistes</i> et la <i>roche grise</i> dans tout le pied
+des montagnes: mais des qu'on est arrivé à
+une certain hauteur, on voit de la <i>pierre à
+chaux</i> par couches étendue sur ces matières;
+et c'est elle qui forme le sommet de ces
+mêmes montagnes; tellement que la plaine
+élevée, qui conduit à <i>Elbingerode</i>, est entièrement
+de <i>pierre à chaux</i>, excepté dans
+sa partie la plus haute ou cette pierre est
+recouverte des mêmes <i>grès</i> et sables <i>vitrescibles</i>
+qui sont sur le schiste du Bruchberg
+et sur la <i>pierre à chaux</i> dans la <i>Hesse</i> et le
+pays de Gottingue.</p>
+
+<p>"Les environs d'Elbingerode étant plus
+bas que ces parties recouvertes de matières
+vitrescibles, montrent la <i>pierre à chaux</i> à
+nud; et l'on y trouve de très beaux marbres,
+dont les nuances jaunes, rouges et vertes
+sont souvent très vives, et embellies par
+les coupes des <i>corps marins</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Cependant le schiste n'est pas enseveli
+partout sous ces dépôts de la mer; on le
+retrouve en quelques endroits, et même
+avec de <i>filons</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Ainsi au milieu de ces matières <i>calcaires</i>
+qui forment le sol montueux des environs
+<i>d'Elbingerode</i>, paroît encore le <i>schiste</i> sur
+lequel elles ont été déposées: Et en montant
+à la partie la plus élevée de ces mêmes
+environs, on trouve que la <i>pierre à chaux</i>
+est recouverte elle-même d'une <i>pierre sableuse</i>
+grise par couches, dans laquelle on
+voit quantité de petits fragmens de <i>schiste</i> posés
+de plat. C'est la que se trouve une des
+mines de <i>fer</i> dont le minerai va en partie
+à la <i>Koningshutte</i>, mais en plus grande
+partie à la <i>Rothechutte</i>, qui n'est qu'à une
+lieue de distance. On perce d'abord la
+couche sableuse; sous elle se trouve de la
+<i>pierre à chaux</i> grise; puis une couche de
+<i>pierre à chaux ferrugineuse</i>, remplie de <i>corps
+marins</i>, et surtout <i>d'entroques</i>: C'est cette
+<i>couche</i> qui est ici le <i>minerai</i>; et elle appartient
+à la formation de cette éminence comme
+toutes les autres <i>couches</i>. Cette mine
+se nomme <i>bomshey</i>: elle n'est pas riche;
+mais elle sert de <i>fondant</i> aux matières ferrugineuses
+tirées des filons des montagnes
+primordiales en même tems qu'elle leur
+ajoute son <i>fer</i> dans la fonte. A quelque
+distance de là on a percé un autre puits;
+qui a transversé d'abord une sorte de pierre,
+que je ne saurois nommer, mais qui ressemble
+fort à une <i>lave</i> poreuse. Au dessous
+de cette couche on a retrouvé la <i>pierre
+à chaux</i> ordinaire; puis la <i>couche ferrugineuse</i>
+y continue; mais elle diffère un peu
+de ce qu'elle est dans l'autre mine, une
+partie de sa substance étant convertie en <i>jaspe</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ce qui est digne de la plus grande
+attention dans cette contrée, est un filon
+peu distant nomme <i>Buchenberg</i>, qui appartient
+en partie au Roi, et en partie à
+Mr. le Comte de <i>Wernigerode</i>. La montagne
+en cette endroit montre une vallée
+artificielle de 70 à 80 pieds de profondeur,
+de 20 à 30 de largeur dans le haut, et de
+400 toises en étendue. C'est le creusement
+qu'on a déjà fait en suivant ce <i>filon</i> de <i>fer</i>,
+que l'on continue à exploiter de la même
+manière sur les terres de Mr. le Comte de
+<i>Wernigerode</i>. La matière propre de la montagne
+<i>est</i> de <i>schiste</i>; et la vallée qui se forme
+de nouveau à mesure qu'on enlève la <i>gangue</i>
+du <i>filon</i>, a sûrement déjà existé dans la
+mer sous la forme d'une <i>fente</i>, qui a été
+remplie, et en particulier des ingrédiens
+dont on fait aujourd'hui le <i>fer</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a supposition of our author that
+corresponds to nothing which has yet been
+observed any where else, so far as I know.
+It is concerning a mineral vein, one which
+does not appear to differ in any respect from
+other mineral veins, except in being worked
+in that open manner which has given our author
+an idea of its being a valley. He then
+supposes that valley (or rather empty vein)
+to have been in this mountain when at the
+bottom of the sea, and that this mineral vein
+had then been filled with those materials
+which now are found in that space between
+the two sides of the separated rock. This is
+a very different operation from that of infiltration,
+which is commonly supposed to be
+the method of filling mineral veins; but, we
+shall soon see the reason why our author has
+here deserted the common hypothesis, and has
+adopted another to serve the occasion, without
+appearing to have considered how perfectly
+inconsistent those two suppositions are to each
+other. That mineral veins have been filled
+with matter in a fluid state, is acknowledged
+by every body who has either looked at a
+mineral vein in the earth, or in a cabinet specimen;
+mineralists and geologists, in general,
+suppose this to have been done by means of
+solutions and concretions, a supposition by
+no means warranted by appearances, which,
+on the contrary, in general demonstrate that
+the materials of those veins had been introduced
+in the fluid state of fusion. But here
+is a new idea with regard to the filling of
+those veins; and, I would now beg the reader's
+attention to the facts which follow in this
+interesting description, and which have suggested
+that idea to our author.</p>
+
+<p>"Quand cette matière accidentelle est enlevée,
+on voit la coupe du <i>schiste</i> des deux
+côtes de la <i>fente</i>, faisant un <i>toit</i> et un <i>mur</i>,
+parce que la <i>fente</i> n'est pas absolument verticale:
+des qu'il y a un peu d'inclinaison,
+on distingue un <i>toit</i> et un mur, comme j'ai
+l'honneur de l'expliquer à V.M. On ne
+connoît point encore l'étendue de ce filon,
+ni dans sa profondeur, où l'on ne peut pas
+s'enfoncer beaucoup de cette manière, ni
+dans la longueur, selon laquelle on continue
+à l'exploiter.</p>
+
+<p>"Voilà donc un <i>filon</i>, à la rigueur de la
+définition que j'en ai donné à V.M. c'est à
+dire, une <i>fente</i> dans la montagne naturelle,
+<i>comblée</i> de <i>matière</i> étrangère. Mais ce qu'il
+y a d'extraordinaire ici, c'est que cette <i>matière</i>
+vient de la <i>mer</i>: ce sont différentes
+<i>couches aquiformes</i>, dont quelques unes
+sont remplies de <i>corps marins</i>. Il y a des
+<i>couches</i> d'une <i>terre martiale</i> fort brune et
+sans liaison: d'autres, au contraire toujours
+<i>martiales</i>, sont très dures et renferment de
+très beau jaspe sanguin: d'autres enfin sont
+de vrai <i>marbre</i> gris veinées de rouge. C'est
+dans ce marbre que font les <i>corps marins</i>,
+savoir des coquillages et des spongites; et il
+est lui-même martial comme tout le reste:
+les mineurs le nomment <i>Kubrimen</i>, et ne
+l'employent que comme un <i>fondant</i> pour
+d'autres <i>minéraux de fer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"A ce <i>filon</i>, s'en joignent d'autres plus embarrassans.
+Ils viennent du <i>toit</i>, qu'ils divisent
+par de larges <i>fentes</i> comblées, aboutissantes
+au <i>filon</i> principale. Ils font de
+même <i>calcaires</i> et marins faits par <i>couches</i>;
+mais ces <i>couches</i> ont une si grande inclinaison,
+que je ne puis les comprendre: il faut
+qu'il y ait eu d'étranges bouleversemens dans
+ces endroits-là<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag27"> (return) </a> Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible
+to explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling
+of mineral veins, and their branches or ramifications,
+with marble containing marks of marine objects. But, if
+we shall suppose this marble to have been in the fluid state
+of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may easily
+conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its
+branches. The description here given of those appearances
+is by no means such as to enable us to judge particularly
+of this case, which surely merits the most accurate
+investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical
+demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances.
+I know that shells have been found within the body of
+veins in Germany; but, a stratification of those materials
+in a vein was never heard of before, so far as I know.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ces <i>fentes</i> se sont faites, et ont été remplies,
+dans la <i>mer</i>; puisque les matières
+qui les remplissent sont de la classe de ses
+dépôts très connoissables, et qu'il contiennent
+des <i>dépouilles marines</i>. Mais ce qui
+embarrasse alors c'est que les autres <i>filons</i>
+ne soyent pas dans le même cas. N'est ce
+point là encore un indice, que ces <i>fentes</i>
+out été d'abord et principalement remplies
+de matières, poussées du fond par la même
+force qui secouoit les montagnes<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag28"> (return) </a> But what is this power by which matter is to be
+forced from the bottom of the sea to the top of the
+mountains? For, unless we can form some idea of that
+power which, as a cause, we ascribe to the perceived effect,
+we either say nothing to the purpose, or we employ
+a preternatural cause. It is not sufficient to imagine a
+power capable of raising from the bottom of the sea the
+materials deposited in the abyss; it is also necessary to
+find a power capable of softening bodies which are hard,
+and of thus consolidating those masses which are formed
+of loose or unconnected materials. Such a power, indeed,
+the present theory assumes; and, so far as this shall be
+implied in the supposition of our author, it will thus have
+received a certain conformation.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Ce <i>filon</i> n'est pas le seul dans le <i>Hartz</i>
+qui donne des signes <i>marins</i>. Il y en a
+un autre, qui même se rapproche davantage
+de la nature du commun des <i>filons</i>, et
+où l'on trouve aussi des <i>coquillages</i>. C'est
+celui de <i>Haus-Hartzbergerzug</i>, pres de
+<i>Clausthal</i>, où, dans les <i>Halles</i> de quelques
+mines de plomb abandonnées, et dans une
+forte <i>d'ardoise</i>, on trouve de petites <i>moules</i> ou
+<i>tellines</i> striées, d'une espèce particulière que
+j'ai vue dans des <i>ardoises secondaires d'Arotzen</i>
+en <i>Waldek</i> et de <i>Sombernon</i> en <i>Bourgogne</i>.
+Il y a donc certainement quelques
+<i>filons</i> faits par les dépôts de la <i>mer</i> dans les
+<i>fentes</i> de montagnes <i>primordiales</i>; comme
+au contraire il y a des <i>filons</i> métalliques
+sans indices <i>marins</i>, dans des montagnes
+évidemment <i>secondaires</i>, telles que celles de
+<i>Derbyshire</i>, ou les <i>filons</i> de <i>plomb</i> traversent
+des couches de <i>pierre à chaux</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Here again our author seems to me to refute
+his own supposition, That a chasm in the
+schistus rock may have existed at the bottom
+of the sea, and been then filled from above
+with such materials as were transported by the
+moving water to that place, is not impossible;
+but nobody, who knows the nature of a common
+metallic vein, can ever suppose it to have
+been filled in that manner. Our author then
+adds, "On ne fait réellement que commencer
+dans ce genre d'observations, considérées
+quant à la Cosmologie; ainsi il ne faut
+point désespérer que tout cela ne se dévoile
+un jour, et que nous n'acquerrions ainsi un
+peu plus de connoissance sur ce qui se passoit
+dans la <i>mer ancienne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"En revenant vers <i>Elbingerode</i>, nous retrouvâmes
+ces <i>schistes</i>, qui paroissent au
+travers des <i>marbres:</i> ils sont donc la continuation
+de la masse <i>schisteuse</i> à laquelle
+appartient le <i>filon</i>, dont je viens de parler.
+Ce <i>filon</i> à été formé dans une <i>fente</i>, restée
+ouverte et vide: les dépôts de la <i>mer</i>
+l'ont comblée, en même tems qu'ils formoient
+les couches de <i>marbre</i>, qui sont à
+l'extérieur. En effet, ce <i>filon</i> contient des
+<i>couches marines ferrugineuses</i>, de la même
+nature que celles des collines calcaires voisines
+formées sur le schiste.</p>
+
+<p>"Nous partîmes <i>d'Elbingerode</i> dans l'après
+midi pour nous rapprocher de Clausthal.
+Notre chemin fut encore quelque tems sur
+des sommités <i>calcaires</i>; et avant que d'en
+sortir, nous trouvâmes une autre mine singulière
+à <i>Arenfeld</i>. C'est encore un vrai
+<i>filon</i>; mais dans une montagne de <i>pierre à
+chaux:</i> C'est à-dire, que cette montagne a
+aussi été <i>fendue</i>, et que la <i>fente</i> a été remplie
+d'une <i>gangue</i>. La matière de ce <i>filon</i> est
+encore <i>calcaire</i> en plus grande partie; mais
+cette <i>pierre à chaux</i> distincte est <i>ferrugineuse</i>,
+et parsemée de concrétions de <i>jaspe</i>
+comme celles <i>d'Elbingerode:</i> on y trouve
+aussi une matière verdâtre, qui, comme le
+<i>jaspe</i>, ne fait pas effervescence avec l'eau
+forte."</p>
+
+<p>Here is a phenomenon which is altogether
+incompatible with the theory that this author
+has given us for the explanation of those appearances.
+He supposes empty crevices in
+the schistus mountains at the bottom of the
+sea; these crevices he supposes filled by the
+deposits of the sea, at the same time, and with
+the same materials with which the lime-stone
+strata were formed above the schistus mountains;
+but we find one of those same veins in
+these secondary calcareous strata. Now, tho'
+we should be disposed to allow, that, in the
+primordial mountain, of which we are supposed
+not to know the origin, there might have
+been empty crevices which were afterwards
+filled with materials transported by the sea,
+this cannot be admitted as taking place in the
+loose or incoherent materials deposited above
+the schistus. Consequently, this theory of
+our author, which is evidently erroneous with
+regard to the veins in the lime-stone, must, in
+the other case, be at least examined with a
+jealous eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Le haut de cette partie des montagnes
+<i>calcaires</i> étoit encore recouvert de <i>sable</i> et
+de grès <i>vitrescibles</i>: et continuant à marcher,
+sans aucune inflexion sensible, nous
+nous trouvâmes subitement sur les <i>schistes</i>;
+d'où nous montâmes plus rapidement.
+Puis traversant quelques petites vallées nous
+arrivâmes sur les montagnes qui appartiennent
+au prolongement du <i>Brocken</i> ou
+<i>Blocksberg</i>. La matière dominante est alors
+le <i>granit</i>; mais il est tout en blocs le long
+de cette route, et ces blocs se trouvent à
+une telle distance de tout sommité intacte
+de cette pierre, qui est aisé de juger non
+seulement qu'ils ne sont pas dans leur place
+originaire, mais encore qu'il ne sont arrivés
+là par aucune des causes naturelles
+qui agissent dans les montagnes; savoir, la
+pesanteur, la pente, et le cours des eaux.
+Ce sont donc de violentes explosions qui
+ont dispersé ces blocs; et alors ils deviennent
+un nouveau trait cosmologique de
+quelque importance: car rien ne se meut,
+ni ne paroît s'être mu depuis bien des
+siècles, dans ces lieux qui montrent tant de
+désordre: un tapis de verdure couvre tout,
+en conservant les contours baroques du sol.
+Le bétail ne sauroit pâturer dans de telles
+prairies; mais l'industrieux montagnard fait
+y faucher<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag29"> (return) </a> M. de Saussure endeavours to explain those appearances
+of transported blocks of granite by another cause;
+this is a certain <i>debacle</i> of the waters of the earth, which I
+do not understand. M. de Luc again attempts to explain
+it by violent explosions; I suppose he means those of a
+volcano. But he has not given us the evidence upon
+which such an opinion may be founded, farther than by
+saying that those blocks could not have come there by the
+natural operations of the surface. By this must be meant,
+that, from the nearest summit of granite, there is not, at
+present, any natural means by which these blocks might
+be transported to that place. But it is not with the present
+state of things that we are concerned, in explaining
+the operations of a distant period. If the natural operations
+of the surface change the shape of things, as is
+clearly proved by every natural appearance, Why form an
+argument against a former transaction, upon the circumstances
+of the present state of things? Our author does
+not seem to perceive, that, from this mode of reasoning,
+there is is an insuperable objection to his violent explosions
+having been employed in producing those effects. For,
+had there been such a cause, the evidence of this must
+have remained; if the surface of the earth does not undergo
+great changes: If, again, this surface be in time much
+changed, How can we judge from the present shape, what
+might have been the former posture of things?
+
+<p>This author, indeed, does not allow much time for the
+natural operations of the globe to change its surface; but,
+if things be not greatly removed from the state in which
+the violent operations of the globe had placed them, Why
+does he not point out to us the source of this great disorder
+which he there perceives? From what explosion
+will be explained the blocks of granite which are found
+upon the Jura, and which must have come from the mass
+of <i>Mont Blanc</i>? If these dispersed blocks of stone are to
+be explained by explosion, there must: have been similar explosions
+in other countries where there is not the smallest
+appearance of volcanic eruptions; for, around all our
+granite mountains, and I believe all others, there are
+found many blocks of granite, travelled at a great distance,
+and in all directions.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"<i>Oberbruck</i>, ou nous avions été la précédente
+fois, se trouva sur notre route, et
+nous y passames aussi la nuit, dans l'espérance
+de pouvoir monter le lendemain sur
+le <i>Brocken</i>; mais il fut encore enveloppé
+de nuages; ainsi nous continuâmes à marcher
+vers <i>Clausthal</i>, passant de nouveau par
+le <i>Bruchberg</i>, où le <i>sable</i> et ses gres recouvrent
+le <i>schiste</i>; puis arrivant à une
+autre sommité, nous y trouvâmes la même
+pierre <i>sableuse</i> par couches, mêlée de parcelles
+de <i>schiste</i>, que nous avions vue sur
+les montagnes <i>calcaires d'Elbingerode</i>. Il
+est donc toujours plus certain que le sol
+primordial de toutes ces montagnes existoit
+sous les eaux de l'ancienne mer; puisqu'il
+est recouvert de diverses fortes de dépôts,
+connus pour appartenir à la <i>mer</i>; et que
+les <i>fentes</i> des <i>filons</i> existoient dans cette
+<i>mer ancienne</i>; puisqu'elle en a rempli elle-même
+quelques unes, et qu'elle a recouvert
+de ses dépôts quelques autres <i>filons</i> tout
+formés. Quant à celles des matières de ces
+<i>filons</i>, qui ne paroissent pas être <i>marines</i> (et
+c'est de beaucoup la plus grande quantité),
+j'ai toujours plus de penchant d'en attribuer
+une partie à l'opération des <i>feux souterreins</i>,
+à mesure que je vois diminuer la
+probabilité de les assigner entièrement à
+<i>l'eau</i>. Mais quoi-qu'il en soit, ces gangues
+ne font pas de même date que les montagnes<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag30"> (return) </a> I most willingly admit the justness of our author's
+view, if he thus perceives the operation of fire in the
+solids of our earth; but it is not for the reasons he has
+given us for discovering it here more than in other places;
+for there is not a mineral vein, (so far at least as I have
+seen), in which the appearances may be explained by any
+thing else besides the operation of fire or fusion. It is
+not easy to conceive in what manner our author had conceived
+the opinions which he has displayed in these letters.
+He had no opinion of this kind, or rather he was persuaded
+that subterraneous fire had no hand in the formation
+of this earth before he came to this place of the
+Hartz; here he finds certain appearances, by which he is
+confirmed in his former opinion, that water had operated
+in forming mineral veins; and then he forms the idea
+that subterraneous fire may have operated also. But, before
+the discovery of the chasms in the schistus mountains
+having been filled with the stratified materials of the sea,
+How had he supposed veins to be filled? If this philosopher
+had before no opinion of subterraneous fire, as instrumental
+in that operation, How comes he now to change
+that former opinion? For, unless it be the extraordinary
+manner of filling these open crevices in the mountains by
+matter deposited immediately from the sea, there is certainly
+no other appearance in this mineral country of the
+Hartz, that may not be found in any other, only perhaps
+upon a smaller scale.</blockquote>
+
+<p>"Le lendemain de notre arrivée a <i>Clausthal</i>,
+qui étoit le 13e, nous allâmes visiter
+d'autres mines de <i>fer</i> en montagnes secondaires,
+situées au côté opposé du Hartz.
+Elles sont auprès de <i>Grund</i> l'une des <i>villes
+de mines</i>, et près du lieu ou sortira la nouvelle
+<i>galerie d'écoulement</i> à laquelle on travaille,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrivés à <i>Grund</i> les officiers mineurs
+vinrent, comme à l'ordinaire, accompagner
+Mons. de <i>Reden</i> aux <i>mines</i> de leur département.
+Celles-ci, sans être plus extraordinaires
+que celles qui nous avions
+vues à <i>Elbingerod</i>, ou sans aider mieux
+jusqu'ici à expliquer ce qu'elles ont toutes
+d'extraordinaire, nous donnent au moins
+des indices probables de grands accidens.
+Ces montagnes de <i>Grund</i> sont encore de
+l'espèce remarquable, dont la base est de
+<i>schiste</i>, et le haut de <i>pierre à chaux</i>. Les
+mines qu'on y exploit sont de <i>fer</i>, et se
+trouvent dans cette matière <i>calcaire</i>; mais
+elles y sont sous des apparences tout-à-fait
+étranges. La montagne où nous les vîmes
+principalement le nomme <i>Iberg</i>. On y
+poursuit des masses de <i>pierre à fer</i>, de l'ensemble
+desquelles les mineurs ne peuvent encore
+se rendre compte d'une manière claire.
+Ils ont trouvé dans cette montagne des <i>cavernes</i>,
+qui ressemblent à l'encaissement de
+<i>filons</i> déjà exploités, ou non formés; c'est-à-dire,
+que ce sont des <i>fentes</i> presque verticales,
+et vides, Le <i>minerai</i> qu'ils poursuivent
+est en <i>Rognons</i>; c'est à dire, en
+grandes masses sans continuité décidée.
+Cependant ces masses semblent se succéder
+dans la montagne suivant une certaine direction;
+tellement que les mineurs savent
+déjà les chercher, par des indices d'habitude.
+La substance de cette <i>pierre à fer</i>
+particulière renferme des crystallizations de
+diverses espèces. Il y a des <i>druses de quartz</i>,
+ou de petits cristaux de quartz qui tapissent
+des cavités; il y a aussi du <i>spath</i> commun,
+et de celui qu'on nomme pesant; on y
+trouve enfin une forte de crystallization
+nommée <i>Eisenman</i> (<i>homme de fer</i>) par les
+mineurs; se sont des amas de cristaux noir-âtres,
+qui ressemblent à des groupes de
+grandes lentilles plattes, et ces cristaux sont
+<i>ferrugineux</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Entre les signes de bouleversement que
+renferme ce lieu, est un rocher nommé
+<i>Gebichensten</i>, qui est en <i>pierre à chaux</i>, ce
+que <i>l'Ebrenbreitstein</i> de <i>Coblentz</i> est en
+pierre sableuse: c'est-à-dire, que ses <i>couches</i>,
+remplies de <i>corps marins</i>, sont presque verticales;
+ceux de ces corps qu'on y trouve
+en plus grande quantité, sont des <i>madrépores</i>.
+Ce rocher s'élève comme un grand
+obélisque, au-dessus des <i>cavernes</i>, dont j'ai
+parlé; montrant par le côté ses <i>couches</i>, qui
+se trouvent, comme je l'ai dit, dans une
+situation presque verticale. Sa base est déjà
+bien minée, tant par les <i>cavernes</i>, que
+par la <i>pierre à fer</i> qu'on en tire; et je ne
+me hasardai dessus, que parce que je me
+dis, qu'il y a des millions contre un à parier,
+que ce n'est pas le moment où il s'enfoncerait.
+Mais je n'en dirois pas autant,
+s'il s'agissoit de m'y loger à demeure.</p>
+
+<p>"Quoique tout ce lieu là soit fort remarquable,
+il se pourrait que ce ne fut qu'un
+phénomène particulier. Les <i>cavernes</i> peuvent
+devoir leur origine à la même cause
+que celle de Schartzfeld; et le dérangement
+des rochers supérieurs à des enfoncemens
+occasionnés par ces <i>cavernes</i>. Rien
+n'est si difficile que de retracer aujourd'hui
+ces fortes d'accidens à cause des changemens
+que le tems y a opérés. S'ils sont
+arrivés sous les eaux de la <i>mer</i>, on conçoit
+aisément les altérations qui ont dû succéder;
+et si c'est depuis que nos continens
+sont à sec, les eaux encore, tant intérieures
+qu'extérieures, et la végétation, en ont
+beaucoup changé l'aspect."</p>
+
+<p>This author has a theory by which he explains
+to himself the former residence of the
+sea, above the summits of our mountains;
+this, however, is not the theory by which we
+are now endeavouring to explain appearances;
+we must therefore be allowed to reason from
+our own principles, in considering the facts
+here set forth by our author.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, I think, is more evident, than
+that in this mineral country of the Hartz, we
+may find the clearest marks of fracture, elevation,
+and dislocation of the strata, and of the
+introduction of foreign matter among those
+separated bodies. All those appearances, our
+author would have to be nothing but some
+particular accident, which is not to enter into
+the physiology of the earth. I wish again to
+generalise these facts, by finding them universal
+in relation to the globe, and necessarily
+to be found in all the consolidated parts of our
+land.</p>
+
+<p>It was not to refute our author's reasoning
+that I have here introduced so much of his
+observations, but to give an extensive view of
+the mineral structure of this interesting country.
+This therefore being done, we now proceed
+to what is more peculiarly our business
+in this place, or the immediate subject of investigation,
+viz. the distinction of primary and
+secondary strata.</p>
+
+<p>"Dans le voisinage de cette montagne, il
+y a une autre fort intéressante, que je vis le
+jour suivant. Quoiqu'en traitant des volcans,
+j'aie démontré que la formation des
+montagnes, par soulèvement, étoit sans example
+dans les faits, et sans fondement dans
+la théorie, je ne laisseroi pas de m'arrêter au
+phénomène que présente cette montagne;
+parce qu'il prouvera directement que les
+<i>couches calcaires</i> au moins, ont été formées
+<i>à la hauteur ou elles sont</i>; c'est-a-dire
+qu'elles n'ont pas été soulevées.</p>
+
+<p>"Voulant prendre l'occasion de mon retour
+à <i>Hanovre</i>, pour traverser les avant-corps
+du <i>Hartz</i>, dans quelque nouvelle direction;
+je résolus de faire ce voyage à
+cheval, et de prendre ma route droite vers
+<i>Hanovre</i>, au-travers des collines; ce qui
+me conduisit encore à <i>Grund</i> puis à <i>Münchehof
+Brunshausen, Engelade, Winsenburg</i>
+et <i>Alfeld</i>, où enfin, traversant la <i>Leine</i> j'entrai
+dans la grande route.</p>
+
+<p>"Je quittai donc <i>Clausthal</i> (et avec bien
+du regret) le 14 au matin; et revenant
+d'abord à <i>Grund</i>, je le laissai sur ma droite,
+ainsi que <i>l'Iberg</i>; et plus loin, du même
+côté, une autre montagne nommée <i>Winterberg</i>
+dont la base est <i>schiste</i>, et le sommet
+plus haut que Clausthal, entièrement composé
+de <i>couches calcaires</i>. De <i>Grund</i> je
+montai vers une montagne nommée <i>Ost
+Kamp</i>; et je commençai là à donner une
+attention particulière au sol. Le long de
+mon chemin, je ne trouvai longtemps que
+des schistes, qui montroient leurs points en
+haut, comme à l'ordinaire, et avec tous leurs
+tortillemens de feuillets. Mais arrivé au
+haut de la montagne, j'y vis des carrières
+de <i>pierre à chaux</i>, où les couches absolument
+régulières, et qui ont peu d'épaisseur
+sur le <i>schiste</i> suivent parfaitement les contours
+du <i>sommet</i>. Ces lits de <i>pierre à chaux</i>
+n'ont certainement pas été soulevés du fond
+de la <i>mer</i> sur le dos des schistes; lors même
+qu'à cause de la grande inclinaison des feuillets
+de ceux-ci on voudroit le attribuer à
+quelque révolution telle que le <i>soulèvement</i>;
+(ce que je n'admettrois point). Car si ces
+lits <i>calcaires</i>, ayant été faits au fond de la
+<i>mer</i>, avoyent été soulevés avec les schistes,
+ne feroient-ils pas brisés et bouleversés comme
+eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il
+soi arrivé au schiste qui les porte, ces lits,
+et tous les autres de même genre qui sont
+au haut de ces montagnes, ont été déposées
+au niveau où ils sont; et que par conséquent
+la <i>mer</i> les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le
+système de soulèvement perd son but, s'il
+tend à expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
+<i>couches</i>, formées par la mer, qui se trouvent
+maintenant si fort au dessus de son niveau.
+Il est évident que ces <i>couches</i> n'ont pas été
+soulevées; mais que la <i>mer</i> s'est <i>abaissée</i>.
+Or c'est là le grand point cosmologique à
+expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent à
+la structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles,
+n'appartiendront qu'à <i>l'histoire naturelle</i>,
+tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec
+celui-la."</p>
+
+<p>Here are two things to be considered; the
+interesting facts described by our author, and
+the inference that he would have us draw
+from those facts. It would appear from the
+facts, that the body of schistus below, and
+that of lime-stone above, had not undergone
+the same disordering operations, or by no
+means in the same degree. But our author
+has formed another conclusion; he says, that
+these lime-stone strata must have been formed
+precisely in the place and order in which they
+lie at present; and the reason for this is, because
+these strata appeared to him to follow
+perfectly the contour of the summit of this
+mountain. Now, had there been in the top
+of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed
+about with the schistus rock; and had this
+cavity been now found filled with horizontal
+strata, there might have been some shadow of
+reason for supposing those strata to have been
+deposited upon the top of the mountain. But
+to suppose, <i>first</i>, that shells and corals should
+be deposited upon the convex summit of a
+mountain which was then covered by the sea;
+<i>secondly</i>, that these moveable materials should
+remain upon the summit, while the sea had
+changed its place; and, <i>lastly</i>, that those shells
+and corals left by the sea upon the top of a
+mountain should become strata of solid limestone.
+and have also metallic veins in it, certainly
+holds of no principle of natural philosophy
+that I am acquainted with. If, therefore,
+such an appearance as this were to be employed
+either in illustration or confirmation of a
+theory, it would itself require to be explained;
+but this is a task that this cosmologists
+does not seem willing to undertake.</p>
+
+<p>He has formed a hypothesis for explaining
+the general appearance of that which was once
+the bottom of the sea being now found forming
+the summits of our mountains; but surely
+this philosopher will acknowledge, that
+those natural appearances, in any particular
+place, will be the same, whether we suppose
+the bottom of the sea to have been raised, as
+in the present theory, or the surface of the sea
+to have sunk according to his hypothesis. For,
+it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the
+earth to have been raised all this height, as to
+suppose all the rest of the surface of the globe
+to have sunk an equal space, while a small
+portion of the bottom of the sea, remaining
+here and there fixed in its place, became the
+highest portion of the globe. Consequently,
+whatever evidence this philosopher shall find
+in support of his theory of the present earth,
+(a subject which it is not our purpose to examine)
+it cannot be allowed that he has here
+brought any argument capable of disproving
+the elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition
+which other theories may require.</p>
+
+<p>I would now observe, in relation to the
+present theory, that so far as this author has
+reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
+conclusions will be found to confirm the present
+supposition, that there is to be perceived
+the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
+in the masses of this earth, without
+altering the general theory either with respect
+to the original formation of those masses, or
+to their posterior production.</p>
+
+<p>Here one of two things must be allowed;
+either that those strata of schistus had been
+broken and distorted under a mass of other
+superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent
+strata had been deposited upon the
+broken and distorted strata at the bottom of
+the sea. Our author, who has examined the
+subject, inclines to think, that this last has
+been the case. If, therefore, strata had been
+deposited upon broken and bare rocks of
+schistus, it is probable that these had been
+sunk in the sea after having been exposed to
+the atmosphere, and served the purpose of
+land upon the globe.<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a></p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag31"> (return) </a> This is also supported by another very interesting observation
+contained in this letter. M. de Luc observes,
+that in this country the schistus is generally covered by
+strata of lime-stone, and that these lime-stone strata are
+again covered with those of sand-stone, in which are found
+a great many fragments of schistus lying flat. Therefore,
+while those sand-stone strata were collecting at the bottom
+of the sea, there had been rocks of schistus in some other
+place, from whence those fragments bad been detached.</blockquote>
+
+<p>An example of the same kind also occurs
+in the <i>Discours sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la
+Suisse</i>; and this author of the <i>Tableaux de la
+Suisse</i> has given a very distinct description of
+that appearance, which is perhaps the more
+to be valued as a piece of natural history, as
+this intelligent author does not pretend to any
+geological theory, but simply narrates what
+he has seen, with such pertinent observations
+on the subject as naturally must occur to a
+thinking person on the spot.&mdash;(Discours, etc.
+page 228. Entrée au pays de Grisons).</p>
+
+<p>"Du village d'Elen on continue à monter
+le reste du petit vallon pendant une lieue
+et demie parmi les mêmes espèces de pierres
+qu'on vient de décrire; en passant au travers
+de bois et de forêts de sapins et de
+quelques pâturages dont ce haut est couvert,
+on parvient au pied du Bundnerberg,
+montagne des grisons, qui forme la
+tête du vallon. On laisse à droite un fond
+ou espèce d'entonnoir, entouré de très-hautes
+montagnes inaccessibles, pour s'enfourrer
+à gauche entre des rochers qui font
+fort resserrés, où coule un torrent. Ce lieu
+seroit horreur si on ne se trouvoit accoutumé,
+par degrés, à voir de ces positions effrayantes:
+tout y est aride, il n'y a plus
+d'arbres ni de végétaux ce sont des rochers
+entassés les un sur les autres; ce lieu paroit
+d'autant plus affreux que le passage a
+été subit, et qu'en sortant de bois et des
+forêts, on se trouve tout-à-coup parmi ces
+rochers qui s'élèvent comme des murailles,
+et dont on ne voit pas la cime; cette gorge
+ou cette entrée qui se nomme Jetz, est la
+communication du Canton du Glaris aux
+Gritons; on a dit précédemment qu'il y en
+avoit une plus aisée par le Gros-Thal ou
+le grand vallon. Ce passage est très-curieux
+pour la Lithogeognosie, il est rare
+de trouver autant de phénomènes intéressans
+rassemblés, et des substances aussi variées
+par rapport à leurs positions; c'est le
+local qui mérite le plus d'être examiné en
+Suisse, et la plus difficile que nous ayons
+parcouru. On se souviendra que nous
+avons continuellement monté depuis Glaris,
+et que nous nous trouvons au pied de
+ces montagnes ou de ces pics étonnans qui
+dominent les hautes Alpes; on trouve ici
+la facilité peu commune de pouvoir examiner,
+et voir le pied ou les fondemens
+de ces colosses qui couronnent le globe,
+parce qu'ils sont ordinairement entourés de
+leurs débris et de leurs éboulemens qui en
+cachent le pied. Ici c'est une roche de
+schiste bleuâtre, dure et compact, traversée
+de filons de quartz blanc, et quelquefois
+jaunâtre, dans laquelle on a taillé un sentier
+pour pouvoir en franchir le pied. Cette
+roche s'élève à une hauteur prodigieuse,
+est presque verticale, et ces couches sont à
+quatre-vingt degrés d'inclinaison. L'imagination
+est effrayée de voir que de pareilles
+masses ayent pu être ébranlées et déplacées
+au point d'avoir fait presque un quart de
+conversion. Après avoir monté et suivi
+cette roche parmi les pierres et les décombres,
+une heure et demie, on trouve
+cette roche de schiste surmontée d'autres
+rochers fort hauts qui sont calcaires, et dont
+les lits sont fort horizontaux. Les schistes,
+qui sont directement sous les roches calcaires,
+conservent la même inclinaison qu'elles
+ont à leur pied."</p>
+
+<p>Here is an observation which certainly
+agrees with that given by M. de Luc, and
+would seem to confirm this conclusion, that
+strata had been deposited upon those <i>schisti</i>
+after they had been changed from their natural
+or horizontal position, and become vertical;
+at the same time, this conclusion is not
+of necessary consequence, without examining
+concomitant appearances, and finding particular
+marks by which this operation might be
+traced; for the simply finding horizontal
+strata, placed above vertical or much inclined
+schiste, is not sufficient, of itself, to constitute
+that fact, while it is acknowledged that every
+species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion,
+is to be found among the displaced strata of
+the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Since writing this chapter, I am enabled to
+speak more decisively upon that point, having
+acquired more light upon the subject, as will
+appear in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VI.</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land
+illustrated by an Investigation of the Primary
+and Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>A distinct View of the Primary and
+Secondary Strata</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having given a view of what seems
+to be the primary and secondary strata,
+from the observations of authors, and having
+given what was my opinion when I first wrote
+that chapter, I am now to treat of this subject
+from observations of my own, which I
+made since forming that opinion.</p>
+
+<p>From Portpatrick, on the west coast, to St
+Abb's Head, on the east, there is a tract of
+schistus mountains, in which the strata are
+generally much inclined, or approaching to
+the vertical situation; and it is in these inclined
+strata that geologists allege that there
+is not to be found any vestige of organised
+body. This opinion, however, I have now
+proved to be erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>There cannot be any doubt with regard to
+the original formation of those stratified bodies,
+as having been formed of the materials
+that are natural to this earth, viz. the detritus
+of former bodies; and as having been deposited
+in water, like the horizontal strata: For
+the substances and bodies of which they are
+visibly composed are no other than those
+which form the most regular horizontal strata,
+and which are continually travelling, or transported
+at the bottom of the sea, such as gravel,
+and sand, argillaceous and micaceous bodies.</p>
+
+<p>On each side of this ridge of mountains,
+which towards the east end is but narrow,
+there is a lower country composed of strata
+in general more horizontal; and among which
+strata, besides coal, there are also found the
+relics of organised bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Abstracting at present from any consideration
+of organised bodies among the materials
+of those strata, it may be affirmed, that the
+materials which form the strata in the mountains
+and in the low country, are similar, or
+of the same nature; that they have, in both
+places, been consolidated by the same means,
+viz. heat and fusion; and that the same or
+similar accidents have happened to them, such
+as change from their original position, and
+mineral veins traversing them in various
+shapes. Yet still there is a distinctive character
+for those two bodies, the alpine and the
+horizontal strata; for, while the horizontal
+position appears natural to the one, and the
+changes from that particular state to be only
+an accident, the vertical position appears to be
+more natural to the other, which is seldom
+found horizontal.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, altho' it is unquestionable that
+the strata in the alpine and low countries had
+the same or a similar original, yet, as the
+vertical position, which is the greatest possible
+change in that respect, is more natural to the
+alpine strata, or only necessary in the natural
+order of those bodies, we are to consider this
+great disorder or change from the natural state
+of their original formation, as the proper character
+of those alpine strata. But then it is
+also necessary to include in this character a
+general hardness and solidity in those vertical
+strata, otherwise they would not have been
+properly alpine, or have resisted the wearing
+and washing powers of the globe, so as to
+have remained higher than the others; for, the
+vertical position, or great inclination of those
+strata, should rather have disposed them the
+more to dissolution and decay. Let us now
+see how far we shall be justified in that general
+conclusion, by the examination of those
+bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The fact is certain, that those alpine bodies
+are much harder, or less subject to dissolution
+and decay, than the horizontal strata. But
+this must be taken in the general, and will by
+no means apply to particular cases which
+might be compared. Nothing, for example,
+more solid than the lime-stones, or marbles,
+and iron-stones; nothing more hard or solid
+than the chirt or flint; and all these are found
+among the horizontal strata. But, while some
+strata among those horizontal beds are thus
+perfectly solid, others are found with so slight
+degrees of consolidation, that we should not
+be able to ascribe it to the proper cause, without
+that gradation of the effect, which leads
+us to impute the slightest degree of consolidation
+to the same operations that have produced
+the complete solidity. While, therefore, the
+most perfect solidity is found in certain strata,
+or occasionally among the horizontal bodies,
+this forms no part of their character in general,
+or cannot be considered as a distinctive
+mark, as it truly is with regard to the alpine
+strata. These last have a general character
+of consolidation and indissolubility, which
+is in a manner universal. We are, therefore,
+now to inquire into the cause of this distinction,
+and to form some hypothesis that may
+be tried by the actual state of things, in being
+compared with natural appearances.</p>
+
+<p>As the general cause of consolidation among
+mineral bodies, formed originally of loose materials,
+has been found to consist in certain
+degrees of fusion or cementation of those materials
+by means of heat; and as, in the examination
+of the horizontal strata we actually
+find very different degrees of consolidation in
+the several strata, independent of their positions
+in relation to height or depth, we have
+reason to believe that the heat, or consolidating
+operation, has not been equally employed
+in relation to them all.</p>
+
+<p>We are not now inquiring how an inferior
+stratum should have been heated in a lesser
+degree, or not consolidated, while a superior
+stratum had been consolidated in the most
+perfect manner; we are to reason upon a
+fact, which is, that the horizontal strata in
+general appear not to have been equally or
+universally consolidated; and this we must
+attribute to an insufficient exertion of the
+consolidating cause. But, so far as the erecting
+cause is considered as the same with that
+by which the elevated bodies were consolidated,
+and so far as the vertical situation is a
+proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous
+power, the strata which are most erected,
+should in general be found most consolidated.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more certain than that there have
+been several repeated operations of the mineralising
+power exerted upon the strata in particular
+places; and all those mineral operations
+tend to consolidation: Therefore, the
+more the operations have been repeated in
+any place, the more we should find the strata
+consolidated, or changed from their natural
+state. Vertical strata have every appearance
+from whence we should be led to conclude,
+that much of the mineral power had been exerted
+upon them, in changing their original
+constitution or appearance. But the question
+now to be considered is this, How far it may
+appear that these masses of matter, which now
+seem to be so different from the ordinary strata
+of the globe, had been twice subjected to the
+mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
+and erected into the place of land,
+and afterwards sunk below the bottom of the
+sea, in order a second time to undergo the
+process of subterraneous heat, and again be
+elevated into the place where they now are
+found.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, here is a question that
+may not be easy to decide. It is not to the
+degree of any change to which bodies may be
+subject, that we are to appeal, in order to clear
+up the point in question, but to a regular
+course of operations, which must appear to
+have been successively transacted, and by
+which the different circumstances or situations
+of those masses are to be discovered in their
+present state. Now, though it does not concern
+the present theory that this question be
+decided, as it is nothing but a repetition of
+the same operations that we look for; nevertheless,
+it would be an interesting fact in the
+natural history of this earth; and it would
+add great lustre to a theory by which so great,
+so many operations were to be explained. I
+am far from being sanguine in my expectations
+of giving all the satisfaction in relation
+to this subject that I could wish; but it will
+be proper to state what I have lately learned
+with regard to so curious a question, that
+others, who shall have the opportunity, may
+be led to inquire, and that thus the natural
+history of the earth may be enlarged, by a
+proper investigation of its mineral operations.</p>
+
+<p>With this view I have often considered our
+schistus mountains, both in the north and
+south; but I never found any satisfactory appearance
+from whence conclusions could be
+formed, whether for the question or against it.
+The places I examined were those between
+the alpine countries and the horizontal strata;
+here, indeed, I have frequently found a confused
+mass, formed of the fragments of those
+alpine strata mixed with the materials of the
+horizontal bodies; but not having seen the
+proper shape and connection of those several
+deposits, I always suspended my judgment
+with regard to the particular operations which
+might have been employed in producing those
+appearances.</p>
+
+<p>I had long looked for the immediate junction
+of the secondary or low country strata
+with the alpine schistus, without finding it;
+the first place in which I observed it was at
+the north end of the island of Arran, at the
+mouth of Loch Ranza; it was upon the shore,
+where the inclined strata appeared bare, being;
+washed by the sea. It was but a very small
+part that I could see; but what appeared was
+most distinct. Here the schistus and the sandstone
+strata both rise inclined at an angle of
+about 45°; but these primary and secondary
+strata were inclined in almost opposite directions;
+and thus they met together like the
+two sides of a <i>lambda</i>, or the rigging of a
+house, being a little in disorder at the angle
+of their junction. From this situation of
+those two different masses of strata, it is evidently
+impossible that either of them could
+have been formed originally in that position;
+therefore, I could not here learn in what state
+the schistus strata had been in when those of
+the sand-stone, &amp;c, had been superinduced.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of my mind, in relation
+to that subject:, when at Jedburgh upon a visit
+to a friend, after I had returned from Arran,
+and wrote the history of that journey; I there
+considered myself as among the horizontal
+strata which had first appeared after passing
+the Tweed, and before arriving at the Tiviot.
+The strata there, as in Berwickshire, which is
+their continuation to the east, are remarkably
+horizontal for Scotland; and they consist of
+alternated beds of sand-stone and marl, or argillaceous
+and micaceous strata. These horizontal
+strata are traversed in places with small
+veins of whin-stone, as well as greater masses
+forming rocks and hills of that material; but,
+except it be these, (of which there are some
+curious examples), I thought there could be
+nothing more of an interesting nature to observe.
+Chance, however, discovered to me
+what I could not have expected or foreseen.</p>
+
+<p>The river Tweed, below Melrose, discovers
+in its bed the vertical strata of the schistus
+mountains, and though here these indurated
+bodies are not veined with quartz as in
+many places of the mountains, I did not hesitate
+to consider them as the same species,
+that is to say, the marly materials indurated
+and consolidated in those operations by which
+they had been so much changed in their place
+and natural position. Afterwards in travelling
+south, and seeing the horizontal softer
+strata, I concluded that I had got out of the
+alpine country, and supposed that no more of
+the vertical strata were to be observed.</p>
+
+<p>The river Tiviot has made a wide valley as
+might have been expected, in running over
+those horizontal strata of marly or decaying
+substances; and the banks of this river declining
+gradually are covered with gravel and
+soil, and show little of the solid strata of the
+country. This, however, is not the case with
+the Jed, which is to the southward of the Tiviot;
+that river, in many places, runs upon
+the horizontal strata, and undermines steep
+banks, which falling shows high and beautiful
+sections of the regular horizontal strata. The
+little rivulets also which fall into the Jed have
+hollowed out deep gullies in the land, and
+show the uniformity of the horizontal strata.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner I was disposed to look for
+nothing more than what I had seen among
+those mineral bodies, when one day, walking
+in the beautiful valley above the town of Jedburgh,
+I was surprised with the appearance of
+vertical strata in the bed of the river, where I
+was certain that the banks were composed of
+horizontal strata. I was soon satisfied with
+regard to this phenomenon, and rejoiced at
+my good fortune in stumbling upon an object
+so interesting to the natural history of the
+earth, and which I had been long looking for
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Here the vertical strata, similar to those that
+are in the bed of the Tweed, appear; and
+above those vertical strata, are placed the horizontal
+beds, which extend along the whole
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The question which we would wish to have
+solved is this; if the vertical strata had been
+broken and erected under the superincumbent
+horizontal strata; or if, after the vertical strata
+had been broken and erected, the horizontal
+strata had been deposited upon the vertical
+strata, then forming the bottom of the sea.
+That strata, which are regular and horizontal
+in one place, should be found bended,
+broken, or disordered at another, is not uncommon;
+it is always found more or less in
+all our horizontal strata. Now, to what
+length this disordering operation might have
+been carried, among strata under others, without
+disturbing the order and continuity of
+those above, may perhaps be difficult to determine;
+but here, in this present case, is the
+greatest disturbance of the under strata, and
+a very great regularity among those above.
+Here at least is the most difficult case of this
+kind to conceive, if we are to suppose that the
+upper strata had been deposited before those
+below had been broken and erected.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now suppose that the under strata
+had been disordered at the bottom of the sea,
+before the superincumbent bodies were deposited;
+it is not to be well conceived, that
+the vertical strata should in that case appear to
+be cut off abruptly, and present their regular
+edges immediately under the uniformly deposited
+substances above. But, in the case
+now under consideration, there appears the
+most uniform section of the vertical strata,
+their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
+deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the
+vertical strata had been in at the time of this
+event, we can hardly suppose that they could
+have been so perfectly cut off, without any
+relict being left to trace that operation. It is
+much more probable to suppose, that the sea
+had washed away the relics of the broken and
+disordered strata, before those that are now
+superincumbent had been begun to be deposited.
+But we cannot suppose two such
+contrary operations in the same place, as that
+of carrying away the relics of those broken
+strata, and the depositing of sand and subtile
+earth in such a regular order. We are therefore
+led to conclude, that the bottom of the
+sea, or surface of those erected strata, had been
+in very different situations at those two periods,
+when the relics of the disordered strata
+had been carried away, and when the new
+materials had been deposited.</p>
+
+<p>If this shall be admitted as a just view of
+the subject, it will be fair to suppose, that the
+disordered strata had been raised more or less
+above the surface of the ocean; that, by the
+effects of either rivers, winds, or tides, the
+surface of the vertical strata had been washed
+bare; and that this surface had been afterwards
+sunk below the influence of those destructive
+operations, and thus placed in a situation
+proper for the opposite effect, the accumulation
+of matter prepared and put in motion
+by the destroying causes.</p>
+
+<p>I will not pretend to say that this has all
+the evidence that should be required, in order
+to constitute a physical truth, or principle from
+whence we were to reason farther in our
+theory; but, as a simple fact, there is more
+probability for the thing having happened in
+that manner than in any other; and perhaps
+this is all that may be attained, though not all
+that were to be wished on the occasion. Let
+us now see how far any confirmation may be
+obtained from the examination of all the
+attending circumstances in those operations.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned, that I had long
+observed great masses of <i>debris</i>, or an extremely
+coarse species of pudding-stone, situated on
+the south as well as north sides of those schistus
+mountains, where the alpine strata terminate
+in our view, and where I had been looking
+for the connection of those with the softer
+strata of the low country. It has surely been
+such appearances as these which have often
+led naturalists to see the formation of secondary
+and tertiary strata formed by the simple
+congestion of <i>debris</i> from the mountains, and
+to suppose those masses consolidated by the
+operation of that very element by which they
+had been torn off from one place and deposited
+in another. I never before had data from
+whence to reason with regard to the natural
+history of those masses of gravel and sand
+which always appeared to me in an irregular
+shape, and not attended with such circumstances
+as might give light into their natural
+history; but now I have found what I think
+sufficient to explain those obscure appearances,
+and which at the same time will in some respect
+illustrate or confirm the conjecture which
+has now been formed with regard to the operations
+of the globe in those regions.</p>
+
+<p>In describing the vertical and horizontal
+strata of the Jed, no mention has been made
+of a certain pudding-stone, which is interposed
+between the two, lying immediately upon
+the one and under the other. This puddingstone.
+corresponds entirely to that which I
+had found along the skirt of the schistus
+mountains upon the south side, in different
+places, almost from one end to the other. It
+is a confused mass of stones, gravel, and sand,
+with red marly earth; these are consolidated
+or cemented in a considerable degree, and thus
+form a stratum extremely unlike any thing
+which is to be found either above or below.</p>
+
+<p>When we examine the stones and gravel
+of which it is composed, these appear to have
+belonged to the vertical strata or schistus
+mountains. They are in general the hard
+and solid parts of those indurated strata, worn
+and rounded by attrition; particularly sand
+or marl-stone consolidated and veined with
+quartz, and many fragments of quartz, all
+rounded by attrition. In this pudding-stone
+of the Jed, I find also rounded lumps of porphyry,
+but have not perceived any of granite.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a>
+This however is not the case in the pudding-stone
+of the schistus mountains, for, where
+there is granite in the neighbourhood, there
+is also granite in the pudding-stone.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a>
+<b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag32"> (return) </a>
+A view of this object is seen in <a href="#p3">plate 3d.</a>
+It is from a drawing taken by Mr Clerk of Eldin.</blockquote>
+
+<p>From this it will appear, that the schistus
+mountains or the vertical strata of indurated
+bodies had been formed, and had been wasted
+and worn in the natural operations of the
+globe, before the horizontal strata were begun
+to be deposited in those places; the gravel
+formed of those indurated broken bodies worn
+round by attrition evince that fact. But it
+also appears that the mineral operations of the
+globe, melting and consolidating bodies, had
+been exerted upon those deposited strata above
+the vertical bodies.</p>
+
+<p>This appears evidently from the examination
+of our pudding-stone. The vertical strata
+under it are much broken and injected
+with ferruginous spar; and this same spar has
+greatly penetrated the pudding-stone above,
+in which are found the various mineral appearances
+of that spar and iron ore.</p>
+
+<p>But those injecting operations reach no farther
+up among the marl strata in this place;
+and then would appear to have been confined
+to the pudding-stone. But in another place,
+about half a mile farther up the river, where
+a very deep section of the strata is discovered,
+there are two injections from below; the one
+is a thin vein of whin-stone or basaltes, full of
+round particles of steatites impregnated with
+copper; it is but a few inches wide, and proceeds
+in a kind of zigzag. The other appears
+to have been calcareous spar, but the
+greatest part of it is now dissolved out. The
+strata here descend to the bottom of the river,
+which is above the place of the pudding-stone
+and vertical strata. Neither are these last discoverable
+below the town of Jedburgh, at
+least so far as I have seen; and the line of
+division, or plane of junction of the vertical
+and horizontal strata, appears to decline more
+than the bed of the river.</p>
+
+<p>But it may be asked, how the horizontal
+strata above, among which are many very
+strong beds, have been consolidated. The
+answer to this question is plain. Those strata
+have been indurated or consolidated in no
+other manner than the general strata of the
+earth; these being actually the common strata
+of the globe; while the vertical or schistus
+strata are the ordinary strata still farther manufactured,
+(if we may be allowed the expression)
+in the vicissitude of things, and by
+the mineral operations of the globe. That
+those operations have been performed by subterraneous
+heat has been already proved; but
+I would now mention some particular appearances
+which are common or general to those
+strata, and which can only be explained upon
+that principle.</p>
+
+<p>The red marly earth is prevalent among
+those strata; and it is with this red ferruginous
+substance that many of the sand-stone
+strata are tinged. It is plain that there had
+been an uniform, deposits of that sand and
+tinging earth; and that, however different
+matter might be successively deposited, yet
+that each individual stratum should be nearly of
+the same colour or appearance, so far as it had
+been formed uniformly of the same subsiding
+matter. But, in the most uniform strata of
+red sand-stone, the fracture of the stone presents
+us with circular spots of a white or bluish
+colour; those little spheres are in all respects
+the same with the rest of the stone,
+they only want the tinging matter; and now
+it may be inquired how this has come about.</p>
+
+<p>To say that sphericles of white sand should
+have been formed by subsiding along with the
+red sand and earth which composed the uniform
+stratum whether of sand-stone or marl,
+(for it happens equally in both,) is plainly
+impossible, according to our notion of that
+operation in which there is nothing mysterious.
+Those foliated strata, which are of the
+most uniform nature, must have been gradually
+accumulated from the subsiding sand and
+earth; and the white or colourless places must
+have had their colour destroyed in the subsequent
+cementing operations. It is often
+apparent, that the discharging operation had
+proceeded from a centre, as some small matter
+may be perceived in that place. I know not
+what species of substance this has been,
+whether saline or phlogistic, but it must have
+had the power of either volatilising or changing
+the ferruginous or red tinging substance
+so as to make it lose its colour.</p>
+
+<p>I have only mentioned spherical spots for
+distinctness sake; but this discharging operation
+is found diversifying those strata in various
+ways, but always referable to the same or
+similar causes. Thus, in many of the veins or
+natural cracks of those strata, we find the colour
+discharged for a certain space within the strata;
+and we often see several of those spots
+united, each of them having proceeded from
+its own centre, and uniting where they approached.
+In the two veins above mentioned,
+of whin-stone and spar traversing the strata,
+the colour of the strata is, discharged more or
+less in the places contiguous with the veins.</p>
+
+<p>I am now to mention another appearance
+of a different kind. Those strata of marl are
+in general not much consolidated; but among,
+them there are sometimes found thin calcareous
+strata extremely consolidated, consequently
+much divided by veins. It is in the solid
+parts of those strata, perfectly disconnected
+from the veins, that there are frequent cavities
+curiously lined with crystals of different sorts,
+generally calcareous, sometimes containing also
+those that are siliceous, and often accompanied
+with pyrites. I am persuaded that the
+origin of those cavities may have been some
+hollow shells, such as <i>echini</i> or some marine
+object; but that calcareous body has been so
+changed, that it is not now distinguishable;
+therefore, at present, I hold this opinion only
+as conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>Having, in my return to Edinburgh, travelled
+up the Tiviot, with a view to investigate
+this subject of primary and secondary
+operations of the earth, I found the vertical
+strata, or alpine schistus, in the bed of the
+river about two miles below Hawick. This
+was the third time I had seen those vertical
+bodies after leaving the mountains of Lauderdale.
+The first place was the bed of the river
+Tweed, at the new bridge below Melrose; but
+here no other covering is to be seen above
+those vertical strata besides the soil or travelled
+earth which conceals every thing except the
+rock in the bed of the river. The second
+place was Jedburgh, where I found the vertical
+strata covered with the horizontal sandstone
+and marl, as has been now described.
+The third place was the Tiviot, and this is
+that which now remains to be considered.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the vertical strata in the bed of the
+river, I was desirous to know if those were
+immediately covered with the horizontal strata.
+This could not be discovered in the bed
+of the river where the rock was covered upon
+the banks with travelled earth. I therefore
+left the river, and followed the course of a
+brook which comes from the south side. I
+had not gone far up the bank, or former boundary
+of the Tiviot, when I had the satisfaction
+to find the vertical strata covered with the
+pudding-stone and marly beds as in the valley
+of the Jed.</p>
+
+<p>It will now be reasonable to suppose that all
+the schistus which we perceive, whether in the
+mountains or in the valleys, exposed to our
+view had been once covered with those horizontal
+strata which are observed in Berwickshire
+and Tiviotdale; and that, below all those
+horizontal strata in the level country, there is
+at present a body or basis of vertical or inclined
+schistus, on which the horizontal strata of a
+secondary order had been deposited. This is
+the conclusion that I had formed at Jedburgh,
+before I had seen the confirmation of it in the
+Tiviot; it is the only one that can be formed
+according to this view of things; and it must
+remain in the present state until more evidence
+be found by which the probability may be
+either increased or diminished.</p>
+
+<p>Since writing this, I have read, in the Esprit
+de Journaux, an abstract of a memoir of
+M. Voigt, upon the same subject, which I
+shall now transcribe.</p>
+
+<p>"La mer a commencé par miner les
+montagnes primitives dont les débris se
+sont précipités au fond. Ces débris forment
+la premiere couche qui est posée immédiatement
+sur les montagnes primitives.
+D'après l'ancien langage de mineurs,
+nous avons jusqu'aujourd'hui appellé cette
+couche <i>le sol mort rouge</i>, parce qu'il y a
+beaucoup de rouge dans son mélange,
+qu'elle forme le sol ou la base d'autres
+couches, et peut-être de toutes, qu'elle est
+entierement inutile et, en quelque facon,
+morte pour l'exploitation des mines. Plusieurs
+se sont efforcés de lui donner un nom
+harmonieux; mais ils ne l'ont pu sans occasionner
+des équivoques. Les mots <i>Brèche
+Puddinstone Conglomérations</i>, &amp;<i>c</i>. désignent
+toujours des substances autres que cette
+espèce de pierre.</p>
+
+<p>"Il est très agréable de l'examiner dans les
+endroits où elle forme des montagnes entières.
+Cette couche est composée d'une
+quantité prodigieuse de pierres arrondies, agglutinées
+ensemble par une substance argileuse
+rouge et même grise, et le toute a acquis
+assez de dureté. On ne trouve dans sa composition
+aucune espèce de pierre qui, à en
+juger par les meilleures observations, puisse
+avoir été formée plus tard qu'elle; on n'y
+voit par-tout que des parties et des produit
+des montagnes primitives principalement de
+celles qui abondent le plus dans ces contrées.
+Le sol mort, par exemple, qui compose les
+montagnes des environs de Walbourg, près
+d'Eisenach, contient une quantité de gros
+morceaux de granit et de schiste micacé;
+c'est vraisemblablement parce que les montagnes
+primitives les plus voisines de Rhula,
+etc. sont, pour la plus part, formées
+de ces deux espèces de pierres. Près de
+Goldlauter, le sol mort consiste presque
+tout en porphyre, substance dont sont formées
+les montagnes primitives qui y dominent;
+et le Kiffauserberg dans la Thuringe
+a probablement reçu ces morceaux arrondis
+de schiste argileux des montagnes voisine
+du Hartz. Vous trouverez ici que le schiste
+argileux existoit déjà lorsque la mer a jetté
+les premiers fondemens de nos montagnes
+stratifiées. Je serois fort étonné que quelqu'un
+me montrât un sol mort qui contînt
+un morceaux de gypse, de marne, de pierre
+puante et autres. Quoiqu'il en soit il n'est
+pas aisé d'expliquer pourquoi on ne trouve
+point de corps marins pétrifiés dans cette
+espèce de pierre. C'est peut-être que, par
+l'immense quantité de pierres dures roulées
+dans le fond de la mer, ils ont été brisés
+avant qu'ils aient commencé de s'agglutiner
+ensemble. Mais on rencontre sur-tout au
+Kiffhauserberg des troncs d'arbres entiers
+pétrifiés; preuve qu'il y avoit déjà ou de
+la végétation avant que l'océan destructeur
+se fût emparé de ces cantons, ou du moins
+que quelques isles avoient existé au-dessus de
+la surface."</p>
+
+<p>Here we find the same observations in the
+mountains of Germany that I have been making
+with regard to those of Scotland. I have
+formerly observed masses of the same kind in
+the west of England, to the east of the Severn;
+but I could not discover any proper
+connection of that mass with the regular strata.
+I have also long observed it in many parts
+of Scotland, without being able to attain a sufficiently
+satisfactory idea with regard to those
+particulars by which the alternation of land
+and water, of the superficial and internal mineral
+operations of the globe, might be investigated.</p>
+
+<p>It will be very remarkable if similar appearances
+are always found upon the junction of
+the alpine with the level countries. Such an
+appearance, I am inclined to think, may be
+found in the Val d'Aoste, near Yvrée. M.
+de Saussure describes such a stone as having
+been employed in building the triumphal arch
+erected in honour of Augustus. "Cet arc
+qui étoit anciennement revêtu de marbre,
+est construit de grands quartiers d'une espèce
+assez singulière de poudingue ou de grès à
+gros grains. C'est une assemblage de fragmens,
+presque touts angulaires, de toutes
+sortes de roches primitives feuilletées, quartzeuses,
+micacées; les plus gros de ces fragmens
+n'atteignent pas le volume, d'une noisette.
+La plupart des édifices antiques de
+la cité l'Aoste et de ses environs, sont construits
+de cette matière; et les gens du pays
+sont persuadés que c'est une composition;
+mais j'en ai trouvé des rochers en place dans
+les montagnes au nord et au-dessus de la
+route d'Yvrée."</p>
+
+<p>We may now come to this general conclusion,
+that, in this example of horizontal and
+posterior strata placed upon the vertical <i>schisti</i>
+which are prior in relation to the former, we
+obtain a further view into the natural history
+of this earth, more than what appears in the
+simple succession of one stratum above another.
+We know, in general, that all the solid
+parts of this earth, which come to our view,
+have either been formed originally by subsidence
+at the bottom of the sea, or been transfused
+in a melted state from the mineral regions
+among those solid bodies; but here we
+further learn, that the indurated and erected
+strata, after being broken and washed by the
+moving waters, had again been sunk below
+the sea, and had served as a bottom or basis
+on which to form a new structure of strata;
+and also, that those new or posterior strata had
+been indurated or cemented by the consolidating
+operations of the mineral region, and elevated
+from the bottom of the sea into the place
+of land, or considerably above the general surface
+of the waters. It is thus that we may
+investigate particular operations in the general
+progress of nature, which has for object to
+renovate the surface of the earth necessarily
+wasted in the operation of a world sustaining
+plants and animals.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to compare together every
+thing of this kind which occurs; it is first necessary
+to ascertain the fact of their being a
+prior and posterior formation of strata, with
+the mineral operations for consolidating those
+bodies formed by collection of the moveable
+materials; and, secondly, it is interesting to
+acquire all the data we can in order to form
+a distinct judgment of that progress of nature
+in which the solid body of our land is alternately
+removed from the bottom of the sea
+into the atmosphere, and sunk again at the
+bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now transcribe what M. Schreiber
+has wrote in relation to this subject. It is in
+a memoir concerning the gold mine of Gardette,
+published in the Journal de Physique.</p>
+
+<p>"Avant de quitter la montagne de la Gardette
+qu'il me soit permis de rapporter une
+observation qui peut-être n'est pas dénuée
+de tout intérêt pour les naturalistes; je l'ai
+faite dans une galerie à environ cinquante-trois
+toises à l'ouest du principal puit laquelle
+a été poussée sur la ligne de réunion
+de la pierre calcaire, et du granit feuilleté
+ou gneiss pour fonder le filon dans cet
+endroit. Ce filon a six pouces d'épaisseur,
+et consiste en quartz entre-mêlé d'ochre
+martiale, de pyrite cuivreuse et galène.
+Cette dernière est souvent recouverte de
+chaux de plomb grise, et de petits cristaux
+de mine de plomb jaune donnant dans l'analyse
+un indice d'or. Ce filon finit à la
+réunion de la pierre calcaire au gneiss.
+Cette réunion se fait ici dans la direction
+d'une heure 6/8 de la boussole de raineur, et
+sous un inclinaison, occidentale de 26 degrés.</p>
+
+<p>"Mais ce qu'il y a de remarquable, c'est
+que le gneis ne participe en rien de la
+pierre calcaire quoiqu'il n'en soit séparé
+que par une couche d'une pouce d'épaisseur
+de terre argileuse et calcaire, tandis
+que le rocher calcaire renferme beaucoup
+de fragmens de granit et de gneis, dans le
+voisinage de cette réunion.</p>
+
+<p>"Cette observation prouve incontestablement
+que le granit et le gneis avoient déjà
+acquis une dureté capable de résister aux
+infiltration des parties calcaire, et qu'ils existoient
+à-peu-près tels qu'ils sont aujourd'hui
+lorsque la pierre calcaire commença à
+se former; autrement elle n'auroit pu saisir
+et envelopper des morceaux détachés de
+ces rochers auxquels on donne avec raison
+l'épithète de primitif ou de première formation."</p>
+
+<p>M. Schreiber continues his reasoning upon
+those mineral appearances, in adducing another
+argument, which I do not think equally
+conclusive.  He says, "Le filon de la
+Gardette devoit pareillement exister avant
+la montagne calcaire, car s'il s'étoit formé
+apres, je ne voit pas la raison pour laquelle
+il s'y seroit arrêté court, et pourquoi il ne
+se seroit pas prolongé dans cette espèce de
+rocher." It is not necessary, in the formation
+of a vein, that it should proceed in traversing
+all the strata which then are superincumbent;
+it is reasonable to suppose, and consistent
+with observation to find them stop short
+in proceeding from one stratum to another.
+Had M. Schreiber found any pieces of the
+vein contained in the calcareous rock, he
+would have had good reason for that assertion;
+but, to conclude that fact from grounds
+which do not necessarily imply it, is not to
+be permitted in sound reasoning, if certainty
+is the object, and not mere probability.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>The Theory confirmed from Observations
+made on purpose to elucidate the subject</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p>Having got a distinct view of the primary
+and secondary mineral bodies or strata of the
+globe, and having thus acquired a particular
+object to inquire after, with a view to investigate
+or illustrate this piece of natural history,
+I was considering where we might most probably
+succeed in finding the junction of the
+low country strata and alpine schistus. I inquired
+of Mr Hall of Whitehall, who had
+frequent opportunities of traversing those
+mountains which lie between his house in
+the Merse and Edinburgh; and I particularly
+entreated him to examine the bed of the
+Whittater, which he executed to my satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Hall having had occasion to examine
+the Pease and Tour burns, in planning and
+superintending the great improvement of the
+post road upon Sir James Hall's estate while
+Sir James was abroad, he informed me that
+the junction of the schistus and sand-stone
+strata was to be found in the Tour burn.
+Professor Playfair and I had been intending a
+visit to Sir James Hall at Dunglass; and this
+was a motive, not so much to hasten our visit,
+as to chose the most proper time for a mineral
+expedition both upon the hills and along the
+sea shore.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the spring 1788 when Sir
+James left town, and Mr Playfair and I went
+to Dunglass about the beginning of June.
+We had exceeding favourable weather during
+the most part of our expedition; and I now
+propose to give an account of the result of
+our observations.</p>
+
+<p>Dunglass burn is the boundary between the
+counties of East Lothian and Berwickshire;
+and it is almost the boundary between the
+vertical and horizontal strata. To the north-west
+of this burn and beautiful dean are situated
+the coal, lime-stone, marl, and sand-stone
+strata; they are found stretching away along
+the shore in a very horizontal direction for
+some time, but become more and more inclined
+as they approach the schistus of which
+the hills of Lammermuir to the south are
+composed.</p>
+
+<p>Though the boundary between the two
+things here in question be easily perceivable
+from the nature of the country at the first inspection,
+by the rising of the hills, yet this
+does not lead one precisely to the junction;
+and in the extensive common boundary of
+those two things, the junction itself is only to
+be perceived in few places, where the rock is
+washed bare by the rivers or the sea, and where
+this junction is exposed naked to our view.
+The sea is here wearing away the coast; and
+the bank, about 200 feet high, is gradually
+falling down, making in some places a steep
+declivity, in others a perpendicular cliff. St
+Abb's Head and Fast Castle are head lands
+projecting into the sea, and are the bulwarks
+of this shore, which is embayed to the westward,
+where the sea preys upon the horizontal
+strata. The solid strata are every where exposed
+either in the cliff or on the shore; we
+were therefore certain of meeting with the
+junction in going from Dunglass to Fast Castle,
+which is upon the schistus. But this journey
+can only be made by sea; and we first
+set out to examine the junction in the Tour
+and Pease burns, where we had been informed
+it was to be found.</p>
+
+<p>In the bottom of those rivulets the sand-stone
+and marly strata appear pretty much inclined,
+rising towards the schistus country. The
+two burns unite before they come to the shore;
+and it is about midway between this junction
+and the bridges which are thrown over those
+two hollows, that the junction is to be found.</p>
+
+<p>The schistus strata here approach towards
+vertical; and the sand-stone strata are greatly
+inclined. But this inclination of those two
+different strata are in opposite directions;
+neither does the horizontal section of those
+two different strata run parallel to the junction;
+that is to say, the intersection of those
+two different strata is a line inclined to the
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>At Jedburgh the schistus was vertical, and
+the strata horizontal; and there was interposed
+a compound bed of pudding-stone, formed
+of various water-worn bodies, the gravel
+of the schistus strata, and porphyries. Here
+again, though we have not a regular pudding-stone,
+we have that which corresponds to it,
+as having been the effect of similar circumstances.
+These are the fracture and detritus
+of the schistus, while the strata were deposited
+upon the broken ends of the schistus at the
+bottom of the sea. Most of the fragments of
+the schistus have their angles sharp; consequently,
+they had not travelled far, or been
+much worn by attrition. But more or less
+does not alter the nature of an operation; and
+the pudding-stone, which at Jedburgh is interposed
+between the vertical schistus and horizontal
+strata, is here properly represented by
+the included fragments of schistus in the inclined
+strata.</p>
+
+<p>The line of this junction running, on the
+one hand, towards Fast Castle eastward, and,
+on the other, towards the head of Dunglass
+burn westward, our business was to pursue
+this object in those two different directions.
+But it was chiefly in the sea coast that was
+placed our expectations, having recollection
+of the great banks of gravel under which the
+strata are buried about Oldhamstocks, near
+which, from all appearances, the junction was
+to be expected.</p>
+
+<p>Having taken boat at Dunglass burn, we set
+out to explore the coast; and, we observed the
+horizontal sand-stone turn up near the Pease
+burn, lifting towards the schistus. We found
+the junction of that schistus with the red sand-stone
+and marly strata on the shore and sea
+bank, at St. Helens, corresponding in general
+with what we had observed in the burns to
+the westward. But, at Siccar Point, we found
+a beautiful picture of this junction washed
+bare by the sea. The sand-stone strata are
+partly washed away, and partly remaining
+upon the ends of the vertical schistus; and, in
+many places, points of the schistus strata are
+seen standing up through among the sand-stone,
+the greatest part of which is worn
+away. Behind this again we have a natural
+section of those sand-stone strata, containing
+fragments of the schistus.</p>
+
+<p>After this nothing appears but the schistus
+rocks, until sand-stone and marl again are
+found at Red-heugh above the vertical strata.
+From that bay to Fast Castle we had nothing
+to observe but the schistus, which is continued
+without interruption to St Abb's Head. Beyond
+this, indeed, there appears to be something
+above the schistus; and great blocks of
+a red whin-stone or basaltes come down from
+the height and lie upon the shore; but we
+could not perceive distinctly how the upper
+mass is connected with the vertical schistus
+which is continued below.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention was now directed to what
+we could observe with respect to the schisti,
+of which we had most beautiful views and
+most perfect sections. Here are two objects
+to be held in view, in making those observations;
+the original formation or stratification
+of the schisti, and the posterior operations by
+which the present state of things has been
+procured. We had remarkable examples for
+the illustration of both those subjects.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the first, we have every
+where among the rocks many surfaces of the
+erected strata laid bare, in being separated.
+Here we found the most distinct marks of
+strata of sand modified by moving water. It
+is no other than that which we every day
+observe upon the sands of our own shore,
+when the sea has ebbed and left them in a
+waved figure, which cannot be mistaken.
+Such figures as these are extremely common
+in our sand-stone strata; but this is an object
+which I never had distinctly observed in the
+alpine schisti; although, considering that the
+original of those schisti was strata of sand, and
+formed in water, there was no reason to doubt
+of such a thing being found. But here the
+examples are so many and so distinct, that it
+could not fail to give us great satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>We were no less gratified in our views with
+respect to the other object, the mineral operations
+by which soft strata, regularly formed in
+horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea,
+had been hardened and displaced. Fig. 4.
+represents one of those examples; it was
+drawn by Sir James Hall from a perfect section
+in the perpendicular cliff at Lumesden
+burn. Here is not only a fine example of
+the bendings of the strata, but also of a horizontal
+shift or hitch of those erected strata.</p>
+
+<p>St Abb's Head is a promontory which, at
+a distance, one would naturally conclude to
+be composed of the schisti, as is all the shore
+to that place; but, as we approached it, there
+was some difference to be perceived in the
+external appearance, it having a more rounded
+and irregular aspect. Accordingly, upon our
+arrival, we found this head-land composed of
+a different substance. It is a great mass of
+red whin-stone, of a very irregular structure
+and composition. Some of it is full of small
+pebbles of calcareous spar, surrounded with a
+coat of a coloured substance, different both
+from the whin-stone ground and the inclosed
+pebble. Here ended our expedition by water.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus found the junction of the
+sand-stone with the schistus or alpine strata to
+run in a line directed from Fast Castle to Oldhamstocks,
+or the heads of Dunglass burn, we
+set out to trace this burn, not only with a
+view to observe the junction, if it should there
+appear, but particularly to discover the source
+of many blocks of whin-stone, of all sizes,
+with which the bed of this burn abounds.</p>
+
+<p>The sand-stone and coal strata, which are
+nearly horizontal at the mouth of this burn,
+or on the coast, become inclined as we go up
+the course of the rivulet; and of this we have
+fine sections in the bank. The Dean of Dunglass
+is formed of precipitous and perpendicular
+rocks, through which the running water
+has worn its way more than a hundred feet
+deep; above this Dean the banks are steep
+and very high, but covered with soil, which
+here is a deep gravel. The burn runs all the
+way up to Oldhamstocks upon the sand-stone
+strata; but there, these are traversed by a high
+whin-stone dyke, which crosses the burn obliquely,
+as we found it on both banks though
+not in the bed of the burn; it is in the south
+bank below the village, and on the north
+above it. Here is the source of the whin-stone
+which we were looking for; it is the
+common blue basaltes, of the same nature
+with the Giant's Causeway, but with no regular
+columnar appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Above Oldhamstocks we again found the
+sand-stone in the bank, but it soon disappeared
+under a deep cover of gravel, and the burn
+then divided into several rivulets which come
+from the hills. We traced the one which led
+most directly up to the mountains, in expectation
+of meeting with the schistus, at least, if
+not the junction of it with the sandstone. But
+in this we were disappointed. We did not
+however lose our labour; for, though the
+junction which we pursued be not here visible,
+we met with what made it sufficiently evident,
+and was at the same time an object far
+more interesting in our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I have already quoted Mr Voigt's description
+of the <i>sol mort rouge</i>; he says, that in
+places it forms entire mountains; here we
+have a perfect example of the same thing;
+and the moment we saw it, we said, here is
+the <i>sol mort rouge</i>. We ascended to the top
+of the mountain through a gully of solid pudding-stone
+going into decay, and furnishing
+the country below with that great covering of
+gravel, soil, and water worn stones. We were
+now well acquainted with the pudding-stone,
+which is interposed between the horizontal
+and alpine strata; but from what we had seen
+to the eastward, we never should have dreamed
+of meeting with what we now perceived.
+What we had hitherto seen of this pudding-stone
+was but a few fragments of the schistus
+in the lower beds of sand-stone; here a mountain
+of water-worn schisti, imbedded in a red
+earth and consolidated, presented itself to our
+view. It was evident that the schisti mountains,
+from whence those fragments had come,
+had been prior to this secondary mass; but
+here is a secondary mountain equal in height
+to the primary, or schisti mountains, at the
+basis of which we had seen the strata superinduced
+on the shore. Still, however, every
+thing here is formed upon the same principle,
+and nothing here is altered except the scale on
+which the operation had been performed.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the coast, we have but a specimen of
+the pudding-stone; most of the fragments
+had their angles entire; and few of them are
+rounded by attrition. Here, on the contrary,
+the mountain is one pudding-stone; and
+most of the fragments are stones much rounded
+by attrition. But the difference is only in
+degree, and not in kind; the stones are the
+same, and the nature of the composition similar.
+Had we seen the mass of which this
+mountain is only a relict, (having been degraded
+by the hands of time), we should have
+found this pudding-stone at the bottom of our
+sand-stone strata; could we have penetrated
+below this mass of pudding-stone, we should
+have found our schistus which we left on the
+shore at St. Helens and in the Tour burn. In
+Tiviotdale the vertical schisti are covered with
+a bed of pudding-stone, the gravel of which
+had been much worn by attrition, but the
+thickness of that bed is small; here again the
+wearing operation has been great, and the
+quantity of those materials even more than in
+proportion to those operations. We returned
+perfectly satisfied; and Sir James Hall is to
+pursue this subject farther when he shall be in
+those mountains shooting muir game.</p>
+
+<p>We had now only one object more to pursue;
+this was to examine the south side of
+those mountains of Lammermuir upon the sea
+shore, in order to see the junction of the primary
+schistus with the coal strata of Berwickshire.
+Mr Hall was to meet us at the Press,
+and we were afterwards to go with him to
+Whitehall. We met accordingly; but the
+weather was rainy; and we went directly to
+Whitehall. I had often seen the pudding-stone
+in great masse; in the banks of the
+Whiteader, as it comes out of the mountains,
+but then I had not seen its connection neither,
+on the one hand, with the schisti, nor, on the
+other, with the sand-stone strata. We knew
+that at Lammerton upon the sea coast there
+was coal, and consequently the sand-stone
+strata; and reasoning upon those data we were
+sure that our proper course of investigation
+was to trace the river Ey to the shore, and
+then go south the coast in search of the junction
+of the schistus with the horizontal strata.
+This we executed as well as the weather
+would permit; but had it to regret, that the
+rainy season was not so favourable for our
+views, as it was agreeable to the country
+which had been suffering with the drought.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless now to enlarge upon this subject.
+I shall only mention that we found the
+red marly strata above the pudding-stone in
+the bed of the Ey and its branches; we then
+traced the schistus down the Ey, and found
+a mass of the most consolidated pudding-stone
+upon the coast to the north of the harbour of
+Eymouth. But this mass did not rest on the
+schistus; it is immediately upon a mass of
+whin-stone; and the schistus is in the harbour,
+so that this whin-stone mass seems to be
+here interposed between the pudding-stone
+and schistus. We then pursued the coast
+southwards until we found the junction of the
+schistus and sand-stone strata about two miles
+from Eymouth; but here the junction was
+not attended with any pudding-stone that we
+could perceive.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the same or similar appearances
+from the one end to the other, and on
+both sides of that range of mountains which
+run from sea to sea in the south of Scotland,
+we may now extend our view of this mineral
+operation in comprehending every thing of
+the same kind which we meet with in our
+island or any other distant country.</p>
+
+<p>Thus perhaps the pudding-stone of the
+south of England will be considered in the
+same light as having been formed of the <i>débris</i>
+and <i>détritus</i> of the flinty bodies.</p>
+
+<p>In the island of Arran, there is also a pudding-stone,
+even in some of the summits of
+the island, exactly upon the border of the
+schistus district, as will be described in the natural
+history of that island. This pudding-stone
+is composed of gravel formed of the
+hardest parts of the schistus and granite or
+porphyry mountains. That compound parasitical
+stone has been also again cemented by
+heat and fusion; I have a specimen in which
+there is a clear demonstration of that fact.
+One of the water-worn stones which had been
+rounded by attrition, has in this pudding-stone
+been broken and shifted, the one half slipping
+over the other, three quarters of an inch, besides
+other smaller slips in the same stone.
+But the two pieces are again cemented; or
+they had been shifted when the stone was in
+that soft state, by which the two pieces are
+made perfectly to cohere. Those shifts and
+veins, in this species of stone, are extremely
+instructive, illustrating the mineral operations
+of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>In like manner to the north of the Grampians,
+along the south side of Loch Ness,
+there are mountains formed of the debris of
+schistus and granite mountains, first manufactured
+into sand and gravel, and then consolidated
+into a pudding-stone, which is always
+formed upon the same principle. The same
+is also found upon the south side of those
+mountains in the shire of Angus.</p>
+
+<p>I may also give for example the African
+<i>Brechia</i>, which is a pudding-stone of the same
+nature. This stone is composed of granites
+or porphyries, serpentines and schisti, extremely
+indurated and perfectly consolidated.
+It is also demonstrable from the appearance
+in this stone that it has been in a softened
+state, from the shape and application of its
+constituent parts; and in a specimen of it
+which I have in my cabinet, there is also a
+demonstration of calcareous spar flowing
+among the gravel of the consolidated rock.</p>
+
+<p>This fact therefore of pudding-stone mountains,
+is a general fact, so far as it is founded
+upon observations that are made in Africa,
+Germany, and Britain. We may now reason
+upon this general fact, in order to see
+how far it countenances the idea of primitive
+mountains, on the one hand, or on the other
+supports the present theory, which admits of
+nothing primitive in the visible or examinable
+parts of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To a person who examines accurately the
+composition of our mountains, which occupy
+the south of Scotland, no argument needs be
+used to persuade him that the bodies in
+question are not primitive; the thing is evident
+from inspection, as much as would be
+the ruins of an ancient city, although there
+were no record of its history. The visible
+materials, which compose for the most part the
+strata of our south alpine schisti, are so distinctly
+the <i>debris</i> and <i>detritus</i> of a former
+earth, and so similar in their nature with those
+which for the most part compose the strata on
+all hands acknowledged as secondary, that
+there can remain no question upon that head.
+The consolidation, again, of those strata, and
+the erection of them from their original position,
+and from the place in which they had
+been formed, is another question.</p>
+
+<p>But the acknowledging strata, which had
+been formed in the sea of loose materials, to
+be consolidated and raised into the place of
+land, is plainly giving up the idea of primitive
+mountains. The only question, therefore,
+which remains to be solved, must respect the
+order of things, in comparing the alpine schisti
+with the secondary strata; and this indeed
+forms a curious subject of investigation.</p>
+
+<p>It is plain that the schisti had been indurated,
+elevated, broken, and worn by attrition in
+water, before the secondary strata, which form
+the most fertile parts of our earth, had existed.
+It is also certain that the tops of our schistus
+mountains had been in the bottom of the sea
+at the time when our secondary strata had begun
+to be formed; for the pudding-stone on
+the top of our Lammermuir mountains, as
+well as the secondary strata upon the vertical
+schisti of the Alps and German mountains,
+affords the most irrefragable evidence of that
+fact.</p>
+
+<p>It is further to be affirmed, that this whole
+mass of water-formed materials, as well as the
+basis on which it rested, had been subjected
+to the mineral operations of the globe, operations
+by which the loose and incoherent materials
+are consolidated, and that which was
+the bottom of the sea made to occupy the station
+of land, and serve the purpose for which
+it is destined in the world. This also will appear
+evident, when it is considered that it has
+been from the appearances in this very land,
+independent of those of the alpine schisti, that
+the present theory has been established.</p>
+
+<p>By thus admitting a primary and secondary
+in the formation of our land, the present
+theory will be confirmed in all its parts.
+For, nothing but those vicissitudes, in which
+the old is worn and destroyed, and new land
+formed to supply its place, can explain that order
+which is to be perceived in all the works
+of nature; or give us any satisfactory idea
+with regard to that apparent disorder and
+confusion, which would disgrace an agent
+possessed of wisdom and working with design.</p>
+
+
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VII.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction,
+or Mineral Concretion.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The ideas of naturalists with regard to
+petrifaction are so vague and indistinct,
+that no proper answer can be given to them.
+They in general suppose water to be the solvent
+of bodies, and the vehicle of petrifying
+substances; but they neither say whether water
+be an universal menstruum, nor do they
+show in what manner a solid body has been
+formed in the bowels of the earth, from
+that solution. It may now be proper to examine
+this subject, not with a view to explain
+all those petrifactions of bodies which is performed
+in the mineral regions of the earth,
+those regions that are inaccessible to man, but
+to show that what has been wrote by naturalists,
+upon this subject, has only a tendency
+to corrupt science, by admitting the grossest
+supposition in place of just principle or truth,
+and to darken natural history by introducing
+an ill conceived theory in place of matter of fact.</p>
+
+<p>M. le Comte de Buffon has attempted to
+explain the crystallization of bodies, or production
+of mineral forms, by the accretion or
+juxtaposition of elementary bodies, which
+have only form in two dimensions, length and
+breadth; that is to say, that mineral concretions
+are composed of surfaces alone, and not
+of bodies. This however is only an attempt
+to explain, what we do not understand, by a
+proposition which is either evidently contradictory,
+or plainly inconceivable. It is true
+that this eloquent and ingenious author endeavours
+to correct the palpable absurdity of
+the proposition, by representing the constituent
+parts of the mineral bodies as "<i>de lames
+infiniment minces</i>;" but who is it does not
+see, that these infinitely thin plates are no
+other than bodies of three dimensions, contrary
+to the supposition; for, infinitely thin,
+means a certain thickness; but the smallest
+possible or assignable thickness differs as much
+from a perfect superficies as the greatest.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Luc has given us his ideas of petrifaction
+with sufficient precision of term and
+clearness of expression; his opinion, therefore,
+deserves to be examined; and, as his
+theory of petrifaction is equally applicable to
+every species of substance, it is necessary again
+to examine this subject, notwithstanding of
+what has been already said, in the first part of
+this work, concerning consolidation and mineral
+concretion from the fluid state of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>This author has perhaps properly exposed
+Woodward's Theory of Petrification in saying<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a>,
+"Son erreur à cet égard vient de ce
+qu'il n'a point réfléchi sur la manière dont
+se fait la <i>pétrifaction</i>. Il ramollit d'abord
+les <i>pierres</i> pour y faire entrer les coquilles,
+sans bien connoître l'agent qu'il y employe;
+et il les duroit ensuite, sans réfléchir au
+comment." To avoid this error or defect,
+M. de Luc, in his Theory of Petrifaction, sets
+out with the acknowledged principle of cohesion;
+and, in order to consolidate strata of
+a porous texture, he supposes water carrying
+minute bodies of all shapes and sizes, and depositing
+them in such close contact as to produce
+solidity and concretion. Now, if Dr
+Woodward softened stones without a proper
+cause, M. de Luc, in employing the specious
+principle of cohesion, has consolidated them
+upon no better grounds; for, the application
+of this principle is as foreign to his purpose,
+as is that of magnetism. Bodies, it is true,
+cohere when their surfaces are closely applied
+to each other; But how apply this principle
+to consolidation?&mdash;only by supposing all the
+separate bodies, of which the solid is to be
+composed, to be in perfect contact in all their
+surfaces. But this, in other words, is supposing
+the body to be solid; and, to suppose the
+agent, water, capable of thus making hard
+bodies solid, is no other than having recourse
+to the fortuitous concourse of atoms to make
+a world; a thought which this author would
+surely hold in great contempt.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag33"> (return) </a> Lettres Physiques et Morales.</blockquote>
+
+<p>He then illustrates this operation of nature
+by those of art, in building walls which certainly
+become hard, and which, as our author
+seems to think, become solid. But this is only
+an imperfect or erroneous representation of
+this subject; for, mortar does not become
+hard upon the principle of petrification adopted
+by our author. Mortar, made of clay, instead
+of lime, will not acquire a stony hardness,
+nor ever, by means of water, will it be
+more indurated than by simply drying; neither
+will the most subtile powder of chalk, with
+water and sand, form any solid body, or a
+proper mortar. The induration of mortar
+arises from the solution of a stony substance,
+and the subsequent concretion of that dissolved
+matter, operations purely chemical. Now,
+if this philosopher, in his Theory of Petrifaction,
+means only to explain a chemical operation
+upon mechanical principles, why have
+recourse, for an example in this subject, to
+mineral bodies, the origin of which is questioned?
+Why does he not rather explain,
+upon this principle, the known concretion of
+some body, from a fluid state, or, conversely,
+the known solution of some concreted body?
+If again he means to explain petrifaction in
+the usual way, by a chemical operation, in that
+case, the application of his polished surfaces, so
+as to cohere, cannot take place until the dissolved
+body be separated from the fluid, by means
+of which it is transported from place to place
+in the mineral regions. But it is in this preliminary
+step that lies all the difficulty; for,
+could we see how every different substance
+might be dissolved, and every dissolved substance
+separated from its solvent at our pleasure,
+we should find no difficulty in admitting
+the cohesion of hard bodies, whether by
+means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or
+by the principle of general attraction, a principle
+which surely comprehends this particular,
+termed a cohesive power.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged, that seeing we
+know not how water dissolves saline bodies,
+therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we
+know, may also dissolve crystal; and, if water
+thus dissolves a mineral substance in a manner
+unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit
+it, although we may not be able to imagine
+how. This kind of reasoning is only
+calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the
+same time, the reasoning of philosophers, concerning
+petrifaction, does not in general appear
+to be founded on any principle that is
+more sound. That water dissolves salt is
+a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not
+a fact; therefore, those two propositions,
+with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
+removed, and cannot be assimilated in
+sound physical reasoning. It is no more a
+truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than
+that we never have been able to detect the
+smallest disposition in water to dissolve crystal,
+flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege
+the possibility of water being capable of dissolving
+those bodies in the mineral regions,
+and of thus changing the substance of one
+body into another, as naturalists have supposed,
+contrary to their knowledge, or in order
+to explain appearances, is so far from tending
+to increase our science, that it is abandoning
+the human intellect to be bewildered in an
+error; it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep
+the scientific conscience, and making the soul
+of man insensible to the natural distress of
+conscious ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>But besides that negative argument concerning
+the insolubility of crystal, by which
+the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
+be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly
+concreted in the cavities of the most solid
+rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
+in the midst of granite mountains. But these
+masses of granite were formed by fusion; I
+hope that I shall give the most satisfactory
+proof of that truth: Consequently, here at
+least there is no occasion for the action of water
+in dissolving siliceous substances in one
+place, in order to concrete and crystallise it in
+another.</p>
+
+<p>In these cavities of the solid granite rock,
+where crystal is found regularly shooting from
+a basis which is the internal surface of the cavity,
+we find the other constituent substances
+of the granite also crystallised. I have those
+small cavities, in this rock, from the island of
+Arran, containing crystal, felt-spar, and mica,
+all crystallised in the same cavity<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a>. But this
+is nothing to the <i>druzen</i> or crystalline concretions,
+which are found in a similar manner
+among metallic and mineral substances in the
+veins and mines; there, every species of mineral
+and metallic substance, with every variety
+of mixture and composition, are found
+both concreted and crystallised together in
+every imaginable shape and situation.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href="#footnotetag34"> (return) </a> The Chevalier Dolomieu makes the following observation.
+Journal de Physique, Juillet 1791.
+
+<p>"J'ai été étonné de trouver au centre d'un énorme
+massif de granit, que l'on avoit ouvert avec la poudre
+pour pratiquer un chemin, des morceaux, gros comme
+le poing et au dessous, de spath calcaire blanc, très-effervescent,
+en grandes écailles, ou lames entrecroisées.
+Il n'occupoit point des cavités particulières, il n'y paroissoit
+le produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des
+cavités, mais il étoit incorporé avec les feld-spath, le
+mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse avec eux, et ne pouvoit
+se rompre sans les entraîner avec lui."</p>
+
+<p>This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not
+been here introduced by infiltration, although that is the
+very method which he employs to form concretions, not
+only of spar but of crystal, zeolite, and pyrites, in the
+closest cavities of the most solid rocks of basaltes. These
+four substances in this stone were so mixed together that
+nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain
+the state in which they appeared; but, thinking that such
+a supposition could not be allowed, this naturalist, like a
+man of science when his data fail, leaves the matter without
+any interpretation of his own. This however is what
+he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he
+mistakes for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Here is an infinite operation, but an operation
+which is easily performed by the natural
+arrangement of substances acting freely in a
+fluid state, and concreting together, each substance,
+whether more simple or more compound,
+directing itself by its internal principle
+of attraction, and affecting mechanically those
+that are concreting around it.</p>
+
+<p>We see the very same thing happen under
+our eye, and precisely in the same manner.
+When a fluid mass of any mineral or metallic
+substance is made to congeal by sudden cooling
+on the outside, while the mass within is
+fluid, a cavity is thus sometimes formed by
+the contraction of the contained fluid; and in
+this cavity are found artificial <i>druzen</i>, as they
+may be called, being crystallizations similar to
+those which the mineral cavities exhibit in
+such beauty and perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Petrification and consolidation, in some degree,
+may doubtless be performed, in certain
+circumstances, by means of the solution of
+calcareous earth; but the examples given by
+M. de Luc, of those bodies of lime-stone and
+agate petrified in the middle of strata of loose
+or sandy materials, are certainly inexplicable
+upon any other principle except the fusion of
+those substances with which the bodies are
+petrified<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href="#footnotetag35"> (return) </a> Vid. Lettre 28 et Lettre 103. Lettres Physiques
+et Morales.</blockquote>
+
+<p>This subject deserves the strictest attention;
+I propose it as a touchstone for every theory
+of petrification or perfect consolidation. First,
+There are found, among argillaceous strata,
+insulated bodies of iron-stone, perfectly consolidated;
+secondly, There are found, in strata
+of chalk and lime-stone, masses of insulated
+flints; thirdly, There are found, in strata of
+sea sand, masses of that sand cemented by a
+siliceous substance; fourthly, In the midst of
+blocks of sand-stone, there are found masses
+of loose or pure sand inclosed in crystallised
+cavities; and in this sand are found insulated
+masses of crystallised spar, including within
+them the sand, but without having the sparry
+or calcareous crystallization disturbed by it.
+There are also other globular masses of the
+same kind, where the sparry crystallization
+is either not to be observed, or appears only
+partially<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a>: And now, lastly, In strata of shell-sand,
+there are found masses of consolidated
+lime-stone or marble. In all those cases, the
+consolidated bodies are perfectly insulated in
+the middle of strata, in which they must of
+necessity have been petrified or consolidated;
+the stratum around the bodies has not been
+affected by the petrifying substance, as there
+is not any vestige of it there; and here are
+examples of different substances, all conspiring
+to prove one uniform truth. Therefore, a
+general theory of petrification or consolidation
+of mineral bodies must explain this distinct
+fact, and not suffer it any longer to remain a
+<i>lusus naturae</i>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href="#footnotetag36"> (return) </a> Mem. de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, an. 1775.</blockquote>
+
+<p>Let us now consider what it is that we
+have to explain, upon the supposition of those
+concretions being formed from a solution.
+We have, first, To understand what sort of a
+solution had been employed for the introducing
+of those various substances; secondly,
+How those concretions had been formed from
+such solutions within those bodies of strata;
+and, lastly, How such concretions could
+have been formed, without any vestige appearing
+of the same substance, or of the same
+operation, in the surrounding part of the stratum.
+Whatever may be the difficulty of explaining
+those particular appearances by means
+of fusion and mechanical force, it is plainly
+impossible to conceive those bodies formed in
+those places by infiltration, or any manner of
+concretion from a state of solution.</p>
+
+<p>Naturalists, in explaining the formation of
+stones, often use a chemical language which
+either has no proper meaning, or which will
+not apply to the subject of mineral operations.
+We know the chemical process by which one
+or two stony concretions may be formed
+among bodies passing from one state to another.
+When, therefore, a change from a
+former state of things in mineral bodies is
+judged by naturalists to have happened, the
+present state is commonly explained, or the
+change is supposed to have been made by
+means of a similar process, without inquiring
+if this had truly been the case or not. Thus
+their knowledge of chemistry has led naturalists
+to reason erroneously, in explaining
+things upon false principles. It would be needless
+to give an example of any one particular
+author in this respect; for, so far as I have
+seen, it appears to be almost general, every one
+copying the language of another, and no one
+understanding that language which has been
+employed.</p>
+
+<p>These naturalists suppose every thing done
+by means of solution in the mineral kingdom,
+and yet they are ignorant of those solvents.
+They conceive or they imagine concretions
+and crystallizations to be formed of every different
+substance, and in every place within
+the solid body of the earth, without considering
+how far the thing is possible which they
+suppose. They are constantly talking of
+operations which could only take place in the
+cavities of the earth above the level of the sea,
+and where the influence of the atmosphere
+were felt; and yet this is the very place which
+we have it in our power to examine, and
+where, besides the stalactite, and one or two
+more of the same kind, or formed on the same
+principle, they have never been able to discover
+one of the many which, according to their
+theory, ought always to be in action or effect.
+So far from knowing that general consolidating
+operation, which they suppose to be exerted
+in filling up the veins and cavities of the
+earth by means of the infiltrating water of the
+surface, they do not seem fully to understand
+the only operation of this kind which they
+see. The concretion of calcareous matter
+upon the surface of the earth is perhaps the
+only example upon which their theory is
+founded; and yet nothing can be more against
+it than the general history of this transaction.</p>
+
+<p>Calcareous matter, the great <i>vinculum</i> of
+many mineral bodies, is in a perpetual state
+of dissolution and decay, in every place where
+the influences of air and water may pervade.
+The general tendency of this is to dissolve
+calcareous matter out of the earth, and deliver
+that solution into the sea. Were it possible to
+deny that truth, the very formation of stalactite,
+that operation which has bewildered naturalists,
+would prove it; for it is upon the
+general solubility of calcareous matter exposed
+to water that those cavities are formed, in
+which may be found such collections of stalactical
+concretion; and the general tendency
+of those operations is to waste the calcareous
+bodies through which water percolates. But
+how is the general petrifaction or consolidation
+of strata, below the surface of the sea, to
+be explained by the general dissolution of that
+consolidating substance in the earth above that
+level? Instead of finding a general petrifying
+or consolidating operation in the part of the
+earth which we are able to examine, we find
+the contrary operation, so far at least as relates
+to calcareous spar, and many other mineral
+bodies which are decomposed and dissolved
+upon the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in the surface of the earth, above the
+level of the sea, no petrifying operation of a
+durable nature is found; and, were such an
+operation there found, it could not be general,
+as affecting every kind of substance. But,
+even suppose that such a general operation
+were found to take place in the earth above
+the level of the sea, where there might be a
+circulation of air and percolation of water,
+How could the strata of the earth below the
+level of the sea be petrified? This is a question
+that does not seem to have entered into
+the heads of our naturalists who attempt to
+explain petrifaction or mineral concretion
+from aqueous solutions. But the consolidation
+of loose and incoherent things, gathered
+together at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards
+raised into rocks of various sorts, forms
+by far the greatest example of petrification or
+mineral operation of this globe. It is this
+that must be explained in a mineral theory;
+and it is this great process of petrifaction to
+which the doctrine of infiltration, whether for
+the mechanical purpose of applying cohesive
+surfaces, or the chemical one of forming crystallizations
+and concretions, will not by any
+means apply.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing shows more how little true science
+has been employed for the explanation of phenomena,
+than the language of modern naturalists,
+who attribute, to stalactical and stalagmical
+operations, every superficial or distant resemblance
+to those calcareous bodies, the origin
+of which we know so well. It is not a mere
+resemblance that should homologate different
+things; there should be a specific character in
+every thing that is to be generalised. It will
+be our business to show that, in the false
+stalactites, there is not the distinctive character
+of those water formed bodies to be found.</p>
+
+<p>In the formation of stalactical concretions,
+besides the incrustation as well as crystallization
+of the stony substance from the aqueous
+vehicle by which it had been carried in the
+dissolved state, we have the other necessary
+accompanyments of the operation, or collateral
+circumstances of the case. Such, for example,
+is that tubular construction of the stalactite,
+first formed by the concretion of the
+calcareous substance upon the outside of the
+pendant gut of water exposed to the evaporation
+of the atmosphere; we then see the gradual
+filling up of that pervious tube through
+which the petrifying water had passed for a
+certain time; and, lastly, we see the continual
+accretion which this conducting body had received
+from the water running successively
+over every part of it. But among the infinite
+number of siliceous concretions and crystallizations,
+as well as those of an almost indefinite
+variety of other substances, all of which are
+attributed to solution, there is not the least
+vestige of any collateral operation, by which
+the nature of that concretion might be ascertained
+in the same manner. In all those cases,
+we see nothing but the concreted substances
+or their crystallizations; but, no mark of any
+solvent or incrusting process is to be perceived.
+On the contrary, almost all, or the greatest part
+of them, are so situated, and attended with
+such circumstances, as demonstrate the physical
+impossibility of that being the manner in
+which they had been concreted; for, they are
+situated within close cavities, through which
+nothing can pervade but heat, electricity, magnetism,
+etc.; and they fill those cavities more
+or less, from the thinnest incrustation of crystals
+to the full content of those cavities with
+various substances, all regularly concreted or
+crystallised according to an order which cannot
+apply to the concretion of any manner of
+solution.</p>
+
+<p>That there is, in the mineral system, an
+operation of water which may with great
+propriety be termed <i>infiltration</i>, I make no
+doubt. But this operation of water, that may
+be employed in consolidating the strata in the
+mineral regions, is essentially different from
+that which is inconsiderately employed or supposed
+by mineralists when they talk of infiltration;
+these two operations have nothing in
+common except employing the water of the
+surface of the earth to percolate a porous body.
+Now, the percolation of water may increase
+the porousness of that body which it
+pervades, but never can thus change it from a
+porous to a perfect solid body. But even the
+percolation of water through the strata deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, necessarily required,
+according to the supposition of naturalists,
+must be refused; for, the interstices of
+those strata are, from the supposition of the
+case, already filled with water; consequently,
+without first removing that stagnant water, it
+is in vain to propose the infiltration of any
+fluid from the surface.</p>
+
+<p>This is a difficulty which does not occur in
+our theory, where the strata, deposited at the
+bottom of the sea, are to be afterwards heated
+by the internal fires of the earth. The natural
+consequence of those heating operations
+may be considered as the converting of the
+water contained in the strata into steam, and
+the expulsion of steam or vapour, by raising
+it up against the power of gravity, to be delivered
+upon the surface of the earth and again
+condensed to the state of water.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now conceive the strata, which had
+been deposited at the bottom of the sea, as exhausted
+of their water, and as communicating
+with the surface of the earth impregnated with
+water. Here again we have the power of gravity
+to operate in carrying down water to that
+place which had been before exhausted by the
+power of heat; and in this manner, by alternately
+employing those two great physical
+agents, we cannot doubt that nature may convey
+soluble substances from above, and deposit
+them below for the purpose of consolidating
+porous bodies, or of filling with saline and
+earthy matter those interstices which had been
+originally filled with water, when the strata
+were deposited at the bottom of the sea. How
+far any marks of this operation may be perceived,
+by carefully examining our mines and
+minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
+the contrary, whenever those examined objects
+were clear and distinct, with the concomitant
+circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
+always found the most certain marks of the
+solid bodies having concreted from the fluid
+state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude
+the case of infiltration having been previously
+employed; and I would intreat mineralists,
+who have the opportunity of examining
+the solid parts of the earth, to attend particularly
+to this distinction. But do not let
+them suppose that infiltration can be made to
+fill either the pores or veins of strata without
+the operation of mineral heat, or some such
+process by which the aqueous vehicle may be
+discharged.</p>
+
+<p>Not only are mineral philosophers so inconsiderate,
+in forming geological theories upon
+a mere supposition or false analogy, they
+have even proceeded, upon that erroneous
+theory, to form a geological supposition for
+explaining the appearances of strata and other
+stony masses in employing a particular physical
+operation, which is, that of <i>crystallization</i><a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a>.
+Now crystallization may be considered as a
+species of elective concretion, by which every
+particular substance, in passing from a fluid to
+a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar external
+shape and internal arrangement of its
+parts, by which it is often distinguished. But,
+to suppose the solid mineral structure of the
+earth explained, like an enigma, by the word
+<i>crystallization</i>, is to misunderstand the science
+by which we would explain the subject of research;
+and, to form a general mineral theory
+thus upon that term, is an attempt to generalise
+without a reason. For, when it were even
+admitted that every solid body is crystallised,
+we thus know no more of the geology of this
+earth, or understand as little of the general
+theory of mineral concretion, as we did before;&mdash;we
+cannot, from that, say whether it
+be by the operation of solution or of fusion
+which had produced the perceived effect.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href="#footnotetag37"> (return) </a> Journal de Physique; Avril 1753.</blockquote>
+
+<p>M. de Carosi has wrote a treatise upon certain
+petrifactions<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a>. In the doctrine of this
+treatise there is something new or extraordinary.
+It will therefore be proper to make
+some observations on it.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a><b>Footnote 38:</b><a href="#footnotetag38"> (return) </a> Sur la Generation du Silex et du Quartz en partie.
+Observations faites en Pologne 1783, à Cracovie.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The object of this treatise is to describe the
+generation of silex and quartz, with their modifications
+or compositions, formed within mineral
+bodies of a different substance. The natural
+history contained in this little treatise is
+well described and sufficiently interesting. But
+It is chiefly in order to examine the means
+which, according to the theory of this treatise,
+are employed in petrifying bodies, that I consider
+it in this place.</p>
+
+<p>The first section of this treatise has for title,
+<i>Generation du Caillou et du Quartz de la terre
+calcaire pure</i>. It may be worth while to compare
+the natural history of this part of the
+earth with the flint and chert found in our
+chalk and lime-stone countries. I shall therefore
+transcribe what is worth observing upon
+that subject (p. 5.).</p>
+
+<p>"Nous rencontrons chez nous dans les
+parties le plus montagneuses, et les moins
+couvertes de terreau, ou tout-au plus de
+sable, entre de purs rochers calcaires une
+quantité incroyable de cailloux (silex) tant
+en boules, que veines, couches, et débris.
+Au premier coup d'oeil l'on s'imagine que
+ce font des débris de montagnes éloignées,
+qui y furent amenés par les eaux, mais, en
+examinant la chose de plus pres, on est
+convaincu, que ce sont tout au contraire,
+des parties détachées des montagnes de la
+contrée. Car il y a sur presque toute l'étendue
+de nos montagnes calcaires une
+couche, ou pour mieux dire, un banc composé
+de plusieurs couches de base calcaire,
+mais qui ou sont parsemées irrégulièrement
+de boules, de rognons, de veines, et de petits
+filons de silex, ou qui contiennent cette
+pierre en filon, veines, et couches parallèles,
+et régulièrement disposées. Les boules et
+rognons de silex y font depuis moins de la
+grandeur d'une petite noisette, jusqu'au
+diamètre de plus de six pouces de nôtre
+mesure. La plupart de ces boules tant
+qu'elles sont dans l'intérieur caché de la
+roche vive, et qu'elles n'ont rien souffert de
+l'impression de l'air, ont, pour l'ordinaire,
+une croûte de spath calcaire, au moyen de
+la quelle elles sont accrues à la roche mere;
+ou pour mieux dire la croûte spatheuse fait
+l'intermède entre le silex, et la roche calcaire,
+par où se fait le passage de l'une à
+l'autre. Mais ceci ne vaut que de boules
+de silex entièrement formées. C'est dont
+on peut même se convaincre à la vue, par
+beaucoup de pierres dont le pavé de la ville
+de Cracovie est composé. Mais là, ou le
+silex n'est pas encore entièrement achevé,
+la croûte spatheuse manque, en revanche on
+y voit évidemment le passage par degrés
+successifs de la roche calcaire au silex qui y
+est contenu, et les nuances de ce passage
+sont souvent si peu marquées que même les
+acides minéraux ne suffisent pas à les
+déterminer, ce n'est que le briquet, qui
+nous aide à les découvrir. On voit bien
+ou la pierre calcaire s'enfonce en couleur,
+l'on s'apperçoit, où sa dureté, ses cassures
+changent, mais, comme elle y souffre encore
+quelque impression des acides, l'on ne sauroit
+déterminer au juste le point, ou elle a
+déjà plus de la nature du silex, que de celle
+de la chaux, qu'en la frappant du briquet.</p>
+
+<p>"Tels sont les cailloux en boules et rognons
+avant leur état de perfection, il y aura
+même au milieu une partie de pierre calcaire
+non changée.</p>
+
+<p>"Ceux au contraire, ou la nature à achevé
+son ouvrage, ont une croûte de chaux endurcie,
+et sont purement du silex fini, mais
+de toutes couleurs, d'un grain et d'une texture
+plus ou moins fine, qui passe assez souvent
+par degrés dans les différentes variétés
+du noble silex. Ils ont, pour l'ordinaire,
+dans leur intérieur une cavité, mais pas
+toujours au centre, et qui vient apparemment
+de la consommation de cette partie calcaire
+qui y resta la dernière, et n'en fut changée
+ou dissolute et séparée, que lorsque le reste
+du silex étoit déjà entièrement fini. Ces
+cavités sont toujours, ou enduites de calcédoine
+en couche concentriques recouverte
+de petits cristaux fort brillans et durs de
+quartz, ou bien seulement de ces derniers-ci.
+Par-fois il y a aussi du spath calcaire
+crystallisé, mais cela est extrêmement rare.
+Quelque-fois enfin ces cavités sont remplies
+d'une noix de calcédoine. Je n'ai réussi
+qu'une seule fois en cassant un pareil silex
+en boule d'y trouver encore le reste de
+l'eau de crystallisation."</p>
+
+<p>The only remark that I would here make
+is this, that, if the crystallization of those close
+cavities in the <i>silex</i> had at any time required
+water of solution, it must always have required
+it. But, if there had been water of solution
+contained in those close cavities, for the
+crystallization of the various things which are
+often found within them, How comes it that
+this water is almost never found? I have
+good reason to believe that water contained
+within a solid flint will not make its escape,
+as does that contained in the <i>anhydrites</i> of
+Mount <i>Berico</i>, which are composed of a porous
+calcedony.  But the siliceous crystallizations
+within close cavities is a curious subject,
+which we shall have occasion to examine more
+particularly in treating of agates. We now
+proceed to the next section, which is the generation
+of silex and quartz in marl, (p. 19.)</p>
+
+<p>"Il y a des contrées, chez nous, qui out
+des étendus assez considérables en long et
+en large, de montagnes de pierre de marne
+calcaire, dans lesquelles on rencontre le
+même phénomène que dans celles de chaux
+pure; c. a. d. nous y trouvons du silex de
+différentes variétés, et dans tous les degrés
+successifs de leur formation, et de leur perfection.
+Outre cela, nous y voyons encore
+quelque chose, qui semble nous conduire à
+la découverte des moyens, dont se sort la
+nature pour effecteur cette opération, et qui
+nous étoit caché dans les montagnes de
+chaux pure: ces bancs de pierre marnesilicieuse,
+contiennent une partie considérable
+de pyrites sulfureuses, qui non seulement
+y forment une grande quantité de
+petits sillons, mais toute la masse de la montagne
+est rempli de parcelles souvent presqu'imperceptibles
+de ce minéral. Ces
+pyrites sont évidemment des productions
+du phlogistique et de l'acide contenu dans
+la montagne.</p>
+
+
+<p>"L'eau, qui s'y trouve ordinairement en
+assez grande abondance, en détacha, extraha
+d'un et l'autre, et les combina après
+tous les deux ensemble. Cette même eau
+les dissout derechef, et en fait de nouvelles
+combinaisons. C'est ce qu'on voit évidemment
+là, ou la nature, ayant commencé ses
+opérations, il n'y est resté de la pyrite,
+qu'une portion de la partie inflammable
+liée à une base terrestre. Dans ces endroits
+la marne n'est que fort peu sensible
+aux acides, et de blanche qu'elle étoit, sa
+couleur est devenue presque noire. C'est
+là qu'on observe les différens degrés du
+changement de la marne en silex, contenant,
+même encore, par fois, de parties
+pyritéiques non détruites dans son intérieur.
+Et comme la nature forme ici, de
+même, que dans la chaux pure les silex, la
+plupart en boules ou rognons; comme les
+différent degrés de métamorphoses de la
+marne en silex, sont ici beaucoup plus nombreuses
+que là, de sorte qu'il y a des bandes
+entières, qui mériteroient plutôt d'être appellés
+bandes silicieuses, que marneuses;
+comme il y a, enfin, une grande quantité de
+pyrites, qu'ailleurs, il est très probable qu'elle
+se serve là du même moyen qu'ici pour
+opérer la métamorphose en question.</p>
+
+<p>"Ne nous précipitons, cependant, pas à en
+tirer plus de conséquences; poursuivons
+plutôt le fil de notre récit.</p>
+
+<p>"Le silex, qui se trouve ici, est non seulement
+de différents degrés de perfection, il
+est de plus d'une espèce. Il y a de la pierre
+à feu, 2 de la calcédoine, 3 des agathes, et
+4 différentes nuances et passages des espèces
+ordinaires aux fines du silex.</p>
+
+<p>"La pierre à feu, est, ordinairement dans
+son état de perfection d'un grain assez fin,
+d'une couleur grise plus ou moins foncée,
+et même donnant, dans le noirâtre, plus ou
+moins diaphane; ses cassures sont concentriques
+ou coquillées, et sa masse est assez
+compacte. Outre sa conformation ordinaire
+en boules et rognons, elle fait presque toujours
+la noix de ursins marins, qui y font
+en grand nombre, et dont la coquille est le
+plus souvent, et presque toujours de spath
+calcaire, même au milieu d'une boule de
+silex parfait.</p>
+
+<p>"Les calcédoines et agathes de ces couches
+sont toujours (au moins, je ne les ai pas
+encore vues autrement) de coraux et autres
+corps marins pétrifiés. Donc, il faut que
+les couches de pierres roulées, d'où j'ai tiré
+ma collection citée plus haut, soyent des
+débris de montagne» détruites de cette
+espèce. Il y en a qui sont très parfaites
+comme celles qui composent ma collection,
+d'autres méritent plutôt d'être rangées parmi
+les passages du silex ordinaire, et ses
+espèces plus fines; d'autres encore sont, en
+effet, de vraies agathes, mais qui renferment
+dans leur intérieur plus ou moins de parties
+non parfaites presque calcaires, qui
+s'annoncent d'abord par leur couleur
+blanche, par leur gros grains relativement
+au reste, par leur opacité, par leur mollesse
+respective, et souvent même par leur sensibilité
+pour les acides minéraux. Mais
+celles, qui sont finies, quoiqu'elles ayent,
+pour la plupart, une couleur presque noire,
+ne laissent, cependant, pas d'avoir aussi des
+teintes plus claires comme brunâtres, verdâtres,
+rougeâtres, jaunâtres, bleuâtres,
+tachetées, veinées, etc. Leur clarté n'est
+pas moins variable, que leur couleur, il y
+en a de presqu'opaques, comme aussi de
+presque transparentes, sur tout là, ou la calcédoine
+prédomine.</p>
+
+<p>"Le quartz s'y trouve comme dans les
+pierres de la premiere section, c, a, d, crystallisé,
+en groupes dans de petites cavités;
+quelquefois aussi en veines. La calcédoine
+y est de même, ou bien en mamelons,
+ou bien en stalactites, lorsqu'elle a de la
+place pour s'y déposer.</p>
+
+<p>"Un phénomène encore plus curieux que
+cela est cette belle pyrite sulphureuse jaune,
+comme de l'or, qui est quelquefois parsemée
+par tout la substance de pétrifications
+agathisées, et qui apparemment y fut déposée
+après la dite métamorphose à la faveur des
+petits pores, qui y étoient restés ouverts."</p>
+
+<p>I would beg that mineralists, who use such
+language as this, would consider if it contains
+a distinct idea of the operation which they
+would thereby describe, or if it does not contain
+either a contradiction or an inconceivable
+proposition. It supposes a calcareous body to
+be metamorphosed, somehow by means of the
+mountain acid, into a siliceous body. But,
+finding many bodies of pyrites contained
+within that solid flint, it is said, that, when the
+calcareous body was flintified, there were left
+in it cavities which were afterwards filled with
+pyrites. Let us reflect a moment upon this
+doctrine. These cavities were first open to
+the outside of the flinty body; but now the
+pyrites with which they had been filled is insulated
+in the solid flint. Here three things
+are required; first, The calcareous body is to
+be flintified, at the same time leaving the body
+full of small cavities open to the outside; secondly,
+These cavities are to be filled with
+pyrites; lastly, These mineral bodies are to
+be so inclosed within the flint, as to leave no
+vestige of the former processes. This marly
+mountain itself, which had been formed of
+loose materials gathered together at the bottom
+of the sea, was first to be filled with pyrites,
+in various shapes, by means of the phlogistic
+and the acid of the mountain. Here is
+proposed to us an operation which is totally
+unknown, or of which we have no kind of
+idea. But, let us suppose pyrites formed in
+this mountain, (of whatever chemical substances),
+by means of water; Why should
+water again undo that pyrites, in order to
+form other concretions? And, Why should
+the flint be formed first with cavities, and
+then made solid, after pyrites had been introduced
+into those cavities of the agate, and, as
+our author expresses it, <i>parsemée pour toute la
+substance?</i> Here are suppositions which are
+not only perfectly gratuitous, but are also inconsistent
+with any thing that we understand.
+This is not explaining nature; it is only feigning
+causes<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a><b>Footnote 39:</b><a href="#footnotetag39"> (return) </a> The description of those insulated siliceous bodies,
+containing in their closed cavities all the usual concretions
+of calcedony and crystals, as well as full of small pyrites
+floating in the solid flint, are extremely interesting to a
+mineral system, or such a geological theory as should explain
+the present state of things in those strata that had
+been formed by deposits of known materials at the bottom
+of the sea; they are indeed such appearances as may be
+found, more or less, in all consolidated strata. But it is
+this author's explanation of that petrifaction which is our
+present object to consider; and, as he is so particular in
+giving us his theory upon the subject, it is easy to detect
+the error of his reasoning. Were those naturalists who
+explain things only in general, by saying that water is the
+agent, and infiltration the means employed by nature;&mdash;were
+these naturalists, I say, to give us as particular a description
+of their process, it would appear as inconsistent
+with the nature of things as that which we have from this
+author, who examines nature very minutely, and who sees
+distinctly that the infiltrating theory is inapplicable for the
+explanation of those petrifactions.</blockquote>
+
+<p>The third section has for title, "<i>Generation
+du Silex et Quartz de la Pierre Puante</i>."
+Here we find an example worthy of being
+recorded, as contributing to throw great light
+upon those mineral operations; however, the
+opinion of our author and mine, upon this
+subject, differ widely. He proceeds thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Cette pierre n'est, comme chacun le sçait,
+qu'une pierre calcaire contenant du bitume.</p>
+
+<p>"Nos montagnes n'en contiennent seulement
+pas de simples couches, mais il y en
+a même de grandes bancs fort épais.</p>
+
+<p>"Le caillou, ou silex qui s'y génère, forme,
+tantôt de gros blocs informes, qui occupent
+des cavités dans l'intérieure des montagnes,
+tantôt, enfin, en forme de filons.</p>
+
+<p>"J'ai remarqué cette métamorphose sur
+trois endroits différens, dans chacun des
+quels la nature a autrement opéré.</p>
+
+<p>"Sur l'un, la pierre puante fait un banc
+horizontal dans une montagne de pierre
+calcaire crystalline, ou d'une espèce de
+marbre, qui contient des couches et filons
+de métal. Ce banc de pierre puante y fait
+le toit d'une couche de galène de plomb
+et de pierre calaminaire, et dans ses cavités
+et fentes il y a non seulement des blocs de
+grandeur différente, mais aussi des veines
+et petites bandes courtes de silex, tant ordinaire,
+que noble c, a, d, de la pierre à
+feu, de calcédoine, d'agathes, et même
+d'une espèce de cornaline jaune et rouge
+pâle. Je ne m'arrêterai pas à en détailler
+les variétés, parce qu'elles sont trop accidentelles.
+Je ne les connois pas même toutes,
+il s'en faut de beaucoup, parce qu'elles se
+trouvent dans des anciennes mines négligées,
+peut être depuis plus d'un siècle, et
+par conséquent peu accessibles. Je ne doute,
+cependant pas, que, si l'on pouvoit mieux
+sonder le terrain, on y trouveroit bien plus
+encore du peu que j'ai cité. Parmi ce silex,
+il y a aussi de petites groupes et de petites
+veines de quartz solide et crystallisé.</p>
+
+<p>"Au second endroit la pierre puante fait
+un filon, ou si l'on veut, une couche ou
+bande verticale, qui partage la montagne
+en deux parties presqu'égales de l'épaisseur
+de trois aunes à peu près. La montagne,
+ou cela se voit est aussi une ancienne mine
+de cuivre et de plomb, consistant en plusieurs
+variétés de marbre, différent en couleur
+et en grain, déposées par couches les
+unes sur les autres. Le filon de silex est
+formé de feuilles alternatives de pierre
+puante et de silex, tous les deux de couleur
+brun de bois à peu prés; mais le silex est
+plus foncé que sa compagne. Ces feuilles
+alternatives, consistent d'autres bien plus
+minces encore, qui souvent n'ont pas l'épaisseur
+d'une ligne, mais ce qu'il y a de
+plus curieux, c'est que la même feuille est
+d'un but de pierre porque, qui, vers le
+milieu, passe successivement en silex, qui, à
+son tour, vers l'autre but, qui étoit exposé
+à l'air repasse par les mêmes gradations en
+une espèce de tuffe calcaire. Ce qui nous
+fait voir évidemment la génération et la
+destruction du silex, même avec une partie
+des moyens par lesquels elle s'opère.
+Comme l'endroit de cette découverte n'est
+accessible qu'à la superficie, je ne saurois
+dire s'il y a d'autres variétés de silex outre
+la dite. Il l'est à supposer autant par analogie,
+que par quelques morceaux qui ont
+de petites veines transversales d'une espèce
+de calcédoine, et qui sont, même, sur leur
+fentes, garnis de petits cristaux de roche.
+Mais ce qu'il y a de sur c'est que ce filon,
+parvenu à une certaine profondeur, s'ennoblit
+et contient du métal, c. a. d. de la galène
+de plomb, et de la pyrite cuivreuse,
+j'y en ai trouvés de morceaux, qui en font
+de preuves incontestables. Le caillou d'ici
+est un grain fin d'une texture forte, peu
+transparent, donne beaucoup d'étincelles au
+briquet, mais ses cassures sont écailleuses.</p>
+
+<p>"La montagne calcaire du troisième lieu a
+une couche de pierre puante épaisse de plusieurs
+aunes, qui, derechef contient de petites
+couches irrégulières et des bandes
+transversales de silex, qui ont jusques à six
+pouces passés d'épaisseur. La pierre puante
+est d'une couleur gris-brune, d'un grain
+assez fin, et d'un tissu assez dur; ses cassures
+sont irrégulières, mais plus la pierre
+s'approche du silex, plus elles donnent dans
+le coquillé. Le silex ordinaire est d'un
+brun de bois, d'un grain assez fin, et d'un
+tissu résistant, et ses cassures sont égales à la
+pierre porque. Ce n'est pas là la seule
+variété, il y a, aussi, de la calcédoine et des
+agathes de couleurs différentes. Même la
+pierre à feu est assez souvent traversée de
+veines de calcédoine, de quartz crystallisé,
+et de spath calcaire blanc en feuilles et en
+crystaux. Il arrive que la même veine est
+composée de ces trois espèces de pierres à
+la fois, de sorte que l'une semble passer dans
+l'autre, parce que les limites réciproques
+sont, souvent, assez indistinctes. Il est évident,
+que le silex est formé de la pierre
+puante, parce qu'on remarque ici les mêmes
+phénomènes dont j'ai parlé plus haut, c. a.
+d. les passages successifs de l'une dans l'autre
+pierre, tant en montant qu'en descendant."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing particular in the siliceous
+mixture in this species of lime-stone, except
+the vein of that substance. It is evident that
+this vein, traversing the mountain, had been
+introduced in the fluid state of fusion. I do
+not mean to say, that, in this particular case
+now described, the evidence of that truth peculiarly
+appears; but that, from the general
+nature of mineral veins breaking and traversing
+the solid strata of the globe, no other
+conclusion can be formed; and that in the
+particulars of this example there is nothing
+that could lead us to suppose any other origin
+to the petrifactions contained in this vein of
+stinking lime-stone. It is plain, that our author
+has imagined to himself an unknown
+manner of executing his mineral metamorphoses.
+He sees plainly that the common
+notion of infiltration will not at all explain
+the evident confusion of those calcareous and
+siliceous bodies which appear to him to be
+metamorphosing into each other. Nothing,
+indeed, can explain those phenomena but a
+general cause of fluidity; and there is no such
+general cause besides that of heat or fusion.</p>
+
+<p>But to show how mineralists of great merit,
+gentlemen who have examined systematically
+and with some accuracy, may impose upon
+themselves in reasoning for the explanation of
+mineral appearances from limited notions of
+things, and from the supposition of these having
+been formed where they now are found,
+that is, upon the surface of the earth, I would
+beg leave to transcribe what this author has
+said upon this species of petrifaction. It is
+not that he is ignorant of what mineralists
+have already said upon the subject; it is because
+he sees the incompetency of their explanations
+in those particular cases; and that
+he would employ some other more effectual
+means. (p. 50.)</p>
+
+<p>"Toute terre calcaire à changer dans une
+autre doit, avant toute chose, être rendue
+réfractaire ce qui ne peut se faire qu'en la
+saturant avec un acide. Mais une terre
+simplement, saturée d'un acide, est d'une réduction
+fort aisée, vu que l'acide n'y tient
+pas trop fort, d'ailleurs ce n'est qu'un sel
+neutre terreux fort facile â dissoudre dans
+une quantité suffisante d'eau. Or pour
+rendre cette union plus constante, il faut
+que la terre alcaline s'assimile intimement à
+l'acide, ce qui ne se sera jamais sans un intermedeliant,
+qui homogène les parties de
+ce nouveau corps, et pour que cela ce fasse
+il est indispensable, qu'il s'opère une dissolution
+foncière des parties terrestres de la
+chaux, qui facilite l'ingress à l'acide, et à
+l'intermède pour qu'ils s'y lie bien fortement.
+Supposons qu'il se forme une liqueur savonneuse
+de l'acide et du phlogistique, que
+l'air fixe, mis en liberté, ouvre les interstices
+des parties qui constituent la terre alcaline,
+qu'apres cela cette liqueur savonneuse ayant
+l'entrée libre s'assimile à la terre en proportion
+requise, que l'eau, qui servoit de
+véhicule dans cette operation, s'évapore successivement,
+et emporte le superflu des ingrediens,
+pour qu'il se puisse opérer le rapprochement
+le plus exacte des parcelles ou
+molécules homogénées de nouveau corps
+qu'enfin les molécules les plus pures et les
+mieux affinées soyent réunies en forme liquide
+dans des cavités, et que par l'évaporation
+et séparation de l'eau, ou elles nageoient,
+il s'en forme des crystaux n'aurons-nous
+pas une boule de silex, avec de crystaux
+de quartz dans ses creux intérieurs."</p>
+
+<p>The supposed case is this; a calcareous
+body is to be metamorphosed into a siliceous
+nodule, having a cavity within it lined with
+quartz, crystals, etc. M. de Carosi means to
+inform us how this may be done. Now, as
+this process requires no other conditions than
+those that may be found upon the surface of
+this earth, the proper way to prove this hypothetical
+theory, would be to exhibit such a
+mineral body produced by those means. But,
+even supposing that such a process were to
+be exhibited, still it would remain to be explained,
+how this process, which requires conditions
+certainly not be found at the bottom
+of the sea, could be accomplished in that place,
+where the strata of the earth had been deposited,
+accumulated, consolidated, and metamorphosed.</p>
+
+<p>This mineral process, which has been now
+described, will no doubt revolt the opinions
+of many of our chemists as well as naturalists;
+and I should not have thought of transcribing
+it, but as an example of that inconclusive
+reasoning which prevails in mineralogical
+writings upon this subject.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all. We have, upon this
+occasion, a most remarkable example of the
+fallaceous views that may be taken of things;
+and of the danger to science when men of
+sense and observation form suppositions for
+the explanation of appearances without that
+strict conformity with the principles of natural
+philosophy which is requited on all occasions.
+Both M. de Carosi, and also M. Macquart<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a>,
+to whom our author communicated
+his ideas and proper specimens, assert, that
+from their accurate experience, they find calcedony
+growing daily, not only in the solid
+body of gypsum, etc. while in the mine, but
+also in the solid stone when taken out of the
+mine, and preserved in their cabinet.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a><b>Footnote 40:</b><a href="#footnotetag40"> (return) </a> Vid. Essais de Minéralogie par M. Macquart.</blockquote>
+
+<p>What answer can be made to this positive
+testimony of these gentlemen, by a person
+who has not seen any such a thing, and who
+has not the opportunity of examining the
+cases in which those naturalists may have perhaps
+been led into some delusion? Were I
+however to conjecture upon a subject in
+which I have not any positive information, I
+should suppose that some part of the calcedony,
+like the <i>oculus mundi</i> when dipped in water,
+may be so transparent, while containing some
+portion of humidity, that it is not easily distinguishable
+from the gypsum in which it is
+concreted; but that in having the humidity
+evaporated, by being taken out of the mine
+and exposed to the dry air, those portions of
+calcedony, which did not before appear, may
+be perceived by becoming more opaque<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41"><sup>41</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a><b>Footnote 41:</b><a href="#footnotetag41"> (return) </a> From the description given in this treatise, and from
+the drawings both of M. de Carosi and M. Macquart, I
+find a very valuable inference to be made, so much the
+more interesting, as I have not found any example of the
+like before. This arises from the intimate connection
+which is here to be perceived between agate and gypsum.
+Now, upon this principle, that the agate-calcedony had
+been formed by fusion, a truth which, from the general
+testimony of minerals, I must presume, it is plain,
+that those nodules of gypsum had been in the fluid state
+of fusion among those marly strata, and that the gypseous
+bodies had been penetrated variously with the siliceous
+substance of the calcedony.
+
+<p>The description of those siliceous penetrations of gypsum
+is followed by this conclusion: "En voila assez, je
+crois pour faire voir que le silex ci-décrit est effectivement
+une émanation du gypse, et non pas une matière
+hétérogène amenée d'autre part et déposée, ou nous
+la voyons." In this instance our author had convinced
+himself that the calcedony concretions had not been formed,
+as he and other mineralists had before supposed, by
+means of infiltration; he has not, however, substituted any
+thing more intelligible in its stead. I do not pretend
+that we understand mineral fusion; but only that such
+mineral fusion is a thing demonstrable upon a thousand
+occasions; and that thus is to be explained the petrification
+and consolidation of the porous and naturally incoherent
+strata of the earth.</blockquote>
+
+<p>There is, however, a subject in which I can
+more freely accuse this author of being deceived.
+This naturalist says, that calcareous
+stones become silex by a certain chemical
+operation; and that those flinty bodies, in being
+exposed upon the surface of the earth,
+out of their natural bed, are again, by a contrary
+chemical operation, changed from flint
+to a calcareous substance. I will give it in
+his own words, (p. 56.)</p>
+
+<p>"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progénéré
+de chaux, détaché de son lieu natal,
+et exposé aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit,
+reçoit de crevasses, perd sa transparence,
+devient, enfin, tout-à-fait opaque,
+le phlogistique s'en évapore, l'acide en est
+détaché, lavé, et de terre vitrescible, qu'il
+étoit, il redevient chaux, comme il étoit
+auparavant."</p>
+
+<p>Here is no question with regard to mere
+opinion, but to matter of fact; and, in this
+case, nothing is more evident, than that upon
+the surface of this earth, that is, in the examinable
+parts above the level of the sea, there
+is no transition either of calcareous bodies into
+flint, nor of flinty bodies into calcareous
+substance. Calcareous matter is constantly
+dissolved by water, when it is exposed to the
+washing of that fluid; and it is even dissolved
+out of the most perfect union or combination
+with siliceous substance, and the most solid
+composition of an insoluble body, as may be
+perceived in the decaying of feld-spar. A
+superficial view of flints, which have come out
+of a body of chalk, may have created such an
+opinion, which will not either bear the light
+of chemical or mineral investigation. The
+subject of these chalk flints will be minutely
+examined in its proper place.</p>
+
+<p>Our author has carefully examined the subject
+of flintification; and the country where
+he makes his observations would seem to be
+well disposed for such a research. He has
+had great opportunity and inclination to examine
+the subject which he writes upon; and
+he has given a distinct account of what be has
+seen. His description of the flintification of
+sand-stone is extremely interesting. I will
+therefore transcribe it, both as a valuable portion
+of natural history, and also in order to
+contrast this author's opinion, with regard to
+the means employed by nature in petrifying
+bodies, and that which I maintain to be the
+general consolidating operation of the globe.
+It is Section V. <i>Generation du Caillou du Silex
+du Grès, ou Pierre Sabloneuse</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Tout grès est susceptible de cette métamorphose
+quant au grain et quant à la couleur;
+depuis la bréccia quartzeuse jusqu'à
+la pierre à rasoir; et depuis le grès blanc
+jusqu'au brun et presque noirâtre, tient ou
+non tient, dur, ou presque friable, c'est indifférent,
+toutes ces variétés donnent du
+silex, et surtout de la calcédoine, de la cornaline,
+et des agathes. Quant au ciment
+je l'y ai toujours remarqué calcaire et faisant
+effervescence avec les acides dans les
+endroits de la pierre qui n'étoient point
+encore changés; et jamais je n'ai vu ce
+changement dans du grès dont le ciment
+fut ou quartzeux ou argileux et réfractaire.
+Ainsi le ciment entre pour quelque chose
+dans ce changement.</p>
+
+<p>"Le commencement de cette métamorphose
+paroit (autant que j'ai pu l'observer
+dans mes débris roulés) se faire par le ciment,
+qui dissout là, où les agens eurent
+l'accès libre, rend les grains en quartz mobiles,
+les emporte, les mêle avec sa masse
+dense-liquide, les dissout, même en partie,
+et forme, dans cet état, des veines et de
+masses calcédonieuse, carneoliques, ou d'une
+autre espèce de silex, au milieu du grés peu,
+ou pas du tout, changé. Car autant que je
+puis voir, ce n'est pas par couches ou veines
+qu'elle s'opère, mais par boules et masses
+rond-oblongues. Au commencement ces
+veines et tâches sont fort minces, et le reste
+du grés n'est point du tout, ou à peine sensiblement
+changé hormis qu'il gagne, plus
+de consistance, à proportion du changement
+souffert. Mais à mesure que le silex y
+augmente et se perfectionne, on y apperçoit
+les degrés par lesquels a passé cette
+operation. Les nuance du passage d'une
+pierre à l'autre deviennent plus visibles, les
+veines et masses de silex grandissent au
+point, même, qu'il y a jusqu'aux trois quart
+du grés changé en silex clair comme de
+l'eau n'ayant que fort peu de grains de
+sable nageants dans sa masse. Des morceaux
+de cette espèce sont rares à la vérité,
+mais j'en ai, cependant, trouvé quelques
+uns. Ordinairement, dans les beaux morceaux,
+le silex fait la base, et le sable y est,
+comme nageant tantôt en grains séparés
+tantôt en parties et flocons. Dans les pieces
+moins belles, le sable fait la base, et le silex
+sert à la fois de ciment, et forme aussi plus
+ou moins de veines, qui traversent la masse
+en maintes et maintes directions. Mais si
+c'est un grès à gros grains, ou de la breccia,
+alors le reste prend la nature silicieuse
+mêlé de sable fin, et les gros grains de
+quartz restent tels, qu'ils étoient, sans
+changer. J'ai déjà remarqué que cette
+métamorphose semble s'opérer, comme celle
+des cailloux d'origine calcaire en forme approchans
+la sphérique, il faut encore y a
+jouter, que j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle se
+fasse aussi du dedans en dehors, tout, comme
+la décomposition se fait du dehors au dedans.</p>
+
+<p>"Il arrive dans cette pierre, comme dans
+toute autre, qu'il se forme des crystallisations
+dans les cavités. Lorsqu'elles sont de silex,
+leur figure est toujours mamelonnée,
+mais leur eau ou pureté, leur grandeur et
+leur couleur n'est pas par tout égale. Il y
+en a qui sont grands, et de la plus pure calcédoine,
+d'autres sont petits et chaque goutte
+ou mamelon contient un grain de sable,
+de facon que cela a l'air d'un grès crystallisè
+en mamelons ou stalagmitique.
+D'autres encore sont, de calcédoine, mais
+recouverts d'une croûte, tantôt blanche qui
+fait effervescence avec l'acide minéral, et
+qui est, par conséquent, de nature calcaire;
+tantôt cette croûte est bleue foncée nuancée
+de bleu-celeste; tantôt, enfin, elle est noire,
+mais toutes les deux réfractaires. Outre ces
+crystallisations silicieuses, il y en a, quoique
+rarement, de quartzeuses, qui ou forment
+de petites veines de crystal, ou bien
+des groupes de crystaux quartzeux, ou qui
+enfin, enduisent les mamelons de silex."</p>
+
+<p>Our author then makes a specification of
+the different varieties; after which he continues,
+p. 69.</p>
+
+<p>"Après tout ceci, l'on conviendra j'espère,
+que nôtre grais est une pierre bien singulière,
+et surpassant, à bien des égards, le
+grais, faussement dit crystallisé, de Fontainebleau.
+La raison de la figure du grais
+François est fort évidente, c'est le spath calcaire,
+qui lui sert de ciment, qui la lui fit
+prendre; mais qu'est-ce qui opère les métamorphoses
+racontées dans notre grai siliceux?
+Seroit-ce son ciment calcaire ou
+marneux par les mêmes raisons, qui font
+changer la marne en silex? La chose est
+très-probable, et je n'en saurois pas même,
+deviner d'autre. En ce cas la nature auroit
+un moyen d'opérer par la voie humide, ce
+que nous faisons dans nos laboratoires en
+quelque façon, par la voie sèche, c, a, d,
+de fondre et liquéfier la terre vitrescible, au
+moyen des alcalis; secret que nous lui
+avons déjà arraché en partie, en faisant la
+liqueur silicieuse."</p>
+
+<p>"Je n'ose, cependant, décider pas même
+hypothétiquement, sur cette matière, pour
+n'avoir pu observer la nature dans ses ateliers,
+et parce que je ne possède que des
+pièces, qui détachées de leur lieu natal, depuis
+un très long-tems, furent exposées aux
+intempéries des saisons, où elles peuvent
+avoir souffert bien de changemens."</p>
+
+<p>There cannot be a more fair exposition of
+facts; and it is only our author's opinion of
+this mineral transmutation that I would controvert.
+I do not pretend to understand the
+manner of operating that our author here supposes
+nature to take. I only maintain, that
+here, as every where in general, the loose and
+incoherent strata of the globe have been petrified,
+that is, consolidated, by means of the
+fusion of their substances; and this I think is
+confirmed from the accurate description here
+given of the flintification of sand-stone. Here
+is described very distinctly an appearance
+which is very common or general on those
+occasions; this is the parts or particles of stone
+floating in the fluid siliceous substance, and
+there dissolving more or less.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Carosi describes very systematically
+the generation of silex, calcedony, onyx, and
+quartz, in calcareous earth, marl, gypsum,
+sand-stone, and also what he terms <i>terre glaise,
+ou de l'Argile</i>. It is in this last that we find
+a perfect analogy with what is so frequent in
+this country of Scotland. These are the
+agates, calcedonies, calcareous and zeolite nodules,
+which are found produced in our whin-stone
+or subterraneous lavas, that is, the amygdaloides
+of Crondstedt. Naturalists explain
+the formation of those nodular bodies differently.
+The Chevalier de Dolomieu supposes
+these rocks to have been erupted lavas, originally
+containing cavities; and that these cavities
+in the solid rock had been afterwards filled
+and crystallised, by means of infiltration,
+with the different substances which are found
+variously concreted and crystallised within
+the solid rocks. Our author, on the contrary,
+supposes these formed by a species of chemical
+transmutation of calcareous and argillaceous
+earths, which, if not altogether incomprehensible,
+is at least not in any degree, so
+far as I know, a thing to be understood.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the place where that subject of
+these particular rocks, which is extremely interesting,
+is to be examined. We shall afterwards
+have occasion to treat of that matter at
+large. It is sufficient here to observe, that
+our author finds occasion to generalise the
+formation of those petrifactions with the flintifications
+in calcareous and gypseous bodies.
+When, therefore, the formation of any of
+them shall be demonstrated, as having taken
+its origin in the fusion of those substances,
+this mode of operation, which is generalised
+in the consolidation of strata, will be properly
+inferred in all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Petrifaction is a subject in which mineralogists
+have perhaps wandered more widely
+from the truth than in any other part of natural
+history; and the reason is plain. The
+mineral operations of nature lie in a part of
+the globe which is necessarily inaccessible to
+man, and where the powers of nature act under
+very different conditions from those which
+we find take place in the only situation where
+we can live. Naturalists, therefore, finding
+in stalactical incrustation a cause for the formation
+of stone, in many respects analogous
+to what is found in the strata of the earth, and
+which had come from the mineral region in a
+consolidated state, have, without due consideration,
+attributed to this cause all the appearances
+of petrifaction or mineral concretion.
+It has been one of the objects of this work to
+show that this operation of incrustation, or
+petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether
+ineffectual for producing mineral concretions;
+and that, even were it capable of forming those
+mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of
+this earth, formed by a deposit of travelled
+materials at the bottom of the sea, the conditions
+necessary to this incrustating process do
+not take place.</p>
+
+<p>Those enlightened naturalists who have of
+late been employed in carefully examining
+the evidences of mineral operations, are often
+staggered in finding appearances inconsistent
+with the received doctrine of infiltration;
+they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions,
+in order to explain that enigma. In
+giving examples of this kind. I have in view
+both to represent the natural history these mineralists
+furnish us with, which is extremely
+interesting, and also to show the various shapes
+in which error will proceed, when ingenious
+men are obliged to reason without some necessary
+principle in their science. We have
+just now had an example in Europe; I will
+next present the reader with one from Asia.</p>
+
+<p>M. Patrin, in his <i>Notice Minéralogique de
+la Daourie</i>, (Journal de Physique, Mars 1791)
+gives us a very distinct account of what he
+met with in that region. Describing the
+country of Doutchersk upon the river Argun,
+in Siberia, he proceeds thus:</p>
+
+<p>"Ces collines sont formées d'un hornstein
+gris qui paroit se convertir en pierre calcaire
+par l'action des météores; car tout celui
+qu'on prend hors du contact de l'air donne
+les plus vives étincelles, et ne fait pas la
+moindre effervescence avec les acides, même
+après avoir été calciné; et l'on observe celui
+qui est à découvert, passer, par nuances
+insensibles, jusqu'à l'état de pierre calcaire
+parfaite de couleur blanchâtre."</p>
+
+<p>Here M. Patrin has persuaded himself, probably
+from an imperfect examination of the
+subject, that there takes place a mineral metamorphosis,
+which certainly is not found in
+any other part of the earth, and for which he
+does not find any particular cause. The natural
+effect of the meteors, in other parts of
+the earth, is to dissolve the calcareous substance
+out of bodies exposed to those agents;
+and the gradation from the one of those two
+things to the other, which seems to be the
+data on which he had proceeded in forming
+his conclusion, is not sufficient to prove the
+metamorphosis, even were there not so strong
+a physical objection to it; for, it is by no
+means unusual for mineral bodies to graduate
+thus from one substance to another. However
+that be, this is not the principal object of
+the example<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42"><sup>42</sup></a>.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a><b>Footnote 42:</b><a href="#footnotetag42"> (return) </a> Here we have well informed naturalists reasoning
+with all the light of our present mineralogy, and maintaining,
+on the one hand, that gypsum is transformed into
+calcedony, by the operation of the meteors, or some
+such cause; and, on the other, that a siliceous substance
+is by the same means converted into lime-stone. What
+should we now conclude from this?&mdash;That calcareous and
+siliceous substances were mutually convertible. But then
+this is only in certain districts of Poland and Siberia.
+Every where, indeed, we find strange mixtures of calcareous
+and siliceous bodies; but neither mineralists nor
+chemists have, from these examples, ventured to affirm
+a metamorphosis, which might have spared them much
+difficulty in explaining those appearances.
+
+<p>This is a subject that may be taken in very different
+lights. In one view, no doubt, there would appear to
+be absurdity in the doctrine of metamorphosis, as there is
+now a days acknowledged to be in that of <i>lusus naturae</i>;
+and those reasoning mineralists might thus, in the opinion
+of some philosophers, expose their theory to contempt and
+ridicule. This is not the light in which I view the subject.
+I give those gentlemen credit for diligently observing
+nature; and I applaud them for having the merit to
+reason for themselves, which would seem to be the case
+with few of the many naturalists who now speak and write
+upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now draw an inference, with regard to this, in
+judging of the different theories. Either the received
+system concerning mineral operations is just, in which case
+those gentlemen, who employ a secret metamorphosis, may
+be to blame in laying it aside; or it is erroneous and deficient;
+and, in that case, they have the merit of distinguishing
+the error or deficiency of the prevailing system.
+How far they have seen the system of nature, in those examples
+which they have described, is another question.
+In the mean time, I am to avail myself of the testimony
+of those gentlemen of observation, by which the insufficiency
+at least of the received mineral system is acknowledged.</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>After speculating upon the effect of the
+ancient ocean upon the mountains of that
+country, he proceeds as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Je laisse ces conjectures pour remarquer
+un fait singulier: la colline, qui est au
+nord de l'église de la fonderie, a son arrête
+composée de ce hornstein qui se décompose
+en pierre calcaire; mais ici, les parties, qui
+sont ainsi décomposées, offrent une substance
+calcédonieuse disposées par zones concentriques,
+comme on l'observe dans les agates
+d'oberstein; mais ce ne sont point ici des
+corps parasites formés par infiltration dans
+des cavités pré-existantes comme les agates;
+on voit que ce sont les parties constituantes
+de la roche qui, <i>par un travail interne</i>, et
+par une sorte de crystallisation, out pris
+cette disposition régulière (que ce mot de
+<i>crystallisation</i> ne révolte point, j'appelle
+ainsi toute tendance à prendre une forme
+constante, polyèdre ou non polyèdre.) Les
+couches les plus voisine du centre sont nettes
+et distinctes; peu-à-peu elles le sont moins,
+et enfin elles s'évanouissent et se confondent
+avec le fond de la roche. Chaque assemblage
+de ces zones a une forme ronde ou
+ovale plus ou moins régulière de sept à huit
+pouces de diamètre.</p>
+
+<p>"Cela ressemble en grand à ce qu'on observe
+dans les pierres oeillées, et la cause est
+vraisemblablement la même. Je le répète,
+je regarde cette disposition régulière comme
+une véritable cristallisation, qui peut s'opérer
+et qui s'opère en effet dans l'intérieur
+des corp les plus solide, tant qu'ils sont
+fournis à l'action des agens de la nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Tous ceux qui visitent l'intérieur de la
+terre savent que les roches mêmes le plus
+compactes y sont intimement pénétrées
+d'humidité, et ce fluide n'est certainement
+pas l'eau pure; c'est l'agent qui opère
+toutes les agrégations, toutes les cristallisations,
+tous les travaux de la nature dans le
+règne minéral. On peut donc aisément
+concevoir qu'à la faveur de ce fluide, il
+règne, dans les parties les plus intimes des
+corps souterrains, une circulation qui fait
+continuellement changer de place aux élémens
+de la matière, jusqu'a ce que réunis
+par la force des affinités, les corpuscules
+similaires prennent la forme que la nature
+leur a assignée."</p>
+
+<p>Those nodular bodies or figured parts which
+are here inclosed in the rock, are evidently
+what may be called calcedony agates. M.
+Patrin is persuaded, from the examination of
+them, that they had not been formed in the
+manner of German agates, which he supposes
+is by mean of infiltration; and he has endeavoured
+to conceive another manner of
+operating, still however by means of water,
+which I suppose, according to this hypothesis,
+is to dissolve substances in one part, and deposits
+them in another, There must certainly
+be some great <i>desideratum</i> in that mineral
+philosophy which is obliged to have recourse
+to such violent suppositions. First, water is
+not an universal solvent, as it would require
+to be, upon this supposition; secondly, were
+water allowed to be an universal menstruum,
+here is to be established a circulation that does
+not naturally arise from the mixture of water
+and earth; and, lastly, were this circulation
+to be allowed, it would not explain the variety
+which is found in the consolidation and
+concretion of mineral bodies.</p>
+
+<p>So long, therefore, as we are to explain natural
+appearances by reasoning from known
+principles, and not by ascribing those effects
+to preternatural causes, we cannot allow
+of this regular operation which M. Patrin
+alleges to be acting in the interior parts
+of the most solid bodies. This is indeed
+evident, that there has been a cause operating
+in the internal parts of the most solid
+bodies, a cause by which the elements, or constituent
+parts of those solid bodies, have been
+moved and regularly disposed, as this author
+very well observes must have been the case in
+our agates or eyed stones; but to ascribe to
+water this effect, or to employ either an ineffectual
+or an unknown cause, is not to reason
+philosophically with regard to the history of
+nature; it is to reason phantastically, and to
+imagine fable.</p>
+
+<p>M. Monnet has imagined a petrifying power
+in water very different from any that has
+hitherto been conceived, I believe, by natural
+philosophers, and I also believe, altogether inconsistent
+with experience or matter of fact;
+but as it is not without good reason that this
+naturalist has been induced to look out for a
+petrifying cause different from any hitherto
+supposed, and as he has endeavoured very
+properly to refute the systems of petrification
+hitherto received, I would beg leave to transcribe
+his reasoning upon the subject in corroboration
+of the present theory of consolidation
+by the means of fusion.</p>
+
+<p>It is upon occasion of describing one of the
+species of alpine stone or schistus which contains
+quartzy particles. <i>Nouveau voyage minéralogique,
+etc.</i> Journal de Physique Aoust
+1784.</p>
+
+<p>"Il y a loin de cette pierre, que je regarde
+comme une variété de roches ardoisées, aux
+véritable ardoises. La composition de toutes
+ces pierres est due aux terres quartzeuses et
+argileuses, et à la terre talqueuse, que je
+démontrerai un jour être une espèce particulière
+et distincte des autres, qui constitue
+les bonnes ardoises, et fait, ainsi que le
+quartz, qu'elles résistent aux injures de l'air,
+sans s'effleurir, comme je ferai voir que cette
+terre, qu'on désignera sous la dénomination
+de terre talqueuse, si l'on veut, résiste au
+grand feu sans se fondre. Les différences
+de toutes ces pierres, quoique composées
+des mêmes matières, mais dans des proportions
+différentes, sont frappantes, et pourroient
+faire croire qu'elles n'appartiennent
+pas à ce genre. Mais qui ne voit ici que
+toutes ces différences, ou ces variétés, ne sont
+dues qu'aux modifications de la matière
+première, qu'elle a éprouvées, soit en se mêlant
+avec des matières hétérogènes, prévenantes
+du débris des êtres qui ont existé,
+comme l'argile, par exemple, qui, de l'aveu
+de presque tous les naturalistes, est le produit
+de l'organization des plantes, ou soit
+en se mêlant avec de la matière déjà solidifiée
+depuis long-temps? Or nous ne craignons
+pas de dire, ce que nous avons dit
+plusieurs fois quand l'occasion s'en est présentée,
+que cette matière unique, que se
+modifie selon les occasions et les circonstances,
+et qui prend un caractère analogue au
+matières qu'elle rencontre, est l'eau, que
+beaucoup de naturalistes cherchent vainement
+ailleurs. Ils ne peuvent comprendre,
+malgré les exemples frappans qui pourroient
+les porter à adopter cette opinion,
+que ce fluide général soit l'élément des corps
+solides du règne minéral, comme il est de
+ceux du règne végétal et du règne animal.
+L'on cherche sérieusement, par des expériences
+chimiques, à découvrir si l'eau est
+susceptible de se convertir en terre comme
+si la nature n'avoit pas d'autre moyen que
+nous de la faire passer de l'état fluide à l'état
+solide. Voyez le spath calcaire et le quartz
+transparens; est il à présumer qu'ils ne
+sont que le résultat du dépôt des matières
+terreuses fait par les eaux? Mais, dans ce ca-là
+encore, il faut supposer que l'eau qui est
+restée entre ces partie s'est solidifiée; car,
+qu'est-elle donc devenue, et quel est donc
+le lien qui a uni ces parties et leur a fait
+prendre une forme régulière? Il est vrai
+qu'on nous parle d'un suc lapidifique; mais
+c'est-la un être de raison, dont il seroit bien
+plus difficile d'établir l'existence, que de
+croire à la solidification de l'eau. On nous
+donne cependant comme un principe certain
+que l'eau charie d'un lieu à un autre
+les matières qu'il a dissoutes, et qu'elle les
+dépose à la maniere des sels. Mais c'est
+supposer une chose démentie par l'experience;
+savoir, que l'eau ait la propriété de
+dissoudre les matières terreuses, telles que
+la quartzeuse. A la vérité, M. Auchard de
+Berlin y joint de l'air fixe; mais cet air fixe
+ne sauroit tenir en dissolution un atome de
+quartz dans l'eau; et quelle qu'ait été l'exactitude
+de ceux qui ont répété les expériences
+de M. Auchard, on n'a pu réussir à
+imiter la nature, c'est-à-dire, à former des
+cristaux quartzeux, comme il a annoncé.
+Que l'eau ait la faculté de tenir en dissolution
+quelques petites parties de terre calcaire,
+au moyen de cet air fixe, il n'en faut
+pas conclure qu'elle puisse former de cette
+maniere tous les cristaux calcaires, sans que
+l'eau elle-même y concoure pour sa part;
+car ce seroit conclure quelque fois que la
+partie seroit égale au tout. Voyez ces
+géodes calcaire et argileuses, qui renferment
+des cristaux nombreux de quartz ou
+de spath calcaire; ne sont ils que le résultat
+du dépôt de l'eau qui y a été renfermée, ou
+que la cristallization pure et simple des molécules
+que vous supposez avoir été tenues
+en dissolution par cette eau? Il naîtroit de
+cette opinion une foule d'objections qu'il
+seroit impossible de résoudre. Cependant
+M. Guettard, dans la minéralogie du Dauphiné,
+qui vient de paroître, ouvrage très-estimable
+à beaucoup d'égards, explique,
+selon cette maniere de penser, la formation
+de cristallizations quartzeuses qu'on trouve
+dans certaines géodes de cette province, et
+celle des mines de cristal des hautes montagnes.
+En supposant même comme vraie
+l'explication qu'il en donne, on trouveroit
+en cela un des plus grands problème, et des
+plus difficiles à résoudre qu'il y ait en minéralogie;
+car d'abord il faudroit expliquer
+comment un si petite quantité d'eau que
+celle qui a été renfermée dans les géodes,
+et celle qui est parvenue dans les fentes des
+rochers, ont pu fournir un si grande quantité
+de matière que celle qui constitue ces
+cristallisations, et ce qui n'est pas le moins
+difficile à concevoir, comment l'eau a pu
+charrier cette matière à travers tant de matières
+différentes, et la conserver précisément
+pour cette destination; comment, par exemple,
+l'eau est venue déposer de la terre
+quartzeuse dans les masses énormes de pierres
+calcaires, qui forment la côté qui domine
+le village de Champigny, à quatre
+lieues de Paris, au delà de Saint-maur; car
+s'il nous faut citer un exemple frappant de
+cette singularité, et à portée d'être vue des
+naturalistes qui sont dans la capitale, je ne
+puis mieux faire que de citer cette côté, une
+des plus curieuses de la France, et que je
+me propose de fair connoître en détail dans
+la troisième partie de la minéralogie de la
+France. On verra, dis-je, dans cette bonne
+pierre à chaux, et une de plus pure des environs
+de Paris, de très-abondantes cristallisations
+de quartz transparent, et quelque fois de
+belle eau, que les ouvriers sont forcés de
+séparer de la partie calcaire, à laquelle elles
+adhèrent fortement. Mais c'est trop nous
+arrêter à combattre une opinion qui doit son
+origine aux premières idées qu'ont eues les
+premiers observateurs en minéralogie, qui
+se détruira d'elle même comme tant d'autres
+dont il nous reste à peine le souvenir."</p>
+
+<p>We find here an accurate naturalist, and a
+diligent observer, who, in conformity with
+what my sentiments are upon the subject,
+thinks it impossible that the crystallizations in
+close cavities, and concretions of different solid
+substances within each other, which so frequently
+occur in the mineral regions, could
+have been produced, by means of solution and
+crystallization, from a fluid vehicle. But
+what has he now substituted in place of this
+solution, in order to explain appearances?&mdash;a
+mere supposition, viz. that nature may have
+the power of converting water, in those secret
+places, into some other thing; or rather that
+the substance of water is here converted into
+every other thing; for, though he has only
+mentioned quartz and calcareous spar, what
+mineral substance is there that may not be
+found in those close cavities? They are actually
+almost all, not even excepting gold;
+for, small grains of gold are inclosed within
+the cavities of a porous stone, in the Siberian
+mine. Now, for what purpose should nature,
+(to the power of which we are not to set a
+limit) have such an object in view as to convert
+water into every thing, unless it were to
+confound human understanding? For, so far
+as human experience has been as yet able to
+reach, there would appear to be certain elementary
+substances; and among these is water,
+or the principles of that fluid<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43"><sup>43</sup></a>. But because
+water is so generally found in bodies, and so
+necessarily in most of the operations of this
+world, why convert it into every other thing?
+Surely, for no better reason than that there
+has not occurred to this mineralist any other
+way of explaining certain natural appearances
+which aqueous solution could not produce.
+Here is no dispute about a matter of fact; it
+is on all hands allowed, that in certain cavities,
+inaccessible to any thing but heat and
+cold, we find mineral concretions, which contain
+no water, and which, according to the
+known operations of nature, water could not
+have produced; must we therefore have recourse
+to water acting according to no known
+principle, that is to say, are we to explain nature
+by a preternatural cause?</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a><b>Footnote 43:</b><a href="#footnotetag43"> (return) </a> Water is now considered by men of science, as a
+compound substance; this doctrine, which seems to follow
+so necessarily from the experiments of the French
+philosophers, must be tried by the growing light of chemical
+science. In the oxygenating operation of inflammable
+and combustible bodies when burning, those ingenious
+chemists overlooked the operation of <i>phlogistic matter</i>,
+which has no weight, and which escapes on that occasion,
+as I have had occasion to show in a dissertation upon phlogiston,
+and in the Philosophy of Light, Heat, and Fire.
+How far this view, which I have given of those interesting
+experiments, may lead to the explanation of other collateral
+phenomena, such as that of the water produced, I
+will not pretend to conjecture.  One thing is evident,
+that if the weight of the water, procured in burning inflammable
+and vital air, be equal to that of those two
+gasses, we would then have reason to conclude, either that
+water were a compound substance, or that vital air, and
+inflammable vapour were compounds of water and the
+matter of light, or solar substance.</blockquote>
+
+<p>I dare say that this is not the view that M.
+Monnet takes of the subject, when he thinks
+to explain to himself the concretion of those
+different substances by means of water; but,
+according to my apprehension of the matter,
+his theory, when sifted to the bottom, will
+bear no other construction; and, unless he
+shall consider water like the matter of heat, as
+capable of producing the fluidity of fusion,
+and of being also again abstracted from the
+fluid, by pervading the most solid body, which
+would then be a substance different from water,
+he must employ this aqueous substance as a
+menstruum or solvent for solid bodies, in the
+same manner as has been done by those naturalists
+whom he he justly censure, and conform
+to those erroneous ideas which first observations,
+or inaccurate knowledge of minerals,
+may have suggested to former naturalists.</p>
+
+<p>It is the dissolution and concretion of siliceous
+substance, no doubt, that gives such difficulty
+to our naturalists in explaining petrifaction:
+they have, however, something apparently
+in their favour, which it may be proper
+now to mention.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>first</i> place, although siliceous substance
+is not soluble, so far as we know, by
+simple water, it is soluble by means of alkaline
+substance; consequently, it is possible that
+it may be dissolved in the earth.</p>
+
+<p><i>Secondly</i>, The water of Giezer in Iceland,
+actually petrifies bodies which are alternately
+imbibed with that hot water and exposed to
+the air. This water, therefore, not only contains
+siliceous substance in a dissolved state,
+but deposits this again, either by means of
+cooling, or being aerated, or of evaporating.
+Consequently, without knowing the principle
+upon which it proceeds, we here perceive a
+natural operation by which siliceous petrifaction
+may be performed.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lastly</i>, We have another principle for the
+dissolution of siliceous substance. This is the
+fluor acid which volatilises the siliceous substance.
+This, however, requires certain conditions,
+which cannot be found as a general
+cause in the mineral regions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we would seem to have every thing
+necessary for explaining the concretion and
+crystallization of siliceous bodies, provided we
+could find the proper conditions requisite for
+that operation; for whether it shall be by
+means of acid or alkaline substances that siliceous
+matter is to be dissolved, volatilised, and
+transported from one place to another, it is
+necessary that those dissolving substances should
+be present upon those occasions. Nor is it
+sufficient only to dissolve the siliceous substance
+which is to be transported; the necessary
+conditions for the concretion again of the
+dissolved substances, whatever these may be,
+are also absolutely required for this operation.
+Now, though those requisite conditions may
+be, upon many occasions, allowed in the
+earth, it is not according to the theory of our
+modern naturalists, who explain petrifaction
+upon the principles of simple infiltration of
+water, that any advantage can be taken of
+those conditions; nor are natural appearances
+to be explained without employing more
+complicated chemical agents in the mineral
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>To this subject of the petrifactions of Giezier,
+I may now add the information which
+we have received in consequence of a new
+voyage from this country to Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>When Sir Joseph Banks returned from his
+expedition to Iceland, he landed at this place;
+and, having brought specimens of the petrifications
+of Giezer, Dr Black and I first discovered
+that these were of a siliceous substance. I
+have always conjectured that the water of
+Giezer must be impregnated with flinty matter
+by means of an alkaline substance, and so
+expressed my opinion in the Theory of the
+Earth published in the Transactions of the
+Edinburgh Royal Society. We have therefore
+been very desirous of procuring some of
+that water, in order to have it analysed.</p>
+
+<p>An opportunity favourable to our views has
+occurred this summer. Mr Stanley set out
+from this place with the same purpose of examining
+Iceland. He was so good as to ask
+of Dr Black and I what inquiries we would
+incline that he should make. We have now,
+by the favour of this gentleman, obtained
+specimens of the petrifactions of Giezer; and,
+what is still more interesting, we have procured
+some of the water of those petrifying
+boiling springs.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from these specimens, that the
+boiling water which is ejected from those
+aqueous volcanoes, if we may use the expression,
+is endued with the quality of forming
+two different species of petrifaction or incrustation;
+for, besides the siliceous bodies, of
+which we had before received specimens, the
+same stream of water incrustates its channel
+with a calcareous substance. All the specimens
+which I have seen consist of incrustation,
+some purely siliceous, some calcareous,
+and others mixed of those two, more or less.</p>
+
+<p>Dr Black has been analysing the water;
+and he finds in it siliceous matter dissolved
+by an alkaline substance, in the manner of
+liquor silicum<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44"><sup>44</sup></a>. My conjecture has thus
+been verified.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a><b>Footnote 44:</b><a href="#footnotetag44"> (return) </a> See Trans. of the Edin. Royal Society.</blockquote>
+
+<p>It must not be alleged that nature may
+operate in the mineral regions, as she does
+here upon the surface in the case of Giezer.
+Such an argument as this, however sound it
+may be in general, will not apply to the subject
+of which we treat at present. There is
+no question about the limiting the powers of
+nature; we are only considering nature as operating
+in a certain determined manner, viz.
+by water acting simply upon the loose materials
+of the land deposited at the bottom of the
+sea, and accumulated in regular strata, one
+upon another, to the most enormous depth or
+thickness. This is the situation and condition
+of things in which nature is to operate; and
+we are to find the means of consolidating
+those strata, and concreting every species of
+substance in almost every possible composition,
+according to some known physical principle.
+Here is an operation which is limited; for, we
+must reason strictly, according to the laws of
+nature, in the case which we have under consideration;
+and we cannot suppose nature as
+ever transgressing those laws.</p>
+
+<p>It is acknowledged, that, by means sometimes
+of an aeriform, sometimes of an alkaline,
+perhaps also of an acid substance, calcareous
+matter is dissolved in the earth, and certain
+metallic substances, such as lead and iron.
+This solution also, upon particular occasions,
+(where the proper conditions for separating
+the solvent from the dissolved substance exist),
+forms certain concretions; these are sometimes
+a mere incrustation, as in the case of
+the siliceous incrustation of Giezer, sometimes
+again in a crystallised or sparry form,
+as in the case of stalactical concretions. But
+here is no question of those cases where the
+proper conditions may be found; first, of dissolving
+the substance which is afterwards to be
+concreted; secondly, of separating the menstruum
+from the dissolved substance; and,
+lastly, of removing the fluid deprived of its
+solution, and of supplying a new solution in
+its room; the question is, how far those concretions
+are formed where those conditions do
+not take place. Now, this last case is that of
+almost all mineral concretions.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be here alleged that certain
+concretions have been found in mines posterior
+to these having been worked by man;
+consequently, that those concretions have been
+formed by nothing but the infiltration of water.
+In those cases, where such concretions
+are truly found, I am persuaded that all the
+conditions proper to that operation will also
+be found; and it is only, I believe, in those
+cases where such proper conditions may be
+found, that this aqueous concretion ever appears.
+Now, if we shall except calcareous
+stalactite, and the bog ore of iron, How seldom
+is it that any appearance of those aqueous
+mineral concretion ever is found? Those
+very few cases in which they are found, afford
+the strongest proof against these being operations
+general to the globe, or proper mineral
+concretions; because it is only where all the
+necessary conditions conspire in each contributing
+its part, that the effect is accomplished;
+and this is a thing which cannot possibly
+take place in the aquiform strata below the
+surface of the sea. But, without attending to
+this clear distinction of things perfectly different,
+naturalists are apt to see false analogies,
+and thus in generalising to form the most erroneous
+theories.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now give an example of this fallaceous
+manner of reasoning; it is in the case
+of certain mineral appearances which are erroneously
+considered as stalactical concretions.</p>
+
+<p>The only true stalactical bodies are of a
+calcareous substance; they are formed by water
+containing this substance in a dissolved
+state; and the principles upon which this particular
+concretion is formed are well known.
+It is therefore easy to compare other concretions,
+which may have some superficial resemblance
+to these stalactical bodies, in order to
+see if they have proceeded upon the same
+principle of concretion from a dissolved state,
+or by water depositing its dissolved substance
+in a similar manner.</p>
+
+<p>There are two different mineral substances
+which give appearances of this sort. These
+are certain concretions of calcedony, and also
+of iron-ore, which are thought to have such
+resemblance to stalactical concretions as, by
+some superficial observers, to be reckoned of
+the same kind. It is now proposed to show
+that those conclusions are not well founded;
+and that, in this case of calcedony and iron-ore,
+it could not be upon the principle of stalactical
+concretion that the bodies now in question
+had their forms.</p>
+
+<p>The principle upon which calcareous substance
+is dissolved in water, and made to concrete
+by the evaporation of the acid substance,
+or fixed air by which it had been dissolved, is
+too well known to require any explanation
+in this place; we are only to consider the
+sensible effects of those operations of which
+we know so well the proper conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There are just two distinct views under
+which we may consider all stalactical concretions
+formed; these are the incrustation of the
+calcareous substance concreting upon a foreign
+body, and the incrustation of the same substance
+upon itself. By the first any manner
+of shape may be formed, provided there be a
+solid body, upon the surface of which the calcareous
+solution is made to pass. By the second,
+again, we have various forms; but we
+know the principles upon which they had
+been made. These are the shape and motions
+of the fluid which gives the calcareous
+concretion. Now, these principles are always
+to be perceived, more or less, in all the bizarre
+or fantastical, as well as regular shapes which
+are produced by stalactical concretions. At
+present, we shall confine our views to one
+particular shape, which is simple, regular, and
+perfectly understood wherever it is formed.</p>
+
+<p>Drops of water falling from a roof, and
+forming stalactite, produce first tubular bodies,
+and then gradually consolidate and increase
+those pendulous bodies by incrustation. These
+appearances are thought to be observed in the
+calcedony and ferruginous concretions, which
+has led some mineralists to conclude, that those
+concretions had been formed in the same manner,
+by means of water. We are now to show
+that these mineral appearances are not analogous
+to stalactites in their formation, and that
+they have evidently been formed in a different
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>It must be evident, that, in the formation
+of those pendulous bodies, each distinct stalactite
+must be formed by a separate drop of water;
+consequently, that no more stalactites can
+be formed in a given space, than there could
+have subsisted separate drops of water. Now,
+a drop of water is a very determined thing;
+and thus we have a principle by which to
+judge of those mistaken appearances.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose the gut of water to be but
+one eighth of an inch, although it is a great
+deal more, we should have no stalactites formed
+nearer to each other than that measure of
+space. But those mineral concretions, which
+are supposed to be stalactical, are contained in
+half that space, or are nearer to each other
+than the tenth or twentieth of an inch. I
+have them like needles, and in every degree
+of proximity or contiguity, at the same time
+that they are perfectly solid. Therefore, it is
+plainly impossible that they could have been
+formed upon this principle of calcareous stalactite.
+But, it is only by this false resemblance,
+that any argument can be formed for
+the concretion of those bodies from an aqueous
+solution; in every other respect they are
+true mineral concretions; and, that these have
+had a very different origin, has been already
+the subject of investigation, and will be more
+particularly examined in the course of this
+work.</p>
+
+<p>The term <i>infiltration</i>, which has been much
+employed for explaining mineral appearances,
+is too vague, imperfect, or unexplicit, for
+science, whether as the means of knowing
+nature, or the subject of confutation. This is
+not the case with that of stalactite; here is a
+term that implies a certain natural operation,
+or a most distinct process for attaining a certain
+end; and we know the principles upon
+which it proceeds, as well as the several steps
+that may be traced in the general result. It
+is an operation which has not only been analysed
+to its principles; it is also a process
+which is performed by man, proceeding on
+his acquired knowledge. Now, were this
+operation common to the mineral regions, as
+it is proper to the surface of this earth; we
+could not remain in any degree of suspense
+with regard to the origin of those mineral
+bodies; for, having the true clue of knowledge,
+we should be able to unravel the most
+intricate and mysterious appearance. But, so
+far from this being the case, the more we
+come to inquire into nature, and employ this
+principle, the less we find it applicable, and
+the more involved in darkness is our science.</p>
+
+<p>The places where these false appearances of
+stalactite are found, are precisely those in
+which, from the nature of things, all possibility
+for such an operation is excluded. For,
+How can this take place within a closs cavity
+in the mineral regions? The term <i>vegetation</i>
+may as well be employed for the explanation
+of those appearances: But what would
+now be said of such an explication? It is
+high time that science were properly applied
+to the natural history of this earth, and mineralists
+not allowed to impose upon themselves
+with false reasoning, or to please themselves
+with the vain attempt of explaining visible
+effects by unknown causes.</p>
+
+<p>Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting
+petrifaction or mineral concretion, as I
+have now exposed, opinions that are not
+founded on any sound physical principle,
+authorise me to conclude that they are all
+erroneous. If this be admitted, it will follow
+that we have no proof of any proper mineral
+concretion except that which had proceeded
+by congelation from the fluid state of fusion.
+This has been the doctrine which I have held
+out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will
+be more and more confirmed as we come to
+examine particular mineral appearances.</p>
+<br>
+<h3>CHAP. VIII.</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation
+of Bituminous Strata, investigated.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<p>SECT. I.&mdash;<i>Purpose of this Inquiry.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>In the first chapter, I have given a perfect
+mark by which to judge, of every consolidated
+stratum, how far that had been the
+operation or effect of water alone, or if it had
+been that of heat and fusion. This is the
+particular veins or divisions of the consolidated
+stratum, arising from the contraction of
+the mass, distended by heat, and contracted
+in cooling. It is not an argument of greater
+or lesser probability; it is a physical demonstration;
+but, so far as I see, it would appear
+to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.
+Time, however, will open the eyes
+of men; science will some day find admittance
+into the cabinet of the curious. I will
+therefore now give another proof,&mdash;not of
+the consolidation of mineral bodies by means
+of fusion, for there is no mineral body in
+which that proof is not found,&mdash;but of the
+inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the
+appearances of bodies, where not only fusion
+had been employed for the consolidation, but
+where the application of heat is necessary, and
+along with it the circumstances proper for
+<i>distillation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water
+issuing from the earth, one forming calcareous
+incrustations, the other depositing bituminous
+substances. Here is enough for them
+to make the theory of a world; on the one
+hand, solid marble is explained, on the other,
+solid coal. Ignorance suspects not error;
+their first step is to reason upon a false principle;&mdash;no
+matter, were they only to reason
+far enough, they would soon find their error
+by the absurdity into which it lands them.
+The misfortune is, they reason no farther;
+they have explained mineralogy by infiltration;
+and they content themselves with viewing
+the beautiful specimens in their cabinet.
+the supposed product of solution and crystalization.
+How shall we inform such observators;
+How reason with those who attend
+not to an argument!</p>
+
+<p>As naturalists have explained all mineral
+concretions from aqueous or other solution,
+and attributed to infiltration the formation of
+those stony bodies in which there are marks
+of their original composition, so have they
+explained to themselves, I suppose, the origin
+of those bituminous bodies which are found
+among the strata of the earth. In the case of
+stony substances, I have shown how unfounded
+all their theories are for the production of
+those concretions, crystallizations, and consolidated
+bodies. I am here to examine the
+subject of inflammable and combustible bodies,
+which I believe have been little considered by
+those theorists who suppose mineral bodies
+consolidated by infiltration. It is here that
+we shall find an infinite difference between
+the aqueous and igneous theories; for, we
+shall find it impossible to explain by the one
+certain operations which must have necessarily
+required the great agent generally employed
+in the other.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of this chapter is a touch-stone
+for every theory of the earth. In every quarter
+of this globe, perhaps in every extensive
+country, bituminous strata are to be found;
+they are alternated with those which are called
+aquiform, or which had been evidently
+formed by subsidence of certain moved materials
+at the bottom of the sea; so far, therefore,
+all those strata have had the same origin.
+In this point I think I may assert, that all the
+different theories at present are agreed; and
+it is only concerning certain transformations
+of those strata, since their original collection,
+that have been ascribed to different causes.</p>
+
+<p>Of these transformations, which the strata
+must have undergone, there are two kinds;
+one in relation to change of place and position;
+the other in relation to solidity or consistence.
+It is only the last of those two
+changes which is here to be the subject of
+consideration; because, with regard to the
+first, there is nothing peculiar in these bituminous
+strata to throw any light, in that respect,
+upon the others. This is not the case with
+regard to the transformation in their chemical
+character and consistence; bituminous bodies
+may not be affected by chemical agents, such
+as fire and water, in the same manner as the
+argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and such
+other strata that are alternated with the bituminous;
+and thus we may find the means for
+investigating the nature of that agent by which
+those strata in general have been transformed
+in their substance; or we may find means for
+the detecting of false theories which may have
+been formed with regard to those operations
+in which the original deposits of water had
+been changed.</p>
+
+<p>We have had but two theories, with regard
+to the transformation of those bodies which
+have had a known origin, or to the change of
+their substance and consistence; the one of
+these which I have given is that of heat or
+fusion; the other, which I wish to be compared
+with mine, is that of water and infiltration.
+It is by this last that all authors hitherto,
+in one shape or another, have endeavoured
+to explain the changes that those strata
+must have undergone since the time of their
+first formation at the bottom of the sea. They
+indiscriminately apply the doctrine of infiltration
+to those strata of mineral coal as to any
+other; they say that bituminous matter is infiltrated
+with the water, impregnates certain
+strata of earth with bituminous matter, and
+thus converts them into mineral coal, and bituminous
+strata. This is not reasoning physically,
+or by the inductive method of proceeding
+upon matter of fact; it is reasoning fantastically,
+or by making gratuitous supposition
+founded merely on imagination. It was thus
+that natural philosophers reasoned before the
+age of science; the wonder now is, how men
+of science, in the present enlightened age,
+should suffer such language of ignorance and
+credulity to pass uncensured.</p>
+
+<p>The subject which I am now to treat of
+consists of peculiar strata of the earth, bodies
+which we may investigate through all the
+stages of their change, which is extreme; for,
+from vegetable bodies produced upon the habitable
+earth, they are now become a mineral
+body, and the most perfect coal,&mdash;a thing
+extremely different from what it had been,
+and a thing which cannot be supposed to
+have been accomplished by the operation of
+water alone, or any other agent in nature
+with which we are acquainted, except the action
+of fire or heat. It is therefore impossible
+for a philosopher, reasoning upon actual physical
+principles, not to acknowledge in this a
+complete proof of the theory which has been
+given, and a complete refutation of that aqueous
+operation which has been so inconsiderately
+supposed as consolidating the strata of
+the earth, and forming the various mineral
+concretions which are found in that great
+body.</p>
+
+<p>To see this, it will be sufficient to trace the
+progress of vegetable and animal substances,
+(bodies which had certainly lived by means
+of a former earth), to this changed state in
+which they have become perfect mineral bodies,
+and constitute a part of the present earth.
+For, as these changes are perfectly explained
+by the one theory, and absolutely inconsistent
+with the other, there arises from this a conviction
+that must be irresistible to a person
+who can give proper attention to a chain of
+reasoning from effect to cause.</p>
+
+<p>But if we thus succeed to illustrate the
+theory of the earth by the natural history of
+those particular strata, we have but one step
+farther to make in order to bring all the other
+parts of the earth, whether stratified or not,
+into the most perfect consistence with the
+theory; now this step, it will be most easy to
+make; and I shall now mention it, that so
+the reader may keep it in his view: Pyrites is
+a sulphureo-metallic substance, which cannot
+be produced by means of water, a substance
+which the influences of the atmosphere decomposes
+or separates into its elements, and
+which even our imperfect art may be considered
+as able to produce, by means of fusion
+in our fires. Therefore, the finding of this
+creature of fire intimately connected with
+those consolidated strata of mineral coal, adds
+the greatest confirmation, were it necessary, to
+the doctrine of those mineral bodies having
+been consolidated by fusion. This confirmation,
+however, is not necessary, and it is not
+the only thing which I am at present to illustrate
+in that doctrine. What I have now in
+view is, to homologate the origin of those coal
+strata, with the production of every other
+mineral substance, by heat or fusion; and this
+is what the intimate connection of pyrites
+with those strata will certainly accomplish.
+This will be done in the following manner:</p>
+
+<p>Pyrites is not only found in great masses
+along with the coal strata; it is contained in
+the veins which traverse those strata, and in
+the minute ramifications of those veins, which
+are occasioned by the contraction of the mass,
+and generally divide it into small cubical
+pieces; but besides that extrinsic connection,
+(as it may be called,) with the stratum of coal,
+pyrites is found intimately connected with
+that solid body, in being mixed with its substance.
+If, therefore, it were proved, that
+either the one or other of those two substances
+had been consolidated by fusion, the other
+must be acknowledged as having had the same
+origin; but now I am to prove, from the natural
+history of mineral coal, that pyrites had
+been there formed by fusion; and then, by
+means of the known origin of that sulphureo-metallic
+substance, we shall extend our knowledge
+to the origin of every other mineral
+body.</p>
+
+<p>The process of this argument is as follows:
+Every mineral body, I believe, without exception,
+will be found so intimately connected
+with pyrites, that these two things must be
+concluded as having been together in a fluid
+state, and that, whatever may have been the
+cause of fluidity in the one, this must have also
+caused the fluidity in the other; consequently,
+whatever shall be proved with regard
+to the mineral operations of pyrites, must be
+considered as proved of every other mineral
+substance. But, from the connection of pyrites
+with mineral coal, it is to be proved that
+the origin of this metallic body had been fusion;
+and then it will appear, that all other
+mineral bodies must have been more or less
+in fusion, or that they must have been consolidated
+by means of heat, and not by any
+manner of solution or aqueous infiltration. I
+therefore now proceed to take a view of the
+natural history of coal strata,&mdash;a subject which
+mineralogists seem not inclined to engage with,
+although the most ample data are to be found
+for that investigation.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. II.&mdash;<i>Natural History of Coal Strata,
+and Theory of this Geological Operation.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>Fossil coal is the species of stratum best understood
+with regard to its accidents, as being
+much sought after; at least, this is the case in
+many parts of Britain, where it supplies the
+place of wood for burning. This fossil body
+has the most distinguished character; for, being
+inflammable or combustible in its nature,
+there is no other species of stratum that may
+be confounded with it.</p>
+
+<p>But, though coal be thus the most distinguishable
+mineral, and that which is best understood
+in the science of mining, it is perhaps
+the most difficult to be treated of in the
+science of mineralogy; for, not having properly
+any distinguishable parts, we have nothing
+in the natural constitution of this body,
+as we have in most other strata, to lead us to
+the knowledge of its original state or first formation.</p>
+
+<p>The varieties of coal are distinguished by
+their different manner of burning; but, from
+appearances of this kind, no perfect judgement
+can be formed with regard to the specific
+manner in which those strata had been
+made; although, from chemical principles,
+some conclusion may be drawn concerning
+certain changes which they have undergone
+since they had been formed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have one species of coal which
+is extremely fusible, abounds with oil, and
+consequently is inflammable; we have another
+species again which is perfectly fixed and infusible
+in the fire; therefore, we may conclude
+upon principle, that, however, both
+those coals must have undergone the operation
+of heat and fusion, in bringing them to
+their present state, it is only the last that has
+become so much evaporated as to become perfectly
+fixed, or so perfectly distilled, as to
+have been reduced to a caput mortuum.</p>
+
+<p>The argument here employed is founded
+upon this fact; that, from the fusible species
+of coal, a caput mortuum may be formed by
+distillation, and that this chemical production
+has every essential quality, or every peculiar
+property, of the fixed and infusible species;
+although, from the circumstances of our operation,
+this caput mortuum may not have precisely
+the exterior appearance of the natural
+coal. But, we have reason to believe, it is
+not in the nature of things to change the infusible
+species, so as to make it fusible or oily.
+Now, that this body was not formed originally
+in its present state, must appear from this,
+that the stratum here considered is perfectly
+solid; but, without fusion, this could not have
+been attained; and the coal is now supposed
+to be infusible. Consequently, this fixed substance,
+which is now, properly speaking, a
+perfect coal, had been originally an oily bituminous
+or fusible substance. It is now a fixed
+substance, and an infusible coal; therefore,
+it must have been by means of heat and distillation
+that it had been changed, from the
+original state in which this stratum had been
+formed.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus, in the examination of coal
+strata upon chemical principles, received a
+certain lesson in geology, although this does
+not form a proper distinction by which to
+specify those strata in general, or explain the
+variety of that mineral. For, in this manner,
+we could only distinguish properly two species
+of those strata; the one bituminous or inflammable;
+the other proper coal, burning without
+smoke or flame. Thus it will appear
+that, as this quality of being perfectly charred
+is not originally in the constitution of the
+stratum, but an accident to which some strata
+of every species may have been subjected, we
+could not class them by this property without
+confounding together strata which had differences
+in their composition or formation.
+Therefore, we are led to inquire after some
+other distinction, which may be general to strata
+of fossil coal, independent of those changes
+which this substance may have undergone after
+it had been formed in a stratum.</p>
+
+<p>Perfect mineral coal being a body of undistinguishable
+parts, it is only in its resolution
+that we may analyse it, and this is done by
+burning. Thus, in analysing coal by burning,
+we have, in the ashes alone, that by which
+one species of coal may be distinguished from
+another; and, if we should consider pure coal
+as having no ashes of itself, we should then, in
+the weight of its ashes, have a measure of the
+purity of the coal, this being inversely as the
+quantity of the ashes. Now, though this be
+not accurately true, as the purest coal must
+have some ashes proper to itself, yet, as this is
+a small matter compared with the quantity of
+earthy matter that may be left in burning
+some species of coal, this method of analysis
+may be considered as not far removed from
+the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But, in distinguishing fossil coal by this
+species of chemical analysis, not only is there
+to be found a perfect or indefinite gradation
+from a body which is perfectly combustible
+to one that is hardly combustible in any sensible
+degree, we should also fall into an inconveniency
+similar to that already mentioned,
+of confounding two things extremely different
+in their nature, a bituminous body, and a
+perfect charcoal. Thus, if we shall found our
+distinction upon the fusibility and different
+degree of having been charred, we shall confound
+fossil coals of very different degrees of
+value in burning, or of very different compositions
+as strata; if, again, we found it upon
+the purity of composition, in judging from
+the ashes, we shall confound fossil bodies of
+very different qualities, the one burning with
+much smoke and flame, the other without
+any; the one fusible almost like wax, the
+other fixed and infusible as charcoal.</p>
+
+<p>It will now appear, that what cannot be
+done in either the one or other of those two
+methods, may in a great degree, or with considerable
+propriety, be performed in employing
+both.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, whether for the economical purposes
+of life, or the natural history of fossil coal,
+those strata should be considered both with
+regard to the purity of their composition as
+inflammable matter deposited at the bottom
+of the sea, and to the changes which they
+have afterwards undergone by the operation
+of subterranean heat and distillation.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the original matter
+of which coal strata are composed to be of
+two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as
+being perfectly inflammable or combustible;
+the other an earthy matter, with which proper
+coal may be variously mixed in its composition,
+or intimately connected, in subsiding
+from that suspended state by which it had
+been carried in the ocean. It is a matter of
+great importance, in the physiology of this
+globe, to know that the proper substance of
+coal may be thus mixed with heterogeneous
+bodies; for, supposing that this earthy matter,
+which has subsided in the water along with coal,
+be no farther connected with the combustible
+substance of those strata, than that it had floated
+in the waters of the ocean, and subsided <i>pari
+passu</i> with the proper materials of the coal, we
+hence learn a great deal with regard to the
+state in which the inflammable matter must
+have been at the time of its formation into
+strata. This will appear by considering, that
+we find schistus mixed with coal in the most
+equal or uniform manner, and in almost every
+conceivable degree, from the purest coal to
+the most perfect schistus. Hence we have
+reason to conclude, that, at the formation of
+those strata, the bituminous matter, highly
+subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the
+earth subsiding in the water.</p>
+
+<p>Not only is the bituminous matter of coal
+found mixed in every different proportion
+with the earthy or uninflammable materials of
+strata, but the coaly or bituminous composition
+is found with perhaps every different
+species of substance belonging to strata. This
+is certain, that we have the coaly matter intimately
+mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous
+strata.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it will appear, that it is no proper
+explanation of the formation of coal strata, to
+say that vegetable matter is the basis of those
+strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance
+proper for the formation of bituminous matter
+is produced, it remains to know by what
+means, from a vegetable body, this bituminous
+matter is produced, and how it comes to be
+diffused in that subtile state by which it may
+be uniformly mixed with the most impalpable
+earth in water. Could we once resolve this
+question, every other appearance might be
+easily explained. Let us therefore now endeavour
+to discover a principle for the resolving
+of this problem.</p>
+
+<p>There are two ways in which vegetable
+bodies may be, in part at least, resolved into
+that subtilised state of bituminous matter after
+which we inquire; the one of these is by
+means of fire, the other by water. We shall
+now consider these severally as the means of
+forming bituminous strata, although they may
+be both employed by nature in this work.</p>
+
+<p>When vegetable bodies are made to burn,
+there is always more or less of a fuliginous
+substance formed; but this fuliginous substance
+is no other than a bituminous body in
+that subtilised state in which it is indefinitely
+divided, and may be mixed uniformly with
+any mass of matter equally subtilised with itself.
+But this is precisely what we want, in
+order to compose the strata of coal in question.
+If, therefore, there were to be found in the
+ocean such a fund of this fuliginous substance
+as might suffice for the formation of bituminous
+strata, no difficulty would be left in explaining
+the original of fossil coal. But tho'
+sufficient quantity of this fuliginous matter
+might not be found for the explanation of
+natural appearances, yet there cannot be a
+doubt that more or less of this matter must be
+produced in the mineral operations of the
+globe, and be found precisely in that place
+where it is required for the forming of those
+strata of coal.</p>
+
+<p>In order to conceive this, we are to consider,
+that there are actually great quantities of
+coal strata in a charred state, which indicates
+that all their more volatile oleaginous or fuliginous
+matter had been separated by force of
+subterranean heat; and, we are to suppose
+that this had been transacted at the bottom of
+the ocean: Consequently, a subtile oleaginous,
+bituminous, or fuliginous substance, must have
+been diffused in that ocean; and this bituminous
+matter would be employed in forming
+other strata, which were then deposited at the
+bottom of the waters.</p>
+
+<p>But besides this quantity of bituminous
+matter which is necessarily formed in the mineral
+operations of the earth, and with regard
+to the quantity of which we can never form
+a proper estimate, there must enter into this
+same calculation all the fuliginous matter that
+is formed in burning bodies upon the surface
+of this earth. This bituminous matter of
+smoke is first delivered into the atmosphere,
+but ultimately it must be settled at the bottom
+of the sea. Hence though, compared with
+the quantity that we think required, each revolution
+of the globe produces but a little in
+our estimation, yet the progress of time, in reforming
+worlds, may produce all that is necessary
+in the formation of our strata.</p>
+
+<p>There now remains to explain the other
+way in which bituminous matter may be obtained
+from vegetable bodies, that is, by means
+of water. For this purpose we must begin
+with a part of natural history that will throw
+some light upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>All the rivers in Scotland run into the sea
+tinged with a brown substance; this is most
+evident in some of them after a flood, and
+while yet the river is swelled; but, in travelling
+to the north of Scotland in the summer
+season, without any rain, I saw all the rivers,
+without exception, of a brown colour, compared
+with a river of more clear water. This
+colour proceeds from the moss water, as it is
+called, which runs into the rivers, or the infusion
+of that vegetable substance which forms
+combustible turf, called peat. Now, this
+moss water leaves, upon evaporation, a bituminous
+substance, which very much resembles
+fossil coal. Therefore, in order to employ
+this vegetable infusion, delivered into the ocean
+for the purpose of forming bituminous strata
+at its bottom, it is only required to make this
+bituminous matter separate and subside.</p>
+
+<p>If now we consider the immense quantity
+of inflammable vegetable substance, dissolved
+in water, that is carried into the sea by all the
+rivers of the earth, and the indefinite space of
+time during which those rivers have been
+pouring in that oily matter into the sea; and
+if we consider, that the continual action of
+the sun and atmosphere upon this oily substance
+tends, by inspissation, to make it more
+and more dense or bituminous, we cannot
+hesitate in supposing a continual separation of
+this bituminous matter or inspissated oil from
+the water, and a precipitation of it to the bottom
+of the sea. This argument is corroborated
+by considering, that, if it were otherwise,
+the water of the sea must have, during the
+immense time that rivers are proved to have
+run, be strongly impregnated with that oily
+or bituminous substance; but this does not
+appear; therefore we are to conclude, that
+there must be the means of separating that
+substance from the water in which it had been
+dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>If there is thus, from the continual perishing
+of animal and vegetable bodies upon the
+surface of this earth and in the sea, a certain
+supply of oily or bituminous matter given to
+the ocean, then, however small a portion of
+this shall be supposed the whole oily or inflammable
+matter produced upon the surface of
+the earth, or however long time it may require
+for thus producing a stratum or considerable
+body of coal, we must still see in this a source
+of the materials proper for the production of
+that species of strata in the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered the proper materials
+of which pure fossil coal is chiefly formed;
+we have at present to consider what should be
+the appearances of such a substance as this collected
+at the bottom of the sea, and condensed
+or consolidated by compression and by heat.
+We should thus have a body of a most uniform
+structure, black, breaking with a polished
+surface, and more or less fusible in the fire,
+or burning with more or less smoke and flame,
+in proportion as it should be distilled or inspissated,
+less or more, by subterranean heat. But
+this is the description of our purest fossil coals,
+which burn in giving the greatest quantity of
+heat, and leave the smallest quantity of ashes.</p>
+
+<p>In order to form another regular species of
+coal, let us suppose that, along with the bituminous
+substance now considered, there shall
+be floating in the water of the ocean a subtile
+earthy substance, and that these two different
+substances shall subside together in an uniform
+manner, to produce a stratum which shall be
+covered with immense weight, compressed,
+condensed, and consolidated as before, we
+should thus have produced a most homogeneous
+or uniform body to appearance, but not
+so in reality. The mixture of heterogeneous
+matter, in this case, is too minute to be discovered
+simply by inspection; it must require
+deep reflection upon the subject, with the help
+of chemical analysis, to understand the constitution
+of this body, and judge of all the circumstances
+or particulars in which it differs
+from the former. It is worth while to examine
+this subject with some attention, as it
+will give the most instructive view of the
+composition of bituminous strata, both those
+which are not considered as coal, and also the
+different species of that mineral body.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place then, if the mixture of
+those two different substances had been sufficiently
+perfect, and the precipitation uniform,
+the solid body of coal resulting from this mixture,
+would not only appear homogeneous, but
+might break equally or regularly in all directions;
+but the fracture of this coal must visibly
+differ from the former, so far as the fracture
+of this heterogeneous coal cannot have the
+polished surface of the pure bituminous body;
+for, the earthy matter that is interposed among
+the bituminous particles must affect the
+fracture in preventing its surface from being
+perfectly smooth. This imperfect plane
+of the fracture may be improved by polishing;
+in which case the body might be sufficiently
+smooth to have an agreeable polish; but it
+cannot have a perfect polish like a homogeneous
+body, or appear with that glassy surface
+which is naturally in the fracture of the
+pure bituminous coal.</p>
+
+<p>But this is also a perfect description of
+that species of coal which is called in England
+Kennel coal, and in Scotland Parrot coal. It
+is so uniform in its substance that it is capable
+of being formed on the turning loom;
+and it receives a certain degree of polish, resembling
+bodies of jet.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, we have a species of coal in which
+we shall find but a small degree of fusibility,
+although it may not be charred in any degree.
+Such an infusible coal may therefore contain
+a great deal of aqueous substance, and volatile
+oily matter; consequently may burn with
+smoke and flame. But this same species of
+coal may also occasionally be charred more
+or less by the operation of subterranean heat;
+and, in that case, we should have a variety of
+coal which could only be distinguished, from
+a similar state of pure bituminous coal, by the
+ashes which they leave in burning. At least,
+this must be the case, when both species are,
+by sufficient distillation, reduced to the state
+of what may be properly termed a chemical
+coal.</p>
+
+<p>But in the natural state of its composition,
+we find those strata of kennel or parrot coal,
+possessing a peculiar property, which deserves
+to be considered, as still throwing more light
+upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>We have been representing these strata of
+coal as homogeneous to appearance, and as
+breaking indifferently in all directions; this
+last, perhaps, is not so accurate; for they
+would seem to break chiefly into two directions,
+that is, either parallel or perpendicular
+to the bed. Thus we have this coal commonly
+in rectangular pieces, in which it is extremely
+difficult to distinguish the direction of
+the bed, or stratification of the mass. By an
+expert eye, however, this may be in general,
+or at least sometimes, distinguished, and then,
+by knowing the habit of the coal in burning,
+a person perfectly ignorant of the philosophy
+of the matter may exhibit a wonderful sagacity,
+or even of power over future events,
+in applying this body to fire; for, at his pleasure,
+and unknown to those who are not in
+the secret; he may apparently, in equal circumstances,
+make this coal either kindle quietly,
+or with violent cracking and explosions,
+throwing its splinters at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation lies in this, that, though
+the rectangular mass of coal appears extremely
+uniform in its structure, it is truly a stratified
+mass; it is therefore affected, by the
+sudden approach of fire in a very different
+manner, according as the edge of the stratum,
+which is seen in four of the sides of this supposed
+cube, shall be applied to the fire, or the
+other two sides, which are in the line of the
+stratum, or parallel to the bed of coal. The
+reason of this phenomenon now remains to
+be considered.</p>
+
+<p>When the edge of the coal is exposed to
+the fire, the stratification of the coal is opened
+gradually by the heat and expanding vapours,
+as a piece of wood, of a similar shape, would
+be by means of wedges placed in the end way
+of the timber. The coal then kindles quietly,
+and quickly flames, while the mass of this bituminous
+schistus is opening like the leaves of
+a book, and thus exhibits an appearance in
+burning extremely like wood. But let the
+fire be applied to the middle of the bed, instead
+of the edge of the leaves, and we shall
+see a very different appearance; for here the
+expanded aqueous vapours, confined between
+the <i>laminae</i>, form explosions, in throwing off
+splinters from the kindling mass; and this
+mass of coal takes fire with much noise and
+disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>The ashes of this coal may be determined
+as to quality, being in general a subtile white
+earth; but, as to quantity, the measure of that
+earth produces an indefinite variety in this
+species of coal; for, from the kennel or parrot
+coal, which is valuable for its burning with
+much flame, to that black schistus which our
+masons use in drawing upon stone, and which,
+though combustible in some degree, is not
+thought to be a coal, there is a perfect gradation,
+in which coal may be found with every
+proportion of this earthy alloy.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lowest species of this combustible
+schistus are those argillaceous strata in
+Yorkshire from whence they procure alum in
+burning great heaps of this stone, which also
+contains sulphur, to impregnate the aluminous
+earth with its acid. We have also, in
+this country, strata which differ from those
+aluminous schisti only in the nature of the
+earth, with which the bituminous sediment is
+mixed. In the strata now considered, the
+earth, precipitated with the bituminous matter,
+being calcareous, has produced a limestone,
+which, after burning especially, is perfectly
+fissile.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, with regard to the composition
+of mineral coal, the theory is this. That inflammable,
+vegetable, and animal substances,
+in a subtilised state, had subsided in the sea,
+being mixed more or less with argillaceous,
+calcareous, and other earthy substances in an
+impalpable state. Now, the chemical analysis
+of fossil coal justifies that theory; for, in
+the distillation of the inflammable or oily coal,
+we procure volatile alkali, as might be naturally
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have considered fossil coal as various,
+both in its state and composition; we
+have described coal which is of the purest
+composition, as well as that which is most impure
+or earthy; and we have shown that
+there is a gradation, from the most bituminous
+state in which those strata had been formed in
+being deposited at the bottom of the sea, to
+the most perfect state of a chemical coal, to
+which they have been brought by the operation
+of subterranean fire or heat.</p>
+
+<p>We have been hitherto considering fossil
+coal as formed of the impalpable parts of inflammable
+bodies, united together by pressure,
+and made to approach in various degrees to
+the nature of a chemical coal, by means of
+subterranean heat; because, from the examination
+of those strata, many of them have
+evidently been formed in this manner. But
+vegetable bodies macerated in water, and then
+consolidated by compression, form a substance
+of the same kind, almost undistinguishable from
+some species of fossil coal. We have an example
+of this in our turf pits or peat mosses;
+when this vegetable substance has been compressed
+under a great load of earth, which
+sometimes happens, it is much consolidated,
+and hardens, by drying, into a black body,
+not afterwards dilutable or penetrated by
+water, and almost undistinguishable in burning
+from mineralised bodies of the same kind.</p>
+
+<p>Also, when fossil wood has been condensed
+by compression and changed by the operation
+of heat, as it is frequently found in argillaceous
+strata, particularly in the aluminous rock
+upon the coast of Yorkshire, it becomes a jet
+almost undistinguishable from some species of
+fossil coal.</p>
+
+<p>There cannot therefore be a doubt, that if
+this vegetable substance, which is formed by
+the collection of wood and plants in water
+upon the surface of the earth, were to be
+found in the place of fossil coal, and to undergo
+the mineral operations of the globe, it must at
+least augment the quantity of those strata,
+though it should not form distinct strata by
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be thought that vegetable
+bodies and their impalpable parts are things
+too far distant in the scale of magnitude to be
+supposed as subsiding together in the ocean;
+and this would certainly be a just observation
+with regard to any other species of bodies: But
+the nature of vegetable bodies is to be floatant
+in water; so that we may suppose them
+carried at any distance from the shore; consequently,
+the size of the body here makes no
+difference with regard to the place or order in
+which these are to be deposited.</p>
+
+<p>The examination of fossil coal fully confirms
+those reasonable suppositions. For, <i>first</i>,
+The strata that attend coal, whether the sandstone
+or the argillaceous strata, commonly,
+almost universally, abound with the most distinct
+evidence of vegetable substances; this is
+the impressions of plants which are found in
+their composition. <i>Secondly</i>, There is much
+fossil coal, particularly that termed in England
+clod coal, and employed in the iron foundry,
+that shows abundance of vegetable bodies in
+its composition. The strata of this coal have
+many horizontal interstices, at which the more
+solid shining coal is easily separated; here the
+fibrous structure of the compressed vegetable
+bodies is extremely visible; and thus no manner
+of doubt remains, that at least a part of
+this coal had been composed of the vegetable
+bodies themselves, whatever may have been
+the origin of the more compact parts where
+nothing is to be distinguished.</p>
+
+<p>The state in which we often find fossil
+wood in strata gives reason to conclude that
+this body of vegetable production, in its condensed
+state, is in appearance undistinguishable
+from fossil coal, and may be also in great
+quantity; as, for example, the Bovey coal in
+Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the strata of fossil coal would appear
+to be formed by the subsidence of inflammable
+matter of every species at the bottom of the
+sea, in places distant from the shore, or where
+there had been much repose, and where the
+lightest and most floatant bodies have been deposited
+together. This is confirmed in examining
+those bodies of fossil coal; for, though
+there are often found beds of sand-stone immediately
+above and below the stratum of the
+coal, we do not find any sand mixed in the
+strata of the coal itself.</p>
+
+<p>Having found the composition of coal to be
+various, but all included within certain rules
+which have been investigated, we may perceive
+in this an explanation of that diversity
+which is often observed among the various
+strata of one bed of coal. Even the most opposite
+species of composition may be found in
+the thickness of one bed, although of very
+little depth, that is to say, the purest bituminous
+coal may, in the same bed, be conjoined
+with that which is most earthy.</p>
+
+<p>Fossil coal is commonly alternated with regular
+sand-stone and argillaceous strata; but
+these are very different bodies; therefore, it
+may perhaps be inquired how such different
+substances came to be deposited in the same
+place of the ocean. The answer to this is
+easy; we do not pretend to trace things from
+their original to the place in which they had
+been ultimately deposited at the bottom of the
+sea. It is enough that we find the substance
+of which we treat delivered into the sea, and
+regularly deposited at the bottom, after having
+been transported by the currents of the
+ocean. Now the currents of the ocean,
+however regular they may be for a certain
+period of time, and however long this period
+may be protracted, naturally change; and
+then the currents, which had given birth to
+one species of stratum in one place, will carry
+it to another; and the sediment which the
+moment before had formed a coal stratum, or
+a bed of that bituminous matter, may be succeeded
+either with the sediment of an argillaceous
+stratum, or covered over with a bed
+of sand, brought by the changed current of
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>We have now considered all the appearances
+of coal strata, so far as these depend upon
+the materials, and their original collection.
+But, as those bituminous strata have been
+changed in their substance by the operation of
+subterranean heat and inspissation, we are now
+to look for the necessary consequences of this
+change in the body of the stratum; and also
+for other mineral operations common to fossil
+coal with consolidated strata of whatever
+species.</p>
+
+<p>If coal, like other mineral strata, have
+been inspissated and consolidated by subterranean
+heat, we should find them traversed with
+veins and fissures; and, if the matter found
+in those veins and fissures corresponds to that
+found in similar places of other strata, every
+confirmation will be hence given to the
+theory that can be expected from the consideration
+of those bituminous strata. But
+this is the case; we find those fissures filled
+both with calcareous, gypseous, and pyritous
+substances. Therefore, we have reason to
+conclude, that the strata of fossil coal, like
+every other indurated or consolidated body in
+the earth, has been produced, <i>first</i>, by means of
+water preparing and collecting materials proper
+for the construction of land; and, <i>secondly</i>, by
+the operation of internal fire or subterranean
+heat melting and thus consolidating every
+known substance of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Not only are those sparry and pyritous substances,
+which are more natural to coal strata,
+found forming veins traversing those strata in
+various directions, but also every other mineral
+vein may occasionally be found pervading
+coal mines, or traversing bituminous strata.
+Gold, silver, copper, lead, calamine, have all,
+in this manner, been found in coal.</p>
+
+<p>There remains now only to consider those
+bituminous strata of fossil coal in relation to
+that change of situation which has happened
+more or less to every stratum which we examine;
+but which is so much better known
+in those of coal, by having, from their great
+utility in the arts of life, become a subject for
+mining, and thus been traced in the earth at
+great expense, and for a long extent.</p>
+
+<p>Coal strata, which had been originally in a
+horizontal position, are now found sometimes
+standing in an erect posture, even almost perpendicular
+to the plane in which they had
+been formed. Miners therefore distinguish
+coal strata according as they deem them to
+approach to the one or other of those two extremes,
+in terming them either flat or edge
+seams or veins. Thus, it will appear, that
+every possible change from the original position
+of those strata may have happened, and
+are daily found from our experience in those
+mines.</p>
+
+<p>But besides the changed position of those
+strata, in departing from the horizontal line or
+flat position in which they had been formed,
+there is another remarkable change, termed
+by miners a <i>trouble</i> in the coal. The consideration
+of this change will further illustrate
+the operations of nature in placing that which
+had been at the bottom of the sea above its
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>Strata, that are in one place regularly inclined,
+may be found bended, or irregularly
+inclined, in following their course. Here
+then is a source of irregularity which often
+materially effects the estimates of miners,
+judging from what they see, of those parts
+which are to be explored; and this is an accident
+which they frequently experience.</p>
+
+<p>But, without any change in the general direction
+of the stratum, miners often find their
+coal broke off abruptly, those two parts being
+placed upon a higher and lower situation in
+respect to each other, if flat beds, or separated
+laterally if they are edge seams. This is by
+miners termed a <i>slip, hitch</i>, or <i>dyke</i>.</p>
+
+<p>These irregularities may either be attended
+with an injected body of subterraneous lava
+or basaltes, here termed whin-stone, or they
+may not be attended, at least apparently, <i>i.e.</i>
+immediately, with any such accident. But
+experienced miners know, that, in approaching
+to any of those injected masses of stone,
+which are so frequent in this country, their
+coal is more and more subject to be troubled.</p>
+
+<p>As there is, in this country of Scotland,
+two different species of mountains or hills,
+one composed both in matter and manner exactly
+similar to the Alps of Switzerland, the
+other of whin-stone, basaltic rock, or subterraneous
+lava; and as the fossil coal, argillaceous
+and sand-stone strata, are found variously connected
+with those hills, nothing can tend more
+to give a proper understanding, with regard
+to the construction of the land in general, of
+the globe than a view of those different bodies,
+which are here found much mixed together
+in a little space of country, thus exhibiting,
+as it were in miniature, what may be
+found in other parts of the world, upon a
+larger scale, but not upon any other principle.
+I will therefore endeavour to give a short description
+of the mineral state of this country
+with regard to coal, so far as my experience
+and memory will serve.</p>
+
+<p>This country might very properly be considered
+as consisting of primary and secondary
+mountains; not as supposing the primary
+mountains original and inexplicable in their
+formation, any more than those of the latest
+production, but as considering the one to be
+later in point of time, or posterior in the progress
+of things. The first are those which
+commonly form the alpine countries, consisting
+of various schisti, of quartzy stone, and
+granites. The second, again, are the whinstone
+or basaltic hills scattered up and down
+the low country, and evidently posterior to
+the strata of that country, which they break,
+elevate, and displace.</p>
+
+<p>Thus there are in this country, as well as
+every where else, three things to be distinguished;
+first, the alpine or elevated country;
+secondly, the flat or low country; and, thirdly,
+that which has been of posterior formation
+to the strata which it traverses, in whatever
+shape or quality; whether as a mountain, or
+only as a vein; whether as a basaltes, a porphyry,
+or a granite, or only as a metal, a siliceous
+substance, or a spar.</p>
+
+<p>Those three things which are here distinguished
+do not differ with regard to the chemical
+character of their substances; for, in
+each of these, every different substance is to
+be found, more or less; and it is not in being
+composed of materials peculiar to itself, that
+makes an alpine country be distinguished from
+a flat country; it is chiefly in the changes
+which the strata of the alpine country have
+been made to undergo, posterior to their original
+collection, that the rocks of the alpine
+country differ from those of the flat country.</p>
+
+<p>But the observation that is most to the purpose
+of the present subject of bituminous strata,
+is this; it is chiefly in the strata of the flat
+country that fossil coal are found; there are
+none that I know of in all the alpine countries
+of Scotland; and it is always among the strata
+peculiar to the flat country that fossil coal is
+found. Now, this appearance cannot be explained
+by saying that the materials of mineral
+coal had not existed in the world while
+those primary strata were formed in the sea.
+I have already shown, (chap. 4.) that there
+had been the same system of a world, producing
+plants, and thus maintaining animals,
+while the primary strata were formed in the
+sea; I have even adduced an example of coal
+strata among those primary schisti, although
+this be an extremely rare occurrence: Consequently,
+we are under the necessity of looking
+out for some other cause.</p>
+
+<p>If the changes which have been evidently
+superinduced in the strata of alpine countries
+arise from the repeated operations of subterranean
+fire, or to the extreme degree in which
+those strata have been affected by this consolidating
+and elevating cause, it will be natural
+to suppose that the bituminous or combustible
+part among those stratifications, may have been
+mostly consumed upon some occasion during
+those various and long continued operations;
+whereas, in the flat beds of the low country,
+although there is the most perfect evidence
+for the exertion of heat in the consolidation
+of those strata, the general quantity of this
+has been a little thing, compared with the
+universal manifestation of this cause in the
+operations of the alpine countries, the strata
+of which have been so much displaced in their
+situations and positions.</p>
+
+<p>To illustrate this, strata of sand-stone are
+found in both the alpine and flat countries of
+Scotland. About Leadhills, for example, there
+are abundance of those strata; but, in the flat
+country, the generality of the sand-stone is so
+little changed as to appear to every enlightened
+naturalist aquiform strata; whereas the
+most enlightened of those philosophers will
+not perhaps attribute the same original to a
+similar composition in the alpine country,
+which is so much changed from its original
+state. It is not because there had been wanting
+a sufficient degree of heat to consolidate
+the sand-stone in the coal country; for I can
+show specimens of sand-stone almost contiguous
+with coal, that have been extremely
+much consolidated in this manner. But this
+is only a particular stratum; and the general
+appearance of the sand-stone, as well as other
+strata in the coal countries, is that of having
+been little affected by those subterranean operations
+of heat by which those bodies in the
+alpine country have been changed in their
+structure, shape, and position.</p>
+
+<p>If we shall thus allow the principle of consolidation,
+consequently also of induration, to
+have been much exerted upon the strata of
+the alpine country, and but moderately or little
+upon those of the low country of Scotland,
+we shall evidently see one reason, perhaps the
+only one, for the lesser elevation of the one
+country above the level of the sea, than the
+other. This is because the one resists the
+powers which have been employed in leveling
+what has been raised from the bottom of
+the sea, more than the other; consequently,
+we find more of the one remaining above the
+level of the sea than of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take the map of Scotland, in
+order to observe the mixture of those two different
+species of countries, whereof the one is
+generally low and flat, the other high and
+mountainous; the one more or less provided
+with fossil coal, the other not.</p>
+
+<p>From St Abb's Head, on the east of Scotland,
+to the Mull of Galloway, on the west,
+there runs a ridge of mountains of granite,
+quartz, and schistus strata, which contain not
+coal. On each side of this ridge we find coal
+countries; Northumberland, on the one side,
+and, on the other, the shires of Ayr, Lanark,
+and the Lothians; the one is a mountainous
+country, the others are comparatively low or
+flat countries. Let us now draw another alpine
+line from Buchan and Caithness, upon the east, to
+the island of Jura, on the west; this traverses
+a mountainous country destitute of coal, and,
+so far as I know, of any marks of marine bodies.
+But, on each side of this great alpine
+ridge, we find the hard country skirted with
+one which is lower, flatter, or of a softer nature,
+in which coal is found, upon the one
+side, in the shires of Fife, Clackmannan, and
+Stirling; and, on the other, in that hollow
+which runs from the Murray Frith south-west,
+in a straight line, directed upon the end
+of Mull, and composed, for the most part, of
+water very little above the level of the sea.
+Here, to be sure, the coal is scarce, or not so
+evident; but there is coal upon the sea coast
+in several places of this great Bay betwixt
+Buchan and Caithness; and the lowness of
+the country, across this part of the island, is
+almost sufficient testimony that it had been
+composed of softer materials.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the coal country of Scotland may be
+considered as in one band across the island,
+and included in the counties of Ayr, Lanark,
+and all those which border upon the Frith of
+Forth. Now, in all this tract of coal and tender
+strata, we do not find ridges of alpine
+stone or primary mountains, but we find many
+hills of solid rock, little mountains, from 500
+to 1000 feet high; such as that beautiful conical
+hill North Berwick Law, Torpender
+Law, Arthur's Seat, the Lowmands, and
+others of inferior note. That is to say, the
+whole of this included space, both sea and
+land, has been invaded from below with melted
+masses of whin-stone, breaking up through
+the natural strata of the country, and variously
+embossing the surface of the earth at present,
+when all the softer materials, with which
+those subterranean lavas had been covered,
+are washed away or removed from those summits
+of the country. Hence there is scarcely
+a considerable tubercle, with which this country
+also abounds, that may not be found containing
+a mass of whin-stone as a nucleus.</p>
+
+<p>But besides those insulated masses of whinstone
+that form a gradation from a mountain
+to a single rock, such, for example, as that on
+which the Castle of Edinburgh is built, we
+find immense quantities of the same basaltic
+rock interjected among the natural strata, always
+breaking and disordering them, but often
+apparently following their directions for a
+considerable space with some regularity. We
+also find dykes of the same substance bisecting
+the strata like perpendicular veins of
+rock; and, in some places, we see the connection
+of these rocks of the same substance,
+which thus appear to be placed in such a different
+form in relation to the strata.</p>
+
+<p>It will thus appear, that the regular form,
+and horizontal direction of strata throughout
+this country of coal, now under contemplation,
+has been broken and disordered by the
+eruption and interjection of those masses of
+basaltic stone or subterraneous lava; and thus
+may be explained not only the disorders and
+irregularities of coal strata, but also the different
+qualities of this bituminous substance from
+its more natural state to that of a perfect coal
+or fixed infusible and combustible substance
+burning without smoke. This happens sometimes
+to a part of a coal stratum which approaches
+the whin-stone.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus stated the case of combustible
+or bituminous strata, I would ask those naturalists,
+who adhere to the theory of infiltration
+and the operation of water alone, how
+they are to conceive those strata formed and
+consolidated. They must consider, that here
+are immense bodies of those combustible strata,
+under hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathoms
+of sand-stone, iron-stone, argillaceous and calcareous
+strata. If they are to suppose bituminous
+bodies collected at the bottom of the
+sea, they must say from whence that bitumen
+had come; for, with regard to the strata below
+those bituminous bodies, above them, and
+between them, we see perfectly from whence
+had come the materials of which they are
+formed. They cannot say that it is from a
+collection of earthy matter which had been
+afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for,
+although we find many of those earthy strata
+variously impregnated with the bituminous
+and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy
+and the bituminous matter had subsided together;
+besides, there are many of those coaly
+and bituminous strata in which there is no
+more than two or three <i>per cent.</i> of earthy
+matter or ashes after burning; therefore the
+strata must have been formed of bituminous
+matter, and not simply impregnated with
+it.</p>
+
+<p>To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow
+them to form their strata, which certainly
+is the case in great part, by the collection
+of vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say,
+in what manner they are to consolidate those
+bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
+pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous
+veins of spar and pyrites, which traverse
+those strata in all directions, to be formed
+in those bodies consolidated by the compression
+of the superincumbent masses?&mdash;Here
+is a manifest inconsistency, which proves
+that it could not be. But, even were we to
+suppose all those difficulties to be over come,
+there is still an impossibility in the way of
+that inconsiderate theory, and this will appear
+more fully in the following chapter.</p>
+
+<p>SECT. III.&mdash;<i>The Mineralogical Operations of
+the Earth illustrated from the Theory of Fossil
+Coal.</i></p>
+
+
+<p>There is not perhaps a greater difference
+among the various qualities of bodies than
+that which may be observed to subsist between
+the burning of those two substances, that is,
+the inflammable bodies on the one hand, and
+those that are combustible on the other. I
+have treated of that distinction in Dissertations
+upon subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part 3d. where I have considered the different
+effects of those two kinds of bodies upon the
+incident light; and, in a Dissertation upon
+the Philosophy of Fire, etc. I have distinguished
+those two kinds of substances in relation
+to their emitting, in burning, the fixed light
+which had constituted a part of those inflammable
+and combustible bodies.</p>
+
+<p>All animals and vegetable bodies contain
+both those different chemical substances united;
+and this phlogistic composition is an
+essential part in every animal and vegetable
+substance. There are to be found in those
+bodies particular substances, which abound
+more or less with one of those species of phlogistic
+matter, but never is the one species of
+those burning substances to be found naturally,
+in animal and vegetable bodies, without
+being associated with the other; and it is all
+that the chemical art can do to separate them
+in a great degree upon occasion. Pure ardent
+spirit may perhaps be considered as containing
+the one, and the most perfect coal
+the other; the chemical principle of the one
+is proper carbonic matter; and of the other
+it is the hydrogeneous principle, or that of
+inflammable air.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we so far understand the composition
+of animal and vegetable substances which burn
+or maintain our fires; we also understand the
+chemical analysis of those bodies, in separating
+the inflammable from the combustible substance,
+or the volatile from the fixed matter, the
+oil from what is the proper coal. It is by distillation
+or evaporation, the effect of heat, that
+this separatory operation is performed; and
+we know no other means by which this may
+be done. Therefore, wherever we find
+peculiar effects of that separatory operation,
+we have a right to infer the proper cause.</p>
+
+<p>The subject, which we are to consider in
+this section, is not the composition of strata
+in those of mineral coal, but the transformation
+of those, which had been originally inflammable
+bodies, into bodies which are only
+combustible, an end which is to be attained
+by the separation of their volatile or inflammable
+substances. In the last section, I
+have shown of what materials the strata of
+mineral coal had been originally formed; these
+are substances containing abundance of inflammable
+oil or bitumen, as well as carbonic
+matter which is properly combustible; and
+this is confirmed by the generality of those
+strata, which, though perfectly consolidated
+by fusion, retain still their inflammable and fusible
+qualities. But now the object of investigation
+is that mineral operation by which
+some of those strata, or some parts of a fusible
+and inflammable stratum, have been so changed
+as to become infusible and only combustible.</p>
+
+<p>We have now examined those strata which
+may be considered as either proper mineral
+coal, or as only a bituminous schistus; we
+are now to class along with these another species
+of this kind of matter, which has had a
+similar origin, although it may assume a different
+character.</p>
+
+<p>According to the common observations of
+mankind, the eminent quality by which coal
+is to be distinguished, is the burning of that
+substance, or its capacity for making a fire.
+Therefore, however similar in other respects,
+a substance which had not that eminent quality
+of coal could hardly be considered as being
+allied to it; far less could it be supposed,
+as being in every other respect the same. We
+are however to endeavour to show, that there
+are truly substances of this kind, substances
+which to common observation, having none
+of the properties of coal with respect to fire,
+consequently, no utility for the purpose of
+burning, might be considered as another species
+of mineral, while at the same time they
+are truly at bottom a composition very little
+different from those which we have considered
+as the most perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>It must be recollected that we have distinguished
+coal in general as of two different
+species, one perfect or proper coal, containing
+no perceptible quantity of either oil or phlegm;
+the other as burning with smoke and flame,
+consequently containing both aqueous and
+oleaginous substances which it emits in distillation.
+It is the first of these which we are
+now to consider more particularly, in order
+to see the varieties which may be found in
+this species of mineral substance.</p>
+
+<p>When that bituminous fossil, which is the
+common coal of this country, is submitted to
+heat it is subject to melt more or less, and
+emits smoke which is composed of water and
+oil. If it be thus completely distilled, it
+becomes a perfect coal of a porous or spongy
+texture. Such a substance as this is extremely
+rare among minerals; I have however found
+it. It is in the harbour of Ayr, where a whinstone
+dyke traverses the coal strata, and includes
+some of that substance in the state of
+coals or cinder. I pointed this out many
+years ago to Dr Black; and lately I showed
+it to Professor Playfair.</p>
+
+<p>But the culm of South Wales, the Kilkenny
+coal of Ireland, and the blind coal of
+Scotland, notwithstanding that these are a perfect
+coal, or charred to a coal, have nothing
+of the porous construction of the specimen
+which I have just now mentioned; they are
+perfectly solid, and break with a smooth shining
+surface like those which emit smoke and
+flame.</p>
+
+<p>Here is therefore a mineral operation in the
+preparation of those coals which we cannot
+imitate; and here is the clearest evidence of
+the operation of mineral fire or heat, although
+we are ignorant of the reason why some coal
+strata are charred, while others are not, and
+why, in some particular cases, the charred coal
+may be porous or spungy like our coaks, while
+in general those blind coals (as they are called)
+are perfectly solid in their structure.</p>
+
+<p>But to what I would call more particularly
+the attention of mineral philosophers is this,
+that it is inconceivable to have this effect produced
+by means of water; we might as well
+say that heat were to be the cause of ice. The
+production of coal from vegetable bodies, in
+which that phlogistic substance is originally
+produced, or from animal bodies which have
+it from that source, is made by heat, and by
+no other means, so far as we know. But,
+even heat alone is not sufficient to effect that
+end, or make a perfect coal; the phlogistic
+body, which is naturally compound, consisting
+of both inflammable and combustible substances,
+must be separated chemically, and this
+must be the operation of heat under the proper
+circumstances for distillation or evaporation.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the impossibility which in the last
+chapter I have alleged the aqueous theory
+has to struggle against; and here is one of
+the absolute proofs of the igneous theory.
+Not only must the aqueous part of those natural
+phlogistic bodies be evaporated, in order
+to their becoming coal, but the oily parts must
+also, by a still increased degree of heat, be
+evaporated, or separated by distillation from
+the combustible part. Here, therefore, is evidently
+the operation of heat, not simply that
+of fusion in contradiction to the fluidity of
+aqueous solution, but in opposition to any effect
+of water, as requiring the absence or separation
+of that aqueous substance.</p>
+
+<p>But those natural appearances go still farther
+to confirm our theory, which, upon all occasions,
+considers the compression upon the bodies
+that are submitted to the operation of
+heat, in the mineral regions, as having the
+greatest efficacy in modifying that operation.
+Coal strata, which are in the neighbourhood
+of each other, being of those two opposite
+species, the one fusible and inflammable, the
+other infusible and combustible, afford the
+clearest proof of the efficacy of compression;
+for, it is evident, that the coal, which was once
+bituminous or fusible, cannot be charred without
+the distillation of that substance; therefore,
+prevent the distillation by compression
+and the charring operation cannot proceed,
+whatever should be the intensity of the heat;
+and then, fusion alone must be the effect upon
+the bituminous body. But now, as we have
+both those species of coal in the vicinity of
+each other, and even the same strata of coal
+part charred, while the rest is not, this natural
+appearance, so far from being a stumbling
+block, as it must be to the opposite theory, is
+most clearly explained by the partial escape of
+vapours from the mineral regions, and thus
+confirms the theory with regard to the efficacy
+of compression.</p>
+
+<p>It is owing to the solidity of those natural
+charred coals, and the want of oil, that
+they are so very difficult of kindling; but,
+when once kindled in sufficient quantity, they
+make a fire which is very durable. There
+are even some of them which, to common observation,
+seem to be altogether incombustible.
+I have of this kind a specimen from a stratum
+at Stair, which shall be afterwards mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>M. Struve, in the Journal de Physique for
+January 1790, describes a mineral which he
+calls <i>plombagine charbonneuse ou hexaëdre</i>;
+and gives for reason, <i>parce qu'elle ressemble extrêmement
+au charbon de pierre schisteux, ou
+d'hexaëdre</i>. He says farther, "Il est très
+commun, dans une roche qui forme un passage
+entre les granits et les brèches, qu'on
+n'a trouvée jusqu'à présent qu'on masses
+roulées dans le pays de Vaud." He concludes
+his paper thus: "Ce fossile singulier ne
+paroît pas appartenir à la Suisse seule. J'ai
+dans ce moment devant les yeux une substance
+parfaitement semblable, si on excepte
+la couleur qui tient le milieu entre le gris
+de fer et le rouge modéré; elle vient du
+pays de Gotha de la Friedrischs-grube,
+proche d'Umneau. On le regarde comme
+un eisenrahm uni à du charbon de pierre."</p>
+
+<p>The specimen which I have from Stair
+upon the water of Ayr, so far as I can understand,
+perfectly resembles this <i>plombagine</i> of
+M. Struve. It consumes very slowly in the
+fire, and deflagrates like plumbago with nitre.
+Now this comes from a regular coal stratum;
+and what is more remarkable, in this stratum
+is contained a true plumbago, Farther up the
+country, the Earl of Dumfries has also a mine
+containing plumbago along with other coal
+strata; and though the plumbago of these two
+mines have not all the softness and beauty of
+the mineral of the same species from Cumberland,
+they are nevertheless perfect plumbago.</p>
+
+<p>I have a specimen of steatetical whinstone
+or basaltes from some part of Cumberland, in
+which is contained many nodules of the most
+perfect and beautiful plumbago. It is dispersed
+through this stone in rounded masses of
+all sizes from a nut to a pin's head; and many
+of these are mixed with pyrites. There is
+therefore reason to believe that this plumbago
+had been in fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if we consider that every species of
+coal and every species of plumbago are equally,
+that is, perfectly combustible, and yield, in
+burning, the same volatile principles, differing
+only perhaps a little in the small quantity of
+fixed matter which remains, we shall be inclined
+to believe, that they have all the same
+origin in a vegetable substance; and that they
+are diversified by some very small composition
+of other matter. This being allowed, one
+thing is certain, that it is by the operation of
+mineral fire or heat that those combustible substances,
+however composed, have been brought
+to their present state of coal, although we are
+ignorant of the circumstances by which their
+differences and their peculiar chemical and
+mechanical qualities have been produced.</p>
+
+<p>Let us resume in a few words. There is
+not perhaps one substance in the mineral kingdom
+by which the operation of subterraneous
+heat is, to common understanding, better exemplified
+than that of mineral coal. Those
+strata are evidently a deposit of inflammable
+substances which all come originally from vegetable
+bodies. In this state of their formation,
+those coal strata must all be oleagenous
+or bituminous. In many of them, however,
+these volatile parts are found wanting; and,
+the stratum is found in the state of the most
+perfect coal or caput mortuum. There, is, I
+presume, no other means to be found by
+which this eminent effect could be produced,
+except by distillation; and, this distillation
+perhaps proceeded under the restraining force
+of an immense compression.</p>
+
+<p>To this theory it must not be objected, that
+all the strata of coal, which are found in the
+same place or neighbourhood, are not reduced
+to that caput mortuum or perfect coaly state.
+The change from a bituminous to a coaly
+substance can only take place in proportion as
+the distillation of the volatile parts is permitted.
+Now this distillation must be permitted,
+if any passage can be procured from the inflammable
+body submitted to the operation of
+subterraneous heat; and, one stratum of coal
+may find vent for the passage of those vapours,
+through some crevice which is not
+open to another. In this way, doubtless,
+some of those bodies have been inspissated or
+reduced to a fixed coal, while others, at a little
+distance, have retained most of their volatile
+parts.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot doubt of this distilling operation
+in the mineral regions, when we consider that
+in most places of the earth we find the evident
+effects of such distillation of oily substances
+in the naphta and petroleum that are constantly
+emitted along with water in certain
+springs. These oily substances are no other
+than such as may be procured, in a similar
+manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal
+strata; we have therefore every proof of this
+mineral operation that the nature of things
+admit of. We have also sufficient evidence
+that those fusible and inflammable coals, which
+have not been distilled to a caput mortuum,
+had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous
+heat, because we find those fusible
+coals subject to be injected with pyrites, as
+well as the more perfect coal.</p>
+
+<p>If we now consider those various appearances
+of mineral bodies which are thus explained
+by the theory of mineral fire, or exertion
+of subterraneous heat, appearances
+which it is impossible to reconcile by any
+supposition of aqueous solution, or that unintelligible
+language of mineral infiltration which
+has of late prevailed, we shall be fully satisfied,
+that there is a uniform system in nature
+of providing a power in the mineral regions,
+for consolidating the loose materials deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, and for erecting
+those masses of mineralized substances into
+the place of land; we shall thus be led to
+admire the wisdom of nature, providing for
+the continuation of this living world, and employing
+those very means by which, in a more
+partial view of things, this beautiful structure
+of an inhabited earth seems to be necessarily
+going into destruction.</p>
+
+<br>
+<h4>END OF VOLUME FIRST.</h4>
+
+<br><br>
+<h3>PLATES</H3>
+<br><br>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4), by
+James Hutton
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4)
+
+Author: James Hutton
+
+Release Date: July 9, 2004  [eBook #12861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME 1 (OF
+4)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Renald Levesque, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH, VOLUME I
+
+With Proofs and Illustrations, in Four Parts
+
+By
+
+JAMES HUTTON, M.D. & F.R.S.E.
+
+1795.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; with the Examination of different Opinions on
+that Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe.
+
+SECT. I.--Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+SECT. II.--An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in
+consolidating the Strata of the Globe.
+
+SECT. III.--Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the
+Production of Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+SECT. IV.--System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN's Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land, illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata 421.
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct view of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the Subject.
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THEORY OF THE EARTH;
+
+WITH THE
+
+EXAMINATION
+
+OF
+
+DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THAT SUBJECT.
+
+
+
+
+IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THEORY of the EARTH; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the
+Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration, of Land upon the Globe.
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+Prospect of the Subject to be treated of.
+
+When we trace the parts of which this terrestrial system is composed,
+and when we view the general connection of those several parts, the
+whole presents a machine of a peculiar construction by which it is
+adapted to a certain end. We perceive a fabric, erected in wisdom, to
+obtain a purpose worthy of the power that is apparent in the production
+of it.
+
+We know little of the earth's internal parts, or of the materials which
+compose it at any considerable depth below the surface. But upon the
+surface of this globe, the more inert matter is replenished with plants,
+and with animal and intellectual beings.
+
+Where so many living creatures are to ply their respective powers, in
+pursuing the end for which they were intended, we are not to look for
+nature in a quiescent state; matter itself must be in motion, and the
+scenes of life a continued or repeated series of agitations and events.
+
+This globe of the earth is a habitable world; and on its fitness for
+this purpose, our sense of wisdom in its formation must depend. To judge
+of this point, we must keep in view, not only the end, but the means
+also by which that end is obtained. These are, the form of the whole,
+the materials of which it is composed, and the several powers which
+concur, counteract, or balance one another, in procuring the general
+result.
+
+The form and constitution of the mass are not more evidently calculated
+for the purpose of this earth as a habitable world, than are the various
+substances of which that complicated body is composed. Soft and hard
+parts variously combine to form a medium consistence, adapted to the use
+of plants and animals; wet and dry are properly mixed for nutrition,
+or the support of those growing bodies; and hot and cold produce a
+temperature or climate no less required than a soil: Insomuch, that
+there is not any particular, respecting either the qualities of the
+materials, or the construction of the machine, more obvious to
+our perception, than are the presence and efficacy of design and
+intelligence in the power that conducts the work.
+
+In taking this view of things, where ends and means are made the object
+of attention, we may hope to find a principle upon which the comparative
+importance of parts in the system of nature may be estimated, and also
+a rule for selecting the object of our inquiries. Under this direction,
+science may find a fit subject of investigation in every particular,
+whether of _form_, _quality_, or _active power_, that presents itself in
+this system of motion and of life; and which, without a proper
+attention to this character of the system, might appear anomalous and
+incomprehensible.
+
+It is not only by seeing those general operations of the globe which
+depend upon its peculiar construction as a machine, but also by
+perceiving how far the particulars, in the construction of that machine,
+depend upon the general operations of the globe, that we are enabled to
+understand the constitution of this earth as a thing formed by design.
+We shall thus also be led to acknowledge an order, not unworthy of
+Divine wisdom, in a subject which, in another view, has appeared as the
+work of chance, or as absolute disorder and confusion.
+
+To acquire a general or comprehensive view of this mechanism of the
+globe, by which it is adapted to the purpose of being a habitable world,
+it is necessary to distinguish three different bodies which compose the
+whole. These are, a solid body of earth, an aqueous body of sea, and an
+elastic fluid of air.
+
+It is the proper shape and disposition of these three bodies that form
+this globe into a habitable world; and it is the manner in which these
+constituent bodies are adjusted to each other, and the laws of action
+by which they are maintained in their proper qualities and respective
+departments, that form the Theory of the machine which we are now to
+examine.
+
+Let us begin with some general sketch of the particulars now mentioned.
+
+_1st_, There is a central body in the globe. This body supports those
+parts which come to be more immediately exposed to our view, or which
+may be examined by our sense and observation. This first part is
+commonly supposed to be solid and inert; but such a conclusion is only
+mere conjecture; and we shall afterwards find occasion, perhaps, to form
+another judgment in relation to this subject, after we have examined
+strictly, upon scientific principles, what appears upon the surface, and
+have formed conclusions concerning that which must have been transacted
+in some more central part.
+
+_2dly_, We find a fluid body of water. This, by gravitation, is reduced
+to a spherical form, and by the centrifugal force of the earth's
+rotation, is become oblate. The purpose of this fluid body is essential
+in the constitution of the world; for, besides affording the means of
+life and motion to a multifarious race of animals, it is the source of
+growth and circulation to the organized bodies of this earth, in being
+the receptacle of the rivers, and the fountain of our vapours.
+
+_3dly_, We have an irregular body of land raised above the level of the
+ocean. This, no doubt, is the smallest portion of the globe; but it is
+the part to us by far most interesting. It is upon the surface of this
+part that plants are made to grow; consequently, it is by virtue of
+this land that animal life, as well as vegetation, is sustained in this
+world.
+
+_Lastly_, We have a surrounding body of atmosphere, which completes the
+globe. This vital fluid is no less necessary, in the constitution of the
+world, than are the other parts; for there is hardly an operation upon
+the surface of the earth, that is not conducted or promoted by its
+means. It is a necessary condition for the sustenance of fire; it is the
+breath of life to animals; it is at least an instrument in vegetation;
+and, while it contributes to give fertility and health to things that
+grow, it is employed in preventing noxious effects from such as go into
+corruption. In short, it is the proper means of circulation for the
+matter of this world, by raising up the water of the ocean, and pouring
+it forth upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Such is the mechanism of the globe: Let us now mention some of those
+powers by which motion is produced, and activity procured to the mere
+machine.
+
+First, There is the progressive force, or moving power, by which this
+planetary body, if solely actuated, would depart continually from the
+path which it now pursues, and thus be for ever removed from its end,
+whether as a planetary body, or as a globe sustaining plants and
+animals, which may be termed a living world.
+
+But this moving body is also actuated by gravitation, which inclines
+it directly to the central body of the sun. Thus it is made to revolve
+about that luminary, and to preserve its path.
+
+It is also upon the same principles, that each particular part upon the
+surface of this globe, is alternately exposed to the influence of light
+and darkness, in the diurnal rotation of the earth, as well as in its
+annual revolution. In this manner are produced the vicissitudes of night
+and day, so variable in the different latitudes from the equator to the
+pole, and so beautifully calculated to equalise the benefits of light,
+so variously distributed in the different regions of the globe.
+
+Gravitation, and the _vis infita_ of matter, thus form the first two
+powers distinguishable in the operations of our system, and wisely
+adapted to the purpose for which they are employed.
+
+We next observe the influence of light and heat, of cold and
+condensation. It is by means of these two powers that the various
+operations of this living world are more immediately transacted;
+although the other powers are no less required, in order to produce or
+modify these great agents in the economy of life, and system of our
+changing things.
+
+We do not now inquire into the nature of those powers, or investigate
+the laws of light and heat, of cold and condemnation, by which the
+various purposes of this world are accomplished; we are only to mention
+those effects which are made sensible to the common understanding of
+mankind, and which necessarily imply a power that is employed. Thus,
+it is by the operation of those powers that the varieties of season
+in spring and autumn are obtained, that we are blessed with the
+vicissitudes of summer's heat and winter's cold, and that we possess the
+benefit of artificial light and culinary fire.
+
+We are thus bountifully provided with the necessaries of life; we are
+supplied with things conducive to the growth and preservation of our
+animal nature, and with fit subjects to employ and to nourish our
+intellectual powers.
+
+There are other actuating powers employed in the operations of this
+globe, which we are little more than able to enumerate; such are those
+of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous heat or mineral fire.
+
+Powers of such magnitude or force, are not to be supposed useless in a
+machine contrived surely not without wisdom; but they are mentioned here
+chiefly on account of their general effect; and it is sufficient to have
+named powers, of which the actual existence is well known, but of which
+the proper use in the constitution of the world is still obscure.
+The laws of electricity and magnetism have been well examined by
+philosophers; but the purposes of those powers in the economy of the
+globe have not been discovered. Subterraneous fire, again, although the
+most conspicuous in the operations of this world, and often examined by
+philosophers, is a power which has been still less understood, whether
+with regard to its efficient or final cause. It has hitherto appeared
+more like the accident of natural things, than the inherent property of
+the mineral region. It is in this last light, however, that I wish to
+exhibit it, as a great power acting a material part in the operations of
+the globe, and as an essential part in the constitution of this world.
+
+We have thus surveyed the machine in general, with those moving powers,
+by which its operations, diversified almost _ad infinitum_, are
+performed. Let us now confine our view, more particularly, to that part
+of the machine on which we dwell, that so we may consider the natural
+consequences of those operations which, being within our view, we are
+better qualified to examine.
+
+This subject is important to the human race, to the possessor of this
+world, to the intelligent being Man, who foresees events to come, and
+who, in contemplating his future interest, is led to inquire concerning
+causes, in order that he may judge of events which otherwise he could
+not know.
+
+If, in pursuing this object, we employ our skill in research, not in
+forming vain conjectures; and if _data_ are to be found, on which
+Science may form just conclusions, we should not long remain in
+ignorance with respect to the natural history of this earth, a subject
+on which hitherto opinion only, and not evidence, has decided: For in no
+subject, perhaps, is there naturally less defect of evidence, although
+philosophers, led by prejudice, or misguided by false theory, may have
+neglected to employ that light by which they should have seen the system
+of this world.
+
+But to proceed in pursuing a little farther our general or preparatory
+ideas. A solid body of land could not have answered the purpose of a
+habitable world; for, a soil is necessary to the growth of plants; and a
+soil is nothing but the materials collected from the destruction of the
+solid land. Therefore, the surface of this land, inhabited by man,
+and covered with plants and animals, is made by nature to decay, in
+dissolving from that hard and, compact state in which it is found below
+the soil; and this soil is necessarily washed away, by the continual
+circulation of the water, running from the summits of the mountains
+towards the general receptacle of that fluid. The heights of our land
+are thus levelled with the shores; our fertile plains are formed from the
+ruins of the mountains; and those travelling materials are still pursued
+by the moving water, and propelled along the inclined surface of the
+earth[1] These moveable materials, delivered into the sea, cannot, for
+a long continuance, rest upon the shore; for, by the agitation of the
+winds, the tides and currents, every moveable thing is carried
+farther and farther along the shelving bottom of the sea, towards the
+unfathomable regions of the ocean.
+
+[Note 1: M. de Luc, in his second letter to me, published in the Monthly
+Review for 1790, says, "You ought to have proved that both gravel and
+sand are carried from our continents to the sea; which, on the contrary,
+I shall prove not to be the case." He then endeavours to prove his
+assertion, by observing, that, in certain places where there is not
+either sufficient declivity in the surface, or force in the running
+water, gravel and sand are made to rest, and do not travel to the sea.
+This surely is a fact to which I most readily assent; but, on the other
+hand, I hope he will acknowledge, that, where there is sufficient
+declivity in the surface, or force in the running water, sand, gravel,
+and stones, are travelled upon the land, and are thus carried into the
+sea--at last. This is all that my theory requires, and this is what I
+believe will be admitted, without any farther proof on my part.]
+
+If the vegetable soil is thus constantly removed from the surface of the
+land, and if its place is thus to be supplied from the dissolution of
+the solid earth, as here represented, we may perceive an end to this
+beautiful machine; an end, arising from no error in its constitution as
+a world, but from that destructibility of its land which is so necessary
+in the system of the globe, in the economy of life and vegetation.
+
+The immense time necessarily required for this total destruction of
+the land, must not be opposed to that view of future events, which is
+indicated by the surest facts, and most approved principles. Time, which
+measures every thing in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes,
+is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
+it had existence; and, as the natural course of time, which to us seems
+infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end, the
+progress of things upon this globe, that is, the course of nature,
+cannot be limited by time, which must proceed in a continual succession.
+We are, therefore, to consider as inevitable the deduction of our land,
+so far as effected by those operations which are necessary in the
+purpose of the globe, considered as a habitable world; and, so far as
+we have not examined any other part of the economy of nature, in which
+other operations and a different intention might appear.
+
+We have now considered the globe of this earth as a machine, constructed
+upon chemical as well as mechanical principles, by which its different
+parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, and in quantity, to a
+certain end; an end attained with certainty or success; and an end from
+which we may perceive wisdom, in contemplating the means employed.
+
+But is this world to be considered thus merely as a machine, to last no
+longer than its parts retain their present position, their proper forms
+and qualities? Or may it not be also considered as an organized body?
+such as has a constitution in which the necessary decay of the machine
+is naturally repaired, in the exertion of those productive powers by
+which it had been formed.
+
+This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe; to see if
+there be, in the constitution of this world, a reproductive operation,
+by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired, and a duration or
+stability thus procured to the machine, considered as a world sustaining
+plants and animals.
+
+If no such reproductive power, or reforming operation, after due
+inquiry, is to be found in the constitution of this world, we should
+have reason to conclude, that the system of this earth has either been
+intentionally made imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite power
+and wisdom.
+
+Here is an important question, therefore, with regard to the
+constitution of this globe; a question which, perhaps, it is in
+the power of man's sagacity to resolve; and a question which, if
+satisfactorily resolved, might add some lustre to science and the human
+intellect.
+
+Animated with this great, this interesting view, let us strictly examine
+our principles, in order to avoid fallacy in our reasoning; and let us
+endeavour to support our attention, in developing a subject that is
+vast in its extent, as well as intricate in the relation of parts to be
+stated.
+
+The globe of this earth is evidently made for man. He alone, of all the
+beings which have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and every part;
+he alone is capable of knowing the nature of this world, which he thus
+possesses in virtue of his proper right; and he alone can make the
+knowledge of this system a source of pleasure, and the means of
+happiness.
+
+Man alone, of all the animated beings which enjoy the benefits of this
+earth, employs the knowledge which he there receives, in leading him to
+judge of the intention of things, as well as of the means by which they
+are brought about; and he alone is thus made to enjoy, in contemplation
+as well as sensual pleasure, all the good that may be observed in the
+constitution of this world; he, therefore, should be made the first
+subject of inquiry.
+
+Now, if we are to take the written history of man for the rule by which
+we should judge of the time when the species first began, that period
+would be but little removed from the present state of things. The Mosaic
+history places this beginning of man at no great distance; and there
+has not been found, in natural history, any document by which a high
+antiquity might be attributed to the human race. But this is not the
+case with regard to the inferior species of animals, particularly those
+which inhabit the ocean and its shores. We find, in natural history,
+monuments which prove that those animals had long existed; and we thus
+procure a measure for the computation of a period of time extremely
+remote, though far from being precisely ascertained.
+
+In examining things present, we have data from which to reason with
+regard to what has been; and, from what has actually been, we have
+data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen hereafter.
+Therefore, upon the supposition that the operations of nature are
+equable and steady, we find, in natural appearances, means for
+concluding a certain portion of time to have necessarily elapsed, in the
+production of those events of which we see the effects.
+
+It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals of every kind
+in the solid body of our earth, a natural history of those animals
+is formed, which includes a certain portion of time; and, for the
+ascertaining this portion of time, we must again have recourse to the
+regular operations of this world. We shall thus arrive at facts which
+indicate a period to which no other species of chronology is able to
+remount.
+
+In what follows, therefore, we are to examine the construction of the
+present earth, in order to understand the natural operations of time
+past; to acquire principles, by which we may conclude with regard to the
+future course of things, or judge of those operations, by which a world,
+so wisely ordered, goes into decay; and to learn, by what means such a
+decayed world may be renovated, or the waste of habitable land upon the
+globe repaired.
+
+This, therefore, is the object which we are to have in view during this
+physical investigation; this is the end to which are to be directed all
+the steps in our cosmological pursuit.
+
+The solid parts of the globe are, in general, composed of sand, of
+gravel, of argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of the various
+compositions of these with some other substances, which it is not
+necessary now to mention. Sand is separated and sized by streams and
+currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition of stones agitated
+in water; and marly, or argillaceous strata, have been collected, by
+subsiding in water with which those earthy substances had been floated.
+Thus, so far as the earth is formed of these materials, that solid body
+would appear to have been the production of water, winds, and tides.
+
+But that which renders the original of our land clear and evident,
+is the immense quantities of calcareous bodies which had belonged
+to animals, and the intimate connection of these masses of animal
+production with the other strata of the land. For it is to be proved,
+that all these calcareous bodies, from the collection of which the
+strata were formed, have belonged to the sea, and were produced in it.
+
+We find the marks of marine animals in the most solid parts of the
+earth; consequently, those solid parts have been formed after the ocean
+was inhabited by those animals which are proper to that fluid medium.
+If, therefore, we knew the natural history of those solid parts, and
+could trace the operations of the globe, by which they had been formed,
+we would have some means for computing the time through which those
+species of animals have continued to live. But how shall we describe a
+process which nobody has seen performed, and of which no written
+history gives any account? This is only to be investigated, _first_, in
+examining the nature of those solid bodies, the history of which we want
+to know; and, 2_dly_, In examining the natural operations of the globe,
+in order to see if there now actually exist such operations, as, from
+the nature of the solid bodies, appear to have been necessary to their
+formation.
+
+But, before entering more particularly into those points of discussion,
+by which the question is to be resolved, let us take a general view of
+the subject, in order to see what it is which science and observation
+must decide.
+
+In all the regions of the globe, immense masses are found, which, though
+at present in the most solid state, appear to have been formed by the
+collection of the calcareous _exuviae_ of marine animals. The question
+at present is not, in what manner those collections of calcareous relics
+have become a perfect solid body, and have been changed from an animal
+to a mineral substance; for this is a subject that will be afterwards
+considered; we are now only inquiring, if such is truly the origin of
+those mineral masses.
+
+That all the masses of marble or limestone are composed of the
+calcareous matter of marine bodies, may be concluded from the following
+facts:
+
+1_st_, There are few beds of marble or limestone, in which may not be
+found some of those objects which indicate the marine origin of the
+mass. If, for example, in a mass of marble, taken from a quarry upon the
+top of the Alps or Andes[2], there shall be found one cockle-shell, or
+piece of coral, it must be concluded, that this bed of stone had been
+originally formed at the bottom of the sea, as much as another bed which
+is evidently composed almost altogether of cockle-shells and coral. If
+one bed of limestone is thus found to have been of a marine origin,
+every concomitant bed of the same kind must be also concluded to have
+been formed in the same Manner.
+
+[Note 2: "Cette sommite elevee de 984 toises au dessus de notre lac, et
+par consequent de 1172 au dessus de la mer, est remarquable en ce que
+l'on y voit des fragmens d'huitres petrifies.--Cette montagne est
+dominee par un rocher escarpe, qui s'il n'est pas inaccessible, est du
+moins d'un bien difficile acces; il paroit presqu'entierement compose
+de coquillages petrifies, renfermes dans un roc calcaire, ou marbre
+grossier noiratre. Les fragmens qui s'en detachent, et que l'on
+rencontre en montant a la Croix de fer, sont remplis de _turbinites_ de
+differentes especes." M. DE SAUSSURE, _Voyage dans les Alpes_, p. 394.]
+
+We thus shall find the greatest part of the calcareous masses upon this
+globe to have originated from marine calcareous bodies; for whether
+we examine marbles, limestones, or such solid masses as are perfectly
+changed from the state of earth, and are become compact and hard, or
+whether we examine the soft, earthy, chalky or marly strata, of which so
+much of this earth is composed, we still find evident proofs, that those
+beds had their origin from materials deposited at the bottom of the sea;
+and that they have the calcareous substance which they contain, from the
+same source as the marbles or the limestones.
+
+2_dly_, In those calcareous strata, which are evidently of marine
+origin, there are many parts that are of a sparry structure, that is
+to say, the original texture of those beds, in such places, has been
+dissolved, and a new structure has been assumed, which is peculiar to
+a certain state of the calcareous earth. This change is produced by
+crystallisation, in consequence of a previous state of fluidity, which
+has so disposed the concreting parts, as to allow them to assume a
+regular shape and structure proper to that substance. A body, whose
+external form has been modified by this process, is called a _crystal_;
+one whose internal arrangement of parts is determined by it, is said to
+be of a _sparry structure_; and this is known from its fracture.
+
+3_dly_, There are, in all the regions of the earth, huge masses of
+calcareous matter, in that crystalline form of sparry state, in
+which perhaps no vestige can be found of any organised body, nor any
+indication that such calcareous matter had belonged to animals; but
+as, in other masses, this sparry structure, or crystalline state, is
+evidently assumed by the marine calcareous substances, in operations
+which are natural to the globe, and which are necessary to the
+consolidation of the strata, it does not appear, that the sparry masses,
+in which no figured body is formed, have been originally different from
+other masses, which, being only crystallised in part, and in part still
+retaining their original form, leave ample evidence of their marine
+origin[3].
+
+[Note 3: M. de Saussure, describing the marble of Aigle, says, "Les
+tables polies de ce marbre presentent frequemment des coquillages, dont
+la plupart sont des peignes stries, et de tres-beaux madrepores. Tous
+ces corps marins on pris entierement la nature et le grain meme
+du marbre, on n'y voit presque jamais la coquille sous sa forme
+originaire."]
+
+We are led, in this manner, to conclude, that all the strata of the
+earth, not only those consisting of such calcareous masses, but others
+superincumbent upon these, have had their origin at the bottom of the
+sea, by the collection of sand and gravel, of shells, of coralline
+and crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays, variously mixed,
+or separated and accumulated. Here is a general conclusion, well
+authenticated in the appearances of nature, and highly important in the
+natural history of the earth.
+
+The general amount of our reasoning is this, that nine-tenths, perhaps,
+or ninety-nine hundredths of this earth, so far as we see, have
+been formed by natural operations of the globe, in collecting loose
+materials, and depositing them at the bottom of the sea; consolidating
+those collections in various degrees, and either elevating those
+consolidated masses above the level on which they were formed, or
+lowering the level of that sea.
+
+There is a part of the solid earth which we may at present neglect, not
+as being persuaded that this part may not also be found to come under
+the general rule of formation with the rest, but as considering this
+part to be of no consequence in forming a general rule, which shall
+comprehend almost the whole, without doing it absolutely. This excluded
+part consists of certain mountains and masses of granite. These are
+thought to be still older in their formation, and are said never to
+be found superincumbent on strata which must be acknowledged as the
+productions of the sea.
+
+Having thus found the greater part, if not the whole, of the solid land
+to have been originally composed at the bottom of the sea, we may now,
+in order to form a proper idea of these operations, suppose the whole of
+this seaborn land to be again dispersed along the bottom of the ocean,
+the surface of which would rise proportionally over the globe. We would
+thus have a spheroid of water, with granite rocks and islands scattered
+here and there. But this would not be the world which we inhabit;
+therefore, the question now is, how such continents, as we actually have
+upon the globe, could be erected above the level of the sea.
+
+It must be evident, that no motion of the sea, caused by this earth
+revolving in the solar system, could bring about that end; for let us
+suppose the axis of the earth to be changed from the present poles, and
+placed in the equinoctial line, the consequence of this might, indeed,
+be the formation of a continent of land about each new pole, from whence
+the sea would run towards the new equator; but all the rest of the globe
+would remain an ocean. Some new points might be discovered, and others,
+which before appeared above the surface of the sea, would be sunk by
+the rising of the water; but, on the whole, land could only be gained
+substantially at the poles. Such a supposition, as this, if applied to
+the present state of things, would be destitute of every support, as
+being incapable of explaining what appears.
+
+But even allowing that, by the changed axis of the earth, or any other
+operation of the globe, as a planetary body revolving in the solar
+system, great continents of land could have been erected from the place
+of their formation, the bottom of the sea, and placed in a higher
+elevation, compared with the surface of that water, yet such a continent
+as this could not have continued stationary for many thousand years; nor
+could a continent of this kind have presented to us, every where within
+its body, masses of consolidated marble, and other mineral substances,
+in a state as different as possible from that in which they were, when
+originally collected together in the sea.
+
+Consequently, besides an operation, by which the earth at the bottom of
+the sea should be converted into an elevated land, or placed high above
+the level of the ocean, there is required, in the operations of the
+globe, a consolidating power, by which the loose materials that had
+subsided from water, should be formed into masses of the most perfect
+solidity, having neither water nor vacuity between their various
+constituent parts, nor in the pores of those constituent parts
+themselves.
+
+Here is an operation of the globe, whether chemical or mechanical, which
+is necessarily connected with the formation of our present continents:
+Therefore, had we a proper understanding of this secret operation, we
+might thereby be enabled to form an opinion, with regard to the nature
+of that unknown power, by which the continents have been placed above
+the surface of that water wherein they had their birth.
+
+If this consolidating operation be performed at the bottom of the
+ocean, or under great depths of the earth, of which our continents are
+composed, we cannot be witnesses to this mineral process, or acquire the
+knowledge of natural causes, by immediately observing the changes which
+they produce; but though we have not this immediate observation of those
+changes of bodies, we have, in science, the means of reasoning from
+distant events; consequently, of discovering, in the general powers of
+nature, causes for those events of which we see the effects.
+
+That the consolidating operation, in general, lies out of the reach of
+our immediate observation, will appear from the following truth: All the
+consolidated masses, of which we now inquire into the cause, are, upon
+the surface of the earth, in a state of general decay, although the
+various natures of those bodies admit of that dissolution in very
+different degrees[4]
+
+From every view of the subject, therefore, we are directed to look into
+those consolidated masses themselves, in order to find principles from
+whence to judge of those operations by which they had attained their
+hardness or consolidated state.
+
+It must be evident, that nothing but the most general acquaintance with
+the laws of acting substances, and with those of bodies changing by the
+powers of nature, can enable us to set about this undertaking with any
+reasonable prospect of success; and here the science of Chemistry must
+be brought particularly to our aid; for this science, having for its
+object the changes produced upon the sensible qualities, as they are
+called, of bodies, by its means we may be enabled to judge of that which
+is possible according to the laws of nature, and of that which, in like
+manner, we must consider as impossible.
+
+[Note 4: Stalactical and certain ferruginous concretions may seem
+to form an exception to the generality of this proposition. But an
+objection of this kind could only arise from a partial view of things;
+for the concretion here is only temporary; it is in consequence of a
+solution, and it is to be followed by a dissolution, which will be
+treated of in its proper place.]
+
+Whatever conclusions, therefore, by means of this science, shall be
+attained, in just reasoning from natural appearances, this must be held
+as evidence, where more immediate proof cannot be obtained; and, in
+a physical subject, where things actual are concerned, and not the
+imaginations of the human mind, this proof will be considered as
+amounting to a demonstration.
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+An Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in consolidating
+the Strata of the Globe.
+
+We are now about to investigate those mineral operations of the globe by
+which the qualities of hardness and solidity, consequently of strength
+and durability, are procured to great bodies of this earth.
+
+That those qualities are not original to such bodies, but actually
+superinduced in the natural operations of the earth, will appear from
+the examination of some of the hardest and most solid of those mineral
+bodies. In such masses, (for example of flint and agate,) we find
+included shells and coralline bodies. Consequently, there must be a
+natural operation in the globe for consolidating and hardening its soft
+and loose materials. It is concerning the nature of this consolidating
+operation that we are now to inquire.
+
+There are just two ways in which porous or spongy bodies can be
+consolidated, and by which substances may be formed into masses of
+a natural shape and regular structure; the one of these is simple
+_congelation_ from a fluid state, by means of cold; the other is
+_accretion_; and this includes a separatory operation, as well as that
+by which the solid body is to be produced. But in whichever of these
+ways solidity shall be procured, it must be brought about by first
+inducing fluidity, either immediately by the action of heat, or
+mediately with the assistance of a solvent, that is, by the operation
+of solution. Therefore, fire and water may be considered as the general
+agents in this operation, which we would explore.
+
+Heat has been already mentioned as a general power, and as acting in all
+the different parts of the globe; I would now wish more particularly to
+call the attention of the reader to subterraneous fire, or heat, as
+a powerful agent in the mineral regions, and as a cause necessarily
+belonging to the internal constitution of this earth.
+
+It is not our purpose at present to inquire into the particular nature
+of this power of subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
+and analogy of the internal fire with that which is so necessary to our
+life, and which acts so great a part upon the surface of the earth, this
+being reserved for the last part. Our intention in here mentioning it,
+is only to dispose the mind to look for active powers or efficient
+causes, in that part of the earth which has been commonly considered as
+passive and inert, but which will be found extremely active, and the
+source of mighty revolutions in the fate of land.
+
+There may, indeed, be some difficulty in conceiving all the
+modifications of this mineral power; but as, on the one hand, we are not
+arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose of explaining events, or
+certain appearances which are not understood; so, on the other, we must
+not refuse to admit the action of a known power, when this is properly
+suggested in the appearances of things; and, though we may not
+understand all the modifications, or the whole capacity and regulation
+of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect the appropriating to it,
+as a cause, those effects which are natural to it, and which, so far as
+we know, cannot belong to any other. On all occasions, we are to judge
+from what we know; and, we are only to avoid concluding from our
+suppositions, in cases where evidence or real information is necessarily
+required. The subject now considered, subterraneous fire, will afford an
+example of that truth; and, a general view of this great natural power
+will here find a proper place, before the application of it for the
+explanation of natural appearances.
+
+No event is more the object of our notice, or more interesting as a
+subject for our study, than is the burning of a fire: But, the more that
+philosophers have studied this subject, the more they seem to differ
+as to the manner in which that conspicuous event is to be explained.
+Therefore, being so ignorant with regard to that fire of which we see
+the origin as well as the more immediate effects, how cautious should
+we be in judging the nature of subterraneous fire from the burning of
+bodies, a subject which we so little understand.
+
+But, though the cause of fire in general, or the operations of that
+power in its extreme degrees, be for us a subject involved in much
+obscurity, this is not the case with regard to the more common effects
+of heat; and, tho' the actual existence of subterraneous fire, as the
+cause of light and heat, might be a thing altogether problematical in
+our opinion; yet, as to other effects, there are some of these from
+which the action of that liquefying power may be certainly concluded as
+having taken place within the mineral region, although the cause should
+be in every other respect a thing to us unknown. In that case, where the
+operation or effect is evident, and cannot be disputed, to refuse to
+admit the power in question, merely because we had not seen it act, or
+because we know not every rule which it may observe in acting, would
+be only to found an argument upon our ignorance; it would be to
+misunderstand the nature of investigating physical truths, which must
+proceed by reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+Our knowledge is extremely limited with regard to the effects of heat in
+bodies, while acting under different conditions, and in various degrees.
+But though our knowledge in these respects is limited, our judgment with
+regard to the efficacy of this power of heat is in its nature positive,
+and contains not any thing that is doubtful or uncertain. All mankind,
+who have the opportunity, know that the hard substance of ice is by heat
+converted into water, wherein no hardness remains; and the profound
+philosophy of Dr Black, in relation to the subject of _latent heat_, as
+that of Sir Isaac Newton, in relation to the weight of bodies, is not
+necessary to convince the world that in the one case ice will melt, and
+in the other, that heavy bodies will move when unsupported.
+
+But though, in the abstract doctrine of _latent heat_, the ingenuity
+of man has discovered a certain measure for the quantity of those
+commutable effects which are perceived; and though this be a progress of
+science far above the apprehension of the vulgar, yet still, that solid
+bodies are changed into fluids, by the power of heat, is the same
+unalterable judgment, which the savage forms as well as the philosopher.
+Here, therefore, are evident effects, which mankind in general attribute
+to the power of heat; and it is from those known effects that we are to
+investigate subterraneous fire, or to generalise the power of heat, as
+acting in the interior parts, as well as on the surface of this earth.
+
+If, indeed, there were any other cause for fluidity besides the
+operation of fire or the power of heat, in that case the most evident
+proof, with regard to the flowing, or former fluidity, of mineral
+bodies, would draw to no conclusion in proving the existence of mineral
+fire; but when we have not the smallest reason for conjecturing any
+other cause, or the least doubt with regard to that which, in the
+doctrine of latent heat, has been properly investigated, the proofs
+which we shall bring, of fusion in all the minerals of this earth,
+must be held as proofs of mineral fire, in like manner as the proof of
+subterraneous fire would necessarily imply mineral fusion as its natural
+effect.
+
+Thus we have, in our physical investigation, several points in view.
+First, from the present state of things, to infer a former state of
+fusion among mineral bodies. Secondly, from that former fusion, to infer
+the actual existence of mineral fire in the system of the earth. And,
+lastly, from the acknowledged fact of subterraneous fire as a cause, to
+reason with regard to the effects of that power in mineral bodies.
+
+But besides the power or effect of subterraneous heat in bodies which
+are unorganised, and without system, in the construction of their
+different parts, we have to investigate the proper purpose of this great
+agent in the system of this world, which may be considered as a species
+of organised body. Here, therefore, final causes are to be brought into
+view, as well as those which are efficient. Now, in a subject involved
+with so much obscurity, as must be for us the internal regions of the
+globe, the consideration of efficient and final causes may contribute
+mutually to each others evidence, when separately the investigation of
+either might be thought unsatisfactory or insufficient.
+
+So far it seemed necessary to premise with regard to the great mineral
+power which we are to employ as an agent in the system of this earth;
+and it may be now observed, that it is in the proper relation of this
+power of heat and the fluidity or softness of bodies, as cause and
+effect, that we are to find a physical principle or argument for
+detecting those false theories of the earth that have been only
+imagined, and not properly founded on fact or observation. It is also by
+means of this principle, that we shall be enabled to form a true theory
+of the mineral region, in generalising particular effects to a common
+cause.
+
+Let us now proceed in endeavouring to decide this important question,
+viz. By what active principle is it, that the present state of things,
+which we observe in the strata of the earth, a state so very different
+from that in which those bodies had been formed originally, has been
+brought about?
+
+Two causes have been now proposed for the consolidating of loose
+materials which had been in an incoherent state; these are, on the one
+hand, fire; or, on the other, water, as the means of bringing about that
+event. We are, therefore, to consider well, what may be the consequences
+of consolidation by the one or other of those agents; and what may be
+the respective powers of those agents with respect to this operation.
+
+If we are not informed in this branch of science, we may gaze without
+instruction upon the most convincing proofs of what we want to attain.
+If our knowledge is imperfect, we may form erroneous principles, and
+deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to those works of nature,
+which are wisely calculated for our instruction.
+
+The strata, formed at the bottom of the sea, are to be considered
+as having been consolidated, either by aqueous solution and
+crystallization, or by the effect of heat and fusion. If it is in the
+first of these two ways that the solid strata of the globe have attained
+to their present state, there will be a certain uniformity observable
+in the effects; and there will be general laws, by which this operation
+must have been conducted. Therefore, knowing those general laws, and
+making just observations with regard to the natural appearances of those
+consolidated masses, a philosopher, in his closet, should be able to
+determine, what may, and what may not have been transacted in the bowels
+of the earth, or below the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Let us now endeavour to ascertain what may have been the power of water,
+acting under fixed circumstances, operating upon known substances, and
+conducting to a certain end.
+
+The action of water upon all different substances is an operation
+with which we are familiar. We have it in our power to apply water in
+different degrees of heat for the solution of bodies, and under various
+degrees of compression; consequently, there is no reason to conclude
+any thing mysterious in the operations of the globe, which are to be
+performed by means of water, unless an immense compressing power should
+alter the nature of those operations. But compression alters the
+relation of evaporation only with regard to heat, or it changes the
+degree of heat which water may be made to sustain; consequently, we are
+to look for no occult quality in water acting upon bodies at the bottom
+of the deepest ocean, more than what can be observed in experiments
+which we have it in our power to try.
+
+With regard again to the effect of time: Though the continuance of time
+may do much in those operations which are extremely slow, where no
+change, to our observation, had appeared to take place, yet, where it
+is not in the nature of things to produce the change in question, the
+unlimited course of time would be no more effectual, than the moment by
+which we measure events in our observations.
+
+Water being the general medium in which bodies collected at the bottom
+of the sea are always contained, if those masses of collected matter are
+to be consolidated by solution, it must be by the dissolution of
+those bodies in that water as a menstruum, and by the concretion or
+crystallization of this dissolved matter, that the spaces, first
+occupied by water in those masses, are afterwards to be filled with a
+hard and solid substance; but without some other power, by which the
+water contained in those cavities and endless labyrinths of the strata,
+should be separated in proportion as it had performed its task, it is
+inconceivable how those masses, however changed from the state of their
+first subsidence, should be absolutely consolidated, without any visible
+or fluid water in their composition.
+
+Besides this difficulty of having the water separated from the porous
+masses which are to be consolidated, there is another with which, upon
+this supposition, we have to struggle. This is, From whence should come
+the matter with which the numberless cavities in those masses are to be
+filled?
+
+The water in the cavities and interstices of those bodies composing
+strata, must be in a stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
+upon the surfaces of those cavities which are to be filled up. But
+with what are they to be filled? Not with water; they are full of that
+already: Not with the substance of the bodies which contain that water;
+this would be only to make one cavity in order to fill up another.
+If, therefore, the cavities of the strata are to be filled with solid
+matter, by means of water, there must be made to pass through those
+porous masses, water impregnated with some other substances in a
+dissolved state; and the aqueous menstruum must be made to separate
+from the dissolved substance, and to deposit the same in those cavities
+through which the solution moves.
+
+By such a supposition as this, we might perhaps explain a partial
+consolidation of those strata; but this is a supposition, of which the
+case under consideration does not admit; for in the present case, which
+is that of materials accumulated at the bottom of the ocean, there is
+not proper means for separating the dissolved matter from the water
+included in those enormous masses; nor are there any means by which a
+circulation in those masses may be formed. In this case, therefore,
+where the means are not naturally in the supposition, a philosopher, who
+is to explain the phenomenon by the natural operation of water in this
+situation, must not have recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
+to assist his supposition which cannot be admitted.
+
+Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate strata formed at the bottom
+of the sea, in the manner now considered, operations are required
+unnatural to this place; consequently, not to be supposed, in order to
+support a hypothesis.
+
+But now, instead of inquiring how far water may be supposed instrumental
+in the consolidation of strata which were originally of a loose
+texture, we are to consider how far there may be appearances in those
+consolidated bodies, by which it might be concluded, whether or not the
+present state of their consolidation has been actually brought about by
+means of that agent.
+
+If water had been the menstruum by which the consolidating matter was
+introduced into the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies could
+only be found consolidated with such substances as water is capable of
+dissolving; and these substances would be found only in such a state as
+the simple separation of the solvent water might produce.
+
+In this case, the consolidation of strata would be extremely limited;
+for we cannot allow more power to water than we find it has in nature;
+nor are we to imagine to ourselves unlimited powers in bodies, on
+purpose to explain those appearances by which we should be made to know
+the powers of nature. Let us, therefore, attend, with every possible
+circumspection, to the appearances of those bodies, by means of which we
+are to investigate the principles of mineralogy, and know the laws of
+nature.
+
+The question now before us concerns the consolidating substances of
+strata. Are these such as will correspond to the dissolving power of
+water, and to the state in which these substances might be left by the
+separation of their menstruum? No; far, far from this supposition is the
+conclusion that necessarily follows from natural appearances.
+
+We have strata consolidated by calcareous spar, a thing perfectly
+distinguishable from the stalactical concretion of calcareous earth,
+in consequence of aqueous solution. We have strata made solid by the
+formation of fluor, a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
+water. We have strata consolidated with sulphureous and bituminous
+substances, which do not correspond to the solution of water. We have
+strata consolidated with siliceous matter, in a state different from
+that under which it has been observed, on certain occasions, to be
+deposited by water. We have strata consolidated by feld-spar, a
+substance insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated by almost all
+the various metallic substances, with their almost endless mixtures
+and sulphureous compositions; that is to say, we find, perhaps, every
+different substance introduced into the interstices of strata which had
+been formed by subsidence at the bottom of the sea.
+
+If it is by means of water that those interstices have been filled with
+those materials, water must be, like fire, an universal solvent, or
+cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely our opinion of water in
+relation to its chemical character. But there is no necessity thus to
+violate our chemical principles, in order to explain certain natural
+appearances; more especially if those appearances may be explained in
+another manner, consistently with the known laws of nature.
+
+If, again, it is by means of heat and fusion that the loose and porous
+structure of strata shall be supposed to have been consolidated, then
+every difficulty which had occurred in reasoning upon the power or
+agency of water is at once removed. The loose and discontinuous body of
+a stratum may be closed by means of softness and compression; the porous
+structure of the materials may be consolidated, in a similar manner, by
+the fusion of their substance; and foreign matter may be introduced into
+the open structure of strata, in form of steam or exhalation, as well as
+in the fluid state of fusion; consequently, heat is an agent competent
+for the consolidation of strata, which water alone is not. If,
+therefore, such an agent could be found acting in the natural place of
+strata, we must pronounce it proper to bring about that end.
+
+The examination of nature gives countenance to this supposition, so far
+as strata are found consolidated by every species of substance,
+and almost every possible mixture of those different substances;
+consequently, however difficult it may appear to have this application
+of heat, for the purpose of consolidating strata formed at the bottom of
+the ocean, we cannot, from natural appearances, suppose any other cause,
+as having actually produced the effects which are now examined.
+
+This question, with regard to the means of consolidating the strata of
+the globe, is, to natural history, of the greatest importance; and it is
+essential in the theory now proposed to be given of the mineral system.
+It would, therefore, require to be discussed with some degree of
+precision in examining the particulars; but of these, there is so great
+a field, and the subject is so complicated in its nature, that volumes
+might be written upon particular branches only, without exhausting what
+might be laid upon the subject; because the evidence, though strong in
+many particulars, is chiefly to be enforced by a multitude of facts,
+conspiring, in a diversity of ways, to point out one truth, and by the
+impossibility of reconciling all these facts, except by means of one
+supposition.
+
+But, as it is necessary to give some proof of that which is to be
+a principle in our reasoning afterwards, I shall now endeavour to
+generalise the subject as much as possible, in order to answer that end,
+and, at the same time, to point out the particular method of inquiry.
+
+There are to be found, among the various strata of the globe, bodies
+formed of two different kinds of substances, _siliceous_ bodies, and
+those which may be termed _sulphureous_ or _phlogistic_. With one or
+other, or both of those we substances, every different consolidated
+stratum of the globe will be found so intimately mixed, or closely
+connected, that it must be concluded, by whatever cause those bodies
+of siliceous and sulphureous matter had been changed from a fluid to a
+concreted state, the strata must have been similarly affected by the
+same cause.
+
+These two species of bodies, therefore, the siliceous and the
+sulphureous, may now be examined, in relation to the causes of their
+concretion, with a view to determine, what has been the general
+concreting or consolidating power, which has operated universally in the
+globe; and particularly to show, it has not been by means of any fluid
+solution, that strata in general have been consolidated, or that those
+particular substances have been crystallized and concreted.
+
+Siliceous matter, physically speaking, is not soluble in water; that is
+to say, in no manner of way have we been enabled to learn, that water
+has the power of dissolving this matter.
+
+Many other substances, which are so little soluble in water, that their
+solubility could not be otherwise detected of themselves, are made to
+appear soluble by means of siliceous matter; such is feld-spar, one of
+the component parts of rock-granite.
+
+Feld-spar is a compound of siliceous, argillaceous, and calcareous
+earth, intimately united together. This compound siliceous body
+being, for ages, exposed to the weather, the calcareous part of it is
+dissolved, and the siliceous part is left in form of a soft white earth.
+But whether this dissolution is performed by pure water, or by means
+also of an acid, may perhaps be questioned. This, however, is certain,
+that we must consider siliceous substances as insoluble in water.
+
+The water of Glezer in Iceland undoubtedly contains this substance in
+solution; but there is no reason to believe, that it is here dissolved
+by any other than the natural means; that is, an alkaline substance, by
+which siliceous bodies may be rendered soluble in water[5].
+
+[Note 5: This conjecture, which I had thus formed, has been fully
+confirmed by the accurate analysis of those waters. See vol. 3d. of the
+Phil. Trans. of Edin.]
+
+It may be, therefore, asserted, that no siliceous body having the
+hardness of flint, nor any crystallization of that substance, has ever
+been formed, except by fusion. If, by any art, this substance shall be
+dissolved in simple water, or made to crystallise from any solution, in
+that case, the assertion which has been here made may be denied.
+But where there is not the vestige of any proof, to authorise the
+supposition of flinty matter being dissolved by water, or crystallized
+from that solution, such an hypothesis cannot be admitted, in opposition
+to general and evident appearances[6].
+
+[Note 6: The Chevalier de Dolomieu has imagined an ingenious theory for
+the solution of siliceous substances in water [Journal de Physique, Mai
+1792.]. This theory has not been taken up merely at a venture, but
+is founded upon very accurate and interesting chemical experiments.
+Hitherto, however, the nature of the siliceous substance is not
+sufficiently known, to enable us to found, upon chemical principles, the
+mineral operations of nature. That siliceous substance may be dissolved,
+or rendered soluble in water, by means of alkaline salt, and that it may
+be also volatilised by means of the fluor acid, is almost all that we
+know upon the subject. But this is saying no more in relation to the
+mineral operations employed upon the siliceous substance, than it would
+be, in relation to those upon gold, to say that this metal is dissolved
+by aqua regia.
+
+It is to be admitted, that every simple substance may have its
+menstruum, by means of which it may be retained with water in a
+dissolved state; but from this it does not follow, that it is by the
+means of aqueous solutions of all those mineral bodies, that nature
+operates the consolidation of bodies, which we find actually
+accomplished with all those different substances. It is the business of
+this work to show, that from all appearances in the mineral regions, as
+well as those upon the surface in the atmosphere, the supposition, of
+that manner of consolidating bodies by solution, is inconsistent both
+with natural appearances, and also with chemical principles.
+
+Our ingenious author, who has, with, great diligence as well as an
+enlightened mind, observed the operations of nature upon the surface
+of the earth, here says, "ce n'est pas sans etonnement que je remarque
+depuis long-temps que jamais aucune eau qui coule a la surface de la
+terre n'attaque le quartz, aucune n'en tient en dissolution, pendant que
+celles qui circulent interieurement le corrodent aussi souvent qu'elles
+le deposent."--How dangerous it is in science for ingenious men to allow
+themselves to form conclusions, which the principles on which they
+reason do not strictly warrant, we have a remarkable example in the
+present case.
+
+M. de Dolomieu sees no corrosion of quartz, or solution of that
+substance, upon the surface of the earth; from this, then, he concludes,
+that siliceous substance is not dissolved in that situation of things.
+On the other hand, he finds siliceous bodies variously concreted among
+the solid strata of the earth; and, from this he concludes, that
+siliceous substance has been both dissolved by water in the strata, and
+also there again concreted and crystallised in having been separated
+from the water. This is certainly what we all perceive; but we do not
+all allow ourselves to draw such inconclusive inferences from our
+premises. Notwithstanding the greatest accuracy of our observations,
+quartz may be dissolvable in a minute degree by water, upon the surface
+of this earth; and, all the appearances of siliceous bodies, in the
+mineral regions, where we cannot immediately see the operation, may be
+better explained by fusion than by aqueous solution.
+
+But, from his chemical experiments, our author has conjectured that
+there may be a phlogistic substance, by means of which the siliceous
+earth is dissolved when in darkness; and that this solvent loses its
+power, if exposed to the light of day. I have one observation to oppose
+to this ingenious theory. Under deep black mosses, through which no ray
+of light can penetrate, every condition for dissolving siliceous bodies
+should be found, according to the supposition in question; neither will
+sufficient time be found wanting, in those deep mosses, upon the summits
+of our mountains; yet, examine the matter of fact? not the smallest
+solution is to be perceived in the siliceous parts of the stones which
+are found under those mosses, but every particle of iron is dissolved,
+so that the surface of every stone is white, and nothing but the
+siliceous earth of the feld-spar, and perhaps the argillaceous, is left.
+
+Here we have in this author an instructive example: No person, in my
+opinion, has made such enlightened or scientific experiments, or such
+judicious observations with regard to the nature of siliceous substance,
+as a compound thing; no person reasons more distinctly in general, or
+sees more clearly the importance of his principles; yet, with regard to
+mineral concretions, how often has he been drawn thus inadvertently
+into improper generalization! I appeal to the analogy which, in this
+treatise, he has formed, between the stalactical concretions upon
+the surface of the earth, and the mineral concretions of siliceous
+substance. As an example of the great lights, and penetrating genius, of
+this assiduous studier of nature, I refer to the judicious observations
+which he has made upon the subject of aluminous earth, in this
+dissertation.
+
+I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking, in the
+origin of this globe of our earth, a general principle of fluidity or
+solution in water, like the alkahest of the alchymists, by means of
+which the different substances in the chemical constitution of precious
+stones might have been united as well as crystallised. One would
+have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the operations of
+subterraneous fire, would have perceived, that there is but one general
+principle of fluidity or dissolution, and that this is heat.]
+
+Besides this proof for the fusion of siliceous bodies, which is
+indirect, arising from the in dissolubility of that substance in water,
+there is another, which is more direct, being founded upon appearances
+which are plainly inconsistent with any other supposition, except that
+of simple fluidity induced by heat. The proof I mean is, the penetration
+of many bodies with a flinty substance, which, according to every
+collateral circumstance, must have been performed by the flinty matter
+in a simply fluid state, and not in a state of dissolution by a solvent.
+
+These are flinty bodies perfectly insulated in strata both of chalk and
+sand. It requires but inspection to be convinced. It is not possible
+that flinty matter could be conveyed into the middle of those strata, by
+a menstruum in which it was dissolved, and thus deposited in that place,
+without the smallest trace of deposition in the surrounding parts.
+
+But, besides this argument taken from what does not appear, the actual
+form in which those flinty masses are found, demonstrates, _first_,
+That they have been introduced among those strata in a fluid state, by
+injection from some other place. 2_dly_, That they have been dispersed
+in a variety of ways among those strata, then deeply immersed at the
+bottom of the sea; and, _lastly_, That they have been there congealed
+from the state of fusion, and have remained in that situation, while
+those strata have been removed from the bottom of the ocean to the
+surface of the present land.
+
+To describe those particular appearances would draw this paper beyond
+the bounds of an essay. We must, therefore, refer those who would
+inquire more minutely into the subject, to examine the chalk-countries
+of France and England, in which the flint is found variously formed; the
+land-hills interspersed among those chalk-countries, which have been
+also injected by melted flint; and the pudding-stone of England, which
+I have not seen in its natural situation. More particularly, I would
+recommend an examination of the insulated masses of stone, found in
+the sand-hills by the city of Brussels; a stone which is formed by an
+injection of flint among sand, similar to that which, in a body of
+gravel, had formed the pudding-stone of England[7].
+
+[Note 7: Accurate descriptions of those appearances, with drawings,
+would be, to natural history, a valuable acquisition.]
+
+All these examples would require to be examined upon the spot, as a
+great part of the proof for the fusion of the flinty substance, arises,
+in my opinion, from the form in which those bodies are found, and the
+state of the surrounding parts. But there are specimens brought from
+many different places, which contain, in themselves, the most evident
+marks of this injection of the flinty substance in a fluid state. These
+are pieces of fossil wood, penetrated with a siliceous substance, which
+are brought from England, Germany, and Lochneagh in Ireland.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that there has sometimes been a prior
+penetration of the body of wood, either with irony matter, or calcareous
+substance. Sometimes, again, which is the case with that of Lochneagh,
+there does not seem to have been any penetration of those two
+substances. The injected flint appears to have penetrated the body
+of this wood, immersed at the bottom of the sea, under an immense
+compression of water. This appears from the wood being penetrated
+partially, some parts not being penetrated at all.
+
+Now, in the limits between those two parts, we have the most convincing
+proofs, that it had been flint in a simple fluid state which had
+penetrated the wood, and not in a state of solution.
+
+_First_, Because, however little of the wood is left unpenetrated, the
+division is always distinct between the injected part and that which is
+not penetrated by the fluid flint. In this case, the flinty matter has
+proceeded a certain length, which is marked, and no farther; and, beyond
+this boundary, there is no partial impregnation, nor a gradation of the
+flintifying operation, as must have been the case if siliceous matter
+had been deposited from a solution. 2_dly_, The termination of the
+flinty impregnation has assumed such a form, precisely, as would
+naturally happen from a fluid flint penetrating that body.
+
+In other specimens of this mineralising operation, fossil wood,
+penetrated, more or less, with ferruginous and calcareous substances,
+has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty substance. In this case,
+with whatever different substances the woody body shall be supposed
+to have been penetrated in a state of solution by water, the regular
+structure of the plant would still have remained, with its vacuities,
+variously filled with the petrifying substances, separated from the
+aqueous menstruum, and deposited in the vascular structure of the wood.
+There cannot be a doubt with regard to the truth of this proposition;
+for, as it is, we frequently find parts of the consolidated wood, with
+the vascular structure remaining perfectly in its natural shape and
+situation; but if it had been by aqueous solution that the wood had been
+penetrated and consolidated, all the parts of that body would be found
+in the same natural shape and situation.
+
+This, however, is far from being the case; for while, in some parts, the
+vascular structure is preserved entire, it is also evident, that, in
+general, the woody structure is variously broken and dissolved by the
+fusion and crystallization of the flint. There are so many and such
+various convincing examples of this, that, to attempt to describe them,
+would be to exceed the bounds prescribed for this dissertation; but such
+specimens are in my possession, ready for the inspection of any person
+who may desire to study the subject.
+
+We may now proceed to consider sulphureous substances, with regard to
+their solubility in water, and to the part which these bodies have acted
+in consolidating the strata of the globe.
+
+The sulphureous substances here meant to be considered, are substances
+not soluble in, water, so far as we know, but fusible by heat, and
+inflammable or combustible by means of heat and vital air. These
+substances are of two kinds; the one more simple, the other more
+compound.
+
+The most simple kind is composed of two different substances, viz.
+phlogiston, with certain specific substances; from which result, on the
+one hand, sulphur, and, on the other, proper coal and metals. The more
+compound sort, again, is oily matter, produced by vegetables, and
+forming bituminous bodies.
+
+The _first_ of these is found naturally combined with almost all
+metallic substances, which are then said to be mineralised with sulphur.
+Now, it is well known, that this mineralising operation is performed by
+means of heat or fusion; and there is no person skilled in chemistry
+that will pretend to say, this may be done by aqueous solution. The
+combination of iron and sulphur, for example, may easily be performed by
+fusion; but, by aqueous solution, this particular combination is again
+resolved, and forms an acido-metallic, that is, a vitriolic substance,
+after the phlogiston (by means of which it is insoluble in water) has
+been separated from the composition, by the assistance of vital air.
+
+The variety of these sulphureo-metallic substances, in point of
+composition, is almost indefinite; but, unless they were all soluble in
+water, this could not have happened by the action of that solvent. If we
+shall allow any one of those bodies to have been formed by the fluidity
+of heat, they must all have been formed in the same manner; for there is
+such a chain of connection among those bodies in the mineral regions,
+that they must all have been composed, either, on the one hand, by
+aqueous solution, or, on the other, by means of heat and fusion.
+
+Here, for example, are crystallised together in one mass, 1_st,
+Pyrites_, containing sulphur, iron, copper; 2_dly, Blend_, a composition
+of iron, sulphur, and calamine; 3_dly, Galena_, consisting of lead
+and sulphur; 4_thly, Marmor metallicum_, being the terra ponderosa,
+saturated with the vitriolic acid; a substance insoluble in water;
+5_thly, Fluor_, a saturation of calcareous earth, with a peculiar acid,
+called the _acid of spar_, also insoluble in water; 6_thly, Calcareous
+spar_, of different kinds, being calcareous earth saturated with fixed
+air, and something besides, which forms a variety in this substance;
+_lastly, Siliceous substance_, or _Quartz crystals_. All these bodies,
+each possessing its proper shape, are mixed in such a manner as it would
+be endless to describe, but which may be expressed in general by saying,
+that they are mutually contained in, and contain each other.
+
+Unless, therefore; every one of these different substances may be
+dissolved in water, and crystallised from it, it is in vain to look for
+the explanation of these appearances in the operations of nature, by the
+means of aqueous solution.
+
+On the other hand, heat being capable of rendering all these substances
+fluid, they may be, with the greatest simplicity, transported from one
+place to another; and they may be made to concrete altogether at
+the same time, and distinctly separate in any place. Hence, for the
+explanation of those natural appearances, which are so general, no
+further conditions are required, than the supposition of a sufficient
+intensity of subterraneous fire or heat, and a sufficient degree of
+compression upon those bodies, which are to be subjected to that violent
+heat, without calcination or change. But, so far as this supposition is
+not gratuitous, the appearances of nature will be thus explained.
+
+I shall only mention one specimen, which must appear most decisive
+of the question. It is, I believe, from an Hungarian mine. In this
+specimen, petro-silex, pyrites, and cinnabar, are so mixed together, and
+crystallised upon each other, that it is impossible to conceive any one
+of those bodies to have had its fluidity and concretion from a cause
+which had not affected the other two. Now, let those who would deny the
+fusion of this siliceous body explain how water could dissolve these
+three different bodies, and deposit them in their present shape. If,
+on the contrary, they have not the least shadow of reason for such a
+gratuitous supposition, the present argument must be admitted in its
+full force.
+
+Sulphur and metals are commonly found combined in the mineral regions.
+But this rule is not universal; for they are also frequently in a
+separate state. There is not, perhaps, a metal, among the great number
+which are now discovered, that may not be found native, as they are
+called, or in their metallic state.
+
+Metallic substances are also thus found in some proportion to the
+disposition of the particular metals, to resist the mineralising
+operations, and to their facility of being metallised by fire and
+fusion. Gold, which refuses to be mineralised with sulphur, is found
+generally in its native state. Iron, again, which is so easily
+mineralised and scorified, is seldom found in its malleable state. The
+other metals are all found more or less mineralised, though some of them
+but rarely in the native state.
+
+Besides being found with circumstances thus corresponding to the natural
+facility, or to the impediments attending the metallization of those
+different calces, the native metals are also found in such a shape, and
+with such marks, as can only agree with the fusion of those bodies;
+that is to say, those appearances are perfectly irreconcilable with any
+manner of solution and precipitation.
+
+For the truth of this assertion, among a thousand other examples, I
+appeal to that famous mass of native iron discovered by Mr Pallas in
+Siberia. This mass being so well known to all the mineralists of Europe,
+any comment upon its shape and structure will be unnecessary[8].
+
+[Note 8: Since this Dissertation was written, M. de la Peyrouse has
+discovered a native manganese. The circumstances of this mineral are so
+well adapted for illustrating the present doctrine, and so well related
+by M. de la Peyrouse, that I should be wanting to the interest of
+mineral knowledge, were I not to give here that part of his Memoir.
+
+"Lorsque je fis inserer dans le journal de physique de l'annee 1780, au
+mois de Janvier, une Dissertation contenant la classification des mines
+de manganese, je ne connoissois point, a cette epoque, la mine de
+manganese native. Elle a la couleur de son regule: Elle salit les doigts
+de la meme teinte. Son tissu parait aussi lamelleux, et les lames
+semblent affecter une sorte de divergence. Elle a ainsi que lui, l'eclat
+metallique; comme lui elle se laisse aplatir sous le marteau, et
+s'exfolie si l'on redouble les coups; mais une circonstance qui est trop
+frappante pour que je l'omette, c'est la figure de la manganese native,
+si prodigieusement conforme a celle du regule, qu'on s'y laisseroit
+tromper, si la mine n'etoit encore dans sa gangue: Figure
+tres-essentielle a observer ici, parce qu'elle est due a la nature meme
+de la manganese. En effet, pour reduire toutes les mines en general, il
+faut employer divers flux appropries. Pour la reduction de la manganese,
+bien loin d'user de ce moyen, il faut, au contraire, eloigner tout flux,
+produire la fusion, par la seule violence et la promptitude du feu. Et
+telle est la propension naturelle et prodigieuse de la manganese a la
+vitrification, qu'on n'a pu parvenir encore a reduire son regule en un
+seul culot; on trouve dans le creuset plusieurs petits boutons, qui
+forment autant de culots separes. Dans la mine de manganese native, elle
+n'est point en une seule masse; elle est disposee egalement en plusieurs
+culots separes, et un peu aplatis, comme ceux que l'art produit;
+beaucoup plus gros, a la verite, parce que les agens de la nature
+doivent avoir une autre energie, que ceux de nos laboratoires; et cette
+ressemblance si exacte, semble devoir vous faire penser que la mine
+native a ete produite par le feu, tout comme son regule. La presence
+de la chaux argentee de la manganese, me permettroit de croire que la
+nature n'a fait que reduire cette chaux. Du reste, cette mine native
+est tres-pure, et ne contient aucune partie attirable a l'aimant. Cette
+mine, unique jusqu'a ce moment, vient, tout comme les autres manganese
+que j'ai decrites, des mines de fer de _Sem_, dans la vallee de
+_Viedersos_, en Comte de Foix."--_Journal de Physique, Janvier 1786_.]
+
+We come now to the _second_ species of inflammable bodies called oily or
+bituminous. These substances are also found variously mixed with mineral
+bodies, as well as forming strata of themselves; they are, therefore, a
+proper subject for a particular examination.
+
+In the process of vegetation, there are produced oily and resinous
+substances; and, from the collection of these substances at the bottom
+of the ocean, there are formed strata, which have afterwards undergone
+various degrees of beat, and have been variously changed, in consequence
+of the effects of that heat, according as the distillation of the more
+volatile parts of those bodies has been suffered to proceed.
+
+In order to understand this, it must be considered, that, while immersed
+in water, and under insuperable compression, the vegetable, oily, and
+resinous substances, would appear to be unalterable by heat; and it is
+only in proportion as certain chemical separations take place, that
+these inflammable bodies are changed in their substance by the
+application of heat. Now, the most general change of this kind is in
+consequence of evaporation, or the distillation of their more volatile
+parts, by which oily substances become bituminous, and bituminous
+substances become coaly.
+
+There is here a gradation which may be best understood, by comparing the
+extremes.
+
+On the one hand, we know by experiment, that oily and bituminous
+substances can be melted and partly changed into vapour by heat, and
+that they become harder and denser, in proportion as the more volatile
+parts have evaporated from them. On the other hand, coaly substances are
+destitute of fusibility and volatility, in proportion as they have
+been exposed to greater degrees of heat, and to other circumstances
+favourable to the dissipation of their more volatile and fluid parts.
+
+If, therefore, in mineral bodies, we find the two extreme states of this
+combustible substance, and also the intermediate states, we must either
+conclude, that this particular operation of heat has been thus actually
+employed in nature, or we must explain those appearances by some other
+means, in as satisfactory a manner, and so as shall be consistent with
+other appearances.
+
+In this case, it will avail nothing to have recourse to the false
+analogy of water dissolving and crystallising salts, which has been so
+much employed for the explanation of other mineral appearances. The
+operation here in question is of a different nature, and necessarily
+requires both the powers of heat and proper conditions for evaporation.
+
+Therefore, in order to decide the point, with regard to what is the
+power in nature by which mineral bodies have become solid, we have
+but to find bituminous substance in the most complete state of coal,
+intimately connected with some other substance, which is more generally
+found consolidating the strata, and assisting in the concretion of
+mineral substances. But I have in my possession the most undoubted proof
+of this kind. It is a mineral vein, or cavity, in which are blended
+together coal of the most fixed kind, quartz and marmor metallicum. Nor
+is this all; for the specimen now referred to is contained in a rock
+of this kind, which every naturalist now-a-days will allow to have
+congealed from a fluid state of fusion. I have also similar specimens
+from the same place, in which the coal is not of that fixed and
+infusible kind which burns without flame or smoke, but is bituminous or
+inflammable coal.
+
+We have hitherto been resting the argument upon a single point, for the
+sake of simplicity or clearness, not for want of those circumstances
+which shall be found to corroborate the theory. The strata of fossil
+coal are found in almost every intermediate state, as well as in those
+of bitumen and charcoal. Of the one kind is that fossil coal which melts
+or becomes fluid upon receiving heat; of the other, is that species of
+coal, found both in Wales and Scotland, which is perfectly infusible in
+the fire, and burns like coals, without flame or smoke. The one species
+abounds in oily matter, the other has been distilled by heat, until it
+has become a _caput mortuum_, or perfect coal.
+
+The more volatile parts of these bituminous bodies are found in their
+separate state on some occasions. There is a stratum of limestone in
+Fifeshire, near Raith, which, though but slightly tinged with a black
+colour, contains bituminous matter, like pitch, in many cavities, which
+are lined with calcareous spar crystallised. I have a specimen of such
+a cavity, in which the bitumen is in sphericles, or rounded drops,
+immersed in the calcareous spar.
+
+Now, it is to be observed, that, if the cavity in the solid limestone or
+marble, which is lined with calcareous crystals containing pyrites, had
+been thus encrusted by means of the filtration of water, this water must
+have dissolved calcareous spar, pyrites, and bitumen. But these natural
+appearances would not even be explained by this dissolution and supposed
+filtration of those substances. There is also required, _first_, A
+cause for the separation of those different substances from the aqueous
+menstruum in which they had been dissolved; _2dly_, An explanation of
+the way in which a dissolved bitumen should be formed into round hard
+bodies of the most solid structure; and, _lastly_, Some probable means
+for this complicated operation being performed, below the bottom of the
+ocean, in the close cavity of a marble stratum.
+
+Thus, the additional proof, from the facts relating to the bituminous
+substances, conspiring with that from the phenomena of other bodies,
+affords the strongest corroboration of this opinion, that the various
+concretions found in the internal parts of strata have not been
+occasioned by means of aqueous solution, but by the power of heat and
+operation of simple fusion, preparing those different substances to
+concrete and crystallise in cooling.
+
+The arguments which have been now employed for proving that strata have
+been consolidated by the power of heat, or by the means of fusion, have
+been drawn chiefly from the insoluble nature of those consolidating
+substances in relation to water, which is the only general menstruum
+that can be allowed for the mineral regions. But there are found, in
+the mineral kingdom, many solid masses of saltgem, which is a soluble
+substance. It may be now inquired, How far these masses, which are not
+infrequent in the earth, tend either to confirm the present theory, or,
+on the contrary, to give countenance to that which supposes water the
+chief instrument in consolidating strata.
+
+The formation of salt at the bottom of the sea, without the assistance
+of subterranean fire, is not a thing unsupposable, as at first sight
+it might appear. Let us but suppose a rock placed across the gut
+of Gibraltar, (a case nowise unnatural), and the bottom of the
+Mediterranean would be certainly filled with salt, because the
+evaporation from the surface of that sea exceeds the measure of its
+supply.
+
+But strata of salt, formed in this manner at the bottom of the sea, are
+as far from being consolidated by means of aqueous solution, as a bed of
+sand in the same situation; and we cannot explain the consolidation of
+such a stratum of salt by means of water, without supposing subterranean
+heat employed, to evaporate the brine which would successively occupy
+the interstices of the saline crystals. But this, it may be observed, is
+equally departing from the natural operation of water, as the means for
+consolidating the sediment of the ocean, as if we were to suppose
+the same thing done by heat and fusion. For the question is not,
+If subterranean heat be of sufficient intensity for the purpose of
+consolidating strata by the fusion of their substances; the question is,
+Whether it be by means of this agent, subterranean heat, or by water
+alone, without the operation of a melting heat, that those materials
+have been variously consolidated.
+
+The example now under consideration, consolidated mineral salt, will
+serve to throw some light upon the subject; for, as it is to be shown,
+that this body of salt had been consolidated by perfect fusion, and
+not by means of aqueous solution, the consolidation of strata of
+indissoluble substances, by the operation of a melting heat, will meet
+with all that confirmation which the consistency of natural appearances
+can give.
+
+The salt rock in Cheshire lies in strata of red marl. It is horizontal
+in its direction. I do not know its thickness, but it is dug thirty or
+forty feet deep. The body of this rock is perfectly solid, and the salt,
+in many places, pure, colourless, and transparent, breaking with a
+sparry cubical structure. But the greatest part is tinged by the
+admixture of the marl, and that in various degrees, from the slightest
+tinge of red, to the most perfect opacity. Thus, the rock appears as if
+it had been a mass of fluid salt, in which had been floating a quantity
+of marly substance, not uniformly mixed, but every where separating and
+subsiding from the pure saline substance.
+
+There is also to be observed a certain regularity in this separation of
+the tinging from the colourless substance, which, at a proper distance,
+gives to the perpendicular section of the rock a distinguishable figure
+in its structure. When looking at this appearance near the bottom of
+the rock, it, at first, presented me with the figure of regular
+stratification; but, upon examining the whole mass of rock, I found,
+that it was only towards the bottom that this stratified appearance took
+place; and that, at the top of the rock, the most beautiful and regular
+figure was to be observed; but a figure the most opposite to that of
+stratification. It was all composed of concentric circles; and these
+appeared to be the section of a mass, composed altogether of concentric
+spheres, like those beautiful systems of configuration which agates so
+frequently present us with in miniature. In about eight or ten feet from
+the top, the circles growing large, were blended together, and gradually
+lost their regular appearance, until, at a greater depth, they again
+appeared in resemblance of a stratification.
+
+This regular arrangement of the floating marly substance in the body
+of salt, which is that of the structure of a coated pebble, or that
+of concentric spheres, is altogether inexplicable upon any other
+supposition, than the perfect fluidity or fusion of the salt, and the
+attractions and repulsions of the contained substances. It is in vain
+to look, in the operations of solution and evaporation, for that which
+nothing but perfect fluidity or fusion can explain.
+
+This example of a mineral salt congealed from a melted state, may be
+confirmed from another which I have from Dr Black, who suggested it to
+me. It is an alkaline salt, found in a mineral state, and described in
+the Philosophical Transactions, _anno_ 1771. But to understand this
+specimen, something must be premised with regard to the nature of fossil
+alkali.
+
+The fossil alkali crystallises from a dissolved state, in combining
+itself with a large portion of the water, in the manner of alum; and,
+in this case, the water is essential to the constitution of that
+transparent crystalline body; for, upon the evaporation of the water,
+the transparent salt loses its solidity, and becomes a white powder. If,
+instead of being gently dried, the crystalline salt is suddenly exposed
+to a sufficient degree of heat, that is, somewhat more than boiling
+water, it enters into the state of aqueous fusion, and it boils, in
+emitting the water by means of which it had been crystallised in the
+cold, and rendered fluid in that heated state. It is not possible to
+crystallise this alkaline salt from a dissolved state, without the
+combination of that quantity of water, nor to separate that water
+without destroying its crystalline state.
+
+But in this mineral specimen, we have a solid crystalline salt, with
+a structure which, upon fracture, appears to be sparry and radiated,
+something resembling that of zeolite. It contains no water in its
+crystallization, but melts in a sufficient heat, without any aqueous
+fusion. Therefore, this salt must have been in a fluid state of fusion,
+immediately before its congelation and crystallization.
+
+It would be endless to give examples of particular facts, so many are
+the different natural appearances that occur, attended with a variety of
+different circumstances.
+
+There is one, however, which is peculiarly distinct, admits of
+sufficiently accurate description, and contains circumstances from which
+conclusions may be drawn with clearness. This is the ironstone, which
+is commonly found among the argillaceous strata, attendant upon fossil
+coal, both in Scotland and in England.
+
+This stone is generally found among the bituminous schistus, or black
+argillaceous strata, either in separate masses of various shapes and
+sizes, or forming of itself strata which are more or less continuous in
+their direction among the schistous or argillaceous beds.
+
+This mineral contains, in general, from 40 to 50 _per cent._ of iron,
+and it loses near one third of its weight in calcination. Before
+calcination it is of a grey colour, is not penetrable by water, and
+takes a polish. In this state, therefore, it is perfectly solid; but
+being calcined, it becomes red, porous, and tender.
+
+The fact to be proved with regard to these iron-stones is this, That
+they have acquired their solid state from fusion, and not in concreting
+from any aqueous solution.
+
+To abridge this disquisition, no argument is to be taken from contingent
+circumstances, (which, however, are often found here as well as in the
+case of marbles); such only are to be employed as are general to the
+subject, and arise necessarily from the nature of the operation.
+
+It will be proper to describe a species of these stones, which is
+remarkably regular in its form. It is that found at Aberlady, in East
+Lothian.
+
+The form of these iron-stones is that of an oblate or much compressed
+sphere, and the size from two or three inches diameter to more than
+a foot. In the circular or horizontal section, they present the most
+elegant septarium[9]; and, from the examination of this particular
+structure, the following conclusions may be drawn.
+
+_First_, That, the septa have been formed by the uniform contraction
+of the internal parts of the stone, the volume of the central parts
+diminishing more than that of the circumference; by this means, the
+separations of the stone diminish, in a progression from the center
+towards the circumference.
+
+_2d_, That there are only two ways in which the septa must have received
+the spar or spatthose ore with which they are filled, more or less,
+either, _first_ By insinuation into the cavity of the septa after these
+were formed; or, _2dly_, By separation from the substance of the stone,
+at the same time that the septa were forming.
+
+[Note 9: Plate I.]
+
+Were the first supposition true, appearances would be observable,
+showing that the sparry substance had been admitted, either through the
+porous structure of the stone, or through proper apertures communicating
+from without. Now, if either one or other of these had been the case,
+and that the stone had been consolidated from no other cause than
+concretion from a dissolved state, that particular structure of the
+stone, by means of which the spar had been admitted, must appear at
+present upon an accurate examination.
+
+This, however, is not the case, and we may rest the argument here. The
+septa reach not the circumference; the surface of the stone is solid and
+uniform in every part; and there is not any appearance of the spar in
+the argillaceous bed around the stone.
+
+It, therefore, necessarily follows, that the contraction of the
+iron-stone, in order to form septa, and the filling of these cavities
+with spar, had proceeded _pari passu_; and that this operation must have
+been brought about by means of fusion, or by congelation from a state of
+simple fluidity and expansion.
+
+It is only further to be observed, that all the arguments which have
+been already employed, concerning mineral concretions from a simply
+fluid state, or that of fusion, here take place. I have septaria of this
+kind, in which, besides pyrites, iron-ore, calcareous spar, and another
+that is ferruginous and compound, there is contained siliceous
+crystals; a case which is not so common. I have them also attended with
+circumstances of concretion and crystallization, which, besides being
+extremely rare, are equally curious and interesting.
+
+There is one fact more which is well worth our attention, being one
+of those which are so general in the mineral regions. It is the
+crystallizations which are found in close cavities of the most solid
+bodies.
+
+Nothing is more common than this appearance. Cavities are every where
+found closely lined with crystallizations, of every different substance
+which may be supposed in those places. These concretions are well known
+to naturalists, and form part of the beautiful specimens which
+are preserved in the cabinets of collectors, and which the German
+mineralists have termed _Drusen_. I shall only particularise one
+species, which may be described upon principle, and therefore may be
+a proper subject on which to reason, for ascertaining the order of
+production in certain bodies. This body, which we are now to examine, is
+of the agate species.
+
+We have now been considering the means employed by nature in
+consolidating strata which were originally of an open structure; but in
+perfectly solid strata we find bodies of agate, which have evidently
+been formed in that place where they now are found. This fact, however,
+is not still that of which we are now particularly to inquire; for this,
+of which we are to treat, concerns only a cavity within this agate; now,
+whatever may have been the origin of the agate itself, we are to show,
+from what appears within its cavity, that the crystallizations which are
+found in this place had arisen from a simply fluid state, and not from
+that of any manner of solution.
+
+The agates now in question are those of the coated kind, so frequent in
+this country, called pebbles. Many of these are filled with a siliceous
+crystallization, which evidently proceeds from the circumference
+towards the centre. Many of them, again, are hollow. Those cavities are
+variously lined with crystallized substances; and these are the object
+of the present examination.
+
+But before describing what is found within, it is necessary to attend to
+this particular circumstance, that the cavity is perfectly inclosed with
+many solid coats, impervious to air or water, but particularly with
+the external cortical part, which is extremely hard, takes the highest
+polish, and is of the most perfect solidity, admitting the passage of
+nothing but light and heat.
+
+Within these cavities, we find, _1st_, The coat of crystals with which
+this cavity is always lined; and this is general to all substances
+concreting, in similar circumstances, from a state of fusion; for when
+thus at liberty they naturally crystallise. _2dly_, We have frequently
+a subsequent crystallization, resting on the first, and more or less
+immersed in it. _3dly_, There is also sometimes a third crystallization,
+superincumbent on the second, in like manner as the second was on the
+first. I shall mention some particulars.
+
+I have one specimen, in which the primary crystals are siliceous, the
+secondary thin foliaceous crystals of deep red but transparent iron-ore,
+forming elegant figures, that have the form of roses. The tertiary
+crystallization is a frosting of small siliceous crystals upon the edges
+of the foliaceous crystals.
+
+In other specimens, there is first a lining of colourless siliceous
+crystals, then another lining of amethystine crystals, and sometimes
+within that, fuliginous crystals. Upon these fuliginous and amethystine
+crystals are many sphericles or hemispheres of red compact iron-ore,
+like haematites.
+
+In others, again, the primary crystals are siliceous, and the secondary
+calcareous. Of this kind, I have one which has, upon the calcareous
+crystals, beautiful transparent siliceous crystals, and iron sphericles
+both upon all these crystals, and within them.
+
+_Lastly_, I have an agate formed of various red and white coats, and
+beautifully figured. The cavity within the coated part of the pebble is
+filled up without vacuity, first, with colourless siliceous crystals;
+secondly, with fuliginous crystals; and, lastly, with white or
+colourless calcareous spar. But between the spar and crystals there are
+many sphericles, seemingly of iron, half sunk into each of these two
+different substances.
+
+From these facts, I may now be allowed to draw the following
+conclusions:
+
+1_st_, That concretion had proceeded from the surface of the agate body
+inwards. This necessarily follows from the nature of those figured
+bodies, the figures of the external coats always determining the shape
+of those within, and never, contrarily, those within affecting those
+without.
+
+2_dly_, That when the agate was formed, the cavity then contained every
+thing which now is found within it, and nothing more.
+
+3_dly_, That the contained substances must have been in a fluid state,
+in order to their crystallizing.
+
+_Lastly_, That as this fluid state had not been the effect of solution
+in a menstruum, it must have been fluidity from heat and fusion.
+
+Let us now make one general observation and argument with regard to
+the formation of those various coated, concreted, crystallized, and
+configured bodies. Were the crystallization and configuration found
+to proceed from a central body, and to be directed from that centre
+outwards, then, without inquiring into collateral appearances, and other
+proofs with regard to the natural concretion of those substances, we
+might suppose that these concretions might have proceeded from that
+central body gradually by accretion, and that the concreting and
+crystallizing substances might have been supplied from a fluid which had
+before retained the concreting substance in solution; in like manner as
+the crystallizations of sugar, which are formed in the solution of
+that saccharine substance, and are termed candies, are formed upon the
+threads which are extended in the crystallizing vessel for that purpose.
+But if, on the contrary, we are to consider those mineral bodies as
+spheres of alternate coats, composed of agate, crystal, spars, etc.; and
+if all those crystallizations have their _bases_ upon the uncrystallized
+coat which is immediately external to it, and their _apices_ turned
+inwards into the next internal solid coat, it is not possible to
+conceive that a structure of this kind could have been formed in
+any manner from a solution. But this last manner is the way without
+exception in which those mineral bodies are found; therefore we are to
+conclude, that the concretion of those bodies had proceeded immediately
+from a state of fusion or simple fluidity.
+
+In granite these cavities are commonly lined with the crystal
+corresponding to the constituent substances of the stone, viz. quartz,
+feld-spar, and mica or talk. M. de Saussure, (Voyages dans les Alpes,
+tom. ii. sec. 722.), says, "On trouve frequemment des amas considerables
+de spath calcaire, crystallise dans les grottes ou se forme le crystal de
+roche; quoique ces grottes soient renfermees dans le coeur des montagnes
+d'un granit vif, & qu'on ne voie aucun roc calcaire au dessus de ces
+montagnes."
+
+So accurate an observer, and so complete a naturalist, must have
+observed how the extraneous substance had been introduced into this
+cavity, had they not been formed together the cavity and the calcareous
+crystals. That M. de Saussure perceived no means for that introduction,
+will appear from what immediately follows in that paragraph. "Ces rocs
+auroient-ils ete detruits, ou bien ce spath n'est il que le produit
+d'une secretion des parties calcaires que l'on fait etres dispersees
+entre les divers elemens du granit?"
+
+Had M. de Saussure allowed himself to suppose all those substances in
+fusion, of which there cannot be a doubt, he would soon have resolved
+both this difficulty, and also that of finding molybdena crystallized
+along with feld-spar, in a cavity of this kind. sec. 718.
+
+To this argument, taken from the close cavities in our agates, I am now
+to add another demonstration. It is the case of the calcedony agate,
+containing a body of calcareous spar; here it is to be shown, that,
+while the calcareous body was altogether inclosed within the calcedony
+nodular body, these two substances had been perfectly soft, and had
+mutually affected each others shape, in concreting from a fluid state.
+In order to see this, we are to consider that both those substances have
+specific shapes in which they concrete from the third state; the
+sparry structure of the one is well known; the spherical or mammelated
+crystallization of the calcedony, is no less conspicuous; this last
+is, in the present case, spherical figures, which are some of
+them hemispheres, or even more. The figures which we have now in
+contemplation are so distinctly different as cannot be mistaken; the
+one is a rhombic figure bounded by planes; the other is a most perfect
+spherical form; and both these are specific figures, belonging
+respectively to the crystallization of those two substances.
+
+The argument now to be employed for proving that those two bodies had
+concreted from the fluid state of fusion, and not from any manner of
+solution, is this: That, were the one of those bodies to be found
+impressing the other with its specific figure, we must conclude that the
+impressing body had concreted or crystallized while the impressed body
+was in a soft or fluid state; and that, if they are both found mutually
+impressing and impressed by each other, they must have both been in
+the fluid and concreting state together. Now the fact is, that the
+calcareous body is perfectly inclosed within the solid calcedony, and
+that they are mutually impressed by each others specific figure, the
+sparry structure of the calcareous body impressing the calcedony with
+its type of planes and angles, at the same time that, in other parts,
+the spherical figures of the calcedony enter the solid body of the
+spar, and thus impress their mammelated figures into that part which is
+contiguous. It is therefore inconceivable, that these appearances
+could have been produced in any other manner than by those two bodies
+concreting from a simply fluid state.
+
+There are in jaspers and agates many other appearances, from whence the
+fusion of those substances may be concluded with great certainty and
+precision; but it is hoped, that what has been now given may suffice for
+establishing that proposition without any doubt.
+
+It must not be here objected, That there are frequently found siliceous
+crystals and amethysts containing water; and that it is impossible
+to confine water even in melted glass. It is true, that here, at the
+surface of the earth, melted glass cannot, in ordinary circumstances, be
+made to receive and inclose condensed water; but let us only suppose a
+sufficient degree of compression in the body of melted glass, and we
+can easily imagine it to receive and confine water as well as any
+other substance. But if, even in our operations, water, by means of
+compression, may be made to endure the heat of red hot iron without
+being converted into vapour, what may not the power of nature be able to
+perform? The place of mineral operations is not on the surface of the
+earth; and we are not to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
+the powers of nature by the measure of our own.[10]
+
+[Note 10: This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
+the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral substances, that I beg
+the particular attention of the reader to that subject. The effect of
+compression upon compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
+heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established principle
+in natural philosophy. This, like every other physical principle, is
+founded upon matter of fact or experience; we find, that many compound
+substances may with heat be easily changed, by having their more
+volatile parts separated when under a small compression; but these
+substances are preserved without change when sufficiently compressed.
+Our experiments of this kind are necessarily extremely limited; they
+are not, however, for that reason, the less conclusive. The effects of
+increasing degrees of heat are certainly prevented by increasing degrees
+of compression; but the rate at which the different effects of those
+powers proceed, or the measure of those different degrees of increase
+that may be made without changing the constitution of the compound
+substance, are not known; nor is there any limit to be set to that
+operation, so far as we know. Consequently, it is a physical principle,
+That the evaporation of volatile substances by heat, or the reparation
+of them from a compound substance, consequently the effect of fire in
+changing that compound substance, may be absolutely prevented by means
+of compression.
+
+It now remains to be considered, how far there is reason to conclude
+that there had been sufficient degrees of compression in the mineral
+regions, for the purpose of melting the various substances with which we
+find strata consolidated, without changing the chemical constitution of
+those compound substances.
+
+Had I, in reasoning _a priori_, asserted, That all mineral bodies might
+have been melted without change, when under sufficient compression,
+there might have arisen, in the minds of reasoning men, some doubt with
+regard to the certainty of that proposition, however probable it were to
+be esteemed: But when, in reasoning _a posteriori_, it is found that all
+mineral bodies have been actually melted, then, all that is required to
+establish the proposition on which I have founded my theory, is to
+see that there must have been immense degrees of compression upon the
+subjects in question; for we neither know the degree of heat which had
+been employed, nor that of compression by which the effect of the heat
+must have been modified.
+
+Now, in order to see that there had been immense compression, we have
+but to consider that the formation of the strata, which are to be
+consolidated, was at the bottom of the ocean, and that this place is to
+us unfathomable. If it be farther necessary to show that it had been at
+such unfathomable depth strata were consolidated, it will be sufficient
+to observe, it is not upon the surface of the earth, or above the level
+of the sea, that this mineral operation can take place; for, it is there
+that those consolidated bodies are redissolved, or necessarily going
+into decay, which is the opposite to that operation which we are now
+inquiring after; therefore, if they were consolidated in any other place
+than at the bottom of the sea, it must have been between that place of
+their formation and the surface of the sea; but that is a supposition
+which we have not any reason to make; therefore, we must conclude that
+it was at the bottom of the ocean those stratified bodies had been
+consolidated.]
+
+To conclude this long chemico-mineral disquisition, I have specimens in
+which the mixture of calcareous, siliceous, and metallic substances,
+in almost every species of concretion which is to be found in mineral
+bodies, may be observed, and in which there is exhibited, in miniature,
+almost every species of mineral transaction, which, in nature, is found
+upon a scale of grandeur and magnificence. They are nodules contained in
+the whin-stone, porphyry, or basaltes of the Calton-hill, by Edinburgh;
+a body which is to be afterwards examined, when it will be found to have
+flowed, and to have been in fusion, by the operation of subterraneous
+heat.
+
+This evidence, though most conclusive with regard to the application of
+subterraneous heat, as the means employed in bringing into fusion all
+the different substances with which strata may be found consolidated, is
+not directly a proof that strata had been consolidated by the fusion of
+their proper substance. It was necessary to see the general nature of
+the evidence, for the universal application of subterraneous heat, in
+the fusion of every kind of mineral body. Now, that this has been done,
+we may give examples of strata consolidated without the introduction
+of foreign matter, merely by the softening or fusion of their own
+materials.
+
+For this purpose, we may consider two different species of strata,
+such as are perfectly simple in their nature, of the most distinct
+substances, and whose origin is perfectly understood, consequently,
+whose subsequent changes may be reasoned upon with certainty and
+clearness. These are the siliceous and calcareous strata; and these
+are the two prevailing substances of the globe, all the rest being, in
+comparison of these, as nothing; for unless it be the bituminous or coal
+strata, there is hardly any other which does not necessarily contain
+more or less of one or other of these two substances. If, therefore,
+it can be shown, that both of those two general strata have been
+consolidated by the simple fusion of their substance, no _desideratum_
+or doubt will remain, with regard to the nature of that operation which
+has been transacted at great depths of the earth, places to which all
+access is denied to mortal eyes.
+
+We are now to prove, _first_, That those strata have been consolidated
+by simple fusion; and, _2dly_, That this operation is universal, in
+relation to the strata of the earth, as having produced the various
+degrees of solidity or hardness in these bodies.
+
+I shall first remark, that a fortuitous collection of hard bodies, such
+as gravel and sand, can only touch in points, and cannot, while in that
+hard state, be made to correspond so precisely to each others shape as
+to consolidate the mass. But if these hard bodies should be softened in
+their substance, or brought into a certain degree of fusion, they
+might be adapted mutually to each other, and thus consolidate the open
+structure of the mass. Therefore, to prove the present point, we have
+but to exhibit specimens of siliceous and calcareous strata which have
+been evidently consolidated in this manner.
+
+Of the first kind, great varieties occur in this country. It is,
+therefore, needless to describe these particularly. They are the
+consolidated strata of gravel and sand, often containing abundance of
+feld-spar, and thus graduating into granite; a body, in this respect,
+perfectly similar to the more regular strata which we now examine.
+
+The second kind, again, are not so common in this country, unless
+we consider the shells and coralline bodies in our lime-stones, as
+exhibiting the same example, which indeed they do. But I have a specimen
+of marble from Spain, which may be described, and which will afford the
+most satisfactory evidence of the fact in question.
+
+This Spanish marble may be considered as a species of pudding-stone,
+being formed of calcareous gravel; a species of marble which, from Mr
+Bowles' Natural History, appears to be very common in Spain. The gravel
+of which this marble is composed, consists of fragments of other marbles
+of different kinds. Among these, are different species of _oolites_
+marble, some shell marbles, and some composed of a chalky substance, or
+of undistinguishable parts. But it appears, that all these different
+marbles had been consolidated or made hard, then broken into fragments,
+rolled and worn by attrition, and thus collected together, along with
+some sand or small siliceous bodies, into one mass. Lastly, This
+compound body is consolidated in such a manner as to give the most
+distinct evidence, that this had been executed by the operation of heat
+or simple fusion.
+
+The proof I give is this, That besides the general conformation of those
+hard bodies, so as to be perfectly adapted to each other's shape, there
+is, in some places, a mutual indentation of the different pieces of
+gravel into each other; an indentation which resembles perfectly that
+junction of the different bones of the _cranium_, called sutures, and
+which must have necessarily required a mixture of those bodies while in
+a soft or fluid state.
+
+This appearance of indentation is by no means singular, or limited to
+one particular specimen. I have several specimens of different marbles,
+in which fine examples of this species of mixture may be perceived. But
+in this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone, where the mutual
+indentation is made between two pieces of hard stone, worn round by
+attrition, the softening or fusion of these two bodies is not simply
+rendered probable, but demonstrated.
+
+Having thus proved, that those strata had been consolidated by simple
+fusion, as proposed, we now proceed to show, that this mineral operation
+had been not only general, as being found in all the regions of the
+globe, but universal, in consolidating our earth in all the various
+degrees, from loose and incoherent shells and sand, to the most solid
+bodies of the siliceous and calcareous substances.
+
+To exemplify this in the various collections and mixtures of sands,
+gravels, shells, and corals, were endless and superfluous. I shall only
+take, for an example, one simple homogeneous body, in order to exhibit
+it in the various degrees of consolidation, from the state of simple
+incoherent earth to that of the most solid marble. It must be evident
+that this is chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but which may be
+also found consolidated in every different degree.
+
+Through the middle of the Isle of Wight, there runs a ridge of hills of
+indurated chalk. This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly west
+into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle towards Dorchester, perhaps
+beyond that place. The sea has broke through this ridge at the west
+end of the Isle of Wight, where columns of the indurated chalk remain,
+called the Needles; the same appearance being found upon the opposite
+shore in Dorsetshire.
+
+In this field of chalk, we find every gradation of that soft earthy
+substance to the most consolidated body of this indurated ridge, which
+is not solid marble, but which has lost its chalky property, and has
+acquired a kind of stony hardness.
+
+We want only further to see this cretaceous substance in its most
+indurated and consolidated state; and this we have in the north of
+Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway. I have examined cargoes of
+this lime-stone brought to the west of Scotland, and find the most
+perfect evidence of this body having been once a mass of chalk, which is
+now a solid marble.
+
+Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the strata of the earth have
+been, in many places, consolidated, we must conclude, that all the
+degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite, have been brought about
+by the same means.
+
+Now, that all the strata of the mineral regions, which are those only
+now examined, have been consolidated in some degree, is a fact for which
+no proof can be offered here, but must be submitted to experience and
+inquiry; so far, however, as they shall be considered as consolidated in
+any degree, which they certainly are in general, we have investigated
+the means which had been employed in that mineral operation.
+
+We have now considered the concretions of particular bodies, and the
+general consolidation of strata; but it may be alleged, that there is
+a great part of the solid mass of this earth not properly comprehended
+among those bodies which have been thus proved to be consolidated by
+means of fusion. The body here alluded to is granite; a mass which is
+not generally stratified, and which, being a body perfectly solid,
+and forming some part in the structure of this earth, deserves to be
+considered.
+
+The nature of granite, as a part of the structure of the earth, is too
+intricate a subject to be here considered, where we only seek to prove
+the fusion of a substance from the evident marks which are to be
+observed in a body. We shall, therefore, only now consider one
+particular species of granite; and if this shall appear to have been in
+a fluid state of fusion, we may be allowed to extend this property to
+all the kind.
+
+The species now to be examined comes from the north country, about four
+or five miles west from Portfoy, on the road to Huntly. I have not been
+upon the spot, but am informed that this rock is immediately connected
+or continuous with the common granite of the country. This indeed
+appears in the specimens which I have got; for, in some of these, there
+is to be perceived a gradation from the regular to the irregular sort.
+
+This rock may indeed be considered, in some respects, as a porphyry; for
+it has an evident ground, which is feld-spar, in its sparry state;
+and it is, in one view, distinctly maculated with quartz, which is
+transparent, but somewhat dark-coloured[11].
+
+[Note 11: Plate II. fig. 1. 2. 3.]
+
+Considered as a porphyry, this specimen is no less singular than as a
+granite. For, instead of a siliceous ground, maculated with the rhombic
+feld-spar, which is the common state of porphyry, the ground is
+uniformly crystallised, or a homogeneous regular feld-spar, maculated
+with the transparent siliceous substance. But as, besides the feld-spar
+and quartz, which are the constituent parts of the stone, there is also
+mica, in some places, it may, with propriety, be termed a granite.
+
+The singularity of this specimen consists, not in the nature or
+proportions of its constituent parts, but in the uniformity of the
+sparry ground, and the regular shape of the quartz mixture. This
+siliceous substance, viewed in one direction, or longitudinally, may
+be considered as columnar, prismatical, or continued in lines running
+nearly parallel. These columnar bodies of quartz are beautifully
+impressed with a figure on the sides, where they are in contact with the
+spar. This figure is that of furrows or channels, which are perfectly
+parallel, and run across the longitudinal direction of the quartz. This
+is represented in fig. 4. This striated figure is only seen when, by
+fracture, the quartz is separated from the contiguous spar.
+
+But what I would here more particularly represent is, the transverse
+section of those longitudinal siliceous bodies These are seen in fig. 1.
+2. and 3. They have not only separately the forms of certain typographic
+characters, but collectively give the regular lineal appearance of types
+set in writing.
+
+It is evident from the inspection of this fossil, that the sparry and
+siliceous substances had been mixed together in a fluid state; and that
+the crystallization of the sparry substance, which is rhombic, had
+determined the regular structure of the quartz, at least in some
+directions.
+
+Thus, the siliceous substance is to be considered as included in the
+spar, and as figured, according to the laws of crystallization proper
+to the sparry ground; but the spar is also to be found included in the
+quartz. It is not, indeed, always perfectly included or inclosed on all
+sides; but this is sometimes the case, or it appears so in the section.
+Fig. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. and 10. are those cases magnified, and represent the
+different figured quartz inclosing the feld-spar. In one of them, the
+feld-spar, which is contained within the quartz, contains also a small
+triangle of quartz, which it incloses. Now, it is not possible to
+conceive any other way in which those two substances, quartz and
+feld-spar, could be thus concreted, except by congelation from a fluid
+state, in which they had been mixed.
+
+There is one thing more to be observed with regard to this curious
+species of granite. It is the different order or arrangement of the
+crystallization or internal structure of the feld-spar ground, in two
+contiguous parts of the same mass. This is to be perceived in the
+polished surface of the stone, by means of the reflection of light.
+
+There is a certain direction in which, viewing the stone, when the light
+falls with a proper obliquity, we see a luminous reflection from the
+internal parts of the stone. This arises from the reflecting surfaces
+of the sparry structure or minute cracks, all turned in one direction,
+consequently, giving that luminous appearance only in one point of view.
+
+Now, all the parts of the stone in which the figured quartz is directed
+in the same manner, or regularly placed in relation to each other,
+present that shining appearance to the eye at one time, or in the same
+point of direction. But there are parts of the mass, which, though
+immediately contiguous and properly continuous, have a different
+disposition of the figured quartz; and these two distinguished masses,
+in the same surface of the polished stone, give to the eye their shining
+appearance in very different directions. Fig. 3. shows two of those
+figured and shining masses, in the same plane or polished surface.
+
+It must be evident, that, as the crystallization of the sparry structure
+is the figuring cause of the quartz bodies, there must be observed a
+certain correspondency between those two things, the alinement (if I may
+be allowed the expression) of the quartz, and the shining of the sparry
+ground. It must also appear, that at the time of congelation of the
+fluid spar, those two contiguous portions had been differently disposed
+in the crystallization of their substance. This is an observation which
+I have had frequent opportunities of making, with respect to masses of
+calcareous spar.
+
+Upon the whole, therefore, whether we shall consider granite as a
+stratum or as an irregular mass, whether as a collection of several
+materials, or as the separation of substances which had been mixed,
+there is sufficient evidence of this body having been consolidated by
+means of fusion, and in no other manner.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that the power of heat and operation
+of fusion must have been employed in consolidating strata of loose
+materials, which had been collected together and amassed at the bottom
+of the ocean. It will, therefore, be proper to consider, what are the
+appearances in consolidated strata that naturally should follow, on the
+one hand, from fluidity having been, in this manner, introduced by means
+of heat, and, on the other, from the interstices being filled by means
+of solution; that so we may compare appearances with the one and other
+of those two suppositions, in order to know that with which they may be
+only found consistent.
+
+The consolidation of strata with every different kind of substance was
+found to be inconsistent with the supposition, that aqueous solution
+had been the means employed for this purpose. This appearance, on the
+contrary, is perfectly consistent with the idea, that the fluidity of
+these bodies had been the effect of heat; for, whether we suppose the
+introduction of foreign matter into the porous mass of a stratum for its
+consolidation, or whether we shall suppose the materials of the mass
+acquiring a degree of softness, by means of which, together with an
+immense compression, the porous body might be rendered solid; the power
+of heat, as the cause of fluidity and vapour, is equally proper and
+perfectly competent. Here, therefore, appearances are as decidedly in
+favour of the last supposition, as they had been inconsistent with the
+first.
+
+But if strata have been consolidated by means of aqueous solution, these
+masses should be found precisely in the same state as when they were
+originally deposited from the water. The perpendicular section of those
+masses might show the compression of the bodies included in them, or of
+which they are composed; but the horizontal section could not contain
+any separation of the parts of the stratum from one another.
+
+If, again, strata have been consolidated by means of heat, acting in
+such a manner as to soften their substance, then, in cooling, they must
+have formed rents or separations of their substance, by the unequal
+degrees of contraction which the contiguous strata may have suffered.
+Here is a most decisive mark by which the present question must be
+determined.
+
+There is not in nature any appearance more distinct than this of the
+perpendicular fissures and separations in strata. These are generally
+known to workmen by the terms of veins or backs and cutters; and there
+is no consolidated stratum that wants these appearances. Here is,
+therefore, a clear decision of the question, Whether it has been by
+means of heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that collections of
+loose bodies at the bottom of the sea have been consolidated into the
+hardest rocks and most perfect marbles[12].
+
+[Note 12: This subject is extremely interesting, both to the theory of
+the earth, and to the science cf the mining art; I will now illustrate
+that theory, with an authority which I received after giving this
+dissertation to the Royal Society. It is in the second volume of M. de
+Saussure's _voyages dans les Alpes_. Here I find proper examples for
+illustrating that subject of mineralogy; and I am happy to have this
+opportunity of giving the reasoning of a man of science upon the
+subject, and the opinion of a person who is in every respect so well
+qualified to judge upon a point of this kind.
+
+The first example is of a marble in the Alps, (_voyages dans les
+Alpes._) tom. 2. page 271.
+
+"La pate de ces breches est tantot blanche, tantot grise, et les
+fragmens qui y font renfermes font, les uns blancs, les autres gris,
+d'autres roux, et presque toujours d'une couleur differente de celle de
+la pate qui les lit. Ils sont tous de nature calcaire; tels etaient au
+moins tous ceux que j'ai pus observer; et ce qu'il-y-a de remarquable,
+c'est qu'ils sont tous poses dans le sens des feuillets de la pierre; on
+diroit en les voyant, qu'ils ont tous ete comprimes et ecrases dans
+le meme sens. Cette meme pierre est melee de mica, sur-tout dans les
+interstices des couches et entre les fragmens et la pate qui les reunit;
+mais on ne voit point de mica dans les fragmens eux-memes. On trouve
+aussi dans ces breches des infiltrations de quartz. Cette pierre est
+coupee par des frequentes fissures perpendiculaires aux plans des
+couches. On voit clairement que ces fentes out ete formees par l'inegal
+affaissement des couches, et non par une retraite spontanee: car les
+morceaux ou fragmens etrangers sont tous partages et coupes net par ces
+fissures au lieu que dans les divisions naturelles des couches, ces
+memes fragmens sont entiers et saillans au dehors de la surface. Les
+noeuds de quartz et les divers crystaux, que renferment les roches
+feuilletees, presentent le meme phenomene, et l'on peut en tirer la meme
+consequence; ils font partages dans les fentes, et entiers dans les
+separations des couches."
+
+He finds those particular strata in the other side of the mountain _col
+de la Seigne_, and gives us the following observations:
+
+"Plus bas on passe entre deux bancs de ces memes breches, entre lesquels
+sont interposees des couches d'ardoises noires et de gres feuilletes
+micaces, dont la situation est la meme.
+
+"On retrouve encore ces breches vers le has de la descente, au pied de
+pyramides calcaires dont j'ai parle plus haut. Je trouvai en 1774 de
+tres-jolis crystaux de roche qui s'etaient formes dans les fentes de
+cette breche. Il y avoit meme un melange de quartz et de mica qui
+s'etoit moule dans quelques-une de ces fentes. C'etoit donc une roche
+semblable aux primitives, et pourtant d'une formation posterieure a
+celle de la pierre calcaire. Et quel systeme pourroit nous persuader que
+la nature ne puisse encore produire ce qu'elle a produit autrefois!"
+
+M. de Saussure has here given us an example of a calcareous Braccia,
+as he calls it, but which is rather a pudding stone, with veins or
+contractions of the mass. He does not seem to understand these as
+consequences of the consolidation of those strata; this, however, is
+the only light in which these appearances may be explained, when those
+bodies are thus divided without any other separation in the mass.
+
+The second example is found in the vertical strata of those mountains
+through which the Rhone has made its way in running from the great
+valley of the _Vallais_ towards the lake of Geneva. (Chapitre xlviii.)
+
+"C'est une espece de petrosilex gris, dur, sonore, un peu transparent,
+qui se debite en feuillets minces parfaitement plans et reguliers. Ces
+feuillets, ou plutot ces couches, courent a 35 degres du nord par est,
+en montant du cote de l'ouest sous un angle de 80 degres. Ces couches
+sont coupees par des fentes qui leur sont a-peu-pres perpendiculaires et
+qui le sont aussi a l'horizon. Cette pierre s'emploie aux memes usage
+que l'ardoise, mais elle est beaucoup plus forte et plus durable, parce
+qu'elle est plus dure et moins accessible aux impressions de l'eau et de
+l'air.
+
+Sec. 1047. "Ces petrosilex feuilletes changent peu-a-peu de nature, en
+admettant dans les interstices de leurs feuillets des parties de
+feldspath. Ils out alors l'apparence d'une roche feuilletee, quartzeuse
+et micacee, (_quartzum fornacum W._). Mais cette apparence est
+trompeuse; car on n'y trouve pas un atome de quartz: toutes les parties
+blanches qui donnent du feu contre l'acier, font du feldspath; et les
+parties grise ecailleuses ne font point du mica, ce sont de lames minces
+du petrosilex dont j'ai deja parle."
+
+Here is evidently what I would call petuntze strata, or porcelane stone,
+that is, strata formed by the deposits of such materials as might come
+from the _detritus_ of granite, arranged at the bottom of the sea, and
+consolidated by heat in the mineral regions. We have precisely such
+stratified masses in the Pentland hills near Edinburgh. I have also a
+specimen of the same kind, brought from the East Indies, in which there
+is the print of an organized body. I believe it to be of some coralline
+or zoophite.
+
+Sec. 1048. "Cette roche melangee continue jusqu'a ce que le rocher
+s'eloigne un peu du grand chemin. La, ce rocher se presente coupe a
+pic dans une grande etendue, et divise par de grandes fentes obliques,
+a-peu-pres paralleles entr'elles. Ces fentes partagent la montagne en
+grandes tranches de 50 a 60 pieds d'epaisseur, que de loin semblent etre
+des couches. Mais lorsqu'on s'en approche, on voit, par le tissu meme
+de la pierre feuilletee, que ses vraies couches font avec l'horizon des
+angles de 70 a 75 degre, et que ces grandes divisions sont de vraies
+fentes par lesquelles un grand nombre de couches consecutives sont
+coupees presque perpendiculairement a leurs plans. Les masses de rocher,
+comprises entre ces grandes fentes, sont encore divisees par d'autres
+fentes plus petites, dont la plupart sont paralleles aux grandes,
+d'autres leur sont obliques; mais toutes sont a tres-peu-pres
+perpendiculaires aux plans des couches dont la montagne est composee."
+
+Here is a distinct view of that which may be found to take place in all
+consolidated strata, whatever be the composition of the stratum; and
+it is this appearance which is here maintained to be a physical
+demonstration, that those strata had been consolidated by means of
+heat softening their materials. In that case, those stratified
+bodies, contracting in cooling, form veins and fissures traversing
+perpendicularly their planes; and these veins are afterwards filled with
+mineral substances. These are what I have here distinguished as the
+_particular_ veins of mineral masses; things perfectly different from
+proper mineral or metallic veins, which are more general, as belonging
+to immense masses of those strata; and which had been formed, not from
+the contraction, but from the disrupture of those masses, and by the
+forcible injection of fluid mineral substances from below. Now these two
+species of veins, the particular and the general, although occasionally
+connected, must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one, we
+see the means which had been employed for the consolidation of the
+strata; in the other, we see that power by which the strata have been
+raised from the bottom of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.]
+
+Error never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from
+the accurate examination of every circumstance. It is not enough to
+have found appearances decisive of the question, with regard to the
+two suppositions which have been now considered, we may farther seek
+confirmation of that supposition which has been found alone consistent
+with appearances.
+
+If it be by means of heat and fusion that strata have been consolidated,
+then, in proportion to the degree of consolidation they have undergone
+from their original state, they should, _caeteris paribus_, abound more
+with separations in their mass. But this conclusion is found consistent
+with appearances. A stratum of porous sand-stone does not abound so much
+with veins and cutters as a similar stratum of marble, or even a
+similar stratum of sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
+therefore, as strata have been consolidated, they are in general
+intersected with veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata are
+deep in their perpendicular section, the veins are wide, and placed at
+greater distances. In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins are
+many, but proportionally narrow.
+
+It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be demonstrated, That all the
+solid strata of the globe have been condensed by means of heat, and
+hardened from a state of fusion. But this proposition is equally to
+be maintained from principles which are mechanical. The strata of the
+globe, besides being formed of earths, are composed of sand, of gravel,
+and fragments of hard bodies, all which may be considered as, in their
+nature, simple; but these strata are also found composed of bodies which
+are not simple, but are fragments of former strata, which had been
+consolidated, and afterwards were broken and worn by attrition, so as
+to be made gravel. Strata composed in this manner have been again
+consolidated; and now the question is, By what means?
+
+If strata composed of such various bodies had been consolidated, by any
+manner of concretion, from the fluidity of a dissolution, the hard and
+solid bodies must be found in their entire state, while the interstices
+between those constituent parts of the stratum are filled up. No partial
+fracture can be conceived as introduced into the middle of a solid mass
+of hard matter, without having been communicated from the surrounding
+parts. But such partial separations are found in the middle of those
+hard and solid masses; therefore, this compound body must have been
+consolidated by other means than that of concretion from a state of a
+solution.
+
+The Spanish marble already described, as well as many consolidated
+strata of siliceous gravel, of which I have specimens, afford the
+clearest evidence of this fact. These hard bodies are perfectly united
+together, in forming the most solid mass; the contiguous parts of some
+of the rounded fragments are interlaced together, as has already been
+observed; and there are partial shrinkings of the mass forming veins,
+traversing several fragments, but perfectly filled with the sparry
+substance of the mass, and sometimes with parts of the stone distinctly
+floating in the transparent body of spar. Now, there is not, besides
+heat or fusion, any known power in nature by which these effects might
+be produced. But such effects are general to all consolidated masses,
+although not always so well illustrated in a cabinet specimen.
+
+Thus we have discovered a truth that is confirmed by every appearance,
+so far as the nature of the subject now examined admits. We now return
+to the general operation, of forming continents of those materials which
+had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+SECTION III.
+
+Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of
+Land above the Surface of the Sea.
+
+We seek to know that operation by means of which masses of loose
+materials, collected at the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
+surface, and transformed into solid land.
+
+We have found, that there is not in this globe (as a planet revolving
+in the solar system) any power or motion adapted to the purpose now in
+view; nor, were there such a power, could a mass of simply collected
+materials have continued any considerable time to resist the waves and
+currents natural to the sea, but must have been quickly carried away,
+and again deposited at the bottom of the ocean. But we have found, that
+there had been operations, natural to the bowels of this earth; by which
+those loose and unconnected materials have been cemented together, and
+consolidated into masses of great strength and hardness; those bodies
+are thus enabled to resist the force of waves and currents, and to
+preserve themselves, for a sufficient time, in their proper shape and
+place, as land above the general surface of the ocean.
+
+We now desire to know, how far those internal operations of the globe,
+by which solidity and stability are procured to the beds of loose
+materials, may have been also employed in raising up a continent of
+land, to remain above the surface of the sea.
+
+There is nothing so proper for the erection of land above the level of
+the ocean, as an expansive power of sufficient force, applied directly
+under materials in the bottom of the sea, under a mass that is proper
+for the formation of land when thus erected. The question is not, how
+such a power may be procured; such a power has probably been employed.
+If, therefore, such a power should be consistent with that which we
+found had actually been employed in preparing the erected mass; or,
+if such a power is to be reasonably concluded as accompanying those
+operations which we have found natural to the globe, and situated in the
+very place where this expansive power appears to be required, we should
+thus be led to perceive, in the natural operations of the globe, a power
+as efficacious for the elevation of what had been at the bottom of the
+sea into the place of land, as it is perfect for the preparation of
+those materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.
+
+In opposition to this conclusion, it will not be allowed to allege; that
+we are ignorant how such a power might be exerted under the bottom of
+the ocean; for, the present question is not, what had been the cause of
+heat, which has appeared to have been produced in that place, but if
+this power of heat, which has certainly been exerted at the bottom of
+the ocean for consolidating strata, had been employed also for another
+purpose, that is, for raising those strata into the place of land.
+
+We may, perhaps, account for the elevation of land, by the same cause
+with that of the consolidation of strata, already investigated, without
+explaining the means employed by nature in procuring the power of heat,
+or showing from what general source of action this particular power had
+been derived; but, by finding in subterranean heat a cause for any other
+change, besides the consolidation of porous or incoherent bodies, we
+shall generalise a fact, or extend our knowledge in the explanation of
+natural appearances.
+
+The power of heat for the expansion of bodies, is, so far as we know,
+unlimited; but, by the expansion of bodies placed under the strata at
+the bottom of the sea, the elevation of those strata may be effected;
+and the question now to be resolved regards the actual exertion of
+this power of expansion. How far it is to be concluded as having been
+employed in the production of this earth above the level of the sea.
+
+Before attempting to resolve that question, it may be proper to observe,
+there has been exerted an extreme degree of heat below the strata formed
+at the bottom of the sea; and this is precisely the action of a power
+required for the elevation of those heated bodies into a higher place.
+Therefore, if there is no other way in which we may conceive this event
+to have been brought about, consistent with the present state of things,
+or what actually appears, we shall have a right to conclude, that such
+had been the order of procedure in natural things, and that the
+strata formed at the bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
+consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.
+
+The consolidation of strata by means of fusion or the power of heat, has
+been concluded from the examination of nature, and from finding, that
+the present state of things is inconsistent with any other supposition.
+Now, again, we are considering the only power that may be conceived as
+capable of elevating strata from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
+a mass above the surface of the water. It is a truth unquestionable,
+that what had been originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
+the highest of our land. In explaining this appearance, therefore, no
+other alternative is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by the
+power of heat above the level of the present sea, or the surface of the
+ocean reduced many miles below the height at which it had subsisted
+during the collection and induration of the land which we inhabit.
+
+Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose no general power of
+subterraneous fire or heat, we leave to our theory no means for the
+retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its surface; if, on the other
+hand, we are to allow the general power of subterraneous heat, we cannot
+have much difficulty in supposing, either the surface of the sea to have
+subsided, or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts, to have been
+raised by a subterranean power above the level of its surface, according
+as appearances shall be found to require the one or other of those
+conclusions. Here, therefore, we are again remitted to the history of
+nature, in order to find matter of fact by which this question may be
+properly decided.
+
+If the present land had been discovered by the subsiding of the waters,
+there has not been a former land, from whence materials had been
+procured for the construction of the present, when at the bottom of the
+sea; for, there is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole land of
+the present earth having been formed evidently at the bottom of the sea.
+Neither could the natural productions of the sea have been accumulated,
+in the shape in which we now find them, on the surface of this earth;
+for, How should the Alps and Andes have been formed within the sea
+from the natural productions of the water? Consequently, this is a
+supposition inconsistent with every natural appearance.
+
+The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence of the former ocean,
+for the purpose of discovering the present land, is beset with more
+difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom of the former ocean;
+for, _first_, There is a place to provide for the retirement of the
+waters of the ocean; and, _2dly_, There is required a work of equal
+magnitude; this is, the swallowing up of that former continent, which
+had procured the materials of the present land.
+
+On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface of the ocean would but
+make the former land appear the higher; and, on the other, the sinking
+the body of the former land into the solid globe, so as to swallow up
+the greater part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
+would be at least a superfluous exertion of the power of nature. Such an
+operation as this would discover as little wisdom in the end elected, as
+in the means appropriated to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
+and worn away in the natural operations of the globe, Why make such a
+convulsion in the world in order to renew the land? If, again, the land
+naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary a power, in order to hide
+a former continent of land, and puzzle man?
+
+Let us now consider how far the other proposition, of strata being
+elevated by the power of heat above the level of the sea, may be
+confirmed from the examination of natural appearances.
+
+The strata formed at the bottom of the ocean are necessarily horizontal
+in their position, or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
+direction or extent. They may change, and gradually assume the nature of
+each other, so far as concerns the materials of which they are formed;
+but there cannot be any sudden change, fracture, or displacement,
+naturally in the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are cemented by
+the heat of fusion, and erected with an expansive power acting below,
+we may expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and
+contortion, in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a
+horizontal towards a vertical position.
+
+The strata of the globe are actually found in every possible position:
+For, from horizontal, they are frequently found vertical; from
+continuous, they are broken and separated in every possible direction;
+and, from a plane, they are bent and doubled. It is impossible that they
+could have originally been formed, by the known laws of nature, in their
+present state and position; and the power that has been necessarily
+required for their change, has not been inferior to that which might
+have been required for their elevation from the place in which they had
+been formed.
+
+In this cafe, natural appearances are not anomalous. They are, indeed,
+infinitely various, as they ought to be, according to the rule; but all
+those varieties in appearances conspire to prove one general truth, viz.
+That all which we see had been originally composed according to certain
+principles, established in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
+and that those regular compositions had been afterwards greatly changed
+by the operations of another power, which had introduced apparent
+confusion among things first formed in order and by rule.
+
+It is concerning the operation of this second power that we are now
+inquiring; and here the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
+mineral regions are as instructive, with regard to what had been
+transacted in a former period of time, as the order and regularity of
+those same regions are conclusive, in relation to the place in which a
+former state of things had produced that which, in its changed state, we
+now perceive.
+
+We are now to conclude, that the land on which we dwell had been
+elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which had been
+employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and
+preparing them for the purpose of the living world. This agent is matter
+actuated by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing force.
+
+If this has been the case, it will be reasonable to expect, that some of
+the expanded matter might be found condensed in the bodies which have
+been heated by that igneous vapour; and that matter, foreign to the
+strata, may have been thus introduced into the fractures and separations
+of those indurated masses.
+
+We have but to open our eyes to be convinced of this truth. Look into
+the sources of our mineral treasures; ask the miner, from whence has
+come the metal into his vein? Not from the earth or air above,--not from
+the strata which the vein traverses; these do not contain one atom of
+the minerals now considered. There is but one place from whence these
+minerals may have come; this is the bowels of the earth, the place of
+power and expansion, the place from whence must have proceeded that
+intense heat by which loose materials have been consolidated into rocks,
+as well as that enormous force by which the regular strata have been
+broken and displaced.
+
+Our attention is here peculiarly called upon, where we have the
+opportunity of examining those mineral bodies, which have immediately
+proceeded from the unknown region, that place of power and energy which
+we want to explore; for, if such is the system of the earth, that
+materials are first deposited at the bottom of the ocean, there to be
+prepared in a certain manner, in order to acquire solidity, and then to
+be elevated into the proper place of land, these mineral veins, which
+contain matter absolutely foreign to the surface of the earth, afford
+the most authentic information with regard to the operations which we
+want to understand. It is these veins which we are to consider as,
+in some measure, the continuation of that mineral region, which lies
+necessarily out of all possible reach of our examination. It is,
+therefore, peculiarly interesting to know the state in which things
+are to be found in this place, which may be considered as intermediate
+between the solid land, upon the one hand, and the unknown regions of
+the earth, upon the other.
+
+We are now to examine those mineral veins; and these may be considered,
+first, in relation to their form, independent of their substance or
+particular contents; and, secondly, in relation to the contained bodies,
+independent of their form.
+
+In examining consolidated strata, we remarked veins and cutters as a
+proof of the means by which those bodies had been consolidated. In that
+case, the formation of these veins is a regulated process, determined
+by the degree of fusion, and the circumstances of condensation or
+refrigeration. In respect of these, the mineral veins now to be examined
+are anomalous. They are; but we know not why or how. We see the effect;
+but, in that effect, we do not see the cause. We can say, negatively,
+that the cause of mineral veins is not that by which the veins and
+fissures of consolidated strata have been formed; consequently, that
+it is not the measured contraction and regulated condensation of the
+consolidated land which has formed those general mineral veins; however,
+veins, similar in many respects, have been formed by the cooperation of
+this cause.
+
+Having thus taken a view of the evident distinction between the veins or
+contractions that are particular to the consolidated body in which they
+are found, and those more general veins which are not limited to that
+cause, we may now consider what is general in the subject, or what is
+universal in these effects of which we wish to investigate the cause.
+
+The event of highest generalization or universality, in the form of
+those mineral veins, is fracture and dislocation. It is not, like that
+of the veins of strata, simple separation and measured contraction; it
+is violent fracture and unlimited dislocation. In the one case, the
+forming cause is in the body which is separated; for, after the body had
+been actuated by heat, it is by the reaction of the proper matter of the
+body, that the chasm which constitutes the vein is formed. In the other
+case, again, the cause is extrinsic in relation to the body in which the
+chasm is formed. There has been the most violent fracture and divulsion;
+but the cause is still to seek; and it appears not in the vein; for it
+is not every fracture and dislocation of the solid body of our earth, in
+which minerals, or the proper substances of mineral veins, are found.
+
+We are now examining matter of fact, real effects, from whence we would
+investigate the nature of certain events which do not now appear. Of
+these, two kinds occur; one which has relation to the hardness and
+solidity, or the natural constitution of the body; the other, to its
+shape or local situation. The first has been already considered; the
+last is now the subject of inquiry.
+
+But, in examining those natural appearances, we find two different kinds
+of veins; the one necessarily connected with the consolidating cause;
+the other with that cause of which we now particularly inquire. For,
+in those great mineral veins, violent fracture and dislocation is the
+principle; but there is no other principle upon which strata, or masses
+formed at the bottom of the sea, can be placed at a height above its
+surface. Hence, in those two different operations, of forming mineral
+veins, and erecting strata from a lower to a higher place, the principle
+is the same; for, neither can be done without violent fracture and
+dislocation.
+
+We now only want to know, how far it is by the same power, as well as
+upon the same principle, that these two operations have been made.
+An expansive force, acting from below, is the power most proper for
+erecting masses; but whether it is a power of the same nature with that
+which has been employed in forming mineral veins, will best appear in
+knowing the nature of their contents. These, therefore, may be now
+considered.
+
+Every species of fracture, and every degree of dislocation and
+contortion, may be perceived in the form of mineral veins; and there is
+no other general principle to be observed in examining their form. But,
+in examining their contents, some other principle may appear, so far as,
+to the dislocating power or force, there may be superadded matter, by
+which something in relation to the nature of the power may be known.
+If, for example, a tree or a rock shall be found simply split asunder,
+although there be no doubt with regard to some power having been applied
+in order to produce the effect, yet we are left merely to conjecture at
+the power. But when wedges of wood or iron, or frozen water, should be
+found lodged in the cleft, we might be enabled, from this appearance, to
+form a certain judgment with regard to the nature of the power which
+had been applied. This is the case with mineral veins. We find them
+containing matter, which indicates a cause; and every information in
+this case is interesting to the theory.
+
+The substances contained in mineral veins are precisely the same with
+those which, in the former section, we have considered as being made
+instrumental in the consolidation of strata; and they are found mixed
+and concreted in every manner possible.
+
+But, besides this evidence for the exertion of extreme heat, in that
+process by which those veins were filled, there is another important
+observation to be gathered from the inspection of this subject. There
+appears to have been a great mechanical power employed in the filling of
+these veins, as well as that necessarily required in making the first
+fracture and divulsion.
+
+This appears from the order of the contents, or filling of these veins,
+which is a thing often observed to be various and successive. But what
+it is chiefly now in view to illustrate, is that immense force which is
+manifested in the fracture and dispersion of the solid contents which
+had formerly filled those veins. Here we find fragments of rock and spar
+floating in the body of a vein filled with metallic substances; there,
+again, we see the various fragments of metallic masses floating in the
+sparry and siliceous contents.
+
+One thing is demonstrable from the inspection of the veins and their
+contents; this is, the successive irruptions of those fluid substances
+breaking the solid bodies which they meet, and floating those fragments
+of the broken bodies in the vein. It is very common to see three
+successive series of those operations; and all this may be perceived in
+a small fragment of stone, which a man of science may examine in his
+closet, often better than descending to the mine, where all the examples
+are found on an enlarged scale.
+
+Let us now consider what power would be required to force up, from the
+most unfathomable depth of the ocean, to the Andes or the Alps, a column
+of fluid metal and of stone. This power cannot be much less than that
+required to elevate the highest land upon the globe. Whether, therefore,
+we shall consider the general veins as having been filled by mineral
+steams, or by fluid minerals, an elevating power of immense force is
+still required, in order to form as well as fill those veins. But such a
+power acting under the consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea, is
+the only natural means for making those masses land.
+
+If such have been the operations that are necessary for the production
+of this land; and if these operations are natural to the globe of this
+earth, as being the effect of wisdom in its contrivance, we shall
+have reason to look for the actual manifestation of this truth in the
+phaenomena of nature, or those appearances which more immediately
+discover the actual cause in the perceived effect.
+
+To see the evidence of marble, a body that is solid, having been formed
+of loose materials collected at the bottom of the sea, is not always
+easy, although it may be made abundantly plain; and to be convinced that
+this calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in our fires, should
+have been brought into fusion by subterraneous heat, without suffering
+calcination, must require a chain of reasoning which every one is not
+able to attain[13]. But when fire bursts forth from the bottom of the
+sea, and when the land is heaved up and down, so as to demolish cities
+in an instant, and split asunder rocks and solid mountains, there
+is nobody but must see in this a power, which may be sufficient to
+accomplish every view of nature in erecting land, as it is situated in
+the place most advantageous for that purpose.
+
+[Note 13: Mr le Chevalier de Dolomieu, in considering the different
+effects of heat, has made the following observation; Journal de
+Physique, Mai 1792.
+
+"Je dis _le feu tel que nous l'employons_ pour distinguer le feu naturel
+des volcans, du feu de nos fourneaux et de celui de nos chalumeaux. Nous
+sommes obliges de donner une grande activite a son action pour suppleer
+et au volume qui ne seroit pas a notre disposition et au tems que nous
+sommes forces de menager, et cette maniere d'appliquer une chaleur
+tres-active, communique le mouvement et le desordre jusques dans les
+molecules constituantes. Agregation et composition, tout est trouble.
+Dans les volcans la grand masse du feu supplee a son intensite, le
+tems remplace son activite, de maniere qu'il tourmente moins les corps
+fournis a son action; il menage leur composition en relachant leur
+agregation, et les pierres qui eut ete rendues fluides par l'embrasement
+volcanique peuvent reprendre leur etat primitif; la plupart des
+substances qu'un feu plus actif auroit expulsees y restent encore. Voila
+pourquoi les laves ressemblent tellement aux pierres naturelles des
+especes analogues, qu'elles ne peuvent en etre distinguees; voila
+egalement pourquoi les verres volcaniques eux-meme renferment encore des
+substances elastiques qui les font boursoufler lorsque nous les fondons
+de nouveau, et pourquoi ces verres blanchissent aussi, pour lors, par
+la dissipation, d'une substance grasse qui a resiste a la chaleur des
+volcans, et que volatilise la chaleur par laquelle nous obtenons leur
+second fusion."
+
+No doubt, the long application of heat may produce changes in bodies
+very different from those which are occasioned by the sudden application
+of a more intense heat; but still there must be sufficient intensity in
+that power, so as to cause fluidity, without which no chemical change
+can be produced in bodies. The essential difference, however, between
+the natural heat of the mineral regions, and that which we excite upon
+the surface of the earth, consists in this; that nature applies heat
+under circumstances which we are not able to imitate, that is, under
+such compression as shall prevent the decomposition of the constituent
+substances, by the separation of the more volatile from the more fixed
+parts. This is a circumstance which, so far as I know, no chemist
+or naturalist has hitherto considered; and it is that by which the
+operations of the mineral regions must certainly be explained. Without
+attending to this great principle in the mineralizing operations
+of subterraneous fire, it is impossible to conceive the fusion and
+concretion of those various bodies, which we examine when brought up to
+the surface of the earth.]
+
+The only question, therefore, which it concerns us to decide at present,
+is, Whether those operations of extreme heat, and violent mechanic
+force, be only in the system as a matter of accident; or if, on the
+contrary, they are operations natural to the globe, and necessary in the
+production of such land as this which we inhabit? The answer to this is
+plain: These operations of the globe remain at present with undiminished
+activity, or in the fullness of their power.
+
+A stream of melted lava flows from the sides of Mount Aetna. Here is a
+column of weighty matter raised from a great depth below, to an immense
+height above, the level of the sea, and rocks of an enormous size
+are projected from its orifice some miles into the air. Every one
+acknowledges that here is the liquefying power and expansive force of
+subterranean fire, or violent heat. But, that Sicily itself had been
+raised from the bottom of the ocean, and that the marble called Sicilian
+Jasper, had its solidity upon the same principle with the lava, would
+stumble many a naturalist to acknowledge. Nevertheless, I have in my
+possession a table of this marble, from which it is demonstrable, that
+this calcareous stone had flowed, and been in such a state of fusion and
+fluidity as lava.
+
+Here is a comparison formed of two mineral substances, to which it is of
+the highest importance to attend. The solidity and present state of the
+one of these is commonly thought to be the operation of fire; of the
+other, again, it is thought to be that of water. This, however, is not
+the case. The immediate state and condition of both these bodies is now
+to be considered as equally the effect of fire or heat. The reason of
+our forming such a different judgment with regard to these two subjects
+is this; we see, in the one case, the more immediate connection of the
+cause and the effect, while, in the other, we have only the effects from
+whence we are in science to investigate the cause.
+
+But, if it were necessary always to see this immediate connection, in
+order to acknowledge the operation of a power which, at present, is
+extinguished in the effect, we should lose the benefit of science, or
+general principles, from whence particulars may be deduced, and we
+should be able to reason no better than the brute. Man is made for
+science; he reasons from effects to causes, and from causes to effects;
+but he does not always reason without error. In reasoning, therefore,
+from appearances which are particular, care must be taken how we
+generalise; we should be cautious not to attribute to nature, laws which
+may perhaps be only of our own invention.
+
+The immediate question now before us is not, If the subterraneous fire,
+or elevating power, which we perceive sometimes as operating with such
+energy, be the consolidating cause of strata formed at the bottom of the
+sea; nor, if that power be the means of making land appear above the
+general surface of the water? for, though this be the end we want to
+arrive at ultimately, the question at present in agitation respects the
+laws of nature, or the generality of particular appearances.
+
+Has the globe within it such an active power as fits it for the
+renovation of that part of its constitution which may be subject to
+decay? Are those powerful operations of fire, or subterraneous heat,
+which so often have filled us with terror and astonishment, to be
+considered as having always been? Are they to be concluded as proper to
+every part upon the globe, and as continual in the system of this earth?
+If these points in question shall be decided in the affirmative, we can
+be at no loss in ascertaining the power which has consolidated strata,
+nor in explaining the present situation of those bodies, which had their
+origin at the bottom of the sea. This, therefore, should be the object
+of our pursuit; and in order to have demonstration in a case of physical
+inquiry, we must again have recourse to the book of nature.
+
+The general tendency of heat is to produce fluidity and softness; as
+that of cold is, on the contrary, to harden soft and fluid bodies. But
+this softening power of heat is not uniform in its nature; it is made to
+act with very different effect, according to the nature of the substance
+to which it is applied. We are but limited in the art of increasing the
+heat or the cold of bodies; we find, however, extreme difference in
+their substances with respect to fusibility.
+
+A fusible substance, or mineral composition in a fluid state, is emitted
+from those places of the earth at which subterraneous fire and expansive
+force are manifested in those eruptive operations. In examining these
+emitted bodies, men of science find a character for such productions, in
+generalising the substance, and understanding the natural constitution
+of those bodies. It is in this manner that such a person, finding a
+piece of lava in any place of the earth, says with certainty, Here is a
+stone which had congealed from a melted state.
+
+Having thus found a distinguishing character for those fused substances
+called, in general, Lavas, and having the most visible marks for that
+which had been actually a volcano, naturalists, in examining different
+countries, have discovered the most undoubted proofs of many ancient
+volcanos, which had not been before suspected. Thus, volcanos will
+appear to be not a matter of accident, or as only happening in a
+particular place, they are general to the globe, so far as there is
+no place upon the earth that may not have an eruption of this kind;
+although it is by no means necessary for every place to have had those
+eruptions.
+
+Volcanos are natural to the globe, as general operations; but we are
+not to consider nature as having a burning mountain for an end in her
+intention, or as a principal purpose in the general system of this
+world. The end of nature in placing an internal fire or power of heat,
+and a force of irresistible expansion, in the body of this earth, is to
+consolidate the sediment collected at the bottom of the sea, and to form
+thereof a mass of permanent land above the level of the ocean, for the
+purpose of maintaining plants and animals. The power appointed for this
+purpose is, as on all other occasions, where the operation is important,
+and where there is any danger of a shortcoming, wisely provided
+in abundance; and there are contrived means for disposing of the
+redundancy. These, in the present case, are our volcanos.
+
+A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten superstitious people
+into fits of piety and devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities with
+destruction; a volcano should be considered as a spiracle to the
+subterranean furnace, in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation of
+land, and fatal effects of earthquakes; and we may rest assured, that
+they, in general, wisely answer the end of their intention, without
+being in themselves an end, for which nature had exerted such amazing
+power and excellent contrivance.
+
+Let us take a view of the most elevated places of the earth; if the
+present theory is just, it is there that we should find volcanos. But is
+not this the case? There are volcanos in the Andes; and round the Alps
+we find many volcanos, which are in France upon the one side, and in
+Germany upon the other, as well as upon the Italian side, where Vesuvius
+still continues to exhibit violent eruptions.
+
+It is not meant to allege, that it is only upon the summit of a
+continent volcanos should appear. Subterraneous fire has sometimes made
+its appearance in bursting from the bottom of the sea. But, even in
+this last case, land was raised from the bottom of the sea, before the
+eruption made its exit into the atmosphere. It must also be evident,
+that, in this case of the new island near Santorini, had the expansive
+power been retained, instead of being discharged, much more land might
+have been raised above the level of the ocean.
+
+Now, the eruption of that elastic force through the bottom of the sea,
+may be considered as a waste of power in the operations of the globe,
+where the elevation of indurated strata is an object in the exertion of
+that power; whereas, in the centre of a continent sufficiently elevated
+above the level of the sea, the eruption of that fiery vapour calculated
+to elevate the land, while it may occasionally destroy the habitations
+of a few, provides for the security and quiet possession of the many.
+
+In order to see the wisdom of this contrivance, let us consider the
+two extreme places at which this eruption of ignited matter may be
+performed. These are, on the one hand, within a continent of land, and,
+on the other, at the bottom of the ocean. In the one case, the free
+eruption of the expanding power should be permitted; because the purpose
+for which it had been calculated to exist has been accomplished. In
+the other, again, the free eruption of that powerful matter should be
+repressed; because there is reserved for that power much of another
+operation in that place. But, according to the wise constitution of
+things, this must necessarily happen. The eruption of the fiery
+vapour from volcanos on the continent or land, is interrupted only
+occasionally, by the melted bodies flowing in the subterraneous
+chimney; whereas, at the bottom of the ocean, the contact of the water
+necessarily tends to close the orifice, by accumulating condensed matter
+upon the weakest place.
+
+If this be a just theory of the natural operations of the globe, we
+shall have reason to expect, that great quantities of this melted
+matter, or fusible substance, may be found in form of lava, among the
+strata of the earth, where there are no visible marks of any volcano, or
+burning mountain, having existed. Here, therefore, is an important point
+to be determined; for, if it shall appear that much of this melted
+matter, analogous to lava, has been forced to flow among the strata
+which had been formed at the bottom of the sea, and now are found
+forming dry land above its surface, it will be allowed, that we have
+discovered the secret operations of nature concocting future land, as
+well as those by which the present habitable earth had been produced
+from the bottom of the abyss. Here, therefore, we shall at present rest
+the argument, with endeavouring to show that such is actually the case.
+
+It appears from Cronstedt's Mineralogy, that the rock-stone, called trap
+by the Swedes, the amygdaloides and the schwarts-stein of the Germans,
+are the same with the whin-stone of this country. This is also fully
+confirmed by specimens from Sweden, sent me by my friend Dr Gahn.
+Whatever, therefore, shall be ascertained with regard to our whin-stone,
+may be so far generalized or extended to the countries of Norway,
+Sweden, and Germany.
+
+The whin-stone of Scotland is also the same with the toad-stone of
+Derbyshire, which is of the amygdaloides species; it is also the same
+with the flagstone of the south of Staffordshire, which is a simple
+whin-stone, or perfect trap. England, therefore, must be included in
+this great space of land, the mineral operations of which we explore;
+and also Ireland, of which the Giant's Causeway, and many others, are
+sufficient proof.
+
+In the south of Scotland, there is a ridge of hills, which extends
+from the west side of the island in Galloway to the east side in
+Berwickshire, composed of granite, of schistus, and of siliceous strata.
+The Grampians on the north, again, form another range of mountains of
+the same kind; and between these two great fields of broken, tumbled,
+and distorted strata, there lies a field of lesser hardness and
+consolidation, in general; but a field in which there is a great
+manifestation of subterraneous fire, and of exerted force.
+
+The strata in this space consist, in general, of sand-stone, coal,
+lime-stone or marble, iron-stone, and marl or argillaceous strata, with
+strata of analogous bodies, and the various compositions of these. But
+what is to the present purpose is this, that, through all this space,
+there are interspersed immense quantities of whinstone; a body which is
+to be distinguished as very different from lava; and now the disposition
+of this whin-stone is to be considered.
+
+Sometimes it is found in an irregular mass or mountain, as Mr Cronstedt
+has properly observed; but he has also said, that this is not the case
+in general. His words are: "It is oftener found in form of veins in
+mountains of another kind, running commonly in a serpentine manner,
+contrary or across to the direction of the rock itself."
+
+The origin of this form, in which the trap or whin-stone appears, is
+most evident to inspection, when we consider that this solid body had
+been in a fluid state, and introduced, in that state, among strata,
+which preserved their proper form. The strata appear to have been
+broken, and the two correspondent parts of those strata are separated to
+admit the flowing mass of whin-stone.
+
+A fine example of this kind may be seen upon the south side of the
+Earn, on the road to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands
+perpendicular, and appears many feet above the surface of the ground. It
+runs from that eastward, and would seem to be the same with that which
+crosses the river Tay, in forming Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser
+one of the same kind does below it. I have seen it at Lednoc upon the
+Ammon, where it forms a cascade in that river, about five or six
+miles west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from the Tay east through
+Strathmore, so that it may be considered as having been traced for
+twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to Drummond castle, perhaps much
+farther.
+
+Two small veins of the same kind, only two or three feet wide, may be
+seen in the bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the horizontal strata,
+the one is above St Bernard's well, the other immediately below it. But,
+more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the north of Irvine, there
+are to be seen upon the coast, between that and Scarmorly, in the space
+of about twenty miles, more than twenty or thirty such dykes (as they
+are called) of whin-stone. Some of them are of a great thickness; and,
+in some places, there is perceived a short one, running at right angles,
+and communicating with other two that run parallel.
+
+There is in this country, and in Derbyshire[14], another regular
+appearance of this stone, which Cronstedt has not mentioned. In this
+case, the strata are not broken in order to have the whin-stone
+introduced, they are separated, and the whin-stone is interjected in
+form of strata, having various degrees of regularity, and being of
+different thickness. On the south side of Edinburgh, I have seen, in
+little more than the space of a mile from east to west, nine or ten
+masses of whin-stone interjected among the strata. These masses of
+whin-stone are from three or four to an hundred feet thick, running
+parallel in planes inclined to the horizon, and forming with it an angle
+of about twenty or thirty degrees, as may be seen at all times in the
+hill of Salisbury Craggs.
+
+[Note 14: See Mr Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth.]
+
+Having thus described these masses, which have flowed by means of
+heat among the strata of the globe, strata which had been formed by
+subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will now be proper to examine
+the difference that subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as they
+may be termed, and the analogous bodies which are proper lavas, in
+having issued out of a volcano.[15]
+
+[Note 15: The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination of
+Aetna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed the distinction of
+these two different species of lavas; but without seeming to know the
+principle upon which this essential difference depends. No bias of
+system, therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's
+view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting to the
+present theory, as corresponding perfectly with the facts from whence it
+has been formed. It will be proper to give the account of these in his
+own words.
+
+La zeolite est tres-commune dans certains laves de l'Ethna; il seroit
+peut-etre possible d'y en rencontrer des morceaux aussi gros que ceux
+que fournit l'isle de Ferroe. Quoique cette substance semble ici
+appartenir aux laves, je ne dirai cependant point que toutes les
+zeolites soient volcaniques, ou unies a des matieres volcaniques; celles
+que l'on trouve en Allemagne sont, dit-on, dans des circonstances
+differentes; mais je doit annoncer que je n'ai trouve cette substance en
+Sicile, que dans les seules laves qui evidemment ont coule dans la mer,
+et qui out ete recouvertes par ses eaux. La zeolite des laves n'est
+point une dejection volcanique, ni une production du feu, ni meme un
+matiere que les laves aient enveloppee lorsqu'elles etoient fluides;
+elle est le resultat d'une operation et d'une combinaison posterieure,
+auxquelles les eaux de la mer ont concouru. Les laves qui n'ont pas ete
+submergees, n'en contiennent jamais. J'ai trouve ces observations si
+constantes, que par-tout ou je rencontrois de la zeolite, j'etois sur
+de trouver d'autres preuves de submersion, et partout ou je voyois des
+laves recouvertes des depots de l'eau, j'etois sur de trouver de la
+zeolite, et un de ces faits m'a toujours indique l'autre. Je me suis
+servi avec succes de cette observation pour diriger mes recherches, et
+pour connoitre l'antiquite des laves. _Mineralogie de Volcans, par
+M. Faujas de Saint-Fond_. Here would appear to be the distinction of
+subterraneous lava, in which zeolite and calcareous spar may be found,
+and that which has flowed from a volcano, in which neither of these are
+ever observed.]
+
+There can be no doubt that these two different species of bodies have
+had the same origin, and that they are composed of the same materials
+nearly; but from the different circumstances Of their production, there
+is formed a character to these bodies, by which, they may be perfectly
+distinguished. The difference of those circumstances consists in this;
+the one has been emitted to the atmosphere in its fluid state the other
+only came to be exposed to the light in a long course of time, after it
+had congealed under the compression of an immense load of earth, and
+after certain operations, proper to the mineral regions, had been
+exercised upon the indurated mass. This is the cause of the difference
+between those erupted lavas, and our whin-stone, toad-stone, and the
+Swedish trap, which may be termed subterraneous lava. The visible
+effects of those different operations may now be mentioned.
+
+In the erupted lavas, those substances which are subject to calcine and
+vitrify in our fires, suffer similar changes, when delivered from a
+compression which had rendered them fixed, though in an extremely heated
+state. Thus, a lava in which there is much calcareous spar, when it
+comes to be exposed to the atmosphere, or delivered from the compressing
+force of its confinement, effervesces by the explosion of its fixed
+air; the calcareous earth, at the same time, vitrifies with the other
+substances. Hence such violent ebullition in volcanos, and hence the
+emission of so much pumice-stone and ashes, which are of the same
+nature.
+
+In the body of our whin-stone, on the contrary, there is no mark of
+calcination or vitrification. We frequently find in it much calcareous
+spar, or the _terra calcarea aerata_, which had been in a melted state
+by heat, and had been crystallized by congelation into a sparry form.
+Such is the _lapis amygdaloides_, and many of our whin-stone rocks,
+which contain pebbles crystallized and variously figured, both
+calcareous, siliceous, and of a mixture in which both these substances
+form distinct parts. The specimens of this kind, which I have from the
+whin-stone or porphyry rock of the Calton-hill, exhibit every species
+of mineral operation, in forming jasper, figured agate, and marble; and
+they demonstrate, that this had been performed by heat or fusion.
+
+I do not mean to say, that this demonstration is direct; it is
+conditional, and proceeds upon the supposition, that the basaltic or
+porphyry rock, in which those specimens are found, is a body which had
+been in a melted state. Now, this is a supposition for which I have
+abundance of evidence, were it required; but naturalists are now
+sufficiently disposed to admit that proposition; they even draw
+conclusions from this fact, which, I think, they are not sufficiently
+warranted in doing; that is, from this appearance, they infer the former
+existence of volcanos in those places. For my part, though I have made
+the most strict examination, I never saw any vestige of such an event.
+That there are, in other countries, evident marks of volcanos which
+have been long extinguished, is unquestionably true; but naturalists,
+imagining that there are no other marks of subterraneous fire and
+fusion, except in the production of a lava, attribute to a volcano, as
+a cause, these effects, which only indicate the exertion of that power
+which might have been the cause of a volcano.
+
+If the theory now given be just, a rock of marble is no less a mark
+of subterraneous fire and fusion, than that of the basaltes; and the
+flowing of basaltic streams among strata broken and displaced, affords
+the most satisfactory evidence of those operations by which the body of
+our land had been elevated above the surface of the sea; but it gives no
+proof that the eruptive force of mineral vapours had been discharged in
+a burning mountain. Now, this discharge is essential in the proper idea
+of a volcano.
+
+Besides this internal mark of an unerupted lava in the substance of the
+stone or body of the flowing mass, there are others which belong to it
+in common with all other mineral strata, consolidated by subterraneous
+fire, and changed from the place of their original formation; this is,
+the being broken and dislocated, and having veins of foreign matter
+formed in their separations and contractions.
+
+If these are mineral operations, proper to the lower regions of the
+earth, and exerted upon bodies under immense compression, such things
+will be sometimes found in the unerupted lavas, as well as in the
+contiguous bodies with which they are associated. If, on the contrary,
+these are operations proper to the surface of the earth, where the
+dissolving power of water and air take place, and where certain
+stalactical and ferruginous concretions are produced by these means;
+then, in erupted lavas, we should find mineral concretions, which
+concretions should be denied to bodies which had been consolidated at
+the bottom of the sea; that is to say, where, without the operation of
+subterraneous fire, no changes of that kind could have taken place, as
+has already been observed. But in the unerupted species of lava, that
+is to say, in our whin-stone, every species of mineral appearance is
+occasionally to be found. Let those who have the opportunity to examine,
+say, what arc to be found in proper lavas, that is, those of the erupted
+kind. Sir William Hamilton informed me, when I showed him those mineral
+veins and spars in our whin-stone, that he had never observed the like,
+in lavas We have now formed some conclusions with regard to the nature
+and production of those parts of the land of this globe which we
+have had the means of examining perfectly; but; from the accounts of
+travellers, and from, the specimens which are brought to us from distant
+parts, we have reason to believe, that all the rest of the earth is
+of the same nature with that which has been now considered. The great
+masses of the earth are the same every where; and all the different
+species of earths, of rocks or stone, which have as yet appeared, are to
+be found in the little space of this our island.
+
+It is true, that there are peculiar productions in the mineral kingdom
+which are rare, as being found only in few places; but these things are
+merely accidental in relation to the land, for they belong in property
+to those parts of the mineral region which we never see. Such are, the
+diamond of the east, the platina of the west, and the tin of Cornwall,
+Germany, and Sumatra. Gold and silver, though found in many countries,
+do not appear to be immediately necessary in the production of a
+habitable country. Iron, again, is universal in the operations of the
+globe, and is found often in that profusion which equals its utility.
+Between these two extremes, we find all other minerals, that is to say,
+here and there in moderate quantity, and apparently in some proportion
+to their use. But all these substances are to be considered as the
+vapours of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally in the crevices
+of the land; and it is only the rocks and strata (in which those mineral
+veins are found) that are now examined with regard to their original
+composition, at the bottom of the sea, as well as to that, operation by
+which those bodies had been indurated in their substance, and elevated
+from the place in which they had been formed.
+
+Thus, we have sufficient reason to believe, that, in knowing the
+construction of the land in Europe, we know the constitution of the land
+in every part of the globe. Therefore, we may proceed to form general
+conclusions, from the knowledge of the mineral region, thus acquired in
+studying those parts which are seen.
+
+Having thus found, _first_, That the consolidated and indurated masses
+of our strata had suffered the effects of violent heat and fusion;
+_2dly_, That those strata, which had been formed in a regular manner at
+the bottom of the sea, have been violently bended, broken, and removed
+from their original place and situation; and, _lastly_, Having now found
+the most indubitable proof, that the melting, breaking, and removing
+power of subterraneous fire, has been actually exerted upon this land
+which we examine, we cannot hesitate in ascribing these operations as a
+cause to those effects which are exposed to our view. Now, these may be
+considered as consisting in the solid state and present situation of
+those stratified bodies, originally formed by subsidence in the ocean;
+appearances which cannot, in reason, be ascribed to any other cause, and
+which, upon this principle, are perfectly explained.
+
+It is not meant to specify every particular in the means employed by
+nature for the elevation of our land. It is sufficient to have shown,
+that there is, in nature, means employed for the consolidating of
+strata, formed originally of loose and incoherent materials; and that
+those same means have also been employed in changing the place and
+situation of those strata. But how describe an operation which man
+cannot have any opportunity of perceiving? Or how imagine that, for
+which, perhaps, there are not proper data to be found? We only know,
+that the land is raised by a power which has for principle subterraneous
+heat; but, how that land is preserved in its elevated station, is a
+subject in which we have not even the means to form conjecture; at
+least, we ought to be cautious how we indulge conjecture in a subject
+where no means occur for trying that which is but supposition.
+
+We now proceed, from the facts which have been properly established, to
+reason with regard to the duration of this globe, or the general view of
+its operations, as a living world, maintaining plants and animals.
+
+
+SECTION IV.
+
+System of Decay and Renovation observed in the Earth.
+
+Philosophers observing an apparent disorder and confusion in the solid
+parts of this globe, have been led to conclude, that there formerly
+existed a more regular and uniform state, in the constitution of this
+earth; that there had happened some destructive change; and that the
+original structure of the earth had been broken and disturbed by some
+violent operation, whether natural, or from a super-natural cause. Now,
+all these appearances, from which conclusions of this kind have been
+formed, find the most perfect explanation in the theory which we have
+been endeavouring to establish; for they are the facts from whence we
+have reasoned, in discovering the nature and constitution of this earth:
+Therefore, there is no occasion for having recourse to any unnatural
+supposition of evil, to any destructive accident in nature, or to the
+agency of any preternatural cause, in explaining that which actually
+appears.
+
+It is necessary for a living or inhabited world, that this should
+consist of land and water. It is also necessary, that the land should be
+solid and stable, refilling, with great power, the violent efforts
+of the ocean; and, at the same time, that this solid land should be
+resolved by the influence of the sun and atmosphere, so as to decay,
+and thus become a soil for vegetation. But these general intentions are
+perfectly fulfilled in the constitution of our earth, which has been now
+investigated. This great body being formed of different mixed masses,
+having various degrees of hardness and solubility, proper soil for
+plants is supplied from the gradual resolution of the solid parts;
+fertility in those soils arises from the mixture of different elementary
+substances; and stability is procured to that vegetable world, by the
+induration of certain bodies, those rocks and stones, which protect the
+softer masses of clay and soil.
+
+In this manner, also, will easily be explained those natural appearances
+which diversify the surface of the earth for the use of plants and
+animals, and those objects which beautify the face of nature for the
+contemplation of mankind. Such are, the distinctions of mountains and
+valleys, of lakes and rivers, of dry barren deserts and rich watered
+plains, of rocks which stand apparently unimpaired by the lapse of time,
+and sands which fluctuate with the winds and tides. All these are the
+effects of steady causes; each of these has its proper purpose in the
+system of the earth; and in that system is contained another, which is
+that of living growing bodies, and of animated beings.
+
+But, besides this, man, the intellectual being, has, in this subject of
+the mineral kingdom, the means of gratifying the desire of knowledge, a
+faculty by which he is distinguished from the animal, and by which he
+improves his mind in knowing causes. Man is not satisfied, like the
+brute, in seeing things which are; he seeks to know how things have
+been, and what they are to be. It is with pleasure that he observes
+order and regularity in the works of nature, instead of being disgusted
+with disorder and confusion; and he is made happy from the appearance of
+wisdom and benevolence in the design, instead of being left to suspect
+in the Author of nature, any of that imperfection which he finds in
+himself.
+
+Let us now take a view of that system of mineral economy, in which may
+be perceived every mark of order and design, of provident wisdom and
+benevolence.
+
+We have been endeavouring to prove, that all the continents and islands
+of this globe had been raised above the surface of the ocean; we have
+also aimed at pointing out the cause of this translation of matter, as
+well as of the general solidity of that which is raised to our view;
+but however this theory shall be received, no person of observation can
+entertain a doubt, that all, or almost all we see of this earth, had
+been originally formed at the bottom of the sea. We have now another
+object in our view; this is to investigate the operations of the globe,
+at the time that the foundation of this land was laying in the waters of
+the ocean, and to trace the existence and the nature of things, before
+the present land appeared above the surface of the waters. We should
+thus acquire some knowledge of the system according to which this world
+is ruled, both in its preservation and production; and we might be thus
+enabled to judge, how far the mineral system of the world shall appear
+to be contrived with all the wisdom, which is so manifest in what are
+termed the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
+
+It must not be imagined that this undertaking is a thing unreasonable
+in its nature; or that it is a work necessarily beset with any
+unsurmountable difficulty; for, however imperfectly we may fulfill this
+end proposed, yet, so far as it is to natural causes that are to be
+ascribed the operations of former time, and so far as, from the present
+state of things, or knowledge of natural history, we have it in our
+power to reason from effect to cause, there are, in the constitution of
+the world, which we now examine, certain means to read the annals of a
+former earth.
+
+The object of inquiry being the operations of the globe, during the time
+that the present earth was forming at the bottom of the sea, we are now
+to take a very general view of nature, without descending into those
+particulars which so often occupy the speculations of naturalists, about
+the present state of things. We are not at present to enter into any
+discussion with regard to what are the primary and secondary mountains
+of the earth; we are not to consider what is the first, and what the
+last, in those things which now are seen; whatever is most ancient in
+the strata which we now examine, is supposed to be collecting at the
+bottom of the sea, during the period concerning which we are now to
+inquire.
+
+We have already considered those operations which had been necessary
+in forming our solid land, a body consisting of materials originally
+deposited at the bottom of the ocean; we are now to investigate the
+source from whence had come all those materials, from the collection of
+which the present land is formed; and from knowing the state in
+which those materials had existed, previously to their entering the
+composition of our strata, we shall learn something concerning the
+natural history of this world, while the present earth was forming in
+the sea.
+
+We have already observed, that all the strata of the earth are composed
+either from the calcareous relicts of sea animals, or from the
+collection of such materials as we find upon our shores. At a gross
+computation, there may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land, which
+is composed from the matter that had belonged to those animals. Now,
+what a multitude of living creatures, what a quantity of animal economy
+must have been required for producing a body of calcareous matter
+which is interspersed throughout all the land of the globe, and which
+certainly forms a very considerable part of that mass! Therefore, in
+knowing how those animals had lived, or with what they had been fed, we
+shall have learned a most interesting part of the natural history of
+this earth; a part which it is necessary to have ascertained, in order
+to see the former operations of the globe, while preparing the materials
+of the present land. But, before entering upon this subject, let us
+examine the other materials of which our land is formed.
+
+Gravel forms a part of those materials which compose our solid land; but
+gravel is no other than a collection of the fragments of solid stones
+worn round, or having their angular form destroyed by agitation in
+water, and the attrition upon each other, or upon similar hard bodies.
+Consequently, in finding masses of gravel in the composition of our
+land, we must conclude, that there had existed a former land, on which
+there had been transacted certain operations of wind and water, similar
+to those which are natural to the globe at present, and by which new
+gravel is continually prepared, as well as old gravel consumed or
+diminished by attrition upon our shores.
+
+Sand is the material which enters, perhaps in greatest quantity, the
+composition of our land. But sand, in general, is no other than small
+fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn or rounded more or less by
+attrition; consequently, the same natural history of the earth, which
+is investigated from the masses of gravel, is also applicable to those
+masses of sand which we find forming so large a portion of our present
+land throughout all the earth[16].
+
+[Note 16: Sand is a term that denotes no particular substance; although
+by it is commonly meant a siliceous substance, as being by far the most
+prevalent. Sand is one of the modifications, of size and shape, in a
+hard body or solid substance, which may be infinitely diversified. The
+next modification to be distinguished in mineral bodies is that of
+gravel; and this differs in no respect from sand, except in point of
+size. Next after gravel, in the order of ascent, come stones; and these
+bear nearly the same relation to gravel as gravel does to sand. Now,
+by stones is to be understood the fragments of rocks or solid mineral
+bodies; and there is a perfect gradation from those stones to sand.
+I have already endeavoured to explain the formation of those stony
+substances; and now I am treating of a certain system of circulation,
+which is to be found among minerals.
+
+M. de Luc censures me for not giving the origin of sand, of which I form
+the strata of the earth. He seems to have misunderstood my treatise. I
+do not pretend, as he does in his theory, to describe the beginning of
+things; I take things such as I find them at present, and from these
+I reason with regard to that which must have been. When, from a thing
+which is well known, we explain another which is less so, we then
+investigate nature; but when we imagine things without a pattern or
+example in nature, then, instead of natural history, we write only
+fable.
+
+M. de Luc, in the letter already mentioned, says, "that sand may be, and
+I think it is, a substance which has formed _strata_ by _precipitation
+in a liquid_." This is but an opinion, which may be either true or
+false. If it be true, it is an operation of the mineral kingdom of which
+I am ignorant. In all the sand which I have ever examined, I have never
+seen any that might not be referred to the species of mineral substance
+from which it had been formed. When this author shall have given us
+any kind of information with regard to the production of sand _by
+precipitation in a liquid_, it will then be time enough to think of
+forming the strata of the earth with that sand.]
+
+Clay is now to be considered as the last of those materials of which
+our strata are composed; but, in order to understand the nature of this
+ingredient, something must be premised.
+
+Clay is a mixture of different earths or hard substances, in an
+impalpable state. Those substances are chiefly the siliceous and
+aluminous earths. Other earths are occasionally mixed in clays, or
+perhaps always to be found in some small portion. But this does not
+affect the general character of clay; it only forms a special variety in
+the subject. A sensible or considerable portion of calcareous earth, in
+the composition of clay, constitutes a marl, and a sufficient admixture
+of sand, a loam.
+
+An indefinite variety of those compositions of clay form a large portion
+of the present strata, all indurated and consolidated in various
+degrees; but this great quantity of siliceous, argillaceous, and
+other compound substances, in form of earth or impalpable sediment,
+corresponds perfectly with that quantity of those same substances which
+must have been prepared in the formation of so much gravel and sand, by
+the attrition of those bodies in the moving waters.
+
+Therefore, from the consideration of those materials which compose the
+present land, we have reason to conclude, that, during the time this
+land was forming, by the collection of its materials at the bottom of
+the sea, there had been a former land containing materials similar to
+those which we find at present in examining the earth. We may also
+conclude, that there had been operations similar to those which we
+now find natural to the globe, and necessarily exerted in the actual
+formation of gravel, sand, and clay. But what we have now chiefly in
+view to illustrate is this, that there had then been in the ocean a
+system of animated beings, which propagated their species, and which
+have thus continued their several races to this day.
+
+In order to be convinced of that truth, we have but to examine the
+strata of our earth, in which we find the remains of animals. In this
+examination, we not only discover every genus of animal which at present
+exists in the sea, but probably every species, and perhaps some species
+with which at present we are not acquainted. There are, indeed,
+varieties in those species, compared with the present animals which we
+examine, but no greater varieties than may perhaps be found among the
+same species in the different quarters of the globe. Therefore, the
+system of animal life, which had been maintained in the ancient sea, had
+not been different from that which now subsists, and of which it belongs
+to naturalists to know the history.
+
+It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately supported from matter
+of vegetable production. Inflammable matter may be considered as the
+_pabulum_ of life. This is prepared in the bodies of living plants,
+particularly in their leaves exposed to the sun and light. This
+inflammable matter, on the contrary, is consumed in animal bodies, where
+it produces heat or light, or both. Therefore, however animal matter, or
+the pabulum of life, may circulate through a series of digesting powers,
+it is constantly impaired or diminishing in the course of this economy,
+and, without the productive power of plants, it would finally be
+extinguished.[17]
+
+[Note 17: See Dissertations on different subjects of Natural Philosophy,
+part II.]
+
+The animals of the former world must have been sustained during
+indefinite successions of ages. The mean quantity of animal matter,
+therefore, must have been preserved by vegetable production, and the
+natural waste of inflammable substance repaired with continual addition;
+that is to say, the quantity of inflammable matter necessary to the
+animal consumption, must have been provided by means of vegetation.
+Hence we must conclude, that there had been a world of plants, as well
+as an ocean replenished with living animals.
+
+We are now, in reasoning from principles, come to a point decisive of
+the question, and which will either confirm the theory, if it be just,
+or confute our reasoning, if we have erred. Let us, therefore, open
+the book of Nature, and read in her records, if there had been a world
+bearing plants, at the time when this present world was forming at the
+bottom of the sea.
+
+Here the cabinets of the curious are to be examined; but here some
+caution is required, in order to distinguish things perfectly different,
+which sometimes are confounded.
+
+Fossil wood, to naturalists in general, is wood dug up from under
+ground, without inquiring whether this had been the production of the
+present earth, or that which had preceded it in the circulation of land
+and water. The question is important, and the solution of it is, in
+general, easy. The vegetable productions of the present earth, however
+deep they may be found buried beneath its surface, and however ancient
+they may appear, compared with the records of our known times, are new,
+compared with the solid land on which they grew; and they are only
+covered with the produce of a vegetable soil, or the alluvion of the
+present land on which we dwell, and on which they had grown. But the
+fossil bodies which form the present subject of inquiry, belonged to
+former land, and are found only in the sea-born strata of our present
+earth. It is to these alone that we appeal, in order to prove the
+certainty of former events.
+
+Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object now inquired after; that wood
+which had been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and there composed part
+of a stratum, which hitherto we have considered as only formed of the
+materials proper to the ocean. Now, what a profusion of this species of
+fossil wood is to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and even in
+the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers of polished stones! In some
+places, it would seem to be as common as the agate.
+
+I shall only mention a specimen in my own collection. It is wood
+petrified with calcareous earth, and mineralised with pyrites. This
+specimen of wood contains in itself, even without the stratum of stone
+in which it is embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
+It had been eaten or perforated by those sea worms which destroy the
+bottoms of our ships. There is the clearest evidence of this truth.
+Therefore, this wood had grown upon land which flood above the level of
+sea, while the present land was only forming at the bottom of the ocean.
+
+Wood is the most substantial part of plants, as shells are the more
+permanent part of marine animals. It is not, however, the woody part
+alone of the ancient vegetable world that is transmitted to us in
+the record of our mineral pages. We have the type of many species
+of foliage, and even of the most delicate flower; for, in this way,
+naturalists have determined, according to the Linnaean system, the
+species, or at least the genus, of the plant. Thus, the existence of a
+vegetable system at the period now in contemplation, so far from being
+doubtful, is a matter of physical demonstration.
+
+The profusion of this vegetable matter, delivered into the ocean, which
+then generated land, is also evidenced in the amazing quantities of
+mineral coal which is to be found in perhaps every region of the earth.
+
+Nothing can be more certain, than that all the coaly or bituminous
+strata have had their origin from the substance of vegetable bodies
+that grew upon the land. Those strata, tho', in general, perfectly
+consolidated, often separate horizontally in certain places; and there
+we find the fibrous or vascular structure of the vegetable bodies.
+Consequently, there is no doubt of fossil coal being a substance
+of vegetable production, however animal substances also may have
+contributed in forming this collection of oleaginous or inflammable
+matter.
+
+Having thus ascertained the state of a former earth, in which plants
+and animals had lived, as well as the gradual production of the present
+earth, composed from the materials of a former world, it must be
+evident, that here are two operations which are necessarily consecutive.
+The formation of the present earth necessarily involves the destruction
+of continents in the ancient world; and, by pursuing in our mind the
+natural operations of a former earth, we clearly see the origin of that
+land, by the fertility of which, we, and all the animated bodies of the
+sea, are fed. It is in like manner, that, contemplating the present
+operations of the globe, we may perceive the actual existence of those
+productive causes, which are now laying the foundation of land in the
+unfathomable regions of the sea, and which will, in time, give birth to
+future continents.
+
+But though, in generalising the operations of nature, we have arrived at
+those great events, which, at first sight, may fill the mind with
+wonder and with doubt, we are not to suppose, that there is any violent
+exertion of power, such as is required in order to produce a great event
+in little time; in nature, we find no deficiency in respect of time, nor
+any limitation with regard to power. But time is not made to flow in
+vain; nor does there ever appear the exertion of superfluous power, or
+the manifestation of design, not calculated in wisdom to effect some
+general end.
+
+The events now under consideration may be examined with a view to see
+this truth; for it may be inquired, Why destroy one continent in order
+to erect another? The answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a
+continent from having wearied of a subject which had given pleasure, or
+changed her purpose, whether for a better or a worse; neither does she
+erect a continent of land among the clouds, to show her power, or to
+amaze the vulgar man; Nature has contrived the productions of vegetable
+bodies, and the sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the gradual
+but sure destruction of a continent; that is to say, these two
+operations necessarily go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has nature
+ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one
+continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in
+the production of another; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for
+which the world above the surface of the sea is leveled with its bottom,
+are among the means employed in those operations, as well as the
+sustenance of those living beings is the proper end in view.
+
+Thus, in understanding the proper constitution of the present earth, we
+are led to know the source from whence had come all the materials which
+nature had employed in the construction of the world which appears; a
+world contrived in consummate wisdom for the growth and habitation of a
+great diversity of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly adapted
+to the purposes of man, who inhabits all its climates, who measures its
+extent, and determines its productions at his pleasure.
+
+The whole of a great object or event fills us with wonder and
+astonishment, when all the particulars, in the succession of which the
+whole had been produced, may be considered without the least emotion.
+When, for example, we behold the pyramids of Egypt, our mind is agitated
+with a crowd of ideas that highly entertains the person who understands
+the subject; but the carrying a heavy stone up to the top of a hill or
+mountain would give that person little pleasure or concern. We wonder at
+the whole operation of the pyramid, but not at any one particular part.
+
+The raising up of a continent of land from the bottom of the sea, is an
+idea that is too great to be conceived easily in all the parts of its
+operations, many of which are perhaps unknown to us; and, without being
+properly understood, so great an idea may appear like a thing that is
+imaginary. In like manner, the co-relative, or corresponding operation,
+the destruction of the land, is an idea that does not easily enter into
+the mind of man in its totality, although he is daily witness to part of
+the operation. We never see a river in a flood, but we must acknowledge
+the carrying away of part of our land, to be sunk at the bottom of the
+sea; we never see a storm upon the coast, but we are informed of a
+hostile attack of the sea upon our country; attacks which must, in time,
+wear away the bulwarks of our soil, and sap the foundations of our
+dwellings. Thus, great things are not understood without the analysing
+of many operations, and the combination of time with many events
+happening in succession.
+
+Let us now consider what is to be the subject of examination, and where
+it is that we are to observe those operations which must determine
+either the stability or the instability of this land on which we live.
+
+Our land has two extremities; the tops of the mountains, on the one
+hand, and the sea-shores, on the other: It is the intermediate space
+between these two, that forms the habitation of plants and animals.
+While there is a sea-shore and a higher ground there is that which is
+required in the system of the world: Take these away, and there would
+remain an aqueous globe, in which the world would perish. But, in the
+natural operations of the world, the land is perishing continually; and
+this is that which now we want to understand.
+
+Upon the one extremity of our land, there is no increase, or there is no
+accession of any mineral substance. That place is the mountain-top, on
+which nothing is observed but continual decay. The fragments of the
+mountain are removed in a gradual succession from the highest station to
+the lowest. Being arrived at the shore, and having entered the dominion
+of the waves, in which they find perpetual agitation, these hard
+fragments, which had eluded the resolving powers natural to the surface
+of the earth, are incapable of resisting the powers here employed for
+the destruction of the land. By the attrition of one hard body upon
+another, the moving stones and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
+that solid mass, which of itself had potential liability against the
+violence of the waves, affords the instruments of its own destruction,
+and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.
+
+In order to understand the system of the heavens, it is necessary to
+connect together periods of measured time, and the distinguished places
+of revolving bodies. It is thus that system may be observed, or wisdom,
+in the proper adapting of powers to an intention. In like manner, we
+cannot understand the system of the globe, without seeing that progress
+of things which is brought about in time, thus measuring the natural
+operations of the earth with those of the heavens. This is properly the
+business of the present undertaking.
+
+Our object is to know the time which had elapsed since the foundation of
+the present continent had been laid at the bottom of the ocean, to the
+present moment in which we speculate on these operations. The space is
+long; the data for the calculations are, perhaps, deficient: No matter;
+so far as we know our error, or the deficiency in our operation, we
+proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason. It is not given to man
+to know what things are truly in themselves, but only what those things
+are in his thought. We seek not to know the precise measure of any
+thing; we only understand the limits of a thing, in knowing what it is
+not, either on the one side or the other.
+
+We are investigating the age of the present earth, from the beginning of
+that body which was in the bottom of the sea, to the perfection of its
+nature, which we consider as in the moment of our existence; and we have
+necessarily another aera, which is collateral, or correspondent, in the
+progress of those natural events. This is the time required, in the
+natural operations of this globe, for the destruction of a former
+earth; an earth equally perfect with the present and an earth equally
+productive of growing plants and living animals. Now, it must appear,
+that, if we had a measure for the one of those corresponding operations,
+we would have an equal knowledge of the other.
+
+The formation of a future earth being in the bottom of the ocean, at
+depths unfathomable to man, and in regions far beyond the reach of his
+observation, here is a part of the process which cannot be taken as a
+principle in forming an estimate of the whole. But, in the destruction
+of the present earth, we have a process that is performed within the
+limits of our observation; therefore, in knowing the measure of this
+operation, we shall find the means of calculating what had passed on a
+former occasion, as well as what will happen in the composition of a
+future earth. Let us, therefore, now attempt to make this estimate of
+time and labour.
+
+The highest mountain may be levelled with the plain from whence it
+springs, without the loss of real territory in the land; but when the
+ocean makes encroachment on the basis of our earth, the mountain,
+unsupported, tumbles with its weight; and with the accession of hard
+bodies, moveable with the agitation of the waves, gives to the sea the
+power of undermining farther and farther into the solid basis of our
+land. This is the operation which is to be measured; this is the mean
+proportional by which we are to estimate the age of worlds that have
+terminated, and the duration of those that are but beginning.
+
+But how shall we measure the decrease of our land? Every revolution of
+the globe wears away some part of some rock upon some coast; but the
+quantity of that decrease, in that measured time, is not a measurable
+thing. Instead of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age. The age
+of man does no more in this estimate than a single year. He sees,
+that the natural course of things is to wear away the coast, with the
+attrition of the sand and stones upon the shore; but he cannot find a
+measure for this quantity which shall correspond to time, in order to
+form an estimate of the rate of this decrease.
+
+But man is not confined to what he sees; he has the experience of former
+men. Let us then go to the Romans and the Greeks in search of a measure
+of our coasts, which we may compare with the present state of things.
+Here, again, we are disappointed; their descriptions of the shores of
+Greece and of Italy, and their works upon the coast, either give no
+measure of a decrease, or are not accurate enough for such a purpose.
+
+It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity which escapes our notice,
+and which history cannot ascertain; and we might just as well attempt to
+measure the distance of the stars without a parallax, as to calculate
+the destruction of the solid land without a measure corresponding to the
+whole.
+
+The description which Polybius has given of the Pontus Euxinus, with
+the two opposite Bosphori, the Meotis, the Propontis, and the Port of
+Byzantium, are as applicable to the present state of things as they were
+at the writing of that history. The filling up of the bed of the
+Meotis, an event which, to Polybius, appeared not far off, must also be
+considered as removed to a very distant period, though the causes still
+continue to operate as before.
+
+But there is a thing in which history and the present state of things do
+not agree. It is upon the coast of Spain, where Polybius says there was
+an island in the mouth of the harbour of New Carthage. At present, in
+place of the island, there is only a rock under the surface of the
+water. It must be evident, however, that the loss of this small island
+affords no proper ground of calculation for the measure or rate of
+wasting which could correspond to the coast in general; as neither
+the quantity of what is now lost had been measured, nor its quality
+ascertained.
+
+Let us examine places much more exposed to the fury of the waves and
+currents than the coast of Carthagena, the narrow fretum, for example,
+between Italy and Sicily. It does not appear, that this passage is
+sensibly wider than when the Romans first had known it. The Isthmus of
+Corinth is also apparently the same at present as it had been two or
+three thousand years ago. Scilla and Charibdis remain now, as they had
+been in ancient times, rocks hazardous for coasting vessels which had to
+pass that strait.
+
+It is not meant by this to say, these rocks have not been wasted by the
+sea, and worn by the attrition of moving bodies, during that space of
+time; were this true, and that those rocks, the bulwarks of the land
+upon those coasts, had not been at all impaired from that period, they
+might remain for ever, and thus the system of interchanging the place of
+sea and land upon this globe might be frustrated. It is only meant
+to affirm, that the quantity which those rocks, or that coast, have
+diminished from the period of our history, has either been too small
+a thing for human observation, or, which is more probable, that no
+accurate measurement of the subject, by which this quantity of decrease
+might have been ascertained, had been taken and recorded. It must be
+also evident, that a very small operation of an earthquake would be
+sufficient to render every means of information, in this manner of
+mensuration, unsatisfactory or precarious.
+
+Pliny says Italy was distant from Sicily a mile and a half; but we
+cannot suppose that this measure was taken any otherwise than by
+computation, and such a measure is but little calculated to afford us
+the just means of a comparison with the present distance. He also says,
+indeed, that Sicily had been once joined with Italy. His words are:
+"Quondam Brutio agro cohaerens, mox interfuso mari avulsa.[18]" But all
+that we can conclude from this history of Pliny is, that, in all times,
+to people considering the appearances of those two approached coasts,
+it had seemed probable, that the sea formed a passage between the two
+countries which had been once united; in like manner as is still more
+immediately perceived, in that smaller disjunction which is made between
+the island of Anglesey and the continent of Wales.
+
+[Note 18: Lib. 3. cap. 8.]
+
+The port of Syracuse, with the island which forms the greater and
+lesser, and the fountain of Arethusa, the water of which the ancients
+divided from the sea with a wall, do not seem to be altered. From Sicily
+to the coast of Egypt, there is an uninterrupted course of sea for a
+thousand miles; consequently, the wind, in such a stretch of sea, should
+bring powerful waves against those coasts: But, on this coast of Egypt,
+we find the rock on which was formerly built the famous tower of Pharos;
+and also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste, the sea-bath,
+cut in the solid rock upon the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted
+immediately with the waves of the Mediterranean sea, are, to all
+appearance, the same at this day as they were in ancient times.[19]
+
+[Note 19: Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. Savary.]
+
+Many other such proofs will certainly occur, where the different parts
+of those coasts are examined by people of observation and intelligence.
+But it is enough for our present purpose, that this decrease of the
+coasts in general has not been observed; and that it is as generally
+thought, that the land is gaining upon the sea, as that the sea is
+gaining upon the land.
+
+To sum up the argument, we are certain, that all the coasts of the
+present continents are wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing away
+upon the whole; but this operation is so extremely slow, that we cannot
+find a measure of the quantity in order to form an estimate: Therefore,
+the present continents of the earth, which we consider as in a state of
+perfection, would, in the natural operations of the globe, require a
+time indefinite for their destruction.
+
+But, in order to produce the present continents, the destruction of a
+former vegetable world was necessary; consequently, the production of
+our present continents must have required a time which is indefinite.
+In like manner, if the former continents were of the same nature as the
+present, it must have required another space of time, which also is
+indefinite, before they had come to their perfection as a vegetable
+world.
+
+We have been representing the system of this earth as proceeding with
+a certain regularity, which is not perhaps in nature, but which is
+necessary for our clear conception of the system of nature. The
+system of nature is certainly in rule, although we may not know every
+circumstance of its regulation. We are under a necessity, therefore, of
+making regular suppositions, in order to come at certain conclusions
+which may be compared with the present state of things.
+
+It is not necessary that the present land should be worn away and
+wasted, exactly in proportion as new land shall appear; or, conversely,
+that an equal proportion of new land should always be produced as the
+old is made to disappear. It is only required, that at all times, there
+should be a just proportion of land and water upon the surface of the
+globe, for the purpose of a habitable world.
+
+Neither is it required in the actual system of this earth, that every
+part of the land should be dissolved in its structure, and worn away by
+attrition, so as to be floated in the sea. Parts of the land may often
+sink in a body below the level of the sea, and parts again may be
+restored, without waiting for the general circulation of land and water,
+which proceeds with all the certainty of nature, but which advances with
+an imperceptible progression. Many of such apparent irregularities may
+appear without the least infringement on the general system. That system
+is comprehended in the preparation of future land at the bottom of the
+ocean, from those materials which the dissolution and attrition of
+the present land may have provided, and from those which the natural
+operations of the sea afford.
+
+In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are not to limit nature with the
+uniformity of an equable progression, although it be necessary in our
+computations to proceed upon equalities. Thus also, in the use of means,
+we are not to prescribe to nature those alone which we think suitable
+for the purpose, in our narrow view. It is our business to learn of
+nature (that is by observation) the ways and means, which in her wisdom
+are adopted; and we are to imagine these only in order to find means for
+further information, and to increase our knowledge from the examination
+of things which actually have been. It is in this manner, that intention
+may be found in nature; but this intention is not to be supposed, or
+vainly imagined, from what we may conceive to be.
+
+We have been now supposing, that the beginning of our present earth had
+been laid in the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of the former
+land; but this was only for the sake of distinctness. The just view is
+this, that when the former land of the globe had been complete, so as
+to begin to waste and be impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the
+present land began to appear above the surface of the ocean. In this
+manner we suppose a due proportion to be always preserved of land and
+water upon the surface of the globe, for the purpose of a habitable
+world, such as this which we possess. We thus, also, allow time and
+opportunity for the translation of animals and plants to occupy the
+earth.
+
+But, if the earth on which we live, began to appear in the ocean at
+the time when the last began to be resolved, it could not be from the
+materials of the continent immediately preceding this which we examine,
+that the present earth had been constructed; for the bottom of the ocean
+must have been filled with materials before land could be made to appear
+above its surface.
+
+Let us suppose that the continent, which is to succeed our land, is at
+present beginning to appear above the water in the middle of the Pacific
+Ocean, it must be evident, that the materials of this great body, which
+is formed and ready to be brought forth, must have been collected from
+the destruction of an earth, which does not now appear. Consequently,
+in this true statement of the case, there is necessarily required the
+destruction of an animal and vegetable earth prior to the former land;
+and the materials of that earth which is first in our account, must have
+been collected at the bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted for
+the production of the present earth, when the land immediately preceding
+the present had arrived at its full extent.
+
+This, however, alters nothing with regard to the nature of those
+operations of the globe. The system is still the same. It only protracts
+the indefinite space of time in its existence, while it gives us a view
+of another distinct period of the living world; that is to say, the
+world which we inhabit is composed of the materials, not of the earth
+which was the immediate predecessor of the present, but of the earth
+which, in ascending from the present, we consider as the third, and
+which had preceded the land that was above the surface of the sea, while
+our present land was yet beneath the water of the ocean. Here are three
+distinct successive periods of existence, and each of these is, in our
+measurement of time, a thing of indefinite duration.
+
+We have now got to the end of our reasoning; we have no data further
+to conclude immediately from that which actually is: But we have got
+enough; we have the satisfaction to find, that in nature there is
+wisdom, system, and consistency. For having, in the natural history of
+this earth, seen a succession of worlds, we may from this conclude that
+there is a system in nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions
+of the planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they
+are intended to continue those revolutions. But if the succession of
+worlds is established in the system of nature, it is in vain to look for
+any thing higher in the origin of the earth. The result, therefore, of
+this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,--no
+prospect of an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+An Examination of Mr KIRWAN'S Objections to the Igneous Origin of Stony
+Substances.
+
+A theory which is founded on a new principle, a theory which has to make
+its way in the public mind by overturning the opinions commonly received
+by philosophising men, and one which has nothing to recommend it but the
+truth of its principles, and the view of wisdom or design to which it
+leads, neither of which may perhaps be perceived by the generality of
+people, such a theory, I say, must meet with the strongest opposition
+from the prejudices of the learned, and from the superstition of those
+who judge not for themselves in forming their notions, but look up to
+men of science for authority. Such is the case with some part of the
+Theory of the Earth, which I have given, and which will probably give
+offence to naturalists who have espoused an opposite opinion. In order,
+then, to obtain the approbation of the public, it may not be enough to
+give a theory that should be true, or altogether unexceptionable it may
+be necessary to defend every point that shall be thought exceptionable
+by other theorists, and to show the fallacy of every learned objection
+that may be made against it. It is thus, in general, that truth and
+error are forced to struggle together, in the progress of science; and
+it is only in proportion as science removes erroneous conceptions, which
+are necessarily in the constitution of human knowledge, that truth will
+find itself established in natural philosophy.
+
+Mr Kirwan has written a dissertation, entitled, _Examination of the
+Supposed Igneous Origin of Stony Substances_, which was read in the
+Royal Irish Academy. The object of that dissertation is to state certain
+objections, which have occurred to him, against the Theory of the Earth
+published in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society; and he has
+attacked that theory in all the points where it appears to him to be
+vulnerable. It is to these objections that I am now to give an answer.
+The authority given to this dissertation, by the Royal Irish Academy,
+as well as the reputation of the author, make it necessary for me
+to endeavour to put in their true light the facts alleged in that
+performance, and to analyse the arguments employed, in order to judge of
+the reasoning by which the theory of mineral fusion is refuted in this
+Examination.
+
+A theory founded on truth, and formed according to the proper rules of
+science, can ever suffer from a strict examination, by which it would
+be but the more and more confirmed. But, where causes are to be traced
+through a chain of various complicated effects, an examination not
+properly conducted upon accurate analytical principles, instead of
+giving light upon a subject in which there had been obscurity and doubt,
+may only serve to perplex the understanding, and bring confusion into a
+subject which was before sufficiently distinct. To redress that evil,
+then, must require more labour and some address; and this is an
+inconveniency that may be looked for, more or less, in every
+controversial discussion.
+
+I do not mean to enter any farther into the defence of my theory in
+this chapter, than what is necessary to answer a man of science and
+respectability, who has stated his objections. The observations which
+he has made appear to me to be founded on nothing more than common
+prejudice, and misconceived notions of the subject. I am therefore
+to point out that erroneous train of reasoning, into which a hasty
+superficial view of things, perhaps, has led the patron of an opposite
+opinion to see my theory in an unfavourable light. This, however, is not
+all; for, that train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial with
+the crude and inconsiderate notion generally entertained, of solid
+mineral bodies having been formed by the infiltration of water into
+the earth, that no opportunity should be lost of exposing an erroneous
+manner of reasoning, which is employed in supporting a hypothesis
+founded upon certain operations of the surface of this earth that cannot
+be properly applied to the formation of mineral bodies. This object,
+therefore, so far as it may come in the way, will be attended to in
+this discussion, although I shall have another opportunity of farther
+enlarging upon that subject.
+
+Our author begins by examining a geological operation, the very opposite
+to that of mineral consolidation, and which would seem to have little
+connection with the subject of this dissertation. In my theory, I
+advanced two propositions with regard to the economy of this world:
+First, That the solid masses of this earth, when exposed to the
+atmosphere, decay, and are resolved into loose materials, of which the
+vegetable soil upon the surface is in part composed; and, secondly, That
+these loose materials are washed away by the currents of water, and
+thus carried at last into the sea. Our author says "Here are two
+suppositions, neither of which is grounded on facts;" and yet he has
+but the moment before made the following confession: "That the soil,
+however, receives an increase from some species of stones that moulder
+by exposition to the air cannot be denied, but there is no proof that
+all soil has arisen from decomposition."--Surely _all soil_, that
+is made from the _hard and compact_ body of the land, which is my
+proposition, must have arisen from _decomposition_; and I have no where
+said, that _all_ the soil of this earth is made from the decomposition
+or detritus of those stony substances; for, masses of looser sand and
+softer substances contribute still more to the formation of vegetable
+soils.
+
+With regard to the other proposition, our author says, "Soil is not
+constantly carried away by the water, even from mountains."--I have not
+said that it is _constantly_ washed away; for, while it is soil in which
+plants grow, it is not travelling to the sea, although it be on the road,
+and must there arrive in time. I have said, that it is _necessarily_
+washed away, that is, occasionally. M. de Luc's authority is then
+referred to, as refuting this operation of water and time upon the soil.
+Now, I cannot help here observing, that our author seems to have as
+much misapprehended M. de Luc's argument as he has done mine. That
+philosopher, in his letters to the Queen, has described most accurately
+the decay of the rocks and solid mountains of the Alps and Jura, and the
+travelling of their materials by water, although he does not carry them
+to the sea. It is true, indeed, that this author, who supposes the
+present earth on which we dwell very young, is anxious to make an earth,
+_in time_, that shall not decay nor be washed away at all; but that time
+is not come yet; therefore the authority, here given against my
+theory, is the speculative supposition, or mere opinion, of a natural
+philosopher, with regard to an event which may never come to pass, and
+which I shall have occasion to consider fully in another place.
+
+Our author had just now said, that I have advanced two suppositions,
+_neither of which is grounded on facts_: Now, with regard to the one, he
+has acknowledged, that the mouldering of stones takes place, which is
+the fact on which that proposition is grounded; and with regard to the
+other, the only authority given against it is founded expressly upon
+the moving of soil by means of the rain water, in order to make sloping
+plains of mountains. Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
+upon facts; and our author has founded his objections, first, upon a
+difficulty which he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon nothing but
+a visionary opinion, with regard to an earth which is not yet made, and
+which, when once made, is never more to change.
+
+After making some unimportant observations,--of all water not flowing
+into the sea,--and of the travelled materials being also deposited upon
+the plains, etc. our author thus proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our
+author relative to the imperfect constitution of the globe falls to the
+ground; and the pains he takes to learn, _by what means a decayed world
+may be renovated_, are superfluous."--The object of my theory is
+to show, that this decaying nature of the solid earth is the very
+_perfection_ of its constitution, as a living world; therefore, it
+was most proper that I should _take pains to learn_ by what means the
+decayed parts might be renovated. It is true, indeed, that this will be
+superfluous, when once that constitution of the earth, which M. de Luc
+thinks is preparing, shall be finished; but, in the mean time, while
+rivers carry the materials of our land, and while the sea impairs the
+coast, I may be allowed to suppose that this is the actual constitution
+of the earth.
+
+I cannot help here animadverting upon what seems to be our author's
+plan, in making these objections, which have nothing to do with his
+examination. He accuses me of giving this world a false or imperfect
+constitution, (in which the solid land is considered as resolvable, and
+the materials of that land as being washed away into the sea,) for no
+other reason, that I can see, but because this may imply the formation
+of a future earth, which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is now to
+deny the stratified construction of this present earth to have been made
+by the deposits of materials at the bottom of the sea, because that
+would prove the existence of a former earth, which is repugnant to his
+notion of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he says, to reason,
+and the tenor of the Mosaic history. Let me observe, in passing, that M.
+de Luc, of whose opinions our author expresses much approbation, thinks
+that he proves, from the express words and tenor of the Mosaic history,
+that the present earth was at the bottom of the sea not many years ago,
+and that the former earth had then disappeared.
+
+But, what does our author propose to himself, in refusing to admit my
+view of the operations which are daily transacting upon the surface of
+this earth, where there is nothing dark or in the least mysterious, as
+there may be in the mineral regions? Does he mean to say, that it is not
+the purpose of this world to provide soil for plants to grow in? Does
+he suppose that this soil is not moveable with the running water of the
+surface? and, Does he think that it is not necessary to replace that
+soil which is removed? This is all that I required in that constitution
+of the world which he has thus attacked; and I wish that he or any
+person would point out, in what respect I had demanded any thing
+unreasonable, or any thing that is not actually to be observed every
+day.
+
+Thus I have endeavoured to show, that our author has attacked my theory
+in a part where I believe it must be thought invulnerable; but this is
+only, I presume, in order that he may make an attack with more advantage
+upon another part, viz. the composition of strata from the materials of
+an earth thus worn out in the service of vegetation,--materials which
+are necessarily removed in order to make way for that change of things
+in which consists the active and living system of this world. If he
+succeed in this attempt to refute my theory of the original formation
+of strata, he would then doubtless find it more easy to persuade
+philosophers that the means which I employ in bringing those materials
+again to light, when transformed into such solid masses as the system of
+this earth requires, are extravagant, unnatural, and unnecessary. Let us
+then see how he sets about this undertaking.
+
+With regard to the composition of the earth, it is quoted from my
+theory, that _the solid parts of the globe are in general composed
+of sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of various
+compositions of these with other substances_; our author then adds,
+"This certainly cannot be affirmed as a fact, but rather the contrary;
+it holds only true of the surface, the basis of the greater part of
+Scotland is evidently a granitic rock, to say nothing of the continents,
+both of the Old and New World, according to the testimony of all
+mineralogists." This proposition, with regard to the general composition
+of the earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have maintained it as a
+fact, after the most scrupulous examination of all that, with the most
+diligent search, I have been able to see, and of all that authors
+have wrote intelligibly upon the subject. If, therefore, I have so
+misrepresented this great geological fact on which my theory is
+absolutely founded, I must have erred with open eyes; and my theory
+of the earth, like others which have gone before it, will, upon close
+examination, appear to be unfounded, as the dissertation now before us
+is endeavouring to represent it.
+
+Our author here, I think, alleges that the contrary to this, my
+fundamental proposition, is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
+an example in which his assertion (founded upon the testimony of all
+mineralogists), is illustrated. Now my geological proposition should
+certainly be applicable to Scotland, which is the country that I ought
+to be best acquainted with; consequently, if what our author here
+asserts be true, I would have deserved that blame which he is willing to
+throw on me. Let me then beg the readers attention for a moment, that I
+may justify myself from that charge, and place in its proper light this
+authority, upon so material a point in geology.
+
+I had examined Scotland from the one end to the other before I saw one
+stone of granite in its native place, I have moreover examined almost
+all England and Wales, (excepting Devonshire and Cornwall) without
+seeing more of granite than one spot, not many hundred yards of extent;
+this is at Chap; and I know, from information, that there is another
+small spot in the middle of England where it is just seen. But, let me
+be more particular with regard to Scotland, the example given in proof.
+
+I had travelled every road from the borders of Northumberland and
+Westmoreland to Edinburgh; from Edinburgh, I had travelled to
+Port-Patrick, and from that along the coast of Galloway and Airshire
+to Inverary in Argyleshire, and I had examined every spot between the
+Grampians and the Tweedale mountains from sea to sea, without seeing
+granite in its place. I had also travelled from Edinburgh by Grief,
+Rannock, Dalwhiny, Fort Augustus, Inverness, through east Ross and
+Caithness, to the Pentland-Frith or Orkney islands, without seeing one
+block of granite in its place. It is true, I met with it on my return
+by the east coast, when I just saw it, and no more, at Peterhead and
+Aberdeen; but that was all the granite I had ever seen when I wrote
+my Theory of the Earth. I have, since that time, seen it in different
+places; because I went on purpose to examine it, as I shall have
+occasion to describe in the course of this work.
+
+I may now with some confidence affirm, from my own observation, and from
+good information with regard to those places where I have not been,
+except the northwest corner, I may affirm, I say, that instead of the
+basis of the greatest part of Scotland being a granitic rock, which our
+author has maintained as an evident thing, there is very little of it
+that is so; not perhaps one five hundred part. So far also as I am to
+judge from my knowledge of the mineral construction of England and
+Wales, which I have examined with the greatest care, and from the
+mineral chart which my friend Mr Watt made for me from his knowledge of
+Cornwall, I would say that there is scarcely one five hundred part
+of Britain that has granite for its basis. All the rest, except the
+porphyry and basaltes, consists of stratified bodies, which are composed
+more or less of the materials which I mentioned, generally, in the above
+quotation, and which our author would dispute.
+
+But do not let me take the advantage of this error of our author with
+regard to the mineralogy of Scotland, and thus draw what may be thought
+an undue conclusion in favour of my general theory; let us go over and
+examine the continent of Europe, and see if it is any otherwise there
+than in Britain. From the granite of the Ural mountains, to that which
+we find in the Pyrenees, there is no reason, so far as I have been able
+to learn, to conclude that things are formed either upon any other
+principle, or upon a different scale. But, instead of one five hundred
+part, let us suppose there to be one fiftieth part of the earth in
+general resting upon granite, I could not have expressed myself
+otherwise than I have done; for, when I maintained that the earth in
+general consisted of stratified bodies, I said that this was only _nine
+tenths, or perhaps ninety-nine hundredths_ of the whole, and I mentioned
+that there were other masses of a different origin, which should be
+considered separately. Our author, on the contrary, asserts that the Old
+and New Worlds, as well as Scotland, are placed upon granite as a basis,
+which he says is according to the testimony of all mineralogists.
+I shall have occasion to examine this opinion of mineralogists, in
+comparing it with those masses of granite which appear to us; and I hope
+fully to refute the geological, as well as mineralogical notions with
+regard to that body. In the mean time, let me make the following
+reflection, which here naturally occurs.
+
+My Theory of the Earth is here examined,--not with the system of
+nature, or actual state of things, to which it certainly should have
+corresponded,--but with the systematic views of a person, who has formed
+his notions of geology from the vague opinion of others, and not from
+what he has seen. Had the question been, How far my theory agreed with
+other theories, our author might very properly have informed his readers
+that it was diametrically opposite to the opinions of mineralogists;
+but, this was no reason for concluding it to be erroneous; on the
+contrary, it is rather a presumption that I may have corrected the error
+of mineralogists who have gone before me, in like manner as it is most
+reasonable to presume that our author may have corrected mine. Let us
+then proceed to examine how far this shall appear to be the case.
+
+Our author has stated very fairly from the Theory, viz. _That all the
+strata of the earth, not only those consisting of calcareous masses, but
+others superincumbent on these, have had their origin at the bottom
+of the sea, by the collection of sand, gravel, shells, coralline, and
+crustaceous bodies, and of earths and clays variously mixed, separated,
+and accumulated._ He then adds, "Various geological observations
+contradict this conclusion. There are many stratified mountains of
+argillaceous slate, gneiss, serpentine, jasper, and even marble, in
+which either sand, gravel, shells, coralline, or crustaceous bodies are
+never, or scarce ever found."
+
+Here our author seems to have deceived himself, by taking a very partial
+view of things which should be fully examined, and well understood,
+before general conclusions are to be drawn from those appearances; for,
+although those particular objects may not be visible in the strata which
+he has enumerated, or many others, they are found in those strata which
+are either immediately connected and alternated with them, or with
+similar strata; something to that purpose I think I have said; and, if
+I had not, it certainly requires no deep penetration to have seen this
+clear solution of that appearance of those objects not being found in
+every particular stratum. He says that those marks of known materials
+are never or scarce ever found;--by _scarce ever_ he surely means that
+they are sometimes found; but if they shall only _once_ be found, his
+argument is lost. I have not drawn my geological conclusion from every
+particle in strata being distinguishable, but from there being certain
+distinguishable particles in strata, and from our knowing what had been
+the former state and circumstances of those distinguished parts.
+
+If every stone or part of a stratum, in which those known objects are
+not immediately visible, must be considered as so _many geological
+observations that contradict my theory_, (of strata being formed from
+the materials of a former earth), then, surely every stone and every
+stratum which visibly contains any of those materials, must prove my
+theory. But if every stratum, where these are found in any part of it,
+is to be concluded as having had its origin at the bottom of the sea;
+and, if every concomitant stratum, though not having those objects
+visible or sufficiently distinct, must be considered as having had the
+same or a similar origin, that pretended contradiction of my theory
+comes to no more than this, that every individual stone does not bear
+in it the same or equal evidence of that general proposition which
+necessarily results from the attentive consideration of the whole,
+including every part.
+
+But to see how necessary it is to judge in this manner, not partially,
+but upon the whole, we may observe, that there are two ways by which the
+visible materials or distinguishable bodies of a former earth, not only
+_may_ be rendered invisible in the composition of our present earth,
+but _must_ be so upon many occasions. These are, _first_, by mechanical
+comminution, which necessarily happens, more or less, in that operation
+by which bodies are moved against one another, and thus transported from
+the land to the bottom of the deepest seas; _secondly_, by chemical
+operations, (whatever these may be, whether the action of water or of
+fire, or both), which are also necessarily employed for consolidating
+those loose materials, that are to form the rocks and stones of
+this earth, and by means of which those materials are to have their
+distinguishable shapes affected in all degrees and obliterated.
+Therefore, to demand the visible appearance of those materials in every
+stratum of the earth, or in every part of a stratum, is no other than to
+misunderstand the subject altogether. The geological observations,
+which have been thus alleged as contradicting my theory, are stratified
+bodies, containing proofs of the general origin which I attribute to the
+earth, but proofs which may not always be seen with equal facility as
+those which even convince the vulgar.
+
+Our author has surely perplexed himself with what writers of late have
+said concerning primitive mountains as they are called, a subject of
+deeper search, than is commonly imagined, as I hope to show in the
+course of this work. It is an interesting subject of investigation,
+as giving us the actual view of those operations of nature which, in
+forming my Theory of the Earth, more general principles had led me to
+conclude _might be_. But, it is a subject which, I am afraid, will lead
+me to give farther offence to our author, however innocent I may be in
+giving nothing but what I have from nature.
+
+The reason for saying so is this; I am blamed for having endeavoured
+to trace back the operations of this world to a remote period, by the
+examination of that which actually appears, contrary, as is alleged,
+"to reason, and the tenor of the Mosaic history, thus leading to an
+abyss, from which human reason recoils, etc." In a word, (says our
+author), "to make use of his own expression, _We find no vestige of
+a beginning._ Then this system of successive worlds must have been
+eternal." Such is the logic by which, I suppose, I am to be accused of
+atheism. Our author might have added, that I have also said--_we see
+no prospect of an end_; but what has all this to do with the idea of
+eternity? Are we, with our ideas of _time_, (or mere succession), to
+measure that of eternity, which never succeeded any thing, and which
+will never be succeeded? Are we thus to measure eternity, that boundless
+thought, with those physical notions of ours which necessarily limit
+both space and time? and, because we see not the beginning of created
+things, Are we to conclude that those things which we see have always
+been, or been without a cause? Our author would thus, inadvertently
+indeed, lead himself into that gulf of irreligion and absurdity into
+which, he alleges, I have _boldly plunged_.
+
+In examining this present earth, we find that it must have had its
+origin at the bottom of the sea, although our author seems willing to
+deny that proposition. Farther, in examining the internal construction
+of this stratified and sea-born mass, we find that it had been composed
+of the moved materials of a former earth; and, from the most accurate
+and extensive examination of those materials, which in many places are
+indeed much disguised, we are led necessarily to conclude, that there
+had been a world existing, and containing an animal, a vegetable, and a
+mineral system. But, in thus tracing back the natural operations which
+have succeeded each other, and mark to us the course of time past, we
+come to a period in which we cannot see any farther. This, however,
+is not the beginning of those operations which proceed in time and
+according to the wise economy of this world; nor is it the establishing
+of that, which, in the course of time, had no beginning; it is only the
+limit of our retrospective view of those operations which have come to
+pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme intelligence.
+
+My principal anxiety was to show how the constitution of this world
+had been wisely contrived; and this I endeavoured to do, not from
+supposition or conjecture, but from its answering so effectually the end
+of its intention, viz. the preserving of animal life, which we cannot
+doubt of being its purpose. Here then is a world that is not eternal,
+but which has been the effect of wisdom or design.
+
+With regard again to the prospective view of the creation, How are we to
+see the end of that wise system of things which so properly fulfils the
+benevolent intention of its maker,--in giving sustenance to the animal
+part, and information to intellectual beings, who, in these works of
+nature, read what much concerns their peace of mind,--their intellectual
+happiness? What then does our author mean, in condemning that
+comprehensive view which I have endeavoured to take of nature? Would he
+deny that there is to be perceived wisdom in the system of this world,
+or that a philosopher, who looks into the operations of nature, may not
+plainly read the power and wisdom of the Creator, without recoiling, as
+he says, from the abyss? The abyss, from which a man of science should
+recoil, is that of ignorance and error.
+
+I have thus shown, that, from not perceiving the wise disposition of
+things upon the surface of this earth for the preservation of vegetable
+bodies, our author has been led to deny the necessary waste of the
+present earth, and the consequent preparation of materials for the
+construction of another; I have also shown, that he denies the origin
+which I had attributed to the stratified parts of this earth, as having
+been the collection of moving materials from a former earth; and now
+I am come to consider the professed purpose of this paper, viz. the
+examination of solid stony substances which we find in those strata
+of our earth, as well as in more irregular masses. Here, no doubt, my
+theory would have been attacked with greater success, had our author
+succeeded in pointing out its error with regard to the original
+composition of those indurated bodies, to which I ascribe fusion as the
+cause of their solidity. For, if we should, according to our author's
+proposition, consider those consolidated bodies as having been
+originally formed in that solid state, here the door might be shut
+against any farther investigation;--But to what purpose?--Surely not to
+refute my theory, but to explode every physical inquiry farther on the
+subject, and thus to lead us back into the science of darkness and of
+scepticism. But let us proceed to see our author's sentiments on this
+subject.
+
+As I had proved from matter of fact, or the actual appearances of
+nature, that all the strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
+of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials which either come from
+the decaying land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
+that I should consider in what manner those spongy or porous bodies of
+loose materials, gathered together at the bottom of the sea, could have
+acquired that consolidated state in which we find them, now that they
+are brought up to our examination. Upon this occasion, our author says,
+"The particles which now form the solid parts of the globe need not be
+supposed to have originally been either spongy or porous, the interior
+parts at the depth of a few miles might have been originally, as at
+present, a solid mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition, we
+may then save ourselves the trouble of considering either how the strata
+of the earth have been formed or consolidated; for, they might have been
+so originally. But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen a piece of
+Derbyshire marble, or any other shell limestone, make that supposition?
+Here are, to the satisfaction of every body of common understanding who
+looks at them, bodies which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
+have evidently been formed at the bottom of the sea, and therefore which
+were not originally a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true, wrote a book
+to prove that those appearances were nothing but a _lusus naturae_; and,
+I suppose he meant, with our author, that those strata had been also
+originally, as at present, a solid mass.
+
+With regard to the consolidation of strata, that cardinal point for
+discussion, our author gives the following answer: "Abstracting from his
+own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very easy to satisfy our author on this
+head; the concreting and consolidating power in most cases arises from
+the mutual attraction of the component particles of stones to each
+other." This is an answer with regard to the _concreting power_, a
+subject about which we certainly are not here inquiring. Our author,
+indeed, has mentioned a _consolidating power_; but that is an improper
+expression; we are here inquiring, How the interstices, between the
+collected materials of strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, have
+been filled with a hard substance, instead of the fluid water which had
+originally occupied those spaces. Our author then continues; "If these
+particles leave any interstices, these are filled with water, which no
+ways obstructs their solidity when the points of contact are numerous;
+hence the decrepitation of many species of stones when heated."
+
+If I understand our author's argument, the particles of stone are, by
+their mutual attractions, to leave those hard and solid bodies which
+compose the strata, that is to say, those hard bodies are to dissolve
+themselves; but, To what purpose? This must be to fill up the
+interstices, which we must suppose occupied by the water. In that case,
+we should find the original interstices filled with the substances which
+had composed the strata, and we should find the water translated into
+the places of those bodies; here would be properly a transmutation, but
+no consolidation of the strata, such as we are here to look for, and
+such as we actually find among those strata. It may be very easy for
+our author to form those explanations of natural phenomena; it costs
+no tedious observation of facts, which are to be gathered with labour,
+patience, and attention; he has but to look into his own fancy, as
+philosophers did in former times, when they saw the abhorrence of a
+vacuum and explained the pump. It is thus that we are here told the
+consolidation of strata _arises from the mutual attraction of the
+component particles of stones to each other_; the power, by which the
+particles of solid stony bodies retain their places in relation to each
+other, and resist separation from the mass, may, no doubt, be properly
+enough termed their mutual attractions; but we are not here inquiring
+after that power; we are to investigate the power by which the particles
+of hard and stony bodies had been separated, contrary to their mutual
+attractions, in order to form new concretions, by being again brought
+within the spheres of action in which their mutual attractions might
+take place, and make them one solid body. Now, to say that this is by
+their mutual attraction, is either to misunderstand the proper question,
+or to give a most preposterous answer.
+
+It is not every one who is fit to reason with regard to abstract general
+propositions; I will now, therefore, state a particular case, in
+illustration of that proposition which has been here so improperly
+answered. The strata of Derbyshire marbles were originally immense
+collections at the bottom of the sea, of calcareous bodies consisting
+almost wholly of various fragments of the _entrochi_; and they were then
+covered with an indefinite number of other strata under which these
+_entrochi_ must have been buried. In this original state of those
+strata, I suppose the interstices between the fragments of the coralline
+bodies to have been left full of sea-water; at present we find those
+interstices completely filled with a most perfectly solid body of
+marble; and the question is, whether that consolidating operation
+has been the work of water and solution, by our naturalist's termed
+infiltration; or if it has been performed, as I have maintained, by the
+softening power or heat, or introduction of matter in the fluid state
+of fusion. Our author does not propose any other method for the
+consolidation of those loose and incoherent bodies, but he speaks of the
+_mutual attraction of the component particles of stone to each other_;
+Will that fill the interstices between the coralline bodies with solid
+marble, as well as consolidate the coralline bodies themselves? or, if
+it should, How are those interstices to be thus filled with a substance
+perfectly different from the deposited bodies, which is also frequently
+the case? But, how reason with a person who, with this consolidation of
+strata, confounds the well known operation by which the mortar, made
+with caustic lime and sand, becomes a hard body! One would imagine
+that he were writing to people of the last age, and not to chemical
+philosophers who know so well how that mortar is concreted.
+
+To my argument, That these porous strata are found _consolidated with
+every different species of mineral substance_, our author makes the
+following observation: "Here the difficulties to the supposition of an
+aqueous solution are placed in the strongest light; yet it must be owned
+that they partly arise from the author's own gratuitous supposition,
+that strata existed at the bottom of the sea previous to their
+consolidation;"--gratuitous supposition!--so far from being a
+supposition of any kind, it is a self evident proposition; the terms
+necessarily imply the conclusion. I beg the readers attention for a
+moment to this part of our author's animadversion, before proceeding to
+consider the whole; for, this is a point so essential in my theory,
+that if it be a gratuitous supposition, as is here asserted, it would
+certainly be in vain to attempt to build upon it the system of a world.
+
+That strata may exist, whether at the bottom of the sea, or any other
+where, without being consolidated, will hardly be disputed; for, they
+are actually found consolidated in every different degree. But, when
+strata are found consolidated, at what time is it that we are to suppose
+this event to have taken place, or this accident to have happened to
+them?--Strata are formed at the bottom of water, by the subsidence or
+successive deposits of certain materials; it could not therefore
+be during their formation that such strata had been consolidated;
+consequently, we must necessarily _conclude_, without any degree of
+_supposition_, that _strata had existed at the bottom of the sea
+previous to their consolidation_, unless our author can show how they
+may have been consolidated previous to their existing.
+
+This then is what our author has termed a gratuitous supposition of
+mine, and which, he adds, "is a circumstance which will not be allowed
+by the patrons of the aqueous origin of stony substances, as we have
+already seen."--I am perfectly at a loss to guess at what is here
+alluded to _by having been already seen_, unless it be that which I have
+already quoted, concerning things which have been never seen, that
+is, _those interior parts of the earth which were originally a solid
+mass_.--I have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;--a reasoning
+which is not founded upon any principle, which holds up nothing
+but chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing that is
+intelligible;--but, others, perhaps, may see this dissertation of our
+author's in a different light; therefore, it is my duty to analyse the
+argument, however insignificant it may seem to me.
+
+I have minutely examined all the stratified bodies which I have been
+able, during a lifetime, to procure, both in this country of Britain,
+and from all the quarters of the globe; and the result of my inquiry has
+been to conclude, that there is nothing among them in an original state,
+as the reader will see in the preceding chapter. With regard again to
+the masses which are not stratified, I have also given proof that they
+are not in their original state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine,
+and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction, I hope, upon that
+head, in the course of this work. I have therefore concluded, That there
+is nothing to be found in an original state, so far as we see, in the
+construction of this earth. But, our author answers, That the interior
+parts _might have been in an original state of solidity_.--So might
+they have been upon the surface of the earth, or on the summits of our
+mountains; but, we are not inquiring What they _might have been_, but
+What they truly _are_. It is from this actual state in which the solid
+parts of the earth are found, that I have endeavoured to trace back the
+different states in which they must have been; and, by generalising
+facts, I have formed a theory of the earth. If this be a wrong principle
+or manner of proceeding in a physical investigation, or if, proceeding
+upon that principle, I have made the induction by reasoning improperly
+on any occasion, let this be corrected by philosophers, who may reason
+more accurately upon the subject. But to oppose a physical investigation
+with this proposition, _that things might have been otherwise_, is to
+proceed upon a very different principle,--a principle which, instead of
+tending to bring light out of darkness, is only calculated to extinguish
+that light which we may have acquired.
+
+I shall afterwards have occasion to examine how far the philosophers,
+who attribute to aqueous solution the origin of stony substances, have
+proceeded in the same inductive manner of reasoning from effect to
+cause, as they ought to do in physical subjects, and not by feigning
+causes, or following a false analogy; in the mean time, I am to answer
+the objections which have been made to the theory of the earth.
+
+In opposition to the theory of consolidating bodies by fusion, our
+author has taken great pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
+for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find the means to make it
+burn had I those materials. Had our author read attentively my theory he
+would have observed, that I give myself little or no trouble about that
+fire, or take no charge with regard to the procuring of that power, as I
+have not founded my theory on the _supposition_ of subterraneous
+fire, however that fire properly follows as a conclusion from those
+appearances on which the theory is founded. My theory is founded upon
+the general appearances of mineral bodies, and upon this, that mineral
+bodies must necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I do not pretend
+to prove, demonstratively, that they had been even hot, however that
+conclusion also naturally follows from their having been in fusion. It
+is sufficient for me to demonstrate, That those bodies must have been,
+more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity, without any species
+of solution. I do not say that this fluidity had been without heat;
+but, if that had been the case, it would have answered equally well the
+purpose of my theory, so far as this went to explain the consolidation
+of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still repeat, must have been
+by simple fluidity, and not by any species of solution, or any other
+solvent than that universal one which permeates all bodies, and which
+makes them fluid.
+
+Our author has justly remarked the difficulty of fire burning below the
+earth and sea. It is not my purpose here to endeavour to remove those
+difficulties, which perhaps only exist in those suppositions which are
+made on this occasion; my purpose is to show, that he had no immediate
+concern with that question, in discussing the subject of the
+consolidation which we actually find in the strata of the earth, unless
+my theory, with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, had
+proceeded upon the supposition of a subterraneous fire. It is surely one
+thing to employ fire and heat to melt mineral bodies, in supposing this
+to be the cause of their consolidation, and another thing to acknowledge
+fire or heat as having been exerted upon mineral bodies, when it is
+clearly proved, from actual appearances, that those bodies had been in
+a melted state, or that of simple fluidity. Here are distinctions which
+would be thrown away upon the vulgar; but, to a man of science, who
+analyses arguments, and reasons strictly from effect to cause, this is,
+I believe, the proper way of coming at the truth. If the patrons of
+the aqueous origin of stony substances can give us any manner of
+scientifical, _i.e._ intelligible investigation of that process, it
+shall be attended to with the most rigid impartiality, even by a patron
+of the igneous origin of those substances, as he wishes above all things
+to distinguish, in the mineral operations, those which, on the one hand,
+had been the effect of water, from those which, on the other hand, had
+been the immediate effect of fire or fusion;--this has been my greatest
+study. But, while mineralists or geologists give us only mere opinions,
+What is science profited by such inconsequential observations, as are
+founded upon nothing but our vulgar notions? Is the figure of the
+earth, _e.g._ to be doubted, because, according to the common notion of
+mankind, the existence of an antipod is certainly to be denied?
+
+I am not avoiding to meet that question with regard to the providing
+of materials for such a mineral fire as may be required; no question I
+desire more to be asked to resolve; but it must not be in the manner
+that our author has put that question. He has included this supposed
+difficulty among a string of other arguments by which he would refute my
+theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony substances, as if I
+had made that fire a necessary condition or a principle in forming my
+theory of consolidation. Now, it is precisely the reverse; and this is
+what I beg that mineral philosophers will particularly attend to, and
+not give themselves so much unnecessary trouble, and me so disagreeable
+a talk. I have proved that those stony substances have been in the fluid
+state of fusion; and from this, I have inferred the former existence of
+an internal heat, a subterraneous fire, or a certain cause of fusion by
+whatever name it shall be called, and by whatever means it shall have
+been procured. The nature of that operation by which strata had been
+consolidated, like that by which they had been composed, must, according
+to my philosophy, be decided by ocular demonstration; from examining the
+internal evidence which is to be found in those bodies as we see them in
+the earth; because the consolidating operation is not performed in our
+sight, no more than their stratification which our author has also
+denied to have been made, as I have said, by the deposits of materials
+at the bottom of the sea. Now, with regard to the means of procuring
+subterraneous fire, if the consolidating operation shall be thus decided
+to have been that of fusion, as I think I have fully shown, and for
+which I have as many witnesses, perhaps as there are mineral bodies,
+then our author's question, (how I am to procure a fire) in the way that
+he has put it, as an argument against the fusion, would be at least
+useless; for, though I should here confess my ignorance with regard to
+the means of procuring fire, the evidence of the melting operation, or
+former fluidity of those mineral bodies, would not be thereby in the
+least diminished. If again no such evidence for the fusion of those
+bodies shall appear, and it be concluded that they had been consolidated
+by the action of water alone, as our author seems inclined to maintain,
+he would have no occasion to start difficulties about the procuring of
+fire, in order to refute a theory which then would fall of itself as
+having no foundation.
+
+But in order to see this author's notion of the theory which he is here
+examining, it may be proper to give a specimen of his reasoning upon
+this subject of heat. He says, "That my supposition of heat necessary
+for consolidating strata is _gratuitous_, not only because it is
+unnecessary, as we have already shown, but also because it is
+inconsistent with our author's own theory." Let us now consider those
+two propositions. _First_, it is unnecessary, _as we have already
+shown_;--I have already taken particular notice of what we have been
+shown on this occasion, viz. That the earth at a certain depth _may
+have been originally in a solid state_; and, that, where it is to be
+consolidated, this is done by the _mutual attraction of the stony
+particles_. Here is all that we have been shown to make subterraneous
+heat, for the consolidation of strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly
+submit, if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral heat is a
+gratuitous supposition.
+
+Secondly, "_it is inconsistent with our author's own theory._" Here
+I would beg the readers attention to the reasoning employed on
+this occasion. He says, "according to him these strata, which were
+consolidated by heat, were composed of materials gradually worn from a
+preceding continent, casually and successively deposited in the sea;
+Where then will he find, and how will he suppose, to have been formed
+those enormous masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen, necessary to produce
+that immense heat necessary for the fusion of those vast mountains of
+stone now existing? All the coal, sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
+not form the 100,000 part of the materials deposited within one quarter
+of a mile under the surface of the earth; if, therefore, they were, as
+his hypothesis demands, carried off and mixed with the other materials,
+and not formed in vast and separate collections, they could never
+occasion, by their combustion, a heat capable of producing the smallest
+effect, much less those gigantic effects which he requires."
+
+Here is a comparative estimate formed between two things which have not
+any necessary relation; these are, the quantity of combustible materials
+found in the earth, on the one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
+necessary for hardening and consolidating strata, on the other. If this
+earth has been consolidated by the burning of combustible materials,
+there must have been a superfluity, so far as there is a certain
+quantity of these actually found unconsumed in the strata of the earth.
+Our author's conclusion is the very opposite; let us then see how he
+is to form his argument, by which he proves that the supposition of
+subterraneous heat for hardening bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary,
+as being inconsistent with my theory.
+
+According to my theory, the strata of this earth are composed of the
+materials which came from a former earth; particularly these combustible
+strata that contain plants which must have grown upon the land. Let
+us then suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with its combustible
+materials from this source, the vegetable bodies growing upon the
+surface of the land. Here is a source provided for the supplying of
+mineral fire, a source which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless
+we are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and the necessary
+ingredients; such as the matter of light, carbonic matter, and the
+hydrogenous principle. But it is not upon any deficiency of this kind
+that our author founds his estimate; it is upon the superfluity of
+combustible materials which is actually found in this earth, after it
+had been properly consolidated and raised above the surface of the sea.
+This is a method of reasoning calculated to convince only those who do
+not understand it; it is as if we should conclude that a person had died
+of want, because he had left provision behind him. Our author certainly
+means to employ nothing but the combustible minerals of the present
+earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire which is to concoct a future
+earth; in that case, I will allow that his provision is deficient; but
+this is not my theory.
+
+I am not here to enter into any argument concerning subterraneous
+fire; the reader will find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
+concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed previous to, and ever
+since, the formation of this earth,--that it exists in all its vigour
+at this day,--that there is, in the constitution of this earth, a
+superfluity of subterranean heat,--and that there is wisely provided a
+proper remedy against any destructive effect to the system, that might
+arise from that superabundant provision of this necessary agent. Had our
+author attended to the ocular proof that we have of the actual existence
+of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations which I have
+given of the effects of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must have
+seen that those arguments of his, with regard to the difficulty or
+impossibility of procuring that fire, can only show the error of his
+reasoning. I am far from supposing that my theory may be free from
+inconsistency or error; I am only maintaining that, in all his confident
+assertions, this author has not hitherto pointed any of these out.
+
+So far I have answered our author's objections as to consolidation, and
+I have given a specimen of his reasoning upon that subject; but with
+regard to my Theory of the Earth, although simple fluidity, without
+heat, would have answered the purpose of consolidating strata that had
+been formed at the bottom of the sea, it was necessary to provide a
+power for raising those consolidated strata from that low place to the
+summits of the continents; now, in supposing heat to be the cause of
+that fluidity which had been employed in the consolidation of those
+submarine masses, we find a power capable of erecting continents, and
+the only power, so far as I see, which natural philosophy can employ
+for that purpose. Thus I was led, from the consolidation of strata, to
+understand the nature of the elevating power, and, from the nature of
+that power, again to understand the cause of fluidity by which the rocks
+and stones of this earth had been consolidated.
+
+Having thus, without employing the evidence of any fire or _burning_,
+been necessarily led to conclude an extreme degree of heat exerted in
+the mineral regions, I next inquire how far there are any appearances
+from whence we might conclude whether that active subterraneous power
+still subsists, and what may be the nature of that power. When first I
+conceived my theory, naturalists were far from suspecting that basaltic
+rocks were of volcanic origin; I could not then have employed an
+argument from these rocks as I may do now, for proving that the fires,
+which we see almost daily issuing with such force from volcanos, are a
+continuation of that active cause which has so evidently been exerted
+in all times, and in all places, so far as have been examined of this
+earth.
+
+With regard to the degree of heat in that subterraneous fire, our
+author, after proving that combustible materials would not burn in the
+mineral regions, then says, that suppose they were to burn, this would
+be "incapable of forming a heat even equal to that of our common
+furnaces, as Mr Dolomieu has clearly shown to be the case with respect
+to volcanic heat." The place to which he alludes, I believe to be that
+which I have quoted from the Journal de Physique (Part I. page 139) to
+which I here beg leave to refer the reader. After what I have already
+said, this subject will appear to be of little concern to me; but, it
+must be considered, that my object, in these answers, is not so much to
+justify the theory which I have given, as it is to remove that prejudice
+which, to those who are not master of chemical and mineral subjects,
+will naturally arise from the opinion or authority of a scientific man,
+and a chemist; therefore, I think it my business to show how much he
+has misconceived the matter which he treats of, and how much he
+misunderstands the subject of my theory.
+
+Mr Dolomieu alleges that the volcanic fire operates in the melting of
+bodies, not by the intensity of its heat, which is the means employed by
+us in our operations, but in the long continuance of its action. But in
+that proposition, this philosopher is merely giving us his opinion; and,
+this opinion our author mistakes, I suppose, for the fact on which that
+opinion had been (perhaps reasonably) founded. The reader will see, in
+the place quoted, or in the _avant-propos_ to his _Memoire sur les Iles
+Ponces_, the fact to be this; That the Chevalier Dolomieu finds those
+bodies which we either cannot melt in our fires, or which we cannot melt
+without changing them by calcination and vitrification, he finds, I say,
+these substances had actually been melted with his lavas; he also finds
+those substances, which are necessarily dissipated in our fires, to have
+been retained in those melted mineral substances. Had our author quoted
+the text, instead of giving us his own interpretation, he could not have
+offered a stronger confirmation of my theory; which certainly is not
+concerned with the particular intensity of volcanic fire, and far less
+with what may be the opinion of any naturalist with regard to that
+intensity, but only with the efficacy of that volcanic heat for the
+melting of mineral substances. Now this efficacy of volcanic fire, so
+far as we are to found upon the authority given on this occasion, is
+clearly confirmed by the observations of a most intelligent mineralist,
+and one who is actually a patron of the opposite theory to that which I
+have given. This being the state of the case, Must I not conclude, that
+our author has misunderstood the subject, and that he has been led to
+give a mutilated opinion of Mr Dolomieu, in order to refute my theory,
+when either the entire opinion, or the facts on which the opinion had
+been founded, would have confirmed it?
+
+I have thus endeavoured to put in its true light a species of reasoning,
+which, while it assumes the air and form of that inductive train of
+thought employed by men of science for the investigation of nature, is
+only fit to mislead the unwary, and, when closely examined, will appear
+to be inconsequential or unfounded. How mortifying then to find, that
+one may be employed almost a lifetime in generalising the phenomena of
+nature, or in gathering an infinity of evidence for the forming of a
+theory, and that the consequence of this shall only be to give offence,
+and to receive reproach from those who see not things in the same
+light!--While man has to learn, mankind must have different opinions.
+It is the prerogative of man to form opinions; these indeed are often,
+commonly I may say, erroneous; but they are commonly corrected, and it
+is thus that truth in general is made to appear.
+
+I wrote a general Theory for the inspection of philosophers, who
+doubtless will point out its errors; but this requires the study of
+nature, which is not the work of a day; and, in this political age, the
+study of nature seems to be but little pursued by our philosophers. In
+the mean time, there are, on the one hand, sceptical philosophers, who
+think there is nothing certain in nature, because there is misconception
+in the mind of man; on the other hand, there are many credulous
+amateurs, who go to nature to be entertained as we go to see a
+pantomime: But there are also superficial reasoning men, who think
+themselves qualified to write on subjects on which they may have read
+in books,--subjects which they may have seen in cabinets, and which,
+perhaps, they have just learned to name; without truly knowing what they
+see, they think they know those regions of the earth which never can be
+seen; and they judge of the great operations of the mineral kingdom,
+from having kindled a fire, and looked into the bottom of a little
+crucible.
+
+In the Theory of the Earth which was published, I was anxious to warn
+the reader against the notion that subterraneous heat and fusion could
+be compared with that which we induce by our chemical operations
+on mineral substances here upon the surface of the earth; yet,
+notwithstanding all the precaution I had taken, our author has bestowed
+four quarto pages in proving to me, that our fires have an effect upon
+mineral substances different from that of the subterraneous power which
+I would employ.
+
+He then sets about combining metals with sulphur in the moist way, as if
+that were any more to his purpose than is the making of a stalactite for
+the explanation of marble. Silver and lead may be sulphurated, as he
+says, with hepatic gas; but, Has the sulphurated solid ores of those
+metals, and that of iron, been formed in the moist way, as in some
+measure they may be by the fusion of our fires? But, even suppose that
+this were the case, Could that explain a thousand other appearances
+which are inconsistent with the operation of water? We see aerated lead
+dissolved in the excavations of our mines, and again concreted by the
+separation of the evaporated solvent, in like manner as stalactical
+concretions are made of calcareous earth; but, so far from explaining
+mineral appearances, as having had their concretions formed in the same
+manner, here is the most convincing argument against it; for, among the
+infinite variety of mineral productions which we find in nature, Why
+does no other example of aqueous concretion ever occur upon the surface
+of the earth except those which we understand so well, and which we
+therefore know cannot be performed in the bodies of strata not exposed
+to the evaporation of the solvent, a circumstance which is necessary.
+
+I have given a very remarkable example of mineral fusion, in reguline
+manganese, (as the reader will see in page 68.) It is not that this
+example is more to the purpose of my theory than what may be found in
+every species of stone; but this example speaks so immediately to
+the common sense of mankind, (who are often convinced by a general
+resemblance of things, when they may not see the force of demonstration
+from an abstract principle) that I thought it deserved a place on that
+account, as well as being a curious example, But more particularly to my
+antagonist, who has been pleased (very improperly indeed) to try some
+part of my theory in the fire, here is an example which should have
+been absolutely in point, and without any manner of exception:--Has he
+acknowledged this?--No; he has, on the contrary, endeavoured to set this
+very example aside.
+
+On this occasion, he says, "Manganese has been found in a reguline state
+by M. de la Peyrouse, and in small grains, as when produced by fire.
+True; but it was mixed with a large quantity of iron, which is often,
+found in that form without any suspicion of fusion. A fire capable of
+melting quartz might surely produce it in larger masses." We have here
+a kind of two arguments, for removing the effect of this example; and I
+shall consider them separately.
+
+The first of these is, the not being suspected of having been in fusion;
+now, if this were to be admitted as an argument against the igneous
+origin of stony substances, it might have superseded the adducing of any
+other, for it is applicable perhaps to every mineral; but we must here
+examine the case more minutely.
+
+This argument, of the manganese being in a mine of iron, if I understand
+it rightly, amounts to this, that, as iron ore is not suspected of
+having been melted, therefore, we should doubt the manganese having been
+so. If this be our author's meaning, it is not the fair conclusion which
+the case admits of; for, so far as the manganese appears evidently to
+have been in a melted state, the iron ore should be _suspected_ of
+having been also in fusion, were there no other evidence of that fact.
+In science, however, it is not suspicion that should be employed in
+physical investigation; the question at present is; If the phenomena of
+the case correspond to the conclusion which the intelligent mineralist,
+who examined them, has formed? and, to this question, our author gives
+no direct answer. He says, _iron is often found in that form without any
+suspicion of fusion_. This is what I am now to answer.
+
+The form in which the manganese appears is one of the strongest proofs
+of those masses having been in fusion; and, if iron should ever be found
+in that form, it must give the same proof of mineral fusion as this
+example of manganese; let us then see the nature of this evidence. The
+form of the manganese is that of a fluid body collecting itself into a
+spherical figure by the cohesion or attraction of its particles, so far
+as may be admitted by other circumstances; but, being here refilled by
+the solid part on which it rests, this spherical body is flattened by
+the gravitation of its substance. Now here is a regular form, which
+demonstrates the masses to have been in the state of fusion; for, there
+is no other way in which that form of those reguline masses could have
+been induced.
+
+There now remains to be considered what our author has observed
+respecting the intensity of the fire and size of the masses. "A
+fire capable of melting quartz might surely produce it (meaning the
+manganese) in larger masses." M. de la Peyrouse says, that those masses
+were in all respects as if formed by art, only much larger, as the
+powers of nature exceed those of our laboratories. What then is it that
+is here meant to be disputed? We are comparing the operation of nature
+and that of art, and these are to be judged of by the product which we
+examine; but the quantity, in this case, or the size of the masses,
+makes no part of the evidence, and therefore is here most improperly
+mentioned by our author. With regard again to the nature of the fire by
+which the fusion had been produced, he is much mistaken if he imagines
+that the reduction of the reguline or metallic manganese depends upon
+the intensity of the heat; it depends upon circumstances proper for the
+separation of the oxygenating principle from the calx, in like manner as
+the calcination of calcareous spar must depend upon circumstances proper
+for allowing the separation of the carbonic acid or fixed air.
+
+But do not let us lose sight of our proper subject, by examining things
+foreign or not so immediately to the purpose. We are only inquiring if
+those flattened spheres of native manganese had been formed by water, or
+if it were by fusion; for, our author agrees that there is no other way.
+Why then does he endeavour to evade giving a direct answer, and fly away
+to consider the quantity of the product, as if that had any thing to do
+with, the question, or as if that quantity were not sufficient, neither
+of which is the case. In short, our author's whole observation, on this
+occasion, looks as if he were willing to destroy, by insinuation, the
+force of an argument which proves the theory of mineral fusion; and that
+he wishes to render doubtful, by a species of sophistry, what in fair
+reasoning he cannot deny.
+
+Our author has written upon the subject of phlogiston; one would suppose
+that he should be well acquainted with inflammable bodies at least; let
+us see then what he has to observe upon that subject. He quotes from
+my Theory, that spar, quartz, pyrites, crystallised upon or near each
+other, and adhering to coal, or mixed with bitumen, etc. are found;
+circumstances that cannot be explained in the hypothesis of solution
+in the moist way.--He then answers;--"Not exactly, nor with certainty;
+which is not wonderful: But they are still less explicable in the
+hypothesis of dry solution, as must be apparent from what has been
+already said. How coal, an infusible substance, could be spread into
+strata by mere heat, is to me incomprehensible."--It is only upon the
+last sentence that I am here to remark: This, I believe, will be a
+sufficient specimen of our author's understanding, with regard at least
+to my Theory which he is here examining.
+
+The reader will see what I have said upon the subject of coal, by
+turning back to the second section of the preceding chapter. I had given
+almost three quarto pages upon that subject, endeavouring to explain how
+all the different degrees of _infusibility_ were produced, by means of
+heat and distillation, in strata which had been originally more or less
+oily, bituminous, and _fusible_; and now our author says, that it is
+incomprehensible to him, how coal, _an infusible substance_, could be
+spread into strata by mere heat.--So it truly may, either to him or to
+any other person; but, it appears to me almost as incomprehensible, how
+a person of common understanding should read my Dissertation, and impute
+to it a thing so contrary to its doctrine.
+
+Nothing can better illustrate the misconceived view that our author
+seems to have taken of the two opposite theories, (_i. e_. of
+consolidation by means of heat, and by means of water alone,) than
+his observation upon the case of mineral alkali. To that irrefragable
+argument (which Dr Black suggested) in proof of this substance having
+been in a state of fusion in the mineral regions, our author makes the
+following reply; "What then will our author say of the vast masses
+of this salt which are found with their full quantity of water of
+crystallization?"--There is in this proposition, insignificant as it may
+seem, a confusion of ideas, which it certainly cannot be thought worth
+while to investigate; but, so far as the doctrine of the aqueous theory
+may be considered as here concerned, it will be proper that I should
+give some answer to the question so triumphantly put to me.
+
+Our author is in a mistake in supposing that Dr Black had written any
+thing upon the subject; he had only suggested the argument of this
+example of mineral alkali to me, as I have mentioned; and, the use I
+made of that argument was to corroborate the example I had given of sal
+gem. If, therefore, our author does not deny the inference from the
+state of that mineral alkali, his observation upon it must refer to
+something which this other example of his is to prove on the opposite
+side, or to support the aqueous instead of the igneous theory; and, this
+is a subject which I am always willing to examine in the most impartial
+manner, having a desire to know the true effect of aqueous solution in
+the consolidation of mineral bodies, and having no objection to allow it
+any thing which it can possibly produce, although denying that it can do
+every thing, as many mineralists seem to think.
+
+The question, with regard to this example of our author's of a mineral
+alkali with its water of crystallization, must be this, Whether those
+saline bodies had been concreted by the evaporation of the aqueous
+solvent with which they had been introduced, or by the congelation of
+that saline substance from a fluid state of fusion; for, surely, we are
+not to suppose those bodies to have been created in the place and state
+in which we find them. With regard to the evaporation or separation
+of the aqueous solvent, this may be easily conceived according to the
+igneous theory; but, the aqueous theory has not any means for the
+producing of that effect in the mineral regions, which is the only place
+we are here concerned with. Therefore, this example of a concreted body
+of salt, whatever it may prove in other respects, can neither diminish
+the evidence of my Theory with regard to the igneous origin of stony
+substances, nor can it contribute to support the opposite supposition of
+an aqueous origin to them.
+
+But to show how little reason our author had for exulting in that
+question which he so confidently proposed in order to defeat my
+argument, let us consider this matter a little farther. I will for a
+moment allow the aqueous theory to have the means for separating
+the water from the saline solution, and thus to concrete the saline
+substance in the bowels of the earth; this concretion then is to be
+examined with a view to investigate the last state of this body, which
+is to inform us with regard to those mineral operations. But, our author
+has not mentioned whether those masses appear to have been crystallised
+from the aqueous solution, or if they appear to have been congealed from
+the melted state of their _aqueous fusion_.--Has he ever thought of
+this? Now this is so material a point in the view with which that
+example has been held out to us, that, without showing that this salt
+had crystallised from the solution, he has no right to employ it as an
+example; and if, on the other hand, it should appear to have simply
+congealed from the state of aqueous fusion, then, instead of answering
+the purpose for which our author gave it, it would refute his
+supposition, as certainly as the example which I have given.
+
+So far I have reasoned upon the supposition of this alkali, with its
+water of crystallization, being truly a mineral concretion; but, I see
+no authority for such a supposition: It certainly may be otherwise;
+and, in that case, our author would have no more right to give it as an
+example in opposition to Dr Black's argument, than he would have to give
+the crystallization of sea-salt, on Turk's Island, in opposition to the
+example which I had given, of the salt rock, at Northwych in Cheshire,
+having been in the state of fusion.
+
+It certainly was incumbent on our author to have informed us, if those
+masses of salt were found in, what may be properly termed, their mineral
+state; or, if the state in which they are found at present had been
+produced by the influences of the atmosphere, transforming that saline
+substance from its mineral state, as happens upon so many other
+occasions; I am inclined to suspect that this last is truly the case.
+It may be thought illiberal in me to suppose a natural philosopher thus
+holding out an example that could only serve to lead us into error, or
+to mislead our judgment with regard to those two theories which is the
+subject of consideration. This certainly would be the case, almost
+on any other occasion; but, when I find every argument and example,
+employed in this dissertation, to be either unfounded or misjudged,
+Whether am I to conclude our author, on this occasion, to be consistent
+with himself, or not?
+
+I have but one article more to observe upon. I had given, as I thought,
+a kind of demonstration, from the internal evidence of the stone, that
+granite had been in the fluid state of fusion, and had concreted by
+crystallization and congelation from that melted state. This no doubt
+must be a stumbling block to those who maintain that granite mountains
+are the primitive parts of our earth; and who, like our author, suppose
+that "things may have been originally, as at present, in a solid state."
+It must also be a great, if not an invincible obstacle in the way of the
+aqueous theory, which thus endeavours to explain those granite veins
+that are found traversing strata, and therefore necessarily of a
+posterior formation.
+
+To remove that obstacle in the way of the aqueous theory, or to carry
+that theory over the obstacle which he cannot remove, our author
+undertakes to refute my theory with regard to the igneous origin of
+stony substances, by giving an example of granite formed upon the
+surface of the earth by means of water, or in what is called the
+moist way; and he closes his Dissertation with this example as an
+_experimentum crucis_. It is therefore necessary that I take this
+demonstration of our author into particular consideration; for, surely,
+independent of our controversy, which is perhaps of little moment, here
+is the most interesting experiment, as it is announced, that mineralogy
+could be enriched with.
+
+"To close this controversy," says our author, "I shall only add,
+that granite, recently formed in the moist way, has been frequently
+found."--Of that remarkable event, however, he has selected only one
+example. This is to be found upon the Oder; and the authority upon which
+our author has given it, is that of Lasius Hartz.
+
+The formation of a granite stone, from granite sand, by means of water,
+is inconsistent with our chemical knowledge of those mineral substances
+which constitute that stone; it is repugnant to the phenomena which
+appear from the inspection of the natural bodies of this kind; and it
+is directly contrary to the universal experience in granite countries,
+where, instead of any thing concreting, every thing is going into
+decay, from the loose stones and sand of granite, to the solid rock and
+mountains which are always in a state of degradation. Therefore, to have
+any credit given to such a story, would require the most scientific
+evidence in its favour. Now, in order that others may judge whether this
+has been the case in this example, I will transcribe what our author has
+said upon the subject; and then I will give the view in which it appears
+to me.
+
+He says, "a mole having been constructed in the Oder in the year 1723,
+350 feet long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at bottom, and 54 at
+the top, its sides only were granite, without any other cement than
+moss; the middle space was entirely filled with granite sand. In a short
+time this concreted into a substance so compact as to be impenetrable by
+water."--Here is an example, according to our author, of _granite formed
+in the moist way_. But now, I must ask to see the evidence of that fact;
+for, from what our author has told us, I do not even see reason to
+conclude that there was the least concretion, or any stone formed at
+all. A body of sand will be _so compacted as to be impenetrable by
+water_, with the introduction of a very little mud, and without any
+degree of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot be made to pass
+through such a body without compacting it so; and this every body finds,
+to their cost, who have attempted to make a filter of that kind.
+
+But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our author that there had been
+a petrifaction in this case; and, before I admit this example of the
+formation of granite, I must ask what sort of a granite it was;--whether
+of two, three, or four ingredients; and, how these were disposed. If,
+again, it were not properly a granite, but a stone formed of granite
+sand, What is the cementing substance?--Is it quartz, felt-spar, mica,
+or schorl?--or, Was it calcareous? If our author knows any thing about
+these necessary questions, Why has he not informed us, as minutely as
+he has done with regard to the dimensions of the mole, with which we
+certainly are less concerned? If, again, he knows no more about the
+matter than what he has informed us of, he must have strangely imposed
+upon himself, to suppose that he was giving us an example of the
+_formation of granite in the moist way_, when he has only described an
+effectual way of retaining water, by means of sand and mud.
+
+
+
+CHAP. III.
+
+Of Physical Systems, and Geological Theories, in general.
+
+In the first chapter I have given a general theory of the earth,
+with such proofs as I thought were sufficient for the information of
+intelligent men, who might satisfy themselves by examining the facts on
+which the reasoning in that theory had been founded.
+
+In the second chapter, I have endeavoured to remove the objections which
+have been made to that theory, by a strenuous patron of the commonly
+received opinion of mineralogists and geologists,--an opinion which, if
+not diametrically opposite, differs essentially from mine. But now I am
+to examine nature more particularly, in order to compare those different
+opinions with the actual state of things, on which every physical theory
+must be founded. Therefore, the opinions of other geologists should be
+clearly stated, that so a fair comparison may be made of theories which
+are to represent the system of this earth.
+
+Now, if I am to compare that which I have given as a theory of the
+earth, with the theories given by others under that denomination, I
+find so little similarity, in the things to be compared, that no other
+judgment could hence be formed, perhaps, than that they had little or no
+resemblance. I see certain treatises named Theories of the Earth; but, I
+find not any thing that entitles them to be considered as such, unless
+it be their endeavouring to explain certain appearances which are
+observed in the earth. That a proper theory of the earth should explain
+all those appearances is true; but, it does not hold, conversely, that
+the explanation of an appearance should constitute a theory of the
+earth. So far as the theory of the earth shall be considered as the
+philosophy or physical knowledge of this world, that is to say, a
+general view of the means by which the end or purpose is attained,
+nothing can be properly esteemed such a theory unless it lead, in some
+degree, to the forming of that general view of things. But now, let us
+see what we have to examine in that respect.
+
+We have, first, Burnet's Theory of the Earth. This surely cannot be
+considered in any other light than as a dream, formed upon the poetic
+fiction of a golden age, and that of iron which had succeeded it; at the
+same time, there are certain appearances in the earth which would, in a
+partial view of things, seem to justify that imagination. In Telliamed,
+again, we have a very ingenious theory, with regard to the production of
+the earth above the surface of the sea, and of the origin of those
+land animals which now inhabit that earth. This is a theory which has
+something in it like a regular system, such as we might expect to find
+in nature; but, it is only a physical romance, and cannot be considered
+in a serious view, although apparently better founded than most of that
+which has been wrote upon the subject.
+
+We have then a theory of a very different kind; this is that of the
+Count de Buffon. Here is a theory, not founded on any regular system,
+but upon an irregularity of nature, or an accident supposed to have
+happened to the sun. But, are we to consider as a theory of the earth,
+an accident by which a planetary body had been made to increase the
+number of these in the solar system? The circumvolution of a planetary
+body (allowing it to have happened in that manner) cannot form the
+system of a world, such as our earth exhibits; and, in forming a theory
+of the earth, it is required to see the aptitude of every part of this
+complicated machine to fulfil the purpose of its intention, and not to
+suppose the wise system of this world to have arisen from, the cooling
+of a lump of melted matter which had belonged to another body. When
+we consider the power and wisdom that must have been exerted in the
+contriving, creating, and maintaining this living world which sustains
+such a variety of plants and animals, the revolution of a mass of dead
+matter according to the laws of projectiles, although in perfect wisdom,
+is but like a unite among an infinite series of ascending numbers.
+
+After the theory of that eloquent writer, founded on a mere accident, or
+rather the error of a comet which produced the beautiful system of this
+world, M. de Luc, in his Theory of the earth, has given us the history
+of a disaster which befell this well contrived world;--a disaster which
+caused the general deluge, and which, without a miracle, must have
+undone a system of living beings that are so well adapted to the present
+state of things. But, surely, general deluges form no part of the theory
+of the earth; for, the purpose of this earth is evidently to maintain
+vegetable and animal life, and not to destroy them.
+
+Besides these imaginary great operations in the natural history of this
+earth, we have also certain suppositions of geologists and mineralists
+with regard to the effect of water, for explaining to us the
+consolidation of the loose materials of which the strata of the earth
+had been composed, and also for producing every other appearance, or any
+which shall happen to occur in the examination of the earth, and require
+to be explained. That this is no exaggerated representation, and
+that this is all we have as a theory, in the suppositions of those
+geologists, will appear from the following state of the case.
+
+They suppose water the agent employed in forming the solid bodies of the
+earth, and in producing those crystallised bodies which appear in
+the mineral kingdom. That this is a mere supposition will appear by
+considering; first, that they do not know how this agent water is to
+operate in producing those effects; nor have they any direct proof
+of the fact which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy; and,
+secondly, that they cannot tell us where this operation is to be
+performed. They cannot say that it is in the earth above the level of
+the sea: for, the same appearances are found as deep as we can examine
+below that level; besides, we see that water has the opposite effect
+upon the surface of the earth, through which it percolates dissolving
+soluble substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in preparing soil
+for plants. If, again, it be below the level of the sea, that strata of
+the earth are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration of that
+water which falls from the heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
+whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that place, must have been always
+full of water, consequently cannot admit of that supposed infiltration.
+
+But allowing those suppositions to be true, there is nothing in them
+like a theory of the earth,--a theory that should bring the operations
+of the world into the regularity of ends and means, and, by generalizing
+these regular events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
+forming a design; they are only an attempt to show how certain things,
+which we see, have happened without any perceivable design, or without
+any farther design than this particular effect which we perceive. If we
+believe that there is almighty power, and supreme wisdom employed for
+sustaining that beautiful system of plants and animals which is so
+interesting to us, we must certainly conclude, that the earth, on which
+this system of living things depends, has been constructed on principles
+that are adequate to the end proposed, and procure it a perfection which
+it is our business to explore. Therefore, a proper system of the earth
+should lead us to see that wise contraction, by which this earth is made
+to answer the purpose of its intention and to preserve itself from every
+accident by which the design of this living world might be frustrated as
+this world is an active scene, or a material machine moving in all its
+parts, we must see how this machine is so contrived, as either to have
+those parts to move without wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
+which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.
+
+A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a
+philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those
+hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency
+of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means
+wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as
+well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this
+manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of
+this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move
+perpetually in their orbits. It is not, therefore, simply by seeing the
+concretion of mineral bodies that a philosopher is to be gratified in
+his his intellectual pursuit, but by the contemplation of that system in
+which the necessary resolution of this earth, while at present it serves
+the purpose of vegetation, or the fertility of our soil, is the very
+means employed in furnishing the materials of future land.
+
+It is such a view as this that I have endeavoured to represent in the
+theory which I have given. I have there stated the present situation of
+things, by which we are led to perceive a former state; and, from that
+necessary progress of actual things, I have concluded a certain system
+according to which things will be changed, without any accident or
+error. It is by tracing this regular system in nature that a philosopher
+is to perceive the wisdom with which this world has been contrived; but,
+he must see that wisdom founded upon the aptitude of all the parts to
+fulfil the intention of the design; and that intention is to be deduced
+from the end which is known to be attained. Thus we are first to reason
+from effect to cause, in seeing the order of that which has already
+happened; and then, from those known causes, to reason forwards, so as
+to conceive that which is to come to pass in time. Such would be the
+philosophy of this earth, formed by the highest generalisation
+of phenomena, a generalisation which had required the particular
+investigation of inductive reasoning.
+
+That no such theory as this, founded upon water as an agent operating in
+the changes of this earth, has yet appeared, will, I believe be easily
+allowed. With regard again to fire as an agent in the mineral operations
+of this earth, geologists have formed no consistent theory. They see
+volcanoes in all the quarters of the globe, and from those burning
+mountains, they conjecture other mountains have been formed. But a
+burning mountain is only a matter of fact; and, they have not on this
+formed any general principle, for establishing what may be called a
+theory of the earth. Those who have considered subterraneous fires as
+producing certain effects, neither know how these have been procured,
+nor do they see the proper purpose for which they are employed in the
+system of this world. In this case, the agent fire is only seen as
+a destructive element, in like manner as deluges of water have been
+attributed by others to changes which have happened in the natural state
+of things. These operations are seen only as the accidents of nature,
+and not as part of that design by which the earth, which is necessarily
+wasted in the operations of the world, is to be repaired.
+
+So far from employing heat or subterraneous fire as an agent in the
+mineral operations of the earth, the volcanic philosophers do not
+even attempt to explain upon that principle the frequent nodules of
+calcareous, zeolite, and other spatose and agaty substances, in those
+basaltic bodies which they consider as lavas. Instead then of learning
+to see the operation of heat as a general principle of mineral
+consolidation and crystallization, the volcanic philosophers endeavour
+to explain those particular appearances, which they think inconsistent
+with fusion, by aqueous infiltration, no otherwise than other
+mineralists who do not admit the igneous origin of those basaltic
+bodies. Thus, that great agent, subterraneous heat, has never been
+employed by geologists, as a general principle in the theory of the
+earth; it has been only considered as an occasional circumstance, or as
+the accident of having certain mineral bodies, which are inflammable,
+kindled in the earth, without so much as seeing how that may be done.
+
+This agent heat, then, is a new principle to be employed in forming a
+theory of the earth; a principle that must have been in the constitution
+of this globe, when contrived to subsist as a world, and to maintain
+a system of living bodies perpetuating their species. It is therefore
+necessary to connect this great mineral principle, subterraneous fire
+or heat, with the other operations of the world, in forming a general
+theory. For, whether we are to consider those great and constant
+explosions of mineral fire as a principal agent in the design, or only
+as a casual event depending upon circumstances which give occasion to an
+operation of such magnitude, here is an object that must surely have its
+place in every general theory of the earth.
+
+In examining things which actually exist, and which have proceeded in a
+certain order, it is natural to look for that which had been first; man
+desires to know what had been the beginning of those things which now
+appear. But when, in forming a theory of the earth, a geologist shall
+indulge his fancy in framing, without evidence, that which had preceded
+the present order of things, he then either misleads himself, or writes
+a fable for the amusement of his reader. A theory of the earth, which
+has for object truth, can have no retrospect to that which had preceded
+the present order of this world; for, this order alone is what we have
+to reason upon; and to reason without data is nothing but delusion. A
+theory, therefore, which is limited to the actual constitution of this
+earth, cannot be allowed to proceed one step beyond the present order of
+things.
+
+But, having surveyed the order of this living world, and having
+investigated the progress of this active scene of life, death and
+circulation, we find ample data on which to found a train of the most
+conclusive reasoning with regard to a general design. It is thus that
+there is to be perceived another system of active things for the
+contemplation of our mind;--things which, though not immediately within
+our view, are not the less certain in being out of our sight; and things
+which must necessarily be comprehended in the theory of the earth, if we
+are to give stability to it as a world sustaining plants and animals.
+This is a mineral system, by which the decayed constitution of an earth,
+or fruitful surface of habitable land, may be continually renewed in
+proportion as it is wasted in the operations of this world.
+
+It is in this mineral system that I have occasion to compare the
+explanations, which I give of certain natural appearances, with the
+theories or explanations which have been given by others, and which are
+generally received as the proper theory of those mineral operations. I
+am, therefore, to examine those different opinions, respecting the
+means employed by nature for producing particular appearances in the
+construction of our land, appearances which must be explained in some
+consistent mineral theory.
+
+These appearances may all be comprehended under two heads, which are now
+to be mentioned, in order to see the importance of their explanation, or
+purpose which such an explanation is to serve in a theory of the earth.
+The first kind of these appearances is that of known bodies which we
+find composing part of the masses of our land, bodies whose natural
+history we know, as having existed in another state previous to the
+composition of this earth where they now are found; these are the
+relicts or parts of animal and vegetable bodies, and various stony
+substances broken and worn by attrition, all which had belonged to a
+former earth. By means of these known objects, we are to learn a great
+deal of the natural history of this earth; and, it is in tracing that
+history, from where we first perceive it, to the present state of
+things, that forms the subject of a geological and mineralogical theory
+of this earth. But, we are more especially enabled to trace those
+operations of the earth, by means of the second kind of appearances,
+which are now to be mentioned.
+
+These again are the evident changes which those known bodies have
+undergone, and which have been induced upon such collected masses of
+which those bodies constitute a part. These changes are of three sorts;
+_first_, the solid state, and various degrees of it, in which we now
+find those masses which had been originally formed by the collection of
+loose and incoherent materials; _secondly_, the subsequent changes which
+have evidently happened to those consolidated masses which have been
+broken and displaced, and which have had other mineral substances
+introduced into those broken and disordered parts; and, _lastly_, that
+great change of situation which has happened to this compound mass
+formed originally at the bottom of the sea, a mass which, after being
+consolidated in the mineral region, is now situated in the atmosphere
+above the surface of the sea.
+
+In this manner we are led to the system of the world, or theory of the
+earth in general; for, that great change of situation, which our land
+has undergone, cannot be considered as the work of accident, or any
+other than an essential part in the system of this world. It is
+therefore a proper view of the necessary connection and mutual
+dependence of all those different systems of changing things that forms
+the theory of this earth as a world, or as that active part of nature
+which the philosophy of this earth has to explore. The animal system is
+the first or last of these; next comes the vegetable system, on which
+the life of animals depends; then comes the system of this earth,
+composed of atmosphere, sea, and land, and comprehending the various
+chemical, mechanical, and meteorologically operations which take place
+upon that surface where vegetation must proceed; and, lastly, we have
+the mineral system to contemplate, a system in which the wasting surface
+of the earth is employed in laying the foundation of future land within
+the sea, and a system in which the mineral operations are employed in
+concocting that future land.
+
+Now, such must surely be the theory of this earth, if the land is
+continually wasting in the operations of this world; for, to acknowledge
+the perfection of those systems of plants and animals perpetuating their
+species, and to suppose the system of this earth on which they must
+depend, to be imperfect, and in time to perish, would be to reason
+inconsistently or absurdly. This is the view of nature that I would wish
+philosophers to take; but, there are certain prejudices of education or
+prepossession of opinion among them to be overcome, before they can be
+brought to see those fundamental propositions,--the wasting of the land,
+and the necessity of its renovation by the co-operation of the mineral
+system. Let us then consider how men of science, in examining the
+mineral state of things, and reasoning from those appearances by which
+we are to learn the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves
+with regard to physical causes, and formed certain mineralogical and
+geological theories, by which their judgment is so perverted, in
+examining nature, as to exclude them from the proper means of correcting
+their first erroneous notions, or render them blind to the clearest
+evidence of any other theory that is proposed.
+
+When men of science reason upon subjects where the ideas are distinct
+and definite, with terms appropriated to the ideas, they come to
+conclusions in which there is no difference of opinion. It is otherwise
+in physical subjects, where things are to be assimilated, in being
+properly compared; there, things are not always compared in similar and
+equal circumstances or conditions; and there, philosophers often draw
+conclusions beyond the analogy of the things compared, and thus judge
+without data. When, for example, they would form the physical induction,
+with regard to the effect of fire or water upon certain substances in
+the mineral regions, from the analogy of such events as may be observed
+upon the surface of the earth, they are apt to judge of things acting
+under different circumstances or conditions, consequently not producing
+similar effects; in which case, they are judging without reason, that
+is, instead of inductive reasoning from actual data or physical truth,
+they are forming data to themselves purely by supposition, consequently,
+so far as these, imagined data may be wrong, the physical conclusion, of
+these philosophers may be erroneous.
+
+It is thus that philosophers have judged, with regard to the effects of
+fire and water upon mineral substances below the bottom of the sea,
+from what their chemistry had taught them to believe concerning bodies
+exposed to those agents in the atmosphere or on the surface of the
+earth. If in those two cases the circumstances were the same, or
+similar, consequently the conditions of the action not changed, then,
+the inductive reasoning, which they employ in that comparison, would be
+just; but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have employed that
+inductive conclusion for the explanation of mineral appearances, without
+having reason to believe that those changed circumstances of the case
+should not make any difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
+have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning; consequently,
+instead of being a proper physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
+reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing things not properly analysed
+or distinguished, is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
+therefore, cannot be admitted as a part of any geological or mineral
+theory. Now I here maintain, that philosophers have judged in no other
+manner than by this false analogy, when they conclude that water is the
+agent by which mineral concretions have been formed. But it will be
+proper to state more particularly the case of that misunderstanding
+among mineral philosophers.
+
+In forming a geological theory, the general construction of this earth,
+and the materials of which it is composed, are such visible objects, and
+so evident to those who will take the pains to examine nature, that
+here is a subject in which there cannot be any doubt or difference of
+opinion. Neither can there be any dispute concerning the place and
+situation of mass when it was first formed or composed; for, this is
+clearly proved, from every concomitant circumstance, to have been at the
+bottom of the sea. The only question in this case, that can be made, is,
+How that mass comes now to be a solid body, and above the surface of the
+sea in which it had been formed?
+
+With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers have been so
+dissonant, so vague, and so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
+Some suppose the land to be discovered by the gradual retreat of the
+ocean, without proposing to explain to us from whence had come the known
+materials of a former earth, which compose the highest summits of the
+mountains in the highest continents of the earth. Others suppose the
+whole of a former earth to have subsided below the bottom even of the
+present sea, and together with it all the water of the former sea, from
+above the summits of the present mountains, which had then been at the
+bottom of the former sea. The placing of the bottom of the sea, or any
+part of it, in the atmosphere so as to be dry land, is no doubt a great
+operation to be performed, and a difficult task to be explained; but
+this is only an argument the more for philosophers to agree in adopting
+the most reasonable means.
+
+But though philosophers differ so widely in that point, this is not the
+case with regard to the concretion of mineral bodies; here mineralists
+seem to be almost all of one mind, at the same time without any reason,
+at least, without any other reason than that false analogy which they
+have inconsiderately formed from the operations of the surface of this
+earth. This great misunderstanding of mineralists has such an extensive
+and baneful effect in the judging of geological theories, that it
+will be proper here to explain how that has happened, and to shew the
+necessity of correcting that erroneous principle before any just opinion
+can be formed upon the subject.
+
+Fire and water are two great agents in the system of this earth; it is
+therefore most natural to look for the operation of those agents in the
+changes which are made on bodies in the mineral regions; and as the
+consolidated state of those bodies, which had been collected at the
+bottom of the sea, may have been supposed to be induced either by
+fusion, or by the concretion from a solution, we are to consider how far
+natural appearance lead to the conclusion of the one or other of those
+two different operations. Here, no doubt, we are to reason analogically
+from the known power and effects of those great agents; but, we must
+take care not to reason from a false analogy, by misunderstanding the
+circumstances of the case, or not attending to the necessary conditions
+in which those agents act.--We must not conclude that fire cannot burn
+in the mineral regions because our fires require the ventilation of the
+atmosphere; for, besides the actual exigence of mineral fire being a
+notorious matter of fact, we know that much more powerful means _may_
+be employed by nature, for that mineral purpose of exciting heat, than
+those which we practise.--We must not conclude that mineral marble is
+formed in the same manner as we see a similar stony substance produced
+upon the surface of the earth, unless we should have reason to suppose
+the analogy to be complete. But, this is the very error into which
+mineral philosophers have fallen; and this is the subject which I am now
+to endeavour to illustrate.
+
+The manner in which those philosophers have deceived themselves when
+reasoning upon the subject of mineral concretion, is this: They see,
+that by means of water a stony substance is produced; and, this stony
+body so much resembles mineral marble as to be hardly distinguishable in
+certain cases. These mineral philosophers then, reasoning in the manner
+of the vulgar, or without analysing the subject to its principle,
+naturally attribute the formation of the mineral marble to a cause
+of the same sort; and, the mineral marble being found so intimately
+connected with all other mineral bodies, we must necessarily conclude,
+in reasoning according to the soundest principles, that all those
+different substances had been concreted in the same manner. Thus, having
+once departed one step from the path of just investigation, our physical
+science is necessarily bewildered in the labyrinth of error. Let us
+then, in re-examining our data, point out where lies that first devious
+step which had been impregnated with fixed air, or carbonic acid gas,
+(as it is called), dissolves a certain portion of mild calcareous
+earth or marble; consequently such acidulated water, that is, water
+impregnated with this gas, will, by filtrating through calcareous
+substances, become saturated with that solution of marble; and, this
+solution is what is called a _petrifying water_. When this solution is
+exposed to the action of the atmosphere, the acid gas, by means of which
+the stony substance is dissolved, evaporates from the solution, in
+having a stronger attraction for the atmospheric air; it is then that
+the marble, or calcareous substance, concretes and crystallises,
+separating from the water in a sparry state, and forming a very solid
+stone by the successive accretion from the solution, as it comes to
+be exposed to the influence of the atmosphere in flowing over the
+accumulating body. Here is the source of their delusion; for, they do
+not distinguish properly the case of this solution of a stony substance
+concreting by means of the separation of its solvent, and the case of
+such a solution being in a place where that necessary condition cannot
+be supposed to exist; such as, e.g., the interstices among the particles
+of sand, clay, etc. deposited at the bottom of the sea, and accumulated
+in immense stratified masses.
+
+No example can better illustrate how pernicious it is to science to have
+admitted a false principle, on which a chain of reasoning is to proceed
+in forming a theory. Mineral philosophers have founded their theory upon
+that deceitful analogy, which they had concluded between the stalactical
+concretions of petrifying waters and the marble formed in the mineral
+regions; thus, blinded by prejudice, they shut the door against the
+clearest evidence; and it is most difficult to make them see the error
+of their principle. But this is not to be wondered at, when we consider
+how few among philosophising men remount to the first principles of
+their theory; and, unless they shall thus remount to that first step,
+in which the concreting operation of a dissolved stony substance
+is supposed to take place without the necessary conditions for the
+petrifying operation, it is impossible to be convinced that their
+theory, thus formed with regard to mineral concretion, is merely
+supposition, and has no foundation in matter of fact from whence it
+should proceed.
+
+But this is not all; for, even supposing their theory to be well founded
+and just, it is plainly contradicted by natural appearances. According
+to that theory of aqueous consolidation, all the stratified bodies, of
+which this earth in general consists, should be found in the natural
+order of their regular formation; but, instead of this, they are found
+every where disturbed in that order more or less; in many places this
+order and regularity is so disturbed as hardly to be acknowledged; in
+most places we find those stratified bodies broken, dislocated, and
+contorted, and this aqueous theory of mineralists has neither the means
+for attaining that end, were it required in their theory, nor have they
+any such purpose in their theory, were that end attainable by the means
+which they employ. Thus blinded by the prejudice of a false analogy,
+they do not even endeavour to gratify the human understanding (which
+naturally goes in quest of wisdom and design) by forming a hypothetical
+or specious theory of the mineral system; and they only amuse themselves
+with the supposition of an unknown operation of water for the
+explanation of their cabinet specimens, a supposition altogether
+ineffectual for the purpose of forming a habitable earth, and a
+supposition which is certainly contradicted by every natural appearance.
+
+Thus, in examining geological and mineralogical theories, I am laid
+under the disagreeable necessity of pointing out the errors of physical
+principles which are assumed, the prejudices of theoretical opinions
+which have been received, and the misconceived notions which
+philosophers entertain with regard to the system of nature, in which may
+be perceived no ineffectual operation, nor any destructive intention,
+but the wise and benevolent purpose of preserving the present order of
+this world. But, though thus misled with regard to the cause of things,
+naturalists are every where making interesting observations in the
+mineral kingdom, I shall therefore avail myself of that instructive
+information, for the confirmation of my theory.
+
+It may now be proper to consider what must be required, in order to have
+a geological and mineral theory established upon scientific principles,
+or on such grounds as must give conviction to those who will examine
+the subject; for, unless we may clearly see that there are means for
+attaining that desirable end, few philosophers will be persuaded to
+pursue this branch of knowledge.
+
+A theory is nothing but the generalization of particular facts; and, in
+a theory of the earth, those facts must be taken from the observations
+of natural history. Nature is considered as absolutely true; no error or
+contradiction can be found in nature. For, if such contradiction were
+truly found, if the stone, for example, which fell to day were to rise
+again to-morrow, there would be an end of natural philosophy, our
+principles would fail, and we would no longer investigate the rules of
+nature from our observations.
+
+Every natural appearance, therefore, which is explained, _i.e._ which is
+made to come into the order of things that happen, must so far confirm
+the theory to which it then belongs. But is it necessary, that every
+particular appearance, among minerals, should be thus explained in
+a general theory of the earth? And, is any appearance, which is not
+explained by it, to be considered as sufficient to discredit or confute
+a theory which corresponded with every other appearance? Here is a
+question which it would require some accuracy to resolve.
+
+If we knew all the powers of nature, and all the different conditions in
+which those powers may have their action varied, that is to say, if we
+were acquainted with every physical cause, then every natural effect, or
+all appearances upon the surface of this earth, might be explained in a
+theory that were just. But, seeing that this is far from being the case,
+and that there may be many causes of which we are as yet ignorant, as
+well as certain conditions in which the known action of powers may be
+varied, it must be evident, that a theory of the earth is not to be
+confuted by this argument alone, That there are, among natural bodies,
+certain appearances which are not explained by the theory. We must
+admit, that, not having all the data which natural philosophy requires,
+we cannot pretend to explain every thing which appears; and that our
+theories, which necessarily are imperfect, are not to be considered as
+erroneous when not explaining every thing which is in nature, but only
+when they are found contrary to or inconsistent with the laws of nature,
+which are known, and with which the case in question may be properly
+compared.
+
+But we may have different theories to compare with nature; and, in that
+case, the question is not, How far any of those theories should explain
+all natural appearances? but, How far any one particular theory might
+explain a phenomenon better than another? In this case of comparison, it
+will be evident, that if one theory explains natural appearances, then
+the opposite to that theory cannot be supposed to explain the same
+appearances. If for example, granite, porphyry, or basaltes, should be
+found naturally formed by fusion, the formation of those stones could
+not be supposed in any case as formed by water, although it could not
+be demonstrated that water is incapable of forming those mineral
+productions.
+
+In like manner, if those three bodies were proved to have been actually
+formed by water alone, then, in other cases where we should have no
+proof, they could not be supposed as having been formed by fire or
+fusion. It must be evident, that an equal degree of proof of those two
+different propositions would leave our judgment in suspence, unless that
+proof were perfect, in which case, we would have two different causes
+producing similar effects. But, if we shall have a sufficient proof
+upon the one side, and only a presumptive proof or probability upon the
+other, we must reject that probability or presumption, when opposed by
+a proof, although that proof were only an induction by reasoning from
+similar effects as following similar causes. _A fortiori_, if there be
+on one side a fair induction, without the least suspicion of error,
+and on the other nothing but a mere presumption founded upon a distant
+analogy, which could not even properly apply, then, the inductive proof
+would be as satisfactory as if there had not been any supposition on the
+opposite side.
+
+So far as a theory is formed in the generalization of natural
+appearances, that theory must be just, although it may not be perfect,
+as having comprehended every appearance; that is to say, a theory is
+not perfect until it be founded upon every natural appearance; in which
+case, those appearances will be explained by the theory. The theory of
+gravitation, though no ways doubtful, was not so perfect before the
+shape of this globe had been determined by actual measurement, and
+before the direction of the plummet had been tried upon Shihallion, as
+after those observations had been made. But a theory which should be
+merely hypothetical, or founded upon a few appearances, can only be
+received as a theory, after it has been found to correspond properly
+with nature; it would then be held a proper explanation of those natural
+appearances with which it corresponded; and, the more of those phenomena
+that were thus explained by the theory, the more would that, which had
+been first conjectural, be converted into a theory legitimately founded
+upon natural appearances.
+
+Matter of fact is that upon which science proceeds, by generalization,
+to form theory, for the purpose of philosophy, or the knowledge of all
+natural causes; and it is by the companion of these matters of fact with
+any theory, that such a theory will be tried. But, in judging of matter
+of fact, let us be cautious of deceiving ourselves, by substituting
+speculative reasoning in place of actual events.
+
+Nature, as the subject of our observation, consists of two sorts of
+objects; for, things are either active, when we perceive change to take
+place in consequence of such action, or they are quiescent, when we
+perceive no change to take place. Now, it is evident, that in judging
+of the active powers of nature from the quiescent objects of our
+information, we are liable to error, in misinterpreting the objects
+which we see; we thus form to ourselves false or erroneous opinion
+concerning the general laws of action, and the powers of nature. In
+comparing, therefore, generalised facts, or theory, with particular
+observations, there is required the greatest care, neither, on the one
+hand, to strain the appearances, so as to bring in to the theory a fact
+belonging to another class of things; nor, on the other, to condemn a
+proper theory, merely because that theory has not been extended to the
+explanation of every natural appearance.
+
+But, besides the misinterpretation of matters of fact, we are also to
+guard against the misrepresentation of natural appearances. Whether
+warped by the prejudice of partial and erroneous theory, or deceived by
+the inaccuracy of superficial observation, naturalists are apt to see
+things in an improper light, and thus to reason from principles which
+cannot be admitted, and, which often lead to false conclusions. A
+naturalist, for example, comes to examine a cavity in the mines, he
+there finds water dropping down all around him, and he sees the cavity
+all hung with siliceous crystals; he then concludes, without hesitation,
+that here is to be perceived cause and effect, or that he actually sees
+the formation of those crystallizations from the operation of water. It
+is thus that I have been told by men of great mineral knowledge, men who
+must have had the best education upon that subject of mineralogy, and
+who have the superintendance of great mineral concerns in Germany, that
+they had actually seen nature at work in that operation of forming
+rock-crystal;--they saw what I have now described; they could see no
+more; but, they saw what had convinced them of that which, there is
+every reason to believe, never happened. With regard to my theory,
+I wish for the most rigorous examination; and do not ask for any
+indulgence whatever, whether with regard to the principles on which the
+theory is built, or for the application of the theory to the explanation
+of natural appearances. But, let not geologists judge my theory by their
+imperfect notions of nature, or by those narrow views which they take of
+the present state of things;--let not mineralogists condemn my theory,
+for no other reason but because it does not correspond with their false
+principles, and those gratuitous suppositions by which they had been
+pleased to explain to themselves every thing before. First let them look
+into their own theory, and correct that erroneous principle, with regard
+to the action of water, or the assumption of unknown causes, upon which
+they have reasoned in forming their vague notions of the mineral region,
+before they can be properly qualified to examine, impartially, a theory
+which employs another principle. Every thing which has come under my
+observation shall be, as far as I can, faithfully related; nor shall I
+withhold those which neither the present theory, nor any other that I am
+acquainted with, can, I think, explain.
+
+Appearances cannot well be described except in relation to some theory
+or general arrangement of the subject; because the particular detail,
+of every part in a complicated appearance, would be endless and
+insignificant. When, however, any question in a theory depends upon the
+nature of an appearance, we cannot be too particular in describing that
+by which the question is to be decided. But though it be sometimes
+proper to be minute in a particular, it is always, and above all things,
+necessary to be distinct; and not to confound together things which are
+of different natures. For, though it be by finding similarity, in things
+which at first sight may seem different, that science is promoted and
+philosophy attained, yet, we must have a distinct view of those things
+which are to be assimilated; and surely the lowest state of knowledge
+in any subject, is the not distinguishing things which, though not to
+common observation different, are not truly the same.
+
+To confound, for example one stone with another, because they were both
+hard, friable, and heavy, would be to describe, with the superficial
+views of vulgar observation; whereas science specifies the weight and
+hardness, and thus accurately distinguishes the stone.
+
+Before naturalists had learned to distinguish what they saw, and to
+describe, in known terms, those natural appearances, a theorist must
+have generalised only from his proper observation. This has been my
+case. When I first conceived my theory, few naturalists could write
+intelligibly upon the subject; but that is long ago, and things are much
+altered since; now there are most enlightened men making observations,
+and communicating natural knowledge. I have the satisfaction, almost
+every day, to compare the theory, which I had formed from my proper
+observations, with the actual state of things in almost every quarter of
+the globe.
+
+Whether, therefore, we mean to try a theory by its application to
+such phenomena as are well understood, or to learn something from the
+application of particular phenomena to a well established theory,
+we shall always find it interesting to have appearances described;
+particularly such as may be referred to some general rule, as
+circumscribing it to certain conditions, or as finding rule in rule,
+that is to say, discovering those particular conditions in which the
+general laws of action may be affected.
+
+Instead, for example, of the rule which we find in the application of
+heat for the fusion and evaporation of mineral substances upon the
+surface of this earth, we may find it necessary to consider the effect
+which changed circumstances produce in the mineral regions, and occasion
+a change of that rule of action which we have learned from experience,
+when melting and evaporating those substances in the atmosphere or on
+the surface of the earth.
+
+It is in this manner that a theory, which was formed by the
+generalization of particular facts, comes to be a source of information,
+by explaining to us certain appearances which otherwise we could not
+understand. Thus, it was not the appearance of the tides that taught the
+theory of gravitation; it was the theory of gravitation that made us
+understand the appearance of the tides. In like manner, the law of
+gravitation, which was demonstrated from the motion of the moon in her
+orbit round this earth, when applied to the paths of comets, explained
+that appearance. Our theory, of a central fire, has been formed upon
+the consolidation of the strata of this earth; but this theory is to be
+applied for the explanation of various different appearances. In this
+manner, two different purposes will be served; the trying of the theory
+by its application to phenomena; and the explanation of phenomena by the
+principles laid open in the theory.
+
+I may repeat it; a theory of the earth must ultimately depend upon
+matter of fact or particular observation; but those observations must be
+distinct, and those distinguished things must be generalised. We have
+just now given for an example, a distinction among stones, in knowing
+them by their sensible qualities. But, besides distinguishing those
+objects, we are also to inquire into the origin and cause of those
+things which are distinguished. Here, again, we take into our aid the
+chemical as well as the mechanical properties of these several things;
+and hence learn to know on what their natural form and constitution may
+depend. Having thus attained the natural philosophy of stones, we next
+inquire into the place and application of those things in nature; and
+in this manner we acquire some knowledge with regard to the natural
+constitution of this earth. We find this earth composed of known things;
+it is therefore the operations, required in these compositions, which
+form the natural philosophy of this earth, considered as a body of solid
+land. But, the solid land is only one part of the globe; therefore,
+the philosophy of the globe proceeds still farther by knowing the
+constitution of this planetary body, as consisting of different parts
+united for a purpose, which is that of a world.
+
+The general theory of this earth as a world, will thus appear to be a
+complex thing, which however founded upon simple principles, contains
+many subjects of discussion, and requires attention to a variety of
+particulars. For, not only the great features of this earth are to be
+explained by the theory, but also the most minute appearance, such as
+are to be found, even with microscopic observation, in every particular
+part.
+
+Thus the nature, constitution, and cause of every particular appearance
+in the construction of this earth, are to be investigated in a
+geological theory, as well as that general constitution of the world in
+which all the particular parts are to be employed for a purpose.
+
+If the subject here examined shall be found properly explained, there
+will remain little doubt with regard to the justness of the theory,
+which will then be applicable to other appearances that may occur;
+although every appearance is not to be explained, in a manner equally
+satisfactory, by any theory which is not perfect.
+
+The first subject to be examined is the modern theory of primitive
+mountains. I have written several chapters upon that subject, having
+successively acquired more light in this interesting part of the theory,
+by observations of my own in several places of this country, as well as
+from the natural history of other countries. I shall give these nearly
+in the order in which they occurred, or had been written.
+
+
+
+CHAP. IV.
+
+The Supposition of Primitive Mountains refuted.
+
+In the theory now given, the earth has been represented as a composition
+of different materials, which had existed in another form, and as the
+effect of natural operations; therefore, however various may be found
+the structure of our earth, and however dissimilar some parts of
+its composition may be in comparison with others, no part should be
+considered as original, in relation to the globe, or as primitive, in
+relation to second causes, _i.e._ physical operations by which those
+parts should have been formed. But it is pretended by naturalists, that
+there are certain primitive mountains in the earth, bodies which have
+had another origin than that of the general strata of the globe and
+subsequent masses; an origin, therefore, which cannot be considered as
+having been produced from natural operations, or as effected in the
+course of known causes. Now, if it can be made to appear, that there is
+no solid ground for this distinction; and if it can be shown, that there
+is truly no mineral body in this earth which may not have been produced
+by operations natural to the globe, we should thus procure a certain
+confirmation of the doctrine. This also will be the more interesting,
+in being deduced from a part of natural appearances, which seemed to be
+inconsistent with the theory.
+
+Certain masses or mountains of granite, are the only bodies of this
+earth which have apparently a certain pretension to this species
+of originality. These, therefore, must be now the subject of our
+examination.
+
+Granite, considered by itself, does not appear to have any claim to
+originality in its nature. It is composed of bodies which are capable of
+being analyzed; and these are then found to be compositions of different
+substances, which are also sometimes variously proportioned. The
+feldspar and the mica, for example, as well as the schorl, are found
+variously coloured in different granites, and coloured in various
+proportions. Besides the variety in the composition, or chemical mixture
+of the different bodies which compose granite, this rock admits of a
+great diversity, from the variety of its mechanical mixture, or from
+the different species of bodies which are its constituent parts. M. de
+Saussure, who has examined this subject perhaps more than any other
+person, and who has had the very best opportunities for this purpose,
+says, that this composition may be found in all the different
+combinations which may be produced by every possible composition of 7
+or 8 different kinds of stone, (page 108, Voyage dans les Alpes, etc.).
+Neither does this fill up the measure of its variety; for, another
+source of change is found in the grain of this rock stone; I have a
+specimen of this variety from the size almost of sand to that of some
+inches.
+
+Were granite, therefore, to be supposed as in the original state of its
+creation, nature would be considered as having operated in an indefinite
+diversity of ways, without that order and wisdom which we find in all
+her works; for here would be change without a principle, and variety
+without a purpose. There is no reason, however, to suppose granite
+original, more than any other composite rock, although we may be
+ignorant of the particular process in which it is formed, and although,
+comparatively in relation to certain other rocks, granite, or certain
+masses of this composition, may be found of a more ancient date.
+
+If granite be truly stratified, and those strata connected with the
+other strata of the earth, it can have no claim to originality; and
+the idea of primitive mountains, of late so much employed by natural
+philosophers, must vanish, in a more extensive view of the operations of
+the globe; but it is certain that granite, or a species of the same kind
+of stone, is thus found stratified. It is the _granit feuilletee_ of
+M. de Saussure, and, if I mistake not, what is called _gneis_ by the
+Germans. We have it also in our north alpine country of Scotland; of
+this I have specimens, but have not seen it in its place.
+
+Granite being thus found stratified, the masses of this stone cannot be
+allowed to have any right of priority over the schistus, its companion
+in the alpine countries, although M. de Saussure, whose authority I
+would revere, has given it for the following reason; that it is found
+the most centrical in the chains of high mountains, or in alpine
+countries. Now, supposing this fact to be general, as he has found it in
+the Alps, no argument for the priority of those masses can be founded
+either upon the height or the situation of those granite mountains; for
+the height of the mountain depends upon the solidity and strength of the
+stone. Now though it is not to be here maintained that granite is the
+most durable of those alpine rocks, yet as a mountain, either granite in
+general, or in particular, certain species of it, may be esteemed such,
+consequently, this massy stone, remaining highest in the mountainous
+region, will naturally be considered as the centre, and according to
+this rule, as having the pre-eminence in point of seniority.
+
+The rock which stands in competition with granite for the title of
+primitive in the order of mountains, is that micaceous stratified stone
+which is formed chiefly of quartz, but which admits of great variety
+like the granite. The difference between those two bodies does not
+consist in the materials of which they are composed, for, in their
+varieties, they may be in this respect the same, but in a certain
+regularity of composition, in this alpine stone, which evidently arises
+from stratification or subsidence in water.
+
+If we shall thus consider all the varieties of this alpine stone as
+being of one kind, and call it granite, then we shall distinguish in
+this body two different species, from whence perhaps some interesting
+conclusion may be formed with regard to the operations of the globe.
+These two species are, _first_, granite regular in its composition, or
+stratified in its construction; and, _secondly_, granite in mass, or
+irregular in its construction. Let us now endeavour to make use of these
+generalizations and distinctions.
+
+In examining the great diversity of our whinstone, trap, or basaltes, it
+is found at last to granulate into granite; at the same time those two
+different species of rock-stone may be distinguished. A perfect granite
+has not in its composition necessarily any argillaceous earth, farther
+than may be in the natural constitution of its distinct parts; whereas,
+a perfect basalt may have abundance of this substance, without any
+quartz or any siliceous body. A perfect granite, is, therefore, an
+extremely hard stone, having quartz and feldspar for its basis; but a
+perfect whin or basaltes may be extremely soft, so as to cut easily with
+a knife. In like manner granite is a composition which graduates into
+porphyry; but porphyry is only whinstone of a harder species. Therefore,
+though perfectly distinct, those three things graduate into each other,
+and may be considered as the same.
+
+Granite and whinstone, or basaltes, though distinct compositions, thus
+graduating into each other; and whinstone, as well as porphyry, being
+without doubt a species of lava, we may consider the granite which is
+found in mass without stratification, in like manner as we do the masses
+of whinstone, basaltes, or Swedish trap, as having flowed in the bowels
+of the earth, and thus been produced by the chance of place, without any
+proper form of its own, or in an irregular shape and construction. In
+this manner would be explained the irregular shape or structure of those
+granite masses; and thus great light would be thrown upon the waved
+structure of the stratified alpine stone, which, though it has not been
+made to flow, has been brought to a great degree of softness, so as to
+have the original straight lines of its stratification changed to
+those undulated or waving lines which are in some cases extremely much
+incurvated.
+
+It remains only to confirm this reasoning, upon our principles, by
+bringing actual observation to its support; and this we shall do from
+two of the best authorities. The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in describing
+the volcanic productions of Etna, mentions a lava which had flowed from
+that mountain, and which may be considered as a granite. But M. de
+Saussure has put this matter out of doubt by describing most accurately
+what he had seen both in the Alps and at the city of Lyons. These are
+veins of granite which have flowed from the contiguous mass into the
+stratified stone, and leave no doubt with regard to this proposition,
+that the granite had flowed in form of subterranean lava, although M. de
+Saussure has drawn a very different conclusion from this appearance. I
+have also a specimen from this country of a vein of granite in a granite
+stone, the vein being of a smaller grain than that of the rock which it
+traverses.[20]
+
+[Note 20: This is what I had wrote upon, the subject of granite, before
+I had acquired such ample testimony from my own observations upon
+that species of rock. I have given some notice, in the 3d vol. of the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh R.S. concerning the general result of
+those observations, which will be given particularly in the course of
+this work.]
+
+It will thus appear, that the doctrine which of late has prevailed, of
+primitive mountains, or something which should be considered as original
+in the construction of this earth, must be given up as a false view of
+nature, which has formed the granite upon the same principle with that
+of any other consolidated stratum; so far as the collection of different
+materials, and the subsequent fusion of the compound mass, are necessary
+operations in the preparation of all the solid masses of the earth.
+Whatever operations of the globe, therefore, may be concluded from the
+composition of granite masses, as well as of the alpine strata, these
+must be considered as giving us information with regard to the natural
+history of this earth; and they will be considered as important, in
+proportion as they disclose to us truths, which from other strata might
+not be so evident, or at all made known.
+
+Let us now examine the arguments, which, may be employed in favour of
+that supposition of primitive mountains.
+
+The observations, on which naturalists have founded that opinion of
+originality in some of the component parts of our earth, are these;
+_first_, They observe certain great masses of granite in which
+stratification is not to be perceived; this then they say is an original
+mass, and it is not to be derived from any natural operation of the
+globe; _secondly_, They observe considerable tracts of the earth
+composed of matter in the order of stratification as to its general
+composition, but not as to its particular position, the vertical
+position here prevailing, instead of the horizontal which is proper to
+strata formed in water; this, therefore, they also term primitive, and
+suppose it to be from another origin than that of the subsidence of
+materials moved in the waters of the globe; _lastly_, They observe both
+strata and masses of calcareous matter in which they cannot distinguish
+any marine body as is usual in other strata of the same substance; and
+these calcareous masses being generally connected with their primitive
+mountains, they have also included these collections of calcareous
+matter, in which marine bodies are not observed, among the primitive
+parts which they suppose to be the original construction of this globe.
+
+It may be proper to see the description of a calcareous alpine mountain.
+M. de Saussure gives us the following observations concerning a mountain
+of this kind in the middle of the Alps, where the water divides in
+running different ways towards the sea. It is in describing the passage
+of the Bon-Homme, (Tom. 2. V. dans les Alpes).
+
+"Sec. 759. Sur la droite ou au couchant de ces rochers, on voit une
+montagne calcaire etonnante dans ce genre par la hardiesse avec laquelle
+elle eleve contre le ciel ses cimes aigues et tranchantes, taillees
+a angles vifs dans le costume des hautes cimes de granit. Elle est
+pourtant bien surement calcaire, je l'ai observee de pres, et on
+rencontre sur cette route les blocs qui s'en detachent.
+
+"Cette pierre porte les caracteres des calcaires les plus anciennes; sa
+couleur est grise, son grain assez fin, on n'y appercoit aucun vestige
+de corps organises; ses couches sont peu epaisses, ondees et coupees
+frequemment par des fentes paralleles entr'elles et perpendiculaires a
+leurs plans. On trouve aussi parmi ces fragmens des breches calcaires
+grises."
+
+Here is a mountain which will rank with the most primitive of the earth;
+But why? only because it is extremely consolidated without any mark of
+organised body. Had there been in this mountain but one single shell, we
+should not then have scrupled to conclude that the origin of this lofty
+mountain had been the same with every marble or limestone in the earth.
+But though, from the structure of this stone, there is no mark of its
+having been formed immediately of the calcareous parts of animals, there
+is every mark of those calcareous strata having been formed like other
+marbles by deposit in the waters of the globe.
+
+These two things are also homologated by the equal or perfect
+consolidation of their substance; for, as it is to be proved that
+all stratified marbles have been consolidated by the fusion of their
+substance, we must attribute the same consolidating cause to those
+alpine masses; the frequent veins that divide those calcareous strata
+which M. de Saussure has here described, also prove the nature of the
+consolidating cause, (see Chap. 1. page 111.).
+
+This mountain, considered by itself, may perhaps afford no data by which
+a naturalist might read the circumstances of its origin. But, Is a
+theory of the earth to be formed upon such a negative observation? and,
+Is there any particular in this mountain, that may not be shown in
+others of which the origin is not in any degree doubtful?
+
+It is not to be disputed, that there are parts of the solid body of our
+earth which may be considered as primary or prior, compared with others
+that are posterior, in relation to the time of their formation, and much
+less changed with regard to the state in which they had been originally
+formed:--But it is here denied, that there are any parts of the earth
+which do not appear to have had the same origin with all the rest, so
+far as this consists in the collection of materials deposited at the
+bottom of the waters[21]; for there is no solid mass of land that may
+not be traced to this origin, either from its composition, or from its
+local connection with other masses, the nature of which in this respect
+are known. We have already given examples of this from sufficient
+authority. The evidence, therefore, of those primary masses being
+original in relation to the natural operations of the globe, is reduced
+to this assertion, that there are no vestiges of organised bodies to be
+found in those primary masses. Let us now examine how far this testimony
+for the originality of those masses is to be admitted in fact and sound
+reasoning.
+
+[Note 21: There are no collection of those alpine masses in which may
+not be found in some of them sand, mica, and gravel; but these materials
+prove the existence of an earth, on which those fragments of greater
+masses had been formed, and more or less worn by attrition.]
+
+The matter in question at present is this, that there are certain tracts
+of countries in which no vestige of organised bodies are found; now, let
+us suppose the fact to be true or well grounded, Can we conclude
+from this that there had been originally no organised bodies in the
+composition of those masses?--Such a conclusion could only be formed in
+making a supposition, that every organised body deposited in a mass
+of matter, whether homogeneous or heterogeneous, should be preserved
+without change, while the collected mass, in which it had been
+deposited, changes as much as possible by the operation both of fire and
+water. But this supposition is erroneous, and cannot be admitted; and
+the study of marbles will demonstrate this truth, that the calcareous
+relics of organised bodies are changed, in the consolidating operations
+of the globe, in every degree, from the smallest alteration to the
+greatest, when they become indistinguishable any farther to our sight.
+
+Therefore, from the supposition of no appearance of marine bodies in the
+pretended primitive masses, there is no sufficient evidence or reason to
+conclude, that those masses have not had a marine origin; because, the
+traces of organised bodies may be obliterated by the many subsequent
+operations of the mineral region; and which operations, the present
+state of those masses certify beyond dispute.
+
+We are now to examine the fact, how far the ground on which that false
+reasoning had been founded is strictly true.
+
+In the first place, then, it must be considered, that the alledged fact
+is nothing but a negative assertion, importing that no mark of organised
+bodies had been observed, in certain stones and strata which some
+naturalists have examined with that view. But, though many naturalists
+have looked for them without success, it does not follow that such marks
+may not be found; it indeed proves that such a task is difficult, and
+the success of it, to a particular, most precarious; accident, however,
+may bring about what the greatest industry has not been able to attain.
+Secondly, there is good reason to believe that this asserted negation
+is not absolutely true; for I have in my possession what I consider as
+proof of the contrary; I found it in Wales, and I think it is in what
+may be considered as primitive mountains;--it is the mark of shells in a
+stone of that kind.
+
+Thus, I had formed my opinion with regard to this alleged fact, long
+before I had seen any description either of the Alps or Pyrennean
+mountains; and now I have no reason to change that opinion. It may
+indeed be alleged, that the strata of marble or limestone, containing
+marine bodies found in those mountains, are secondary strata, and not
+the primitive. To this I can give no reply, as the descriptions given of
+those strata do not enable me to decide this point.
+
+At the village of Mat, under the Mont Blatten for example, there is a
+quarry of schistus or black slate, in which are often found the print
+and the bones of fishes. (Discours sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la
+Suisse, page 225.). If this may be considered as an alpine or primitive
+schistus, it would be decisive of the question: But it would require to
+have it well ascertained that this schistus is truly one of those which
+are esteemed primitive, or that it is properly connected with them.
+
+But though I cannot find in those interesting descriptions which we now
+have got, any one which is demonstrative of this truth, that calcareous
+marine objects are found in the primitive strata, this is not the
+case with regard to another object equally important in deciding this
+question, Whether the primitive strata are found containing the marks of
+organised bodies?
+
+M. de Dellancourt, in his _Observations Mineralogiques_, Journal de
+Physique Juillet 1786, in describing the mountains of Dauphine, gives us
+the following fact with regard to those alpine vertical strata.
+
+"La pierre constituante de la montagne d'Oris est en general le _Kneifs_
+ou la roche feuilletee mica et quartz a couches plus ou moins ferrees
+quelquefois le schorl en roche penetre de steatite. Les couches varient
+infiniment quant a leur direction et a leur inclinaisons. Cette montagne
+est cultivee et riche dans certain cantons, surtout autour du village
+d'Oris, mais elle est tres-escarpee dans beaucoup d'autres. Entre le
+village d'Oris et celui du Tresnay est une espece de combe assez creuse
+formee par la chute des eaux des cimes superieures des rochers. Cette
+combe offre beaucoup de schiste dont les couches font ou tres-inclinees
+ou perpendiculaires. Entre ces couches il s'en est trouve de plus noires
+que les autres et capable de bruler, mais difficilement. Les habitans
+ont extrait beaucoup de cette matiere terreuse, et lui ont donne le nom
+de charbon de terre. Ils viennent meme a bout de la faire bruler, et
+de s'en servir l'hiver en la melant avec du bois. Ce schiste noir
+particulier m'a paru exister principalement dans les endroits ou les
+eaux se sont infiltrees entre les couches perpendiculaires, et y ont
+entraine diverse matieres, et sur-tout des debris de vegetaux que
+j'ai encore retrouves a demi-noirs, pulverulens et comme dans un etat
+charbonneux."
+
+This formation of coal, by the infiltration of water and carrying in of
+vegetable bodies, certainly cannot be admitted of; consequently, from
+this description, there would seem to be strata of coal alternated with
+the alpine schisti. But the formation of mineral coal requires vegetable
+matter to have been deposited along with those earthy substances, at the
+bottom of the sea. The production of vegetable bodies, again, requires
+the constitution of sea and land, and the system of a living world,
+sustaining plants at least, if not animals.
+
+In this natural history of the alpine schisti, therefore, we have a
+most interesting fact, an example which is extremely rare. Seldom are
+calcareous organised bodies found among those alpine strata, but still
+more rarely, I believe, are the marks of vegetable bodies having
+contributed in the formation of those masses. But however rare this
+example, it is equally decisive of the question, Whether the alpine
+schisti have had a similar origin as the other strata of the globe,
+in which are found abundance of animal and vegetable bodies, or their
+relics? and we are authorised to say, that since those perfect alpine
+strata of Dauphine have had that origin, all the alpine schisti of the
+globe have been originally formed in a similar manner. But to put this
+matter out of doubt:
+
+In this summer 1788, coming from the Isle of Man, Mr Clerk and I
+traveled through the alpine schistus country of Cumberland and
+Westmoreland. We found a limestone quarry upon the banks of Windermere,
+near the Low-wood Inn. I examined this limestone closely, but despaired
+of finding any vestige of organised body. The strata of limestone
+seem to graduate into the slate or schistus strata, between which the
+calcareous are placed. Fortunately, however, I at last found a fragment
+in which I thought to perceive the works of organised bodies in a
+sparry state; I told Mr Clerk so, and our landlord Mr Wright, who had
+accompanied us. I have brought home this specimen, which I have now
+ground and polished; and now it is most evidently full of fragments of
+entrochi. Mr Wright then told me he had seen evident impressions of
+marine objects, as I understood from the description, in the slate of
+those mountains; and he was to send me specimens so soon as he could
+procure them.
+
+Here is one specimen which at once overturns all the speculations formed
+upon that negative proposition. The schistus mountains of Cumberland
+were, in this respect, as perfect primitive mountains as any upon the
+earth, before this observation; now they have no claim upon that score,
+no more than any limestone formed of shells.
+
+When I first announced my belief that such objects in natural history
+might be found, I little thought to have seen it realised, to such a
+degree as has now happened in the little circle of my knowledge. In the
+summer 1791,
+
+Professor Playfair was to pass through Cumberland. I begged that he
+would inquire of Mr Wright, at the Low-wood Inn, for those objects which
+he was to endeavour to procure for me, and to examine the limestone
+quarry in which I had found the specimen with entrochi. He went through
+another part of those primary mountains, and has found examples of this
+kind in the schisti; concerning which he has written me the following
+account.
+
+"In a visit which I made to the Lakes of Cumberland in September 1791,
+in company with the Hon. Francis Charteris, I met with a limestone
+full of marine objects, though from its position it is certainly to be
+reckoned among the primary strata. The place where we found this stone
+was in the district of Lancashire, that is west of Windermere Lake, on
+the road from Ambleside to the north end of Coniston Lake, and not far
+from the point when you come in sight of the latter. Just about this
+spot we happened to meet with one of those people who serve as guides
+to travelers in those parts, and who told us, among other things, that
+stones with shells in them were often found not far from where we were
+then walking. We immediately began to look about for specimens of that
+kind, and soon met with several; the most remarkable of which was in a
+rock that rose a little above the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to
+the right of the road. It was a part of a limestone stratum, nearly
+vertical, and was full of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
+in a common secondary limestone. The strata on both sides had the same
+inclination, and were decidedly primary, consisting of the ordinary
+micaceous schistus. This however I need not remark to you, who know so
+well from your own observations that the whole of the country I am now
+speaking of has every character of a primary one. I, only mention it,
+that it may not be supposed that the rock in question was some fragment
+of a secondary stratum that remained, after the rest was washed away,
+superincumbent on the primary.
+
+"After I had seen this rock, I recollected that you had told me of
+something of the same kind that you saw in a quarry at Low-wood Inn; and
+it may be that both belonged to the same stratum or body of strata; for
+the direction of the strata, as nearly as I could observe, was from S.W.
+to N.E.; and this also is nearly the bearing of Low-wood from the place
+where we now were. I send you a specimen, which you can compare with
+those you brought from the lime quarry at Low-wood."
+
+I have examined this specimen, and find it to be the common schistus
+of that country, only containing many bivalve shells and fragments of
+entrochi and madrapore bodies, and mixed with pyrites.
+
+I have already observed that one single example of a shell, or of its
+print, in a schistus, or in a stone stratified among those vertical or
+erected masses, suffices to prove the origin of those bodies to have
+been, what I had maintained them to be, water formed strata erected from
+the bottom of the sea, like every other consolidated stratum of the
+earth. But now, I think, I may affirm, that there is not, or rarely, any
+considerable extent of country of that primary kind, in which some mark
+of this origin will not be found, upon careful examination; and now I
+will give my reason for this assertion. I have been examining the south
+alpine country of Scotland, occasionally, for more than forty years
+back, and I never could find any mark of an organised body in the
+schistus of those mountains. It is true that I know of only one place
+where limestone is found among the strata; this is upon Tweed-side near
+the Crook. This quarry I had carefully examined long ago, but could find
+no mark of any organised body in it. I suppose they now are working some
+other of the vertical strata near those which I had examined; for, in
+the summer 1792, I received a letter from Sir James Hall, which I shall
+now transcribe. It is dated at Moffat, June 2. 1792.
+
+"As I was riding yesterday between Noble-house and Crook, on the road to
+this place, I fell in with a quarry of alpine limestone; it consists of
+four or five strata, about three feet thick, one of them single, and the
+rest contiguous; they all stand between the strata of slate and schist
+that are at the place nearly vertical. In the neighbourhood, a slate
+quarry is worked of a pure blue slate; several of the strata of slate
+near the limestone are filled with fragments of limestone scattered
+about like the fragments of schist in the sandstone in the neighbourhood
+of the junction on our coast.[22]
+
+[Note 22: This has a reference to very curious observations which we
+made upon the east coast where these mountains terminate, and which I am
+to describe in the course of this work.]
+
+"Among the masses of limestone lately broken off for use, and having the
+fractures fresh, I found the forms of cockles quite distinct; and in
+great abundance.--I send you three pieces of this kind," etc.
+
+It may perhaps be alleged that those mountains of Cumberland and
+Tweedale are not the primary mountains, but composed of the secondary
+schistus, which is every where known to contain those objects belonging
+to a former earth. Naturalists who have not the opportunity of
+convincing themselves by their proper examination, must judge with
+regard to that geological fact by the description of others. Now it is
+most fortunate for natural history, that it has been in this range of
+mountains that we have discovered those marks of a marine origin; for,
+I shall afterwards have occasion to give the clearest light into this
+subject, from observations made in other parts of those same mountains
+of schist, by which it will be proved that they are the primary
+strata; and thus no manner of doubt will then remain in the minds
+of naturalists, who might otherwise suspect that we were deceiving
+ourselves, by mistaking the secondary for the primitive schistus.
+
+I have only farther to observe, that those schisti mountains of Wales,
+of Cumberland, and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where these
+marine objects have been found, consist, of that species of stone which
+in some places makes the most admirable slate for covering houses; and,
+in other parts, it breaks into blocks that so much resemble wood in
+appearance, that, without narrow inspection, it might pass for petrified
+wood.
+
+We are therefore to conclude that the marks of organised bodies in those
+primary mountains are certainly found; at the same time the general
+observation of naturalists has some foundation, so far as the marks of
+organised bodies are both rarely to be met with in those masses, and not
+easily distinguished as such when they are found.
+
+But this scarcity of marine objects is not confined to those primary
+mountains, as they are called; for among the most horizontal strata, or
+those of the latest production, there are many in which, it is commonly
+thought, no marine calcareous objects are to be found; and this is a
+subject that deserves to be more particularly considered, as the theory
+may thus receive some illustration.
+
+Sandstone, coal, and their accompanying strata, are thought to be
+destitute of calcareous marine productions, although many vestiges of
+plants or vegetable productions are there perceived. But this general
+opinion is neither accurate nor true; for though it be true that in the
+coal and sandstone strata it is most common to find marks of vegetable
+production, and rarely those calcareous bodies which are so frequent in
+the limestone, yet it is not unusual for coal to be accompanied
+with limestone formed of shells and corals, and also with ironstone
+containing many of those marine objects as well as wood. Besides,
+sandstone frequently contains objects which have been organised bodies,
+but which do not belong to the vegetable kingdom, at least to no plant
+which grows upon the land, but would seem to have been some species of
+zoophite perhaps unknown.
+
+I have also frequently seen the vestige of shells in sandstone, although
+in these strata the calcareous bodies are in general not perceived.
+The reason of this is evident. When there is a small proportion of the
+calcareous matter in the mass of sand which is pervious to steam and to
+the percolation of water, the calcareous bodies may be easily dissolved,
+and either carried away or dispersed in the mass; or even without being
+thus dispersed by means of solution, the calcareous matter may be
+absorbed by the siliceous substance of the stratum by means of fusion,
+or by heat and cementation. The fact is, that I have seen in sandstone
+the empty mould of marine shells with some siliceous crystallization,
+so far as I remember, which corresponded perfectly with that idea. The
+place I saw this was in a fine white sandstone accompanying the coal,
+upon the sea side at Brora in Sutherland.
+
+Mineralogy is much indebted to Mr Pallas for the valuable observations
+which he has given of countries so distant from the habitations of
+learned men. The physiology of the globe has also been enriched with
+some interesting observations from the labours of this learned traveller.
+But besides giving us facts, Mr Pallas has also reasoned upon the
+subject, and thus entered deep into the science of Cosmogeny; here it
+is that I am afraid he has introduced some confusion into the natural
+history of the earth, in not properly distinguishing the mineral
+operations of the globe, and those again which belong entirely to the
+surface of the earth; perhaps also in confounding the natural effects of
+water upon the surface of the earth, with those convulsions of the sea
+which may be properly considered as the accidental operations of the
+globe. This subject being strictly connected with the opinions of that
+philosopher with regard to primitive mountains, I am obliged to examine
+in this place matters which otherwise might have come more properly to
+be considered in another.
+
+M. Pallas in his _Observations sur la formation des montagnes_, (page
+48) makes the following observations.
+
+"J'ai deja dit que _la bande de montagnes primitives schisteuses_
+heterogenes, qui, par toute la terre, accompagne les chaines
+granitiques, et comprend les roches quartzeuses et talceuses mixtes,
+trapezoides, serpentines, le schiste corne, les roches spathiques et
+cornees, les grais purs, le porphyre et le jaspre, tous rocs feles
+en couches, ou presque perpendiculaires, ou du moins tres-rapidement
+inclinees, (les plus favorables a la filtration des eaux), semble
+aussi-bien que le granit, anterieure a la creation organisee. Une raison
+tres-forte pour appuyer cette supposition, c'est que la plupart de ces
+roches, quoique lamelleuse en facon d'ardoise, n'a jamais produit
+aux curieux la moindre trace de petrifactions ou empreintes de corps
+organises. S'il s'en est trouve, c'est apparemment dans des fentes de
+ces roches ou ces corps ont ete apportes par un deluge, et encastrees
+apres dans une matiere infiltree, de meme qu'on a trouve des restes
+d'Elephans dans le filon de la mine d'argent du Schlangenberg.[23] Les
+caracteres par lesquels plusieurs de ces roches semblent avoir souffert
+des effets d'un feu-tres-violent, les puissantes veines et amas des
+mineraux les plus riches qui se trouvent principalement dans la bande
+qui en est composee, leur position immediate sur le granit, et meme le
+passage, par lequel on voit souvent en grand, changer le granit en une
+des autres especes; tout cela indique une origine bien plus ancienne,
+et des causes bien differentes de celles qui ont produit les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+[Note 23: This is a very natural way of reasoning when a philosopher
+finds a fact, related by some naturalists, that does not correspond with
+his theory or systematic view of things. Here our author follows the
+general opinion in concluding that no organised body should be found in
+their primitive strata; when, therefore, such an object is said to have
+been observed, it is supposed that there may have been some mistake with
+regard to the case, and that all the circumstances may not have been
+considered. This caution with regard to the inaccurate representation of
+facts, in natural history, is certainly extremely necessary; the relicts
+of an elephant found in a mineral vein, is certainly a fact of that
+kind, which should not be given as an example in geology without the
+most accurate scientifical examination of the subject.]
+
+Here M. Pallas gives his reason for supposing those mountains primitive
+or anterior to the operations of this globe as a living world; _first_,
+because they have not, in general, marks of animals or plants; and that
+it is doubtful if they ever properly contain those marks of organised
+bodies; _secondly_, because many of those rocks have the appearance of
+having suffered the effects of the most violent fire. Now, What are
+those effects? Is it in their having been brought into a fluid state of
+fusion. In that case, no doubt, they may have been much changed from the
+original state of their formation; but this is a very good reason why,
+in this changed state, the marks of organised bodies, which may have
+been in their original constitution, should be now effaced.
+
+The _third_ reason for supposing those mountains primitive, is taken
+from the metallic veins, which are found so plentifully in these masses.
+Now, had these masses been the only bodies in this earth in which those
+mineral veins were found, there might be some species of reason for
+drawing the conclusion, which is here formed by our philosopher. But
+nothing is so common (at least in England) as mineral veins in the
+strata of the latest formation, and in those which are principally
+formed of marine productions; consequently so far from serving the
+purpose for which this argument was employed, the mineral veins in the
+primitive mountains tend to destroy their originality, by assimilating
+them in some respect with every other mass of strata or mountain upon
+the globe.
+
+_Lastly_, M. Pallas here employs an argument taken from an appearance
+for which we are particularly indebted to him, and by which the
+arguments which have been already employed in denying the originality
+of granite is abundantly confirmed. It has been already alleged, that
+granite, porphyry, and whinstone, or trap, graduate into each other; but
+here M. Pallas informs us that he has found the granite not only changed
+into porphyry, but also into the other alpine compositions. How an
+argument for the originality of these mountains can be established upon
+those facts, I am not a little at a loss to conceive.
+
+The general mineralogical view of the Russian dominions, which we have,
+in this treatise, may now be considered with regard to that distinction
+made by naturalists, of primitive, secondary, and tertiary mountains, in
+order to see how far the observations of this well informed naturalist
+shall be found to confirm the theory of the earth which has been already
+given, or not.
+
+The Oural mountains form a very long chain, which makes the natural
+division betwixt Europe and Asia, to the north of the Caspian. If in
+this ridge, as a centre of elevation, and of mineral operations, we
+shall find the greatest manifestation of the violent exertion of
+subterraneous fire, or of consolidating and elevating operations; and if
+we shall perceive a regular appearance of diminution in the violence or
+magnitude of those operations, as the places gradually recede from
+this centre of active force; we may find some explanation of those
+appearances, without having recourse to conjectures which carry no
+scientific meaning, and which are more calculated to confound our
+acquired knowledge, than to form any valuable distinction of things. Let
+us consult M. Pallas how far this is the case, or not.
+
+After having told us that all those various alpine schisti, jaspers,
+porphyries, serpentines, etc. in those mountains, are found mutually
+convertible with granite, or graduating into each other, our author thus
+continues, (p. 50).
+
+"On entrevoit de certaines loix a l'egard de l'arrangement respectif
+de cet ordre secondaire d'anciennes roches, par tous les systemes de
+montagnes qui appartiennent a l'Empire Russe. La chaine Ouralique, par
+exemple, a du cote de l'Orient sur tout sa longueur, une tres-grande
+abondance de schistes cornes, serpentins et talceux, riches en filons
+de cuivre, qui forment le principal accompagnement du granite, et en
+jaspres de diverses couleurs plus exterieurs et souvent comme entrelaces
+avec les premiers, mais formant des suites de montagnes entieres, et
+occupant de tres-grands espaces. De ce meme cote, il y parait beaucoup
+de quartz en grandes roches toutes pures, tant dans la principale chaine
+que dans le noyau des montagnes de jaspre, et jusques dans la plaine.
+Les marbres spateux et veines, percent en beaucoup d'endroits. La
+plupart de ces especes ne paraissent point du tout a la lisiere
+occidentale de la chaine, qui n'est presque que de roche melangee de
+schistes argileux, alumineux, phlogistique, etc. Les filons des mines
+d'or melees, les riches mines de cuivre en veines et chambrees, les
+mines de fer et d'aimant par amas et montagnes entieres, sont l'apanage
+de la bande schisteuse orientale; tandis que l'occidentale n'a pour elle
+que des mines de fer de depots, et se montre generalement tres-pauvre en
+metaux. Le granit de la chaine qui borde la Siberie, est recouvert du
+cote que nous connaissons de roches cornees de la nature des pierres a
+fusil, quelquefois tendant a la nature d'un grais fin et de schistes
+tres-metallieres de differente composition. Le jaspre n'y est qu'en
+filons, ou plans obliques, ce qui est tres-rare pour la chaine
+Ouralique, et s'observe dans la plus grande partie de la Siberie, a
+l'exception de cette partie de sa chaine qui passe pres de la mer
+d'Okhotsk, ou le jaspre forme derechef des suites de montagnes, ainsi
+que nous venons de le dire des monts Ourals; mais comme cette roche
+tient ici le cote meridionale de la chaine Siberienne, et que nous
+ne lui connaissons point ce cote sur le reste de sa longueur, il se
+pourrait que le jaspre y fut aussi abondant. Il faudrait, au reste, bien
+plus de fouilles et d observations pour etablir quelque chose de certain
+sur l'ordre respectif qu'observent ces roches."
+
+I would now ask, if in all this account of the gradation of rock from
+the Oural mountains to the sandy coast of the Baltic, there is to be
+observed any clear and distinctive mark of primitive, secondary, and
+tertiary, mountains, farther than as one stratum may be considered as
+either prior or posterior to another stratum, according to the order of
+superposition in which they are found. We have every where evident marks
+of the formation of strata by materials deposited originally in water;
+for the most part, there is sufficient proof that this water in which
+those materials had been deposited was the sea; we are likewise assured
+that the operations of this living world producing animals, must
+have, for a course of time, altogether inconceivably been exerted,
+in preparing materials for this mass; and, lastly, from the changed
+constitution of those masses, we may infer certain mineral operations
+that melt the substance and alter the position of those horizontal
+bodies. Such is the information which we may collect from this mineral
+description of the Russian Dominions.
+
+If we compare some of the Oural mountains with the general strata of
+the Russian plains, then, as to the contained minerals, we may find a
+certain diversity in those two places; at the same time, no greater
+perhaps than may be found betwixt two different bodies in those same
+plains, for example, chalk and flint. But when we consider those bodies
+of the earth, or solid strata of the globe, in relation to their proper
+structure and formation, we surely can find in this description nothing
+on which may be founded any solid opinion with regard to a different
+original, however important conclusions may perhaps be formed with
+regard to the operations of the globe, from the peculiar appearances
+found in alpine.
+
+From this detail of what is found in the Oural mountains, and in the
+gradation of country from those mountains to the plains of Russia, we
+have several facts that are worthy of observation. First extensive
+mountains of jasper. I have a specimen of this stone; it is striped red
+and green like some of our marly strata. It has evidently been formed of
+such argillaceous and siliceous materials, not only indurated, so as to
+lose its character, as an argillaceous stone, but to have been brought
+into that degree of fusion which produces perfect solidity. Of the same
+kind are those hornstein rocks of the nature of flint, sometimes tending
+to the nature of a fine sandstone. Here is the same induration of
+sandstone by means of fusion, that in the argillaceous strata has
+produced jasper. But oblique veins of jasper are represented as
+traversing these last strata; now this is a fact which is not
+conceivable in any other way, than by the injection or transfusion of
+the fluid jasper among those masses of indurated strata.
+
+All this belongs to the east side of the mountains. On the west, again,
+we find the same species of strata; only these are not changed to such a
+degree as to lose their original character or construction, and thus to
+be termed differently in mineralogy.
+
+Our author then proceeds. (p. 53.)
+
+"Nous pourrons parler plus decisivement sur les _montagnes secondaires
+et tertiaires_ de l'Empire, et c'est de celles-la, de la nature, de
+l'arrangement et du contenu de leurs couches, des grandes inegalites et
+de la forme du continent d'Europe et d'Asie, que l'on peut tirer avec
+plus de confiance quelques lumieres sur les changemens arrives aux
+terres habitables. Ces deux ordres de montagnes presentent la chronique
+de notre globe la plus ancienne, la moins sujette aux falsifications, et
+en meme-tems plus lisible que le caractere des chaines primitives;
+ce font les archives de la nature, anterieures aux lettres et aux
+traditions les plus reculees, qu'il etoit reserve a notre siecle
+observateur de feuiller, de commenter, et de mettre au jour, mais que
+plusieurs siecles apres le notre n'epuiseront pas.
+
+"Dans toute l'etendue de vastes dominations Russes, aussi bien que
+dans l'Europe entiere, les observateurs attentifs ont remarque
+que generalement la band schisteuse des grandes chaines se trouve
+immediatement recouverte ou cottee par la _bande calcaire_. Celle-ci
+forme deux ordres de montagnes, tres-differentes par la hauteur, la
+situation de leurs couches, et la composition de la pierre calcaire qui
+les compose; difference qui est tres-evidente dans cette bande calcaire
+qui forme la lisiere occidentale de toute la chaine Ouralique, et dont
+le plan s'etend par tout le plat pays de la Russie. L'on observerait
+la meme chose a l'orient de la chaine, et dans toute l'etendue de la
+Siberie, si les couches calcaires horizontales n'y etaient recouvertes
+par les depots posterieures, de facon qu'il ne parait a la surface que
+les parties les plus faillantes de la bande, et si ce pays n'etoit trop
+nouvellement cultive et trop peu exploite par des fouilles et autres
+operations, que des hommes industrieux ont pratique dans les pays
+anciennement habites. Ce que je vais exposer sur les deux ordres de
+montagnes calcaires, se rapportera donc principalement a celles qui sont
+a l'occident de la chaine Ouralique.
+
+"Ce cote de la dite chaine consiste sur cinquante a cent verstes de
+largeur, de roche calcaire solide, d'un grain uni, qui tantot ne
+contient aucune trace de productions marines, tantot n'en conserve
+que des empreintes aussi legeres qu'eparses. Cette roche s'eleve en
+montagnes d'une hauteur tres-considerable, irregulieres, rapides, et
+coupees de vallons escarpes. Ses couches, generalement epaisses, ne sont
+point de niveau, mais tres-inclinees a l'horizon, paralleles, pour la
+plupart, a la direction de la chaine, qui est aussi ordinairement celle
+de la bande schisteuse;--au lieu que du cote de l'orient les couches
+calcaires sont au sens de la chaine en direction plus ou moins
+approchante de l'angle droite. L'on trouve dans ces hautes montagnes
+calcaires de frequentes grottes et cavernes tres-remarquables, tant
+par leur grandeur que par les belles congelations et crystallizations
+stalactiques dont elles s'ornent. Quelques-unes de ces grottes ne
+peuvent etre attribuees qu'a quelque bouleversement des couches;
+d'autres semblent devoir leur origine a l'ecoulement des sources
+souterraines qui ont amolli, ronge et charrie une partie de la roche qui
+en etoit susceptible.
+
+"En s'eloignant de la chaine, on voit les couches calcaires s'aplanir
+assez rapidement, prendre une position horizontale, et devenir
+abondantes en toute forte de coquillages, de madrepores, et d'autres
+depouilles marines. Telles on les voit par-tout dans les vallees les
+plus basses qui se trouvent aux pieds des montagnes (comme aux environs
+de la riviere d'Oufa); telles aussi, elles occupent tout l'etendue de la
+grande Russie, tant en collines qu'en plat pays; solides tantot et comme
+semees de productions marines; tantot toutes composees de coquilles et
+madrepores brisees, et de ce gravier calcaire qui se trouve toujours sur
+les parages ou la mer abonde en pareilles productions; tantot, enfin,
+dissoutes en craie et en marines, et souvent entremelees de couches de
+gravier et de cailloux roules."
+
+How valuable for science to have naturalists who can distinguish
+properly what they see, and describe intelligibly that which they
+distinguish. In this description of the strata, from the chain of
+mountains here considered as primitive, to the plains of Russia, which
+are supposed to be of a tertiary formation, our naturalist presents us
+with another species of strata, which he has distinguished, on the one
+hand, in relation to the mountains at present in question, and on the
+other, with regard to the strata in the plains, concerning which there
+is at present no question at all. Now, let us see how these three things
+are so connected in their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
+links of the same chain.
+
+The primary and tertiary masses are bodies perfectly disconnected;
+and, without a medium by which they might be approached, they would be
+considered as things differing in all respects, consequently as having
+their origins of as opposite a nature as are their appearances. But the
+nature and formation of those bodies are not left in this obscurity;
+for, the secondary masses, which are interposed, participate so
+precisely of what is truly opposite and characteristic in the primary
+and tertiary masses, that it requires nothing more than to see this
+distinction of things in its true light, to be persuaded, that in those
+three different things we may perceive a certain gradation, which
+here takes place among the works of nature, and forms three steps
+distinguishable by a naturalist, although in reality nothing but the
+variable measure of similar operations.
+
+We are now to assimilate the primary and tertiary masses, which are so
+extremely different, by means of the secondary masses, which is the
+mean. The primary and tertiary differ in the following respects: The one
+of these contains the relicts of organised bodies which are not observed
+in the other. But in the species containing these distinguishable
+bodies, the natural structure and position of the mass is little
+affected, or not so much as to be called into doubt. This, however, is
+not the case with the other; the species in which organised bodies do
+not appear, is in general so indurated or consolidated in its structure,
+and changed in its position, that this common origin of those masses is
+by good naturalists, who have also carefully examined them, actually
+denied. Now, the secondary masses may be considered, not only as
+intermediate with respect to its actual place, as M. Pallas has
+represented it, but as uniting together the primary and tertiary, or as
+participating of the distinguishing characters of the other two. It
+is homologated with the primitive mountains, in the solidity of its
+substance and in the position of its strata; with the tertiary species,
+again, in its containing marks of organised bodies. How far this view
+of things is consistent with the theory of the earth now given, is
+submitted to the consideration of the unprejudiced.
+
+Let us see what our learned author has said farther on this subject,
+(page 65).
+
+"Je dois parler d'un ordre de montagnes tres-certainement posterieur aux
+couches marines, puisque celles-ci, generalement lui servent de base.
+On n'a point jusqu'ici observe une suite de ces _montagnes tertiaires_,
+effet des catastrophes les plus modernes de notre globe, si marquee
+et si puissante, que celle qui accompagne la chaine Ouralique ou cote
+occidentale fur tout la longueur. Cette suite de montagnes, pour la
+plupart composees de grais, de marnes rougeatres, entremelees de couches
+diversement mixtes, forme une chaine par-tout separee par une vallee
+plus ou moins large de la bande de roche calcaire, dont nous avons
+parle. Sillonnee et entrecoupee de frequens vallons, elles s'eleve
+souvent a plus de cent toises perpendiculaires, se repand vers les
+plaines de la Russie en trainees de collines, qui separent les rivieres,
+en accompagnant generalement la rive boreale ou occidentale, et degenere
+enfin en deserts sableux qui occupent de grands espaces, et s'etendent
+surtout par longues bandes paralleles aux principales traces qui suivent
+les cours des rivieres. La principale force de ces montagnes tertiaires
+est plus pres de la chaine primitive par-tout le gouvernement
+d'Orenbourg et la Permie, ou elle consiste principalement en grais, et
+contient un fond inepuisable de mines de cuivre sableuses, argileuses,
+et autres qui se voient ordinairement dans les couches horizontales.
+Plus loin, vers la plaine, sont des suites de collines toutes marneuses,
+qui abondent autant en pierres gypseuses, que les autres en minerais
+cuivreux. Je n'entre pas dans le detail de celles-ci, qui indiquent
+sur-tout les sources salines; mais je dois dire des premieres, qui
+abondent le plus et dont les plus hautes elevations des plaines, meme
+celle de Moscou, sont formees, qu'elles contiennent tres-peu de traces
+de productions marines, et jamais des amas entiers de ces corps, tels
+qu'une mer reposee pendant des siecles de suite a pu les accumuler dans
+les bancs calcaires. Rien, au contraire, de plus abondant dans ces
+montagnes de grais stratifie sur l'ancien plan calcaire, que des troncs
+d'arbres entieres et des fragmens de bois petrifie, souvent mineralise
+par le cuivre ou le fer; des impressions de troncs de palmires, de
+tiges de plantes, de roseau, et de quelques fruits etrangers; enfin des
+ossemens d'animaux terrestres, si rares dans les couches calcaires. Les
+bois petrifies se trouvent jusques dans les collines de sable de la
+plaine; l'on en tire, entr'autres, des hauteurs sablonneuses aux
+environs de Sysran sur la Volga, changes en queux tres-fin, qui a
+conserve jusqu'a la texture organique du bois, et remarquables sur-tout
+par les traces tres-evidentes de ces vers rongeurs qui attaquent les
+vaisseaux, les pilotis et autres bois trempes dans la mer, et qui sont
+proprement originaires de la mer des Indes."
+
+This philosopher has now given us a view of what, according to the
+present fashion of mineral philosophy, he has termed _montagnes
+primitives, secondaires, et tertiaires_. The first consists in masses
+and strata, much indurated and consolidated, and greatly displaced in
+their position; but the character of which is chiefly taken from this,
+that they contain not any visible mark of animal or vegetable bodies.
+
+The second are formed in a great measure of marine productions, are
+often no less consolidated than those of the first class, and frequently
+no less changed in their natural shape and situation.
+
+The third again have for character, according to this learned theorist,
+the containing of those organised bodies which are proper to the earth,
+instead of those which in the second class had belonged to the sea;
+in other respects, surely there is no essential difference. It is not
+pretended that these tertiary strata had any other origin, than that of
+having been deposited in water; it is not so much as suspected, that
+this water had been any other than that of the sea; the few marine
+bodies which M. Pallas here acknowledges, goes at least to prove this
+fact: and with regard to the mineral operations which had been employed
+in consolidating those water formed strata, it is impossible not to be
+convinced that every effect visible in the other two are here also to be
+perceived.
+
+From this view of mineral bodies, taken from the extensive observations
+of the Russian dominions, and from the suppositions of geologists in
+relation to those appearances, we should be led to conclude that the
+globe of this earth had been originally nothing but an ocean, a world
+containing neither plant nor animal to live, to grow and propagate its
+species. In following a system founded on those appearances, we must
+next suppose, that to the sterile unorganised world there had succeeded
+an ocean stored with fish of every species. Here it would be proper to
+inquire what sustained those aquatic animals; for, in such a system as
+this, there is no provision made for continuing the life even of the
+individuals, far less of feeding the species while, in an almost
+infinite succession of individuals, they should form a continent of land
+almost composed of their _exuviae_.
+
+If fish can be fed upon water and stone; if siliceous bodies can, by
+the digesting powers of animals, be converted into argillaceous and
+calcareous earths; and if inflammable matter can be prepared without the
+intervention of vegetable bodies, we might erect a system in which this
+should be the natural order of things. But to form a system in direct
+opposition to every order of nature that we know, merely because we may
+suppose another order of things different from the laws of nature which
+we observe, would be as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in
+science, by which the speculations of philosophy are directed, as it
+would be contrary to common sense, by which the affairs of mankind are
+conducted.
+
+Still, however, to pursue our visionary system, after a continent had
+been formed from the relicts of those animals, living, growing, and
+propagating, during an indefinite series of ages, plants at last are
+formed; and, what is no less wonderful, those animals which had formed
+the earth then disappear; but, in compensation, we are to suppose, I
+presume, that terrestrial animals began. Let us now reason from those
+facts, without either constraining nature, which we know, or forming
+visionary systems, with regard to things which are unknown. It would
+appear, that at one period of time, or in one place, the matter of the
+globe may be deposited, in strata, without containing any organised
+bodies; at another time, or in another place, much animal matter may be
+deposited in strata, without any vegetable substance there appearing;
+but at another period, or at another time, strata may be formed with
+much vegetable matter, while there is hardly to be observed any animal
+body. What then are we to conclude upon the whole? That nature, forming
+strata, is subject to vicissitudes; and that it is not always the same
+regular operation with respect to the materials, although always forming
+strata upon the same principles. Consequently, upon the same spot in
+the sea, different materials may be accumulated at different periods of
+time, and, conversely, the same or similar materials may be collected in
+different places at the same time. Nothing more follows strictly from
+the facts on which we now are reasoning; and this is a conclusion which
+will be verified by every appearance, so far as I know.
+
+Of this I am certain, that in a very little space of this country, in
+many places, such a course of things is to be perceived. Nothing so
+common as to find alternated, over and over again, beds of sand-stone
+without animal bodies, beds of coal and schistus abounding with
+vegetable bodies, beds of lime-stone formed of shells and corals, and
+beds or particular strata of iron-stone containing sometimes vegetable
+sometimes animal bodies, or both. Here, indeed, the strata are most
+commonly inclined; it is seldom they are horizontal; consequently, as
+across the whole country, all the strata come up to the day, and may be
+seen in the beds of our rivers, we have an opportunity of observing that
+great variety which is in nature, and which we are not able to explain.
+This only is certain, from what we see, that there is nothing formed
+in one epoch of nature, but what has been repeated in another, however
+dissimilar may be the operations which had intervened between those
+several epochs.
+
+It must not be alleged, that the heights of the Oural mountains, or the
+hardness of their rocks, make an essential distinction between them
+and the argillaceous or arenaceous strata of the plains; solidity and
+hardness, as well as changes in their height and natural position, has
+been superinduced in operations posterior to the collection of those
+masses,--operations which may be formed in various degrees, even in the
+different parts of the same mass. If this is the case, there can be no
+difficulty in conceiving a stratum, which appears to be argillaceous
+or marly in the plains, to be found jasper in the Oural mountains. But
+there is nothing in the Oural mountains, that may not be found some
+where or other in the plains, although the soft and easily decomposing
+argillaceous strata be not found upon the Oural mountains, or the Alps,
+for this reason, that had those mountains been formed of such materials,
+there had not been a mountain there at this day.
+
+But surely the greatest possible error, with regard to the philosophy of
+this earth, would be to confound the sediment of a river with the strata
+of the globe; bodies deposited upon the surface of the earth, with those
+sunk at the bottom of the sea; and things which only form the travelled
+or transported soil, with those which constitute the substratum or the
+solid earth. How far M. Pallas has committed this oversight, I leave
+others to determine. After mentioning those strata in which wood is
+found petrified, and metallic minerals formed, he thus proceeds, (page
+69).
+
+"Dans ces memes depots sableux et souvent limoneux, gisent les restes
+des grands animaux de l'Inde: ces ossemens d'elephans, de rhinoceros, de
+buffles monstrueux, dont on deterre tous les jours un si grand nombre,
+et qui font l'admiration des curieux. En Siberie, ou l'on a decouvert le
+long de presque toutes les rivieres ces restes d'animaux etrangers,
+et l'ivoire meme bien conserve en si grande abondance, qu'il forme un
+article de commerce, en Siberie, dis je, c'est aussi la couche la plus
+moderne de limon sablonneux qui leur sert de sepulture, et nulle part
+ces monumens etrangers sont si frequens, qu'aux endroits ou la grande
+chaine, qui domine surtout la frontiere meridionale de la Siberie, offre
+quelque depression, quelque ouverture considerable.
+
+"Ces grands ossemens, tantot epars tantot entasses par squelettes,
+et meme par hecatombes, consideree dans leurs sites naturels, m'ont
+sur-tout convaincu de la realite d'un deluge arrive sur notre terre,
+d'une catastrophe, dont j'avoue n'avoir pu concevoir la vraisemblance
+avant d'avoir parcouru ces places, et vu, par moi-meme, tout ce qui peut
+y servir de preuve a cet evenement memorable[24]. Une infinite de ces
+ossemens couches dans des lits meles de petites tellines calcinees, d'os
+de poissons, de glossopetres, de bois charges d'ocre, etc. prouve deja
+qu'ils ont ete transportes par des inondations. Mais la carcasse d'un
+rhinoceros, trouve avec sa peau entiere, des restes de tendons, de
+ligamens, et de cartilages, dans les terres glacees des bords du
+Viloui, dont j'ai depose les parties les mieux conservees au cabinet de
+l'Academie, forme encore une preuve convaincante que ce devait etre
+un mouvement d'inondation des plus violens et des plus rapides, qui
+entraina jadis ces cadavres vers nos climats glaces, avant que la
+corruption eut le tems, d'en detruire les parties molles. Il seroit a
+souhaiter qu'un observateur parvint aux montagnes qui occupent l'espace
+entre les fleuves Indighirka et Koylma ou selon le rapport des
+chasseurs, de semblables carcasses d'elephans et d'autres animaux
+gigantesques encore revetues de leurs peaux, ont ete remarquees a
+plusieurs reprises."
+
+[Note 24: Voyez le Memoire, imprime dans le XVII. volume des nouveaux
+Commentaires de l'Academie Imperiale de Petersbourgh.]
+
+The question here turns upon this, Are the sea shells and glossopetrae,
+which are thus found deposited along with those skeletons, in their
+natural state, or are they petrified and mineralised. If the productions
+of the sea shall here be found collected along with bodies belonging to
+the surface of the earth, and which had never been within the limits of
+the sea, this would surely announce to us some strange catastrophe,
+of which it would be difficult, perhaps, to form a notion; if, on the
+contrary, those marine productions belong to the solid strata of the
+earth, in the resolution or decay of which they had been set at liberty,
+and were transported in the floods, our author would have no reason from
+those appearances to conclude, there had existed any other deluge than
+those produced by the waters of the land[25].
+
+[Note 25: Since writing this, I find my doubts in a great measure
+resolved, in reading M. Pallas's Journal, translated from the German by
+M. Gauthier de la Peyronie. What I had suspected is, I think, confirmed
+in the distinct account which M. Pallas has given of those occasions
+in which the bones of land animals and marine objects are found buried
+together. The marine objects are mineralised; consequently, they have
+proceeded from the decomposition of the solid strata; and, having been
+travelled in the running water of the surface of the earth, they must
+have been deposited in those beds of rivers, which now are dry, alongst
+with the bones, or the entire bodies of terrestrial animals, the remains
+of which are now found there. This argument, from the state of those
+marine bodies will not be allowed, perhaps by the generality of
+mineralists, who attribute to the operations of water every species of
+petrifaction or mineralisation; but, until some species of proof be
+given with regard to the truth of that theory, which vulgar error first
+suggested, I must reason from a theory, in proof of which I have given
+clear examples, and, I think, irrefragable arguments, which shall be
+more and more illustrated. Thus may be removed the necessity of a
+general deluge, or any great catastrophe, in order to bring together
+things so foreign to each other; but at the same time we would ascertain
+this fact, That formerly the Elephant and Rhinoceros had lived in
+Siberia. (See Voyage de Pallas, Tom. II. p. 377 and 403.)]
+
+Having thus endeavoured to remove this prevailing prejudice, of there
+being primitive parts in this earth, parts of which the composition and
+constitution are not to be explained upon the principles of natural
+philosophy, it will be proper to inquire, how far there may be in the
+theory, which has now been given, principles by which may be explained
+those appearances that have led natural philosophers to form
+conclusions, of there being in this earth parts whose origin may not be
+traced; and of there being parts whose origin may not be explained upon
+the same principles which apply so well to all the rest.
+
+
+
+CHAP. V.
+
+Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
+Earth.
+
+In the present theory, it is maintained, that there is no part of the
+earth which has not had the same origin, so far as this consists in that
+earth being collected at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards produced,
+as land, along with masses of melted substances, by the operation of
+mineral causes. But, though all those things be similar, or equal, as to
+the manner of their production, they are far from being so with regard
+to the periods of their original composition, or to the subsequent
+operations which they may have undergone.
+
+There is a certain order established for the progress of nature, for the
+succession of things, and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
+of this globe; and, the order of time is associated with this change of
+things. But it is not in equal portions that time is thus combined with
+dissimilar things, nor always found, in our estimation, as equally
+accompanying those which we reckon similar. The succession of light and
+darkness is that which, in those operations, appears to us most steady;
+the alternation of heat and cold comes next, but not with equal
+regularity in its periods. The succession of wet and dry upon the
+surface of the earth, though equally the work of nature and the effect
+of regular causes, is often to us irregular, when we look for equal
+periods in the course of things which are unequal. It is by equalities
+that we find order in things, and we wish to find order every where.
+
+The present object of our contemplation is the alternation of land
+and water upon the surface of this globe. It is only in knowing this
+succession of things, that natural appearances can be explained; and
+it is only from the examination of those appearances, that any certain
+knowledge of this operation is to be obtained. But how shall we acquire
+the knowledge of a system calculated for millions, not of years only,
+nor of the ages of man, but of the races of men, and the successions of
+empires? There is no question here with regard to the memory of man, of
+any human record, which continues the memory of man from age to age; we
+must read the transactions of time past, in the present state of natural
+bodies; and, for the reading of this character, we have nothing but
+the laws of nature, established in the science of man by his inductive
+reasoning.
+
+It has been in reasoning after this manner, that I have endeavoured to
+prove, that every thing which we now behold, of the solid parts of this
+earth, had been formerly at the bottom of the sea; and that there is, in
+the constitution of this globe, a power for interchanging sea and land.
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the system of this globe,
+we may next examine, how far there are to be found any marks of certain
+parts of our earth having more than once undergone that change of
+posture, or vicissitude of things, and of having had reiterated
+operations of the mineral kingdom changing their substance, as well as
+altering their positions in relation to the atmosphere and sea.
+
+Besides the gradual decay of solid land, exposed to the silent
+influences of the atmosphere, and to the violent operations of the
+waters moving upon the surface of the earth, there is a more sudden
+destruction that may be supposed to happen sometimes to our continents
+of land. In order to see this, it must be considered, that the
+continents of our earth are only raised above the level of the sea by
+the expansion of matter, placed below that land, and rarified in that
+place: We may thus consider our land as placed upon pillars, which may
+break, and thus restore the ancient situation of things when this land
+had been originally collected at the bottom of the ocean. It is not here
+inquired by what mechanism this operation is to be performed; it is
+certainly by the exertion of a subterranean power that the land is
+elevated from the place in which it had been formed; and nothing is more
+natural than to suppose the supports of the land in time to fail, or be
+destroyed in the course of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
+In that case, whatever were remaining of that land, which had for
+millions of ages past sustained plants and animals, would again be
+placed at the bottom of the sea; and strata of every different species
+might be deposited again upon that mass, which, from an atmospheric
+situation, is now supposed to be lower than the surface of the sea.
+
+Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated, or restored with the
+new superincumbent strata, consolidated in their texture and inclined in
+their position. In that case, the inferior mass must have undergone a
+double course of mineral changes and displacement; consequently, the
+effect of subterranean heat or fusion must be more apparent in this
+mass, and the marks of its original formation more and more obliterated.
+
+If, in examining our land, we shall find a mass of matter which had been
+evidently formed originally in the ordinary manner of stratification,
+but which is now extremely distorted in its structure, and displaced in
+its position,--which is also extremely consolidated in its mass, and
+variously changed in its composition,--which therefore has the marks
+of its original or marine composition extremely obliterated, and many
+subsequent veins of melted mineral matter interjected; we should then
+reason to suppose that here were masses of matter which, though not
+different in their origin from those that are gradually deposited at the
+bottom of the ocean, have been more acted upon by subterranean heat and
+the expanding power, that is to say, have been changed in a greater
+degree by the operations of the mineral region. If this conclusion shall
+be thought reasonable, then here is an explanation of all the peculiar
+appearances of the alpine schistus masses of our land, those parts which
+have been erroneously considered as primitive in the constitution of the
+earth.
+
+We are thus led to suppose, that some parts of our earth may have
+undergone the vicissitudes of sea and land more than once, having been
+changed from the summit of a continent to the bottom of the sea, and
+again erected, with the rest of that bottom, into the place of land. In
+that case, appearances might be found to induce natural philosophers to
+conclude that there were in our land primary parts, which had not the
+marine origin which is generally to be acknowledged in the structure
+of this earth; and, by finding other masses, of marine origin,
+superincumbent upon those primary mountains, they might make strange
+suppositions in order to explain those natural appearances.
+
+Let us now see what has been advanced by those philosophers who, though
+they term these parts of the earth _primordial_, and not _primitive_, at
+the same time appear to deny to those parts an origin analogous to that
+of their secondary mountains, or strata that are aquiform in their
+construction.
+
+M. de Luc, after having long believed that the strata of the Alps had
+been formed like those of the low countries, at the bottom of the sea,
+gives an account of the occasion by which he was first confirmed in the
+opposite opinion.[26] Like a true philosopher, he gives us the reason of
+this change.
+
+[Note 26: Lettres Physique et Morales sur l'Histoire de la Terre, tom.
+2. pag. 206.]
+
+"Ce fut une espece de _montagne_ tres commune, et que j'avois souvent
+examinee qui dessilla mes yeux. La pierre qui la compose est de
+la classe appellee _schiste_; son caractere generique est d'etre
+_feuilletee_; elle renferme _l'ardoise_ dont on couvre les toits. Ces
+_feuillets_ minces, qu'on peut prendre pour des _couches_, et qui le
+font en effet dans quelques pierres de ce genre, rappelloient toujours
+l'idee vague de depots des eaux. Mais il y a des masses dont la
+composition est plutot par fibres que par feuillets, et dont le moellon
+ressemble aux copeaux de bois d'un chantier. Le plus souvent aussi les
+feuillets sont situes en toute suite de sens dans une meme _montagne_,
+et quelquefois meme verticalement, Enfin il s'en trouve de si tortilles,
+qu'il est impossible de les regarder comme des depots de l'eau.
+
+"Ce fut donc cette espece de montagne qui me persuada la premiere
+que toutes les montagnes n'avoient pas une meme origine. Le lieu ou
+j'abjurai mon erreur, etoit un de ces grands _chantiers_ petrifies, qui,
+par la variete du tortillement, et des zig-zags des fibres du moellon
+qui le composoit, attira singulierement mon attention. C'etoit un sort
+grand talus qui venoit d'une face escarpee; j'y montai pour m'approcher
+du rocher, et je remarquai, avec etonnement, des multitudes de paquets
+enchevetres les uns dans les autres, sans ordre ni direction fixe; les
+uns presqu'en rouleaux; les autres en zig-zag; et meme ce qui, separe de
+la montagne, eut peu etre pris pour des _couches_, le trouvoit incline
+de toute maniere dans cette meme face de rocher. _Non_, me dis-je alors
+a moi-meme; _non, l'eau n'a pu faire cette montagne.... Ni celle-la
+donc_, ajoutai-je en regardant ailleurs.... _Et pourquoi mieux celle-la?
+Pourquoi toutes les montagnes devroient-elles etre le produit des eaux,
+seulement parce qu'il y en a quelques-unes qui annoncent cette origine_?
+En effet, puis qu'on n'a songe aux eaux, comme cause des montagnes,
+que par les preuves evidentes que quelques-unes offroient de cette
+formation; pourquoi etendre cette consequence a toutes, s'il y en
+a beaucoup qui manquent de ces caracteres? C'est comme le dit Mr.
+d'Alembert, qu'on generalise ses premieres remarques l'instant d'apres
+qu'on ne remarquoit rien."
+
+Science is indebted to this author for giving us so clear a picture
+of natural appearances, and of his own reasoning upon those facts, in
+forming his opinion; he thus leads astray no person of sound judgment,
+although he may be in error. The disposition of things in the present
+case are such, that, reasoning from his principles, this author could
+not see the truth; because he had not been persuaded, that aquiform
+strata could have been so changed by the chemical power of fusion, and
+the mechanical force of bending while in a certain state of softness.
+
+But though, in this case, the reasoning of this philosopher is to be
+justified, so far as he proceeded upon principles which could not lead
+him to the truth, his conduct is not so irreproachable in applying them
+to cases by which their fallacy might have been detected. This author
+acknowledges calcareous strata to be aquiform in their original; but,
+in those mountains which he has so much examined, he will find those
+aquiform bodies have undergone the same species of changes, which made
+him conclude that those schistus mountains had not been truly aquiform,
+as he at first had thought them. This would have led him to reason back
+upon his principles, and to say, _If one species of strata may be thus
+changed in its texture, and its shape, may not another be equally so?
+Therefore, may not the origin of both be similar_?
+
+But least I should do injustice to this author, to whom we are indebted
+for many valuable observations in natural history, I shall transcribe
+what he has said upon the subject, being persuaded that my readers will
+not think this improper in me, or impertinent to the argument.
+
+"Quand nous fumes une fois persuades que la mer n'avoit pas fait
+toutes les _montagnes_, nous entreprimes de decouvrir les caracteres
+distinctifs de celles qui lui devoient leur origine; et s'il etoit, par
+exemple, des matieres qui leur fussent propres. Mais nous y trouvames
+les memes difficultes qu'on rencontre dans tout ce qu'on veut classer
+dans la nature. On peut bien distinguer entr'elles les choses qui
+ont fortement l'empreinte de leur classe; mais les confins echappent
+toujours.
+
+"C'est la, pour le dire en passant, ce qui a pu conduire quelques
+philosophes a imaginer cette _chaine des etres_ ou ils supposent,
+que, de la pierre a l'homme et plus haut, les nuances sont reellement
+imperceptibles. Comme si, quoique les limites soyent cachees a nos sens,
+notre intelligence ne nous disoit pas, qu'il y a un _saut_, une distance
+meme infinie, entre le plus petit degre d'organization _propageante_,
+et la matiere unie par la simple cohesion: entre le plus petit degre de
+_sensibilite_, et la matiere insensible: entre la plus petite capacite
+d'observer et de transmettre ses observations, et l'instinct constamment
+le meme dans l'espece. Toutes ces differences tranchees existent dans la
+nature; mais notre incapacite de rien connoitre a fond, et la necessite
+ou nous sommes de juger de tout sur des apparences, nous fait perdre
+presque toutes les limites, parce que sur ces bords, la plupart des
+phenomenes sont equivoques. Ainsi la plante nous paroit se rapprocher de
+la pierre, mais n'en approche jamais reellement.
+
+"On eprouve la meme difficulte a classer les montagnes; et quoique
+depuis quelque tems plusieurs naturalistes ayent aussi observe qu'elles
+n'ont pas toutes la meme origine, je ne vois pas qu'on soit parvenu a
+fixer des caracteres infaillibles, pour les placer surement toutes dans
+leurs classes particulieres.
+
+"Apres avoir examine attentivement cet objet, d'apres les phenomenes que
+j'ai moi-meme observes, et ce que j'ai appris par les observations des
+autres; j'ai vu que c'etoit la un champ tres vaste, quand on vouloit
+l'embrasser en entier, et trop vaste pour moi, qui n'etoit pas libre d'y
+consacrer tout le tems qu'il exige. Je me suis donc replie sur mon objet
+principal, savoir _la cause qui a laisse des depouilles marines dans nos
+continens_, et l'examen des hypotheses sur cette matiere.
+
+"Les phenomenes ainsi limites, se reduisent a ceci: qu'il y a dans nos
+continens des montagnes visiblement formees par des _depots successifs
+de la mer_ et a l'egard des quelles il n'y a besoin de rien imaginer, si
+ce n'est la maniere dont elles en sont sorties: qu'il y en a d'autres au
+contraire, qui ne portent aucun des caracteres de cette cause, et qui,
+si elles ont ete produites dans la _mer_, doivent etre l'effet de toute
+autre cause que de simples depots successifs, et avoir meme precede
+l'existence des animaux marins. J'abandonne donc les classes confuses
+ou ces caracteres sont equivoques, jusqu'a ce qu'elles servent a fonder
+quelque hypothese; ayant assez de ces deux classes tres distinctes pour
+examiner d'apres elles tous les systemes qui me sont connus.
+
+"La ou ces deux classes de montagnes sont melees, on remarque que celles
+qui sont formees par _couches_, et qui renferment des _corps marins_,
+recouvrent souvent celles de l'autre classe, mais n'en sont jamais
+recouvertes. On a donc naturellement conclu, que lors meme que la _mer_
+auroit en quelque part a la formation des montagnes ou l'on ne reconnoit
+pas son caractere, celles auxquelles elle a travaille seule, en enlevant
+des matieres dans certaines parties de son fond et les deposant dans
+d'autres, font au moins les dernieres formees. On les a donc nommees
+_secondaires_, et les autres _primitives_.
+
+"J'adopterai la premiere de ces expressions; car c'est la meme qui nous
+etoit venu a l'esprit a mon frere, et a moi longtemps avant que nous
+l'eussions vue employer; mais je substituerai celle de _primordiales a_
+_primitives_ pour l'autre classe de _montagnes_, afin de ne rien decider
+sur leur origine. Il est des _montagnes_, dont jusqu'a present on n'a pu
+demeler la cause: voila le fait. Je ne dirai donc pas qu'elles ont
+ete creees ainsi, parce qu'en physique je ne dois pas employer des
+expressions sur lesquelles on ne s'entend pas. Sans doute cependant,
+que l'histoire naturelle ni la physique ne nous conduisent nullement a
+croire que notre globe ait existe de toute eternite; et lorsqu'il prit
+naissance, il fallut bien que la matiere qui le composa fut de quelque
+nature, ou sous quelque premiere forme integrante. Rien donc jusqu'ici
+n'empeche d'admettre que ces _montagnes_ que je nommerai _primordiales_,
+ne soient reellement _primitives_; je penche meme pour cette opinion
+a l'egard de quelques unes. Mais il y a une tres grande variete
+entr'elles; et quoiqu'elles soyent toutes egalement exclues de la classe
+_secondaire_, elles ne sont pas toutes semblables: il y en a meme un
+grand nombre dont les matieres ont une certaine configuration qui semble
+annoncer qu'elles ayent ete molles et durcies ensuite, quoique par
+une toute autre cause que celle qui a agi pour former les montagnes
+secondaires."
+
+Here I would beg leave to call the attention of philosophers to this
+observation of a naturalist who explains all petrification, and the
+consolidation of strata by aqueous infiltration. If he has here found
+reason to conclude that, in those primordial parts of the earth, there
+are a great number which, from their present configuration, must have
+been in a soft state and then hardened, and this by a quite different
+cause from that which he supposes had produced the consolidation and
+hardness of the secondary parts; this is entering precisely into my
+views of the subject, in ascribing all the consolidation of the earth,
+whether primary or secondary, to one general cause, and in tracing this
+cause, from its effects, to be no other than the fusion of those bodies.
+It must be evident, that if this philosopher has seen good reason for
+concluding such a softening cause, which had operated upon the primary
+parts, to be quite different from that which he ascribes to the
+consolidation of the secondary, which is the effect of water, it must
+then, I say, be evident that the softening cause of the primary parts,
+if not heat, by which every degree of fusion may be produced, must be an
+occult cause, one which cannot be admitted into natural philosophy.
+
+By thus choosing to consider mountains as of two distinct kinds, one
+aquiform which is understood, and the other primordial which is not to
+be known, we supersede the necessity of reconciling a theory with many
+appearances in nature which otherwise might be extremely inconvenient
+to our explanation, if not inconsistent with our system. Our author no
+doubt has thus relieved himself from a considerable difficulty in the
+philosophy of this earth, by saying here is a great part which is not
+to be explained. But I would beg leave to observe, that this form of
+discussion, with regard to a physical subject, is but a mere confession
+of our ignorance, and has no tendency to clear up another part of the
+subject of which one treats, however it may impress us with a favourable
+opinion of the theorist, in allowing him all the candour of the
+acknowledgement.
+
+The general result of the reasoning which we now have quoted, and what
+follows in his examination, seems to terminate in this; that there are
+various different compositions of mountains which this author cannot
+allow to be the production of the sea; but it is not upon account of
+the matter of which they are formed, or of the particular mixture and
+composition of those species of matter, of which the variety is almost
+indefinite. According to this philosopher, the distinction that we are
+to make of those primordial and secondary competitions, consists in
+this, that the first are in such a shape and structure as cannot be
+conceived to be formed by subsidence in water.
+
+M. de Saussure has carefully examined those same objects; and he seems
+inclined to think that they must have been the operation of the ocean;
+not in the common manner of depositing strata, but in some other way by
+crystallization. The present theory supposes all those masses formed
+originally in the ordinary manner, by the deposits or subsidence
+of materials transported in the waters, and that those strata were
+afterwards changed by operations proper to the mineral regions.
+
+But the subject of the present investigation goes farther, by inquiring
+if, in the operations of the globe, a primary and secondary class of
+bodies may be distinguished, so far as the one may have undergone the
+operations of the globe, or the vicissitudes of sea and land, oftener
+than the other, consequently must be anterior to the later productions
+both in time and operation, although the original of all those bodies
+be the same, and the operations of the earth, so far as we see in the
+effects, always proceed upon the same principles. This is an extensive
+view of nature to which few have turned their thoughts. But this is
+a subject to which the observations described by this author have
+evidently a reference.
+
+In his 113th letter, he has given us a view of one of those parts of the
+earth that are proper to be examined in determining this question so
+important in the genealogy of land, although no ways concerned in
+altering the principles upon which nature in forming continents must
+proceed.
+
+It is in describing the nature of the mountains about _Elbingerode_; and
+he begins in ascending from Hefeld.
+
+"Cette partie exterieure de la chaine est _primordiale_: c'est du
+_granit_ a _Hereld_ et au commencement de la route; puis quand on passe
+dans d'autres vallees, on trouve les _schistes_ et la _roche grise_ dans
+tout le pied des montagnes: mais des qu'on est arrive a une certain
+hauteur, on voit de la _pierre a chaux_ par couches etendue sur ces
+matieres; et c'est elle qui forme le sommet de ces memes montagnes;
+tellement que la plaine elevee, qui conduit a _Elbingerode_, est
+entierement de _pierre a chaux_, excepte dans sa partie la plus haute ou
+cette pierre est recouverte des memes _gres_ et sables _vitrescibles_
+qui sont sur le schiste du Bruchberg et sur la _pierre a chaux_ dans la
+_Hesse_ et le pays de Gottingue.
+
+"Les environs d'Elbingerode etant plus bas que ces parties recouvertes
+de matieres vitrescibles, montrent la _pierre a chaux_ a nud; et l'on y
+trouve de tres beaux marbres, dont les nuances jaunes, rouges et vertes
+sont souvent tres vives, et embellies par les coupes des _corps marins_.
+
+"Cependant le schiste n'est pas enseveli partout sous ces depots de la
+mer; on le retrouve en quelques endroits, et meme avec de _filons_.
+
+"Ainsi au milieu de ces matieres _calcaires_ qui forment le sol montueux
+des environs _d'Elbingerode_, paroit encore le _schiste_ sur lequel
+elles ont ete deposees: Et en montant a la partie la plus elevee de
+ces memes environs, on trouve que la _pierre a chaux_ est recouverte
+elle-meme d'une _pierre sableuse_ grise par couches, dans laquelle on
+voit quantite de petits fragmens de _schiste_ poses de plat. C'est la
+que se trouve une des mines de _fer_ dont le minerai va en partie a la
+_Koningshutte_, mais en plus grande partie a la _Rothechutte_, qui n'est
+qu'a une lieue de distance. On perce d'abord la couche sableuse; sous
+elle se trouve de la _pierre a chaux_ grise; puis une couche de
+_pierre a chaux ferrugineuse_, remplie de _corps marins_, et surtout
+_d'entroques_: C'est cette _couche_ qui est ici le _minerai_; et elle
+appartient a la formation de cette eminence comme toutes les autres
+_couches_. Cette mine se nomme _bomshey_: elle n'est pas riche; mais
+elle sert de _fondant_ aux matieres ferrugineuses tirees des filons des
+montagnes primordiales en meme tems qu'elle leur ajoute son _fer_ dans
+la fonte. A quelque distance de la on a perce un autre puits; qui a
+transverse d'abord une sorte de pierre, que je ne saurois nommer, mais
+qui ressemble fort a une _lave_ poreuse. Au dessous de cette couche on a
+retrouve la _pierre a chaux_ ordinaire; puis la _couche ferrugineuse_ y
+continue; mais elle differe un peu de ce qu'elle est dans l'autre mine,
+une partie de sa substance etant convertie en _jaspe_.
+
+"Mais ce qui est digne de la plus grande attention dans cette contree,
+est un filon peu distant nomme _Buchenberg_, qui appartient en partie au
+Roi, et en partie a Mr. le Comte de _Wernigerode_. La montagne en cette
+endroit montre une vallee artificielle de 70 a 80 pieds de profondeur,
+de 20 a 30 de largeur dans le haut, et de 400 toises en etendue. C'est
+le creusement qu'on a deja fait en suivant ce _filon_ de _fer_, que l'on
+continue a exploiter de la meme maniere sur les terres de Mr. le Comte
+de _Wernigerode_. La matiere propre de la montagne _est_ de _schiste_;
+et la vallee qui se forme de nouveau a mesure qu'on enleve la _gangue_
+du _filon_, a surement deja existe dans la mer sous la forme d'une
+_fente_, qui a ete remplie, et en particulier des ingrediens dont on
+fait aujourd'hui le _fer_."
+
+Here is a supposition of our author that corresponds to nothing which
+has yet been observed any where else, so far as I know. It is concerning
+a mineral vein, one which does not appear to differ in any respect from
+other mineral veins, except in being worked in that open manner which
+has given our author an idea of its being a valley. He then supposes
+that valley (or rather empty vein) to have been in this mountain when at
+the bottom of the sea, and that this mineral vein had then been filled
+with those materials which now are found in that space between the two
+sides of the separated rock. This is a very different operation from
+that of infiltration, which is commonly supposed to be the method of
+filling mineral veins; but, we shall soon see the reason why our author
+has here deserted the common hypothesis, and has adopted another to
+serve the occasion, without appearing to have considered how perfectly
+inconsistent those two suppositions are to each other. That mineral
+veins have been filled with matter in a fluid state, is acknowledged by
+every body who has either looked at a mineral vein in the earth, or in a
+cabinet specimen; mineralists and geologists, in general, suppose this
+to have been done by means of solutions and concretions, a supposition
+by no means warranted by appearances, which, on the contrary, in general
+demonstrate that the materials of those veins had been introduced in the
+fluid state of fusion. But here is a new idea with regard to the filling
+of those veins; and, I would now beg the reader's attention to the facts
+which follow in this interesting description, and which have suggested
+that idea to our author.
+
+"Quand cette matiere accidentelle est enlevee, on voit la coupe du
+_schiste_ des deux cotes de la _fente_, faisant un _toit_ et un _mur_,
+parce que la _fente_ n'est pas absolument verticale: des qu'il y a
+un peu d'inclinaison, on distingue un _toit_ et un mur, comme j'ai
+l'honneur de l'expliquer a V.M. On ne connoit point encore l'etendue de
+ce filon, ni dans sa profondeur, ou l'on ne peut pas s'enfoncer beaucoup
+de cette maniere, ni dans la longueur, selon laquelle on continue a
+l'exploiter.
+
+"Voila donc un _filon_, a la rigueur de la definition que j'en ai donne
+a V.M. c'est a dire, une _fente_ dans la montagne naturelle, _comblee_
+de _matiere_ etrangere. Mais ce qu'il y a d'extraordinaire ici, c'est
+que cette _matiere_ vient de la _mer_: ce sont differentes _couches
+aquiformes_, dont quelques unes sont remplies de _corps marins_. Il y
+a des _couches_ d'une _terre martiale_ fort brune et sans liaison:
+d'autres, au contraire toujours _martiales_, sont tres dures et
+renferment de tres beau jaspe sanguin: d'autres enfin sont de vrai
+_marbre_ gris veinees de rouge. C'est dans ce marbre que font les _corps
+marins_, savoir des coquillages et des spongites; et il est lui-meme
+martial comme tout le reste: les mineurs le nomment _Kubrimen_, et ne
+l'employent que comme un _fondant_ pour d'autres _mineraux de fer_.
+
+"A ce _filon_, s'en joignent d'autres plus embarrassans. Ils viennent du
+_toit_, qu'ils divisent par de larges _fentes_ comblees, aboutissantes
+au _filon_ principale. Ils font de meme _calcaires_ et marins faits par
+_couches_; mais ces _couches_ ont une si grande inclinaison, que je ne
+puis les comprendre: il faut qu'il y ait eu d'etranges bouleversemens
+dans ces endroits-la[27].
+
+[Note 27: Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible to
+explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling of mineral
+veins, and their branches or ramifications, with marble containing marks
+of marine objects. But, if we shall suppose this marble to have been in
+the fluid state of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may
+easily conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its branches.
+The description here given of those appearances is by no means such as
+to enable us to judge particularly of this case, which surely merits the
+most accurate investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical
+demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances. I know that
+shells have been found within the body of veins in Germany; but, a
+stratification of those materials in a vein was never heard of before,
+so far as I know.]
+
+"Ces _fentes_ se sont faites, et ont ete remplies, dans la _mer_;
+puisque les matieres qui les remplissent sont de la classe de ses depots
+tres connoissables, et qu'il contiennent des _depouilles marines_. Mais
+ce qui embarrasse alors c'est que les autres _filons_ ne soyent pas dans
+le meme cas. N'est ce point la encore un indice, que ces _fentes_ out
+ete d'abord et principalement remplies de matieres, poussees du fond par
+la meme force qui secouoit les montagnes[28].
+
+[Note 28: But what is this power by which matter is to be forced from
+the bottom of the sea to the top of the mountains? For, unless we can
+form some idea of that power which, as a cause, we ascribe to the
+perceived effect, we either say nothing to the purpose, or we employ a
+preternatural cause. It is not sufficient to imagine a power capable of
+raising from the bottom of the sea the materials deposited in the abyss;
+it is also necessary to find a power capable of softening bodies which
+are hard, and of thus consolidating those masses which are formed of
+loose or unconnected materials. Such a power, indeed, the present theory
+assumes; and, so far as this shall be implied in the supposition of our
+author, it will thus have received a certain conformation.]
+
+"Ce _filon_ n'est pas le seul dans le _Hartz_ qui donne des signes
+_marins_. Il y en a un autre, qui meme se rapproche davantage de
+la nature du commun des _filons_, et ou l'on trouve aussi des
+_coquillages_. C'est celui de _Haus-Hartzbergerzug_, pres de
+_Clausthal_, ou, dans les _Halles_ de quelques mines de plomb
+abandonnees, et dans une forte _d'ardoise_, on trouve de petites
+_moules_ ou _tellines_ striees, d'une espece particuliere que j'ai vue
+dans des _ardoises secondaires d'Arotzen_ en _Waldek_ et de _Sombernon_
+en _Bourgogne_. Il y a donc certainement quelques _filons_ faits par les
+depots de la _mer_ dans les _fentes_ de montagnes _primordiales_; comme
+au contraire il y a des _filons_ metalliques sans indices _marins_,
+dans des montagnes evidemment _secondaires_, telles que celles de
+_Derbyshire_, ou les _filons_ de _plomb_ traversent des couches de
+_pierre a chaux_."
+
+Here again our author seems to me to refute his own supposition, That a
+chasm in the schistus rock may have existed at the bottom of the sea,
+and been then filled from above with such materials as were transported
+by the moving water to that place, is not impossible; but nobody, who
+knows the nature of a common metallic vein, can ever suppose it to have
+been filled in that manner. Our author then adds, "On ne fait reellement
+que commencer dans ce genre d'observations, considerees quant a la
+Cosmologie; ainsi il ne faut point desesperer que tout cela ne se
+devoile un jour, et que nous n'acquerrions ainsi un peu plus de
+connoissance sur ce qui se passoit dans la _mer ancienne_.
+
+"En revenant vers _Elbingerode_, nous retrouvames ces _schistes_, qui
+paroissent au travers des _marbres:_ ils sont donc la continuation de la
+masse _schisteuse_ a laquelle appartient le _filon_, dont je viens de
+parler. Ce _filon_ a ete forme dans une _fente_, restee ouverte et vide:
+les depots de la _mer_ l'ont comblee, en meme tems qu'ils formoient
+les couches de _marbre_, qui sont a l'exterieur. En effet, ce _filon_
+contient des _couches marines ferrugineuses_, de la meme nature que
+celles des collines calcaires voisines formees sur le schiste.
+
+"Nous partimes _d'Elbingerode_ dans l'apres midi pour nous rapprocher
+de Clausthal. Notre chemin fut encore quelque tems sur des sommites
+_calcaires_; et avant que d'en sortir, nous trouvames une autre mine
+singuliere a _Arenfeld_. C'est encore un vrai _filon_; mais dans une
+montagne de _pierre a chaux:_ C'est a-dire, que cette montagne a aussi
+ete _fendue_, et que la _fente_ a ete remplie d'une _gangue_. La matiere
+de ce _filon_ est encore _calcaire_ en plus grande partie; mais
+cette _pierre a chaux_ distincte est _ferrugineuse_, et parsemee de
+concretions de _jaspe_ comme celles _d'Elbingerode:_ on y trouve aussi
+une matiere verdatre, qui, comme le _jaspe_, ne fait pas effervescence
+avec l'eau forte."
+
+Here is a phenomenon which is altogether incompatible with the theory
+that this author has given us for the explanation of those appearances.
+He supposes empty crevices in the schistus mountains at the bottom of
+the sea; these crevices he supposes filled by the deposits of the sea,
+at the same time, and with the same materials with which the lime-stone
+strata were formed above the schistus mountains; but we find one of
+those same veins in these secondary calcareous strata. Now, tho' we
+should be disposed to allow, that, in the primordial mountain, of which
+we are supposed not to know the origin, there might have been empty
+crevices which were afterwards filled with materials transported by the
+sea, this cannot be admitted as taking place in the loose or incoherent
+materials deposited above the schistus. Consequently, this theory of our
+author, which is evidently erroneous with regard to the veins in the
+lime-stone, must, in the other case, be at least examined with a jealous
+eye.
+
+"Le haut de cette partie des montagnes _calcaires_ etoit encore
+recouvert de _sable_ et de gres _vitrescibles_: et continuant a marcher,
+sans aucune inflexion sensible, nous nous trouvames subitement sur les
+_schistes_; d'ou nous montames plus rapidement. Puis traversant quelques
+petites vallees nous arrivames sur les montagnes qui appartiennent au
+prolongement du _Brocken_ ou _Blocksberg_. La matiere dominante est
+alors le _granit_; mais il est tout en blocs le long de cette route, et
+ces blocs se trouvent a une telle distance de tout sommite intacte de
+cette pierre, qui est aise de juger non seulement qu'ils ne sont pas
+dans leur place originaire, mais encore qu'il ne sont arrives la par
+aucune des causes naturelles qui agissent dans les montagnes; savoir,
+la pesanteur, la pente, et le cours des eaux. Ce sont donc de violentes
+explosions qui ont disperse ces blocs; et alors ils deviennent un
+nouveau trait cosmologique de quelque importance: car rien ne se meut,
+ni ne paroit s'etre mu depuis bien des siecles, dans ces lieux qui
+montrent tant de desordre: un tapis de verdure couvre tout, en
+conservant les contours baroques du sol. Le betail ne sauroit paturer
+dans de telles prairies; mais l'industrieux montagnard fait y
+faucher[29].
+
+[Note 29: M. de Saussure endeavours to explain those appearances of
+transported blocks of granite by another cause; this is a certain
+_debacle_ of the waters of the earth, which I do not understand. M. de
+Luc again attempts to explain it by violent explosions; I suppose he
+means those of a volcano. But he has not given us the evidence upon
+which such an opinion may be founded, farther than by saying that those
+blocks could not have come there by the natural operations of the
+surface. By this must be meant, that, from the nearest summit of
+granite, there is not, at present, any natural means by which these
+blocks might be transported to that place. But it is not with the
+present state of things that we are concerned, in explaining the
+operations of a distant period. If the natural operations of the surface
+change the shape of things, as is clearly proved by every natural
+appearance, Why form an argument against a former transaction, upon the
+circumstances of the present state of things? Our author does not
+seem to perceive, that, from this mode of reasoning, there is is an
+insuperable objection to his violent explosions having been employed in
+producing those effects. For, had there been such a cause, the evidence
+of this must have remained; if the surface of the earth does not undergo
+great changes: If, again, this surface be in time much changed, How can
+we judge from the present shape, what might have been the former posture
+of things?
+
+This author, indeed, does not allow much time for the natural operations
+of the globe to change its surface; but, if things be not greatly
+removed from the state in which the violent operations of the globe had
+placed them, Why does he not point out to us the source of this great
+disorder which he there perceives? From what explosion will be explained
+the blocks of granite which are found upon the Jura, and which must have
+come from the mass of _Mont Blanc_? If these dispersed blocks of
+stone are to be explained by explosion, there must: have been similar
+explosions in other countries where there is not the smallest appearance
+of volcanic eruptions; for, around all our granite mountains, and I
+believe all others, there are found many blocks of granite, traveled at
+a great distance, and in all directions.]
+
+"_Oberbruck_, ou nous avions ete la precedente fois, se trouva sur notre
+route, et nous y passames aussi la nuit, dans l'esperance de pouvoir
+monter le lendemain sur le _Brocken_; mais il fut encore enveloppe de
+nuages; ainsi nous continuames a marcher vers _Clausthal_, passant de
+nouveau par le _Bruchberg_, ou le _sable_ et ses gres recouvrent le
+_schiste_; puis arrivant a une autre sommite, nous y trouvames la meme
+pierre _sableuse_ par couches, melee de parcelles de _schiste_, que nous
+avions vue sur les montagnes _calcaires d'Elbingerode_. Il est donc
+toujours plus certain que le sol primordial de toutes ces montagnes
+existoit sous les eaux de l'ancienne mer; puisqu'il est recouvert de
+diverses fortes de depots, connus pour appartenir a la _mer_; et que les
+_fentes_ des _filons_ existoient dans cette _mer ancienne_; puisqu'elle
+en a rempli elle-meme quelques unes, et qu'elle a recouvert de ses
+depots quelques autres _filons_ tout formes. Quant a celles des matieres
+de ces _filons_, qui ne paroissent pas etre _marines_ (et c'est de
+beaucoup la plus grande quantite), j'ai toujours plus de penchant d'en
+attribuer une partie a l'operation des _feux souterreins_, a mesure que
+je vois diminuer la probabilite de les assigner entierement a _l'eau_.
+Mais quoi-qu'il en soit, ces gangues ne font pas de meme date que les
+montagnes[30].
+
+[Note 30: I most willingly admit the justness of our author's view, if
+he thus perceives the operation of fire in the solids of our earth; but
+it is not for the reasons he has given us for discovering it here more
+than in other places; for there is not a mineral vein, (so far at least
+as I have seen), in which the appearances may be explained by any thing
+else besides the operation of fire or fusion. It is not easy to conceive
+in what manner our author had conceived the opinions which he has
+displayed in these letters. He had no opinion of this kind, or rather he
+was persuaded that subterraneous fire had no hand in the formation of
+this earth before he came to this place of the Hartz; here he finds
+certain appearances, by which he is confirmed in his former opinion,
+that water had operated in forming mineral veins; and then he forms the
+idea that subterraneous fire may have operated also. But, before the
+discovery of the chasms in the schistus mountains having been filled
+with the stratified materials of the sea, How had he supposed veins to
+be filled? If this philosopher had before no opinion of subterraneous
+fire, as instrumental in that operation, How comes he now to change that
+former opinion? For, unless it be the extraordinary manner of filling
+these open crevices in the mountains by matter deposited immediately
+from the sea, there is certainly no other appearance in this mineral
+country of the Hartz, that may not be found in any other, only perhaps
+upon a smaller scale.]
+
+"Le lendemain de notre arrivee a _Clausthal_, qui etoit le 13e, nous
+allames visiter d'autres mines de _fer_ en montagnes secondaires,
+situees au cote oppose du Hartz. Elles sont aupres de _Grund_ l'une
+des _villes de mines_, et pres du lieu ou sortira la nouvelle _galerie
+d'ecoulement_ a laquelle on travaille, etc.
+
+"Arrives a _Grund_ les officiers mineurs vinrent, comme a l'ordinaire,
+accompagner Mons. de _Reden_ aux _mines_ de leur departement. Celles-ci,
+sans etre plus extraordinaires que celles qui nous avions vues a
+_Elbingerod_, ou sans aider mieux jusqu'ici a expliquer ce qu'elles ont
+toutes d'extraordinaire, nous donnent au moins des indices probables
+de grands accidens. Ces montagnes de _Grund_ sont encore de l'espece
+remarquable, dont la base est de _schiste_, et le haut de _pierre a
+chaux_. Les mines qu'on y exploit sont de _fer_, et se trouvent dans
+cette matiere _calcaire_; mais elles y sont sous des apparences
+tout-a-fait etranges. La montagne ou nous les vimes principalement le
+nomme _Iberg_. On y poursuit des masses de _pierre a fer_, de l'ensemble
+desquelles les mineurs ne peuvent encore se rendre compte d'une maniere
+claire. Ils ont trouve dans cette montagne des _ca__vernes_, qui
+ressemblent a l'encaissement de _sillons_ deja exploites, ou non formes;
+c'est-a-dire, que ce sont des _fentes_ presque verticales, et vides, Le
+_minerai_ qu'ils poursuivent est en _Rognons_; c'est a dire, en grandes
+masses sans continuite decidee. Cependant ces masses semblent se
+succeder dans la montagne suivant une certaine direction; tellement que
+les mineurs savent deja les chercher, par des indices d'habitude.
+La substance de cette _pierre a fer_ particuliere renferme des
+crystallizations de diverses especes. Il y a des _druses de quartz_, ou
+de petits cristaux de quartz qui tapissent des cavites; il y a aussi du
+_spath_ commun, et de celui qu'on nomme pesant; on y trouve enfin une
+forte de crystallization nommee _Eisenman_ (_homme de fer_) par les
+mineurs; se sont des amas de cristaux noir-atres, qui ressemblent a
+des groupes de grandes lentilles plattes, et ces cristaux sont
+_ferrugineux_.
+
+"Entre les signes de bouleversement que renferme ce lieu, est un
+rocher nomme _Gebichensten_, qui est en _pierre a chaux_, ce que
+_l'Ebrenbreitstein_ de _Coblentz_ est en pierre sableuse: c'est-a-dire,
+que ses _couches_, remplies de _corps marins_, sont presque verticales;
+ceux de ces corps qu'on y trouve en plus grande quantite, sont des
+_madrepores_. Ce rocher s'eleve comme un grand obelisque, au-dessus des
+_cavernes_, dont j'ai parle; montrant par le cote ses _couches_, qui se
+trouvent, comme je l'ai dit, dans une situation presque verticale. Sa
+base est deja bien minee, tant par les _cavernes_, que par la _pierre
+a fer_ qu'on en tire; et je ne me hasardai dessus, que parce que je me
+dis, qu'il y a des millions contre un a parier, que ce n'est pas le
+moment ou il s'enfoncerait. Mais je n'en dirois pas autant, s'il
+s'agissoit de m'y loger a demeure.
+
+"Quoique tout ce lieu la soit fort remarquable, il se pourrait que ce
+ne fut qu'un phenomene particulier. Les _cavernes_ peuvent devoir leur
+origine a la meme cause que celle de Schartzfeld; et le derangement des
+rochers superieurs a des enfoncemens occasionnes par ces _cavernes_.
+Rien n'est si difficile que de retracer aujourd'hui ces fortes
+d'accidens a cause des changemens que le tems y a operes. S'ils sont
+arrives sous les eaux de la _mer_, on concoit aisement les alterations
+qui ont du succeder; et si c'est depuis que nos continens sont a sec,
+les eaux encore, tant interieures qu'exterieures, et la vegetation, en
+ont beaucoup change l'aspect."
+
+This author has a theory by which he explains to himself the former
+residence of the sea, above the summits of our mountains; this,
+however, is not the theory by which we are now endeavouring to explain
+appearances; we must therefore be allowed to reason from our own
+principles, in considering the facts here set forth by our author.
+
+Nothing, I think, is more evident, than that in this mineral country of
+the Hartz, we may find the clearest marks of fracture, elevation, and
+dislocation of the strata, and of the introduction of foreign matter
+among those separated bodies. All those appearances, our author would
+have to be nothing but some particular accident, which is not to enter
+into the physiology of the earth. I wish again to generalise these
+facts, by finding them universal in relation to the globe, and
+necessarily to be found in all the consolidated parts of our land.
+
+It was not to refute our author's reasoning that I have here introduced
+so much of his observations, but to give an extensive view of the
+mineral structure of this interesting country. This therefore being
+done, we now proceed to what is more peculiarly our business in this
+place, or the immediate subject of investigation, viz. the distinction
+of primary and secondary strata.
+
+"Dans le voisinage de cette montagne, il y a une autre fort
+interessante, que je vis le jour suivant. Quoiqu'en traitant des
+volcans, j'aie demontre que la formation des montagnes, par soulevement,
+etoit sans exemple dans les faits, et sans fondement dans la theorie, je
+ne laisseroi pas de m'arreter au phenomene que presente cette montagne;
+parce qu'il prouvera directement que les _couches calcaires_ au moins,
+ont ete formees _a la hauteur ou elles sont_; c'est-a-dire qu'elles
+n'ont pas ete soulevees.
+
+"Voulant prendre l'occasion de mon retour a _Hanovre_, pour traverser
+les avant-corps du _Hartz_, dans quelque nouvelle direction; je resolus
+de faire ce voyage a cheval, et de prendre ma route droite vers
+_Hanovre_, au-travers des collines; ce qui me conduisit encore a _Grund_
+puis a _Muenchehof Brunshausen, Engelade, Winsenburg_ et _Alfeld_, ou
+enfin, traversant la _Leine_ j'entrai dans la grande route.
+
+"Je quittai donc _Clausthal_ (et avec bien du regret) le 14 au matin;
+et revenant d'abord a _Grund_, je le laissai sur ma droite, ainsi
+que _l'Iberg_; et plus loin, du meme cote, une autre montagne nommee
+_Winterberg_ dont la base est _schiste_, et le sommet plus haut que
+Clausthal, entierement compose de _couches calcaires_. De _Grund_ je
+montai vers une montagne nommee _Ost Kamp_; et je commencai la a donner
+une attention particuliere au sol. Le long de mon chemin, je ne trouvai
+longtemps que des schistes, qui montroient leurs points en haut, comme a
+l'ordinaire, et avec tous leurs tortillemens de feuillets. Mais arrive
+au haut de la montagne, j'y vis des carrieres de _pierre a chaux_, ou
+les couches absolument regulieres, et qui ont peu d'epaisseur sur le
+_schiste_ suivent parfaitement les contours du _sommet_. Ces lits de
+_pierre a chaux_ n'ont certainement pas ete souleves du fond de la _mer_
+sur le dos des schistes; lors meme qu'a cause de la grande inclinaison
+des feuillets de ceux-ci on voudroit le attribuer a quelque revolution
+telle que le _soulevement_; (ce que je n'admettrois point). Car si ces
+lits _calcaires_, ayant ete faits au fond de la _mer_, avoyent ete
+souleves avec les schistes, ne feroient-ils pas brises et bouleverses
+comme eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il soi arrive au schiste qui
+les porte, ces lits, et tous les autres de meme genre qui sont au haut
+de ces montagnes, ont ete deposees au niveau ou ils sont; et que
+par consequent la _mer_ les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le systeme de
+soulevement perd son but, s'il tend a expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
+_couches_, formees par la mer, qui se trouvent maintenant si fort au
+dessus de son niveau. Il est evident que ces _couches_ n'ont pas ete
+soulevees; mais que la _mer_ s'est _abaissee_. Or c'est la le grand
+point cosmologique a expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent a la
+structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles, n'appartiendront qu'a
+_l'histoire naturelle_, tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec celui-la."
+
+Here are two things to be considered; the interesting facts described
+by our author, and the inference that he would have us draw from those
+facts. It would appear from the facts, that the body of schistus below,
+and that of lime-stone above, had not undergone the same disordering
+operations, or by no means in the same degree. But our author has formed
+another conclusion; he says, that these lime-stone strata must have been
+formed precisely in the place and order in which they lie at present;
+and the reason for this is, because these strata appeared to him to
+follow perfectly the contour of the summit of this mountain. Now, had
+there been in the top of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed about
+with the schistus rock; and had this cavity been now found filled with
+horizontal strata, there might have been some shadow of reason for
+supposing those strata to have been deposited upon the top of the
+mountain. But to suppose, _first_, that shells and corals should be
+deposited upon the convex summit of a mountain which was then covered by
+the sea; _secondly_, that these moveable materials should remain upon
+the summit, while the sea had changed its place; and, _lastly_, that
+those shells and corals left by the sea upon the top of a mountain
+should become strata of solid limestone, and have also metallic veins
+in it, certainly holds of no principle of natural philosophy that I am
+acquainted with. If, therefore, such an appearance as this were to be
+employed either in illustration or confirmation of a theory, it
+would itself require to be explained; but this is a task that this
+cosmologists does not seem willing to undertake.
+
+He has formed a hypothesis for explaining the general appearance of that
+which was once the bottom of the sea being now found forming the summits
+of our mountains; but surely this philosopher will acknowledge, that
+those natural appearances, in any particular place, will be the same,
+whether we suppose the bottom of the sea to have been raised, as in the
+present theory, or the surface of the sea to have sunk according to his
+hypothesis. For, it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the earth
+to have been raised all this height, as to suppose all the rest of the
+surface of the globe to have sunk an equal space, while a small portion
+of the bottom of the sea, remaining here and there fixed in its place,
+became the highest portion of the globe. Consequently, whatever evidence
+this philosopher shall find in support of his theory of the present
+earth, (a subject which it is not our purpose to examine) it cannot be
+allowed that he has here brought any argument capable of disproving the
+elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition which other theories
+may require.
+
+I would now observe, in relation to the present theory, that so far
+as this author has reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
+conclusions will be found to confirm the present supposition, that there
+is to be perceived the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
+in the masses of this earth, without altering the general theory either
+with respect to the original formation of those masses, or to their
+posterior production.
+
+Here one of two things must be allowed; either that those strata
+of schistus had been broken and distorted under a mass of other
+superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent strata had been
+deposited upon the broken and distorted strata at the bottom of the sea.
+Our author, who has examined the subject, inclines to think, that this
+last has been the case. If, therefore, strata had been deposited upon
+broken and bare rocks of schistus, it is probable that these had been
+sunk in the sea after having been exposed to the atmosphere, and served
+the purpose of land upon the globe.[31]
+
+[Note 31: This is also supported by another very interesting observation
+contained in this letter. M. de Luc observes, that in this country the
+schistus is generally covered by strata of lime-stone, and that these
+lime-stone strata are again covered with those of sand-stone, in which
+are found a great many fragments of schistus lying flat. Therefore,
+while those sand-stone strata were collecting at the bottom of the sea,
+there had been rocks of schistus in some other place, from whence those
+fragments bad been detached.]
+
+An example of the same kind also occurs in the _Discours sur l'Histoire
+Naturelle de la Suisse_; and this author of the _Tableaux de la Suisse_
+has given a very distinct description of that appearance, which is
+perhaps the more to be valued as a piece of natural history, as this
+intelligent author does not pretend to any geological theory, but simply
+narrates what he has seen, with such pertinent observations on
+the subject as naturally must occur to a thinking person on the
+spot.--(Discours, etc. page 228. Entree au pays de Grisons).
+
+"Du village d'Elen on continue a monter le reste du petit vallon pendant
+une lieue et demie parmi les memes especes de pierres qu'on vient de
+decrire; en passant au travers de bois et de forets de sapins et de
+quelques paturages dont ce haut est couvert, on parvient au pied du
+Bundnerberg, montagne des grisons, qui forme la tete du vallon. On
+laisse a droite un fond ou espece d'entonnoir, entoure de tres-hautes
+montagnes inaccessibles, pour s'enfourrer a gauche entre des rochers qui
+font fort resserres, ou coule un torrent. Ce lieu seroit horreur si
+on ne se trouvoit accoutume, par degres, a voir de ces positions
+effrayantes: tout y est aride, il n'y a plus d'arbres ni de vegetaux ce
+sont des rochers entasses les un sur les autres; ce lieu paroit d'autant
+plus affreux que le passage a ete subit, et qu'en sortant de bois et des
+forets, on se trouve tout-a-coup parmi ces rochers qui s'elevent comme
+des murailles, et dont on ne voit pas la cime; cette gorge ou cette
+entree qui se nomme Jetz, est la communication du Canton du Glaris aux
+Gritons; on a dit precedemment qu'il y en avoit une plus aisee par
+le Gros-Thal ou le grand vallon. Ce passage est tres-curieux pour la
+Lithogeognosie, il est rare de trouver autant de phenomenes interessans
+rassembles, et des substances aussi variees par rapport a leurs
+positions; c'est le local qui merite le plus d'etre examine en Suisse,
+et la plus difficile que nous ayons parcouru. On se souviendra que nous
+avons continuellement monte depuis Glaris, et que nous nous trouvons au
+pied de ces montagnes ou de ces pics etonnans qui dominent les hautes
+Alpes; on trouve ici la facilite peu commune de pouvoir examiner, et
+voir le pied ou les fondemens de ces colosses qui couronnent le globe,
+parce qu'ils sont ordinairement entoures de leurs debris et de leurs
+eboulemens qui en cachent le pied. Ici c'est une roche de schiste
+bleuatre, dure et compact, traversee de filons de quartz blanc, et
+quelquefois jaunatre, dans laquelle on a taille un sentier pour pouvoir
+en franchir le pied. Cette roche s'eleve a une hauteur prodigieuse,
+est presque verticale, et ces couches sont a quatre-vingt degres
+d'inclinaison. L'imagination est effrayee de voir que de pareilles
+masses ayent pu etre ebranlees et deplacees au point d'avoir fait
+presque un quart de conversion. Apres avoir monte et suivi cette roche
+parmi les pierres et les decombres, une heure et demie, on trouve
+cette roche de schiste surmontee d'autres rochers fort hauts qui sont
+calcaires, et dont les lits sont fort horizontaux. Les schistes,
+qui sont directement sous les roches calcaires, conservent la meme
+inclinaison qu'elles ont a leur pied."
+
+Here is an observation which certainly agrees with that given by M. de
+Luc, and would seem to confirm this conclusion, that strata had been
+deposited upon those _schisti_ after they had been changed from their
+natural or horizontal position, and become vertical; at the same time,
+this conclusion is not of necessary consequence, without examining
+concomitant appearances, and finding particular marks by which this
+operation might be traced; for the simply finding horizontal strata,
+placed above vertical or much inclined schiste, is not sufficient, of
+itself, to constitute that fact, while it is acknowledged that every
+species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion, is to be found among
+the displaced strata of the globe.
+
+Since writing this chapter, I am enabled to speak more decisively upon
+that point, having acquired more light upon the subject, as will appear
+in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VI.
+
+The Theory of interchanging Sea and Land illustrated by an
+Investigation of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+
+SECT. I.--A distinct View of the Primary and Secondary Strata.
+
+Having given a view of what seems to be the primary and secondary
+strata, from the observations of authors, and having given what was
+my opinion when I first wrote that chapter, I am now to treat of this
+subject from observations of my own, which I made since forming that
+opinion.
+
+From Portpatrick, on the west coast, to St Abb's Head, on the east,
+there is a tract of schistus mountains, in which the strata are
+generally much inclined, or approaching to the vertical situation; and
+it is in these inclined strata that geologists allege that there is not
+to be found any vestige of organised body. This opinion, however, I have
+now proved to be erroneous.
+
+There cannot be any doubt with regard to the original formation of those
+stratified bodies, as having been formed of the materials that are
+natural to this earth, viz. the detritus of former bodies; and as having
+been deposited in water, like the horizontal strata: For the substances
+and bodies of which they are visibly composed are no other than those
+which form the most regular horizontal strata, and which are continually
+traveling, or transported at the bottom of the sea, such as gravel, and
+sand, argillaceous and micaceous bodies.
+
+On each side of this ridge of mountains, which towards the east end is
+but narrow, there is a lower country composed of strata in general more
+horizontal; and among which strata, besides coal, there are also found
+the relics of organised bodies.
+
+Abstracting at present from any consideration of organised bodies among
+the materials of those strata, it may be affirmed, that the materials
+which form the strata in the mountains and in the low country, are
+similar, or of the same nature; that they have, in both places, been
+consolidated by the same means, viz. heat and fusion; and that the same
+or similar accidents have happened to them, such as change from their
+original position, and mineral veins traversing them in various shapes.
+Yet still there is a distinctive character for those two bodies, the
+alpine and the horizontal strata; for, while the horizontal position
+appears natural to the one, and the changes from that particular state
+to be only an accident, the vertical position appears to be more natural
+to the other, which is seldom found horizontal.
+
+Therefore, altho' it is unquestionable that the strata in the alpine and
+low countries had the same or a similar original, yet, as the vertical
+position, which is the greatest possible change in that respect, is more
+natural to the alpine strata, or only necessary in the natural order of
+those bodies, we are to consider this great disorder or change from the
+natural state of their original formation, as the proper character of
+those alpine strata. But then it is also necessary to include in this
+character a general hardness and solidity in those vertical strata,
+otherwise they would not have been properly alpine, or have resisted the
+wearing and washing powers of the globe, so as to have remained higher
+than the others; for, the vertical position, or great inclination of
+those strata, should rather have disposed them the more to dissolution
+and decay. Let us now see how far we shall be justified in that general
+conclusion, by the examination of those bodies.
+
+The fact is certain, that those alpine bodies are much harder, or less
+subject to dissolution and decay, than the horizontal strata. But this
+must be taken in the general, and will by no means apply to particular
+cases which might be compared. Nothing, for example, more solid than the
+lime-stones, or marbles, and iron-stones; nothing more hard or solid
+than the chirt or flint; and all these are found among the horizontal
+strata. But, while some strata among those horizontal beds are
+thus perfectly solid, others are found with so slight degrees of
+consolidation, that we should not be able to ascribe it to the proper
+cause, without that gradation of the effect, which leads us to impute
+the slightest degree of consolidation to the same operations that have
+produced the complete solidity. While, therefore, the most perfect
+solidity is found in certain strata, or occasionally among the
+horizontal bodies, this forms no part of their character in general, or
+cannot be considered as a distinctive mark, as it truly is with
+regard to the alpine strata. These last have a general character of
+consolidation and indissolubility, which is in a manner universal. We
+are, therefore, now to inquire into the cause of this distinction, and
+to form some hypothesis that may be tried by the actual state of things,
+in being compared with natural appearances.
+
+As the general cause of consolidation among mineral bodies, formed
+originally of loose materials, has been found to consist in certain
+degrees of fusion or cementation of those materials by means of heat;
+and as, in the examination of the horizontal strata we actually
+find very different degrees of consolidation in the several strata,
+independent of their positions in relation to height or depth, we have
+reason to believe that the heat, or consolidating operation, has not
+been equally employed in relation to them all.
+
+We are not now inquiring how an inferior stratum should have been heated
+in a lesser degree, or not consolidated, while a superior stratum had
+been consolidated in the most perfect manner; we are to reason upon a
+fact, which is, that the horizontal strata in general appear not to have
+been equally or universally consolidated; and this we must attribute to
+an insufficient exertion of the consolidating cause. But, so far as the
+erecting cause is considered as the same with that by which the elevated
+bodies were consolidated, and so far as the vertical situation is a
+proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous power, the strata
+which are most erected, should in general be found most consolidated.
+
+Nothing more certain than that there have been several repeated
+operations of the mineralising power exerted upon the strata
+in particular places; and all those mineral operations tend to
+consolidation: Therefore, the more the operations have been repeated in
+any place, the more we should find the strata consolidated, or changed
+from their natural state. Vertical strata have every appearance from
+whence we should be led to conclude, that much of the mineral power
+had been exerted upon them, in changing their original constitution or
+appearance. But the question now to be considered is this, How far
+it may appear that these masses of matter, which now seem to be so
+different from the ordinary strata of the globe, had been twice
+subjected to the mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
+and erected into the place of land, and afterwards sunk below the
+bottom of the sea, in order a second time to undergo the process of
+subterraneous heat, and again be elevated into the place where they now
+are found.
+
+It must be evident, here is a question that may not be easy to decide.
+It is not to the degree of any change to which bodies may be subject,
+that we are to appeal, in order to clear up the point in question,
+but to a regular course of operations, which must appear to have been
+successively transacted, and by which the different circumstances or
+situations of those masses are to be discovered in their present state.
+Now, though it does not concern the present theory that this question be
+decided, as it is nothing but a repetition of the same operations that
+we look for; nevertheless, it would be an interesting fact in the
+natural history of this earth; and it would add great lustre to a theory
+by which so great, so many operations were to be explained. I am far
+from being sanguine in my expectations of giving all the satisfaction
+in relation to this subject that I could wish; but it will be proper to
+state what I have lately learned with regard to so curious a question,
+that others, who shall have the opportunity, may be led to inquire, and
+that thus the natural history of the earth may be enlarged, by a proper
+investigation of its mineral operations.
+
+With this view I have often considered our schistus mountains, both in
+the north and south; but I never found any satisfactory appearance from
+whence conclusions could be formed, whether for the question or against
+it. The places I examined were those between the alpine countries and
+the horizontal strata; here, indeed, I have frequently found a confused
+mass, formed of the fragments of those alpine strata mixed with the
+materials of the horizontal bodies; but not having seen the proper shape
+and connection of those several deposits, I always suspended my judgment
+with regard to the particular operations which might have been employed
+in producing those appearances.
+
+I had long looked for the immediate junction of the secondary or low
+country strata with the alpine schistus, without finding it; the first
+place in which I observed it was at the north end of the island of
+Arran, at the mouth of Loch Ranza; it was upon the shore, where the
+inclined strata appeared bare, being; washed by the sea. It was but a
+very small part that I could see; but what appeared was most distinct.
+Here the schistus and the sandstone strata both rise inclined at an
+angle of about 45 deg.; but these primary and secondary strata were
+inclined in almost opposite directions; and thus they met together like
+the two sides of a _lambda_, or the rigging of a house, being a little
+in disorder at the angle of their junction. From this situation of those
+two different masses of strata, it is evidently impossible that either
+of them could have been formed originally in that position; therefore, I
+could not here learn in what state the schistus strata had been in when
+those of the sand-stone, &c, had been superinduced.
+
+Such was the state of my mind, in relation to that subject:, when at
+Jedburgh upon a visit to a friend, after I had returned from Arran, and
+wrote the history of that journey; I there considered myself as among
+the horizontal strata which had first appeared after passing the Tweed,
+and before arriving at the Tiviot. The strata there, as in Berwickshire,
+which is their continuation to the east, are remarkably horizontal for
+Scotland; and they consist of alternated beds of sand-stone and marl, or
+argillaceous and micaceous strata. These horizontal strata are traversed
+in places with small veins of whin-stone, as well as greater masses
+forming rocks and hills of that material; but, except it be these, (of
+which there are some curious examples), I thought there could be nothing
+more of an interesting nature to observe. Chance, however, discovered to
+me what I could not have expected or foreseen.
+
+The river Tweed, below Melrose, discovers in its bed the vertical strata
+of the schistus mountains, and though here these indurated bodies are
+not veined with quartz as in many places of the mountains, I did not
+hesitate to consider them as the same species, that is to say, the marly
+materials indurated and consolidated in those operations by which they
+had been so much changed in their place and natural position. Afterwards
+in travelling south, and seeing the horizontal softer strata, I concluded
+that I had got out of the alpine country, and supposed that no more of
+the vertical strata were to be observed.
+
+The river Tiviot has made a wide valley as might have been expected, in
+running over thole horizontal strata of marly or decaying substances;
+and the banks of this river declining gradually are covered with gravel
+and soil, and show little of the solid strata of the country. This,
+however, is not the case with the Jed, which is to the southward of the
+Tiviot; that river, in many places, runs upon the horizontal strata, and
+undermines steep banks, which falling shows high and beautiful sections
+of the regular horizontal strata. The little rivulets also which fall
+into the Jed have hollowed out deep gullies in the land, and show the
+uniformity of the horizontal strata.
+
+In this manner I was disposed to look for nothing more than what I had
+seen among those mineral bodies, when one day, walking in the beautiful
+valley above the town of Jedburgh, I was surprised with the appearance
+of vertical strata in the bed of the river, where I was certain that
+the banks were composed of horizontal strata. I was soon satisfied with
+regard to this phenomenon, and rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling
+upon an object so interesting to the natural history of the earth, and
+which I had been long looking for in vain.
+
+Here the vertical strata, similar to those that are in the bed of
+the Tweed, appear; and above those vertical strata, are placed the
+horizontal beds, which extend along the whole country.
+
+The question which we would wish to have solved is this; if the vertical
+strata had been broken and erected under the superincumbent horizontal
+strata; or if, after the vertical strata had been broken and erected,
+the horizontal strata had been deposited upon the vertical strata,
+then forming the bottom of the sea. That strata, which are regular and
+horizontal in one place, should be found bended, broken, or disordered
+at another, is not uncommon; it is always found more or less in all our
+horizontal strata. Now, to what length this disordering operation might
+have been carried, among strata under others, without disturbing the
+order and continuity of those above, may perhaps be difficult to
+determine; but here, in this present case, is the greatest disturbance
+of the under strata, and a very great regularity among those above. Here
+at least is the most difficult case of this kind to conceive, if we are
+to suppose that the upper strata had been deposited before those below
+had been broken and erected.
+
+Let us now suppose that the under strata had been disordered at the
+bottom of the sea, before the superincumbent bodies were deposited; it
+is not to be well conceived, that the vertical strata should in that
+case appear to be cut off abruptly, and present their regular edges
+immediately under the uniformly deposited substances above. But, in the
+case now under consideration, there appears the most uniform section
+of the vertical strata, their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
+deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the vertical strata had been in
+at the time of this event, we can hardly suppose that they could have
+been so perfectly cut off, without any relict being left to trace that
+operation. It is much more probable to suppose, that the sea had washed
+away the relics of the broken and disordered strata, before those that
+are now superincumbent had been begun to be deposited. But we cannot
+suppose two such contrary operations in the same place, as that of
+carrying away the relics of those broken strata, and the depositing of
+sand and subtile earth in such a regular order. We are therefore led
+to conclude, that the bottom of the sea, or surface of those erected
+strata, had been in very different situations at those two periods, when
+the relics of the disordered strata had been carried away, and when the
+new materials had been deposited.
+
+If this shall be admitted as a just view of the subject, it will be fair
+to suppose, that the disordered strata had been raised more or less
+above the surface of the ocean; that, by the effects of either rivers,
+winds, or tides, the surface of the vertical strata had been washed
+bare; and that this surface had been afterwards sunk below the influence
+of those destructive operations, and thus placed in a situation proper
+for the opposite effect, the accumulation of matter prepared and put in
+motion by the destroying causes.
+
+I will not pretend to say that this has all the evidence that should be
+required, in order to constitute a physical truth, or principle from
+whence we were to reason farther in our theory; but, as a simple fact,
+there is more probability for the thing having happened in that manner
+than in any other; and perhaps this is all that may be attained, though
+not all that were to be wished on the occasion. Let us now see how
+far any confirmation may be obtained from the examination of all the
+attending circumstances in those operations.
+
+I have already mentioned, that I had long observed great masses of
+_debris_, or an extremely coarse species of pudding-stone, situated on
+the south as well as north sides of those schistus mountains, where the
+alpine strata terminate in our view, and where I had been looking for
+the connection of those with the softer strata of the low country.
+It has surely been such appearances as these which have often led
+naturalists to see the formation of secondary and tertiary strata formed
+by the simple congestion of _debris_ from the mountains, and to suppose
+those masses consolidated by the operation of that very element by which
+they had been torn off from one place and deposited in another. I never
+before had data from whence to reason with regard to the natural history
+of those masses of gravel and sand which always appeared to me in an
+irregular shape, and not attended with such circumstances as might give
+light into their natural history; but now I have found what I think
+sufficient to explain those obscure appearances, and which at the same
+time will in some respect illustrate or confirm the conjecture which
+has now been formed with regard to the operations of the globe in those
+regions.
+
+In describing the vertical and horizontal strata of the Jed, no mention
+has been made of a certain pudding-stone, which is interposed between
+the two, lying immediately upon the one and under the other. This
+puddingstone corresponds entirely to that which I had found along
+the skirt of the schistus mountains upon the south side, in different
+places, almost from one end to the other. It is a confused mass of
+stones, gravel, and sand, with red marly earth; these are consolidated
+or cemented in a considerable degree, and thus form a stratum extremely
+unlike any thing which is to be found either above or below.
+
+When we examine the stones and gravel of which it is composed, these
+appear to have belonged to the vertical strata or schistus mountains.
+They are in general the hard and solid parts of those indurated
+strata, worn and rounded by attrition; particularly sand or marl-stone
+consolidated and veined with quartz, and many fragments of quartz, all
+rounded by attrition. In this pudding-stone of the Jed, I find also
+rounded lumps of porphyry, but have not perceived any of granite.[32]
+This however is not the case in the pudding-stone of the schistus
+mountains, for, where there is granite in the neighbourhood, there is
+also granite in the pudding-stone.
+
+[Note 32: A view of this object is seen in plate 3d. It is from a
+drawing taken by Mr Clerk of Eldin.]
+
+From this it will appear, that the schistus mountains or the vertical
+strata of indurated bodies had been formed, and had been wasted and worn
+in the natural operations of the globe, before the horizontal strata
+were begun to be deposited in those places; the gravel formed of those
+indurated broken bodies worn round by attrition evince that fact. But
+it also appears that the mineral operations of the globe, melting and
+consolidating bodies, had been exerted upon those deposited strata above
+the vertical bodies.
+
+This appears evidently from the examination of our pudding-stone. The
+vertical strata under it are much broken and injected with ferruginous
+spar; and this same spar has greatly penetrated the pudding-stone above,
+in which are found the various mineral appearances of that spar and iron
+ore.
+
+But those injecting operations reach no farther up among the marl strata
+in this place; and then would appear to have been confined to the
+pudding-stone. But in another place, about half a mile farther up the
+river, where a very deep section of the strata is discovered, there
+are two injections from below; the one is a thin vein of whin-stone or
+basaltes, full of round particles of steatites impregnated with copper;
+it is but a few inches wide, and proceeds in a kind of zigzag. The other
+appears to have been calcareous spar, but the greatest part of it is now
+dissolved out. The strata here descend to the bottom of the river, which
+is above the place of the pudding-stone and vertical strata. Neither are
+these last discoverable below the town of Jedburgh, at least so far as
+I have seen; and the line of division, or plane of junction of the
+vertical and horizontal strata, appears to decline more than the bed of
+the river.
+
+But it may be asked, how the horizontal strata above, among which are
+many very strong beds, have been consolidated. The answer to this
+question is plain. Those strata have been indurated or consolidated
+in no other manner than the general strata of the earth; these being
+actually the common strata of the globe; while the vertical or schistus
+strata are the ordinary strata still farther manufactured, (if we may be
+allowed the expression) in the vicissitude of things, and by the mineral
+operations of the globe. That those operations have been performed by
+subterraneous heat has been already proved; but I would now mention some
+particular appearances which are common or general to those strata, and
+which can only be explained upon that principle.
+
+The red marly earth is prevalent among those strata; and it is with this
+red ferruginous substance that many of the sand-stone strata are tinged.
+It is plain that there had been an uniform, deposits of that sand and
+tinging earth; and that, however different matter might be successively
+deposited, yet that each individual stratum should be nearly of the same
+colour or appearance, so far as it had been formed uniformly of the same
+subsiding matter. But, in the most uniform strata of red sand-stone,
+the fracture of the stone presents us with circular spots of a white or
+bluish colour; those little spheres are in all respects the same with
+the rest of the stone, they only want the tinging matter; and now it may
+be inquired how this has come about.
+
+To say that sphericles of white sand should have been formed by
+subsiding along with the red sand and earth which composed the uniform
+stratum whether of sand-stone or marl, (for it happens equally in both,)
+is plainly impossible, according to our notion of that operation in
+which there is nothing mysterious. Those foliated strata, which are of
+the most uniform nature, must have been gradually accumulated from the
+subsiding sand and earth; and the white or colourless places must have
+had their colour destroyed in the subsequent cementing operations. It
+is often apparent, that the discharging operation had proceeded from a
+centre, as some small matter may be perceived in that place. I know not
+what species of substance this has been, whether saline or phlogistic,
+but it must have had the power of either volatilising or changing the
+ferruginous or red tinging substance so as to make it lose its colour.
+
+I have only mentioned spherical spots for distinctness sake; but this
+discharging operation is found diversifying those strata in various
+ways, but always referable to the same or similar causes. Thus, in many
+of the veins or natural cracks of those strata, we find the colour
+discharged for a certain space within the strata; and we often see
+several of those spots united, each of them having proceeded from its
+own centre, and uniting where they approached. In the two veins above
+mentioned, of whin-stone and spar traversing the strata, the colour of
+the strata is, discharged more or less in the places contiguous with the
+veins.
+
+I am now to mention another appearance of a different kind. Those strata
+of marl are in general not much consolidated; but among, them there
+are sometimes found thin calcareous strata extremely consolidated,
+consequently much divided by veins. It is in the solid parts of those
+strata, perfectly disconnected from the veins, that there are frequent
+cavities curiously lined with crystals of different sorts, generally
+calcareous, sometimes containing also those that are siliceous, and
+often accompanied with pyrites. I am persuaded that the origin of those
+cavities may have been some hollow shells, such as _echini_ or some
+marine object; but that calcareous body has been so changed, that it is
+not now distinguishable; therefore, at present, I hold this opinion only
+as conjecture.
+
+Having, in my return to Edinburgh, traveled up the Tiviot, with a view
+to investigate this subject of primary and secondary operations of the
+earth, I found the vertical strata, or alpine schistus, in the bed of
+the river about two miles below Hawick. This was the third time I had
+seen those vertical bodies after leaving the mountains of Lauderdale.
+The first place was the bed of the river Tweed, at the new bridge below
+Melrose; but here no other covering is to be seen above those vertical
+strata besides the soil or traveled earth which conceals every thing
+except the rock in the bed of the river. The second place was Jedburgh,
+where I found the vertical strata covered with the horizontal sandstone
+and marl, as has been now described. The third place was the Tiviot, and
+this is that which now remains to be considered.
+
+Seeing the vertical strata in the bed of the river, I was desirous to
+know if those were immediately covered with the horizontal strata. This
+could not be discovered in the bed of the river where the rock was
+covered upon the banks with travelled earth. I therefore left the river,
+and followed the course of a brook which comes from the south side. I
+had not gone far up the bank, or former boundary of the Tiviot, when
+I had the satisfaction to find the vertical strata covered with the
+pudding-stone and marly beds as in the valley of the Jed.
+
+It will now be reasonable to suppose that all the schistus which we
+perceive, whether in the mountains or in the valleys, exposed to our
+view had been once covered with those horizontal strata which are
+observed in Berwickshire and Tiviotdale; and that, below all those
+horizontal strata in the level country, there is at present a body or
+basis of vertical or inclined schistus, on which the horizontal strata
+of a secondary order had been deposited. This is the conclusion that I
+had formed at Jedburgh, before I had seen the confirmation of it in the
+Tiviot; it is the only one that can be formed according to this view of
+things; and it must remain in the present state until more evidence be
+found by which the probability may be either increased or diminished.
+
+Since writing this, I have read, in the Esprit de Journaux, an abstract
+of a memoir of M. Voigt, upon the same subject, which I shall now
+transcribe.
+
+"La mer a commence par miner les montagnes primitives dont les debris se
+sont precipites au fond. Ces debris forment la premiere couche qui est
+posee immediatement sur les montagnes primitives. D'apres l'ancien
+langage de mineurs, nous avons jusqu'aujourd'hui appelle cette couche
+_le sol mort rouge_, parce qu'il y a beaucoup de rouge dans son melange,
+qu'elle forme le sol ou la base d'autres couches, et peut-etre de
+toutes, qu'elle est entierement inutile et, en quelque facon, morte pour
+l'exploitation des mines. Plusieurs se sont efforces de lui donner un
+nom harmonieux; mais ils ne l'ont pu sans occasionner des equivoques.
+Les mots _Breche Puddinstone Conglomerations_, &_c_. designent toujours
+des substances autres que cette espece de pierre.
+
+"Il est tres agreable de l'examiner dans les endroits ou elle forme des
+montagnes entieres. Cette couche est composee d'une quantite prodigieuse
+de pierres arrondies, agglutinees ensemble par une substance argileuse
+rouge et meme grise, et le toute a acquis assez de durete. On ne trouve
+dans sa composition aucune espece de pierre qui, a en juger par les
+meilleures observations, puisse avoir ete formee plus tard qu'elle;
+on n'y voit par-tout que des parties et des produit des montagnes
+primitives principalement de celles qui abondent le plus dans ces
+contrees. Le sol mort, par exemple, qui compose les montagnes des
+environs de Walbourg, pres d'Eisenach, contient une quantite de gros
+morceaux de granit et de schiste micace; c'est vraisemblablement parce
+que les montagnes primitives les plus voisines de Rhula, etc. sont,
+pour la plus part, formees de ces deux especes de pierres. Pres de
+Goldlauter, le sol mort consiste presque tout en porphyre, substance
+dont sont formees les montagnes primitives qui y dominent; et le
+Kiffauserberg dans la Thuringe a probablement recu ces morceaux arrondis
+de schiste argileux des montagnes voisine du Hartz. Vous trouverez
+ici que le schiste argileux existoit deja lorsque la mer a jette les
+premiers fondemens de nos montagnes stratifiees. Je serois fort etonne
+que quelqu'un me montrat un sol mort qui contint un morceaux de gypse,
+de marne, de pierre puante et autres. Quoiqu'il en soit il n'est pas
+aise d'expliquer pourquoi on ne trouve point de corps marins petrifies
+dans cette espece de pierre. C'est peut-etre que, par l'immense quantite
+de pierres dures roulees dans le fond de la mer, ils ont ete brises
+avant qu'ils aient commence de s'agglutiner ensemble. Mais on rencontre
+sur-tout au Kiffhauserberg des troncs d'arbres entiers petrifies; preuve
+qu'il y avoit deja ou de la vegetation avant que l'ocean destructeur se
+fut empare de ces cantons, ou du moins que quelques isles avoient existe
+au-dessus de la surface."
+
+Here we find the same observations in the mountains of Germany that
+I have been making with regard to those of Scotland. I have formerly
+observed masses of the same kind in the west of England, to the east of
+the Severn; but I could not discover any proper connection of that mass
+with the regular strata. I have also long observed it in many parts of
+Scotland, without being able to attain a sufficiently satisfactory idea
+with regard to those particulars by which the alternation of land and
+water, of the superficial and internal mineral operations of the globe,
+might be investigated.
+
+It will be very remarkable if similar appearances are always found upon
+the junction of the alpine with the level countries. Such an appearance,
+I am inclined to think, may be found in the Val d'Aoste, near Yvree. M.
+de Saussure describes such a stone as having been employed in building
+the triumphal arch erected in honour of Augustus. "Cet arc qui etoit
+anciennement revetu de marbre, est construit de grands quartiers d'une
+espece assez singuliere de poudingue ou de gres a gros grains. C'est une
+assemblage de fragmens, presque touts angulaires, de toutes sortes de
+roches primitives feuilletees, quartzeuses, micacees; les plus gros de
+ces fragmens n'atteignent pas le volume, d'une noisette. La plupart des
+edifices antiques de la cite l'Aoste et de ses environs, sont construits
+de cette matiere; et les gens du pays sont persuades que c'est une
+composition; mais j'en ai trouve des rochers en place dans les montagnes
+au nord et au-dessus de la route d'Yvree."
+
+We may now come to this general conclusion, that, in this example of
+horizontal and posterior strata placed upon the vertical _schisti_ which
+are prior in relation to the former, we obtain a further view into the
+natural history of this earth, more than what appears in the simple
+succession of one stratum above another. We know, in general, that all
+the solid parts of this earth, which come to our view, have either
+been formed originally by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, or been
+transfused in a melted state from the mineral regions among those solid
+bodies; but here we further learn, that the indurated and erected
+strata, after being broken and washed by the moving waters, had again
+been sunk below the sea, and had served as a bottom or basis on which to
+form a new structure of strata; and also, that those new or posterior
+strata had been indurated or cemented by the consolidating operations
+of the mineral region, and elevated from the bottom of the sea into the
+place of land, or considerably above the general surface of the waters.
+It is thus that we may investigate particular operations in the general
+progress of nature, which has for object to renovate the surface of the
+earth necessarily wasted in the operation of a world sustaining plants
+and animals.
+
+It is necessary to compare together every thing of this kind which
+occurs; it is first necessary to ascertain the fact of their being a
+prior and posterior formation of strata, with the mineral operations
+for consolidating those bodies formed by collection of the moveable
+materials; and, secondly, it is interesting to acquire all the data we
+can in order to form a distinct judgment of that progress of nature in
+which the solid body of our land is alternately removed from the bottom
+of the sea into the atmosphere, and sunk again at the bottom of the sea.
+
+I shall now transcribe what M. Schreiber has wrote in relation to
+this subject. It is in a memoir concerning the gold mine of Gardette,
+published in the Journal de Physique.
+
+"Avant de quitter la montagne de la Gardette qu'il me soit permis de
+rapporter une observation qui peut-etre n'est pas denuee de tout
+interet pour les naturalistes; je l'ai faite dans une galerie a environ
+cinquante-trois toises a l'ouest du principal puit laquelle a ete
+poussee sur la ligne de reunion de la pierre calcaire, et du granit
+feuillete ou gneiss pour fonder le filon dans cet endroit. Ce filon
+a six pouces d'epaisseur, et consiste en quartz entre-mele d'ochre
+martiale, de pyrite cuivreuse et galene. Cette derniere est souvent
+recouverte de chaux de plomb grise, et de petits cristaux de mine de
+plomb jaune donnant dans l'analyse un indice d'or. Ce filon finit a la
+reunion de la pierre calcaire au gneiss. Cette reunion se fait ici dans
+la direction d'une heure 6/8 de la boussole de raineur, et sous un
+inclinaison, occidentale de 26 degres.
+
+"Mais ce qu'il y a de remarquable, c'est que le gneis ne participe en
+rien de la pierre calcaire quoiqu'il n'en soit separe que par une couche
+d'une pouce d'epaisseur de terre argileuse et calcaire, tandis que le
+rocher calcaire renferme beaucoup de fragmens de granit et de gneis,
+dans le voisinage de cette reunion.
+
+"Cette observation prouve incontestablement que le granit et le gneis
+avoient deja acquis une durete capable de resister aux infiltration
+des parties calcaire, et qu'ils existoient a-peu-pres tels qu'ils sont
+aujourd'hui lorsque la pierre calcaire commenca a se former; autrement
+elle n'auroit pu saisir et envelopper des morceaux detaches de ces
+rochers auxquels on donne avec raison l'epithete de primitif ou de
+premiere formation."
+
+M. Schreiber continues his reasoning upon those mineral appearances, in
+adducing another argument, which I do not think equally conclusive. He
+says, "Le filon de la Gardette devoit pareillement exister avant la
+montagne calcaire, car s'il s'etoit forme apres, je ne voit pas la
+raison pour laquelle il s'y seroit arrete court, et pourquoi il ne se
+seroit pas prolonge dans cette espece de rocher." It is not necessary,
+in the formation of a vein, that it should proceed in traversing all the
+strata which then are superincumbent; it is reasonable to suppose, and
+consistent with observation to find them stop short in proceeding from
+one stratum to another. Had M. Schreiber found any pieces of the vein
+contained in the calcareous rock, he would have had good reason for
+that assertion; but, to conclude that fact from grounds which do not
+necessarily imply it, is not to be permitted in sound reasoning, if
+certainty is the object, and not mere probability.
+
+
+SECT. II.--The Theory confirmed from Observations made on purpose to
+elucidate the subject.
+
+Having got a distinct view of the primary and secondary mineral bodies
+or strata of the globe, and having thus acquired a particular object to
+inquire after, with a view to investigate or illustrate this piece of
+natural history, I was considering where we might most probably succeed
+in finding the junction of the low country strata and alpine schistus.
+I inquired of Mr Hall of Whitehall, who had frequent opportunities of
+traversing those mountains which lie between his house in the Merse and
+Edinburgh; and I particularly entreated him to examine the bed of the
+Whittater, which he executed to my satisfaction.
+
+Mr Hall having had occasion to examine the Pease and Tour burns, in
+planning and superintending the great improvement of the post road upon
+Sir James Hall's estate while Sir James was abroad, he informed me that
+the junction of the schistus and sand-stone strata was to be found in
+the Tour burn. Professor Playfair and I had been intending a visit to
+Sir James Hall at Dunglass; and this was a motive, not so much to hasten
+our visit, as to chose the most proper time for a mineral expedition
+both upon the hills and along the sea shore.
+
+It was late in the spring 1788 when Sir James left town, and Mr Playfair
+and I went to Dunglass about the beginning of June. We had exceeding
+favourable weather during the most part of our expedition; and I now
+propose to give an account of the result of our observations.
+
+Dunglass burn is the boundary between the counties of East Lothian and
+Berwickshire; and it is almost the boundary between the vertical and
+horizontal strata. To the north-west of this burn and beautiful dean are
+situated the coal, lime-stone, marl, and sand-stone strata; they are
+found stretching away along the shore in a very horizontal direction
+for some time, but become more and more inclined as they approach the
+schistus of which the hills of Lammermuir to the south are composed.
+
+Though the boundary between the two things here in question be easily
+perceivable from the nature of the country at the first inspection, by
+the rising of the hills, yet this does not lead one precisely to the
+junction; and in the extensive common boundary of those two things, the
+junction itself is only to be perceived in few places, where the rock is
+washed bare by the rivers or the sea, and where this junction is exposed
+naked to our view. The sea is here wearing away the coast; and the bank,
+about 200 feet high, is gradually falling down, making in some places a
+steep declivity, in others a perpendicular cliff. St Abb's Head and Fast
+Castle are head lands projecting into the sea, and are the bulwarks of
+this shore, which is embayed to the westward, where the sea preys upon
+the horizontal strata. The solid strata are every where exposed either
+in the cliff or on the shore; we were therefore certain of meeting with
+the junction in going from Dunglass to Fast Castle, which is upon the
+schistus. But this journey can only be made by sea; and we first set out
+to examine the junction in the Tour and Pease burns, where we had been
+informed it was to be found.
+
+In the bottom of those rivulets the sand-stone and marly strata appear
+pretty much inclined, rising towards the schistus country. The two burns
+unite before they come to the shore; and it is about midway between this
+junction and the bridges which are thrown over those two hollows, that
+the junction is to be found.
+
+The schistus strata here approach towards vertical; and the sand-stone
+strata are greatly inclined. But this inclination of those two different
+strata are in opposite directions; neither does the horizontal section
+of those two different strata run parallel to the junction; that is to
+say, the intersection of those two different strata is a line inclined
+to the horizon.
+
+At Jedburgh the schistus was vertical, and the strata horizontal; and
+there was interposed a compound bed of pudding-stone, formed of various
+water-worn bodies, the gravel of the schistus strata, and porphyries.
+Here again, though we have not a regular pudding-stone, we have
+that which corresponds to it, as having been the effect of similar
+circumstances. These are the fracture and detritus of the schistus,
+while the strata were deposited upon the broken ends of the schistus at
+the bottom of the sea. Most of the fragments of the schistus have their
+angles sharp; consequently, they had not travelled far, or been much
+worn by attrition. But more or less does not alter the nature of an
+operation; and the pudding-stone, which at Jedburgh is interposed
+between the vertical schistus and horizontal strata, is here properly
+represented by the included fragments of schistus in the inclined
+strata.
+
+The line of this junction running, on the one hand, towards Fast Castle
+eastward, and, on the other, towards the head of Dunglass burn
+westward, our business was to pursue this object in those two different
+directions. But it was chiefly in the sea coast that was placed our
+expectations, having recollection of the great banks of gravel under
+which the strata are buried about Oldhamstocks, near which, from all
+appearances, the junction was to be expected.
+
+Having taken boat at Dunglass burn, we set out to explore the coast;
+and, we observed the horizontal sand-stone turn up near the Pease burn,
+lifting towards the schistus. We found the junction of that schistus
+with the red sand-stone and marly strata on the shore and sea bank, at
+St. Helens, corresponding in general with what we had observed in the
+burns to the westward. But, at Siccar Point, we found a beautiful
+picture of this junction washed bare by the sea. The sand-stone strata
+are partly washed away, and partly remaining upon the ends of the
+vertical schistus; and, in many places, points of the schistus strata
+are seen standing up through among the sand-stone, the greatest part of
+which is worn away. Behind this again we have a natural section of those
+sand-stone strata, containing fragments of the schistus.
+
+After this nothing appears but the schistus rocks, until sand-stone and
+marl again are found at Red-heugh above the vertical strata. From that
+bay to Fast Castle we had nothing to observe but the schistus, which is
+continued without interruption to St Abb's Head. Beyond this, indeed,
+there appears to be something above the schistus; and great blocks of a
+red whin-stone or basaltes come down from the height and lie upon the
+shore; but we could not perceive distinctly how the upper mass is
+connected with the vertical schistus which is continued below.
+
+Our attention was now directed to what we could observe with respect
+to the schisti, of which we had most beautiful views and most perfect
+sections. Here are two objects to be held in view, in making those
+observations; the original formation or stratification of the schisti,
+and the posterior operations by which the present state of things has
+been procured. We had remarkable examples for the illustration of both
+those subjects.
+
+With regard to the first, we have every where among the rocks many
+surfaces of the erected strata laid bare, in being separated. Here we
+found the most distinct marks of strata of sand modified by moving
+water. It is no other than that which we every day observe upon the
+sands of our own shore, when the sea has ebbed and left them in a waved
+figure, which cannot be mistaken. Such figures as these are extremely
+common in our sand-stone strata; but this is an object which I never had
+distinctly observed in the alpine schisti; although, considering that
+the original of those schisti was strata of sand, and formed in water,
+there was no reason to doubt of such a thing being found. But here the
+examples are so many and so distinct, that it could not fail to give us
+great satisfaction.
+
+We were no less gratified in our views with respect to the other object,
+the mineral operations by which soft strata, regularly formed in
+horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea, had been hardened and
+displaced. Fig. 4. represents one of those examples; it was drawn by Sir
+James Hall from a perfect section in the perpendicular cliff at Lumesden
+burn. Here is not only a fine example of the bendings of the strata, but
+also of a horizontal shift or hitch of those erected strata.
+
+St Abb's Head is a promontory which, at a distance, one would naturally
+conclude to be composed of the schisti, as is all the shore to that
+place; but, as we approached it, there was some difference to be
+perceived in the external appearance, it having a more rounded and
+irregular aspect. Accordingly, upon our arrival, we found this head-land
+composed of a different substance. It is a great mass of red whin-stone,
+of a very irregular structure and composition. Some of it is full of
+small pebbles of calcareous spar, surrounded with a coat of a coloured
+substance, different both from the whin-stone ground and the inclosed
+pebble. Here ended our expedition by water.
+
+Having thus found the junction of the sand-stone with the schistus
+or alpine strata to run in a line directed from Fast Castle to
+Oldhamstocks, or the heads of Dunglass burn, we set out to trace this
+burn, not only with a view to observe the junction, if it should there
+appear, but particularly to discover the source of many blocks of
+whin-stone, of all sizes, with which the bed of this burn abounds.
+
+The sand-stone and coal strata, which are nearly horizontal at the mouth
+of this burn, or on the coast, become inclined as we go up the course of
+the rivulet; and of this we have fine sections in the bank. The Dean of
+Dunglass is formed of precipitous and perpendicular rocks, through which
+the running water has worn its way more than a hundred feet deep; above
+this Dean the banks are steep and very high, but covered with
+soil, which here is a deep gravel. The burn runs all the way up to
+Oldhamstocks upon the sand-stone strata; but there, these are traversed
+by a high whin-stone dyke, which crosses the burn obliquely, as we found
+it on both banks though not in the bed of the burn; it is in the south
+bank below the village, and on the north above it. Here is the source
+of the whin-stone which we were looking for; it is the common blue
+basaltes, of the same nature with the Giant's Causeway, but with no
+regular columner appearance.
+
+Above Oldhamstocks we again found the sand-stone in the bank, but it
+soon disappeared under a deep cover of gravel, and the burn then divided
+into several rivulets which come from the hills. We traced the one which
+led most directly up to the mountains, in expectation of meeting with
+the schistus, at least, if not the junction of it with the sandstone.
+But in this we were disappointed. We did not however lose our labour;
+for, though the junction which we pursued be not here visible, we met
+with what made it sufficiently evident, and was at the same time an
+object far more interesting in our eyes.
+
+I have already quoted Mr Voigt's description of the _sol mort rouge_; he
+says, that in places it forms entire mountains; here we have a perfect
+example of the same thing; and the moment we saw it, we said, here is
+the _sol mort rouge_. We ascended to the top of the mountain through
+a gully of solid pudding-stone going into decay, and furnishing the
+country below with that great covering of gravel, soil, and water worn
+stones. We were now well acquainted with the pudding-stone, which is
+interposed between the horizontal and alpine strata; but from what we
+had seen to the eastward, we never should have dreamed of meeting with
+what we now perceived. What we had hitherto seen of this pudding-stone
+was but a few fragments of the schistus in the lower beds of sand-stone;
+here a mountain of water-worn schisti, imbedded in a red earth and
+consolidated, presented itself to our view. It was evident that the
+schisti mountains, from whence those fragments had come, had been prior
+to this secondary mass; but here is a secondary mountain equal in height
+to the primary, or schisti mountains, at the basis of which we had seen
+the strata superinduced on the shore. Still, however, every thing here
+is formed upon the same principle, and nothing here is altered except
+the scale on which the operation had been performed.
+
+Upon the coast, we have but a specimen of the pudding-stone; most of
+the fragments had their angles entire; and few of them are rounded by
+attrition. Here, on the contrary, the mountain is one pudding-stone;
+and most of the fragments are stones much rounded by attrition. But the
+difference is only in degree, and not in kind; the stones are the same,
+and the nature of the composition similar. Had we seen the mass of which
+this mountain is only a relict, (having been degraded by the hands of
+time), we should have found this pudding-stone at the bottom of
+our sand-stone strata; could we have penetrated below this mass of
+pudding-stone, we should have found our schistus which we left on the
+shore at St. Helens and in the Tour burn. In Tiviotdale the vertical
+schisti are covered with a bed of pudding-stone, the gravel of which had
+been much worn by attrition, but the thickness of that bed is small;
+here again the wearing operation has been great, and the quantity of
+those materials even more than in proportion to those operations. We
+returned perfectly satisfied; and Sir James Hall is to pursue this
+subject farther when he shall be in those mountains shooting muir game.
+
+We had now only one object more to pursue; this was to examine the south
+side of those mountains of Lammermuir upon the sea shore, in order
+to see the junction of the primary schistus with the coal strata
+of Berwickshire. Mr Hall was to meet us at the Press, and we were
+afterwards to go with him to Whitehall. We met accordingly; but the
+weather was rainy; and we went directly to Whitehall. I had often seen
+the pudding-stone in great masse; in the banks of the Whiteader, as
+it comes out of the mountains, but then I had not seen its connection
+neither, on the one hand, with the schisti, nor, on the other, with the
+sand-stone strata. We knew that at Lammerton upon the sea coast there
+was coal, and consequently the sand-stone strata; and reasoning upon
+those data we were sure that our proper course of investigation was to
+trace the river Ey to the shore, and then go south the coast in search
+of the junction of the schistus with the horizontal strata. This we
+executed as well as the weather would permit; but had it to regret,
+that the rainy season was not so favourable for our views, as it was
+agreeable to the country which had been suffering with the drought.
+
+It is needless now to enlarge upon this subject. I shall only mention
+that we found the red marly strata above the pudding-stone in the bed of
+the Ey and its branches; we then traced the schistus down the Ey, and
+found a mass of the most consolidated pudding-stone upon the coast to
+the north of the harbour of Eymouth. But this mass did not rest on the
+schistus; it is immediately upon a mass of whin-stone; and the schistus
+is in the harbour, so that this whin-stone mass seems to be here
+interposed between the pudding-stone and schistus. We then pursued
+the coast southwards until we found the junction of the schistus and
+sand-stone strata about two miles from Eymouth; but here the junction
+was not attended with any pudding-stone that we could perceive.
+
+Having found the same or similar appearances from the one end to the
+other, and on both sides of that range of mountains which run from sea
+to sea in the south of Scotland, we may now extend our view of this
+mineral operation in comprehending every thing of the same kind which we
+meet with in our island or any other distant country.
+
+Thus perhaps the pudding-stone of the south of England will be
+considered in the same light as having been formed of the _debri_ and
+_detritus_ of the flinty bodies.
+
+In the island of Arran, there is also a pudding-stone, even in some
+of the summits of the island, exactly upon the border of the schistus
+district, as will be described in the natural history of that island.
+This pudding-stone is composed of gravel formed of the hardest parts
+of the schistus and granite or porphyry mountains. That compound
+parasitical stone has been also again cemented by heat and fusion; I
+have a specimen in which there is a clear demonstration of that fact.
+One of the water-worn stones which had been rounded by attrition, has in
+this pudding-stone been broken and shifted, the one half slipping over
+the other, three quarters of an inch, besides other smaller slips in
+the same stone. But the two pieces are again cemented; or they had been
+shifted when the stone was in that soft state, by which the two pieces
+are made perfectly to cohere. Those shifts and veins, in this species of
+stone, are extremely instructive, illustrating the mineral operations of
+the globe.
+
+In like manner to the north of the Grampians, along the south side of
+Loch Ness, there are mountains formed of the debris of schistus and
+granite mountains, first manufactured into sand and gravel, and then
+consolidated into a pudding-stone, which is always formed upon the same
+principle. The same is also found upon the south side of those mountains
+in the shire of Angus.
+
+I may also give for example the African _Brechia_, which is a
+pudding-stone of the same nature. This stone is composed of granites or
+porphyries, serpentines and schisti, extremely indurated and perfectly
+consolidated. It is also demonstrable from the appearance in this stone
+that it has been in a softened state, from the shape and application
+of its constituent parts; and in a specimen of it which I have in my
+cabinet, there is also a demonstration of calcareous spar flowing among
+the gravel of the consolidated rock.
+
+This fact therefore of pudding-stone mountains, is a general fact, so
+far as it is founded upon observations that are made in Africa, Germany,
+and Britain. We may now reason upon this general fact, in order to see
+how far it countenances the idea of primitive mountains, on the one
+hand, or on the other supports the present theory, which admits of
+nothing primitive in the visible or examinable parts of the earth.
+
+To a person who examines accurately the composition of our mountains,
+which occupy the south of Scotland, no argument needs be used to
+persuade him that the bodies in question are not primitive; the thing
+is evident from inspection, as much as would be the ruins of an ancient
+city, although there were no record of its history. The visible
+materials, which compose for the most part the strata of our south
+alpine schisti, are so distinctly the _debris_ and _detritus_ of a
+former earth, and so similar in their nature with those which for the
+most part compose the strata on all hands acknowledged as secondary,
+that there can remain no question upon that head. The consolidation,
+again, of those strata, and the erection of them from their original
+position, and from the place in which they had been formed, is another
+question.
+
+But the acknowledging strata, which had been formed in the sea of loose
+materials, to be consolidated and raised into the place of land, is
+plainly giving up the idea of primitive mountains. The only question,
+therefore, which remains to be solved, must respect the order of things,
+in comparing the alpine schisti with the secondary strata; and this
+indeed forms a curious subject of investigation.
+
+It is plain that the schisti had been indurated, elevated, broken, and
+worn by attrition in water, before the secondary strata, which form the
+most fertile parts of our earth, had existed. It is also certain that
+the tops of our schistus mountains had been in the bottom of the sea
+at the time when our secondary strata had begun to be formed; for the
+pudding-stone on the top of our Lammermuir mountains, as well as the
+secondary strata upon the vertical schisti of the Alps and German
+mountains, affords the most irrefragable evidence of that fact.
+
+It is further to be affirmed, that this whole mass of water-formed
+materials, as well as the basis on which it rested, had been subjected
+to the mineral operations of the globe, operations by which the loose
+and incoherent materials are consolidated, and that which was the bottom
+of the sea made to occupy the station of land, and serve the purpose for
+which it is destined in the world. This also will appear evident, when
+it is considered that it has been from the appearances in this very
+land, independent of those of the alpine schisti, that the present
+theory has been established.
+
+By thus admitting a primary and secondary in the formation of our land,
+the present theory will be confirmed in all its parts. For, nothing but
+those vicissitudes, in which the old is worn and destroyed, and new
+land formed to supply its place, can explain that order which is to be
+perceived in all the works of nature; or give us any satisfactory
+idea with regard to that apparent disorder and confusion, which would
+disgrace an agent possessed of wisdom and working with design.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VII.
+
+Opinions examined with regard to Petrifaction, or Mineral Concretion.
+
+The ideas of naturalists with regard to petrifaction are so vague and
+indistinct, that no proper answer can be given to them. They in general
+suppose water to be the solvent of bodies, and the vehicle of petrifying
+substances; but they neither say whether water be an universal
+menstruum, nor do they show in what manner a solid body has been formed
+in the bowels of the earth, from that solution. It may now be proper to
+examine this subject, not with a view to explain all those petrifactions
+of bodies which is performed in the mineral regions of the earth, those
+regions that are inaccessible to man, but to show that what has been
+wrote by naturalists, upon this subject, has only a tendency to corrupt
+science, by admitting the grossest supposition in place of just
+principle or truth, and to darken natural history by introducing an ill
+conceived theory in place of matter of fact.
+
+M. le Comte de Buffon has attempted to explain the crystallization
+of bodies, or production of mineral forms, by the accretion or
+juxtaposition of elementary bodies, which have only form in two
+dimensions, length and breadth; that is to say, that mineral concretions
+are composed of surfaces alone, and not of bodies. This however is only
+an attempt to explain, what we do not understand, by a proposition which
+is either evidently contradictory, or plainly inconceivable. It is
+true that this eloquent and ingenious author endeavours to correct the
+palpable absurdity of the proposition, by representing the constituent
+parts of the mineral bodies as "_de lames infiniment minces_;" but who
+is it does not see, that these infinitely thin plates are no other than
+bodies of three dimensions, contrary to the supposition; for, infinitely
+thin, means a certain thickness; but the smallest possible or assignable
+thickness differs as much from a perfect superficies as the greatest.
+
+M. de Luc has given us his ideas of petrifaction with sufficient
+precision of term and clearness of expression; his opinion, therefore,
+deserves to be examined; and, as his theory of petrifaction is equally
+applicable to every species of substance, it is necessary again to
+examine this subject, notwithstanding of what has been already said,
+in the first part of this work, concerning consolidation and mineral
+concretion from the fluid state of fusion.
+
+This author has perhaps properly exposed Woodward's Theory of
+Petrification in saying[33], "Son erreur a cet egard vient de ce qu'il
+n'a point reflechi sur la maniere dont se fait la _petrifaction_. Il
+ramollit d'abord les _pierres_ pour y faire entrer les coquilles, sans
+bien connoitre l'agent qu'il y employe; et il les duroit ensuite, sans
+reflechir au comment." To avoid this error or defect, M. de Luc, in his
+Theory of Petrifaction, sets out with the acknowledged principle of
+cohesion; and, in order to consolidate strata of a porous texture, he
+supposes water carrying minute bodies of all shapes and sizes, and
+depositing them in such close contact as to produce solidity and
+concretion. Now, if Dr Woodward softened stones without a proper
+cause, M. de Luc, in employing the specious principle of cohesion, has
+consolidated them upon no better grounds; for, the application of this
+principle is as foreign to his purpose, as is that of magnetism. Bodies,
+it is true, cohere when their surfaces are closely applied to each
+other; But how apply this principle to consolidation?--only by supposing
+all the separate bodies, of which the solid is to be composed, to be
+in perfect contact in all their surfaces. But this, in other words,
+is supposing the body to be solid; and, to suppose the agent, water,
+capable of thus making hard bodies solid, is no other than having
+recourse to the fortuitous concourse of atoms to make a world; a thought
+which this author would surely hold in great contempt.
+
+[Note 33: Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+He then illustrates this operation of nature by those of art, in
+building walls which certainly become hard, and which, as our author
+seems to think, become solid. But this is only an imperfect or erroneous
+representation of this subject; for, mortar does not become hard upon
+the principle of petrification adopted by our author. Mortar, made of
+clay, instead of lime, will not acquire a stony hardness, nor ever, by
+means of water, will it be more indurated than by simply drying; neither
+will the most subtile powder of chalk, with water and sand, form any
+solid body, or a proper mortar. The induration of mortar arises from the
+solution of a stony substance, and the subsequent concretion of that
+dissolved matter, operations purely chemical. Now, if this philosopher,
+in his Theory of Petrifaction, means only to explain a chemical
+operation upon mechanical principles, why have recourse, for an example
+in this subject, to mineral bodies, the origin of which is questioned?
+Why does he not rather explain, upon this principle, the known
+concretion of some body, from a fluid state, or, conversely, the
+known solution of some concreted body? If again he means to explain
+petrifaction in the usual way, by a chemical operation, in that case,
+the application of his polished surfaces, so as to cohere, cannot take
+place until the dissolved body be separated from the fluid, by means of
+which it is transported from place to place in the mineral regions. But
+it is in this preliminary step that lies all the difficulty; for, could
+we see how every different substance might be dissolved, and every
+dissolved substance separated from its solvent at our pleasure, we
+should find no difficulty in admitting the cohesion of hard bodies,
+whether by means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or by the
+principle of general attraction, a principle which surely comprehends
+this particular, termed a cohesive power.
+
+It must not be alleged, that seeing we know not how water dissolves
+saline bodies, therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we know, may
+also dissolve crystal; and, if water thus dissolves a mineral substance
+in a manner unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit it, although
+we may not be able to imagine how. This kind of reasoning is only
+calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the same time, the reasoning of
+philosophers, concerning petrifaction, does not in general appear to be
+founded on any principle that is more sound. That water dissolves salt
+is a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not a fact; therefore, those
+two propositions, with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
+removed, and cannot be assimilated in sound physical reasoning. It is
+no more a truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than that we never
+have been able to detect the smallest disposition in water to dissolve
+crystal, flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege the possibility
+of water being capable of dissolving those bodies in the mineral
+regions, and of thus changing the substance of one body into another, as
+naturalists have supposed, contrary to their knowledge, or in order to
+explain appearances, is so far from tending to increase our science,
+that it is abandoning the human intellect to be bewildered in an error;
+it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep the scientific conscience,
+and making the soul of man insensible to the natural distress of
+conscious ignorance.
+
+But besides that negative argument concerning the insolubility of
+crystal, by which the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
+be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly concreted in the
+cavities of the most solid rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
+in the midst of granite mountains. But these masses of granite were
+formed by fusion; I hope that I shall give the most satisfactory proof
+of that truth: Consequently, here at least there is no occasion for the
+action of water in dissolving siliceous substances in one place, in
+order to concrete and crystallise it in another.
+
+In these cavities of the solid granite rock, where crystal is found
+regularly shooting from a basis which is the internal surface of the
+cavity, we find the other constituent substances of the granite also
+crystallised. I have those small cavities, in this rock, from the island
+of Arran, containing crystal, felt-spar, and mica, all crystallised in
+the same cavity[34]. But this is nothing to the _druzen_ or crystalline
+concretions, which are found in a similar manner among metallic and
+mineral substances in the veins and mines; there, every species of
+mineral and metallic substance, with every variety of mixture and
+composition, are found both concreted and crystallised together in every
+imaginable shape and situation.
+
+[Note 34: The Chevalier Dolomieu makes the following observation.
+Journal de Physique, Juillet 1791.
+
+"J'ai ete etonne de trouver au centre d'un enorme massif de granit, que
+l'on avoit ouvert avec la poudre pour pratiquer un chemin, des
+morceaux, gros comme le poing et au dessous, de spath calcaire blanc,
+tres-effervescent, en grandes ecailles, ou lames entrecroisees. Il
+n'occupoit point des cavites particulieres, il n'y paroissoit le
+produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des cavites, mais il etoit
+incorpore avec les feld-spath, le mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse
+avec eux, et ne pouvoit se rompre sans les entrainer avec lui."
+
+This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not been here
+introduced by infiltration, although that is the very method which he
+employs to form concretions, not only of spar but of crystal, zeolite,
+and pyrites, in the closest cavities of the most solid rocks of
+basaltes. These four substances in this stone were so mixed together
+that nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain the state in
+which they appeared; but, thinking that such a supposition could not
+be allowed, this naturalist, like a man of science when his data fail,
+leaves the matter without any interpretation of his own. This however is
+what he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he mistakes
+for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.]
+
+Here is an infinite operation, but an operation which is easily
+performed by the natural arrangement of substances acting freely in
+a fluid state, and concreting together, each substance, whether more
+simple or more compound, directing itself by its internal principle of
+attraction, and affecting mechanically those that are concreting around
+it.
+
+We see the very same thing happen under our eye, and precisely in the
+same manner. When a fluid mass of any mineral or metallic substance is
+made to congeal by sudden cooling on the outside, while the mass within
+is fluid, a cavity is thus sometimes formed by the contraction of the
+contained fluid; and in this cavity are found artificial _druzen_, as
+they may be called, being crystallizations similar to those which the
+mineral cavities exhibit in such beauty and perfection.
+
+Petrification and consolidation, in some degree, may doubtless be
+performed, in certain circumstances, by means of the solution of
+calcareous earth; but the examples given by M. de Luc, of those bodies
+of lime-stone and agate petrified in the middle of strata of loose or
+sandy materials, are certainly inexplicable upon any other principle
+except the fusion of those substances with which the bodies are
+petrified[35].
+
+[Note 35: Vid. Lettre 28 et Lettre 103. Lettres Physiques et Morales.]
+
+This subject deserves the strictest attention; I propose it as a
+touchstone for every theory of petrification or perfect consolidation.
+First, There are found, among argillaceous strata, insulated bodies of
+iron-stone, perfectly consolidated; secondly, There are found, in strata
+of chalk and lime-stone, masses of insulated flints; thirdly, There
+are found, in strata of sea sand, masses of that sand cemented by a
+siliceous substance; fourthly, In the midst of blocks of sand-stone,
+there are found masses of loose or pure sand inclosed in crystallised
+cavities; and in this sand are found insulated masses of crystallised
+spar, including within them the sand, but without having the sparry
+or calcareous crystallization disturbed by it. There are also other
+globular masses of the same kind, where the sparry crystallization is
+either not to be observed, or appears only partially[36]: And now,
+lastly, In strata of shell-sand, there are found masses of consolidated
+lime-stone or marble. In all those cases, the consolidated bodies are
+perfectly insulated in the middle of strata, in which they must of
+necessity have been petrified or consolidated; the stratum around the
+bodies has not been affected by the petrifying substance, as there
+is not any vestige of it there; and here are examples of different
+substances, all conspiring to prove one uniform truth. Therefore, a
+general theory of petrification or consolidation of mineral bodies must
+explain this distinct fact, and not suffer it any longer to remain a
+_lusus naturae_.
+
+[Note 36: Mem. de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, an. 1775.]
+
+Let us now consider what it is that we have to explain, upon the
+supposition of those concretions being formed from a solution. We have,
+first, To understand what sort of a solution had been employed for the
+introducing of those various substances; secondly, How those concretions
+had been formed from such solutions within those bodies of strata; and,
+lastly, How such concretions could have been formed, without any vestige
+appearing of the same substance, or of the same operation, in the
+surrounding part of the stratum. Whatever may be the difficulty
+of explaining those particular appearances by means of fusion and
+mechanical force, it is plainly impossible to conceive those bodies
+formed in those places by infiltration, or any manner of concretion from
+a state of solution.
+
+Naturalists, in explaining the formation of stones, often use a chemical
+language which either has no proper meaning, or which will not apply to
+the subject of mineral operations. We know the chemical process by which
+one or two stony concretions may be formed among bodies passing from
+one state to another. When, therefore, a change from a former state of
+things in mineral bodies is judged by naturalists to have happened, the
+present state is commonly explained, or the change is supposed to have
+been made by means of a similar process, without inquiring if this had
+truly been the case or not. Thus their knowledge of chemistry has led
+naturalists to reason erroneously, in explaining things upon false
+principles. It would be needless to give an example of any one
+particular author in this respect; for, so far as I have seen, it
+appears to be almost general, every one copying the language of another,
+and no one understanding that language which has been employed.
+
+These naturalists suppose every thing done by means of solution in the
+mineral kingdom, and yet they are ignorant of those solvents. They
+conceive or they imagine concretions and crystallizations to be formed
+of every different substance, and in every place within the solid body
+of the earth, without considering how far the thing is possible which
+they suppose. They are constantly talking of operations which could only
+take place in the cavities of the earth above the level of the sea, and
+where the influence of the atmosphere were felt; and yet this is the
+very place which we have it in our power to examine, and where, besides
+the stalactite, and one or two more of the same kind, or formed on the
+same principle, they have never been able to discover one of the many
+which, according to their theory, ought always to be in action or
+effect. So far from knowing that general consolidating operation, which
+they suppose to be exerted in filling up the veins and cavities of the
+earth by means of the infiltrating water of the surface, they do not
+seem fully to understand the only operation of this kind which they see.
+The concretion of calcareous matter upon the surface of the earth is
+perhaps the only example upon which their theory is founded; and
+yet nothing can be more against it than the general history of this
+transaction.
+
+Calcareous matter, the great _vinculum_ of many mineral bodies, is in
+a perpetual state of dissolution and decay, in every place where the
+influences of air and water may pervade. The general tendency of this
+is to dissolve calcareous matter out of the earth, and deliver that
+solution into the sea. Were it possible to deny that truth, the
+very formation of stalactite, that operation which has bewildered
+naturalists, would prove it; for it is upon the general solubility of
+calcareous matter exposed to water that those cavities are formed, in
+which may be found such collections of stalactical concretion; and the
+general tendency of those operations is to waste the calcareous bodies
+through which water percolates. But how is the general petrifaction or
+consolidation of strata, below the surface of the sea, to be explained
+by the general dissolution of that consolidating substance in the
+earth above that level? Instead of finding a general petrifying or
+consolidating operation in the part of the earth which we are able to
+examine, we find the contrary operation, so far at least as relates to
+calcareous spar, and many other mineral bodies which are decomposed and
+dissolved upon the surface of the earth.
+
+Thus in the surface of the earth, above the level of the sea, no
+petrifying operation of a durable nature is found; and, were such an
+operation there found, it could not be general, as affecting every kind
+of substance. But, even suppose that such a general operation were found
+to take place in the earth above the level of the sea, where there might
+be a circulation of air and percolation of water, How could the strata
+of the earth below the level of the sea be petrified? This is a question
+that does not seem to have entered into the heads of our naturalists
+who attempt to explain petrifaction or mineral concretion from aqueous
+solutions. But the consolidation of loose and incoherent things,
+gathered together at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards raised
+into rocks of various sorts, forms by far the greatest example of
+petrification or mineral operation of this globe. It is this that must
+be explained in a mineral theory; and it is this great process of
+petrifaction to which the doctrine of infiltration, whether for the
+mechanical purpose of applying cohesive surfaces, or the chemical one of
+forming crystallizations and concretions, will not by any means apply.
+
+Nothing shows more how little true science has been employed for the
+explanation of phenomena, than the language of modern naturalists, who
+attribute, to stalactical and stalagmical operations, every superficial
+or distant resemblance to those calcareous bodies, the origin of which
+we know so well. It is not a mere resemblance that should homologate
+different things; there should be a specific character in every thing
+that is to be generalised. It will be our business to show that, in the
+false stalactites, there is not the distinctive character of those water
+formed bodies to be found.
+
+In the formation of stalactical concretions, besides the incrustation as
+well as crystallization of the stony substance from the aqueous vehicle
+by which it had been carried in the dissolved state, we have the other
+necessary accompanyments of the operation, or collateral circumstances
+of the case. Such, for example, is that tubular construction of the
+stalactite, first formed by the concretion of the calcareous substance
+upon the outside of the pendant gut of water exposed to the evaporation
+of the atmosphere; we then see the gradual filling up of that pervious
+tube through which the petrifying water had passed for a certain time;
+and, lastly, we see the continual accretion which this conducting body
+had received from the water running successively over every part of
+it. But among the infinite number of siliceous concretions and
+crystallizations, as well as those of an almost indefinite variety of
+other substances, all of which are attributed to solution, there is not
+the least vestige of any collateral operation, by which the nature of
+that concretion might be ascertained in the same manner. In all
+those cases, we see nothing but the concreted substances or their
+crystallizations; but, no mark of any solvent or incrusting process is
+to be perceived. On the contrary, almost all, or the greatest part
+of them, are so situated, and attended with such circumstances, as
+demonstrate the physical impossibility of that being the manner in which
+they had been concreted; for, they are situated within close cavities,
+through which nothing can pervade but heat, electricity, magnetism,
+etc.; and they fill those cavities more or less, from the thinnest
+incrustation of crystals to the full content of those cavities with
+various substances, all regularly concreted or crystallised according to
+an order which cannot apply to the concretion of any manner of solution.
+
+That there is, in the mineral system, an operation of water which may
+with great propriety be termed _infiltration_, I make no doubt. But this
+operation of water, that may be employed in consolidating the strata
+in the mineral regions, is essentially different from that which is
+inconsiderately employed or supposed by mineralists when they talk
+of infiltration; these two operations have nothing in common except
+employing the water of the surface of the earth to percolate a porous
+body. Now, the percolation of water may increase the porousness of that
+body which it pervades, but never can thus change it from a porous to a
+perfect solid body. But even the percolation of water through the strata
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, necessarily required, according to
+the supposition of naturalists, must be refused; for, the interstices of
+those strata are, from the supposition of the case, already filled with
+water; consequently, without first removing that stagnant water, it is
+in vain to propose the infiltration of any fluid from the surface.
+
+This is a difficulty which does not occur in our theory, where the
+strata, deposited at the bottom of the sea, are to be afterwards heated
+by the internal fires of the earth. The natural consequence of those
+heating operations may be considered as the converting of the water
+contained in the strata into steam, and the expulsion of steam or
+vapour, by raising it up against the power of gravity, to be delivered
+upon the surface of the earth and again condensed to the state of water.
+
+Let us now conceive the strata, which had been deposited at the bottom
+of the sea, as exhausted of their water, and as communicating with the
+surface of the earth impregnated with water. Here again we have the
+power of gravity to operate in carrying down water to that place which
+had been before exhausted by the power of heat; and in this manner, by
+alternately employing those two great physical agents, we cannot doubt
+that nature may convey soluble substances from above, and deposit them
+below for the purpose of consolidating porous bodies, or of filling with
+saline and earthy matter those interstices which had been originally
+filled with water, when the strata were deposited at the bottom of the
+sea. How far any marks of this operation may be perceived, by carefully
+examining our mines and minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
+the contrary, whenever those examined objects were clear and distinct,
+with the concomitant circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
+always found the most certain marks of the solid bodies having concreted
+from the fluid state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude the case
+of infiltration having been previously employed; and I would intreat
+mineralists, who have the opportunity of examining the solid parts of
+the earth, to attend particularly to this distinction. But do not let
+them suppose that infiltration can be made to fill either the pores or
+veins of strata without the operation of mineral heat, or some such
+process by which the aqueous vehicle may be discharged.
+
+Not only are mineral philosophers so inconsiderate, in forming
+geological theories upon a mere supposition or false analogy, they
+have even proceeded, upon that erroneous theory, to form a geological
+supposition for explaining the appearances of strata and other stony
+masses in employing a particular physical operation, which is, that
+of _crystallization_[37]. Now crystallization may be considered as a
+species of elective concretion, by which every particular substance, in
+passing from a fluid to a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar
+external shape and internal arrangement of its parts, by which it is
+often distinguished. But, to suppose the solid mineral structure of the
+earth explained, like an enigma, by the word _crystallization_, is to
+misunderstand the science by which we would explain the subject of
+research; and, to form a general mineral theory thus upon that term,
+is an attempt to generalise without a reason. For, when it were even
+admitted that every solid body is crystallised, we thus know no more of
+the geology of this earth, or understand as little of the general theory
+of mineral concretion, as we did before;--we cannot, from that, say
+whether it be by the operation of solution or of fusion which had
+produced the perceived effect.
+
+[Note 37: Journal de Physique; Avril 1753.]
+
+M. de Carosi has wrote a treatise upon certain petrifactions[38]. In the
+doctrine of this treatise there is something new or extraordinary. It
+will therefore be proper to make some observations on it.
+
+[Note 38: Sur la Generation du Silex et du Quartz en partie.
+Observations faites en Pologne 1783, a Cracovie.]
+
+The object of this treatise is to describe the generation of silex and
+quartz, with their modifications or compositions, formed within mineral
+bodies of a different substance. The natural history contained in this
+little treatise is well described and sufficiently interesting. But It
+is chiefly in order to examine the means which, according to the theory
+of this treatise, are employed in petrifying bodies, that I consider it
+in this place.
+
+The first section of this treatise has for title, _Generation du Caillou
+et du Quartz de la terre calcaire pure_. It may be worth while to
+compare the natural history of this part of the earth with the flint and
+chert found in our chalk and lime-stone countries. I shall therefore
+transcribe what is worth observing upon that subject (p. 5.).
+
+"Nous rencontrons chez nous dans les parties le plus montagneuses, et
+les moins couvertes de terreau, ou tout-au plus de sable, entre de purs
+rochers calcaires une quantite incroyable de cailloux (silex) tant en
+boules, que veines, couches, et debris. Au premier coup d'oeil l'on
+s'imagine que ce font des debris de montagnes eloignees, qui y furent
+amenes par les eaux, mais, en examinant la chose de plus pres, on est
+convaincu, que ce sont tout au contraire, des parties detachees des
+montagnes de la contree. Car il y a sur presque toute l'etendue de nos
+montagnes calcaires une couche, ou pour mieux dire, un banc compose
+de plusieurs couches de base calcaire, mais qui ou sont parsemees
+irregulierement de boules, de rognons, de veines, et de petits filons
+de silex, ou qui contiennent cette pierre en filon, veines, et couches
+paralleles, et regulierement disposees. Les boules et rognons de silex
+y font depuis moins de la grandeur d'une petite noisette, jusqu'au
+diametre de plus de six pouces de notre mesure. La plupart de ces boules
+tant qu'elles sont dans l'interieur cache de la roche vive, et qu'elles
+n'ont rien souffert de l'impression de l'air, ont, pour l'ordinaire, une
+croute de spath calcaire, au moyen de la quelle elles sont accrues a
+la roche mere; ou pour mieux dire la croute spatheuse fait l'intermede
+entre le silex, et la roche calcaire, par ou se fait le passage de l'une
+a l'autre. Mais ceci ne vaut que de boules de silex entierement formees.
+C'est dont on peut meme se convaincre a la vue, par beaucoup de pierres
+dont le pave de la ville de Cracovie est compose. Mais la, ou le silex
+n'est pas encore entierement acheve, la croute spatheuse manque, en
+revanche on y voit evidemment le passage par degres successifs de la
+roche calcaire au silex qui y est contenu, et les nuances de ce passage
+sont souvent si peu marquees que meme les acides mineraux ne suffisent
+pas a les determiner, ce n'est que le briquet, qui nous aide a les
+decouvrir. On voit bien ou la pierre calcaire s'enfonce en couleur, l'on
+s'appercoit, ou sa durete, ses cassures changent, mais, comme elle y
+souffre encore quelque impression des acides, l'on ne sauroit determiner
+au juste le point, ou elle a deja plus de la nature du silex, que de
+celle de la chaux, qu'en la frappant du briquet.
+
+"Tels sont les cailloux en boules et rognons avant leur etat de
+perfection, il y aura meme au milieu une partie de pierre calcaire non
+changee.
+
+"Ceux au contraire, ou la nature a acheve son ouvrage, ont une croute de
+chaux endurcie, et sont purement du silex fini, mais de toutes couleurs,
+d'un grain et d'une texture plus ou moins fine, qui passe assez souvent
+par degres dans les differentes varietes du noble silex. Ils ont, pour
+l'ordinaire, dans leur interieur une cavite, mais pas toujours au
+centre, et qui vient apparemment de la consommation de cette partie
+calcaire qui y resta la derniere, et n'en fut changee ou dissolute et
+separee, que lorsque le reste du silex etoit deja entierement fini. Ces
+cavites sont toujours, ou enduites de calcedoine en couche concentriques
+recouverte de petits cristaux fort brillans et durs de quartz, ou bien
+seulement de ces derniers-ci. Par-fois il y a aussi du spath calcaire
+crystallise, mais cela est extremement rare. Quelque-fois enfin ces
+cavites sont remplies d'une noix de calcedoine. Je n'ai reussi qu'une
+seule fois en cassant un pareil silex en boule d'y trouver encore le
+reste de l'eau de crystallisation."
+
+The only remark that I would here make is this, that, if the
+crystallization of those close cavities in the _silex_ had at any time
+required water of solution, it must always have required it. But, if
+there had been water of solution contained in those close cavities, for
+the crystallization of the various things which are often found within
+them, How comes it that this water is almost never found? I have good
+reason to believe that water contained within a solid flint will not
+make its escape, as does that contained in the _anhydrites_ of Mount
+_Berico_, which are composed of a porous calcedony. But the siliceous
+crystallizations within close cavities is a curious subject, which we
+shall have occasion to examine more particularly in treating of agates.
+We now proceed to the next section, which is the generation of silex and
+quartz in marl, (p. 19.)
+
+"Il y a des contrees, chez nous, qui out des etendus assez considerables
+en long et en large, de montagnes de pierre de marne calcaire, dans
+lesquelles on rencontre le meme phenomene que dans celles de chaux pure;
+c. a. d. nous y trouvons du silex de differentes varietes, et dans tous
+les degres successifs de leur formation, et de leur perfection. Outre
+cela, nous y voyons encore quelque chose, qui semble nous conduire a
+la decouverte des moyens, dont se sort la nature pour effecteur cette
+operation, et qui nous etoit cache dans les montagnes de chaux pure: ces
+bancs de pierre marnesilicieuse, contiennent une partie considerable de
+pyrites sulfureuses, qui non seulement y forment une grande quantite
+de petits sillons, mais toute la masse de la montagne est rempli de
+parcelles souvent presqu'imperceptibles de ce mineral. Ces pyrites sont
+evidemment des productions du phlogistique et de l'acide contenu dans la
+montagne.
+
+"L'eau, qui s'y trouve ordinairement en assez grande abondance, en
+detacha, extraha d'un et l'autre, et les combina apres tous les deux
+ensemble. Cette meme eau les dissout derechef, et en fait de nouvelles
+combinaisons. C'est ce qu'on voit evidemment la, ou la nature, ayant
+commence ses operations, il n'y est reste de la pyrite, qu'une portion
+de la partie inflammable liee a une base terrestre. Dans ces endroits
+la marne n'est que fort peu sensible aux acides, et de blanche qu'elle
+etoit, sa couleur est devenue presque noire. C'est la qu'on observe les
+differens degres du changement de la marne en silex, contenant, meme
+encore, par fois, de parties pyriteiques non detruites dans son
+interieur. Et comme la nature forme ici, de meme, que dans la chaux pure
+les silex, la plupart en boules ou rognons; comme les different degres
+de metamorphoses de la marne en silex, sont ici beaucoup plus nombreuses
+que la, de sorte qu'il y a des bandes entieres, qui meriteroient plutot
+d'etre appelles bandes silicieuses, que marneuses; comme il y a, enfin,
+une grande quantite de pyrites, qu'ailleurs, il est tres probable
+qu'elle se serve la du meme moyen qu'ici pour operer la metamorphose en
+question.
+
+"Ne nous precipitons, cependant, pas a en tirer plus de consequences;
+poursuivons plutot le fil de notre recit.
+
+"Le silex, qui se trouve ici, est non seulement de differents degres de
+perfection, il est de plus d'une espece. Il y a de la pierre a feu, 2 de
+la calcedoine, 3 des agathes, et 4 differentes nuances et passages des
+especes ordinaires aux fines du silex.
+
+"La pierre a feu, est, ordinairement dans son etat de perfection d'un
+grain assez fin, d'une couleur grise plus ou moins foncee, et meme
+donnant, dans le noiratre, plus ou moins diaphane; ses cassures sont
+concentriques ou coquillees, et sa masse est assez compacte. Outre sa
+conformation ordinaire en boules et rognons, elle fait presque toujours
+la noix de ursins marins, qui y font en grand nombre, et dont la
+coquille est le plus souvent, et presque toujours de spath calcaire,
+meme au milieu d'une boule de silex parfait.
+
+"Les calcedoines et agathes de ces couches sont toujours (au moins, je
+ne les ai pas encore vues autrement) de coraux et autres corps marins
+petrifies. Donc, il faut que les couches de pierres roulees, d'ou j'ai
+tire ma collection citee plus haut, soyent des debris de montagne"
+detruites de cette espece. Il y en a qui sont tres parfaites comme
+celles qui composent ma collection, d'autres meritent plutot d'etre
+rangees parmi les passages du silex ordinaire, et ses especes plus
+fines; d'autres encore sont, en effet, de vraies agathes, mais qui
+renferment dans leur interieur plus ou moins de parties non parfaites
+presque calcaires, qui s'annoncent d'abord par leur couleur blanche,
+par leur gros grains relativement au reste, par leur opacite, par leur
+mollesse respective, et souvent meme par leur sensibilite pour les
+acides mineraux. Mais celles, qui sont finies, quoiqu'elles ayent, pour
+la plupart, une couleur presque noire, ne laissent, cependant, pas
+d'avoir aussi des teintes plus claires comme brunatres, verdatres,
+rougeatres, jaunatres, bleuatres, tachetees, veinees, etc. Leur clarte
+n'est pas moins variable, que leur couleur, il y en a de presqu'opaques,
+comme aussi de presque transparentes, sur tout la, ou la calcedoine
+predomine.
+
+"Le quartz s'y trouve comme dans les pierres de la premiere section, c,
+a, d, crystallise, en groupes dans de petites cavites; quelquefois aussi
+en veines. La calcedoine y est de meme, ou bien en mamelons, ou bien en
+stalactites, lorsqu'elle a de la place pour s'y deposer.
+
+"Un phenomene encore plus curieux que cela est cette belle pyrite
+sulphureuse jaune, comme de l'or, qui est quelquefois parsemee par tout
+la substance de petrifications agathisees, et qui apparemment y fut
+deposee apres la dite metamorphose a la faveur des petits pores, qui y
+etoient restes ouverts."
+
+I would beg that mineralists, who use such language as this, would
+consider if it contains a distinct idea of the operation which they
+would thereby describe, or if it does not contain either a contradiction
+or an inconceivable proposition. It supposes a calcareous body to be
+metamorphosed, somehow by means of the mountain acid, into a siliceous
+body. But, finding many bodies of pyrites contained within that solid
+flint, it is said, that, when the calcareous body was flintified, there
+were left in it cavities which were afterwards filled with pyrites. Let
+us reflect a moment upon this doctrine. These cavities were first open
+to the outside of the flinty body; but now the pyrites with which they
+had been filled is insulated in the solid flint. Here three things are
+required; first, The calcareous body is to be flintified, at the same
+time leaving the body full of small cavities open to the outside;
+secondly, These cavities are to be filled with pyrites; lastly, These
+mineral bodies are to be so inclosed within the flint, as to leave no
+vestige of the former processes. This marly mountain itself, which had
+been formed of loose materials gathered together at the bottom of the
+sea, was first to be filled with pyrites, in various shapes, by means of
+the phlogistic and the acid of the mountain. Here is proposed to us an
+operation which is totally unknown, or of which we have no kind of
+idea. But, let us suppose pyrites formed in this mountain, (of whatever
+chemical substances), by means of water; Why should water again undo
+that pyrites, in order to form other concretions? And, Why should the
+flint be formed first with cavities, and then made solid, after pyrites
+had been introduced into those cavities of the agate, and, as our author
+expresses it, _parsemee pour toute la substance?_ Here are suppositions
+which are not only perfectly gratuitous, but are also inconsistent with
+any thing that we understand. This is not explaining nature; it is only
+feigning causes[39].
+
+[Note 39: The description of those insulated siliceous bodies,
+containing in their closed cavities all the usual concretions of
+calcedony and crystals, as well as full of small pyrites floating in the
+solid flint, are extremely interesting to a mineral system, or such a
+geological theory as should explain the present state of things in those
+strata that had been formed by deposits of known materials at the bottom
+of the sea; they are indeed such appearances as may be found, more or
+less, in all consolidated strata. But it is this author's explanation of
+that petrifaction which is our present object to consider; and, as he is
+so particular in giving us his theory upon the subject, it is easy to
+detect the error of his reasoning. Were those naturalists who explain
+things only in general, by saying that water is the agent, and
+infiltration the means employed by nature;--were these naturalists, I
+say, to give us as particular a description of their process, it would
+appear as inconsistent with the nature of things as that which we have
+from this author, who examines nature very minutely, and who sees
+distinctly that the infiltrating theory is inapplicable for the
+explanation of those petrifactions.]
+
+The third section has for title, "_Generation du Silex et Quartz de la
+Pierre Puante_." Here we find an example worthy of being recorded,
+as contributing to throw great light upon those mineral operations;
+however, the opinion of our author and mine, upon this subject, differ
+widely. He proceeds thus:
+
+"Cette pierre n'est, comme chacun le scait, qu'une pierre calcaire
+contenant du bitume.
+
+"Nos montagnes n'en contiennent seulement pas de simples couches, mais
+il y en a meme de grandes bancs fort epais.
+
+"Le caillou, ou silex qui s'y genere, forme, tantot de gros blocs
+informes, qui occupent des cavites dans l'interieure des montagnes,
+tantot, enfin, en forme de filons.
+
+"J'ai remarque cette metamorphose sur trois endroits differens, dans
+chacun des quels la nature a autrement opere.
+
+"Sur l'un, la pierre puante fait un banc horizontal dans une montagne de
+pierre calcaire crystalline, ou d'une espece de marbre, qui contient
+des couches et filons de metal. Ce banc de pierre puante y fait le toit
+d'une couche de galene de plomb et de pierre calaminaire, et dans ses
+cavites et fentes il y a non seulement des blocs de grandeur differente,
+mais aussi des veines et petites bandes courtes de silex, tant
+ordinaire, que noble c, a, d, de la pierre a feu, de calcedoine,
+d'agathes, et meme d'une espece de cornaline jaune et rouge pale. Je ne
+m'arreterai pas a en detailler les varietes, parce qu'elles sont trop
+accidentelles. Je ne les connois pas meme toutes, il s'en faut de
+beaucoup, parce qu'elles se trouvent dans des anciennes mines negligees,
+peut etre depuis plus d'un siecle, et par consequent peu accessibles. Je
+ne doute, cependant pas, que, si l'on pouvoit mieux sonder le terrain,
+on y trouveroit bien plus encore du peu que j'ai cite. Parmi ce silex,
+il y a aussi de petites groupes et de petites veines de quartz solide et
+crystallise.
+
+"Au second endroit la pierre puante fait un filon, ou si l'on veut,
+une couche ou bande verticale, qui partage la montagne en deux parties
+presqu'egales de l'epaisseur de trois aunes a peu pres. La montagne,
+ou cela se voit est aussi une ancienne mine de cuivre et de plomb,
+consistant en plusieurs varietes de marbre, different en couleur et en
+grain, deposees par couches les unes sur les autres. Le filon de silex
+est forme de feuilles alternatives de pierre puante et de silex, tous
+les deux de couleur brun de bois a peu pres; mais le silex est plus
+fonce que sa compagne. Ces feuilles alternatives, consistent d'autres
+bien plus minces encore, qui souvent n'ont pas l'epaisseur d'une ligne,
+mais ce qu'il y a de plus curieux, c'est que la meme feuille est d'un
+but de pierre porque, qui, vers le milieu, passe successivement en
+silex, qui, a son tour, vers l'autre but, qui etoit expose a l'air
+repasse par les memes gradations en une espece de tuffe calcaire. Ce qui
+nous fait voir evidemment la generation et la destruction du silex, meme
+avec une partie des moyens par lesquels elle s'opere. Comme l'endroit de
+cette decouverte n'est accessible qu'a la superficie, je ne saurois dire
+s'il y a d'autres varietes de silex outre la dite. Il l'est a supposer
+autant par analogie, que par quelques morceaux qui ont de petites veines
+transversales d'une espece de calcedoine, et qui sont, meme, sur leur
+fentes, garnis de petits cristaux de roche. Mais ce qu'il y a de sur
+c'est que ce filon, parvenu a une certaine profondeur, s'ennoblit et
+contient du metal, c. a. d. de la galene de plomb, et de la pyrite
+cuivreuse, j'y en ai trouves de morceaux, qui en font de preuves
+incontestables. Le caillou d'ici est un grain fin d'une texture forte,
+peu transparent, donne beaucoup d'etincelles au briquet, mais ses
+cassures sont ecailleuses.
+
+"La montagne calcaire du troisieme lieu a une couche de pierre puante
+epaisse de plusieurs aunes, qui, derechef contient de petites couches
+irregulieres et des bandes transversales de silex, qui ont jusques a
+six pouces passes d'epaisseur. La pierre puante est d'une couleur
+gris-brune, d'un grain assez fin, et d'un tissu assez dur; ses cassures
+sont irregulieres, mais plus la pierre s'approche du silex, plus elles
+donnent dans le coquille. Le silex ordinaire est d'un brun de bois, d'un
+grain assez fin, et d'un tissu resistant, et ses cassures sont egales a
+la pierre porque. Ce n'est pas la la seule variete, il y a, aussi, de la
+calcedoine et des agathes de couleurs differentes. Meme la pierre a
+feu est assez souvent traversee de veines de calcedoine, de quartz
+crystallise, et de spath calcaire blanc en feuilles et en crystaux. Il
+arrive que la meme veine est composee de ces trois especes de pierres a
+la fois, de sorte que l'une semble passer dans l'autre, parce que les
+limites reciproques sont, souvent, assez indistinctes. Il est evident,
+que le silex est forme de la pierre puante, parce qu'on remarque ici
+les memes phenomenes dont j'ai parle plus haut, c. a. d. les passages
+successifs de l'une dans l'autre pierre, tant en montant qu'en
+descendant."
+
+There is nothing particular in the siliceous mixture in this species of
+lime-stone, except the vein of that substance. It is evident that this
+vein, traversing the mountain, had been introduced in the fluid state
+of fusion. I do not mean to say, that, in this particular case now
+described, the evidence of that truth peculiarly appears; but that, from
+the general nature of mineral veins breaking and traversing the solid
+strata of the globe, no other conclusion can be formed; and that in
+the particulars of this example there is nothing that could lead us to
+suppose any other origin to the petrifactions contained in this vein
+of stinking lime-stone. It is plain, that our author has imagined to
+himself an unknown manner of executing his mineral metamorphoses. He
+sees plainly that the common notion of infiltration will not at all
+explain the evident confusion of those calcareous and siliceous bodies
+which appear to him to be metamorphosing into each other. Nothing,
+indeed, can explain those phenomena but a general cause of fluidity; and
+there is no such general cause besides that of heat or fusion.
+
+But to show how mineralists of great merit, gentlemen who have examined
+systematically and with some accuracy, may impose upon themselves in
+reasoning for the explanation of mineral appearances from limited
+notions of things, and from the supposition of these having been formed
+where they now are found, that is, upon the surface of the earth, I
+would beg leave to transcribe what this author has said upon this
+species of petrifaction. It is not that he is ignorant of what
+mineralists have already said upon the subject; it is because he sees
+the incompetency of their explanations in those particular cases; and
+that he would employ some other more effectual means. (p. 50.)
+
+"Toute terre calcaire a changer dans une autre doit, avant toute chose,
+etre rendue refractaire ce qui ne peut se faire qu'en la saturant avec
+un acide. Mais une terre simplement, saturee d'un acide, est d'une
+reduction fort aisee, vu que l'acide n'y tient pas trop fort, d'ailleurs
+ce n'est qu'un sel neutre terreux fort facile a dissoudre dans une
+quantite suffisante d'eau. Or pour rendre cette union plus constante, il
+faut que la terre alcaline s'assimile intimement a l'acide, ce qui ne
+se sera jamais sans un intermedeliant, qui homogene les parties de ce
+nouveau corps, et pour que cela ce fasse il est indispensable, qu'il
+s'opere une dissolution fonciere des parties terrestres de la chaux, qui
+facilite l'ingress a l'acide, et a l'intermede pour qu'ils s'y lie bien
+fortement. Supposons qu'il se forme une liqueur savonneuse de l'acide et
+du phlogistique, que l'air fixe, mis en liberte, ouvre les interstices
+des parties qui constituent la terre alcaline, qu'apres cela cette
+liqueur savonneuse ayant l'entree libre s'assimile a la terre en
+proportion requise, que l'eau, qui servoit de vehicule dans cette
+operation, s'evapore successivement, et emporte le superflu des
+ingrediens, pour qu'il se puisse operer le rapprochement le plus exacte
+des parcelles ou molecules homogenees de nouveau corps qu'enfin les
+molecules les plus pures et les mieux affinees soyent reunies en forme
+liquide dans des cavites, et que par l'evaporation et separation de
+l'eau, ou elles nageoient, il s'en forme des crystaux n'aurons-nous
+pas une boule de silex, avec de crystaux de quartz dans ses creux
+interieurs."
+
+The supposed case is this; a calcareous body is to be metamorphosed
+into a siliceous nodule, having a cavity within it lined with quartz,
+crystals, etc. M. de Carosi means to inform us how this may be done.
+Now, as this process requires no other conditions than those that may
+be found upon the surface of this earth, the proper way to prove this
+hypothetical theory, would be to exhibit such a mineral body produced
+by those means. But, even supposing that such a process were to be
+exhibited, still it would remain to be explained, how this process,
+which requires conditions certainly not be found at the bottom of the
+sea, could be accomplished in that place, where the strata of the earth
+had been deposited, accumulated, consolidated, and metamorphosed.
+
+This mineral process, which has been now described, will no doubt revolt
+the opinions of many of our chemists as well as naturalists; and I
+should not have thought of transcribing it, but as an example of that
+inconclusive reasoning which prevails in mineralogical writings upon
+this subject.
+
+But this is not all. We have, upon this occasion, a most remarkable
+example of the fallaceous views that may be taken of things; and of the
+danger to science when men of sense and observation form suppositions
+for the explanation of appearances without that strict conformity with
+the principles of natural philosophy which is requited on all occasions.
+Both M. de Carosi, and also M. Macquart[40], to whom our author
+communicated his ideas and proper specimens, assert, that from their
+accurate experience, they find calcedony growing daily, not only in the
+solid body of gypsum, etc. while in the mine, but also in the solid
+stone when taktn out of the mine, and preserved in their cabinet.
+
+[Note 40: Vid. Essais de Mineralogie par M. Macquart.]
+
+What answer can be made to this positive testimony of these gentlemen,
+by a person who has not seen any such a thing, and who has not the
+opportunity of examining the cases in which those naturalists may have
+perhaps been led into some delusion? Were I however to conjecture upon a
+subject in which I have not any positive information, I should suppose
+that some part of the calcedony, like the _oculus mundi_ when dipped in
+water, may be so transparent, while containing some portion of humidity,
+that it is not easily distinguishable from the gypsum in which it is
+concreted; but that in having the humidity evaporated, by being taken
+out of the mine and exposed to the dry air, those portions of calcedony,
+which did not before appear, may be perceived by becoming more
+opaque[41].
+
+[Note 41: From the description given in this treatise, and from the
+drawings both of M. de Carosi and M. Macquart, I find a very valuable
+inference to be made, so much the more interesting, as I have not found
+any example of the like before. This arises from the intimate connection
+which is here to be perceived between agate and gypsum. Now, upon this
+principle, that the agate-calcedony had been formed by fusion, a truth
+which, from the general testimony of minerals, I must presume, it is
+plain, that those nodules of gypsum had been in the fluid state of
+fusion among those marly strata, and that the gypseous bodies had been
+penetrated variously with the siliceous substance of the calcedony.
+
+The description of those siliceous penetrations of gypsum is followed by
+this conclusion: "En voila assez, je crois pour faire voir que le silex
+ci-decrit est effectivement une emanation du gypse, et non pas une
+matiere heterogene amenee d'autre part et deposee, ou nous la voyons."
+In this instance our author had convinced himself that the calcedony
+concretions had not been formed, as he and other mineralists had before
+supposed, by means of infiltration; he has not, however, substituted
+any thing more intelligible in its stead. I do not pretend that we
+understand mineral fusion; but only that such mineral fusion is a thing
+demonstrable upon a thousand occasions; and that thus is to be explained
+the petrification and consolidation of the porous and naturally
+incoherent strata of the earth.]
+
+There is, however, a subject in which I can more freely accuse this
+author of being deceived. This naturalist says, that calcareous stones
+become silex by a certain chemical operation; and that those flinty
+bodies, in being exposed upon the surface of the earth, out of their
+natural bed, are again, by a contrary chemical operation, changed from
+flint to a calcareous substance. I will give it in his own words, (p.
+56.)
+
+"Cela dit, venons au fait. Tout silex progenere de chaux, detache de son
+lieu natal, et expose aux changemens de saisons, s'amollit, recoit de
+crevasses, perd sa transparence, devient, enfin, tout-a-fait opaque, le
+phlogistique s'en evapore, l'acide en est detache, lave, et de
+terre vitrescible, qu'il etoit, il redevient chaux, comme il etoit
+auparavant."
+
+Here is no question with regard to mere opinion, but to matter of fact;
+and, in this case, nothing is more evident, than that upon the surface
+of this earth, that is, in the examinable parts above the level of the
+sea, there is no transition either of calcareous bodies into flint,
+nor of flinty bodies into calcareous substance. Calcareous matter is
+constantly dissolved by water, when it is exposed to the washing of
+that fluid; and it is even dissolved out of the most perfect union or
+combination with siliceous substance, and the most solid composition of
+an insoluble body, as may be perceived in the decaying of feld-spar. A
+superficial view of flints, which have come out of a body of chalk, may
+have created such an opinion, which will not either bear the light of
+chemical or mineral investigation. The subject of these chalk flints
+will be minutely examined in its proper place.
+
+Our author has carefully examined the subject of flintification; and the
+country where he makes his observations would seem to be well disposed
+for such a research. He has had great opportunity and inclination to
+examine the subject which he writes upon; and he has given a distinct
+account of what be has seen. His description of the flintification of
+sand-stone is extremely interesting. I will therefore transcribe it,
+both as a valuable portion of natural history, and also in order to
+contrast this author's opinion, with regard to the means employed by
+nature in petrifying bodies, and that which I maintain to be the general
+consolidating operation of the globe. It is Section V. _Generation du
+Caillou du Silex du Gres, ou Pierre Sablonneuse_.
+
+"Tout gres est susceptible de cette metamorphose quant au grain et quant
+a la couleur; depuis la breccia quartzeuse jusqu'a la pierre a rasoir;
+et depuis le gres blanc jusqu'au brun et presque noiratre, tient ou non
+tient, dur, ou presque friable, c'est indifferent, toutes ces varietes
+donnent du silex, et surtout de la calcedoine, de la cornaline, et des
+agathes. Quant au ciment je l'y ai toujours remarque calcaire et faisant
+effervescence avec les acides dans les endroits de la pierre qui
+n'etoient point encore changes; et jamais je n'ai vu ce changement dans
+du gres dont le ciment fut ou quartzeux ou argileux et refractaire.
+Ainsi le ciment entre pour quelque chose dans ce changement.
+
+"Le commencement de cette metamorphose paroit (autant que j'ai pu
+l'observer dans mes debris roules) se faire par le ciment, qui dissout
+la, ou les agens eurent l'acces libre, rend les grains en quartz
+mobiles, les emporte, les mele avec sa masse dense-liquide, les dissout,
+meme en partie, et forme, dans cet etat, des veines et de masses
+calcedonieuse, carneoliques, ou d'une autre espece de silex, au milieu
+du gres peu, ou pas du tout, change. Car autant que je puis voir, ce
+n'est pas par couches ou veines qu'elle s'opere, mais par boules et
+masses rond-oblongues. Au commencement ces veines et taches sont fort
+minces, et le reste du gres n'est point du tout, ou a peine sensiblement
+change hormis qu'il gagne, plus de consistence, a proportion du
+changement souffert. Mais a mesure que le silex y augmente et se
+perfectionne, on y appercoit les degres par lesquels a passe cette
+operation. Les nuance du passage d'une pierre a l'autre deviennent plus
+visibles, les veines et masses de silex grandissent au point, meme,
+qu'il y a jusqu'aux trois quart du gres change en silex clair comme de
+l'eau n'ayant que fort peu de grains de sable nageants dans sa masse.
+Des morceaux de cette espece sont rares a la verite, mais j'en ai,
+cependant, trouve quelques uns. Ordinairement, dans les beaux morceaux,
+le silex fait la base, et le sable y est, comme nageant tantot en grains
+separes tantot en parties et flocons. Dans les pieces moins belles, le
+sable fait la base, et le silex sert a la fois de ciment, et forme aussi
+plus ou moins de veines, qui traversent la masse en maintes et maintes
+directions. Mais si c'est un gres a gros grains, ou de la breccia, alors
+le reste prend la nature silicieuse mele de sable fin, et les gros
+grains de quartz restent tels, qu'ils etoient, sans changer. J'ai
+deja remarque que cette metamorphose semble s'operer, comme celle des
+cailloux d'origine calcaire en forme approchans la spherique, il faut
+encore y a jouter, que j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle se fasse aussi du
+dedans en dehors, tout, comme la decomposition se fait du dehors au
+dedans.
+
+"Il arrive dans cette pierre, comme dans toute autre, qu'il se forme
+des crystallisations dans les cavites. Lorsqu'elles sont de silex, leur
+figure est toujours mamelonnee, mais leur eau ou purete, leur grandeur
+et leur couleur n'est pas par tout egale. Il y en a qui sont grands, et
+de la plus pure calcedoine, d'autres sont petits et chaque goutte ou
+mamelon contient un grain de sable, de facon que cela a l'air d'un gres
+crystallise en mamelons ou stalagmitique. D'autres encore sont, de
+calcedoine, mais recouverts d'une croute, tantot blanche qui fait
+effervescence avec l'acide mineral, et qui est, par consequent, de
+nature calcaire; tantot cette croute est bleue foncee nuancee de
+bleu-celeste; tantot, enfin, elle est noire, mais toutes les deux
+refractaires. Outre ces crystallisations silicieuses, il y en a, quoique
+rarement, de quartzeuses, qui ou forment de petites veines de crystal,
+ou bien des groupes de crystaux quartzeux, ou qui enfin, enduisent les
+mamelons de silex."
+
+Our author then makes a specification of the different varieties; after
+which he continues, p. 69.
+
+"Apres tout ceci, l'on conviendra j'espere, que notre grais est une
+pierre bien singuliere, et surpassant, a bien des egards, le grais,
+faussement dit crystallise, de Fontainebleau. La raison de la figure du
+grais Francois est fort evidente, c'est le spath calcaire, qui lui
+sert de ciment, qui la lui fit prendre; mais qu'est-ce qui opere les
+metamorphoses racontees dans notre grais siliceux? Seroit-ce son ciment
+calcaire ou marneux par les memes raisons, qui font changer la marne en
+silex? La chose est tres-probable, et je n'en saurois pas meme, deviner
+d'autre. En ce cas la nature auroit un moyen d'operer par la voie
+humide, ce que nous faisons dans nos laboratoires en quelque facon, par
+la voie seche, c, a, d, de fondre et liquefier la terre vitrescible, au
+moyen des alcalis; secret que nous lui avons deja arrache en partie, en
+faisant la liqueur silicieuse."
+
+"Je n'ose, cependant, decider pas meme hypothetiquement, sur cette
+matiere, pour n'avoir pu observer la nature dans ses ateliers, et parce
+que je ne possede que des pieces, qui detachees de leur lieu natal,
+depuis un tres long-tems, furent exposees aux intemperies des saisons,
+ou elles peuvent avoir souffert bien de changemens."
+
+There cannot be a more fair exposition of facts; and it is only our
+author's opinion of this mineral transmutation that I would controvert.
+I do not pretend to understand the manner of operating that our author
+here supposes nature to take. I only maintain, that here, as every where
+in general, the loose and incoherent strata of the globe have been
+petrified, that is, consolidated, by means of the fusion of their
+substances; and this I think is confirmed from the accurate description
+here given of the flintification of sand-stone. Here is described very
+distinctly an appearance which is very common or general on those
+occasions; this is the parts or particles of stone floating in the fluid
+siliceous substance, and there dissolving more or less.
+
+M. de Carosi describes very systematically the generation of silex,
+calcedony, onyx, and quartz, in calcareous earth, marl, gypsum,
+sand-stone, and also what he terms _terre glaise, ou de l'Argile_. It is
+in this last that we find a perfect analogy with what is so frequent in
+this country of Scotland. These are the agates, calcedonies, calcareous
+and zeolite nodules, which are found produced in our whin-stone
+or subterraneous lavas, that is, the amygdaloides of Crondstedt.
+Naturalists explain the formation of those nodular bodies differently.
+The Chevalier de Dolomieu supposes these rocks to have been erupted
+lavas, originally containing cavities; and that these cavities in the
+solid rock had been afterwards filled and crystallised, by means of
+infiltration, with the different substances which are found variously
+concreted and crystallised within the solid rocks. Our author, on the
+contrary, supposes these formed by a species of chemical transmutation
+of calcareous and argillaceous earths, which, if not altogether
+incomprehensible, is at least not in any degree, so far as I know, a
+thing to be understood.
+
+This is not the place where that subject of these particular rocks,
+which is extremely interesting, is to be examined. We shall afterwards
+have occasion to treat of that matter at large. It is sufficient here to
+observe, that our author finds occasion to generalise the formation of
+those petrifactions with the flintifications in calcareous and gypseous
+bodies. When, therefore, the formation of any of them shall be
+demonstrated, as having taken its origin in the fusion of those
+substances, this mode of operation, which is generalised in the
+consolidation of strata, will be properly inferred in all the rest.
+
+Petrifaction is a subject in which mineralogists have perhaps wandered
+more widely from the truth than in any other part of natural history;
+and the reason is plain. The mineral operations of nature lie in a part
+of the globe which is necessarily inaccessible to man, and where the
+powers of nature act under very different conditions from those which we
+find take place in the only situation where we can live. Naturalists,
+therefore, finding in stalactical incrustation a cause for the formation
+of stone, in many respects analogous to what is found in the strata of
+the earth, and which had come from the mineral region in a consolidated
+state, have, without due consideration, attributed to this cause all the
+appearances of petrifaction or mineral concretion. It has been one of
+the objects of this work to show that this operation of incrustation,
+or petrifaction by means of solution, is altogether ineffectual for
+producing mineral concretions; and that, even were it capable of forming
+those mineral bodies, yet that, in the solid parts of this earth, formed
+by a deposit of travelled materials at the bottom of the sea, the
+conditions necessary to this incrustating process do not take place.
+
+Those enlightened naturalists who have of late been employed in
+carefully examining the evidences of mineral operations, are often
+staggered in finding appearances inconsistent with the received doctrine
+of infiltration; they then have recourse to ingenious suppositions, in
+order to explain that enigma. In giving examples of this kind. I have in
+view both to represent the natural history these mineralists furnish
+us with, which is extremely interesting, and also to show the various
+shapes in which error will proceed, when ingenious men are obliged to
+reason without some necessary principle in their science. We have just
+now had an example in Europe; I will next present the reader with one
+from Asia.
+
+M. Patrin, in his _Notice Mineralogique de la Daourie_, (Journal de
+Physique, Mars 1791) gives us a very distinct account of what he met
+with in that region. Describing the country of Doutchersk upon the river
+Argun, in Siberia, he proceeds thus:
+
+"Ces colines sont formees d'un hornstein gris qui paroit se convertir en
+pierre calcaire par l'action des meteores; car tout celui qu'on prend
+hors du contact de l'air donne les plus vives etincelles, et ne fait pas
+la moindre effervescence avec les acides, meme apres avoir ete calcine;
+et l'on observe celui qui est a decouvert, passer, par nuances
+insensibles, jusqu'a l'etat de pierre calcaire parfaite de couleur
+blanchatre."
+
+Here M. Patrin has persuaded himself, probably from an imperfect
+examination of the subject, that there takes place a mineral
+metamorphosis, which certainly is not found in any other part of the
+earth, and for which he does not find any particular cause. The natural
+effect of the meteors, in other parts of the earth, is to dissolve the
+calcareous substance out of bodies exposed to those agents; and the
+gradation from the one of those two things to the other, which seems to
+be the data on which he had proceeded in forming his conclusion, is not
+sufficient to prove the metamorphosis, even were there not so strong a
+physical objection to it; for, it is by no means unusual for mineral
+bodies to graduate thus from one substance to another. However that be,
+this is not the principal object of the example[42].
+
+[Note 42: Here we have well informed naturalists reasoning with all the
+light of our present mineralogy, and maintaining, on the one hand, that
+gypsum is transformed into calcedony, by the operation of the meteors,
+or some such cause; and, on the other, that a siliceous substance is by
+the same means converted into lime-stone. What should we now conclude
+from this?--That calcareous and siliceous substances were mutually
+convertible. But then this is only in certain districts of Poland and
+Siberia. Every where, indeed, we find strange mixtures of calcareous and
+siliceous bodies; but neither mineralists nor chemists have, from these
+examples, ventured to affirm a metamorphosis, which might have spared
+them much difficulty in explaining those appearances.
+
+This is a subject that may be taken in very different lights. In one
+view, no doubt, there would appear to be absurdity in the doctrine of
+metamorphosis, as there is now a days acknowledged to be in that of
+_lusus naturae_; and those reasoning mineralists might thus, in the
+opinion of some philosophers, expose their theory to contempt and
+ridicule. This is not the light in which I view the subject. I give
+those gentlemen credit for diligently observing nature; and I applaud
+them for having the merit to reason for themselves, which would seem to
+be the case with few of the many naturalists who now speak and write
+upon the subject.
+
+Let us now draw an inference, with regard to this, in judging of the
+different theories. Either the received system concerning mineral
+operations is just, in which case those gentlemen, who employ a secret
+metamorphosis, may be to blame in laying it aside; or it is erroneous
+and deficient; and, in that case, they have the merit of distinguishing
+the error or deficiency of the prevailing system. How far they have seen
+the system of nature, in those examples which they have described,
+is another question. In the mean time, I am to avail myself of the
+testimony of those gentlemen of observation, by which the insufficiency
+at least of the received mineral system is acknowledged.]
+
+After speculating upon the effect of the ancient ocean upon the
+mountains of that country, he proceeds as follows:
+
+"Je laisse ces conjectures pour remarquer un fait singulier: la colline,
+qui est au nord de l'eglise de la fonderie, a son arrete composee de ce
+hornstein qui se decompose en pierre calcaire; mais ici, les parties,
+qui sont ainsi decomposees, offrent une substance calcedonieuse
+disposees par zones concentriques, comme on l'observe dans les agates
+d'oberstein; mais ce ne sont point ici des corps parasites formes par
+infiltration dans des cavites pre-existantes comme les agates; on voit
+que ce sont les parties constituantes de la roche qui, _par un
+travail interne_, et par une sorte de crystallisation, out pris cette
+disposition reguliere (que ce mot de _crystallisation_ ne revolte point,
+j'appelle ainsi toute tendance a prendre une forme constante, polyedre
+ou non polyedre.) Les couches les plus voisine du centre sont nettes et
+distinctes; peu-a-peu elles le sont moins, et enfin elles s'evanouissent
+et se confondent avec le fond de la roche. Chaque assemblage de ces
+zones a une forme ronde ou ovale plus ou moins reguliere de sept a huit
+pouces de diametre.
+
+"Cela ressemble en grand a ce qu'on observe dans les pierres oeillees,
+et la cause est vraisemblablement la meme. Je le repete, je regarde
+cette disposition reguliere comme une veritable cristallisation, qui
+peut s'operer et qui s'opere en effet dans l'interieur des corp les plus
+solide, tant qu'ils sont fournis a l'action des agens de la nature.
+
+"Tous ceux qui visitent l'interieur de la terre savent que les roches
+memes le plus compactes y sont intimement penetrees d'humidite, et ce
+fluide n'est certainement pas l'eau pure; c'est l'agent qui opere toutes
+les agregations, toutes les cristallisations, tous les travaux de la
+nature dans le regne mineral. On peut donc aisement concevoir qu'a la
+faveur de ce fluide, il regne, dans les parties les plus intimes des
+corps souterrains, une circulation qui fait continuellement changer de
+place aux elemens de la matiere, jusqu'a ce que reunis par la force des
+affinites, les corpuscules similaires prennent la forme que la nature
+leur a assignee."
+
+Those nodular bodies or figured parts which are here inclosed in the
+rock, are evidently what may be called calcedony agates. M. Patrin is
+persuaded, from the examination of them, that they had not been formed
+in the manner of German agates, which he supposes is by mean of
+infiltration; and he has endeavoured to conceive another manner of
+operating, still however by means of water, which I suppose, according
+to this hypothesis, is to dissolve substances in one part, and deposits
+them in another, There must certainly be some great _desideratum_ in
+that mineral philosophy which is obliged to have recourse to such
+violent suppositions. First, water is not an universal solvent, as it
+would require to be, upon this supposition; secondly, were water allowed
+to be an universal menstruum, here is to be established a circulation
+that does not naturally arise from the mixture of water and earth; and,
+lastly, were this circulation to be allowed, it would not explain the
+variety which is found in the consolidation and concretion of mineral
+bodies.
+
+So long, therefore, as we are to explain natural appearances by
+reasoning from known principles, and not by ascribing those effects to
+preternatural causes, we cannot allow of this regular operation which
+M. Patrin alleges to be acting in the interior parts of the most solid
+bodies. This is indeed evident, that there has been a cause operating
+in the internal parts of the most solid bodies, a cause by which the
+elements, or constituent parts of those solid bodies, have been moved
+and regularly disposed, as this author very well observes must have been
+the case in our agates or eyed stones; but to ascribe to water this
+effect, or to employ either an ineffectual or an unknown cause, is not
+to reason philosophically with regard to the history of nature; it is to
+reason phantastically, and to imagine fable.
+
+M. Monnet has imagined a petrifying power in water very different
+from any that has hitherto been conceived, I believe, by natural
+philosophers, and I also believe, altogether inconsistent with
+experience or matter of fact; but as it is not without good reason that
+this naturalist has been induced to look out for a petrifying cause
+different from any hitherto supposed, and as he has endeavoured very
+properly to refute the systems of petrification hitherto received,
+I would beg leave to transcribe his reasoning upon the subject in
+corroboration of the present theory of consolidation by the means of
+fusion.
+
+It is upon occasion of describing one of the species of alpine stone
+or schistus which contains quartzy particles. _Nouveau voyage
+mineralogique, etc._ Journal de Physique Aoust 1784.
+
+"Il y a loin de cette pierre, que je regarde comme une variete de roches
+ardoisees, aux veritable ardoises. La composition de toutes ces pierres
+est due aux terres quartzeuses et argileuses, et a la terre talqueuse,
+que je demontrerai un jour etre une espece particuliere et distincte des
+autres, qui constitue les bonnes ardoises, et fait, ainsi que le quartz,
+qu'elles resistent aux injures de l'air, sans s'effleurir, comme je
+ferai voir que cette terre, qu'on designera sous la denomination de
+terre talqueuse, si l'on veut, resiste au grand feu sans se fondre. Les
+differences de toutes ces pierres, quoique composees des memes matieres,
+mais dans des proportions differentes, sont frappantes, et pourroient
+faire croire qu'elles n'appartiennent pas a ce genre. Mais qui ne voit
+ici que toutes ces differences, ou ces varietes, ne sont dues qu'aux
+modifications de la matiere premiere, qu'elle a eprouvees, soit en se
+melant avec des matieres heterogenes, prevenantes du debris des etres
+qui ont existe, comme l'argile, par exemple, qui, de l'aveu de presque
+tous les naturalistes, est le produit de l'organization des plantes, ou
+soit en se melant avec de la matiere deja solidifiee depuis long-temps?
+Or nous ne craignons pas de dire, ce que nous avons dit plusieurs fois
+quand l'occasion s'en est presentee, que cette matiere unique, que
+se modifie selon les occasions et les circonstances, et qui prend
+un caractere analogue au matieres qu'elle rencontre, est l'eau, que
+beaucoup de naturalistes cherchent vainement ailleurs. Ils ne peuvent
+comprendre, malgre les exemples frappans qui pourroient les porter a
+adopter cette opinion, que ce fluide general soit l'element des corps
+solides du regne mineral, comme il est de ceux du regne vegetal et du
+regne animal. L'on cherche serieusement, par des experiences chimiques,
+a decouvrir si l'eau est susceptible de se convertir en terre comme
+si la nature n'avoit pas d'autre moyen que nous de la faire passer de
+l'etat fluide a l'etat solide. Voyez le spath calcaire et le quartz
+transparens; est il a presumer qu'ils ne sont que le resultat du depot
+des matieres terreuses fait par les eaux? Mais, dans ce ca-la encore,
+il faut supposer que l'eau qui est restee entre ces partie s'est
+solidifiee; car, qu'est-elle donc devenue, et quel est donc le lien qui
+a uni ces parties et leur a fait prendre une forme reguliere? Il est
+vrai qu'on nous parle d'un suc lapidifique; mais c'est-la un etre de
+raison, dont il seroit bien plus difficile d'etablir l'existence, que de
+croire a la solidification de l'eau. On nous donne cependant comme un
+principe certain que l'eau charie d'un lieu a un autre les matieres
+qu'il a dissoutes, et qu'elle les depose a la maniere des sels. Mais
+c'est supposer une chose dementie par l'experience; savoir, que l'eau
+ait la propriete de dissoudre les matieres terreuses, telles que la
+quartzeuse. A la verite, M. Auchard de Berlin y joint de l'air fixe;
+mais cet air fixe ne sauroit tenir en dissolution un atome de quartz
+dans l'eau; et quelle qu'ait ete l'exactitude de ceux qui ont repete
+les experiences de M. Auchard, on n'a pu reussir a imiter la nature,
+c'est-a-dire, a former des cristaux quartzeux, comme il a annonce. Que
+l'eau ait la faculte de tenir en dissolution quelques petites parties
+de terre calcaire, au moyen de cet air fixe, il n'en faut pas conclure
+qu'elle puisse former de cette maniere tous les cristaux calcaires, sans
+que l'eau elle-meme y concoure pour sa part; car ce seroit conclure
+quelque fois que la partie seroit egale au tout. Voyez ces geodes
+calcaire et argileuses, qui renferment des cristaux nombreux de quartz
+ou de spath calcaire; ne sont ils que le resultat du depot de l'eau
+qui y a ete renfermee, ou que la cristallization pure et simple des
+molecules que vous supposez avoir ete tenues en dissolution par cette
+eau? Il naitroit de cette opinion une foule d'objections qu'il seroit
+impossible de resoudre. Cependant M. Guettard, dans la mineralogie du
+Dauphine, qui vient de paroitre, ouvrage tres-estimable a beaucoup
+d'egards, explique, selon cette maniere de penser, la formation de
+cristallizations quartzeuses qu'on trouve dans certaines geodes de
+cette province, et celle des mines de cristal des hautes montagnes. En
+supposant meme comme vraie l'explication qu'il en donne, on trouveroit
+en cela un des plus grands probleme, et des plus difficiles a resoudre
+qu'il y ait en mineralogie; car d'abord il faudroit expliquer comment un
+si petite quantite d'eau que celle qui a ete renfermee dans les geodes,
+et celle qui est parvenue dans les fentes des rochers, ont pu fournir
+un si grande quantite de matiere que celle qui constitue ces
+cristallisations, et ce qui n'est pas le moins difficile a concevoir,
+comment l'eau a pu charrier cette matiere a travers tant de matieres
+differentes, et la conserver precisement pour cette destination;
+comment, par exemple, l'eau est venue deposer de la terre quartzeuse
+dans les masses enormes de pierres calcaires, qui forment la cote qui
+domine le village de Champigny, a quatre lieues de Paris, au dela de
+Saint-maur; car s'il nous faut citer un exemple frappant de cette
+singularite, et a portee d'etre vue des naturalistes qui sont dans la
+capitale, je ne puis mieux faire que de citer cette cote, une des plus
+curieuses de la France, et que je me propose de fair connoitre en detail
+dans la troisieme partie de la mineralogie de la France. On verra,
+dis-je, dans cette bonne pierre a chaux, et une de plus pure des
+environs de Paris, de tres-abondantes cristallisations de quartz
+transparent, et quelque fois de belle eau, que les ouvriers sont forces
+de separer de la partie calcaire, a laquelle elles adherent fortement.
+Mais c'est trop nous arreter a combattre une opinion qui doit son
+origine aux premieres idees qu'ont eues les premiers observateurs en
+mineralogie, qui se detruira d'elle meme comme tant d'autres dont il
+nous reste a peine le souvenir."
+
+We find here an accurate naturalist, and a diligent observer, who, in
+conformity with what my sentiments are upon the subject, thinks it
+impossible that the crystallizations in close cavities, and concretions
+of different solid substances within each other, which so frequently
+occur in the mineral regions, could have been produced, by means of
+solution and crystallization, from a fluid vehicle. But what has he
+now substituted in place of this solution, in order to explain
+appearances?--a mere supposition, viz. that nature may have the power
+of converting water, in those secret places, into some other thing; or
+rather that the substance of water is here converted into every other
+thing; for, though he has only mentioned quartz and calcareous spar,
+what mineral substance is there that may not be found in those close
+cavities? They are actually almost all, not even excepting gold; for,
+small grains of gold are inclosed within the cavities of a porous stone,
+in the Siberian mine. Now, for what purpose should nature, (to the power
+of which we are not to set a limit) have such an object in view as
+to convert water into every thing, unless it were to confound human
+understanding? For, so far as human experience has been as yet able to
+reach, there would appear to be certain elementary substances; and among
+these is water, or the principles of that fluid[43]. But because water
+is so generally found in bodies, and so necessarily in most of the
+operations of this world, why convert it into every other thing? Surely,
+for no better reason than that there has not occurred to this mineralist
+any other way of explaining certain natural appearances which aqueous
+solution could not produce. Here is no dispute about a matter of fact;
+it is on all hands allowed, that in certain cavities, inaccessible to
+any thing but heat and cold, we find mineral concretions, which contain
+no water, and which, according to the known operations of nature, water
+could not have produced; must we therefore have recourse to water acting
+according to no known principle, that is to say, are we to explain
+nature by a preternatural cause?
+
+[Note 43: Water is now considered by men of science, as a compound
+substance; this doctrine, which seems to follow so necessarily from the
+experiments of the French philosophers, must be tried by the growing
+light of chemical science. In the oxygenating operation of inflammable
+and combustible bodies when burning, those ingenious chemists overlooked
+the operation of _phlogistic matter_, which has no weight, and
+which escapes on that occasion, as I have had occasion to show in a
+dissertation upon phlogiston, and in the Philosophy of Light, Heat,
+and Fire. How far this view, which I have given of those interesting
+experiments, may lead to the explanation of other collateral phenomena,
+such as that of the water produced, I will not pretend to conjecture.
+One thing is evident, that if the weight of the water, procured in
+burning inflammable and vital air, be equal to that of those two gasses,
+we would then have reason to conclude, either that water were a compound
+substance, or that vital air, and inflammable vapour were compounds of
+water and the matter of light, or solar substance.]
+
+I dare say that this is not the view that M. Monnet takes of the
+subject, when he thinks to explain to himself the concretion of
+those different substances by means of water; but, according to my
+apprehension of the matter, his theory, when sifted to the bottom, will
+bear no other construction; and, unless he shall consider water like the
+matter of heat, as capable of producing the fluidity of fusion, and of
+being also again abstracted from the fluid, by pervading the most solid
+body, which would then be a substance different from water, he must
+employ this aqueous substance as a menstruum or solvent for solid
+bodies, in the same manner as has been done by those naturalists whom
+he he justly censure, and conform to those erroneous ideas which first
+observations, or inaccurate knowledge of minerals, may have suggested to
+former naturalists.
+
+It is the dissolution and concretion of siliceous substance, no
+doubt, that gives such difficulty to our naturalists in explaining
+petrifaction: they have, however, something apparently in their favour,
+which it may be proper now to mention.
+
+In the _first_ place, although siliceous substance is not soluble, so
+far as we know, by simple water, it is soluble by means of alkaline
+substance; consequently, it is possible that it may be dissolved in the
+earth.
+
+_Secondly_, The water of Giezer in Iceland, actually petrifies bodies
+which are alternately imbibed with that hot water and exposed to the
+air. This water, therefore, not only contains siliceous substance in a
+dissolved state, but deposits this again, either by means of cooling,
+or being aerated, or of evaporating. Consequently, without knowing the
+principle upon which it proceeds, we here perceive a natural operation
+by which siliceous petrifaction may be performed.
+
+_Lastly_, We have another principle for the dissolution of siliceous
+substance. This is the fluor acid which volatilises the siliceous
+substance. This, however, requires certain conditions, which cannot be
+found as a general cause in the mineral regions.
+
+Thus we would seem to have every thing necessary for explaining the
+concretion and crystallization of siliceous bodies, provided we could
+find the proper conditions requisite for that operation; for whether it
+shall be by means of acid or alkaline substances that siliceous matter
+is to be dissolved, volatilised, and transported from one place to
+another, it is necessary that those dissolving substances should be
+present upon those occasions. Nor is it sufficient only to dissolve the
+siliceous substance which is to be transported; the necessary conditions
+for the concretion again of the dissolved substances, whatever these may
+be, are also absolutely required for this operation. Now, though those
+requisite conditions may be, upon many occasions, allowed in the earth,
+it is not according to the theory of our modern naturalists, who explain
+petrifaction upon the principles of simple infiltration of water,
+that any advantage can be taken of those conditions; nor are natural
+appearances to be explained without employing more complicated chemical
+agents in the mineral regions.
+
+To this subject of the petrifactions of Giezier, I may now add the
+information which we have received in consequence of a new voyage from
+this country to Iceland.
+
+When Sir Joseph Banks returned from his expedition to Iceland, he landed
+at this place; and, having brought specimens of the petrifications of
+Giezer, Dr Black and I first discovered that these were of a siliceous
+substance. I have always conjectured that the water of Giezer must be
+impregnated with flinty matter by means of an alkaline substance, and
+so expressed my opinion in the Theory of the Earth published in the
+Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society. We have therefore been very
+desirous of procuring some of that water, in order to have it analysed.
+
+An opportunity favourable to our views has occurred this summer. Mr
+Stanley set out from this place with the same purpose of examining
+Iceland. He was so good as to ask of Dr Black and I what inquiries we
+would incline that he should make. We have now, by the favour of this
+gentleman, obtained specimens of the petrifactions of Giezer; and, what
+is still more interesting, we have procured some of the water of those
+petrifying boiling springs.
+
+It appears from these specimens, that the boiling water which is ejected
+from those aqueous volcanoes, if we may use the expression, is endued
+with the quality of forming two different species of petrifaction or
+incrustation; for, besides the siliceous bodies, of which we had before
+received specimens, the same stream of water incrustates its channel
+with a calcareous substance. All the specimens which I have seen consist
+of incrustation, some purely siliceous, some calcareous, and others
+mixed of those two, more or less.
+
+Dr Black has been analysing the water; and he finds in it siliceous
+matter dissolved by an alkaline substance, in the manner of liquor
+silicum[44]. My conjecture has thus been verified.
+
+[Note 44: See Trans. of the Edin. Royal Society.]
+
+It must not be alleged that nature may operate in the mineral regions,
+as she does here upon the surface in the case of Giezer. Such an
+argument as this, however sound it may be in general, will not apply to
+the subject of which we treat at present. There is no question about
+the limiting the powers of nature; we are only considering nature as
+operating in a certain determined manner, viz. by water acting simply
+upon the loose materials of the land deposited at the bottom of the
+sea, and accumulated in regular strata, one upon another, to the most
+enormous depth or thickness. This is the situation and condition of
+things in which nature is to operate; and we are to find the means of
+consolidating those strata, and concreting every species of substance
+in almost every possible composition, according to some known physical
+principle. Here is an operation which is limited; for, we must reason
+strictly, according to the laws of nature, in the case which we have
+under consideration; and we cannot suppose nature as ever transgressing
+those laws.
+
+It is acknowledged, that, by means sometimes of an aeriform, sometimes
+of an alkaline, perhaps also of an acid substance, calcareous matter is
+dissolved in the earth, and certain metallic substances, such as lead
+and iron. This solution also, upon particular occasions, (where the
+proper conditions for separating the solvent from the dissolved
+substance exist), forms certain concretions; these are sometimes a mere
+incrustation, as in the case of the siliceous incrustation of Giezer,
+sometimes again in a crystallised or sparry form, as in the case of
+stalactical concretions. But here is no question of those cases where
+the proper conditions may be found; first, of dissolving the substance
+which is afterwards to be concreted; secondly, of separating the
+menstruum from the dissolved substance; and, lastly, of removing the
+fluid deprived of its solution, and of supplying a new solution in its
+room; the question is, how far those concretions are formed where those
+conditions do not take place. Now, this last case is that of almost all
+mineral concretions.
+
+It must not be here alleged that certain concretions have been found in
+mines posterior to these having been worked by man; consequently, that
+those concretions have been formed by nothing but the infiltration of
+water. In those cases, where such concretions are truly found, I am
+persuaded that all the conditions proper to that operation will also
+be found; and it is only, I believe, in those cases where such proper
+conditions may be found, that this aqueous concretion ever appears. Now,
+if we shall except calcareous stalactite, and the bog ore of iron, How
+seldom is it that any appearance of those aqueous mineral concretion
+ever is found? Those very few cases in which they are found, afford the
+strongest proof against these being operations general to the globe, or
+proper mineral concretions; because it is only where all the necessary
+conditions conspire in each contributing its part, that the effect is
+accomplished; and this is a thing which cannot possibly take place in
+the aquiform strata below the surface of the sea. But, without attending
+to this clear distinction of things perfectly different, naturalists are
+apt to see false analogies, and thus in generalising to form the most
+erroneous theories.
+
+I shall now give an example of this fallaceous manner of reasoning; it
+is in the case of certain mineral appearances which are erroneously
+considered as stalactical concretions.
+
+The only true stalactical bodies are of a calcareous substance; they are
+formed by water containing this substance in a dissolved state; and the
+principles upon which this particular concretion is formed are well
+known. It is therefore easy to compare other concretions, which may have
+some superficial resemblance to these stalactical bodies, in order to
+see if they have proceeded upon the same principle of concretion from
+a dissolved state, or by water depositing its dissolved substance in a
+similar manner.
+
+There are two different mineral substances which give appearances of
+this sort. These are certain concretions of calcedony, and also of
+iron-ore, which are thought to have such resemblance to stalactical
+concretions as, by some superficial observers, to be reckoned of the
+same kind. It is now proposed to show that those conclusions are not
+well founded; and that, in this case of calcedony and iron-ore, it could
+not be upon the principle of stalactical concretion that the bodies now
+in question had their forms.
+
+The principle upon which calcareous substance is dissolved in water, and
+made to concrete by the evaporation of the acid substance, or fixed
+air by which it had been dissolved, is too well known to require any
+explanation in this place; we are only to consider the sensible effects
+of those operations of which we know so well the proper conditions.
+
+There are just two distinct views under which we may consider all
+stalactical concretions formed; these are the incrustation of
+the calcareous substance concreting upon a foreign body, and the
+incrustation of the same substance upon itself. By the first any manner
+of shape may be formed, provided there be a solid body, upon the surface
+of which the calcareous solution is made to pass. By the second, again,
+we have various forms; but we know the principles upon which they had
+been made. These are the shape and motions of the fluid which gives the
+calcareous concretion. Now, these principles are always to be perceived,
+more or less, in all the bizarre or fantastical, as well as regular
+shapes which are produced by stalactical concretions. At present, we
+shall confine our views to one particular shape, which is simple,
+regular, and perfectly understood wherever it is formed.
+
+Drops of water falling from a roof, and forming stalactite, produce
+first tubular bodies, and then gradually consolidate and increase those
+pendulous bodies by incrustation. These appearances are thought to be
+observed in the calcedony and ferruginous concretions, which has led
+some mineralists to conclude, that those concretions had been formed
+in the same manner, by means of water. We are now to show that these
+mineral appearances are not analogous to stalactites in their formation,
+and that they have evidently been formed in a different manner.
+
+It must be evident, that, in the formation of those pendulous bodies,
+each distinct stalactite must be formed by a separate drop of water;
+consequently, that no more stalactites can be formed in a given space,
+than there could have subsisted separate drops of water. Now, a drop of
+water is a very determined thing; and thus we have a principle by which
+to judge of those mistaken appearances.
+
+Let us suppose the gut of water to be but one eighth of an inch,
+although it is a great deal more, we should have no stalactites formed
+nearer to each other than that measure of space. But those mineral
+concretions, which are supposed to be stalactical, are contained in half
+that space, or are nearer to each other than the tenth or twentieth of
+an inch. I have them like needles, and in every degree of proximity or
+contiguity, at the same time that they are perfectly solid. Therefore,
+it is plainly impossible that they could have been formed upon this
+principle of calcareous stalactite. But, it is only by this false
+resemblance, that any argument can be formed for the concretion of those
+bodies from an aqueous solution; in every other respect they are true
+mineral concretions; and, that these have had a very different origin,
+has been already the subject of investigation, and will be more
+particularly examined in the course of this work.
+
+The term _infiltration_, which has been much employed for explaining
+mineral appearances, is too vague, imperfect, or unexplicit, for
+science, whether as the means of knowing nature, or the subject of
+confutation. This is not the case with that of stalactite; here is
+a term that implies a certain natural operation, or a most distinct
+process for attaining a certain end; and we know the principles upon
+which it proceeds, as well as the several steps that may be traced in
+the general result. It is an operation which has not only been analysed
+to its principles; it is also a process which is performed by man,
+proceeding on his acquired knowledge. Now, were this operation common to
+the mineral regions, as it is proper to the surface of this earth; we
+could not remain in any degree of suspense with regard to the origin of
+those mineral bodies; for, having the true clue of knowledge, we should
+be able to unravel the most intricate and mysterious appearance. But, so
+far from this being the case, the more we come to inquire into nature,
+and employ this principle, the less we find it applicable, and the more
+involved in darkness is our science.
+
+The places where these false appearances of stalactite are found, are
+precisely those in which, from the nature of things, all possibility for
+such an operation is excluded. For, How can this take place within a
+closs cavity in the mineral regions? The term _vegetation_ may as well
+be employed for the explanation of those appearances: But what would
+now be said of such an explication? It is high time that science were
+properly applied to the natural history of this earth, and mineralists
+not allowed to impose upon themselves with false reasoning, or to please
+themselves with the vain attempt of explaining visible effects by
+unknown causes.
+
+Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting petrifaction or mineral
+concretion, as I have now exposed, opinions that are not founded on any
+sound physical principle, authorise me to conclude that they are all
+erroneous. If this be admitted, it will follow that we have no proof
+of any proper mineral concretion except that which had proceeded by
+congelation from the fluid state of fusion. This has been the doctrine
+which I have held out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will be more
+and more confirmed as we come to examine particular mineral appearances.
+
+
+
+CHAP. VIII.
+
+The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata,
+investigated.
+
+
+SECT. I.--Purpose of this Inquiry.
+
+In the first chapter, I have given a perfect mark by which to judge,
+of every consolidated stratum, how far that had been the operation or
+effect of water alone, or if it had been that of heat and fusion. This
+is the particular veins or divisions of the consolidated stratum,
+arising from the contraction of the mass, distended by heat, and
+contracted in cooling. It is not an argument of greater or lesser
+probability; it is a physical demonstration; but, so far as I see, it
+would appear to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.
+Time, however, will open the eyes of men; science will some day find
+admittance into the cabinet of the curious. I will therefore now give
+another proof,--not of the consolidation of mineral bodies by means
+of fusion, for there is no mineral body in which that proof is not
+found,--but of the inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the
+appearances of bodies, where not only fusion had been employed for the
+consolidation, but where the application of heat is necessary, and along
+with it the circumstances proper for _distillation_.
+
+Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water issuing from the earth,
+one forming calcareous incrustations, the other depositing bituminous
+substances. Here is enough for them to make the theory of a world; on
+the one hand, solid marble is explained, on the other, solid coal.
+Ignorance suspects not error; their first step is to reason upon a false
+principle;--no matter, were they only to reason far enough, they would
+soon find their error by the absurdity into which it lands them. The
+misfortune is, they reason no farther; they have explained mineralogy
+by infiltration; and they content themselves with viewing the beautiful
+specimens in their cabinet, the supposed product of solution and
+crystalization. How shall we inform such observators; How reason with
+those who attend not to an argument!
+
+As naturalists have explained all mineral concretions from aqueous or
+other solution, and attributed to infiltration the formation of those
+stony bodies in which there are marks of their original composition,
+so have they explained to themselves, I suppose, the origin of those
+bituminous bodies which are found among the strata of the earth. In the
+case of stony substances, I have shown how unfounded all their theories
+are for the production of those concretions, crystallizations, and
+consolidated bodies. I am here to examine the subject of inflammable and
+combustible bodies, which I believe have been little considered by those
+theorists who suppose mineral bodies consolidated by infiltration. It is
+here that we shall find an infinite difference between the aqueous and
+igneous theories; for, we shall find it impossible to explain by the one
+certain operations which must have necessarily required the great agent
+generally employed in the other.
+
+The subject of this chapter is a touch-stone for every theory of the
+earth. In every quarter of this globe, perhaps in every extensive
+country, bituminous strata are to be found; they are alternated with
+those which are called aquiform, or which had been evidently formed by
+subsidence of certain moved materials at the bottom of the sea; so far,
+therefore, all those strata have had the same origin. In this point
+I think I may assert, that all the different theories at present are
+agreed; and it is only concerning certain transformations of those
+strata, since their original collection, that have been ascribed to
+different causes.
+
+Of these transformations, which the strata must have undergone, there
+are two kinds; one in relation to change of place and position; the
+other in relation to solidity or consistence. It is only the last of
+those two changes which is here to be the subject of consideration;
+because, with regard to the first, there is nothing peculiar in these
+bituminous strata to throw any light, in that respect, upon the others.
+This is not the case with regard to the transformation in their chemical
+character and consistence; bituminous bodies may not be affected by
+chemical agents, such as fire and water, in the same manner as the
+argillaceous, siliceous, micaceous, and such other strata that are
+alternated with the bituminous; and thus we may find the means for
+investigating the nature of that agent by which those strata in general
+have been transformed in their substance; or we may find means for the
+detecting of false theories which may have been formed with regard
+to those operations in which the original deposits of water had been
+changed.
+
+We have had but two theories, with regard to the transformation of
+those bodies which have had a known origin, or to the change of their
+substance and consistence; the one of these which I have given is that
+of heat or fusion; the other, which I wish to be compared with mine,
+is that of water and infiltration. It is by this last that all authors
+hitherto, in one shape or another, have endeavoured to explain the
+changes that those strata must have undergone since the time of their
+first formation at the bottom of the sea. They indiscriminately apply
+the doctrine of infiltration to those strata of mineral coal as to any
+other; they say that bituminous matter is infiltrated with the water,
+impregnates certain strata of earth with bituminous matter, and thus
+converts them into mineral coal, and bituminous strata. This is not
+reasoning physically, or by the inductive method of proceeding upon
+matter of fact; it is reasoning fantastically, or by making gratuitous
+supposition founded merely on imagination. It was thus that natural
+philosophers reasoned before the age of science; the wonder now is,
+how men of science, in the present enlightened age, should suffer such
+language of ignorance and credulity to pass uncensured.
+
+The subject which I am now to treat of consists of peculiar strata of
+the earth, bodies which we may investigate through all the stages of
+their change, which is extreme; for, from vegetable bodies produced upon
+the habitable earth, they are now become a mineral body, and the most
+perfect coal,--a thing extremely different from what it had been, and
+a thing which cannot be supposed to have been accomplished by the
+operation of water alone, or any other agent in nature with which we
+are acquainted, except the action of fire or heat. It is therefore
+impossible for a philosopher, reasoning upon actual physical principles,
+not to acknowledge in this a complete proof of the theory which has been
+given, and a complete refutation of that aqueous operation which has
+been so inconsiderately supposed as consolidating the strata of the
+earth, and forming the various mineral concretions which are found in
+that great body.
+
+To see this, it will be sufficient to trace the progress of vegetable
+and animal substances, (bodies which had certainly lived by means of a
+former earth), to this changed state in which they have become perfect
+mineral bodies, and constitute a part of the present earth. For, as
+these changes are perfectly explained by the one theory, and absolutely
+inconsistent with the other, there arises from this a conviction that
+must be irresistible to a person who can give proper attention to a
+chain of reasoning from effect to cause.
+
+But if we thus succeed to illustrate the theory of the earth by the
+natural history of those particular strata, we have but one step farther
+to make in order to bring all the other parts of the earth, whether
+stratified or not, into the most perfect consistence with the theory;
+now this step, it will be most easy to make; and I shall now mention
+it, that so the reader may keep it in his view: Pyrites is a
+sulphureo-metallic substance, which cannot be produced by means of
+water, a substance which the influences of the atmosphere decomposes or
+separates into its elements, and which even our imperfect art may
+be considered as able to produce, by means of fusion in our fires.
+Therefore, the finding of this creature of fire intimately connected
+with those consolidated strata of mineral coal, adds the greatest
+confirmation, were it necessary, to the doctrine of those mineral bodies
+having been consolidated by fusion. This confirmation, however, is
+not necessary, and it is not the only thing which I am at present to
+illustrate in that doctrine. What I have now in view is, to homologate
+the origin of those coal strata, with the production of every other
+mineral substance, by heat or fusion; and this is what the intimate
+connection of pyrites with those strata will certainly accomplish. This
+will be done in the following manner:
+
+Pyrites is not only found in great masses along with the coal strata; it
+is contained in the veins which traverse those strata, and in the minute
+ramifications of those veins, which are occasioned by the contraction of
+the mass, and generally divide it into small cubical pieces; but besides
+that extrinsic connection, (as it may be called,) with the stratum of
+coal, pyrites is found intimately connected with that solid body, in
+being mixed with its substance. If, therefore, it were proved, that
+either the one or other of those two substances had been consolidated by
+fusion, the other must be acknowledged as having had the same origin;
+but now I am to prove, from the natural history of mineral coal, that
+pyrites had been there formed by fusion; and then, by means of the
+known origin of that sulphureo-metallic substance, we shall extend our
+knowledge to the origin of every other mineral body.
+
+The process of this argument is as follows: Every mineral body, I
+believe, without exception, will be found so intimately connected with
+pyrites, that these two things must be concluded as having been together
+in a fluid state, and that, whatever may have been the cause of fluidity
+in the one, this must have also caused the fluidity in the other;
+consequently, whatever shall be proved with regard to the mineral
+operations of pyrites, must be considered as proved of every other
+mineral substance. But, from the connection of pyrites with mineral
+coal, it is to be proved that the origin of this metallic body had been
+fusion; and then it will appear, that all other mineral bodies must have
+been more or less in fusion, or that they must have been consolidated
+by means of heat, and not by any manner of solution or aqueous
+infiltration. I therefore now proceed to take a view of the natural
+history of coal strata,--a subject which mineralogists seem not inclined
+to engage with, although the most ample data are to be found for that
+investigation.
+
+
+SECT. II.--Natural History of Coal Strata, and Theory of this
+Geological Operation.
+
+Fossil coal is the species of stratum best understood with regard to its
+accidents, as being much sought after; at least, this is the case in
+many parts of Britain, where it supplies the place of wood for burning.
+This fossil body has the most distinguished character; for, being
+inflammable or combustible in its nature, there is no other species of
+stratum that may be confounded with it.
+
+But, though coal be thus the most distinguishable mineral, and that
+which is best understood in the science of mining, it is perhaps the
+most difficult to be treated of in the science of mineralogy; for,
+not having properly any distinguishable parts, we have nothing in the
+natural constitution of this body, as we have in most other strata, to
+lead us to the knowledge of its original state or first formation.
+
+The varieties of coal are distinguished by their different manner of
+burning; but, from appearances of this kind, no perfect judgement can be
+formed with regard to the specific manner in which those strata had been
+made; although, from chemical principles, some conclusion may be drawn
+concerning certain changes which they have undergone since they had been
+formed.
+
+Thus we have one species of coal which is extremely fusible, abounds
+with oil, and consequently is inflammable; we have another species again
+which is perfectly fixed and infusible in the fire; therefore, we may
+conclude upon principle, that, however, both those coals must have
+undergone the operation of heat and fusion, in bringing them to their
+present state, it is only the last that has become so much evaporated as
+to become perfectly fixed, or so perfectly distilled, as to have been
+reduced to a caput mortuum.
+
+The argument here employed is founded upon this fact; that, from the
+fusible species of coal, a caput mortuum may be formed by distillation,
+and that this chemical production has every essential quality, or every
+peculiar property, of the fixed and infusible species; although, from
+the circumstances of our operation, this caput mortuum may not have
+precisely the exterior appearance of the natural coal. But, we have
+reason to believe, it is not in the nature of things to change the
+infusible species, so as to make it fusible or oily. Now, that this body
+was not formed originally in its present state, must appear from this,
+that the stratum here considered is perfectly solid; but, without
+fusion, this could not have been attained; and the coal is now supposed
+to be infusible. Consequently, this fixed substance, which is now,
+properly speaking, a perfect coal, had been originally an oily
+bituminous or fusible substance. It is now a fixed substance, and an
+infusible coal; therefore, it must have been by means of heat and
+distillation that it had been changed, from the original state in which
+this stratum had been formed.
+
+We have thus, in the examination of coal strata upon chemical
+principles, received a certain lesson in geology, although this does not
+form a proper distinction by which to specify those strata in general,
+or explain the variety of that mineral. For, in this manner, we
+could only distinguish properly two species of those strata; the one
+bituminous or inflammable; the other proper coal, burning without smoke
+or flame. Thus it will appear that, as this quality of being perfectly
+charred is not originally in the constitution of the stratum, but an
+accident to which some strata of every species may have been subjected,
+we could not class them by this property without confounding together
+strata which had differences in their composition or formation.
+Therefore, we are led to inquire after some other distinction, which may
+be general to strata of fossil coal, independent of those changes which
+this substance may have undergone after it had been formed in a stratum.
+
+Perfect mineral coal being a body of undistinguishable parts, it is only
+in its resolution that we may analyse it, and this is done by burning.
+Thus, in analysing coal by burning, we have, in the ashes alone, that by
+which one species of coal may be distinguished from another; and, if we
+should consider pure coal as having no ashes of itself, we should then,
+in the weight of its ashes, have a measure of the purity of the coal,
+this being inversely as the quantity of the ashes. Now, though this be
+not accurately true, as the purest coal must have some ashes proper to
+itself, yet, as this is a small matter compared with the quantity of
+earthy matter that may be left in burning some species of coal, this
+method of analysis may be considered as not far removed from the truth.
+
+But, in distinguishing fossil coal by this species of chemical analysis,
+not only is there to be found a perfect or indefinite gradation from a
+body which is perfectly combustible to one that is hardly combustible in
+any sensible degree, we should also fall into an inconveniency similar
+to that already mentioned, of confounding two things extremely different
+in their nature, a bituminous body, and a perfect charcoal. Thus, if we
+shall found our distinction upon the fusibility and different degree of
+having been charred, we shall confound fossil coals of very different
+degrees of value in burning, or of very different compositions as
+strata; if, again, we found it upon the purity of composition, in
+judging from the ashes, we shall confound fossil bodies of very
+different qualities, the one burning with much smoke and flame, the
+other without any; the one fusible almost like wax, the other fixed and
+infusible as charcoal.
+
+It will now appear, that what cannot be done in either the one or other
+of those two methods, may in a great degree, or with considerable
+propriety, be performed in employing both.
+
+Thus, whether for the economical purposes of life, or the natural
+history of fossil coal, those strata should be considered both with
+regard to the purity of their composition as inflammable matter
+deposited at the bottom of the sea, and to the changes which they
+have afterwards undergone by the operation of subterranean heat and
+distillation.
+
+We have now considered the original matter of which coal strata are
+composed to be of two kinds; the one pure bitumen or coal, as being
+perfectly inflammable or combustible; the other an earthy matter,
+with which proper coal may be variously mixed in its composition, or
+intimately connected, in subsiding from that suspended state by which it
+had been carried in the ocean. It is a matter of great importance, in
+the physiology of this globe, to know that the proper substance of coal
+may be thus mixed with heterogeneous bodies; for, supposing that this
+earthy matter, which has subsided in the water along with coal, be no
+farther connected with the combustible substance of those strata, than
+that it had floated in the waters of the ocean, and subsided _pari
+passu_ with the proper materials of the coal, we hence learn a great
+deal with regard to the state in which the inflammable matter must have
+been at the time of its formation into strata. This will appear by
+considering, that we find schistus mixed with coal in the most equal or
+uniform manner, and in almost every conceivable degree, from the purest
+coal to the most perfect schistus. Hence we have reason to conclude,
+that, at the formation of those strata, the bituminous matter, highly
+subtilised, had been uniformly mixed with the earth subsiding in the
+water.
+
+Not only is the bituminous matter of coal found mixed in every different
+proportion with the earthy or uninflammable materials of strata, but the
+coaly or bituminous composition is found with perhaps every different
+species of substance belonging to strata. This is certain, that we have
+the coaly matter intimately mixed with argillaceous and with calcareous
+strata.
+
+Thus it will appear, that it is no proper explanation of the formation
+of coal strata, to say that vegetable matter is the basis of those
+strata; for though, in vegetation, a substance proper for the formation
+of bituminous matter is produced, it remains to know by what means, from
+a vegetable body, this bituminous matter is produced, and how it comes
+to be diffused in that subtile state by which it may be uniformly mixed
+with the most impalpable earth in water. Could we once resolve this
+question, every other appearance might be easily explained. Let us
+therefore now endeavour to discover a principle for the resolving of
+this problem.
+
+There are two ways in which vegetable bodies may be, in part at least,
+resolved into that subtilised state of bituminous matter after which we
+inquire; the one of these is by means of fire, the other by water. We
+shall now consider these severally as the means of forming bituminous
+strata, although they may be both employed by nature in this work.
+
+When vegetable bodies are made to burn, there is always more or less of
+a fuliginous substance formed; but this fuliginous substance is no
+other than a bituminous body in that subtilised state in which it is
+indefinitely divided, and may be mixed uniformly with any mass of matter
+equally subtilised with itself. But this is precisely what we want, in
+order to compose the strata of coal in question. If, therefore, there
+were to be found in the ocean such a fund of this fuliginous substance
+as might suffice for the formation of bituminous strata, no difficulty
+would be left in explaining the original of fossil coal. But tho'
+sufficient quantity of this fuliginous matter might not be found for the
+explanation of natural appearances, yet there cannot be a doubt that
+more or less of this matter must be produced in the mineral operations
+of the globe, and be found precisely in that place where it is required
+for the forming of those strata of coal.
+
+In order to conceive this, we are to consider, that there are actually
+great quantities of coal strata in a charred state, which indicates
+that all their more volatile oleaginous or fuliginous matter had been
+separated by force of subterranean heat; and, we are to suppose that
+this had been transacted at the bottom of the ocean: Consequently, a
+subtile oleaginous, bituminous, or fuliginous substance, must have been
+diffused in that ocean; and this bituminous matter would be employed in
+forming other strata, which were then deposited at the bottom of the
+waters.
+
+But besides this quantity of bituminous matter which is necessarily
+formed in the mineral operations of the earth, and with regard to the
+quantity of which we can never form a proper estimate, there must enter
+into this same calculation all the fuliginous matter that is formed in
+burning bodies upon the surface of this earth. This bituminous matter of
+smoke is first delivered into the atmosphere, but ultimately it must
+be settled at the bottom of the sea. Hence though, compared with the
+quantity that we think required, each revolution of the globe produces
+but a little in our estimation, yet the progress of time, in reforming
+worlds, may produce all that is necessary in the formation of our
+strata.
+
+There now remains to explain the other way in which bituminous matter
+may be obtained from vegetable bodies, that is, by means of water. For
+this purpose we must begin with a part of natural history that will
+throw some light upon the subject.
+
+All the rivers in Scotland run into the sea tinged with a brown
+substance; this is most evident in some of them after a flood, and while
+yet the river is swelled; but, in travelling to the north of Scotland
+in the summer season, without any rain, I saw all the rivers, without
+exception, of a brown colour, compared with a river of more clear water.
+This colour proceeds from the moss water, as it is called, which runs
+into the rivers, or the infusion of that vegetable substance which
+forms combustible turf, called peat. Now, this moss water leaves, upon
+evaporation, a bituminous substance, which very much resembles fossil
+coal. Therefore, in order to employ this vegetable infusion, delivered
+into the ocean for the purpose of forming bituminous strata at its
+bottom, it is only required to make this bituminous matter separate and
+subside.
+
+If now we consider the immense quantity of inflammable vegetable
+substance, dissolved in water, that is carried into the sea by all the
+rivers of the earth, and the indefinite space of time during which those
+rivers have been pouring in that oily matter into the sea; and if we
+consider, that the continual action of the sun and atmosphere upon this
+oily substance tends, by inspissation, to make it more and more dense or
+bituminous, we cannot hesitate in supposing a continual separation
+of this bituminous matter or inspissated oil from the water, and
+a precipitation of it to the bottom of the sea. This argument is
+corroborated by considering, that, if it were otherwise, the water of
+the sea must have, during the immense time that rivers are proved
+to have run, be strongly impregnated with that oily or bituminous
+substance; but this does not appear; therefore we are to conclude, that
+there must be the means of separating that substance from the water in
+which it had been dissolved.
+
+If there is thus, from the continual perishing of animal and vegetable
+bodies upon the surface of this earth and in the sea, a certain supply
+of oily or bituminous matter given to the ocean, then, however small a
+portion of this shall be supposed the whole oily or inflammable matter
+produced upon the surface of the earth, or however long time it may
+require for thus producing a stratum or considerable body of coal,
+we must still see in this a source of the materials proper for the
+production of that species of strata in the bottom of the sea.
+
+We have now considered the proper materials of which pure fossil coal
+is chiefly formed; we have at present to consider what should be the
+appearances of such a substance as this collected at the bottom of the
+sea, and condensed or consolidated by compression and by heat. We should
+thus have a body of a most uniform structure, black, breaking with a
+polished surface, and more or less fusible in the fire, or burning with
+more or less smoke and flame, in proportion as it should be distilled
+or inspissated, less or more, by subterranean heat. But this is the
+description of our purest fossil coals, which burn in giving the
+greatest quantity of heat, and leave the smallest quantity of ashes.
+
+In order to form another regular species of coal, let us suppose that,
+along with the bituminous substance now considered, there shall be
+floating in the water of the ocean a subtile earthy substance, and that
+these two different substances shall subside together in an uniform
+manner, to produce a stratum which shall be covered with immense weight,
+compressed, condensed, and consolidated as before, we should thus have
+produced a most homogeneous or uniform body to appearance, but not so
+in reality. The mixture of heterogeneous matter, in this case, is too
+minute to be discovered simply by inspection; it must require deep
+reflection upon the subject, with the help of chemical analysis,
+to understand the constitution of this body, and judge of all the
+circumstances or particulars in which it differs from the former. It is
+worth while to examine this subject with some attention, as it will give
+the most instructive view of the composition of bituminous strata, both
+those which are not considered as coal, and also the different species
+of that mineral body.
+
+In the first place then, if the mixture of those two different
+substances had been sufficiently perfect, and the precipitation uniform,
+the solid body of coal resulting from this mixture, would not only
+appear homogeneous, but might break equally or regularly in all
+directions; but the fracture of this coal must visibly differ from the
+former, so far as the fracture of this heterogeneous coal cannot have
+the polished surface of the pure bituminous body; for, the earthy matter
+that is interposed among the bituminous particles must affect the
+fracture in preventing its surface from being perfectly smooth. This
+imperfect plane of the fracture may be improved by polishing; in which
+case the body might be sufficiently smooth to have an agreeable polish;
+but it cannot have a perfect polish like a homogeneous body, or appear
+with that glassy surface which is naturally in the fracture of the pure
+bituminous coal.
+
+But this is also a perfect description of that species of coal which is
+called in England Kennel coal, and in Scotland Parrot coal. It is so
+uniform in its substance that it is capable of being formed on the
+turning loom; and it receives a certain degree of polish, resembling
+bodies of jet.
+
+Thus, we have a species of coal in which we shall find but a small
+degree of fusibility, although it may not be charred in any degree.
+Such an infusible coal may therefore contain a great deal of aqueous
+substance, and volatile oily matter; consequently may burn with smoke
+and flame. But this same species of coal may also occasionally be
+charred more or less by the operation of subterranean heat; and, in
+that case, we should have a variety of coal which could only be
+distinguished, from a similar state of pure bituminous coal, by the
+ashes which they leave in burning. At least, this must be the case, when
+both species are, by sufficient distillation, reduced to the state of
+what may be properly termed a chemical coal.
+
+But in the natural state of its composition, we find those strata of
+kennel or parrot coal, possessing a peculiar property, which deserves to
+be considered, as still throwing more light upon the subject.
+
+We have been representing these strata of coal as homogeneous to
+appearance, and as breaking indifferently in all directions; this last,
+perhaps, is not so accurate; for they would seem to break chiefly into
+two directions, that is, either parallel or perpendicular to the bed.
+Thus we have this coal commonly in rectangular pieces, in which it
+is extremely difficult to distinguish the direction of the bed, or
+stratification of the mass. By an expert eye, however, this may be in
+general, or at least sometimes, distinguished, and then, by knowing
+the habit of the coal in burning, a person perfectly ignorant of the
+philosophy of the matter may exhibit a wonderful sagacity, or even of
+power over future events, in applying this body to fire; for, at his
+pleasure, and unknown to those who are not in the secret; he may
+apparently, in equal circumstances, make this coal either kindle
+quietly, or with violent cracking and explosions, throwing its splinters
+at a distance.
+
+The explanation lies in this, that, though the rectangular mass of coal
+appears extremely uniform in its structure, it is truly a stratified
+mass; it is therefore affected, by the sudden approach of fire in a very
+different manner, according as the edge of the stratum, which is seen in
+four of the sides of this supposed cube, shall be applied to the fire,
+or the other two sides, which are in the line of the stratum, or
+parallel to the bed of coal. The reason of this phenomenon now remains
+to be considered.
+
+When the edge of the coal is exposed to the fire, the stratification of
+the coal is opened gradually by the heat and expanding vapours, as a
+piece of wood, of a similar shape, would be by means of wedges placed in
+the end way of the timber. The coal then kindles quietly, and quickly
+flames, while the mass of this bituminous schistus is opening like the
+leaves of a book, and thus exhibits an appearance in burning extremely
+like wood. But let the fire be applied to the middle of the bed, instead
+of the edge of the leaves, and we shall see a very different appearance;
+for here the expanded aqueous vapours, confined between the _laminae_,
+form explosions, in throwing off splinters from the kindling mass; and
+this mass of coal takes fire with much noise and disturbance.
+
+The ashes of this coal may be determined as to quality, being in general
+a subtile white earth; but, as to quantity, the measure of that earth
+produces an indefinite variety in this species of coal; for, from the
+kennel or parrot coal, which is valuable for its burning with much
+flame, to that black schistus which our masons use in drawing upon
+stone, and which, though combustible in some degree, is not thought to
+be a coal, there is a perfect gradation, in which coal may be found with
+every proportion of this earthy alloy.
+
+Among the lowest species of this combustible schistus are those
+argillaceous strata in Yorkshire from whence they procure alum in
+burning great heaps of this stone, which also contains sulphur, to
+impregnate the aluminous earth with its acid. We have also, in this
+country, strata which differ from those aluminous schisti only in the
+nature of the earth, with which the bituminous sediment is mixed. In
+the strata now considered, the earth, precipitated with the bituminous
+matter, being calcareous, has produced a limestone, which, after burning
+especially, is perfectly fissile.
+
+Therefore, with regard to the composition of mineral coal, the theory
+is this. That inflammable, vegetable, and animal substances, in a
+subtilised state, had subsided in the sea, being mixed more or less with
+argillaceous, calcareous, and other earthy substances in an impalpable
+state. Now, the chemical analysis of fossil coal justifies that theory;
+for, in the distillation of the inflammable or oily coal, we procure
+volatile alkali, as might be naturally expected.
+
+Thus we have considered fossil coal as various, both in its state and
+composition; we have described coal which is of the purest composition,
+as well as that which is most impure or earthy; and we have shown that
+there is a gradation, from the most bituminous state in which those
+strata had been formed in being deposited at the bottom of the sea,
+to the most perfect state of a chemical coal, to which they have been
+brought by the operation of subterranean fire or heat.
+
+We have been hitherto considering fossil coal as formed of the
+impalpable parts of inflammable bodies, united together by pressure, and
+made to approach in various degrees to the nature of a chemical coal,
+by means of subterranean heat; because, from the examination of those
+strata, many of them have evidently been formed in this manner.
+But vegetable bodies macerated in water, and then consolidated by
+compression, form a substance of the same kind, almost undistinguishable
+from some species of fossil coal. We have an example of this in our turf
+pits or peat mosses; when this vegetable substance has been compressed
+under a great load of earth, which sometimes happens, it is much
+consolidated, and hardens, by drying, into a black body, not afterwards
+dilutable or penetrated by water, and almost undistinguishable in
+burning from mineralised bodies of the same kind.
+
+Also, when fossil wood has been condensed by compression and changed by
+the operation of heat, as it is frequently found in argillaceous strata,
+particularly in the aluminous rock upon the coast of Yorkshire, it
+becomes a jet almost undistinguishable from some species of fossil coal.
+
+There cannot therefore be a doubt, that if this vegetable substance,
+which is formed by the collection of wood and plants in water upon the
+surface of the earth, were to be found in the place of fossil coal, and
+to undergo the mineral operations of the globe, it must at least augment
+the quantity of those strata, though it should not form distinct strata
+by itself.
+
+It may perhaps be thought that vegetable bodies and their impalpable
+parts are things too far distant in the scale of magnitude to be
+supposed as subsiding together in the ocean; and this would certainly be
+a just observation with regard to any other species of bodies: But the
+nature of vegetable bodies is to be floatant in water; so that we may
+suppose them carried at any distance from the shore; consequently, the
+size of the body here makes no difference with regard to the place or
+order in which these are to be deposited.
+
+The examination of fossil coal fully confirms those reasonable
+suppositions. For, _first_, The strata that attend coal, whether the
+sandstone or the argillaceous strata, commonly, almost universally,
+abound with the most distinct evidence of vegetable substances; this
+is the impressions of plants which are found in their composition.
+_Secondly_, There is much fossil coal, particularly that termed in
+England clod coal, and employed in the iron foundry, that shows
+abundance of vegetable bodies in its composition. The strata of this
+coal have many horizontal interstices, at which the more solid shining
+coal is easily separated; here the fibrous structure of the compressed
+vegetable bodies is extremely visible; and thus no manner of doubt
+remains, that at least a part of this coal had been composed of the
+vegetable bodies themselves, whatever may have been the origin of the
+more compact parts where nothing is to be distinguished.
+
+The state in which we often find fossil wood in strata gives reason to
+conclude that this body of vegetable production, in its condensed state,
+is in appearance undistinguishable from fossil coal, and may be also in
+great quantity; as, for example, the Bovey coal in Devonshire.
+
+Thus the strata of fossil coal would appear to be formed by the
+subsidence of inflammable matter of every species at the bottom of the
+sea, in places distant from the shore, or where there had been much
+repose, and where the lightest and most floatant bodies have been
+deposited together. This is confirmed in examining those bodies of
+fossil coal; for, though there are often found beds of sand-stone
+immediately above and below the stratum of the coal, we do not find any
+sand mixed in the strata of the coal itself.
+
+Having found the composition of coal to be various, but all included
+within certain rules which have been investigated, we may perceive in
+this an explanation of that diversity which is often observed among the
+various strata of one bed of coal. Even the most opposite species of
+composition may be found in the thickness of one bed, although of very
+little depth, that is to say, the purest bituminous coal may, in the
+same bed, be conjoined with that which is most earthy.
+
+Fossil coal is commonly alternated with regular sand-stone and
+argillaceous strata; but these are very different bodies; therefore,
+it may perhaps be inquired how such different substances came to be
+deposited in the same place of the ocean. The answer to this is easy; we
+do not pretend to trace things from their original to the place in which
+they had been ultimately deposited at the bottom of the sea. It is
+enough that we find the substance of which we treat delivered into
+the sea, and regularly deposited at the bottom, after having been
+transported by the currents of the ocean. Now the currents of the ocean,
+however regular they may be for a certain period of time, and however
+long this period may be protracted, naturally change; and then the
+currents, which had given birth to one species of stratum in one place,
+will carry it to another; and the sediment which the moment before
+had formed a coal stratum, or a bed of that bituminous matter, may
+be succeeded either with the sediment of an argillaceous stratum, or
+covered over with a bed of sand, brought by the changed current of the
+sea.
+
+We have now considered all the appearances of coal strata, so far as
+these depend upon the materials, and their original collection. But,
+as those bituminous strata have been changed in their substance by the
+operation of subterranean heat and inspissation, we are now to look for
+the necessary consequences of this change in the body of the stratum;
+and also for other mineral operations common to fossil coal with
+consolidated strata of whatever species.
+
+If coal, like other mineral strata, have been inspissated and
+consolidated by subterranean heat, we should find them traversed with
+veins and fissures; and, if the matter found in those veins and fissures
+corresponds to that found in similar places of other strata, every
+confirmation will be hence given to the theory that can be expected from
+the consideration of those bituminous strata. But this is the case; we
+find those fissures filled both with calcareous, gypseous, and pyritous
+substances. Therefore, we have reason to conclude, that the strata of
+fossil coal, like every other indurated or consolidated body in the
+earth, has been produced, _first_, by means of water preparing and
+collecting materials proper for the construction of land; and,
+_secondly_, by the operation of internal fire or subterranean heat
+melting and thus consolidating every known substance of the globe.
+
+Not only are those sparry and pyritous substances, which are more
+natural to coal strata, found forming veins traversing those strata in
+various directions, but also every other mineral vein may occasionally
+be found pervading coal mines, or traversing bituminous strata. Gold,
+silver, copper, lead, calamine, have all, in this manner, been found in
+coal.
+
+There remains now only to consider those bituminous strata of fossil
+coal in relation to that change of situation which has happened more
+or less to every stratum which we examine; but which is so much better
+known in those of coal, by having, from their great utility in the arts
+of life, become a subject for mining, and thus been traced in the earth
+at great expense, and for a long extent.
+
+Coal strata, which had been originally in a horizontal position, are now
+found sometimes standing in an erect posture, even almost perpendicular
+to the plane in which they had been formed. Miners therefore distinguish
+coal strata according as they deem them to approach to the one or other
+of those two extremes, in terming them either flat or edge seams or
+veins. Thus, it will appear, that every possible change from the
+original position of those strata may have happened, and are daily found
+from our experience in those mines.
+
+But besides the changed position of those strata, in departing from the
+horizontal line or flat position in which they had been formed, there is
+another remarkable change, termed by miners a _trouble_ in the coal. The
+consideration of this change will further illustrate the operations of
+nature in placing that which had been at the bottom of the sea above its
+surface.
+
+Strata, that are in one place regularly inclined, may be found bended,
+or irregularly inclined, in following their course. Here then is a
+source of irregularity which often materially effects the estimates
+of miners, judging from what they see, of those parts which are to be
+explored; and this is an accident which they frequently experience.
+
+But, without any change in the general direction of the stratum, miners
+often find their coal broke off abruptly, those two parts being placed
+upon a higher and lower situation in respect to each other, if flat
+beds, or separated laterally if they are edge seams. This is by miners
+termed a _slip, hitch_, or _dyke_.
+
+These irregularities may either be attended with an injected body of
+subterraneous lava or basaltes, here termed whin-stone, or they may not
+be attended, at least apparently, _i.e._ immediately, with any such
+accident. But experienced miners know, that, in approaching to any of
+those injected masses of stone, which are so frequent in this country,
+their coal is more and more subject to be troubled.
+
+As there is, in this country of Scotland, two different species of
+mountains or hills, one composed both in matter and manner exactly
+similar to the Alps of Switzerland, the other of whin-stone, basaltic
+rock, or subterraneous lava; and as the fossil coal, argillaceous and
+sand-stone strata, are found variously connected with those hills,
+nothing can tend more to give a proper understanding, with regard to the
+construction of the land in general, of the globe than a view of those
+different bodies, which are here found much mixed together in a little
+space of country, thus exhibiting, as it were in miniature, what may be
+found in other parts of the world, upon a larger scale, but not upon any
+other principle. I will therefore endeavour to give a short description
+of the mineral state of this country with regard to coal, so far as my
+experience and memory will serve.
+
+This country might very properly be considered as consisting of primary
+and secondary mountains; not as supposing the primary mountains original
+and inexplicable in their formation, any more than those of the latest
+production, but as considering the one to be later in point of time, or
+posterior in the progress of things. The first are those which commonly
+form the alpine countries, consisting of various schisti, of quartzy
+stone, and granites. The second, again, are the whinstone or basaltic
+hills scattered up and down the low country, and evidently posterior to
+the strata of that country, which they break, elevate, and displace.
+
+Thus there are in this country, as well as every where else, three
+things to be distinguished; first, the alpine or elevated country;
+secondly, the flat or low country; and, thirdly, that which has been of
+posterior formation to the strata which it traverses, in whatever shape
+or quality; whether as a mountain, or only as a vein; whether as a
+basaltes, a porphyry, or a granite, or only as a metal, a siliceous
+substance, or a spar.
+
+Those three things which are here distinguished do not differ with
+regard to the chemical character of their substances; for, in each of
+these, every different substance is to be found, more or less; and it
+is not in being composed of materials peculiar to itself, that makes an
+alpine country be distinguished from a flat country; it is chiefly in
+the changes which the strata of the alpine country have been made to
+undergo, posterior to their original collection, that the rocks of the
+alpine country differ from those of the flat country.
+
+But the observation that is most to the purpose of the present subject
+of bituminous strata, is this; it is chiefly in the strata of the flat
+country that fossil coal are found; there are none that I know of in
+all the alpine countries of Scotland; and it is always among the strata
+peculiar to the flat country that fossil coal is found. Now, this
+appearance cannot be explained by saying that the materials of mineral
+coal had not existed in the world while those primary strata were formed
+in the sea. I have already shown, (chap. 4.) that there had been the
+same system of a world, producing plants, and thus maintaining animals,
+while the primary strata were formed in the sea; I have even adduced an
+example of coal strata among those primary schisti, although this be an
+extremely rare occurrence: Consequently, we are under the necessity of
+looking out for some other cause.
+
+If the changes which have been evidently superinduced in the strata of
+alpine countries arise from the repeated operations of subterranean
+fire, or to the extreme degree in which those strata have been affected
+by this consolidating and elevating cause, it will be natural to suppose
+that the bituminous or combustible part among those stratifications, may
+have been mostly consumed upon some occasion during those various and
+long continued operations; whereas, in the flat beds of the low country,
+although there is the most perfect evidence for the exertion of heat in
+the consolidation of those strata, the general quantity of this has been
+a little thing, compared with the universal manifestation of this cause
+in the operations of the alpine countries, the strata of which have been
+so much displaced in their situations and positions.
+
+To illustrate this, strata of sand-stone are found in both the alpine
+and flat countries of Scotland. About Leadhills, for example, there are
+abundance of those strata; but, in the flat country, the generality of
+the sand-stone is so little changed as to appear to every enlightened
+naturalist aquiform strata; whereas the most enlightened of those
+philosophers will not perhaps attribute the same original to a similar
+composition in the alpine country, which is so much changed from its
+original state. It is not because there had been wanting a sufficient
+degree of heat to consolidate the sand-stone in the coal country; for I
+can show specimens of sand-stone almost contiguous with coal, that have
+been extremely much consolidated in this manner. But this is only a
+particular stratum; and the general appearance of the sand-stone, as
+well as other strata in the coal countries, is that of having been
+little affected by those subterranean operations of heat by which those
+bodies in the alpine country have been changed in their structure,
+shape, and position.
+
+If we shall thus allow the principle of consolidation, consequently also
+of induration, to have been much exerted upon the strata of the alpine
+country, and but moderately or little upon those of the low country of
+Scotland, we shall evidently see one reason, perhaps the only one, for
+the lesser elevation of the one country above the level of the sea, than
+the other. This is because the one resists the powers which have been
+employed in leveling what has been raised from the bottom of the sea,
+more than the other; consequently, we find more of the one remaining
+above the level of the sea than of the other.
+
+Let us now take the map of Scotland, in order to observe the mixture of
+those two different species of countries, whereof the one is generally
+low and flat, the other high and mountainous; the one more or less
+provided with fossil coal, the other not.
+
+From St Abb's Head, on the east of Scotland, to the Mull of Galloway,
+on the west, there runs a ridge of mountains of granite, quartz, and
+schistus strata, which contain not coal. On each side of this ridge we
+find coal countries; Northumberland, on the one side, and, on the other,
+the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and the Lothians; the one is a mountainous
+country, the others are comparatively low or flat countries. Let us now
+draw another alpine line from Buchan and Caithness, upon the east, to
+the island of Jura, on the west; this traverses a mountainous country
+destitute of coal, and, so far as I know, of any marks of marine bodies.
+But, on each side of this great alpine ridge, we find the hard country
+skirted with one which is lower, flatter, or of a softer nature,
+in which coal is found, upon the one side, in the shires of Fife,
+Clackmannan, and Stirling; and, on the other, in that hollow which runs
+from the Murray Frith south-west, in a straight line, directed upon the
+end of Mull, and composed, for the most part, of water very little above
+the level of the sea. Here, to be sure, the coal is scarce, or not so
+evident; but there is coal upon the sea coast in several places of this
+great Bay betwixt Buchan and Caithness; and the lowness of the country,
+across this part of the island, is almost sufficient testimony that it
+had been composed of softer materials.
+
+Thus the coal country of Scotland may be considered as in one band
+across the island, and included in the counties of Ayr, Lanark, and all
+those which border upon the Frith of Forth. Now, in all this tract of
+coal and tender strata, we do not find ridges of alpine stone or primary
+mountains, but we find many hills of solid rock, little mountains, from
+500 to 1000 feet high; such as that beautiful conical hill North Berwick
+Law, Torpender Law, Arthur's Seat, the Lowmands, and others of inferior
+note. That is to say, the whole of this included space, both sea and
+land, has been invaded from below with melted masses of whin-stone,
+breaking up through the natural strata of the country, and variously
+embossing the surface of the earth at present, when all the softer
+materials, with which those subterranean lavas had been covered, are
+washed away or removed from those summits of the country. Hence there is
+scarcely a considerable tubercle, with which this country also abounds,
+that may not be found containing a mass of whin-stone as a nucleus.
+
+But besides those insulated masses of whinstone that form a gradation
+from a mountain to a single rock, such, for example, as that on which
+the Castle of Edinburgh is built, we find immense quantities of the same
+basaltic rock interjected among the natural strata, always breaking and
+disordering them, but often apparently following their directions for a
+considerable space with some regularity. We also find dykes of the same
+substance bisecting the strata like perpendicular veins of rock; and, in
+some places, we see the connection of these rocks of the same substance,
+which thus appear to be placed in such a different form in relation to
+the strata.
+
+It will thus appear, that the regular form, and horizontal direction of
+strata throughout this country of coal, now under contemplation, has
+been broken and disordered by the eruption and interjection of those
+masses of basaltic stone or subterraneous lava; and thus may be
+explained not only the disorders and irregularities of coal strata, but
+also the different qualities of this bituminous substance from its
+more natural state to that of a perfect coal or fixed infusible and
+combustible substance burning without smoke. This happens sometimes to a
+part of a coal stratum which approaches the whin-stone.
+
+Having thus stated the case of combustible or bituminous strata, I would
+ask those naturalists, who adhere to the theory of infiltration and the
+operation of water alone, how they are to conceive those strata formed
+and consolidated. They must consider, that here are immense bodies of
+those combustible strata, under hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathoms
+of sand-stone, iron-stone, argillaceous and calcareous strata. If they
+are to suppose bituminous bodies collected at the bottom of the sea,
+they must say from whence that bitumen had come; for, with regard to the
+strata below those bituminous bodies, above them, and between them,
+we see perfectly from whence had come the materials of which they are
+formed. They cannot say that it is from a collection of earthy matter
+which had been afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for, although
+we find many of those earthy strata variously impregnated with the
+bituminous and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy and the
+bituminous matter had subsided together; besides, there are many of
+those coaly and bituminous strata in which there is no more than two or
+three _per cent._ of earthy matter or ashes after burning; therefore
+the strata must have been formed of bituminous matter, and not simply
+impregnated with it.
+
+To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow them to form their strata,
+which certainly is the case in great part, by the collection of
+vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say, in what manner they are
+to consolidate those bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
+pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous veins of spar and pyrites,
+which traverse those strata in all directions, to be formed in
+those bodies consolidated by the compression of the superincumbent
+masses?--Here is a manifest inconsistency, which proves that it could
+not be. But, even were we to suppose all those difficulties to be over
+come, there is still an impossibility in the way of that inconsiderate
+theory, and this will appear more fully in the following chapter.
+
+
+SECT. III.--The Mineralogical Operations of the Earth illustrated from
+the Theory of Fossil Coal.
+
+There is not perhaps a greater difference among the various qualities of
+bodies than that which may be observed to subsist between the burning of
+those two substances, that is, the inflammable bodies on the one hand,
+and those that are combustible on the other. I have treated of that
+distinction in Dissertations upon subjects of Natural Philosophy, part
+3d. where I have considered the different effects of those two kinds
+of bodies upon the incident light; and, in a Dissertation upon the
+Philosophy of Fire, etc. I have distinguished those two kinds of
+substances in relation to their emitting, in burning, the fixed light
+which had constituted a part of those inflammable and combustible
+bodies.
+
+All animals and vegetable bodies contain both those different chemical
+substances united; and this phlogistic composition is an essential part
+in every animal and vegetable substance. There are to be found in those
+bodies particular substances, which abound more or less with one of
+those species of phlogistic matter, but never is the one species of
+those burning substances to be found naturally, in animal and vegetable
+bodies, without being associated with the other; and it is all that the
+chemical art can do to separate them in a great degree upon occasion.
+Pure ardent spirit may perhaps be considered as containing the one, and
+the most perfect coal the other; the chemical principle of the one
+is proper carbonic matter; and of the other it is the hydrogeneous
+principle, or that of inflammable air.
+
+Thus we so far understand the composition of animal and vegetable
+substances which burn or maintain our fires; we also understand the
+chemical analysis of those bodies, in separating the inflammable from
+the combustible substance, or the volatile from the fixed matter, the
+oil from what is the proper coal. It is by distillation or evaporation,
+the effect of heat, that this separatory operation is performed; and we
+know no other means by which this may be done. Therefore, wherever we
+find peculiar effects of that separatory operation, we have a right to
+infer the proper cause.
+
+The subject, which we are to consider in this section, is not the
+composition of strata in those of mineral coal, but the transformation
+of those, which had been originally inflammable bodies, into bodies
+which are only combustible, an end which is to be attained by the
+separation of their volatile or inflammable substances. In the last
+section, I have shown of what materials the strata of mineral coal had
+been originally formed; these are substances containing abundance of
+inflammable oil or bitumen, as well as carbonic matter which is properly
+combustible; and this is confirmed by the generality of those strata,
+which, though perfectly consolidated by fusion, retain still their
+inflammable and fusible qualities. But now the object of investigation
+is that mineral operation by which some of those strata, or some parts
+of a fusible and inflammable stratum, have been so changed as to become
+infusible and only combustible.
+
+We have now examined those strata which may be considered as either
+proper mineral coal, or as only a bituminous schistus; we are now to
+class along with these another species of this kind of matter, which has
+had a similar origin, although it may assume a different character.
+
+According to the common observations of mankind, the eminent quality by
+which coal is to be distinguished, is the burning of that substance,
+or its capacity for making a fire. Therefore, however similar in other
+respects, a substance which had not that eminent quality of coal could
+hardly be considered as being allied to it; far less could it be
+supposed, as being in every other respect the same. We are however
+to endeavour to show, that there are truly substances of this kind,
+substances which to common observation, having none of the properties of
+coal with respect to fire, consequently, no utility for the purpose of
+burning, might be considered as another species of mineral, while at the
+same time they are truly at bottom a composition very little different
+from those which we have considered as the most perfect coal.
+
+It must be recollected that we have distinguished coal in general as
+of two different species, one perfect or proper coal, containing no
+perceptible quantity of either oil or phlegm; the other as burning with
+smoke and flame, consequently containing both aqueous and oleaginous
+substances which it emits in distillation. It is the first of these
+which we are now to consider more particularly, in order to see the
+varieties which may be found in this species of mineral substance.
+
+When that bituminous fossil, which is the common coal of this country,
+is submitted to heat it is subject to melt more or less, and emits smoke
+which is composed of water and oil. If it be thus completely distilled,
+it becomes a perfect coal of a porous or spongy texture. Such a
+substance as this is extremely rare among minerals; I have however found
+it. It is in the harbour of Ayr, where a whinstone dyke traverses the
+coal strata, and includes some of that substance in the state of coals
+or cinder. I pointed this out many years ago to Dr Black; and lately I
+showed it to Professor Playfair.
+
+But the culm of South Wales, the Kilkenny coal of Ireland, and the blind
+coal of Scotland, notwithstanding that these are a perfect coal, or
+charred to a coal, have nothing of the porous construction of the
+specimen which I have just now mentioned; they are perfectly solid, and
+break with a smooth shining surface like those which emit smoke and
+flame.
+
+Here is therefore a mineral operation in the preparation of those coals
+which we cannot imitate; and here is the clearest evidence of the
+operation of mineral fire or heat, although we are ignorant of the
+reason why some coal strata are charred, while others are not, and why,
+in some particular cases, the charred coal may be porous or spongy like
+our coals, while in general those blind coals (as they are called) are
+perfectly solid in their structure.
+
+But to what I would call more particularly the attention of mineral
+philosophers is this, that it is inconceivable to have this effect
+produced by means of water; we might as well say that heat were to be
+the cause of ice. The production of coal from vegetable bodies, in which
+that phlogistic substance is originally produced, or from animal bodies
+which have it from that source, is made by heat, and by no other means,
+so far as we know. But, even heat alone is not sufficient to effect that
+end, or make a perfect coal; the phlogistic body, which is naturally
+compound, consisting of both inflammable and combustible substances,
+must be separated chemically, and this must be the operation of heat
+under the proper circumstances for distillation or evaporation.
+
+Here is the impossibility which in the last chapter I have alleged the
+aqueous theory has to struggle against; and here is one of the absolute
+proofs of the igneous theory. Not only must the aqueous part of those
+natural phlogistic bodies be evaporated, in order to their becoming
+coal, but the oily parts must also, by a still increased degree of heat,
+be evaporated, or separated by distillation from the combustible part.
+Here, therefore, is evidently the operation of heat, not simply that
+of fusion in contradiction to the fluidity of aqueous solution, but
+in opposition to any effect of water, as requiring the absence or
+separation of that aqueous substance.
+
+But those natural appearances go still farther to confirm our theory,
+which, upon all occasions, considers the compression upon the bodies
+that are submitted to the operation of heat, in the mineral regions, as
+having the greatest efficacy in modifying that operation. Coal strata,
+which are in the neighbourhood of each other, being of those two
+opposite species, the one fusible and inflammable, the other infusible
+and combustible, afford the clearest proof of the efficacy of
+compression; for, it is evident, that the coal, which was once
+bituminous or fusible, cannot be charred without the distillation of
+that substance; therefore, prevent the distillation by compression and
+the charring operation cannot proceed, whatever should be the intensity
+of the heat; and then, fusion alone must be the effect upon the
+bituminous body. But now, as we have both those species of coal in the
+vicinity of each other, and even the same strata of coal part charred,
+while the rest is not, this natural appearance, so far from being a
+stumbling block, as it must be to the opposite theory, is most clearly
+explained by the partial escape of vapours from the mineral regions, and
+thus confirms the theory with regard to the efficacy of compression.
+
+It is owing to the solidity of those natural charred coals, and the want
+of oil, that they are so very difficult of kindling; but, when once
+kindled in sufficient quantity, they make a fire which is very durable.
+There are even some of them which, to common observation, seem to be
+altogether incombustible. I have of this kind a specimen from a stratum
+at Stair, which shall be afterwards mentioned.
+
+M. Struve, in the Journal de Physique for January 1790, describes a
+mineral which he calls _plombagine charbonneuse ou hexaedre_; and gives
+for reason, _parce qu'elle ressemble extremement au charbon de pierre
+schisteux, ou d'hexaedre_. He says farther, "Il est tres commun, dans
+une roche qui forme un passage entre les granits et les breches, qu'on
+n'a trouvee jusqu'a present qu'on masses roulees dans le pays de Vaud."
+He concludes his paper thus: "Ce fossile singulier ne paroit pas
+appartenir a la Suisse seule. J'ai dans ce moment devant les yeux une
+substance parfaitement semblable, si on excepte la couleur qui tient le
+milieu entre le gris de fer et le rouge modere; elle vient du pays de
+Gotha de la Friedrischs-grube, proche d'Umneau. On le regarde comme un
+eisenrahm uni a du charbon de pierre."
+
+The specimen which I have from Stair upon the water of Ayr, so far as I
+can understand, perfectly resembles this _plombagine_ of M. Struve. It
+consumes very slowly in the fire, and deflagrates like plumbago with
+nitre. Now this comes from a regular coal stratum; and what is more
+remarkable, in this stratum is contained a true plumbago, Farther up the
+country, the Earl of Dumfries has also a mine containing plumbago along
+with other coal strata; and though the plumbago of these two mines have
+not all the softness and beauty of the mineral of the same species from
+Cumberland, they are nevertheless perfect plumbago.
+
+I have a specimen of steatetical whinstone or basaltes from some part of
+Cumberland, in which is contained many nodules of the most perfect and
+beautiful plumbago. It is dispersed through this stone in rounded masses
+of all sizes from a nut to a pin's head; and many of these are mixed
+with pyrites. There is therefore reason to believe that this plumbago
+had been in fusion.
+
+Now, if we consider that every species of coal and every species of
+plumbago are equally, that is, perfectly combustible, and yield, in
+burning, the same volatile principles, differing only perhaps a little
+in the small quantity of fixed matter which remains, we shall be
+inclined to believe, that they have all the same origin in a vegetable
+substance; and that they are diversified by some very small composition
+of other matter. This being allowed, one thing is certain, that it is by
+the operation of mineral fire or heat that those combustible substances,
+however composed, have been brought to their present state of coal,
+although we are ignorant of the circumstances by which their differences
+and their peculiar chemical and mechanical qualities have been produced.
+
+Let us resume in a few words. There is not perhaps one substance in the
+mineral kingdom by which the operation of subterraneous heat is, to
+common understanding, better exemplified than that of mineral coal.
+Those strata are evidently a deposit of inflammable substances which all
+come originally from vegetable bodies. In this state of their formation,
+those coal strata must all be oleagenous or bituminous. In many of them,
+however, these volatile parts are found wanting; and, the stratum is
+found in the state of the most perfect coal or caput mortuum. There, is,
+I presume, no other means to be found by which this eminent effect could
+be produced, except by distillation; and, this distillation perhaps
+proceeded under the restraining force of an immense compression.
+
+To this theory it must not be objected, that all the strata of coal,
+which are found in the same place or neighbourhood, are not reduced to
+that caput mortuum or perfect coaly state. The change from a bituminous
+to a coaly substance can only take place in proportion as the
+distillation of the volatile parts is permitted. Now this distillation
+must be permitted, if any passage can be procured from the inflammable
+body submitted to the operation of subterraneous heat; and, one stratum
+of coal may find vent for the passage of those vapours, through some
+crevice which is not open to another. In this way, doubtless, some of
+those bodies have been inspissated or reduced to a fixed coal, while
+others, at a little distance, have retained most of their volatile
+parts.
+
+We cannot doubt of this distilling operation in the mineral regions,
+when we consider that in most places of the earth we find the evident
+effects of such distillation of oily substances in the naphta and
+petroleum that are constantly emitted along with water in certain
+springs. These oily substances are no other than such as may be
+procured, in a similar manner, from the fusible or inflammable coal
+strata; we have therefore every proof of this mineral operation that the
+nature of things admit of. We have also sufficient evidence that those
+fusible and inflammable coals, which have not been distilled to a caput
+mortuum, had been subjected to the operation of subterraneous heat,
+because we find those fusible coals subject to be injected with pyrites,
+as well as the more perfect coal.
+
+If we now consider those various appearances of mineral bodies which
+are thus explained by the theory of mineral fire, or exertion of
+subterraneous heat, appearances which it is impossible to reconcile by
+any supposition of aqueous solution, or that unintelligible language
+of mineral infiltration which has of late prevailed, we shall be fully
+satisfied, that there is a uniform system in nature of providing a power
+in the mineral regions, for consolidating the loose materials deposited
+at the bottom of the sea, and for erecting those masses of mineralized
+substances into the place of land; we shall thus be led to admire the
+wisdom of nature, providing for the continuation of this living world,
+and employing those very means by which, in a more partial view of
+things, this beautiful structure of an inhabited earth seems to be
+necessarily going into destruction.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIRST.
+
+
+
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