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.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51