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.
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