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.
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