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Hutton, James, 1726-1797

"Theory of the Earth, Volume 1 (of 4)"


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.


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