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.
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