He says, "a mole having been constructed in the Oder in the year 1723,
350 feet long, 54 feet in height, 144 feet broad at bottom, and 54 at
the top, its sides only were granite, without any other cement than
moss; the middle space was entirely filled with granite sand. In a short
time this concreted into a substance so compact as to be impenetrable by
water."--Here is an example, according to our author, of _granite formed
in the moist way_. But now, I must ask to see the evidence of that fact;
for, from what our author has told us, I do not even see reason to
conclude that there was the least concretion, or any stone formed at
all. A body of sand will be _so compacted as to be impenetrable by
water_, with the introduction of a very little mud, and without any
degree of concretion; muddy water, indeed, cannot be made to pass
through such a body without compacting it so; and this every body finds,
to their cost, who have attempted to make a filter of that kind.
But I shall suppose Lasius has informed our author that there had been
a petrifaction in this case; and, before I admit this example of the
formation of granite, I must ask what sort of a granite it was;--whether
of two, three, or four ingredients; and, how these were disposed.
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