Here again we have the
power of gravity to operate in carrying down water to that place which
had been before exhausted by the power of heat; and in this manner, by
alternately employing those two great physical agents, we cannot doubt
that nature may convey soluble substances from above, and deposit them
below for the purpose of consolidating porous bodies, or of filling with
saline and earthy matter those interstices which had been originally
filled with water, when the strata were deposited at the bottom of the
sea. How far any marks of this operation may be perceived, by carefully
examining our mines and minerals, I know not; I can only say that, on
the contrary, whenever those examined objects were clear and distinct,
with the concomitant circumstances, so as to be understood, I have
always found the most certain marks of the solid bodies having concreted
from the fluid state of fusion. This, however, does not exclude the case
of infiltration having been previously employed; and I would intreat
mineralists, who have the opportunity of examining the solid parts of
the earth, to attend particularly to this distinction.
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