On the Basaltes of Saxony. 127 



These three substances are the product of the same forma- 

 tion ; that is to say, of the precipitation or sediment of the 

 same solution, which becoming more and more tranquil 

 has deposited argil, then wacke, and, in the last place, 

 basaltes. " 



The partisans of the volcanic nature of the basaltes of 

 Saxony have considered wacke sometimes as the production 

 of muddy eruptions, and sometimes as the result of the de- 

 composition of basaltes itself. If the observations here re- 

 lated were accurately made, these two suppositions are 

 equally inadmissible. Wacke, which passes by insensible 

 gradations to the state of basaltes, cannot be the result of 

 muddy eruptions, if basaltes itself be not sov~ Nor is this 

 wacke decomposed basaltes, for it contains neither the pe- 

 ridot nor the pyroxene of the latter ; but, on the other hand, 

 contains mica, of which the other is entirely destitute. In 

 this supposition, founded on the gradual passage of basaltes" 

 to wacke, it would be necessary to draw the same induc- 

 tions from the transition of wacke to argil, and from argil 

 to the gravel which supports it. But who will believe that 

 basaltes destitute of mica can be reduced by decomposition 

 to wacke, which is filled with it ; thence into argil, riiore 

 and more sandy ; and then into quartzy gravel, which did 

 not exist in one ofthese substances more than the other? 



But if we ascend from basaltes to the grunstein by which 

 it is covered, what will become of all the explanations bor- 

 rowed from the direct or indirect action of -fire ?' This grun- 

 stein so entire, this granitella composed- of grains of feld- 

 spar and amphibolite, endowed with all their splendour and 

 freshness, which the least exposure to fire tarnishes, which 

 a longer continued heat reduces to glass, and which more 

 careful cooling reduces to a stony state where these' ele- 

 ments are confounded never to be again separated, — can? it 

 be any thing else than the produce of water formed in the 

 same manner as all other analogous rocks ; and particularly 

 as primitive grunstein, the origin of which is doubted by 

 no one ? Shall we suppose that it proceeds from basaltes 

 itself, first thrown up by a volcano, then dissolved by the 

 water, and again deposited ? 



It must therefore be allowed that simplicity is on the side 

 of those who admit here only the effect of water. Accord- 

 ing to these, grunstein, basaltes, and wacke, with the argil 

 and gravel on which they rest, are only sediments belong- 

 ing to the same epoch, and constituting the different parts 

 of the same system of coordinate rocks. The sea then con- 

 tained all the elements, some of them suspended and others 



dissolved, 



