On the Basaltes of Saxony, J 25 



water. The basaltes of Bohemia, Scotland, &c. are strata 

 regularly inserted between strata which have no other ori- 

 gin. Why should we separate operations which are inse- 

 parable, and seek for forced explanations to facts which 

 may be explained in so natural a manner ? If it be admitted 

 that the basaltes of Saxony is the work of water, nothing is 

 more simple than what took place on that occasion. The 

 mass of this chain was formed when the aqueous solution 

 which inundated the country covered the old sediment with 

 a stratum of basaltes. This stratum was at first continued 

 like the banks and masses, which served it as a support $ 

 but being exposed to the erosion of currents and the de- 

 structive action of the weather, it yielded to the first of all 

 the causes of degradation : it is at its expense that the first 

 valleys have been dug out, and what remains on the sum- 

 mits is nothing but the last fragments. 



Such is the first point of view under which the present 

 question may be considered; and it must be allowed that, 

 adopting the common laws of nature, the partisans of the 

 latter opinion will not throw the whole onus proband? on 

 those who propose exceptions. But this first advantage 

 would become illusory, if it should be contradicted by a 

 more minute examination of those masses which hitherto 

 we have considered only under their more general aspect, 

 and if we should discover some circumstances respecting 

 the existence of basaltes easier to be explained by igneous 

 than by aqueous fluidity. 



The second object of consideration which occurs to us in 

 the order we have adopted, is that of the connection of the 

 basaltes. Though this substance seems to have been pro- 

 duced by the special and distinct labour of nature, it is not 

 the only result. If we examine its position, it will be seen 

 placed alternately with coals, and it is well known that it 

 has been seen also alternately with shell stones. These suc- 

 cessions are accidental in the formation. Coals and shell 

 stones belong in part to its epoch without belonging to it- 

 self, and their presence indicates only the intermission of 

 the cause which produced, in turn, these intercalated strata. 

 But there exist two kinds of stones which are almost al- 

 ways associated with basaltes, which have the greatest ana- 

 logy to it, which seem to be products of the same cause, 

 and whose existence is so intimately connected with it, that 

 no decision can be formed in regard to its origin tilKm opi- 

 nion has been formed in regard to the rest : these rocks are 

 \cacke and grunstein. 



What the Germans call wacke is a sort of stone which 



holds 



