On the BasaUes of Saxony. 131 



large further on this part of the discussion, where the strength 

 of both parties seems to be balanced, and which scarcely 

 contains any thing which has not been repeated a hundred 

 times* But more numerous observations and more careful 

 analyses have furnished new arms to the partisans of the 

 aqueous origin of basaltes. It therefore remains to show 

 how far they make the balance-preponderate in their favour. 



All the kinds of basaltes hitherto analysed contain a cer- 

 tain quantity of water, and from fifteen to twenty per cent, 

 of iron. The case is the same with the wacke and the 

 grunstein : they are in no manner different from basaltes, 

 as appears by the analyses of Dr. Kennedy, which the au- 

 thor quotes. 



If it be believed that the water contained in basaltes be- 

 longs to crystallization, it is evident that it has been in a 

 state of aqueous solution itself, and the question is decided. 

 This is the opinion of C. Daubuisson ; and he refers also to 

 the analysis of lava properly so called, which has all the 

 principles of basaltes, except that water is not found in it. 

 This argument, however convincing it may appear, is 

 not unanswerable. The presence of this small quantity of 

 water may be a consequenoe of the texture of basaltes rather 

 than an indication of its origin. Since" it is proved that 

 fused stones resume, under certain circumstances, the lithoid 

 form, it is probable also that it recovers the property of ad- 

 mitting water, which the most vitreous lava rejects; and 

 this property is even proved in basaltes by the existence of 

 geodes, which the infiltration of the water may have lined 

 with crystals. 



The quantity of iron which basaltes contains is of 

 more importance to the fate of this dispute. All volcanic 

 products properly so called, conduct, by observation and 

 analysis, to known kinds of rock from which they origi- 

 nated. But whence does basaltes proceed, and what stone 

 furnishes from fifteen to twenty per cent, of iron, if wc 

 exclude from the number of rocks basaltes and similar sub- 

 stances ? 



Shall we search for this iron in the depths of the common 

 reservoir, which Dolomieu has supposed ? C. Daubuisson 

 will demand whether there exist other indications of this 

 basaltes, and whether it is possible to admit an hypothesis 

 which is of no other use than to explain this supposition. 



Shall we retort the argument by asking him whence pro- 

 ceeds that lava so well characterized, that lava of Mount 

 ./Etna, which gives by analysis the same principles as ba- 

 saltes, including the fifteen or twenty per cent, of iron ? His 

 3 answer 



