60 On the Basaltes of Saxony, 



the seductions of analogy, and that their general conclu- 

 sions should never show any trace3 of the influence of the 

 places which have been the principal object of their study? 



The basaltes of the north was unanimously considered as 

 of volcanic origin, when Bergman, having made a compa- 

 rative analysis of the basaltes or StafFa and the trapp of 

 Hunneberg, found them to be composed of the same prin- 

 ciples*. From the result of this analysis he was led to doubt 

 that the former was the immediate product of fire. This 

 fact, which, in the opinion of Dolomieu, would prove no- 

 thing, had a strong influence on that of the German mine- 

 ralogists ; and the basaltes of their country was examined 

 under a new point of view. Several of the most illustrious, 

 at the head of whom was the celebrated Werner, were soon 

 persuaded that the basaltes of Saxony, Hesse, and Bohe- 

 mia, were of aqueous origin. Among the motives which 

 determined their opinion, two observations, to which it was 

 impossible to make any objection, have long been remarked : 

 1st, The position of an immense stratum of basaltes on a 

 stratum of coal,, which is not altered; 2dly, The gradual 

 transition of wacke into basaltes, and of the latter into gra- 

 nitella, which is known to the Germans under the name of 

 gi-unstein. The last observation, though in other terms, is 

 exactly that which determined Dolomieu to consider the 

 basaltes of Ethiopia as the production of water. In a word, 

 however decisive these observations may appear, they are 

 far from having terminated the dispute. The learned in 

 Germany were divided into two very animated parties, Vol- 

 canists and Nepluntans ; and these denominations, which 

 may appear a little more pompous than the subject requires, 

 did thev not refer to the importance of the contested ground, 

 prove at least the value which each attached to victory. It 

 is on this' ground, even, on which the Neptunians defied 

 their adversaries, that the Voleanists thought they should 

 be able to retort their proofs against themselves. The 

 wackes, according to them, belong to muddy eruptions ; 

 cellular basaltes is porous lithoid lava ; they point out the 

 craters and cavities from which these currents have issued : 

 and lately, M. Voigt, in examining the stratum of coal 

 which the flowing of the basaltes has covered, analysed it 

 with a great deal of address and ingenuity, to prove the dif- 

 ferent alterations produced in it by heat f. We shall not 

 $peak here of the German mineralogists mentioned by Dau- 



"* Haiiy Traitc de Minera'o^ic, torn. iv. p. 479. 

 f Mineralo^i&chc Rcibi;, Weimar xScu. 



buisson ; 



