On the Basalt cs of Saxony, 61 



buisson ; but we must add that C. Faujas visited also the 

 Meissner, and persists in his opinion of the volcanity of its 

 basal tes. 



It must, however, be confessed, that the longer this dis- 

 cussion is continued, the less the proofs of the Volcanists 

 seem to prevail over those of their adversaries ; at least in 

 what concerns the basaltes of Saxony. Several distinguished 

 mineralogists have successively appeared in the field of the 

 Neptunians : they reckon Klaproth, Kirwan, and many 

 others among their conquests ; and it is at this moment, 

 when the balance inclines in their favour, that C. Dau- 

 buisson, a distinguished pupil of M. Werner, and educated 

 in the sentiments of his school, presents the motives of an 

 opinion become very general in Germany and England, and 

 supported by the result of his own observations. 



The memoir of C. Daubuisson is divided into five very 

 long articles or chapters, accompanied by a great number 

 of notes, and considerably enlarged by observations on 

 mount Meissner, which he considers as the most interest- 

 ing of the basaltic mountains he ever saw. 



The author employs the first chapter to determine with 

 precision what he understands by the word hasaltcs, and by 

 the expression volcanic productions. 



He describes then the basaltes, and justly remarks that 

 this stone highly characterized, and always similar to itself, 

 whatever may be the region from which it comes, is exactly 

 that to which the antients gave this name. Its most striking 

 properties £re, a grayish black colour, a dull and generally 

 fine-grained fracture, a specific gravity about triple that of 

 water, and a manifest action on the magnetic needle. Its 

 masses, for the most part, are divided into prisms, some- 

 times into plates, and sometimes, but more rarely, into 

 balls with concentric strata. Certain varieties present ca- 

 vities more or less numerous, as if produced by bubbles: 

 when subjected to the action of fire, it is converted into 

 glass of a brownish or greenish black colour ; but this glass, 

 when again fused and slowly cooled, reassumes a stony ap- 

 pearance, according to the results of the ingenious experi- 

 ments of Sir James Hall. The author then mentions and 

 compares two analyses made by Klaproth and Kennedy, 

 which correspond very well. Silex, alumine, and iron, 

 predominate among the constituent principles. There are 

 found also a little muriatic acid, soda, and a small portion 

 of water. Klaproth discovered also carbon. 



The author then proceeds to a definition of volcanic pro- 

 ductions. He confesses that he never saw a volcano, but 



he 



