SIR JAMES HALL on the Consolidation of the Strata. 327 



with every circumstance the same, both as to duration and tem- 

 perature, as in the example above detailed, but in which, instead 

 of brine, fresh water was used, the result was very different. The 

 lower part of the gun-barrel, immersed in the sand, and in 

 which gold had melted in the brine experiment just mentioned, 

 now remained permanently black and cold; and the whole of 

 the sand in the pot, when removed from the furnace, fell out 

 loose by its own weight ; not the least trace of consolidation 

 having taken place. 



We may thus, I trust, presume to have added one more new 

 and important modifying circumstance of heat, to those already 

 advanced in support of the Huttonian doctrines ; for, since it has 

 been experimentally shewn, that heat, under the modifications 

 produced by the presence of salt, as above described, is fully ade- 

 quate to the consolidation of loose materials, exposed to its ac- 

 tion, it may fairly be presumed, that salt has performed a part, 

 and a very important part, in the consolidation of the strata of 

 the globe. 



I should be doing injustice to the subject, were I not to state, 

 that, besides the views developed in the foregoing paper, and 

 supported by actual experiment, many others have occurred to 

 me, respecting the agency of salt vinder various modifications, 

 and all bearing more or less directly upon the Huttonian 

 Theory of the Earth. Some of these views have been submitted 

 to the test of experiment, and the results, as far as they have 

 yet been carried, give me great hopes of ultimate success. 

 Others are still in the shape of mere conjecture ; and none of them 

 are yet in a state to lay before the Society in detail. A simple 

 allusion to one or two of the most important of these views may 

 probably be received with indulgence ; and I shall be very happy 

 if gentlemen possessed of adequate leisure, shall be induced to 



VOL. x. P. ii. T t 



