254 Naumann on Primitive Formations, 



pounds, which is lifted in six hours. This is equivalent to lifting- 

 a weight of 412,335,000 foot-pounds in one hour 5 and since one 

 horse-power is considered equivalent to raising 1,800,000 foot- 

 pounds per hour, we have locked up in every 100 yards square of 

 sea surface, a power equal to a 236 horse-power steam-engine,, 

 acting, be it remembered, day and night to the end of time, re- 

 quiring no supervision, and costing nothing, after the first outlay, 

 but the wear and tear of machinery. 



By means of appropriate machinery connected with this tidal 

 movement, any kind of work could be readily performed. Water 

 could be hoisted, or air compressed to any desired extent, so as 

 to accumulate power for future use, or for transport to distant 

 stations. Light of surpassing splendor could be generated by 

 means of magneto-electric machines : and with a very little exer- 

 cise of ingenuity, every lighthouse on the coast could be illumin- 

 ated with sun-like brilliancy, and with absolutely no expenditure 

 of fuel ; the very same mechanical power of the ocean, which in; 

 its brute force would dash the helpless vessel to pieces against 

 the rocks, being bound and coerced like the genii in Eastern 

 tales, and transformed by man's intellect into a luminous beacon 

 to warn the mariner against the approach of danger. 



ARTICLE XXIV. — On the various theoretical views regarding 

 the origin of the Primitive Formations. Translated from the 

 German of Carl Freidrich Naumann, {Lehrbuch der Geog- 

 nosie II. 160), by Thomas Macfarlane. 

 The parallel structure, and the stratification of gneiss, mica- 

 schist, etc., have, from the earliest dates of geological history, 

 given rise to the opinion that water must, in some way or other, 

 have had a part in the formation of these rocks. Werner and 

 other geologists believed it to be even possible that they had 

 been deposited from the waters of the ancient ocean, as crystal- 

 line sediments. But seeing that the mineralogical composition of 

 the gneiss does not appear to be compatible with this view, geolo- 

 gists sought to explain the sedimentary origin of these rocks in a 

 somewhat different manner. Thus, Von Beroldingen declared 

 gneiss to be but a regenerated granite, that is to say, a rock result- 

 ing from granitic sand, washed together, in which the mica lami- 

 nae came to be deposited parallel with each other, among the 

 grains of feldspar and quartz. The same view was later enunciated 

 by Bou^ (Essai g^ologique sur I'Ecosse, p. 445), but afterwards 



