57 



letter to Tozzetti) was much astonished, when he came to 

 visit Auvergne, that, in no one instance, he found prisma- 

 tic basalt near to any of the volcanos: a fact, which seems 

 to have much weakened his belief in the Volcanic Theory. 



No doubt, it must have appeared very extraordinary to 

 him, that no connection or continuity was to be found, be- 

 tween cause and effect; between the volcano, and the lava 

 that had issued from it. Mr. Desmarest, aware of this ob- 

 jection to his theory, anticipates it; and undertakes to ac- 

 count for this extraordinary circumstance. He tells us, that 

 it is only at a great distance fi-om their craters, that the cur- 

 rents of lava are able to disentangle themselves from the 

 scorified matters. 



This important fact, of the constant remoteness of the 

 basalt from the volcanos, thus fully established,- by the tes- 

 timony both of Mr. Desmarest and Mr. Strange, is not very 

 difficult to account for; as the volcanic ejections must, in 

 every instance, have covered the original basalts, in the vi- 

 cinity of the craters, so that the remote ones only are left 

 visible. 



The reader is now able to form his judgment, upon the 

 merits of this celebrated Memoir ; and to determine whether, 

 in his opinion, it ought to have had such weight with the 

 world, as to procure so rapid and general an assent, to Mr. 

 Desmarest's theory. 



As this gentleman undertook to enlighten mankind, on 

 Isasaltic subjects, it was, no doubt, supposed, he had made 

 this fossil his peculiar study; for, 



Publica 



