and Spouting Fountains. 2^S 



ON THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SURFACE-WATER CAN EXIST AND 

 CIRCULATE IN THE VARIOUS FORMATIONS OF WHICH THE CRUST 

 OF THE GLOBE IS COMPOSED. 



The solid crust of the globe has not been formed by one sin- 

 gle process. The formation of the different rocks and various 

 series of rocks of which it is composed, belong to different 

 epochs, which geologists have characterized by certain definite 

 features. It is at the same time well to remember, that many 

 of those productions which science usually regards as cotem- 

 poraneous, differ much from each other in their nature, and ex- 

 ternal appearance. 



The object I have now in view will require me to distinguish 

 only three principal kinds of overlying formations, each of which, 

 however, comprehends many varieties. They are the following, 

 ascending, from below upwards, from the more ancient to the 

 more modern, the primitive and transition rocJiS, the secondary, 

 and the tertiary for motions. 



Primitive Rocks. 



Primitive rocks are but little and rarely stratified. It is still, 

 we must allow, a question with very able naturalists, if granite 

 ever exhibits real stratification. The clifts and fissures of gra- 

 nitic rocks — the crevices which separate each mass from the con- 

 tiguous one — are in general but small, have little depth, and but 

 seldom communicate with each other. Consequently, in primi- 

 tive rocks, the waters of infiltration must have very limited 

 subterranean passages ; each little streamlet must accomplish its 

 course, so to speak, by itself, and without receiving additions 

 from the neighbouring streams ; and, accordingly, observation 

 shews that, in formations of this kind, springs are very numerous 

 and very small, and that they appear very near the places where 

 the infiltration of the rain-water has been effected. 

 Secondary Formations. 

 It is needless to furnish in this place any thing like a detailed 

 list of the different species of rocks which compose the secondary 

 strata. We shall rest satisfied with stating that these forma- 

 tions have usually the appearance of innnense basins, wliicli re- 

 semblance seems to have been acquired by their apparently hav- 



