crystallized Bodies contained in Lava. 53 



Appcnlnes which traverse it from one end to the other, all 

 the ramifications of this chain, and all the eastern shores ot 

 this peninsula, have nothmg volcanic; that the soils o>' this 

 kind arc exclusively upon the western coast, separated tre- 

 quentlv hy aquiformed strata. 



When the explanations upon the method in which a phy- 

 sical terrestrial fact, surrounded hy any veil, can happen, 

 are removed from the sense which is -.ae most natural and 

 tlie most conformable to that which is dictated by a sinnlar 

 pha;nomennn, they may he very difieront from each other, 

 and even completely contradictory. Thus it may have hap- 

 pened that M. Patnn, being equally of op nion that the py- 

 roxene schorls were not pre-existent to tne lava, separates 

 them from the matter of lava, and maises them spring from 

 an aeriform fluid which has passed tu a solid consiuence iij 

 the effect cf at traction. 



From all the facts I have established, it may be received 

 as a final conclusicm* : — 



That every burning volcano, antient or modern, whatevc; 

 be iis height and extent, and wherever it is situated, is a 

 mountain belonging to a class distinct from all others : that 

 it is not formed by any marine stratum ; that all the mass ot 

 substances composing it are productions of fire ; that it has 

 been raised from iis base to its summit by the accumulation 

 of substances successively vomited out by its eruptions, the 

 focus of which is below all the strata we are acquainted . 



with. 



That the crvstallized bodies contained in lava are foreign 

 to them ; that they have been formed previously by the hu- 

 mid way, in strata which the volcanic fires have brought 

 into fusion, leaving untouched those crystals, i)ccause ihc 

 fires were not intense enough to melt them. 



That we should cease to as&ert that volcanoes dis|-)lHy 

 themselves at the sunnuits of mountains, because the whole 

 body of the vcdcanic mountains consiiiules the volcano. 



* M. dc Luc exliil>ilccl to tlir Natural Hl'.tory Society of Ocnrva the vul- 

 canic productions, ai.d tlvone of the mineral *trata, from which lit .J't'w !>'* 

 ebstrv;.tion5. 



D 3 This 



