An Inquiry into Terrestrial Phcenomena, &c. 1 9 



From the general tenour of these various facts, it will not 

 be, I trust, unreasonable to assume, that sulphur, in its 

 common state» is a compound of small quantities of oxygen 

 and hydrogen with a large quantity of a basis that produces 

 the acids of sulphur in combustion, and which, on account 

 of its strong attractions for other bodies, it will probably be 

 very difficult to obtain in its pure form. 



In metallic combinations even, it still probably retains its 

 oxygen and part of its hydrogen. Metallic sulphurets can 

 only be partially decomposed by heat, and the small quantity 

 of sulphur evolved from them in this case when perfectly 

 dry and out of the contact of air, as I found in an experi- 

 ment on the sulphurets of copper and iron, exists in its com- 

 mon state, and acts upon potassium, and is affected by elec- 

 tricity in the same manner as native sulphur. 



[To be continued.] 



III. An Inquiry into the Terrestrial PhcBUomena produced 

 Iry the Action of the Ocean. By John Carr, Esq., of' 

 Manchester. — No. I. 



To Mr. TiLLOcH, — Sir, 

 JLJ-AVIno in my last paper offered explanations of the nu- 

 merous excavations which streams of fresh waler have ef- 

 fected on the surface of our globe, I am now to undertake, 

 in furtherance of my former engagement, an inquiry into 

 the terrestrial phasnomena which the waters of the ocean 

 have left for our contemplation. 



Of the whole surface of the earth the proportion of land 

 is supposed to be about a third only ; and froiii the gravitating 

 fluidity of water, which constantly disposes it to fall in the 

 lowest descendmg direction, until it reaches a hollow where 

 it is equally supported on all sides, it might seem rea- 

 •onable to conclude that the present elevations of land arc 

 barrier heights which the ocean never can have ascended, 

 and that its present limits are those by which it has ever beea 

 circumscribed. But this, like every other conclusion on na- 

 tural (.ffects without obs rvation for it> basis, is illusory and 

 B 2 eironeous; 



