194 Mr. G. P. Serope on the Formation of Craters, 
forth, perhaps at too great length, and in a form which may 
have hindered their obtaining at the time of their publication 
the attention which I believe they merited. 
Certain it is, that they were at that time, now thirty years 
back, neglected or generally discredited. I was told that my 
views were “unchemical.” I was represented as asserting in- 
candescent lava to be “cold or thereabouts*.” The igneous 
and the aqueous origin of certain rocks had been so hotly con- 
tested, and fire and water were usually considered so antagonistic, 
that it seemed at first view an absurdity to imagine that both 
could be combined in a substance seemingly in fusion. Pro- 
bably also the idea was scouted at first through the notion that 
water could not be present within an incandescent mass of lava 
without causing it to explode like a mine; which might of course 
be the result of any considerable body of water being localized 
at one point. But the view I entertained, as has been explained, 
was that the water (and to some extent, perhaps, liquefied gases), 
to which I attributed much of the liquidity of some lavas, was 
disseminated throughout its mass, occupying minute interstices, 
and in intimate, though probably mechanical, combination with 
every molecule,—indeed intercalated between the plates even of 
its solid crystals ; and moreover that the pressure to which the 
rock was subjected while beneath the earth was so enormous, as 
to prevent the vaporization of these minute portions of liquid 
anywhere except at points where the intensity of temperature, 
and consequently of expansive force, overcame the resisting 
forces, and thereby caused either the formation and rise of great 
bubbles of vapour from the lower depths of the subterranean 
lava-mass, or the inflation of minor bubbles and pores through- 
out it, or at least in the superficial portions which by intu- 
mescence were forced into the open air. 
Of late, however, views precisely in accordance with the theory 
printed by me in 1824 have been put forward, and have attained 
extensive adhesion among continental geologists. 
M. Delesse has proved by experiment the solubility of the 
silex of rocks in heated water containing either of the mineral 
alkalies. And, indeed, the manufacture of artificial stone is now 
carried on in this country (Messrs. Ransome’s process) by satu- 
rating loose sand with an artificial hydrate of silica. Huge 
blocks of flint, I understand, are thrown into the hot alkaline 
water, and melt down like so much sugar. 
Again, the experiments of Boutigny have shown that water at 
a white heat remains unvaporized, in the form of spheroidal 
globules, in which form it is obvious how readily it would com- 
municate mobility to the solid particles among which it was 
* Westminster Review. 
