338 APPENDIX. 



it are mixed, amianthus, scaly talc, magnetic 

 pyrites, and bronzite, (or Schiller Spar), mine- 

 rals which in other countries usually accompany 

 the serpentine in a similar manner, and afford here 

 an additional proof of the regular course of the 

 process, of the formation of the earth. The same 

 is shown by the manner of the stratification. 

 It is well known that in most primitive rocks, the 

 serpentine appears on the outside, that is, there 

 where its last layers, (that uniformly cover the other 

 rocky strata,) border on the floetz mountain; in 

 Saxony for instance, at the circumference of the 

 white stone, the slaty covering of which adjoins 

 rocks of later formation; on the south side of the 

 Swiss Alps, (near Aviglia and Yvrea), where the 

 plain of Piemont begins with compound mountains 

 (Schiitthiigel) ; in Silesia, in the Zobten mountain, 

 which extends far into the level country, and in 

 the same manner on the coast of New California. 

 Not only does a piece of serpentine that divides 

 into flakes, which was thrown upon a sand-bank 

 ])y the current coming from the interior of the bay, 

 prove that it laid between slates, because the ser- 

 pentine could not change its otherwise compact 

 mass, except by this means ; but the clay-slate itself 

 appears in the low rock at the foot of the serpentine 

 wall, and these border on sand-stone, and conglo- 

 merate, the cliffs of which occupy the narrow 

 border of the coasts. The vicinity of the sea is 

 common to the serpentine of New California, with 



