MODE IV. FELSITE. 



175 



to him a new view, and leads him a long step 

 farther in his geological inquiries. We now see 

 that there is no longer any occasion for the theory 

 hitherto prevailing, according to which it was ima- 

 gined necessary to consider all the soda, which in 

 nature occurs either in a free, that is uncombined, 

 or in the carbonated state, as an educt arising from 

 a decomposition of rock salt, or of sea salt, or of 

 that from saline springs, supposed to have been 

 carried on by nature, and to have taken place in 

 an unknown manner. 



" The klingstone employed in the preceding ex- 

 periments was from the Donnersberg, near Mille* 

 schau, the highest of the middle mountains in 

 Bohemia. The whole mass of this majestic cone, 

 which is above two thousand five hundred feet 

 high, consists entirely of this stone. From its 

 summit the picturesque fields of Bohemia, extend- 

 ing for many miles around, present themselves to 

 the eye, collected as it were in a pleasing minia- 

 ture painting ; while at the same time, at a farther 

 distance on the eastern horizon, the Bohemian and 

 Silesian Giant-mountains, and on the west the 

 Franconian Fichtelgebirge (mountainous region), 

 are discovered. 



" If we now reflect, that in this enormous mass 

 of rock, the soda constitutes nearly the twelfth 

 part of the whole, I hope it will not be thought an 



