MODE VI. SERPENTINE. 335 



it passes into greenish black; from greenish 

 black it passes into blackish green; sometimes 

 it occurs yellow, and rarely yellowish brown: 

 further, red, of which it presents the following 

 varieties ; blood red, brownish red, peach-blos- 

 som red, and scarlet red. 



<e The peach-blossom, and scarlet red colour, 

 are the rarest. 



" The colour is seldom uniform ; there are 

 generally several colours together, and these are 

 arranged in striped, dotted, and clouded deline- 

 ations." 



It is a primitive rock, and appears to be stra- Primitive, 

 tified, but, like granite, very indistinctly. It is 

 an important geological observation, that some 

 rocks, particularly the calcareous, assume the 

 appearance of being stratified, by incipient de- 

 composition, as Ramond remarked in the Py- 

 renees. But may not even this circumstance 

 be considered as a proof of original stratification, 

 merely rendered more apparent by the decay of 

 the softer parts; as, if there were no original 

 joints for the humidity to enter, the decompo- 

 sition would only occasion irregular crevices? 



Werner and his disciples have observed near 

 connexions between the formations of trap or 

 basaltin and serpentine. When the former con- 

 tains an excess of magnesia, it becomes a re- 



