DOMAIN VII. COMPOSITE. 



ginally formed in the ancient ocean that covered 

 the earth ; that it is disposed in beds or layers, 

 though sometimes very thick and difficult to 

 discover, especially as those of the lower moun- 

 tains are apt to split into fragments, either rhom- 

 boidal, or at least with flat sides, which he 

 ascribes chiefly to the mixture of argil in one of 

 hispierres de corne; and as he mentions that it 

 is frequent in these granites, he must mean horn- 

 blende or siderite : adding, that the absence of 

 marine bodies in granite, gneiss, &c. affords no 

 proof that they were not formed under water, 

 the most ancient ocean probably having con- 

 tained no animated matter, as a pure infusion, 

 for example, only displays animalcules at the 

 end of a certain time. 



Scarcely a phenomenon in orology has escaped 

 Saussure, if his work be accurately read, or ra- 

 ther studied, as it well deserves; and what is 

 regarded as a new observation may be here 

 found, namely, the elevation of the veins of 

 granite above the clay-slate, which, in his wide 

 field of observation, he simply accounts for by 

 the subsidence, or shrinking, an accident com- 

 mon to clay; not to mention the greater soft- 

 ness of the substance, which may more easily 

 be worn down by the weather. Nor is it incon- 

 ceivable, on the other hand, that those veins 



