DOMAIN IX. ANOMALOUS. 



in petralogy. From the Alpine granites to 

 the lowest beds of coal, infinite are the 

 rocks which contain pyrites. Henkel has 

 written a large and learned work on py- 

 rites ; and a complete investigation of them 

 by the gigantic powers of modern che- 

 mistry, might perhaps decide the question 

 so long agitated, whether the rocky shell 

 of this planet have been consolidated and 

 expanded by internal heat, or merely de- 

 posited by water. To conceive however 

 that the matter of this globe is wholly inert, 

 seems to be contrary to all the other laws 

 of nature, which abounds with various and 

 prodigious kinds of motion and animation ; 

 and appears to be positively contradicted 

 by the vast force and extent of earth- 

 quakes, not to mention inferior pheno- 

 mena. 



However this be, pyrites form an im- 

 portant consideration in the knowledge of 

 rocks. Even native sulphur may be said to 

 constitute rocks at Solfaterra, and in Gua- 

 daloupe, and at St. Vincent's, not to men- 



