276 



DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



Basalt. 



Basaltic 



summits. 



The existence of such chasms being once 

 admitted, it would be easy to account why 

 basalt always appears in volcanic coun- 

 tries ; since, even on the supposition of the 

 French mineralogists, particularly Patrin y 

 these chasms must have supplied volcanic 

 materials, under the primeval waters, or 

 what may be called a state of chaos ; for 

 Patrin supposes that basaltin, compact or 

 columnar, but especially the latter, may 

 be the produce of submarine volcanoes, 

 the matter being suddenly congealed, and 

 brought to a most compact form by the 

 prodigious pressure of the ocean. Dau- 

 buisson, a rigid and determined Neptunist, 

 after visiting Auvergne, was inclined to 

 suppose, as already mentioned, that the 

 basaltin on the summits of the German 

 mountains was a volcanic remain of incon- 

 ceivable antiquity. Reuss also concluded 

 that the basaltic summits of Bohemia were 

 only fragments of a mass, which had once 

 clothed a prodigious territory. In like 

 manner, caps of mountains sometimes pre- 

 sent masses of sandstone, or limestone,, 



