NOME vii. VOLCANIC IN-TRITE. 





test of reason. I merely give my observations, 

 with the reflections they suggest. Geologists 

 are trot yet of one opinion respecting the strati- 

 fication of granite, although it appears to be 

 clearly demonstrated by the observations of Saus- 

 sure. Admitting, however, the truth of the pro- 

 blem, solid reasons may thence be deduced for 

 believing that the circumstance is more indebted 

 for its existence to a state of aqueous than to 

 one of igneous fluidity : here, however, is a cur- 

 rent of hard and compact lava, which most 

 assuredly has undergone a state of igneous 

 fluidity, and to which refrigeration has given an 

 horizontal stratification. It may be objected* 

 that granite forms chains of immense mountains, 

 and that this is but a small current, scarcely a 

 few yards thick; but the phenomenon is the >j^ 

 same: the difference between great and little, 

 however material with us, being nothing with 

 nature. 



'"The same tendency to a basaltic conforma- 

 tion, whicb is noticed in the lava of La Scala, is 

 observed again in the neighbouring current of 

 Calastro. This, after passing through a defile ofCaiastro. 

 below Vallelonga, spreads to a broad front on 

 reaching the sea. What most deserves observa- 

 tion in the lava here, are the small crystallisations 

 it presents, which seem to be the olivine of Wer- 



