146 ON THE CHARACTERS AND DISPOSITION 



general surface, or for the partial way in which it is 

 found distributed on the earth's superficies. The 

 consequence of the unequal elevation of the strata, 

 was to produce those interior inequalities that have 

 been filled by the yielding mass which was the imme- 

 diate cause of that fracture, and the concomitant of 

 the force exerted. The production of the veins is 

 another obvious consequence of the fractures or dis- 

 continuities formed by the displacements of the 

 strata. It must be remembered here, however, that 

 the actual appearance of granite at the surface of the 

 earth is, in most cases, the consequence of another 

 train of effects, consisting in the waste of those parts 

 of the strata by which it was once covered ; a waste, 

 of which the whole globe produces the most unques- 

 tionable evidence. From the progressive state of 

 that waste, it follows, that the apparent quantity of 

 granite must be constantly increasing, although itself 

 is subject to decay ; and if it really be the basis of all 

 the stratified rocks, it is possible to conceive that the 

 earth might, at some future day, contain granite, only, 

 in its more elevated portions ; while this could not 

 happen, of course, at low elevations or near the 

 level of the sea, because, here, the ordinary causes 

 of waste cease to act. 



Since now the other division of the un stratified 

 rocks is found above the strata rather than below, it 

 is necessary to inquire respecting its source or origin. 

 That it was produced in a fluid state, and consolidated 

 from that condition, rests on precisely the same ground 

 as the case of granite. The nature of the different 

 substances is similar, often identical, the effects are 

 the same on the including strata, and the disposition 

 of the veins is strictly analogous, varying only ac- 

 cording to circumstances which have already been 



