318 Doubts Relative to the Epochal and 



between goods and invoice : bacon, i ton ; butter, 12 tons ; 

 lard, 5 tons ; and cheese 30 tons. If for these four edibles 

 the four alkaloids are substituted, and they are placed in the 

 following order, an approximation to the truth may be 

 obtained: In granite: potash 20, magnesia 15, soda 5, 

 and lime 3 parts ; and in the sedimentary rocks : potash i, 

 magnesia 15, soda or sodium 5, and lime 30 parts. 



It will be asked if granite does not supply the lime, from 

 whence does it come, as there is no other source for it, upon 

 the detrital theory ? Answer Reject the theory, hold to the 

 lime, and all the known facts of stratified rock composition ; 

 and, as it is a very HEAVY subject, weigh it well, and pro- 

 nounce no opinion until materials and theory counterpoise each 

 other. The writer himself will not venture to supply any 

 theory. 



But providing no theory can be found to answer, by reason 

 of the difficulty in accounting for the occurrence of one chief 

 element, ought the entire theory of detritus from granite on 

 that account to be rejected, since it is the most plausible 

 source of the constitution of the strata of the earth's crust ? 

 Answer If lime were the only element unaccounted for, still 

 it is so largely distributed, and so important, that any source 

 which fails to supply that one ought to be fatal to the 

 theory. 



But there is another element equally widely distributed, 

 and of very considerable amount, and of which granite is 

 almost, if not entirely, devoid, viz., carbon an element 

 which from its mode of combination does not occur to the 

 recollection so readily as lime, and which, in the form of 

 hydro-carbons and carbonates, is almost of universal distri- 

 bution, and of which the atmosphere, when charged to satura- 

 tion, could retain but a mere fraction of the amount known 

 to exist. For, though a carboniferous era for the coal 

 measure has been heralded by a very questionable densely- 



