RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 447 



subaqueous deposit, and that it was hollowed, where most ex- 

 posed to the weather, into a number of spherical cells, which 

 gave to those parts of the surface where they lay thickest, 

 somewhat the aspect of a rude Runic fret-work, an appear- 

 ance not uncommon in weathered sandstones. With more 

 time to spare, I could fain have studied the deposit more care- 

 fully, in the hope of detecting a few peculiarities of structure 

 sufficient to distinguish subaerially-formed from subaqueously- 

 deposited beds of stone. Sandstones of subaerial formation 

 are of no very unfrequent occurrence among the recent de- 

 posits. On the coast of Cornwall there are cliffs of consider- 

 able height, that extend for several miles, and have attained 

 a degree of solidity sufficient to serve the commoner purposes 

 of the architect, which at one time existed as accumulations 

 of blown sand. " It is around the promontory of New Kaye," 

 says Dr Paris, in an interesting memoir on the subject, " that 

 the most extensive formation of sandstone takes placa Here 

 it may be seen in different stages of induration, from a state 

 in which it is too friable to be detached from the rock upon 

 which it reposes, to a hardness so considerable, that it requires 

 a violent blow from a sledge-hammer to break it Buildings 

 are here constructed of it ; the church of Cranstock is entirely 

 built with it ; and it is also employed for various articles of 

 domestic and agricultural uses. The geologist who has pre- 

 viously examined the celebrated specimen from Guadaloupe 

 will be struck with the great analogy which it bears to this 

 formation." Now, as vast tracts of the earth's surface, in 

 some parts of the world, as in Northern Africa, millions of 

 square miles together, are at present overlaid by accumula- 

 tions of sand, which have this tendency to consolidate and be- 

 come lasting subaerial formations, destined to occupy a place 

 among the future strata of the globe, it seems impossible but 

 that also in the old geologic periods there must have been, as 

 now, sand-wastes and subaerial formations. And as the re- 



