302 LINNiEUS. 



hestus, and when more intimately dissolved resumes 

 the form of 7nica. Sand, the earth of rain-water, 

 when thrown on the land and dried, forms drift- 

 sand, which finally becomes gravel. Both sub- 

 stances, when under ground, are converted into 

 sandstone, and when mixed with other matters 

 form pebbles, which grow into stories. When re- 

 dissolved and crystallized, it produces quartz. 

 Mould, the earth of vegetables, is hardened into 

 fissile slate, which being impregnated with bitumen 

 becomes coal. It is dissolved into ochre, and re- 

 generated into tophus. Lime, the wife of natron, 

 produces marble, dissolved and saturated with acid 

 is crystallized into gypsum. Both are decomposed 

 by the elements into chalk, which, acted upon by 

 rain-water, becomes ^2>2/; and when dissolved, is 

 crystallized into spar (or calcedony). 



Such are the Mothers of minerals. 



It is unnecessary to follow our author, while he 

 states the principles of his sexual system of mine- 

 rals, through the forms and modifications of crystals, 

 metals, rocks, and petrifactions. His scheme of geo- 

 logy may be described as follows : — The strata of the 

 earth are generally parallel to each other, although 

 not always so, nor always of marine origin. The 

 lowest is of sandstone {cos), the second of slate, the 

 third of marble filled with marine petrifactions, the 

 fourth of slate, the uppermost of the saxose kind, 

 which includes granite, porphyry, trap, conglo- 

 merate, and puddingstone. It is obvious that the 

 ocean has produced the land. It is rendered turbid 

 by nitrous showers, precipitates, and is crystallized 

 into sand, which covers the bottom of the sea. The 

 surface of it is here and there covered over to a great 

 7 



