20 



substances whether simple or compound that existed upon 

 the surface of the granite. 



The first permanent deposit of liquid matter of the 

 primeval ocean was filled with the various elements and 

 compounds that w^ere to build up and develop in new forms 

 the succeeding solid matter of the earth's crust. The very 

 material of the gneiss swelled the bulk of liquid matter. 

 The gradual cooling of the waters would of itself decrease 

 its capacity and produce precipitation; thus this first 

 merely mechanical deposit altered both the quantity and 

 the quality of the water. 



The gneiss was a surface deposit — all the matter above it 

 was liquid and gaseous. The waters had free motion 

 everywhere to work upon and over the granite in forming 

 it — must not then the whole fifteen or sixteen miles of 

 superincumbent solid matter have come from that ele- 

 ment? Wherever the granitic formation was covered by 

 the gneiss, it was at once hid away to be used no more in 

 the operations of nature, unless by its elevation and subse- 

 quent exposure upon the surface of the earth it should 

 again become subject to the action of atmospheric forces. 

 Eut even when now thus exposed, atmospheric and aque- 

 ous agencies are almost powerless in its disintegration in 

 comparison with the hot and saline waters and aqueous 

 vapors of the earlier ages of the world. To be of any 

 use in the operations of nature, in the transformation and 

 development of terrestrial matter, it must be reconverted 

 into mobile forms, and all the solid crystalline granite now 

 in the earth's crust is the exact amount that has never 

 been made use of in any further natural processes. 



The same is true of the gneiss, only its surface was ex- 

 posed to the action of the water after its first deposition. 

 What remains is the "measure and monument" of that 

 part of this deposit that has been entirely withdrawn from 

 the activities of nature. 



"Assuming that the granite rocks constitute the true 



