8 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNo1791. 



this was a larger quantity than was ever before brought at once to market. It has 

 been generally sold at about 4 or 5 pounds at a time. — q. For the use of what 

 country was this ambergris bought? — a. I do not exactly know. It was bought 

 by a broker, who told me, that his principal, who purchased about one half, 

 bought it for exportation to Turkey, Germany, and France. The other half was 

 purchased by the druggists in town. 



III. On the Affimly heiween Basaltes and Granite. By Thos. Beddoes, M. D. 



p. 48. 



All our opinions on the formation of rocks and mountains, except volcanic 

 mountains, must of necessity rest on analogical reasoning, since we have no 

 direct testimony concerning their origin. Hence, whatever portion of the 

 mineral kingdom is but little connected with our experience of the action of fire 

 or water, must be slightly passed over, or set aside for future investigation, while 

 the partizans of the 1 opposite hypotheses, which at present divide the philoso- 

 phical observers of fossils, fix their whole attention, and lay all the stress of their 

 arguments, on such particulars as they are able to connect by some analogy with 

 the chemical operations in which either fire or water are principally concerned. 

 For this reason, basaltes has been much more the subject of disputation than 

 granite; the former species of rock offering appearances that coincide in some 

 degree with both kinds of chemical processes, while the latter seems to stand 

 aloof from the experiments that have given birth to our sciences. We do indeed 

 find opinions on the production of granite by one or other of the causes above 

 mentioned; but they are generally loose conjectures, thrown out at random, 

 rather than philosophical propositions, laid down in precise terms, and supported 

 by proper evidence. In consequence of information obtained from various 

 sources. Dr. B. has been led to consider this question in a light somewhat new. 



Notwithstanding the recent objections of Mr. Werner, Dr. B. assumes the 

 origin of basaltes from subterraneous fusion as thoroughly established by various 

 authors, whom he enumerates. Several observations of his own will, he flatters 

 himself, corroborate the evidence, though already sufficiently strong to remove 

 all reasonable doubt, and add a considerable tract to those where the effects of 

 ancient fire have been traced in our times. It may be proper to premise, that 

 under the term basaltes he comprehends that vast natural family of rocks which 

 is frequently cracked into regular colonnades, and may be followed in an un- 

 broken series from this perfect form, through endless modifications, to the most 

 shapeless mass of trap or whinstone. Though frequently of an iron-grey colour 

 and uniform texture, this species of stone varies greatly in both these characters, 

 even in the same rock. In particular, it passes, by the most insensible grada- 

 tions, both to the porphyries with which it coincides in appearance, in compo- 



