In relation to the cases which I have mentioned as 

 existing in Egypt and other parts of Africa in the 

 island of Telmessus, and in Palestine; it may be 

 said that they are mostly situated in a climate where 

 cold and frost, the most powerful agents in promoting 

 the disintegration of rocks, are wholly inoperative : 

 therefore it is not unreasonable to suppose that mate- 

 rials of such a kind and in such situations may have 

 withstood decomposition for an almost incredible 

 length of time. 



In reply to this, I will observe that although I have 

 restricted my views, as to the general mass of evidence 

 on this subject ; yet I am not disposed to be partial, or 

 to shrink from an examination of cases, or facts, that 

 may occur in any parallel of latitude in the known 

 world. I shall therefore assume a higher latitude, 

 where intense cold alternates with heat of nearly an 

 equal degree of intensity, in order to determine, to what 

 extent they have the power to promote the disintegra- 

 tion of rocks. 



The coast of Norway, for nearly nine hundred 

 miles in length, is defended by an impregnable ram- 

 rocks in similar situations, by the vicissitudes of temperature, or any 

 other natural cause. 



This specimen of granite is composed of a beautiful white fel- 

 spar, quartz, and hornblende ; each of which substances is in a 

 perfect state of integrity, and the whole mass perfectly free from 

 the smallest sign of decomposition, or disintegration; although from 

 its situation, it has probably been gilded by the first tints of each 

 diurnal sun for thousands of years. 



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