OF CREATION. 19 



is, then the felspar (which is so truly clay, that 

 it makes the best possible material for the use of 

 the potteries,) and the thin shining plates of mica 

 will be carried farther by the water than the lumps 

 of white quartz or flint sand, which with the other two 

 ingredients made up the granite ; and the two former 

 will be deposited in layers, which, by passing a galvanic 

 current through them, would in time become mica- 

 schist. If the mica were absent, or if the clay were 

 deposited without it, owing to any cause, then a simi- 

 lar galvanic current would turn the deposit into some- 

 thing like clay-slate. These three mechanically ar- 

 ranged rocks are found abundantly, surrounding and 

 overlying the granite, as if they had been formed 

 from its broken and rough edges, worn away by the 

 waters of the first ocean, and afterwards deposited 

 at the bottom of the sea. In these rocks we have 

 arrived at a second period, still unmarked by life, 

 although apparently better fitted for sustaining it ; 

 our earth being then not merely a chaotic mass of 

 cracked and burnt rock, but having had superim- 

 posed upon that mass extensive and thick layers of 

 various materials ; these contain in their composition 

 most of the elements, both gaseous and solid, by 

 certain combinations of which living animals and 

 vegetables were enabled to perform their functions, 

 and render inanimate matter available for their dif- 

 ferent wants. 



One of the most remarkable facts with regard to 

 these ancient deposited rocks, is their extraordinary 

 thickness in some localities. It is not difficult to 

 understand, that at a time when the granite and 

 granitic rocks were newly formed, and presented 



