72 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



a fluid mass ; it will not be broken till the ele- 

 ments shall " melt with fervent heat " and our 

 planet reduced to vapors again. Here in the 

 quartz of the world is oxygen sufficient for 

 another atmosphere ; but it is " retired from cir- 

 culation " ; its terrors are masked and bound by 

 silicon, its affinity. Free in the air, where it is 

 intermingled with nitrogen, its activities produce 

 the heat in all animals, the flames of all fires, the 

 rust on all metals. It gives color to the blood 

 that blushes on a maiden's cheek, kindles the 

 first breath of all infancy, and feeds the torch of 

 life to the last throb of vitality. It dissolves 

 into elemental stuff the lifeless bodies of all 

 creatures. It builds and burns with ceaseless 

 activity and awful energy, tearing down moun- 

 tains, roaring in the volcano's throat, and yet 

 tending the vital flame in the tiniest insects and 

 pulsing through microscopic structures where 

 all life would cease without its tireless ministra- 

 tions. 



Such, then, is this beneficent but awful 

 agency meekly slumbering in this flint, or 

 quartz, or silica that makes up the material of 

 our veins. Mingled through it are the other 

 minerals, and gold among them. Nothing can 

 be clearer than this to an observer. This quartz 

 was not melted when the metals were introduced 



