52 PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS, 



we find a series of primary strata, wholly destitute of or- 

 ganic remains ; and from this circumstance, we infer their 

 deposition to have preceded the commencement of organic 

 life. Those who contend that hfe may have existed during 

 the formation of the primary strata, and the animal remains 

 have been obliterated by the effects of heat, on strata nearest 

 to the granite, do but remove to one point farther back- 

 wards the first term of the finite series of organic beings : 

 and there still remains beyond this point an antecedent period, 

 in which a state of total fusion pervaded the entire materials 

 of the fundamental granite ; and one universal mass of 

 incandescent elements, wholly incompatible with any condi- 

 tion of life, which can be shown to have ever existed, formed, 

 the entire substance of the globe.* 



* III adopting the hypothesis that the primary stratified rocks have been 

 altered and indurated by subjacent iieat, it should be understood, tliat al- 

 t!ioug-li lieat is in tills case referred to as one cause of the consolidation of 

 strata, there are other causes which have operated largely to consolidate 

 the secondary and tertiary strata, which are placed at a distance above 

 rocks of igneous origin. Although many kinds of limestone may have 

 been in certain cases converted to crystalline marble, by the action of heat 

 under high pressure, there is no need for appealing to such agency to 

 explain the consolidation of ordinary strata of carbonate of lime ; beds of 

 secondary and tertiary sandstone have often a calcareous cement, which 

 may have been precipitated from water, like the substance of stalactites 

 and ordinary limestone. Wiien their cement is siliceous, it may also 

 have been supplied by some humid process, analogous to that by which 

 the siliceous matter of chalcedony and of quartz is eltiier suspended or 

 dissolved in nature ; a process, tlie existence of which we cannot deny, 

 althougli it has yet bafRed all the art of chemistry to imitate it. The 

 beds of clay wiiich alternate with limestone, and sand, or sandstone, in 

 secondaiy and tertiary formations, show no indications of the action of 

 heat; having uridcrgonc no greater consolidation tlian may be referred 

 to pressure, or to tlie admixture of certain pi'oportions of carbonate of 

 lime, where the clay beds pass into marl and niarlstone. Beds of soft 

 vuiconsolidated clay, or of loose unconsolidated sand, are very rarely if 

 ever found amongst any of the primary strata, or in the lower regions of 

 the transition formation ; t!ie effects of heat appear to have converted 



