AMERICAN GEOLOGY — DECADE OF 1830-1839. 319 



igneous fusion. If this be true of the proper crystals of granite it may be also true 

 of the imbedded crystals which it contains, and therefore of all other crystals. 

 Those which contain much water of crystallization may present a serious difficulty, 

 but perhaps pressure may have retained the water, and as the parts of the mineral 

 concreted in cooling the molecules of water may have taken their place in the regular 

 solid. Still we can see no reason for excluding water and other dissolving agents, 

 acting with intense energy under vast pressure and at the heat of even high ignition, 

 from playing a very important part in crystallization. (Pp. 433-434.) 



This, it will be observed, is essentially the aqueo-igneous theoiy of 

 eruptive rocks, and could scarcely be improved on to-day. In this 

 connection it is well to remember that Edward Hitchcock, in his 

 Geolog}^ of Massachusetts, 1833 (see p. 309), inferred the igneous origin 

 of granite from its ciystalline structure, " since substances held in 

 solution always crystallize in succession, while in granite we have a 

 solid crystalline mass of three or four distinct substances which evi- 

 dently crystallized contemporaneously." 



The tendenc}^ to generalize on insufficient data is evidently inherent 

 in the human race, and it was to be expected that it should early make 

 its appearance in so promising a Held for speculation as geology. It 

 Eaton's Notions was therefore not surprising that Eaton, after his 

 Rocky d Moun h tlins, many years of study in the eastern United States, 

 ,834- should have ventured opinions concerning the little- 



known West. Basing his statements on observations made by a Mr. 

 John Ball, at one time a student of his, he wrote in 1834: 



The geology of the country west of the Rocky Mountains is remarkably simple and 

 uniform. The general underlying rock is the red sandstone, which some English 

 geologists call Saliferotis rock, and which characterizes the red sandstone group of 

 De La Beche. It is the same which contains the salt springs of the western part of 

 the State of New York, and which underlies the basaltic rocks (greenstone trap) of 

 Connecticut and Hudson rivers. * * * Wherefore the geology of the east and 

 west sides of the Rocky Mountains is remarkably alike. Mr. Ball says the Rocky 

 Mountains rises up from the midst, as it were, of a horizontal sea of red sandstone, 

 as if some tremendous force had driven it upward, like an island forced up from the 

 depths of the ocean. * * * Mr. Ball considers almost the whole country as vol- 

 canic * * * near the west side of the Rocky Mountains. * * * Mr. Ball 

 found first graywacke and sparry lime rock. But he soon entered upon the red 

 sandstone region, which continues as the basis rock to the Pacific. * * * The 

 country is often very mountainous along the route to the Pacific, but the mountains 

 are red sandstone, grey pudding stone, or basalt. Such is the simplicity and uni- 

 formity of the geology of the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains that it can all 

 be told in one sentence of six lines. 



It may be well to add that Mr. Ball himself took exception to some 

 of the conclusions drawn by Professor Eaton, and later published in 

 the same journal his own views on the subject. These may, however, 

 be passed over here without comment. 



