HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



37 



i 



$ 



heat may have driven the water, in vapour, from 

 one place to another, and by fiich adion often 



repeated in the fame fpot, may have produced 

 thofe great accumulations of faline matter, that 



+ 



are actually found in the bowels of the earth. 



33 



But 



granting that, either in the way juft 

 pointed out, or in fome other that is unknown, 

 the fait and the water have been feparated, fome 

 further action of heat feems requifite, before a 

 compacSl, and highly indurated body, like rock- 



4 



fait, could be produced. The mere precipita- 



of th 



fait 



aid. as Dr Hutton has ob 



ferved, form only an aflemblage of loofe cryflals 

 at the bottom of the fea, without folidity or co- 

 heiion : and to convert fuch a mafs into a firm 

 and folid rock, v/ould require the application of 



fu 



heat as was able to 



full on 



The confolidation of rock-falt, therefore, how- 

 ever its feparation from the w^ater is accounted 

 for, cannot be explained but on the hypcthefis 



of fubterraneous heat. 





4. Some other phenomena that 



b 



obferved in fait 



fa 



conclufion. 



come in fupport of the 

 fait rock of Chefhire, 



which lies in thi 

 llrata of an argill 

 itfelf mn 

 fame eart 



The 

 ck beds, interpofed b 



or 



lyfc 



and is 



ftru6l 



ed with a conhderable portion of the 

 h, exhibits a very great peculiarity in 

 re. Though it forms a mafs extreme- 



C3 



t 



