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apet 



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ti 



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^ of ri, 



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^0 hi; ' 



'it 



anic fi; 

 1. 



id file 



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(il;. 



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iirnilf- 



in, li. 



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the 111:' 

 1 a ici- 



■dljl 

 rom 



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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



243 



if equally powerful, form a neutral fait, (like 

 fea-falt), incapable of acling cither on the me- 

 tallic or the fillceous body. If the acid was 

 moil powerful, the compound fait might a£l on 

 the metal, but not at all upon the quartz ; and if 



r 



the alkali was mofl powerful, the compound 

 might ad on the quartz, but not at all on the 



In no cafe, therefore, could it a61: on 



m 





tal. 



both at the fame tim 



\^m 



Fir 



e 



or heat, if fuffi- 



ciently intenfe, is not fubjed: to this difficulty, 

 as it could exercife its force with equal* effecft 

 on both bodies. 





18. The fimultaneous confolidation of the 

 quartz and the metal is indeed fo highly impro- 

 bable, that the Neptunifls rather fuppofe, that the 

 ramifications in fucli fpecimens as are here allu- 

 ded to, have been produced by the metal diffuling 

 itfelf through rifts already formed in the ftone *. 

 But it may be anfwered, that between the chan- 

 nels in which the metal pervades the quartz, 

 and the ordinary cracks or fiffures in (tones, 



there is no refemblance whatever : That a fyf- 

 tem of hollow tubes, winding through a ftone, 

 (as the tubes in queftion, muft have been, ac- 

 cording to this hypothefis, before they were filled 

 by the metal), is itfelf far more inconceivable 

 than the thing which it is intended to explain ; 



Q.3 



and 





* Geol. Effaysj p. 401. 



f 



