\ 



248 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



/ 



f the minerals now confidered 



There is but 



one place from whence thefe minerals may 

 come ; this is the bowels of the earth ; the placi 

 of power and expanfion ; the place from whenc( 

 has proceeded that intenfe heat, by which looff 



materials h 



been 



folidated 



well as that enormous force, by which the 

 gular llrata have been broken and difplaced = 



fleet 



The above is a very juft and 



b 



f 



1 



ftead 



f interrogating the 



fult the Neptunift 



a very different reply. As this philofopher never 

 erabarraffes himfe'lf about preferving a uniformity 

 inthecourfe of nature, he will tell us, that though 

 it may be true, that neither the air, the upper part 

 of the earth's furflice, nor even the fea, contain at 

 prefent any thing like the materials of the veins 



>" 



th 



h 



thefe ma 



gled together in the chaotic mafs, and 



ftituted one vaft fluid, encorapaffing the 



th 



m which fluid 



that the m 



precipitated and depofited in the clefts and fif- 

 fures of the ft rata. 



222. It is alleged, in proof of this hypothefis, 

 that mineral veins are found to be lefs rich as 

 they go farther down, whereas they ought to be 

 richer, if they were filled by the projection of 



y 



melted 



* Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 130. 



y 



