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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



341 



been in fufion, fuppofes it to have been, in that 

 ftate, injecled among the ilrata already confo- 

 ]idated ; to have heaved them up, and to have 



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been formed in the concavity fo produced, as in 

 a mould. Thus Mont Blanc, fuppofing that it 

 is unftratiiied, is underflood to confift of a mafs 

 that was melted by fubterraneous heat under the 

 Itrata, and being impelled upwards by a force, 



that may Hand in fome comparifon with that 

 which projed:ed the planets in their orbits, 

 heaved up the flrata by which it was covered, 

 and in which it remained included on all fides. 



304. The covering of Itrata, thus raifed up, 

 may have been buril afunder at the fumrait, 

 where the curvature and elevation were the 

 greateil ; but the melted mafs underneath may 

 have already acquired folidity, or may have 

 been fuftained by the beds of fchiftus incum- 

 bent on its fides. This fchiftus, forming the 

 exterior cruft, was immediately aded on by the 

 caufes of wafte and decompofition, which have 

 long fince ftripped the granite of a great part 

 of its covering, and are now exercifing their 

 power on the central mafs. That even Mont 

 Blanc itfelf, as well as other unftratified moun- 

 tains, w^as once covered with fchiftus, will ap- 

 pear to have in it nothing incongruous, when 

 we confider the height to which the fchiftus ftill 



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rifes on its fides, or in the adjacent mountains ; 



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