160 Dr. Berger o;^ the physical Structure 



a fact nearly similar, observed In the coal strata near Hainchen. He 

 also saw a vein at Joachimstal, entirely filled with pebbles.* Now, 

 how is it possible that these stones could find their way into the in- 

 terior of the veins, if these had not been originally open at the top ? 



Of the comparative Age of Beds and Veins. 



Though according to the theory of Werner, the spaces of veins 

 were immediately filled up by precipitations from the same solutions 

 which, by previous precipitations, had formed the mountains, it does 

 not, I think, follow as a necessary consequence that beds and veins 

 are exactly of the same age. The difference which I conceive exists 

 between them is in the mode of their formation. 



Beds of ore being now covered by strata of rocks, in a manner 

 conformable with those on which they have been deposited, it follows, 

 that the elements of both were all held in solution at the same time, 

 but that by a play of affinities, which tended to unite together similar 

 particles, sometimes precipitates of the one, and sometimes of the 

 other, took place, by causes which are yet unknown to us ; but since 

 they are deposited alternately we may safely say that they are coeval. 

 Veins on the contrary, having been originally fissures, which could 

 not be formed until after the retreat of the waters, when the mass of 

 the mountain was in a soft or semi-indurated state, we may conclude, 

 that at that time, the solutions from which the veins were filled up, 

 were no longer mixed with those from which the mountains were 

 formed, and consequently, that a vein is of posterior formation to a 

 bed.t 



* Nouvcllc Thcorie dc la formatiou desfilons, p. 74 and 81. 



+ It is said, that in the Bannat of Temeswar, the same formatiou is found in beds, 

 which occurs in veins in Voightland, in Bayreuth, in the Hartz near Lautcrbach, and in 



