14* Volcano.?. 



liquefied matter gravitating towards it. Where the elastic fluid 

 generated between the crystals of the rock, and which occasions 

 its liquefaction, was produced in sufficient abundance, that is, in 

 the outer and highly disintegrated zones, the superior specific 

 gravity of the crystals forced it to rise upwards, and thus a great 

 quantity of aqueous vapor was urged towards the surface of the 

 globe : as this vapor rose into outer space, its continued rarefac- 

 tion must have lowered its temperature till a part was condensed 

 into water, which fell back in torrents upon the surface of the 

 earth, giving rise to the primeval ocean, which, however, in- 

 tensely heated below, would be retained in a fluid state by the 

 loss of temperature sustained from the vaporization of its sur- 

 face, and the pressure of the highly condensed atmosphere upon 

 it. This ocean wiil have contained, both in solution and sus- 

 pension, the earthy substances which proceeded from the vola- 

 tilization of the superficial granite, or which were carried up- 

 wards by the ascending vapor from the disintegrated mass be- 

 low. The dissolved matters were silex, carbonates and sul- 

 phates of lime and magnesia, muriates of soda, and other miner- 

 al substances which water at an intense temperature, and under 

 such peculiar circumstances, may be supposed capable of hold- 

 ing in solution. The suspended substances were all the lighter 

 and finer particles of the upper beds where the ebullition had 

 been extreme, but, above all, their mica, which, from the tenui- 

 ty of its plate-shaped crystals, will have been most readily car- 

 ried up by the ascending fluid, and will have remained longest 

 in suspension. When the excess of vapor had effected its escape 

 from the disentegrated granite, the crystals of felspar, and those 

 of quartz, which had remained undissolved by the heated wa- 

 ter, subsided first, together with the smallest and least buoyant 

 crystals of mica ; and these crystals would naturally arrange 

 themselves so as to have their longest dimensions parallel to the 

 surface on which they were deposited. This mass, when subse- 

 quently consolidated by pressure, formed the gneiss formation, 

 which graduates downwards into granite. Upon this, the larger 

 plates of mica and quartz grains would continue to be deposited, 

 white, at the same time, a large quantity of the silex, held in 

 solution by the ocean, was precipitated as the water cooled. 

 Thus was produced, by degrees, the mica-schist formation, grad- 

 uating downwards into gneiss. On some spots, and perhaps at a 

 later epoch, instead of silex, carbonate of lime was precipitated, 

 together with more or less of micaceous sediment, producing the 

 saccharoidal lime-stones. Upon this mica-schist, and graduating 

 into it, were deposited in (urn, as the waters of the ocean cool- 

 ed, and its local disturbances ceased, or recommenced other stra- 

 tified rocks, composed sometimes of a mixture, sometimes of an 



