c//fe Pyrites, 91 



vities probably fuggefting their having fhot from 

 that water, like a fait. 



Nor will it feem unnatural to view in the fame 

 light the drufe, or thofe cavities candied over with 

 cryftals and variegated (tones, tho' we could not 

 by art imitate their beauty, fize, and firmnefs, for 

 want of the proper means and opportunities for that 

 purpofe. It may be prefumed that the earth was, 

 at fir ft, a foft, yielding, fpongey body; that, by 

 the gradual feparation and evaporation of the fu- 

 perfluous moifture, it became more and more in- 

 durated and exficcated •, that by this means, the 

 earth, in particular the firm rock, came, by vio- 

 lent fhocks, or earthquakes, to acquire rents and 

 fiffures •, that in thefe, the feveral forts of waters 

 happened to lodge ; that thefe waters contain earth ; 

 this earth turns to tranfparent (tone ; all which pro- 

 positions are eafily deducible from what has been 

 already faid : at lead, no one, rightly confidering 

 the proper crude ground- bed of thefe drufy (tones, 

 can find any better method of accounting for their 

 origin : that they (hould fpring up from it like a 

 muftiroom, the bare infpection is fufficient to dis- 

 prove •, as no cohefion or connection appears be- 

 tween them, only an external application ; and 

 this fo very evidently, that the drufy (lone lies 

 quite loofe and naked in its neft or bed, confe- 

 quently, without manifefting any thing like a root, 

 or with its (tern, which is moftly a quartz or flint 

 adhering to it, eafily feparable from the crude rock 

 underneath, in which no root is obferved to run 

 and lofeitfelf: neither can thefe unfaline cryftals 

 be fuppofed to proceed from pure damps or wea- 

 therings^ for the weatherings that produce any 

 thing in fiffures, move laterally, as may be feen in 

 ores on drufe \ whereas the (tones in queftion (land 

 up and down, like a fet of teeth in a jaw-bone; 



nay, 



