V 



NATURAL HISTORY oi NORWAY. $3 



But whenever this fufiori happened, or whether the Almighty 

 made ufe of it as a means or not, or whatever means he chofe for 

 that end, for I do not concern myfelf with thofe chimeras ; yet 

 nature and experience fpeak fufficiently plain to the point, and 

 ihew firft * the poffibility of it, no kind of ftone whatever, 

 whether pebble, marble, or flint, having ever been of fuch a 

 hardnefs, as not to be capable of being refolved into its moft mi- 

 nute particles, melted, liquified, and again vitrified, efpecially by 

 a good burning- glafs f . In the next place, the reality of the mat- 

 ter appears beyond all doubt, to thofe who have an opportunity 

 of viewing the various figures and colours of the ftones, in the 

 rocks and mountains, fome ignited, others filiated, and many 

 heterogeneous bodies intermixed with them, of which Norway 

 affords multitudes, efpecially on the fea-coaft. If we confider 

 thefe attentively, they manifeflly evidence, that anciently their mat- 

 ter was foft and liquid, but again indurated, and that after this 

 induration, or petrification, they were in many places again de- Wonderful 

 tached and confounded, as if hewed through, broken, fplit, and™^f e 

 raifed from their firft horizontal ftate to an oblique, and in fome 

 parts a perpendicular pofition. If the before- mentioned profound 

 theorifts had taken a view of this country, it would have fumifbed 

 them, far beyond any other, with the ftrongeft experimental 

 proofs and illuftrations of their hypothefes J. I fhall, however, 

 adduce fome remarkable proofs from the heterogeneous folid bo- 

 dies, fo frequently found entombed as it were in other folid bodies, 



him in the circumftances. He turns our globe into a fluid or liquified matter, fhorn 

 from the fun by a comet, which mixed itfelf with it. Could this have been expe&ed 

 from a man who treats all hypothefes with the utmoft contempt ? 



* Incendiis et inundationibus varie transformata funt corpora, et quas nunc'opaca 

 et ficca cernimus, arfiffe initio, mox aquis haufta fuifie, tandemque fecretis elementis 

 in prsefentem vultum emerfiffe, credi par eft. Omnis ex fufione fcoria vitri eft genus, 

 fcorise autem affimilari debuit crufta, quse fufam globi materiam, velut in metalli 



furno obtexit, induruitque port fufionem. Ipfa magna telluris ofla, nudseque 



illas rupes atque immortales Alices, ^ cum tota fere in vitrum abeant, quid nifi con- 

 creta funt ex fufis olim corporibus, &c. Leibnitz Protogaea, § m. p. 3, 4. 



-f Mr. Becher, in his Phyfic. Subterran. fhews, that the hardeft ftones are diflb- 

 luble by water and fire : " Solius ignis et aquas ope, fpeciali experimento, durifiimos 

 quofque lapides in mucorem refolvo, qui deftillatus fubtilem fpiritum exhibet." 

 Again : " Eft etiam certa methodus, folius aquas communis ope, filices et arenam 

 in liquorem vifcofum, eundemque in fal viride convertendi et hoc in oleum rubi- 

 cundum." This laft method, which does not require the ufe of fire, is moft agree- 

 ■ able to Woodward's Syftem, which on that account, among others, appears the 

 moft eligible. 



J That all ftones were anciently a foft or flimy pafte, is admitted as a tried and un» 

 queftionable certainty, in the Me moires de l'Academie Royale, ad A. 17 16, p. 14. 



1 (folida 



