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On the Lateritic Formation. 



[Oct. 



VI. — On the Lateritic Formation. — By John Clark, Esq., m. d. Assi.- 

 Suryeon H. M. \2ith Dragoons, 



Geology, although one of the last of the sciences which engaged par- 

 ticularly the attention of the world, was the first in the order of creation. 

 Before the varied tribes of animals were called into existence, and before 

 the tender herb and scented flower burst forth into life and beauty, the 

 earth was lying in darkness, without fonn, and void — a chaos — in the 

 language of the poet, a kneaded clod or a congregation of vapours. What 

 the condition of our globe was, when it first came from the hands of an 

 Almighty Being, neither Scripture nor science disclose — we know 

 this only, that the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters — the 

 everlasting fiat went forth that it should become a fit habitation for the 

 creatures of an after formation, and it was so." This expression "and 

 it was so," looks almost as if written in anticipation of the scepticism 

 which doubts and disbelieves every thing not of earth and like itself 

 earthly, and the philosophy which endeavours to penetrate even the 

 mysteries of space. — These are the dark things of the earth upon which 

 no light cometh, and it is to such subjects that we can truly apply the 

 words His ways are past finding out." 



Our theories in the science of geology have been much in advance of 

 our facts. Instead of looking minutely into nature and interrogating 

 her, and on the inductive principle listening to her still soft voice, M^e 

 have had recourse to theories, and piled one upon another as lofty and 

 indistinct as the mountains themselves Avhose formations v/e have en- 

 deavoured to explain. The two elements of fire and water have been 

 advanced to account for every thing in heaven and earth and below the 

 earth. In the days of W erner the watery theory covered the earth like a 

 flood, but its popularity ebbed and flowed, and, like the waters of the 

 flood, it has since "decreased continually." The subsidence of the 

 aqueus theory has been in some measure owing to the elevation of the 

 igneous or plutonic, the followers of which are now " lights in the firma- 

 ment" of the science. However much Vv^ater and the other element of 

 fire may have contributed to alter the face of nature, they are to be 

 considered more as disturbing than creating agents, and as such have 

 been over-rated : \vhi5dt electricity, electro-magnetism, &c. &c. have been 

 in some degree over-looked, but not altogether, the investigations on 

 these points becoming daily more interesting. 



These remarks are but a prelude to the consideralion of other agents in 

 the alteration or rc -forma lion of rnnuy of the present rocks, and amongst 



