1838] 



On the Lateritic Formation. 



335 



tliese, that of the laterite, which, as Mr. Cole observes, may be con'^i- 

 dered the opprobrium of Indian geology. The agents alluded to, are 

 oxt/dation and decomposition, Linnaeus long since defined the three 

 kingdoms of nature as follows — Mineralia crescimt, VegetahiUa crescunt^ 

 et vivunt, Animalia crescunt, vivuni et seniiunt. This definition claims 

 like many others more credit for brevity than correctness, for although 

 minerals may grow and increase, they have a greater tendency to decom- 

 pose and crumble away. 



The whole creation obeys this law of death or dissolution; withdraw 

 from the animal world the principle of life, and the creature dies ; and 

 allow certain agents to act upon the solid rock, and it becomes soft, de- 

 composes, falls into earth, or farms new compounds. 



The mineral kingdom, from not possessing that vital principle which 

 opposes itself to the destructive elements around, is more susceptible of 

 changes, and more liable to decompose. It has not that plastic life, that 

 adhesive living principle to resist the dissolving agents. These agents 

 are many, as heat, cold, moisture, &c. &c. but a greater than even these, 

 is that wide spreading process of oxydation, which is daily and hourly 

 working changes over the whole mass of earth. Here I may mention 

 another difference between the three kingdoms of nature, in the influence 

 of oxygen upon them ; in the vegetable and animal kingdom it is the prin- 

 ciple of nutrition and life^ in the mineral, it is that of decomposition 

 and destruction ; inhaled by the animal, absorbed by the vegeta- 

 ble, and attracted by the mineral, its effects are most opposite, sup- 

 porting and invigorating the two first, and corroding and destroying the 

 last. It is to this oxydising agency that many changes on the earth's 

 crust are owing, and its constant operation has, in the lapse of ages, 

 altered the face of the earth, and produced a state of things generally 

 referred to other causes, much more energetic, but not so unvarying and 

 progressive. As previously observed, it is impossible to penetrate the 

 mysteries of creation, or catch nature as it were in the act ; but it is easy 

 to watch her in her decay and decomposition, and that which the chemist 

 accomplishes by experiment, nature does for us by decomposition. Nov/ 

 although the mineralogist values only those specimens of rocks which 

 are perfectly free from decomposition, the geologist gains much know- 

 ledge from the study of decomposing rocks. By obtaining them in dif- 

 ferent stages, he sees the passage of one formation into another, and is 

 not guided by cabinet councils, like the mineralogist, but interrogates na- 

 ture and thus becomes an interpreter of her mighty works. It is often 

 only in decomposition, as far as the eye is concerned, that the real nature 

 of a rock is discovered : this is well shown in some of the very small 



