50 PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. 
of equilibrium ; in M^hich it has become the 
convenient and delightful habitation of man, and 
of the multitudes of terrestrial creatures that are 
his fellow tenants of its actual surface.* 
Chapter VI. 
Pi^imary Stratified Rocks, 
In the summary we have given of the leading 
phenomena of unstratified and volcanic rocks, we 
have unavoidably been led into theoretical spe- 
culations, and have seen that the most probable 
explanation of these phenomena is found in the 
hypothesis of the original fluidity of the entire 
materials of the earth, caused by the presence of 
intense heat. From this fluid mass of metals, 
and metalloid bases of the earths, and alkalies, 
the first granitic crust appears to have been 
formed, by oxydation of these bases ; and sub- 
sequently broken into fragments, disposed at 
unequal levels above and below the surface of 
the first formed seas. 
Wherever solid matter arose above the water, 
it became exposed to destruction by atmospheric 
* See further details respecting the effects of volcanic forces 
in the description of PI. I. Vol. ii. 
