6 
GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE. 
MTiat is here said of the Mediterranean, will apply no less to other seas, and even 
to the great oceans. And wherever a basin occurs, in which a bottom of great 
depth is surrounded by a ridge comparatively shallow, we may expect to find the 
lower portion, at least, of the water in a state approaching to brine. 
Without any such theoretical explanation of the manner in which a supply of salt 
is supposed to be formed, it may perhaps be considered sufficient for my purpose, to 
recal to the recollection of the Society, that there are in almost in every part of the 
world vast districts of rock-salt, and in some countries extensive salt lakes and salt 
rivers ; and in our country we have many instances of brine springs, besides rock- 
salt in abundance. . 
Here then, it seems tome, wc are plentifully furnished with the means of account- 
ing in the manner experimentally shewn, for the agglutinations of such gravel as 
that of Aikengaw, and for the strata of the Salt-Heugh, which, by an easy analogy, 
mav be transferred to sandstone in general, aud, perhaps, to stratified rocks of every 
description. . .... 
A member of this Society, however, well known by lus scientific acuteness, alleged, 
first in bis public lectures, and afterwards, upon my requesting an explanation of his 
objection, again repeated, that I was not justified in such theoretical conclusions, 
respecting the influence of heat at the bottom of the sea, since the neighbourhood of 
the cool water would necessarily counteract t hat influence. 
In answer to this difficulty, I must beg leave to remark, that, in all my experi- 
ments above alluded to, the sand (viewed by means of the gun-barrel) was seen to 
become red-hot during the process of consolidation, while the superincumbent 
brine remained boiling above : and it was even found easy, by supplying cool brine 
in sufficient quantity, to maintain the temperature of the fluid permanently such, 
that the hand could be plunged into it at top, without injury, the sandstone below 
remaining all the while at a full red-heat. But whenever I repeated this experi- 
ment, with every circumstance the same, both as to duration and temperature, as 
in the example above detailed, but in which, instead of brine, fresh water was used, 
the result was very different. The lower part of the gun-barrel, immersed in the 
sand, and in which gold had melted in the brine experiment just mentioned, now 
remained permanently black and cold ; and the whole of the sand in the pot when 
removed from the furnace, fell out loose by its own weight ; not the least trace of 
consolidation having taken place. 
We may tints, 1 trust, presume to hat e added one more new and important 
modifying circumstance of heat, to those already advanced in support of the Hut- 
tonian doctrines; tor, since it has been experimentally shewn, that heat, under 
the modifications produced by the presence of salt, as above described, is fully ade- 
quate to the consolidation of loose materials, exposed to its action, it mav fairly lie 
presumed, that salt has performed a part, and a very important part, in the conso- 
lidation of the strata ol the globe. 
I should be doing injustice to the subject, were I not to state, that, besides the 
view s developed m the foregoing paper, and supported by actual experiment many 
otheis have occurred to me, respecting the agency of salt under various modifies^ 
the 
turns and all bearing more or less directly upot/ the HuUonLn TWrTof 
the teSt 1 ex l R ‘ r nnent. and' 
success. Others are still in the' shape of mere tmujectot^and^^* °f “ lumate 
So . Kie ‘y detail. A simple alius ion' to 
, , , „ . iese views may probably be received or tw0 
and I shall be very happy if gentlemen possessed of adequate le£.£ m ? u 1 1 F? m ! e * 
duced to follow up, by actual experiment, what I have thrown ,D ' 
of speculation. n out as mere matter 
I conceive that salt, in the state of fumes, and urged by a r, , i 
- . possibly 
penetrated a great 'variety of rocks, actingTsTrt'uxm, some WB - V 
fc. ; agglutinating others, as in the case of sandstone, pudding c*' 1 ’ gra “ te ’ 
mg others, as in the case of contorted strata of grevwarke * s wlten- 
conceive that these fumes may have had the 
greywacke. In 
— many cases, too, I 
a sublimed wi ' h 
various other materials, such as metals a suoumea slate , c- , “ , 
wav be introduced into rents, veins, and cavities, or mav e™^ would in tllis 
the solid mass of the rocks, which I imagine these fumes may haveY'? '“ nt * red * 
I have already tried some exueriments in ! U , lv<i had Power to pe- 
netrate. 
■ „ '■** , “ l CrtU uiea some experiments in imrsn it- *.1 r 1 
mstance, has been mixed with oxide of iron, reduced to fit powd^ndS £ 
