GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE. 
5 
high and 10 broad, nearly to the brim with brine of full saturation, the lower 
portion being occupied, to the depth of about 15 inches, with loose sand from the 
sea-shore, and thoroughly drenched with the brine. In order to have a view of the 
progress of the experiment, 1 placed an earthen-ware tube, about the size and shape 
of a gun-barrel, dosed at bottom, and open at the top, in a vertical position, hav- 
ing its lower extremity immersed in the sand, and reaching to within, about an 
inch of the bottom of the pot, while the other end rose a foot above the surface of 
the brine, and could be looked into without inconvenience. 
After a great number of experiments, furnishing an unbounded variety of re- 
sults, I at length obtained a confirmation of the main object in view. I observed 
that the bottom of the porcelain barrel, and of course the sand in which it rested, 
became red-hot, whilst the brine, which, during the experiment, had been constantly 
replenished from a separate vessel, continued merely in a state of ebullition : the 
upper portion of the sand, drenched with the liquid, remained permanently quite 
loose, but the lower portion of the sand had formed itself into a solid cake. 
On allowing the whole to cool, after it had been exposed to a high heat for many 
hours, and breaking up the mass, 1 was delighted to find the result, occupying- the 
lower part of the pot, possessed of all the qualities of a perfect sandstone, as may 
be seen in the specimens now presented to the Society. Whenever the heat was 
not maintained so long, the sandstone which resulted was less perfect in its struc- 
ture, tasted strongly of salt, and sometimes crumbled to sand when placed in water. 
Many of these early experiments were accomplished with tolerable success. But 
still the result was somewhat precarious, and could not be announced with the con- 
fidence that 1 felt in presenting my former experiments to this Society. 
The cause of this uncertainty I traced to the chemical operation of the salt, acting 
as a ilux upon the porcelain vessels employed. This very action, I was well aware, 
w as the main agent and cause of our success, when kept within proper bounds ; 
but, on being allowed to pass those limits, and to act on ti e containing vessel as 
well as on the experiment, it destroyed the vessel, and converted the whole into a 
contused mass of slag. 
Alter numberless unsuccessful attempts, and after returning again and again to 
the charge, with an interval sometimes of years, I at last met with a quality in 
some of the materials to me altogether unlooked for, by means of which mav be 
obtained successful results, with scarcely any risk of failure. 
I found that the action -of the salt upon the substances of the crucibles of clay, 
did not exert itself in the same maimer upon iron ; but that a large vessel of cast- 
iron, Id inches deep by 10 wide, and a common gun-barrel welded up at the breech, 
and open at the top, enabled me to work with the heat of melting gold, without 
injuring the vessels, and at any time to produce a perfect freestone; thus satisfy- 
ing- our theoretical expectations. 
Similar results, iu all respects, were produced by exposing pure pounded quartz 
to the action ot the salt fumes, — aud also when gravel, or any other mass of loose 
materials, was used instead of sand. 
Having now shewn, in a satisfactory manner, that salt, whether in a dry state 
mixed along with loose materials, or driven in fumes through them, or applied in 
the state of brine, and exposed to heat, is a sufficient agent to produce a consolida 
tiou, such as we see in natural sandstones aud other stratified rocks, it remains to 
he investigated, whether an adequate supply of this dux may he reckoned upon in 
nature. r- »■ 
It is well known that great diversity exists in the degree of saturation of the sea 
by salt, at different places : and Burro* has been at much pains in collecting ex. 
aniples ot this diversity in liis geological volumes, introductory to his Natural His- 
tory. It is known that, in many of the communications between sea aud sea a 
constant current sets one way, indicating that the evaporation from the sea, to 
which this stream flows, surpasses in quantity its supply of fresh-water from the 
Tivers, rains, and springs. This is remarkably the case with the Mediterranean into 
which a perpetual stream sets from the ocean, at the Grit of Gibraltar. We’have 
reason, then, to conclude, both that the surface of the Mediterranean is lower than 
that of the ocean, and likewise that the quantity of salt in the farmer is Dernetnalh- 
°11 the increase ; so that the specific gravity of the waters, and the intensity of t), 
saturation, must be perpetually advancing to a state of brine. I am well aw ..L 
that an attempt has been made to render such a conclusion unnecessary, bv tlm ’ 
position of a^ counter, current flowing at the bottom, out of this great basin • 1 
such suppositious arc, iu my opinion, altogether gratuitous. ’ 
