4 gleanings in science. 
my recollection' at the moment, and promised to afford some assistance to these 
onjectures. val i cv in which the above facts were observed, at the 
A lew nil t~ j f t j, c se a, and between two and three hundred leet 
i stance of more than a nme uow ; . . , • numomiu 
uMiwuev - - , . rli<*rp m'curs a'crag of sandstone, in which u numerous 
perpendicularly abo^ vi(siWe . several of these beds have yielded much 
succession o . we atlier, exhibit a considerable white efflores- 
t0 SI has c ornately the taste of common salt , and so remarkable is tins 
cence, the rock has acquired, in the country, the name ol bait- Hough. 
011 Herts then it immediately occurred to me, was probabl y the source of an aim ml- 
ant sunolv of the elastic substance or fumigator, whbse action as a flux had been 
minted out bv the agglutinations in Ailtehgaw above described. 
v mreived that, if there were at the bottom of the sea a bed of sand and gravel, 
drenched with brine of full saturation, ioid that heat were applied to it from be- 
neath according to Ur. Hui Ton’s hypothesis, the first effect would lie, to drive the 
ter from the. lowest portion of the sand, and to convert the salt which remained 
amongst it together with the sand, into a dry cake. During this operation, or un. 
til the cake became quite dry, the absorption of latent heat would prevent the tern- 
nerature from surpassing the boiling point of brine. Hut no sooner was this dry- 
ness accomplished, than, I imagined, the temperature of the mass would begin to 
rise above t hat pitch ; the nortion of it next the fire would gradually acquire a red- 
heat ; that then the salt, being made by the heat in part to assume an elastic form, 
would lie sent in fumes through the dry cake just described, and thus, by partially 
melting the contiguous particles, produce an agglutination. 
Such being my theoretical views, no time was lost in submitting them to the 
test of experiment- Taking it for granted that a quantity of sea-salt uiiist fre- 
quently lie formed and deposited, along with sand a nd gravel, at the bottom of the 
ocean, (ill the manner I shall have occasion to describe at another stage of this 
paper,) where the water has been collected by its superior specific gravity, in the 
form of brine, I proceeded to make the following experiments. 
Dry salt was placed along with sand, sometimes in a separate layer, at the bot- 
tom of the crucible, and sometimes mixed throughout the experiment : the whole 
was then exposed to heat from below. I found that the salt was invariably sent ill 
fumes through the loose mass, and by its action produced solid stone in a manner 
completely satisfactory, illustrative of the facts in Aikengaw ; and so as to give 
a good explanation of the production of sandstone in general. 
These artificial stones aro of various degrees of durability and hardness ; some 
of them do npt stand exposure to the elements, and crumble when immersed in 
water ; — some resist exposure for years ; — others are so soft as not to preserve 
their form for any length of time ; — while some hear to he dressed by the chisel ; 
and, it may be remarked generally, that, as far as the re tilts of my experiments 
have been compared with natural sandstone, the same boundless variety exists in 
both cases. A striking instance of this resemblance occurs in the case of the 
Salt-Ileugh, the samlstoue of which, when immersed in water, crumbles down, 
exactly in the same manner as those results of my experiments which taste much 
of salt. 
The fumes of the salt, no doubt, act in aU these cases, as a flux on the siliceous 
matter, and thus cement the adjacent particles together. The Society are, doubt- 
less, well aware of the power of salt fumes in glazing pottery ; and the analogy, I 
conceive, is complete. It is the application alone that is new. ' 
So far the results were satisfactory. But it next occurred, that it might be 
plausibly objected, that the presence of the superincumbent cool ocean would in- 
terfere with the process, on the principles of latent heat- To put this to the test 
I proceeded to expose a quantity of sand, covered to the depth of seven I inches 
with common salt-water, to the heat of a furukce, and, as the liquid boiled awav, 
replenished it from time to time by additions from the sea. Of course it gradusliv 
approached to a state of brine. But this proved a very te, lions operatlon requi^ 
mg a continued ebullition during three weeks, without ceasing, before it’ l„,-mie 
sufficiently saturated with salt by the discharge of the fresh water , ' i T . , 
it much easier, and no less satisfactory, to SLiloy the’fitr l 7 
“ “ h -*-<• 
-3« rr«&sas* 
