323 
Looking round for something analogous to this in the processes of our 
manufacturing industry, I was not long in discovering one which not only 
resembles, but most singularly illustrates that formation. It is a process in 
which a .fused fluid is j employed, composed of different substances, having 
different colours and different specific gravities exactly as in the case of the 
components of granite ; and this fluid can be cooled down rapidly or slowly 
or m a way that lies between these extremes ; and the results of these 
different raues of cooling and solidification may be watched and recorded. 
Ihe substance m question is the article known by the name “mottled soap ” 
trLT m X SGe ’ w’ whenre ^% cut, very much of the appearance 
f ^ nite - . Till J substance on being taken from the copper, is a fused 
fluid, and if a portion of it is cooled rapidly, it concretes into a homogeneous 
solid of a^dark uniform hue, somewhat like our artificial obsidian ; if, how- 
ever, the rased soap is cooled very slowly, the dark-coloured portions of it 
which are also the highest in specific gravity, all fall to the bottom, and 
leave the upper portions quite white, and free from any colour or mottling. 
Ihe art of making mottled soap consists in so arranging the time of cooling, 
as to allow the dark-coloured parts to gather themselves together in little 
masses, by the time the whole of the soap is so cooled as to begin to solidify 
and thus prevent the descent of the heavy dark portions. The imperfectly 
crystallized state of granite, and the uniform diffusion throughout its whole 
substance of the dark and ponderous particles of mica and! hornblende, 
all bespeak a result so identical with that produced by the above process, as 
to leave no doubt on an unprejudiced mind of similarity in the cause of 
their production. Now, it so happens, that the period of time in which the 
separation of the mottle and thickening or solidification of the soap takes 
place, is from twenty-four to thirty-six hours ; and if I had never read in the 
nmg to guide me as to the time employed in the solidification of 
granite, I should have unhesitatingly fixed upon the above hours as the only 
period m which granite could possibly have been formed. That at the 
“S? it YY ] 7 tlie 1 agency of the ordinary laws of nature, I 
w y i for b ^ these the mtenor of a large mass of non-conductino- 
material like granite could never lose its heat so rapidly as to prevent 
«f tl0n ^ 111 pr °° f ° f wlllch ’ we see in extensive irruptions of volcanic 
ava that require years to cool, there are produced large, distinct, and well- 
defined crystals of basic felspar, to which mineralogists have given the name 
Leucite, from their white colour ; and this alone might serve to satisfy us 
that granite had not been slowly cooled. 7 S 
2 gard tp o theory which considers granite to have been formed by 
solution from water, I feel that very little need be said. There are certainly 
tSSEt f T YiT 1111 ? 1 nature that stand in direct °pp° si tioii 
objection to ff tV Ym Y content myself by bringing forward only one 
sufficient to rliYw J? t US f J llat aU tlie water m our P^net is quite in- 
Solnh p 1 u e s A olld P ortlon > even if that solid portion were as 
, ommon salt. A saturated solution of common salt consists of 
twenty-seven parts of salt, and seventy-three panfe. of water ^ ln~tlv 
these would require to be the relative proportions of land and water accord^ 
mg to this preposterous assumption of solubility. But if the specific o T avitv 
ol the whole globe be 5 - 5 , then these twenty-seven parts, o? ToZ^vovl 
the solid portion a, the globe, must have a specific gravity of 177 which 
would seem to indicate that nearly all the solid matter was pure gold In 
is tWa £ 
