I)r. Beddoes’s Qbfervations, &c. 49 
terms, and fupported by proper evidence. In confequence of 
information obtained from various fources, I have been led to 
confider this queftion in a light fomewhat new ; and although 
I cannot but exped my conclufions to be controverted, how- 
ever ftrong may be my own convidion of their juftnefs, I am 
encouraged by the hope of communicating fome original ob- 
fervations on the phylical geography of our own country, and 
of bringing forward to public notice fome fads not generally 
known among us, though they are fuch as cannot be over- 
looked in a theory of granite. 
Notwithftanding the recent objections of Mr. Werner *, 
I (hall aflume the origin of bafaltesfrom fubterraneous fufion as 
thoroughly eftablifhed by various authors +. Several obfervations 
of my own, which I intend foon to offer to the publick, will, 
1 flatter myfelf, corroborate the evidence, though already fuf- 
ficiently ftrong to remove all reafonable doubt, and add a con- 
(iderable trad to thofe where the effeds of ancient fire have 
* Bergmannifches Journal, March 1789. Among the fadis adduced by 
this celebrated mineralogift to prove the watery origin of bafaltes, I cannot 
difcoverany very new or Unking. The appearance of bafaltes between ftrata is his 
great argument. But the fame, ora funilar appearance had been noticed by Dr. 
Hutton (Edinb.Tr. I. p. 279.) ; Whitehurst (Chap. XVI.) : Ferber (Italy, 
p. 51.) mentions the infertion of lava between calcareous ftrata ; and in Leske 
(Reife durch Sachfen, 4to, 1785, p.517.), we have bafaltic columns in fandftone. 
Mr. Werner alfo infills upon the gradual approximation of the adjacent ftratum 
towards the nature of bafaltes. 
f Desmarest, in his well-known Paper in the French Memoirs; Raspe, 
Extindt Volcanos near Caflel ; Faujas, Volcans eteints, &c. and Mineralogie des 
Volcans ; Sir W. Hamilton, Campi Phlegrsei, and Phil. Tranf. ; Ferber, 
Travels through Italy ; Dolomieu, in his Account of the Lipari and Pontian 
Hies ; Leske, /. r. ; Beroldingen, in his Account of the Quickfilver Mines 
in the Palatinate, &c.; Hamilton, Letters on the Coaft of Antrim; Hutton, 
/. c. ; Veltheim, Etwas iiber die Bafalt, Leipfig, 1787; are among the chief 
of thefe authors. 
Vol. LXXXI. 
H 
been 
