144 ISLAND OF PAROS. 
CHAP, stalactites, or alabaster, of Antiparos; in which the 
- - T - '' same chemical constituents are perfectly cry- 
stallized ; exhibiting the rhomboidal fracture, 
and having the specific gravity of the Iceland 
spar; which, in all probability, is also a stalactite. 
Theory of These phenomena oppose striking facts to the 
tiom Plutonian theory of the crystallization of carbo- 
nated, lime by means of heat and pressure: not 
that the author wishes to maintain any argu- 
ment against the possibility of crystallization by 
means of heat, because all that seems necessary 
for crystallization is a separation of particles, and 
a subsequent retreat. Whether this separation 
be effected by solution, or by fusion (which is 
only another name for solution) ; and whether 
the retreating body be an aqueous fluid or the 
fluid matter of heat ; a regularity of structure may 
equally become the result : basaltic forms have 
been recognised in the bottom of a furnace 1 } as 
well as upon the borders of a lake 9 . The facts 
now adduced are opposed, it is true, to the 
Plutonian theory ; because they prove the 
(1) A specimen exhibiting a basaltic configuration, as found in the 
bottom of an iron furnace, is preserved in the Royal Collection at 
Stockholm. 
(2) Witness the lakes in the South of Sweden ; the Lake of 
Bohenna in Italy; the Lake of _ Genncsareth in the Holy Land; 
&c. &.c. 
