GEOLOGICAL SPECULATION 
minutely broken into cubes and other angular forms would 
suggest that some great shock had occurred. Then the 
usual yellow pellets of polished lava, either globular or 
pear-shaped, or like an elongated oval ending in a point 
and well rounded at the other end, would also indicate 
that these missiles had been flying great distances through 
the air in a molten state before they had actually dropped. 
In fact, the flight was so long as absolutely to cool and 
solidify them before they fell, unless they had landed in 
cold water, for they had retained their original form, 
instead of getting flattened at the heavier end, as would 
be expected had the lava reached the ground in a half-soft 
state. Large blocks of lava, which naturally took a longer 
time to cool and a shorter time to reach the earth after 
their flight through the atmosphere, had, in fact, become 
flattened on the lower side, where they struck the ground. 
Others of a composite globular form had invariably been 
flattened into a slight curve on the side where they had 
come in contact with the soil. 
Ovoid rocks as large as a loaf of bread and composed 
of compressed cinders were to be seen, which, when easily 
split open, showed a band of slightly ferruginous matter, 
very brittle, in a crystallized condition. In the centre of 
these rocks were invariably found beautiful crystals of 
great limpidity, easily separated from one another by a 
slight pressure of the fingers. 
Erosion had evidently since played great part in the 
present appearance of the country, but to my mind, di¬ 
rectly above what is now a valley, there existed at one 
time a high range of mountains, which was in those days 
the great dividing line of the waters flowing south and 
north. 
One might, of course, also argue that what are the 
mountains now have been pushed up from underneath 
the ground into their present position, but local conditions 
do not tend to encourage this theory. 
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