«La nature des filons du Rammelsberg est aussi différente de celle de Claustbat que l'est leur situation. C'est un massif compacte, et presque partout le même, de minéral de plomb et argent pauvre, pénétré de pyrite sulphureuse. Ils sont traversés en plusieurs endroits par de Ruscheln, qui ont fait glisser le toit vers le mur; tellement que malgré l'épaisseur de ces filons, on crut une fois en avoir trouvé la fin. Ils sont aussi coupés dans leur intérieur, en sens différens, par d'autres plus petits filons, composés de matières très différentes; surtout d'une pyrite cuivreuse dure et pauvre, et que par cette raison on ne tente pas de séparer.
«En mettant à part ces petits filons particuliers, ainsi que les Ruscheln, dus probablement les uns et les autres à des causes postérieures à celles qui ont produit les filons principaux, la masse compacte de ceux-ci réveille beaucoup l'idée d'une matière fondue; en même tems qu'on seroit fort embarrassé à concevoir, d'où viendroit cette matière, si distincte de toute autre, lorsqu'on voudroit l'attribuer à l'eau.
«Cette idée, que je dois à Mr. de Redden, perfectionnée par l'étude des phénomènes, donnera peut-être un jour le mot de toutes ces énigmes.»
Here is the clearest evidence that an enormous mass of mountain had been raised by a subterranean force; that this force had acted upon an enormous column of melted minerals, the specific gravity of which is great; and that this fluid mass had suspended a great wedge of this mountain, or raised it up. Now, if by means which are natural to the globe, means which are general to the earth, as appearing in every mineral vein, this mass of mountain had been raised up and suspended twenty fathoms, there is no reason why we should suppose nature limited, whether in raising a greater mass of earth, or of raising it a greater height. That the height to which the land of this globe shall be raised, is a thing limited in the system of this earth, in having a certain bounds which it shall not exceed, cannot be disputed, while wisdom in that system is acknowledged; but it is equally evident, that we cannot set any other bounds to the operation of this cause, than those which nature appears actually to have observed in elevating a continent of land above the level of the sea for the necessary purpose of this world, in which there is to be produced a variety of climates, as there is of plants, from the burning coast under the equator to the frozen mountains of the Andes.
Here therefore we have, although upon a smaller scale, the most perfect view of that cause which has every where been exerted in the greater operations of this earth, and has transformed the bottom of the sea to the summits of our mountains. Now, this moving power appears to have been the effect of an internal fire, a power which has been universally employed for the consolidation of strata, by introducing various degrees of fusion among the matter of those masses, and a power which is peculiarly adapted to that essential purpose in the system of this earth, when dry land is formed by the elevation of what before had existed as the bottom of the sea.
I hope it will not be thought that too much is here adduced in confirmation of this part of the theory. The elevation of strata from their original position, which was horizontal, is a material part; it is a fact which is to be verified, not by some few observations, or appearances here and there discovered in seeking what is singular or rare, but by a concurrence of many observations, by what is general upon the surface of the globe. It is therefore highly interesting not only to bring together that multitude of those proofs which are to be found in every country, but also to give examples of that variety of ways in which the fact is to be proved. Were it necessary, much more might be given, having many examples in this country of Scotland, in Derbyshire, and in Wales, from my proper observation; but, in giving examples for the confirmation of this theory, I thought it better to seek for such as could not be suspected of partiality in the observation.
CHAP. III.
Facts in confirmation of the Theory, respecting
those Operations which re-dissolve the Surface
of the Earth.
We have now discussed the proof of those mineral operations by which the horizontal strata, consolidated at the bottom of the sea, had been changed in their position, and raised into the place of land. The next object of our research is to see those operations, belonging to the surface of the earth, by which the consolidated and erected strata have been again dissolved, in order to serve the purpose of this world, and to descend again into the bottom of the sea from whence they came.
Of all the natural objects of this world, the surface of the earth is that with which we are best acquainted, and most interested. It is here that man has the disposal of nature so much at his will; but here, man, in disposing of things at the pleasure of his will, must learn, by studying nature, what will most conduce to the success of his design, or to the happy economy of his life. No part of this great object is indifferent to man; even on the summits of mountains, too high for the sustaining of vegetable life, he sees a purpose of nature in the accumulated snow and in majestic streams of the descending ice. On every other spot of the surface of this earth, the system of animal and vegetable life is served, in the continual productions of nature, and in the repeated multiplication of living beings which propagate their species.