w these two
species of veins, the particular and the general, although occasionally
connected, must be in science carefully distinguished; in the one, we
see the means which had been employed for the consolidation of the
strata; in the other, we see that power by which the strata have been
raised from the bottom of the sea and placed in the atmosphere.]

Error never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from
the accurate examination of every circumstance. It is not enough to
have found appearances decisive of the question, with regard to the
two suppositions which have been now considered, we may farther seek
confirmation of that supposition which has been found alone consistent
with appearances.

If it be by means of heat and fusion that strata have been consolidated,
then, in proportion to the degree of consolidation they have undergone
from their original state, they should, _caeteris paribus_, abound more
with separations in their mass. But this conclusion is found consistent
with appearances. A stratum of porous sand-stone does not abound so much
with veins and cutters as a similar stratum of marble, or even a
similar stratum of sand-stone that is more consolidated. In proportion,
therefore, as strata have been consolidated, they are in general
intersected with veins and cutters; and in proportion as strata are
deep in their perpendicular section, the veins are wide, and placed at
greater distances. In like manner, when strata are thin, the veins are
many, but proportionally narrow.

It is thus, upon chemical principles, to be demonstrated, That all the
solid strata of the globe have been condensed by means of heat, and
hardened from a state of fusion. But this proposition is equally to
be maintained from principles which are mechanical. The strata of the
globe, besides being formed of earths, are composed of sand, of gravel,
and fragments of hard bodies, all which may be considered as, in their
nature, simple; but these strata are also found composed of bodies which
are not simple, but are fragments of former strata, which had been
consolidated, and afterwards were broken and worn by attrition, so as
to be made gravel. Strata composed in this manner have been again
consolidated; and now the question is, By what means?

If strata composed of such various bodies had been consolidated, by any
manner of concretion, from the fluidity of a dissolution, the hard and
solid bodies must be found in the