Theory of the Earth: Theory of the Earth [1788]: Part III. Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of Land above the Surface of the Sea
P A R T III.
Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of Land above the Surface of the Sea
WE seek to know that operation by means of which masses of loose materials, collected at the bottom of the sea, were raised above its surface, and transformed into solid land.
WE have found, that there is not in this globe (as a planet revolving in the solar system) any power or motion adapted to the purpose now in view; nor, were there such a power, could a mass of simply collected materials have continued any considerable time to resist the waves and currents natural to the sea, but must have been quickly carried away, and again deposited at the bottom of the ocean. But we have found, that there had been operations, natural to the bowels of this earth, by which those loose and unconnected materials have been cemented together, and consolidated into masses of great strength and hardness; those bodies are thus enabled to resist the force of waves and currents, and to preserve themselves, for a sufficient time, in their proper shape and place, as land above the general surface of the ocean.
THE origin of this form, in which the trap or whinstone appears, is most evident to inspection, when we consider that this solid body has been in a fluid state, and introduced, in that state, among strata which preserved their proper form. The strata appear to have been broken, and the two correspondent parts of those strata are separated to admit the flowing mass of whinstone. A FINE example of this kind may be seen upon the south side of the Earn, on the road to Crief. It is twenty-four yards wide, stands perpendicular, and appears many feet above the surface of the ground. It runs from that eastward, and would seem to be the same with that which crosses the river Tay, in forming Campsy-lin above Stanley, as a lesser one of the same kind does below it. If have seen it at Lednoc upon the Ammon, where it forms a cascade in that river, about five or six miles west of Campsy-lin. It appears to run from the Tay east through Strathmore, so that it may be considered as having been traced for twenty or thirty miles, and westwards to Drummond castle, perhaps much farther. TWO small veins of the same kind, only two or three feet wide, may be seen in the bed of the Water of Leith, traversing the horizontal strata, the one is above St BERNARD's well, the other immediately below it. But, more particularly, in the shire of Ayr, to the north of Irvine, there are to be seen upon HAVING thus described these masses, which have flowed by means of heat among the strata of the globe, strata which had been formed by subsidence at the bottom of the sea, it will now be proper to examine the difference that subsists between these subterraneous lavas, as they may be termed, and the analogous bodies, which are proper lavas, in having issued out of a volcano †.
279:* See Mr WHITEHURST'S Theory of the Earth. 279:† The Chevalier de Dolomieu, in his accurate examination of Ætna and the Lipari islands, has very well observed the distinction of these two different species of lavas; but without seeming to know the principle upon which this essential difference depends. No bias of system, therefore, can here be supposed as perverting the Chevalier's view, in taking those observations; and these are interesting to the present theory, as corresponding perfectly with the facts from whence it has been formed. It will be proper to give the account of these in his own words.
