Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon].

  • Chambers, Robert, 1802-1871
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/408 (page 45)
    same beds; after which we pass over these rocks all in reverse order till we come to another exten- sive mountain composed of similar material to the first, and shelving away under the strata in the same way. We should then infer that the stratified rocks occupied a basin formed by the rock of these two mountains, and by calculating the thickness right through these strata, could say to what depth the rock of the mountain ex- tended below. By such means, the kind of rock existing many miles below the surface can often be inferred with considerable confidence. The interior of the globe has now been in- spected in this way in many places, and a tolerably distinct notion of its general arrangements has consequently been arrived at. It appears that the basis rock of the earth, as it may be called, is of hard texture, and crystalline in its constitution. Of this rock, granite may be said to be the type, though it runs into many varieties. Over this, except in the comparatively few places where it projects above the general level in mountains, other rocks are disposed in sheets or strata, with the appearance of having been deposited originally from water. But these last rocks have nowhere been allowed to rest in their original arrangement.