rains and the larger and coarser plates of mica subsiding
first and the finest last.

"But the fragments of quartz and mica were not deposited alone; a great
proportion of the quartz held in SOLUTION must have been precipitated
at the same time as the water cooled, and therefore by degrees lost
its faculty of so much in solution. Thus was gradually produced the
formation of mica-schist, the mica imperfectly recrystallizing or being
merely aggregated together in horizontal plates, between which the
quartz either spread itself generally in minute grains or unified into
crystalline nuclei. On other spots, instead of silex, carbonate of lime
was precipitated, together with more or less of the nucaceous sediment,
and gave rise to saccharoidal limestones. At a later period, when the
ocean was yet further cooled down, rock-salt and sulphate of lime were
locally precipitated in a similar mode.

"The fifth stratum was aeriform, and consisted in great part of
aqueous vapors; the remainder being a compound of other elastic fluids
(permanent gases) which had been formed probably from the volatilization
of some of the substances contained in the primitive granite and carried
upward with the aqueous vapor from below. These gases will have
been either mixed together or otherwise disposed, according to their
different specific gravities or chemical affinities, and this stratum
constituted the atmosphere or aerial envelope of the globe.

"When, in this manner, the general and positive expansion of the globe,
occasioned by the sudden reduction of outward pressure, had ceased (in
consequence of the REPRESSIVE FORCE, consisting of the weight of its
fluid envelope, having reached an equilibrium with the EXPANSIVE FORCE,
consisting of the caloric of the heated nucleus), the rapid superficial
evaporation of the ocean continued; and, by gradually reducing its
temperature, occasioned the precipitation of a proportionate quantity
of the minerals it held in solution, particularly its silex. These
substances falling to the bottom, accompanied by a large proportion of
the matters held in solution, particularly the mica, in consequence of
the greater comparative tranquillity of the ocean, agglomerated these
into more or less compact beds of rock (the mica-schist formation),
producing the first crust or solid envelope of the globe. Upon this,
other stratified rocks, composed sometimes of a mixture, sometimes of
an alternation of precipitations, sed