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Show 222 SOFTER STRATA. of the earth have the traces of their aqneoTJs origin still more legible, except in cases where we can explain why they have been obliterated. T~e lava. of Etna, Vesuvius, and various other mounta:ms,. wh~ch still continue to burn-that of many others w h1ch are now extinguished, or have been so :sin~c the commencement of history-the sea of glass :m Iceland- and all the other productions o·f fire wit~ which we meet in large masses-ale no more ongina} or primary formations, t~an the sco,r_ia and cinders of an iron furnace, wh1ch arc :noth1ng but certain parts of the ore, the lime, and the C{)a}, after the iron has been taken out of them by the process of melting. The power of those fites cannot be doubted · and, indeed, it would not be easy to find wo:rds by means of which their effects conld be {)verrated. Every mountain on the face of the earth may have been reared by fire of that description; and where they are of rock, and. not accumulati_?ns of fragments, which can be explamed by m~chamcal causes acting at the surface of. the ~<lnth, :~f. we do not consider heat as the ageni m theu eleYahon, we cannot at aU account fo:r the fact of their being elevated any further than by saying, "God made them~" and though in ail cases we must come to those wo.rds some time or other, we should never do so at the beginning of an inquiry. That is one of the most obvious, as wen as one of the most undeniable truths, to any one who thinks even slightly on the subject; but it is a truth too .gene:r~l fo:r guiding us to the knowledge of any part1cular Ill na .. ture; and therefore1 unless for the e!fect which it has on the feelings and conduc~t.there ~s !lo need ~or repeating it. Indeed the repeht:ton of ~t 1s a ~pec~es of fraudulent idleness; if we go on with an :mqmry in the proper manne:, w~ ar.e always sure .to come to it · but if we begm wtth It or resort to It before the proper time, our. inq~iry is at an end, and 9lll ignorance of that subJect 1s sealed. OF ROCI{S. 223 Rocks are proverbially associ~ted ~ith barrenness, though there is no rock but which, If left at rest ~nd watered, will produce its plants-nay, a successwn of races · and if the climate were favourable, and we could wait long enough, there is not the least doubt that we could water a rock till it became so fertile on the surface that we could sow it with grain, or plant it with vegetables. Pebbles in a brawling stream or rolled on the beach by the waves, are unprod~ctive things certainly; and not merely that, for they wear one another; but examine the very same kind of pebbles in a shallow standing pool, or on a part of the beach where they ar~ left at rest, and you will find that they .have theu plan~s and their animals. The mountam rocks, even m the coldest places, are covered with lichens, som~ of which are of value in the arts, and others as articles of food. Many dying materials are obt~ined fro~ those curious productions, some of which are m themselves n.ot easily distinguished from the rocks on which they grow. . The common people in the northern countr~es have long been in the habit of dying their stuffs with these substances; and in their hands the colours that are produced are very durable, though not yery brilliant. The orchal, or French rock-moss (L-tchen pm·ellus, of Linnreus), which forms a ver~ white, roucrh and warty crust on the rocks, and might, by 0 ' a careless observer, be taken for a patch of mortar, produces very beautiful shades of crimsol!- and purple; and cudbear (Lichen tartareus), wJ:uch. ~orms grayish patches, is found so valuable m g1vmg a bloom to colours, that there are manufactories for the express purpose of preparin~ it! ~nd people ~ho resort to the rocks and earn their hvmg by scrapmg it off. Hard as it is, it grows much faster than would be supposed; and the cultivator of i~ (if he can b~ so called) has little labour compared w1th other cultivators, as he has merely to come ruJ.d scrape the rocks |
