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Show [ 70 ] FosTER's fine form !hall hearts unborn engage, And MELEOURN' s fmile enchant another age. V. ''GNOMEs! You then taught tranfuding dews to pafs Through time-fall'n woods, and root-inwove 1norafs I I 6 Age after age ; and with :filtration :line Difpart, from earths and fulphurs, the faline. 1. " HENCE with diffufive SALT old Ocean fl:eeps His e1nerald fhallows, and his h'lpphire deeps. I 20 Fr;jler's fine form. I. I .13· Alluding to the beautiful llatues of Lady Elizabeth Faller and of Lady Melbourn executed by the honorable Mrs. Damer. R oot-inwove morajs. I. I 16. The great mafs of matter which refts upon the lime-ftone firata of the earth, or upon the gr:mite where the lime-llone llratum has been removed by earthquakes or covered by lava, has had its origin from the recrements of vegetables and of air-breathiJlg animals, as the lime-llone had its origin from fea animals~ The whole habitable world was originally covered with woods, till mankind formed themfelves into foci cties, and fubdued them by fire ·and by ilecl. Hence woods in uncultivated countries have grown and fallen thro11gh many ages, whence moralfes of immenle extent; a~d fr~m thefe as tl~e more foluble parts were wafhed away firfl, were produced fea-f:.dt, mtre, non, and vanety of acids, which combining with calcareo11s m.Hter were produtl.Jve of ma~y foiTil bodie~, as Hint, fea-fa11d, felenite, with the precious llones and perhaps the d1amond. See aJditionalnotes, No. XV 1 I. ' Hence .wit~ dijjujive fall. I. 119. Salts of various kinds are produced from the-rccremcnts ot an11nal and vegetable bodies, fuch as phofphuric, ammoniacal, m:uiue f.dt> ;)nd [ 7I ] Oft in wide lakes, around their warmer brim In hollow pyramids the cryfl:als fwi1n; Or, fufed by earth-born :fires, 111 cubic blocks Shoot their white forn1s, and harden into rocks. 124 others; thefe are wafhed from the earth by rains, and carried down our rivers into the fea; they feem all here to decompofe each other except the marine-falt, which has therefore from the beginning of the habitable world been perpetually accumulating. There is a town in the immenfe f<llt-mines of Cracow in Poland, with a marketplace, a river, a church, and a famous fiatue, (here fuppofed to be of Lot's wife) by the moifl: or dry appearance of which the fubterranean inhabitants are faid to know when the weather is fair above ground. The galleries in thefe mines are fo numerous and fcJ . intricate, that workmen have frequently loll their way, their lights having been burnt out, and have perifhed before they· could be found. Effais, &c. par M. Macquart. And though the arches of thefe different flories of galleries are boluly executed, yet they are not dangerous ; as they :ue held together or fupported by large rnaffes of timber of a foot fquare; and thefe vafl: timbers remain perfectly found for many centuries, while all other pillars whether of brick, cement, or fai t, foon cliffolve or moulder away. Ibid. Could the timbers over water-mill wheels or cellars, be thus preferved by occafionally foaking them with brine? Thefe immenfe maffes of rock-fait feern to have been produced by the evaporation of fea-water in the early periods of the world by fubterranean fires. Dr. Hutton's Theory of the Earth. See alfo Theorie des Sou rces Salees, par M. Struve. Hifloire de Sciences de .Laufanne. Tom. If. This idea of Dr. Hutton's is confirmed by a fact mentioned in M. Macquart's Effais fm Mineralogic, who found a great quantity of foffil {hells, principally bi-v.~lves and madre-pores, in the fait-mines of Wialiczka near Cracow. During the evaporation of the lakes of fait-water, as in artificial faitworks, the fait begins to cryflallize near the edge where the water is fhalloweft, forming hollow inverted pyramids; which, when they become of a certain fize, fubfide by their gravity; if urged by a llronger fire the fait fufcs or forms brge c~bes; whence the fait fhaped in hollow pyramids, called fb.ke-falr, is better tailed and preferves flefh better, than the bafket or powder fait; bccaufc it is made by lefs heat and thence contains more of the marine acid. The fea-water about our ifland contains from about one twenty. eighth to one thirtieth part of fea falt, and about one eightieth of magnefian fi1lt. See Brownrigg on Salt. See note on Ocymum, Vol. I I. of this work. |