A Manual of Elementary Geology

tion of organic remains - Impressions and casts how formed - Fossil wood - G?ppert's experiments - Precipitation of stony matter most rapid where putrefaction is going on

ependent on the deposition of inorganic matter and the distribution of fossils, I may next tre

gravitation. But the matter which forms a chemical deposit has not been mechanically suspended in water, but in a state of solution until separated by chemical action. In this manner carbonate of lime is often precipitated upon the bottom of lakes and seas in a solid form, as may be well seen in many parts of Italy, where mineral springs abound, and where the calcareous

d together by carbonate of lime, part of which is probably furnished to the sea-water by the decomposition of dead corals. Even shells of

bound together immediately by carbonate of lime, the deposit may be d

y partially to those of a mixed nature. Such as are purely chemical may be formed on a very steep slope, or may even encrust the vertical wa

operation long afterwards. We may sometimes observe, where the water of ferruginous or calcareous springs has flowed through a bed of sand or gravel, that iron or carbonate of lime has been depos

Kelloway. In this district there are numerous fossil shells which have decomposed, having for the most part left only their casts. The calcareous matter hence derived has evidently served, at some former period, as a cement to the siliceous grains of sand, and thus a solid sandstone has

ted together; in which case no memorial of the fossil will remain. The absence of organic remains from many aqueous rocks may be thus explained; but we may presume that in many of them no fossils were ever imbedded, as there are extensive tracts on the bottoms of existing seas even of moderate depth on which no fragment of shell, coral, or other living creature can be detected by dredging. On the other

s passing in the case of thermal springs from hotter to colder parts of the interior of the earth; and as often as the temperature of the solvent is lowered, mineral matter has a tendency to separate from it and solidify. Thus a stony cement is often supplied to any sand,

n. Hence it is found desirable to shape the stones which are to be used in architecture while they are yet soft and wet, and while they contain their "quarry-water," as it is called; also to break up stone intended for roads when soft, and then leave it to dry in the air for months that it may harden. Such induration may perhaps be accounted for by supposing the water, which penetrates the minutest pores of rocks, to deposit, on evaporation, carbonate of lime, iron, silex, and other minerals previous

, which are rigid and as hard as glass in our cabinets, are often flexible and soft in their native beds; this is the c

en up and dried, it becomes so hard that it can only be broken by a smart blow of the hammer. If the lake therefore was drained, such a deposit would

called pozzolana, which consists of fine volcanic sand charged with about 20 per cent. of oxide of iron, and the addition of a small quantity of li

ar spots, forming lumps, nodules, and concretions. Thus in many argillaceous deposits there are calcareous balls, or spherical concretions, ranged in layers parallel to the general stratification; an arrangement which took place after the shale or marl had be

g.

s nodules

ome cliffs this limestone resembles a great irregular pile of cannon balls. Some of the globular masses have their centre in one stratum, while a portion of their exterior passes through to the stratum above or below. Thus the larger spheroid in the annexed section (fig. 56.) passes from the stratum b upwards into a. In this instance we must suppose the deposition of a series of minor layers, first forming the

g.

retions in magn

rit, A, B, C, are charged unequally with calcareous matter, and that B is the most calcareous. If consolidation takes place in B, the concretionary action may spread upwards into a part of A, where the carbonate of lime is more abundant than in the rest; so that a mass, d, e, f

g.

e happens in regard to organic remains which are filled with water under great pressure as they sink, otherwise they would be immediately crushed to pieces and flattened. Nevertheless, if the materials of a stratum remain in a yielding state, and do not set or solidify, they will be gradually

acquired a new structure. A recent discovery may help us to comprehend how fine sediment derived from the detritus of rocks may be solidified by mere pressure. The graphite or "black lead" of commerce having become very scarce, Mr. Brockedon contrived a method by which the dust of the purer portions of the mineral found in Borrowdale might be recomposed into a mass as dense and compact

l of all causes in hardening sedimentary strata. To this subject I shall refer aga

often very different from that of the outer shell. Thus a cast such as a, fig. 58., commonly called a fossil screw, would never be suspected by an inexperienced conchologist to be the internal shape of the fossil univalve, b, fig. 58. Nor should we have imagined at first sight that the shell a and the cast b, fig. 59., were different parts of the same fossil. The reader will observe, in the last-mentioned figure (b, fig. 59.), that an empty space shaded dark, which the shell itself once occupied, now intervenes between the enveloping stone and the cast of the smooth interior of the whorls. In such cases the shell has been dissolved and the component particles removed by water percolating the rock. If the nucleus were taken out a hollow mould would remain, on which the external form of the shell with its tubercles and stri?, as seen in a, fig. 59., would be seen embossed. Now if the space alluded to between the nucleus and the impression, instead of being left empty, has be

g.

onensis, and cast of

g.

glicus and

ion a fossil tree, 72 feet in length, found at Gosforth near Newcastle, in sandstone strata associated with coal. By cutting a transverse slice so thin as to transmit light, and magnifying it about fifty-five times, the texture seen in fig. 60. is exhibited. A texture equally minute and complicated has been observed in the wood of large trunks of fossil trees found in the Craigleith qua

g.

coal strata, magnified. (

ay by rain, so that all vestiges of the dead animal or plant disappear. But if the same substances be submerged in water, they decompose more gradually; and if buried in earth, still more slowly, as in the familiar example of wooden piles or other buried timber. Now, if as fast as each particle is set free by putrefaction in a fluid or gaseous state, a particle equally minute of carbonate of lime, flint, or other mineral, is at hand and ready to be precipitated, we may imagine this inorganic matter to take the place just before left unoccupied by the organic molecu

riety of animal and vegetable substances in waters, some holding siliceous, others calcareous, others metallic matter in solution. He found that in the period of a few weeks, or even days, the organic bodies thus immersed were mineralized to a certain extent. Thus, for example, thin vertical slices of deal, taken from the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), were immersed in a moderately strong solut

he bottom were discovered the bones of several mice in a sediment consisting of small grains of pyrites, others of sulphur, others of crystallized green sulphate of iron, and a black muddy oxide of iron. It was evident that some mice had accidentally been drowned in the fluid, and by the mutual action of the animal matter and the sulphate of iron on each other, the metallic sulphate had been deprived of its oxygen; hence the pyrites and the

matter, and form a new chemical compound. Probably the particles or atoms just set free are of extreme minuteness, and therefore move more freely, and are more ready to obey any impulse of chemic

e highly charged with carbonic acid gas holding lime in solution.[41-B] Now if newly-deposited mud is thus proved to be permeated by mineral matter in a state of solution, it is not difficult t

hese elements; and it is only in their waters that silex is found in abundance. In certain cases, therefore, especially in volcanic regions, we may imagine the flint of silicified wood and corals to have been supplied by the waters of thermal springs. In other instances, as in tripoli and chalk-flint, it may have been derived

that the siliceous earth, which constitutes more than half the bulk of felspar, is intimately combined with alumine, potash, and some other elements. The alkaline matter of the felspar has a chemical affinity for water, as also for the carbonic acid which is more or less contained in the waters of most springs. The water therefore carries away alkaline matter, and leaves behind a clay consisting of alumine and silica. But this residue of the decomposed mineral, which in its purest state is called porcelain clay, is found to contain a part only of the silica which existed in the original felspar. The other part, therefore, must h

, may yield silica which may be dissolved in water, for nearly half of this mineral consists of silica, combined with alumin

hable nature, are preserved in flint; and there are instances of the complete silicification of the young leaves of a palm-tree when just about to shoot forth, and in that state which in the West Indies is called the cabbage of the palm.[43-A] It may, however, be que

ndition, while all signs of the hard woody fibre have disappeared, the spaces once occupied by it being hollow or filled with agate. Here, petrifaction must have commenced soon after the wood was exposed to the action of moisture, and the supply of mineral matter must then have failed, or the water must have become too much diluted before the woody fibre decayed. But when thi