Note (return) — Chapter I · (continued 2)

There is not in nature any appearance more distinct than this of the perpendicular fissures and separations in strata. These are generally known to workmen by the terms of veins or backs and cutters; and there is no consolidated stratum that wants these appearances. Here is, therefore, a clear decision of the question, Whether it has been by means of heat, or by means of aqueous solution, that collections of loose bodies at the bottom of the sea have been consolidated into the hardest rocks and most perfect marbles12.