Note 27 — Chapter II · (continued 3)

Footnote 27: (return) Here, no doubt, are appearances which it is impossible to explain by the theory of infiltration; it is the filling of mineral veins, and their branches or ramifications, with marble containing marks of marine objects. But, if we shall suppose this marble to have been in the fluid state of fusion, as well as the iron-ore and jasper, we may easily conceive it introduced into the principal vein and its branches. The description here given of those appearances is by no means such as to enable us to judge particularly of this case, which surely merits the most accurate investigation, and which, I doubt not, will give physical demonstration of the fusion of those mineral substances. I know that shells have been found within the body of veins in Germany; but, a stratification of those materials in a vein was never heard of before, so far as I know.