If the strata cemented by the heat of fusion were created by the expansive power of heat acting from below, we should expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a horizontal towards a vertical position. And this is just what we do find. From horizontal, the strata are frequently found vertical; from continuous, broken, and separated in every possible direction; and from a plane, bent and doubled. The theory is confirmed by an examination of the veins and fissures of the earth which contain matter foreign to the strata they traverse, and evidently forced into them as a fluid under great pressure. Active volcanoes, and extinct volcanoes, and the marks everywhere of volcanic action likewise support the theory of expansion and elevation by heat. A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten superstitious people into fits of piety and devotion; it is to be considered as a spiracle of a subterranean furnace. Such being the manner of the formation of the crust of the world, can we form any judgment of its duration and durability? If we could measure the rate of the attrition of the present continents, we might estimate the duration of the older continents whose attrition supplied the material for the present dry land. But as we cannot measure the wearing-away of the land, we can merely state generally, first, that the present dry land required an indefinitely long period for its formation; second, that the previous dry land which supplied material for its formation required equal time to make; third, that there is at present land forming at the bottom of the sea which in time will appear above the surface; fourth, that we find no vestige of a beginning, or of an end. Granite has in its own nature no claim to originality, for it is found to vary greatly in its composition. But, further, it is certain that granite, or a species of the same kind of stone, is found stratified. It is the _granit feuilletee_ of M. de Sauffure, and, if I mistake not, is called _gneiss_ by the Germans. Granite being thus found stratified, the masses of this stone cannot be allowed to any right of priority over the schistus, its companion in Alpine countries. Lack of stratification, then, cannot be considered a proof of primitive rock. Nor can lack of organized bodies, such as shells, in these rocks, be considered a proof; for the traces of organized bodies may be obliterated by the many subsequent operations of the mineral region. In any case, signs of organized bodies are sometimes found in "primitive" mountains. Nor can metallic veins, found plentifully in "primitive" mountains, prove anything, for mineral veins are found in various strata.