Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology,: Comprehending the Elements of Those Sciences; Intended Principally for the Use of Young Persons |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abundant alkalies alloyed alumine amber animal antimony appearance arsenic arsenic acid augite barytes basalt base beds Bismuth brittle calcareous spar called carbonic acid Cerium Chalk basin chiefly chlorite clay clay-slate coal Cobalt colour combined combustible compact felspar composed compound conglomerate consists constitute contain copper Cornwall countries cube deposits dodecahedron earth enclosing feet felspar formation found pure geological geologists globe Glucine gneiss gold granite Greenstone greywacké heavier than water hornblende ingredient lava lead lime limestone Mac Culloch magnesia Manganese masses metals mica Mineralogy Molybdena mountains muriatic native nature nearly numerous observed occasionally occurs organic remains oxide oxygen phosphoric platina porphyry potash primary crystal primary form primitive rocks proportion pyrites quartz rarely regular octohedron resembling rhomboidal dodecahedron right rhombic prism salt sand secondary rocks shells silex silver slate Soda sometimes strata Strontian sulphate of barytes Sulphuret sulphuric acid summit surface Tellurium termed trap varieties veins Yttria zinc
Popular passages
Page 166 - September every thing seemed to announce the complete re-establishment of tranquillity, when in the night between the 28th and '29th the horrible subterraneous noise recommenced. The affrighted Indians fled to the mountains of Aguasarco. A tract of ground from three to four square miles in extent, which goes by the name of Malpays, rose up in the shape of a bladder.
Page 44 - Hence it is evident that the basin or reservoir containing the sea has undergone some change at least, either in extent, or in situation, or in both. Such is the result of the very first search, and of the most superficial...
Page 167 - ... perhaps moved and overturned to a great depth the entire outer crust of the globe, but which, since these first commotions, have uniformly acted at a less depth and less generally. Numberless living beings have been the victims of these catastrophes ; some have been destroyed by sudden inundations, others have been laid dry in consequence of the bottom of the seas being instantaneously elevated. Their races even have become extinct, and have left no memorial of them except some small fragment...
Page 57 - Jukuts of the neighbourhood had taken away considerable quantities of its flesh to feed their dogs ; and the wild animals, particularly the white bears, had also feasted on the carcase ; yet the skeleton remained quite entire, except that one of the fore-legs was gone. The entire spine, the pelvis, one shoulder-blade, and three legs, were still held together by their ligaments and by some remains of the skin ; and the other shoulderblade was found at a short distance. The head remained, covered by...
Page 57 - Siberia, the nature of which he did not understand, and which was so high. in the bank as to be beyond his reach. He next year observed the same object, which was then rather more disengaged from among the ice, but was still unable to conceive what it was. Towards the end of the following summer, 1801, he could distinctly see that it was the frozen carcase of an enormous animal, the entire flank of which and one of its tusks had become disengaged from the ice. In consequence of the ice beginning...
Page 58 - More than thirty pounds weight of the hair and bristles of this animal were gathered from the wet sandbank, having been trampled into the mud by the white bears, while devouring the carcase. Some of the hair was presented to our Museum of Natural History by M. Targe, censor in the Lyceum of Charlemagne. It consists of three distinct kinds. One of these is stiff...
Page xix - Fusible metal is a compound of eight parts of bismuth, five of lead, and three of tin, which...
Page 44 - ... processes. They are found in elevations far above the level of every part of the ocean, and in places to which the sea could not be conveyed by any existing cause.
Page 46 - ... another, serving, by means of their eternal snows, as reservoirs for feeding the springs, and forming in some measure the skeleton, or, as it were, the rough framework of the earth.
Page 45 - ... which still inhabit the sea. They have therefore once lived in the sea, and been deposited by it ; the sea consequently must have rested in the places where the deposition has taken place. Hence it is evident...