The inequalities of the primary support affect the outline of every successive layer, in the same manner as may often be seen in bezoar-stones, when an object like a nail forms the centre of aggregation.The crenulated edges, however, of the frond appear to be due to the corroding power of the surf on its own deposit, alternating with fresh depositions.On some smooth basaltic rocks on the coast of St.Jago, I found an exceedingly thin layer of brown calcareous matter, which under a lens presented a miniature likeness of the crenulated and polished fronds of Ascension; in this case a basis was not afforded by any projecting extraneous particles.Although the incrustation at Ascension is persistent throughout the year; yet from the abraded appearance of some parts, and from the fresh appearance of other parts, the whole seems to undergo a round of decay and renovation, due probably to changes in the form of the shifting beach, and consequently in the action of the breakers: hence probably it is, that the incrustation never acquires a great thickness.Considering the position of the encrusted rocks in the midst of the calcareous beach, together with its composition, I think there can be no doubt that its origin is due to the dissolution and subsequent deposition of the matter composing the rounded particles of shells and corals.(The selenite, as I have remarked is extraneous, and must have been derived from the sea-water.It is an interesting circumstance thus to find the waves of the ocean, sufficiently charged with sulphate of lime, to deposit it on the rocks, against which they dash every tide.Dr.Webster has described ("Voyage of the 'Chanticleer'" volume 2page 319) beds of gypsum and salt, as much as two feet in thickness, left by the evaporation of the spray on the rocks on the windward coast.
Beautiful stalactites of selenite, resembling in form those of carbonate of lime, are formed near these beds.Amorphous masses of gypsum, also, occur in caverns in the interior of the island; and at Cross Hill (an old crater)I saw a considerable quantity of salt oozing from a pile of scoriae.In these latter cases, the salt and gypsum appear to be volcanic products.)From this source it derives its animal matter, which is evidently the colouring principle.The nature of the deposit, in its incipient stage, can often be well seen upon a fragment of white shell, when jammed between two of the fronds; it then appears exactly like the thinnest wash of a pale grey varnish.Its darkness varies a little, but the jet blackness of some of the fronds and of the botryoidal masses seems due to the translucency of the successive grey layers.There is, however, this singular circumstance, that when deposited on the under side of ledges of rock or in fissures, it appears always to be of a pale, pearly grey colour, even when of considerable thickness: hence one is led to suppose, that an abundance of light is necessary to the development of the dark colour, in the same manner as seems to be the case with the upper and exposed surfaces of the shells of living mollusca, which are always dark, compared with their under surfaces and with the parts habitually covered by the mantle of the animal.
In this circumstance,--in the immediate loss of colour and in the odour emitted under the blowpipe,--in the degree of hardness and translucency of the edges,--and in the beautiful polish of the surface (From the fact described in my "Journal of Researches" of a coating of oxide of iron, deposited by a streamlet on the rocks in its bed (like a nearly similar coating at the great cataracts of the Orinoco and Nile), becoming finely polished where the surf acts, I presume that the surf in this instance, also, is the polishing agent.), rivalling when in a fresh state that of the finest Oliva, there is a striking analogy between this inorganic incrustation and the shells of living molluscous animals.(In the section descriptive of St.Paul's Rocks, I have described a glossy, pearly substance, which coats the rocks, and an allied stalactitical incrustation from Ascension, the crust of which resembles the enamel of teeth, but is hard enough to scratch plate-glass.Both these substances contain animal matter, and seem to have been derived from water in filtering through birds' dung.) This appears to me to be an interesting physiological fact.
(Mr.Horner and Sir David Brewster have described "Philosophical Transactions" 1836 page 65 a singular "artificial substance, resembling shell." It is deposited in fine, transparent, highly polished, brown-coloured laminae, possessing peculiar optical properties, on the inside of a vessel, in which cloth, first prepared with glue and then with lime, is made to revolve rapidly in water.It is much softer, more transparent, and contains more animal matter, than the natural incrustation at Ascension;but we here again see the strong tendency which carbonate of lime and animal matter evince to form a solid substance allied to shell.)SINGULAR LAMINATED BEDS ALTERNATING WITH AND PASSING INTO OBSIDIAN.
These beds occur within the trachytic district, at the western base of Green Mountain, under which they dip at a high inclination.They are only partially exposed, being covered up by modern ejections; from this cause, Iwas unable to trace their junction with the trachyte, or to discover whether they had flowed as a stream of lava, or had been injected amidst the overlying strata.There are three principal beds of obsidian, of which the thickest forms the base of the section.The alternating stony layers appear to me eminently curious, and shall be first described, and afterwards their passage into the obsidian.They have an extremely diversified appearance; five principal varieties may be noticed, but these insensibly blend into each other by endless gradations.
FIRST.
