The proof I give is this, That besides the general conformation of those hard bodies, so as to be perfectly adapted to each other’s shape, there is, in some places, a mutual indentation of the different pieces of gravel into each other; an indentation which resembles perfectly that junction of the different bones of the cranium, called sutures, and which must have necessarily required a mixture of those bodies while in a soft or fluid state.

This appearance of indentation is by no means singular, or limited to one particular specimen.  I have several specimens of different marbles, in which fine examples of this species of mixture may be perceived.  But in this particular case of the Spanish pudding-stone, where the mutual indentation is made between two pieces of hard stone, worn round by attrition, the softening or fusion of these two bodies is not simply rendered probable, but demonstrated.

Having thus proved, that those strata had been consolidated by simple fusion, as proposed, we now proceed to show, that this mineral operation had been not only general, as being found in all the regions of the globe, but universal, in consolidating our earth in all the various degrees, from loose and incoherent shells and sand, to the most solid bodies of the siliceous and calcareous substances.

To exemplify this in the various collections and mixtures of sands, gravels, shells, and corals, were endless and superfluous.  I shall only take, for an example, one simple homogeneous body, in order to exhibit it in the various degrees of consolidation, from the state of simple incoherent earth to that of the most solid marble.  It must be evident that this is chalk; naturally a soft calcareous earth, but which may be also found consolidated in every different degree.

Through the middle of the Isle of Wight, there runs a ridge of hills of indurated chalk.  This ridge runs from the Isle of Wight directly west into Dorsetshire, and goes by Corscastle towards Dorchester, perhaps beyond that place.  The sea has broke through this ridge at the west end of the Isle of Wight, where columns of the indurated chalk remain, called the Needles; the same appearance being found upon the opposite shore in Dorsetshire.

In this field of chalk, we find every gradation of that soft earthy substance to the most consolidated body of this indurated ridge, which is not solid marble, but which has lost its chalky property, and has acquired a kind of stony hardness.

We want only further to see this cretaceous substance in its most indurated and consolidated state; and this we have in the north of Ireland, not far from the Giants Causeway.  I have examined cargoes of this lime-stone brought to the west of Scotland, and find the most perfect evidence of this body having been once a mass of chalk, which is now a solid marble.

Thus, if it is by means of fusion that the strata of the earth have been, in many places, consolidated, we must conclude, that all the degrees of consolidation, which are indefinite, have been brought about by the same means.