figures of crystals in the mass by which also the configuration of some
minute parts, affected by those crystals, is determined; but the figure
of those alabasters, which is to be compared with the present subject,
arises solely from the current of petrifying water along the surface of
the mass. This mass, therefore, being formed by succession from that
water, crystallising calcareous earth, and carrying colouring parts of
other earth, gives an appearance of stratification to a figure which
is absolutely inconsistent with stratification; an operation which is
performed by depositing materials at the bottom of the sea, and which
the marine bodies contained in some of the strata sufficiently attest.]

«Je ne repugnerois donc pas à croire que le rocher de la cascade a pu
être formé dans la situation dans laquelle il se presente; si ce vuide à
sa droite, ses couches qui, bien que suivies, montrent pourtant quelques
ruptures dans les flexions un peu fortes, et ses grands bancs de cette
pierre grise compacte, qui n'est point si sujette à ces formes bizarres,
n'éstablissoient pas une difference sensible entr'elles et celles que
nous venons examiner.»

It is impossible to be more impartial than M. de Saussure has proved
himself to be on this occasion, or to reason more in the manner in which
every philosopher ought to reason on all occasions.

But to see the full value of this author's impartiality, notwithstanding
of his system, let us follow him in the second volume of Voyages dans
les Alpes. It is in chap. XX. entitled, Poudingues de Valorsine, that we
find the following description, with his reasoning upon that appearance.

«On voit la (page 99.) que la base de cette montagne est un vrai granit
gris à grains médiocres, et dont la structure n'a rien de distinct; mais