Volcanic Islands by Charles Robert Darwin (best authors to read .txt) 📕

that on the other hand, Brocchi, and other eminent geologists, have considered these beds as earthy varieties of trachyte; he considers the subject deserving of further attention.) The insensible passage of the greenish variety into the white one, and likewise the more abrupt passage by fragments of the former being embedded in the latter, might result from slight differences in the composition of the same mass of molten stone, and from the abrading action of one such part still fluid on another part already solidified. The curiously formed veins have, I believe, been formed by siliceous matter being subsequently segregated. But my chief reason for believing that these soft earthy stones, with their extraneous fragments, are not of sedimentary origin, is the extreme improbability of crystals of feldspar, black microscopical specks, and small stains of a darker colour occurring in the same proportional numbers in an aqueous deposit, and in masses of solid trachyte. Moreover, as I have remarked, the microscope occasionally reveals a crystalline structure in the apparently earthy basis. On the other hand, the partial decomposition of such great masses of trachyte, forming whole mountains, is undoubtedly a circumstance of not easy explanation.


VEINS IN THE EARTHY TRACHYTIC MASSES.
These veins are extraordinarily numerous, intersecting in the most complicated manner both coloured varieties of the earthy trachyte: they are best seen on the flanks of the "Crater of the old volcano." They contain crystals of glassy feldspar, black microscopical specks and little dark stains, precisely as in the surrounding rock; but the basis is very different, being exceedingly hard, compact, somewhat brittle, and of rather less easy fusibility. The veins vary much, and suddenly, from the tenth of an inch to one inch in thickness; they often thin out, not only on their edges, but in their central parts, thus leaving round, irregular apertures; their surfaces are rugged. They are inclined at every possible angle with the horizon, or are horizontal; they are generally curvilinear, and often interbranch one with another. From their hardness they withstand weathering, and projecting two or three feet above the ground, they occasionally extend some yards in length; these plate-like veins, when struck, emit a sound, almost like that of a drum, and they may be distinctly seen to vibrate; their fragments, which are strewed on the ground, clatter like pieces of iron when knocked against each other. They often assume the most singular forms; I saw a pedestal of the earthy trachyte, covered by a hemispherical portion of a vein, like a great umbrella, sufficiently large to shelter two persons. I have never met with, or seen described, any veins like these; but in form they resemble the ferruginous seams, due to some process of segregation, occurring not uncommonly in sandstones,--for instance, in the New Red sandstone of England. Numerous veins of jasper and of siliceous sinter, occurring on the summit of this same hill, show that there has been some abundant source of silica, and as these plate-like veins differ from the trachyte only in their greater hardness, brittleness, and less easy fusibility, it appears probable that their origin is due to the segregation or infiltration of siliceous matter, in the same manner as happens with the oxides of iron in many sedimentary rocks.


SILICEOUS SINTER AND JASPER.
The siliceous sinter is either quite white, of little specific gravity, and with a somewhat pearly fracture, passing into pinkish pearl quartz; or it is yellowish white, with a harsh fracture, and it then contains an earthy powder in small cavities. Both varieties occur, either in large irregular masses in the altered trachyte, or in seams included in broad, vertical, tortuous, irregular veins of a compact, harsh stone of a dull red colour, appearing like a sandstone. This stone, however, is only altered trachyte; and a nearly similar variety, but often honeycombed, sometimes adheres to the projecting plate-like veins, described in the last paragraph. The jasper is of an ochre yellow or red colour; it occurs in large irregular masses, and sometimes in veins, both in the altered trachyte and in an associated mass of scoriaceous basalt. The cells of the scoriaceous basalt are lined or filled with fine, concentric layers of chalcedony, coated and studded with bright-red oxide of iron. In this rock, especially in the rather more compact parts, irregular angular patches of the red jasper are included, the edges of which insensibly blend into the surrounding mass; other patches occur having an intermediate character between perfect jasper and the ferruginous, decomposed, basaltic base. In these patches, and likewise in the large vein-like masses of jasper, there occur little rounded cavities, of exactly the same size and form with the air-cells, which in the scoriaceous basalt are filled and lined with layers of chalcedony. Small fragments of the jasper, examined under the microscope, seem to resemble the chalcedony with its colouring matter not separated into layers, but mingled in the siliceous paste, together with some impurities. I can understand these facts,--namely, the blending of the jasper into the semi-decomposed basalt,--its occurrence in angular patches, which clearly do not occupy pre-existing hollows in the rock,--and its containing little vesicles filled with chalcedony, like those in the scoriaceous lava,--only on the supposition that a fluid, probably the same fluid which deposited the chalcedony in the air-cells, removed in those parts where there were no cavities, the ingredients of the basaltic rock, and left in their place silica and iron, and thus produced the jasper. In some specimens of silicified wood, I have observed, that in the same manner as in the basalt, the solid parts were converted into a dark-coloured homogeneous stone, whereas the cavities formed by the larger sap-vessels (which may be compared with the air-vesicles in the basaltic lava) and other irregular hollows, apparently produced by decay, were filled with concentric layers of chalcedony; in this case, there can be little doubt that the same fluid deposited the homogeneous base and the chalcedonic layers. After these considerations, I cannot doubt but that the jasper of Ascension may be viewed as a volcanic rock silicified, in precisely the same sense as this term is applied to wood, when silicified; we are equally ignorant of the means by which every atom of wood, whilst in a perfect state, is removed and replaced by atoms of silica, as we are of the means by which the constituent parts of a volcanic rock could be thus acted on. (Beudant "Voyage en Hongrie" tome 3 pages 502, 504 describes kidney-shaped masses of jasper-opal, which either blend into the surrounding trachytic conglomerate, or are embedded in it like chalk-flints; and he compares them with the fragments of opalised wood, which are abundant in this same formation. Beudant, however, appears to have viewed the process of their formation rather as one of simple infiltration than of molecular exchange; but the presence of a concretion, wholly different from the surrounding matter, if not formed in a pre-existing hollow, clearly seems to me to require, either a molecular or mechanical displacement of the atoms, which occupied the space afterwards filled by it. The jasper-opal of Hungary passes into chalcedony, and therefore in this case, as in that of Ascension, jasper seems to be intimately related in origin with chalcedony.) I was led to the careful examination of these rocks, and to the conclusion here given, from having heard the Rev. Professor Henslow express a similar opinion, regarding the origin in trap-rocks of many chalcedonies and agates. Siliceous deposits seem to be very general, if not of universal occurrence, in partially decomposed trachytic tuffs (Beudant "Voyage Min." tome 3 page 507 enumerates cases in Hungary, Germany, Central France, Italy, Greece, and Mexico.); and as these hills, according to the view above given, consist of trachyte softened and altered in situ, the presence of free silica in this case may be added as one more instance to the list.


CONCRETIONS IN PUMICEOUS TUFF.
The hill, marked in Map 2 "Crater of an old volcano," has no claims to this appellation, which I could discover, except in being surmounted by a circular, very shallow, saucer-like summit, nearly half a mile in diameter. This hollow has been nearly filled up with many successive sheets of ashes and scoriae, of different colours, and slightly consolidated. Each successive saucer-shaped layer crops out all round the margin, forming so many rings of various colours, and giving to the hill a fantastic appearance. The outer ring is broad, and of a white colour; hence it resembles a course round which horses have been exercised, and has received the name of the Devil's Riding School, by which it is most generally known. These successive layers of ashes must have fallen over the whole surrounding country, but they have all been blown away except in this one hollow, in which probably moisture accumulated, either during an extraordinary year when rain fell, or during the storms often accompanying volcanic eruptions. One of the layers of a pinkish colour, and chiefly derived from small, decomposed fragments of pumice, is remarkable, from containing numerous concretions. These are generally spherical, from half an inch to three inches in diameter; but they are occasionally cylindrical, like those of iron-pyrites in the chalk of Europe. They consist of a very tough, compact, pale-brown stone, with a smooth and even fracture. They are divided into concentric layers by thin white partitions, resembling the external superficies; six or eight of such layers are distinctly defined near the outside; but those towards the inside generally become indistinct, and blend into a homogeneous mass. I presume that these concentric layers were formed by the shrinking of the concretion, as it became compact. The interior part is generally fissured by minute cracks or septaria, which are lined, both by black, metallic, and by other white and crystalline specks, the nature of which I was unable to ascertain. Some of the larger concretions consist of a mere spherical shell, filled with slightly consolidated ashes. The concretions contain a small proportion of carbonate of lime: a fragment placed under the blowpipe decrepitates, then whitens and fuses into a blebby enamel, but does not become caustic. The surrounding ashes do not contain any carbonate of lime; hence the concretions have probably been formed, as is so often the case, by the aggregation of this substance. I have not met with any account of similar concretions; and considering their great toughness and compactness, their occurrence in a bed, which probably has been subjected only to atmospheric moisture, is remarkable.


FORMATION OF CALCAREOUS ROCKS ON THE SEA-COAST.
On several of the sea-beaches, there are immense accumulations of small, well-rounded particles of shells and corals, of white, yellowish, and pink colours, interspersed with a few volcanic particles. At the depth of a few feet, these are found cemented together into stone, of which the softer varieties are used for building; there are other varieties, both coarse and fine-grained, too hard for this purpose: and I saw one mass divided into even layers half an inch in thickness, which were so compact that when struck with a hammer they rang like flint. It is believed by the inhabitants, that the particles become united in the course of a single year. The union is effected by calcareous matter; and in the most compact varieties, each rounded particle of shell and volcanic rock can be distinctly seen to be enveloped in a husk of pellucid carbonate of lime. Extremely few perfect shells are embedded in these agglutinated masses; and I have examined even a large fragment under a microscope, without being able to discover the least vestige of striae or other marks of external form: this shows how long each particle must have been rolled about, before its turn came to be embedded and cemented. (The eggs of the turtle being buried by the parent, sometimes become enclosed in the solid rock. Mr. Lyell has given a figure ("Principles of Geology" book