Steenur.
Marble of
feveral kinds
general, where I likewife confidifed the difruptions or breaks of
mountains. When a part of a rocky mountain, being undermined
and detached, falls from vits vaft height,, and in its fall :hkppens
to ftrike on a hard ground, and is broke 'into feme hundreds jg f
finaller pieces, this collective body of fragments is called fftenur,
and- the innumerable points and angles of thofe broken, Hones
render the roads extremely troublefom, tho’ fometimes :they are
obferved- to lie in' luch fymetry, that, their former-eohefiohi may
be judged from their concave and convexjfides. In the parifh of
Houg, three Norway-miles from Bergen, about twenty years-ago,
a very furprifing'accident happened to a man, who walking under
a mountain, .was,,oh a fudden entirely covered with the,fall of
inch a congeries of large ftones, which formed a kind of vault
around him, Here he remained ^unhurt for leveral weeks; his
friends, who by his outcries had found the place of his confinement,
knew not hour to extneate him, the ftones ^being immove-
ably large. They reached him meat, and drink, for fcW^tiine
by means of a pole, thro’ the crevices, but at k ftf the ftones« fell
in and cruihed him.
S E C T. II.
Marble, which in moft countries is fo fearee, and bought up at
’ ib great a price, is found here, in federal places, and in,|uch..;quan:-
titi.es, that if all Europe were to be fopplied from?hence the quarries
would not be exhaufted; for feveral ridges of mountains con-
fift almoft wholly, or, however,, chiefly of marble, upon breaking
the lapidious incruftation, which is a porous fubftance, 'and about
an d l qr two deep, -as a tegument *t© the more precious »marble,
in companion with which^ itr appears to have a kindiqf foam or
froth, interfperfed with finall orbicular cavities,, as the furface of
melted wax* or the like after its induration. I have .elfewjiere
confirmed the opinion of the liquefaction of the rocks, as built on
other unexceptionable grounds, exclufive of thefe incruftations.
Had the inquifitive Mr. Toumefort reflected better on this truth,
and the confequences which may be drawn from it,, he yvould not
have been under a neceflity of aflenting to the ftrange pofition of
the vegitation of marble, to account, for fome fhoots and excref-
cences of marble found in a cave on the ifland of Antiparos,
■ fem e
feme depending from “the roof of a cave, others fhooting out of
the ground which he actually réprefelfts them
to be.' His'words are, II femble, qufe;le nature nbus avoipyoulu
montrer par-la-comment d ie s’ y prend pouf la vegetation des pierres,.
il femble, qu^.GestrpnCs'dâ marbre' vegeteftt, car outre-, qî|’il
ne tombe pas ünë feule goutted’eaji dans ce lieu, il n’eft pas concevable,
que des gouttes tombant de 23 ou 30 brades de haut
ayent pu former des piecçs. cilindfiqües terminées en calotte, &c.
So ; far he is right, that another origin of thofe figures mull be
fought here, than thefe Stalactites, as they are. called, or drop-
ftones, which.are frequently found in fubterraneous caverns; yet
there is no neceflity of recurring to the vegetation of marble; a
third caufe oflfciiftg ipfel^ jftiatÿthpl^ long fhoots ap^^r^bps. ,ase
unqueftfonab% an immediate-work of nature, and may, or rather
muft have been produced* a t one time, a n d if they muft be called
vegetables, they may have fprung up in a night, like; muflirooms,
or. perhaps, in an hour, - or.even a -rmnfttlf and that, during pr.
mediately aftpr the'dduge,^when the detached .or liquefied ftony
fubftances began; again to fettle and confolidate. In that cafe, ft
is not in the leaft improbable, that fome of ;the fpfteft part of the
cqaiplidating laft, fhould meet with ai.refiftanqe from
tfrefe parts of the marble, which had already fobfided, and run
into, thefe fhoots, clufters, and, other figures, in yhich they appear
at -prefent. ! This is moft evident in marble apd .other hard
ftoneSj-notony frompther indications, fori they manifeffiy Gen^
tam. folidum jntra folidum; but beautiful
Handings of their cdboufs, afid foots, -vegas and.ftreaks, life ,ft|j
urieu mixture or oil cdlours, which, when cut throjugn, ïhêw the
like in|esmir^led ftreaks, as in pur marble quarries. I mjueff am
poflèfled of fuch a-piece of artificial riiarble, though I. confefs ft
ls -much dearer, ' and deficient in folidity, which only irican obfain
in the laboratory of die lupreme mafter of nature *,
* Pouibly the ancieftts had die art 01 giving it its groper hardnels; as muft’have
beeij- the cafe, if we fuppofe thofe vaft columns' and obeli(ks of Egyptian marble forty-
eight ells in height n'ot brought to' Romein- one en tire piece, which appears difficult
if not im but to have " 1 i artificial granate. Dr. Shaw, in his travels
to the Levant,'.X. 11. Ch. rv. p. Sh'i^y-faÿsyifome have imagined iPompeyl^ doliàïm
apdwfelobelifka iofifepme^ and Alexandria, to be an ârj&ificial Eômpolition ojîfçismeiit
and finds, call: in' a mould.
' ÉarT I. . U u Moft