ejectamenta

It’s possible I am the only reader whose heart will sing at Miller’s fondness for synthetic ejectamenta, but I would happily have read more.

In the British Islands, and many other non-volcanic regions, we find besides crystalline igneous rocks, abundant traces of loose ejectamenta, which clearly prove the former presence of volcanoes.

These are evidently the loose volcanic ejectamenta which accompanied former eruptions of lava, and have been arranged by the action of water.

The ejectamenta of loose materials which are thrown out during a volcanic eruption, consist in chief measure of fragments of lava, &c. of all sizes, from mere dust, sand, and grit, up to blocks of more than a ton in weight.

The terms applied to the varieties of ejectamenta found among modern volcanic accumulations, will be given and explained when we come to consider the nature of geological agencies.