Antediluvian Cone/elation of the JFater of Bocks, 41 



in some places, while in others the beds approach to a more 

 close and regular lamination, though still disintegrated, and 

 in others the surface stratifications of the affected rock appear 

 only gentl}*^ separated or displaced. The upper fragments of 

 the talus are generally about four inches to one foot square, 

 lying at all angles, but mostly in the same parallelism of their 

 planes, and with more or less of fine mould or sand interspersed 

 and diffused among them. Many series of these fragments 

 present more or less of their apparently original lines of ver- 

 tical division, and their parallelism with each other, like the 

 several portions of a pack of cards when thrown on the table ; 

 while other sections of these pieces have been observed to 

 affect an oblique direction in short and interrupted series ; or 

 to be, as it were, slightly turned round on their vertical axes, 

 like a twisting, half round, of a few cards in the pack. How- 

 ever far disunited and removed many of these rocky fragments 

 may be, and especially in the upper layers, from their counter- 

 parts or similar pieces, I have never observed any of them, 

 except a few pieces on the surface of the beds, lying in a ver- 

 tical direction to the general plane, but all nearly in the same 

 parallelism, whatever their amount, size, or dispersion may 

 be. On first inspection, these seeming taluses may be sup- 

 posed to be owing to the transportation of disintegrated rocks, 

 from neighbouring or more distant strata, which may have 

 been deposited in certain localities by eddies or currents of 

 diluvial water ; but on a nearer examination, they are found 

 to have the same character as the subjacent rocks, and, indeed, 

 they are part and parcel of them in a fractured and separated 

 state. The identical character of the rock can, in most in- 

 stances, be traced from the solid bed up through several piles 

 of the shattered pieces above — clearly proving that the frag- 

 mentary beds have been derived from the rocks in situ. These 

 beds are more particularly observed on the inclined surfaces, 

 or in the hollow parts of the sandstone strata; while on the 

 crests or shoulders of the rocks they are thin, or rare, or en- 

 tirely awanting — the diluvium or soil, in these instances, 

 resting in contact with the otherwise bare and compact rock. 

 These fragmentary beds are sometimes covered with a great 

 depth of diluvial deposits, amounting to ten fe«t or more^ even 



