226 GEOLOGICAL FACTS OBSERVED 



obstacles ; and the last, which may be called neutral, are asso- 

 ciated with the first. Difficulties remain to be overcome both 

 in the Huttonian, and in the AVernerian system ; and unless 

 the partizans of each were zealous in applying their doctrines 

 to the facts which they discover, the face of nature would cease 

 to be referred to for those steps by which alone we can hope 

 to arrive at a perfect system : and our progress would be so 

 slow and heavy, that prejudice might take possession of our 

 minds, so as to shackle, if not to exclude, the free exercise of 

 reason. 



Rocks such as those of which the Faroe islands are formed, are 

 very liable to destruction by the operations of the atmosphere. 

 The great abundance of springs, which is characteristic of a trap 

 country, aid the action of frost. Accordingly, the whole of Faroe 

 exhibits extensive marks of the constant and destructive opera- 

 tion of these agents. The sea, too, rapidly undermines the preci- 

 pices, large masses of which are daily buried in it. As all the 

 uarrow channels which separate the islands, lie in the same di- 

 rection, and as veins of basalt are sometimes seen as if branch- 

 ing from them through the adjacent islands, I am induced to 

 suppose, that the separation of the islands has originated in the 

 destruction of large veins, subsequent to the land being eleva- 

 ted above the sea, and caused in the same manner as that of 

 other veins or dikes, now going on. The support of the walls 

 being removed, decomposition, and the effects of moisture and 

 frost, would operate in gradually destroying the beds, and at 

 last the sea, breaking through (as it is constantly doing in va- 

 rious parts of the islands), these channels might in this manner 

 have been formed. In the same way, the position, in some 

 instances, of those huge masses which now stand separated 

 from the coast may be accounted for. Indeed, in several pla- 

 ces, we saw the separation actually proceeding, by the remo- 

 val 



