72 HISrORT of the SOClETr. 



jng from S. E. to N. W. . The furface of this rock runs ■wich a 

 moderate afcent from the level of low-water, at which we land- 

 ed, nearly to that of high-water, where the fchiftus has a thin 

 covering of red horizontal fandftone laid over it ; and this fand- 

 ftone, at the diftance of a few yards farther back, rifes into a 

 very high perpendicular cliff. Here, therefore, the immediate 

 rontadl of the two rocks is not only vifible, but is curioufly dif- 

 fecfled and laid open by the acftion of the waves. The rugged 

 tops of the fchifius are feen penetrating into the horizontal beds 

 of fandftone, and the loweft of thefe lafl form a breccia contain- 

 ing fragments of fchiftus, fome round and others angular, uni- 

 ted by an arenaceous cement. 



Dr Hutton was highly pleafed with appearances that fet in 

 fo clear a light the different formations of the parts which com- 

 pofe the exterior cruft of the earth, and where all the circum- 

 flances were combined that could render the oblervation fatis- 

 facflory and precife. On us who faw thefe phenomena, for the 

 firft time, the impreffion made will not eafily be forgotten. The 

 palpable evidence prefented to us, of one of the moft; extraordi- 

 nary and important fa(fls in the natural hiftory of the earth, 

 gave a reality and fubftance to thofe theoretical fpeculations, 

 which, however probable, had never till now been direftly au- 

 thenticated by the teftimony of the fenfes. We often faid to 

 ourfelves, What clearer evidence could we have had of the dif- 

 ferent formation of thefe rocks, and of the long interval which 

 feparated their formation, h^d we adually feen them emer- 

 ging from the bofom of the deep ? We felt ourfelves necef- 

 farily carried back to the time when the fchiftus on which we 

 ftood was yet at the bottom of the fea, and when the fandftone 

 before us was only beginning to be depofited, in the ftiape of 

 £and or mud, from the waters of a fuperincumbent ocean. An ■ 

 epocha ftill more remote prefented itfelf, when even the moft 

 ancient of thefe rocks, inftead of ftanding upright in vertical 



beds, 



