78 OBSERVATIONS 
thofe materials; or whether it were not rather a body tranf- 
fufed from the fubterraneous regions, and made to break and 
invade the ftrata, in the manner of our whinftone or trapp, 
and of porphyries, into which the whinftone often graduates. 
Ir was not that I doubted of there being fuch a thing as ftra- 
tified granite ; the granit feuilleté or granit veiné, which M. DE 
Saussure has defcribed in his Voyages dans les Alpes, is cer- 
tainly a ftratified granite ; and this is very well diftinguifhed 
by that author, as is the granit en maj, the hiftory of which 
we are now enquiring after. I had alfo fpecimens of a fimilar 
veined granite from the North-weft Highlands, that is, from 
beyond Fort William and the lakes ; and this veined granite is 
ftratified along with the quartzy, micaceous and Alpine ftrata. 
Burt my object was to know if the granite that is found in 
- maffes has been made to flow in the bowels of the earth, in like 
manner as thofe great bodies of our whinftone and porphyry, 
which may be confidered as fubterranean lavas. Now, this 
queftion could only be determined by the examination of that 
fpecies of granite upon the fpot, or where it is to be found in 
immediate connection with thofe bodies which are evidently 
ftratified ; bodies, confequently, whofe natural hiftory we have 
fome means of tracing. 
In ftratified bodies, we have not only the means of: diftin- 
guifhing thofe which, in point of time or fucceffion of opera- 
tion, have been formed prior and pofterior, we may alfo, with 
regard to the manner of operation, diftinguifh thofe ftratified 
bodies from others which had been introduced among them in 
a forcible manner, or with marks of violence inconfiftent with 
the regular procefs of ftratification. Now, the evidence of this 
muft be found in the broken, feparated and diftorted parts of 
thofe regularly formed bodies, the natural hiftory of which we 
fo far know. 
Turs was the queftion, with regard to granite, that I wanted 
to have refolved by means of the connection of that mafs with 
the 
