460 



gradtis. The line of demarcation between contiguous ftrata, fimilar, or 

 different, is as accurately defined, as if drawn by a pencil.* 



It remains for Dr. Htitton's, advocates to explain how the powers of 

 nature were exerted, to feparate for a time from the heterogeneous mafs 

 of far travelled detritus, one diftinft fpecies of matter to the esclufion 

 of all others, fo as to form a compleat extenfive flratum, for inftance 

 of limeRone, then fuddenly to change and colleLl another totally differ- 

 ent, perhaps, fand-stone or argil ; then as fuddenly a third, or very likely 

 to refume the firft, as is the cafe in our alternations which fo frequently 



occur. 



The difficulties feem equally infurmountable, when we examine fepa- 

 rate ftrata, and try whether, fingly, they could have been formed accord- 

 ing to Dr. Hutton's theory. 



I begin with coal, both becaufe its arrangement feems always to be 



in flrata, and alfo, becaufe it is particularly dwelt upon by Mr. PLiyfair, 



who fays, in his 5th feftion, " No foffil has its origin from the wafte of 



" former continents, marked by ftronger and more diflincl charafters." — 



" There are entire beds of this foffil, which appear to confift wholly of 



" wood, in which the fibrous flrufture is perfeftly preferved." — " Wc 



" cannot doubt that this foffil is every where the fame, and derives its 



" origin from the trees and plants which grew on the furface of the 



"" earth, before the formation of the prefent land." 



In 



* To elacidate this fafl, I give two fmall drawings, taken from parts of our grand facade, 

 not far from Plejkin. 



No. I, is a portion of our Sth ftratum (the fame, which a mile weftward forms the Giant's 

 Caufeway) ; with its tranfition into the ochrous ftratum it refts upon (the 7th), and into 

 the irregular prifmatic (the 9th) incumbent upon it. 



No. 2, exhibits a portion of the loth ftratum, compofed of neat pillars, 54 feet long 

 each, with their paflage into the eleventh, formed of rude maffive columns 14 feet long. 



Thefe flictches are the more to be relied upon, as they were taken without my know- 

 ledge, and without any view to the point I now refer them by my friend Capt. O'Neil, of 

 the 56th regiment, who, by frequently affifting me with his pencil, has caught the fpirit of 

 a Naturalift, and is now as much ftruck by curious fa>.1s in Natural Hiftory, as by our mag- 

 nificent fcenery. 



