475 



I need not proceed fiirther to fiievv, that the ftrata of my country have 

 not fuftaincd the operations which Dr. Hutton affcrts have been performed 

 upon the Jlrata of the globe ; but it may be objefted that my arguments 

 are local, and though they may reflrift, fliould not overturn a general 

 conclufion. 



The objeclicn Is fair, but I believe will fcarcely be offered by Dr. 

 Hution's advocates ; for, from the nature of his theory, no fpot in the 

 world can be exempted from his revolutionizing operations, which, a6 

 he himfelf tells us, (page 253) " have been not only general, as found 

 " in all the regions of the globe, but univerfal." 



I by no means infmuate, that the ftrata over the world are al- 

 ways as fteady as in our bafaltic country ; fchiftus ftrata, in particular, 

 are often very much inclined ; but I argue only from what I have 

 feen, and from fa6ls for which I make myfelf refponfible. 



Dr. Hutton feems to confider ivhyjin dykes as a ftrong confirmation of 

 his theory. To me they feem utterly irreconcxleable to it. We know 

 that they cut through all ftrata they meet with, to depths we have in 

 no inftance been able to reach, and are generally perpendicular (fuch 

 at lead is the defcription of thofe with which I am acquainted). Dr. 

 Hutton too (page 278) traced one twenty or thirty miles in length. 



He muft determine whether thefe enormous fepta, were formed be- 

 fore or after his fjppofed elevation of the ftrata froni the bottom of 

 the fea, to the fummits of our mountains ; if before, how came thefe 

 mighty walls to preferve their perpendicular pofition and long redi- 

 lineal courfe, in the midft of fuch a tremendous explofion, as by his 

 own account, fradured, dijlocated and contorted the other ftrata, chang- 

 ing their pofition from horizontal to vertical, and breaking them in 

 every poffible direction ; from planes bending and doubling them ? 



If he makes thefe whynn dykes pofterior to the explofion, and formed 

 by fluid lava, injedled upwards through the fiflures formed by the 

 difruption of the ftrata ; how can we conceive fuch fteady perpendi- 

 cularity in chafms formed in the midft. of a fccnc of fuch confufion, 



' ("3 O 7. ) * =*^^ 



