VICINITY of EDINBURGH. 409 
difcover a language, which, if ftudied with due attention, can- 
not fail, I think, to become intelligible, and carry conviction to 
- thofe, who choofe to reafon impartially on the fubject. 
In the writings of Dr Hutton, we do not meet with defcrip- 
tions of particular diftridts, his obfe& being rather to eftablith 
_a general theory, by the particular facts which thefe diftrias 
afforded. 
We cannot, therefore, look to him for a mineralogical ac- 
count of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh; and we have to re- 
gret, that no other geologift has yet undertaken that tafk. 
In a (hort notice, i the Appendix of a work on another 
county, by Profeflor Jameson, this vicinity is mentioned as 
principally belonging, to what is termed the Coal Formation by 
WERNER, which, according to the fyftem of that celebrated na- 
turalift, forms part of the Fletz rocks. 
To render thefe terms intelligible to the general reader, it is 
neceflary to give fome explanation, as, without a confiderable 
knowledge of the fyftem to which they exclufively belong, they 
muft be totally incomprehenfible. 
WERNER is the only perfon, who has attempted a regular ar- 
rangement of rocks ; an arduous undertaking, which I have no 
doubt he has accomplithed, with all the accuracy the fubje@ was 
fufceptible of, and fo far as the country he examined allow- 
ed *, 
Bur it appears very evident, that the facts he met with were 
fuch, that, in confequence of the hypothefis he had previoufly 
thought proper to adopt, it became neceflary to invent a theo- 
Vor. VI.’P. IL. ele ry 
* Linxs from other quarters, having been fubfequently added to his forma: 
tion-fuites, by his pupils. 
