Big antiquities in Scotland. June 23s 
in support of this last hypothesis it will hardly be ad. 
mitted. 
From the foregoing account it appears, that these 
works are purely artificial. At the same time it must 
be owned, that the natural appearance of the places 
where these vitrified mafses are usually found, is 
well calculated to favour the opinion that they have 
been produced by voleanoes. 
The vitrified matter is usually first discovered by 
travellers around the bottom, and on the sides of steep 
hills, frequently of a conical fhape, terminating in a 
narrow apex, exactly resembling the hills that have 
been formed by the eruptions of a volcano. Itis 
therefore very natural to think that these may have 
been produced in the same way. 
Let us suppose that a traveller, strongly impref-. 
sed with this idea, fhould resolve to examine the top 
of the mountain more nearly, and, for this purpose, 
ascends to the summit; would not his former conjec- 
ture be much confirmed, when, at the top, he fhould 
find himself in a circular hollow, surrougded on all 
sides by matter, rising gradually higher, to the very 
edge of the precipice, which is there entirely envi- 
roned with vitrified matter, of the same kind with that 
he had found at the bottom? Could such a man be cal- 
ted unreasonably credulous, if he fhould be induced 
by so many concurring circumstances.to believe that 
this had been a real volcano? But would he not be 
yeckoned sceptical in extreme, if he fhould entertain 
the smallest doubt of the truth of this opinion, if he 
likewife sees the very openmg itself in the centre of the 
hollow, through which the boiling /ava had been spewed. 
out. Yetstrongas all these appearances are, we know 
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