368 On the Strata of Mountains. 
Enumeration of the strata of which any country is com< 
posed, with an account of the changes they have undergone, 
and the operations that have been performed upon them, 
forms the true geological history of that country, and an 
accumulation of many of these detached histories affords 
the best materials for a general’ history of the physical 
world. 
Statistical surveys seem the proper’ deposits for the cu- 
rious facts of every country. 
Mr. Farey avails himself of this opportunity to lay before 
the world the stratification of Derbyshire ; and in my con- 
tribution to my friend Mr. Dusourp1E£v’s Statistical Sur-- 
vey of Antrim, J shall trace the arrangement of the strata 
of that cownty with much accuracy. 
The curious basaltic construction’ of the Giant’s Cause- 
way in my neighbourhood, first brought my attention on 
such subjects. 
From the singular forms which nature had impressed. 
upon her materials in that wonderful spot, I proceeded to” 
her arrangements, the source of the beauty and grandeur 
of our coast, displayed in a succession of magnificent fa- 
cades. : 
The consummate regularity of these arrangements I Jaid 
before the world in the memoir I have mentioned, and gave 
adetailed. account of the operations that had been per- 
formed on them. 
I now proceed from the more diminutive arrangements 
of nature, so well exhibited in. our magnificent facades, to 
her grander arrangements, the construction of her great 
mountains, all composed (with us) of vast strata. 
These strata it appears are abrupted at the periphery ; 
and the materials carriedoff ; always at one side’; and some- 
times in the whole contour, as in the great hemispherical 
mountain KNOCKLAID, whose middle frustum is a) vast 
stratum of white limestone, showing itself every where: 
round the periphery, severat hundred feet high, forming w 
steady plane, slightly inclined to the horizon: which 
plane so far above the surface, on the mountain, is found, 
when traced in the direction of its dip, again to catch the! 
surface of the earth, im its rectilineal-course, at a few miles: 
distance. Lo. ct > syins ; 
Can it be:snstained for<acmoment,; that Knocklaid was 
originally formed as it now stands, -bold, and. solitary? Is) 
it not rather a portion of the great consolidated mass of! 
strata left standing when the materials once contiguous: 
were carried off fron its whole contour? io 
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