GEO LOO Y. ;37 



sides of Largo Law. The g-encral contour of the district is that 

 of a series of ridges, with alternating hollows, all the result of 

 corresponding disturbance in the rock}^ masses beneath, and all 

 so arranged internally by a wise Providence, as at once to 

 impart beaut}^ and variety to the landscape, and to render the 

 enclosed treasures of coal, lime, and iron most subservient to 

 the use and comfort of man. 



The several systems or formations of rocks thus briefly 

 glanced at, when studied on the great scale, are all of the easiest 

 access for observation, and are all separated by well-marked 

 ph3^sical distinctions. Approached from the north, as we have 

 done, they all lie face to face with the observer, trending from 

 east to west, and successively protruding in reguhir serial order 

 frorh below upwards. The courses of a building are not better 

 defined, nor the colours of a picture more clearly delineated, 

 and ever}" rock in its due place of superposition stretches across 

 the mainland from sea to sea. In no district are an}'- of the 

 members of the series, primary or secondary, covered up or 

 entirely concealed from view. Where the continuity is Ijroken 

 by straths, rivers, or arms of the sea, or, as often occurs, by the 

 eruptive rocks, the formation can again be traced out with little 

 difficulty on the opposite sides. This arrangement, more espe- 

 cially with all the divisions of the Old Red, is uniformly persistent, 

 and as nearly as possible according to lineal perspective. From 

 the blue slates of the Grampians to the variegated sandstones 

 of Dura Den, there is a continuous succession of ascending- 

 layers of rock, lying wdth their out-crops tilted one above 

 another, chapter after chapter of the world's history stereotyped 

 on their stony tablets, and the families of its earliest annals, in 

 countless numbers of vegetable and animal forms, preserved for 

 the inspection of all who will read the instructive pages. 



Sir R. L Murchison, in the course of last year, went over the 

 whole of the district now described, and in the concludino- 



