330 SKY. GEOLOGY. SECONDARY STRATA. 



completely removed, partly by the circumstances just 

 described, and partly by the two following appearances. 

 In one place a mass of the latter rock is found inter- 

 posed among the beds of the former, into which it 

 graduates more or less perfectly on each side: thus it 

 may be considered either as alternating with them, or 

 as a portion that has undergone some posterior change 

 from the influence of a more recent cause. Under either 

 supposition it is plain that the unstratified is not a pri- 

 mary rock, but that, notwithstanding its peculiarity of 

 characters, it forms an integrant portion of the secondary 

 strata, whether or not the causes of that peculiarity can 

 be explained. 



Near Kilbride a mass of the unstratified limestone is 

 found situated near to one of syenite, which here appears 

 to intersect the whole body of the strata, as it is found 

 to do in other places. Although the actual contact is, 

 as usual, unfortunately obscured by a cavity filled with 

 rubbish, yet there is here an opportunity of tracing by 

 a very perfect natural section, the change which it under- 

 goes between the regular calcareous beds which lie near 

 it on the one hand, and the irregular surface of syenite to 

 which it approximates on the other. At this latter surface 

 it bears no marks of stratification, but is an irregular 

 and almost shapeless mass, while near the beds it becomes 

 first vertical and gradually more regular ; till at the end, 

 its general bearing, although much deformed by fissures, 

 partakes decidedly of the general inclination of the strati- 

 fied rock, which is here about twenty-five degrees. 



The sketches * which accompany this article will render 

 the nature of these connexions more intelligible than 

 any description could, and they will also serve to explain 

 the anomalous appearances described as occurring in the 

 interior. 



As the mineral characters of the unstratified limestone 



* Plate XVIII. fig. 3, 4. 



