58 GENERAL OUTLINES AND 



where protruding through the soil, in numerous 

 others, as in Perthshire and Aberdeenshire, it cannot 

 be distinguished from the granite which it accompa- 

 nies, far less from the micaceous schist and quartz 

 rock with which it is so often interstratified. In itself, 

 like granite, it presents every possible form of out- 

 line ; sometimes displaying broken precipices and 

 rugged summits., at others, being every where co- 

 vered with soil, and forming rounded smooth hills or 

 flat and undulating low tracts. It is fruitless to pur- 

 sue this inquiry through the remainder of the strata. 

 In micaceous schist, in quartz rock, and in argilla- 

 ceous schist, the same uncertainty and confusion of 

 character are sufficiently obvious, and will not fail 

 immediately to be perceived by those who, at the 

 commencement of their progress, have been induced 

 to trust to so fallacious a guide. 



If, among the secondary strata, the limestone of 

 Dovedale is distinguished by its pinnacles and castel- 

 lated forms, so is the far different calcareous rock of 

 Istria and Dalmatia, and the sandstone, called quader- 

 sandstein, of the Germans. Even the same disposi- 

 tion is found conspicuously to prevail among the 

 conglomerates which belong to the lowest red sand- 

 stone ; as was already remarked in speaking of the 

 pinnacled form of granite. Among the greater num- 

 ber of the other secondary strata, it would be in vain 

 to look for picturesque distinctions ; as vain as, in 

 most cases, it would be to try to distinguish them 

 from the primary rocks, when the same general un- 

 dulations are found in both, and where both are 

 equally covered with alluvia and soil. 



It is unnecessary to say more on this subject. The 

 purpose of these remarks i<? not to deprive the ex- 



