284 ON THE PARTICULAR ORDER OF 



they may safely be considered, from the intimacy of 

 their association, there is a series still more extensive ; 

 and treating it in the same general manner, it may 

 stand thus. The Granite is succeeded by gneiss, 

 hornblende, micaceous, chlorite, and talcose schists, 

 Diallage rock, serpentine, and argillaceous schist. 

 There is no limestone in this series, and the secondary 

 strata are absent. Were this scries however minute- 

 ly detailed, it would be found that there were more 

 than one alternation of every rock in it, and, of some 

 of them, a great number. It may be useful to contrast 

 one of these modes of description with the other; 

 partly for information, and partly to show how ar- 

 bitrary our method of grouping and omitting must of- 

 ten be, and how little we are entitled to determine 

 what the real order of the series, on the great scale, 

 is, or whether there is such an order at all. By select- 

 ing from these beds, at our pleasure, the supposed 

 principals and accessories, almost any hypothetical 

 order might be made to appear the true one. Not to 

 make the enumeration more intricate than is necessary 

 for this illustration, I shall select only two of the 

 least numerous successions from different parts of these 

 islands. Such are 



Gneiss and Gneiss 



Micaceous Schist Diallage Rock 



Chlorite Schist Chlorite Schist 



Micaceous Schist Argillaceous Schist 



Gneiss Serpentine 



Argillaceous Schist Argillaceous Schist 



Serpentine Diallage Rock 



Diallage Rock Serpentine 



Talcose Schist Talcose Schist 



Chlorite Schist Micaceous Schist. 



Micaceous Schist 

 Argillaceous Schist 



Were the reader to add both these lists together, 



