240 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE [Ch. XII. 



and, in the course of a few minutes, filling the place which 

 the furrows had occupied." Now this result shows, as we 

 have stated, that the deposition would not take place in 

 parallel layers on the inclined plane ; otherwise the furrows 

 would not have been filled up and obliterated, but the inclined 

 side, if the analogy held good, would have changed its place, 

 retaining, however, its original position. Besides, it might 

 be enquired, how the first layer, on which all the succeeding 

 ones are supposed to have been deposited, acquired its in- 

 clined position ? And how, if these layers were formed by 

 a current of water, do they occur in such a limited space, 

 dipping in opposite directions ? 



These objections, perhaps, may not be deemed unanswer- 

 able : still it will probably be admitted, that this resemblance 

 between the primary slates and the sedimentary formations, 

 is not sufficient to prove that the former are stratified, and 

 have had an aqueous origin : and this is all we wish to contend 

 for at present. Although refusing to accede to the ex- 

 planation advanced, yet we think that the fact itself of the 

 peculiar arrangement in the laminae of rocks is deserving of 

 great attention, as it is analogous, on a small scale, to the 

 disposition of extensive strata. The occurrence of such ob- 

 lique layers among others differently placed, has been noticed 

 in many rocks, by several observers, more particularly by 

 Professor Jameson and Dr. Maceulloch. The former has 

 given some complicated instances, as occurring in the sand- 

 stones of East Lothian ; and which he refers to the structure 

 of this rock, and not to the mode of deposition * : and the 

 same geologist mentions, in his Quarterly Journal, a similar 

 arrangement in the lamina of the trap-rocks at Edinburgh. 

 Dr. Macculloch's remarks on the sandstone of Skye, written 

 in the same year, have the same tendency. " The position 

 of the beds of this rock is generally horizontal, never varying 

 therefrom more than 5. Each bed seems compounded of 



* Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. iii. p. 239. 



