246 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE [Ch. XII. 



vincing, they may dispose geologists to enquire whether it be 

 not possible that the primary strata may have had a different 

 origin from those of the known sedimentary formations. 



If it be decided that they are both stratified, then, if the 

 foregoing remarks be correct, it follows that granite and the 

 analogous rocks are also stratified. Such an opinion has 

 been entertained; many geologists have asserted that it is 

 partially stratified ; and Humboldt, as quoted by Greenough*, 

 has stated that he has discerned everywhere, in granite, strata 

 which in all parts of the world have the same dip and direc- 

 tion. It would be unnecessary to enumerate the various 

 authors who have recorded their opinions on each side of the 

 question, whether granite is stratified; for this has already 

 been ably done by Greenough : we shall therefore only add 

 his conclusion on this topic. " Whence this contrariety of 

 opinion? Are our senses at variance, or our judgments? 

 The cause, I think, is obvious. Every one uses the word 

 stratum, no one enquires its meaning; the remedy is as 

 obvious definition." 



No one can dispute the accuracy of this reasoning : is it 

 not, then, a remarkable circumstance that geologists should, 

 from year to year, rest satisfied with the term stratum, and 

 continue to use it unreservedly in the same indefinite manner, 

 since the impropriety of so doing has been clearly demon- 

 strated by a geologist of such acknowledged ability ? That 

 tiie case really still remains in statu quo, we have attempted to 

 show in the preceding pages ; and, farther, we have also 

 endeavoured to argue that many of the leading characteristics 

 of strata, such, for example, as have reference to their form 

 and structure, are common to granite and other unstratified 

 crocks. 



On these grounds, therefore, we contend that if the primary 

 slates are stratified, so are the granitic beds or layers of which 

 the mass is composed ; or, if granite is an unstratified rock, 



* A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Oeology, p. 7. 



