the indistructibility of granite, lime stone, and some 

 other kinds. There are many instances in the British 

 dominions, more immediately at hand, and equally as 

 well, if not better adapted to the purposes of a critical 

 examination, removing of doubts, and of deciding 

 upon the fact, or of placing the subject in such alight 

 as no longer to remain a theme of discussion. Of 

 these, 1 will name Stone Henge, and other Druidical 

 monuments which have withstood the operations of 

 time through a period amply sufficient to have deter- 

 mined whether or not, they are in a progressive state 

 of disintegration, or decomposition. 



Whether they are of granite or not, I do not recol- 

 lect, but the presumption is, that the circumstance of 

 these enormous masses having been removed from 

 their primitive bed and erected into a monument, could 

 not lessen the tendency to decomposition if suscepti- 

 ble of it ; therefore they are suitable objects on which 

 to fix our attention and to regulate our opinions on the 

 subject. If not, however, a single glance at the 

 Giant's Causeway might have freed his mind, and 

 that of every other person, from all doubts on this 

 head, and left the matter at rest. 



There are monuments, en place, erected by the 

 author of nature, and which, though not of granite or 

 limestone, have resisted the combined efforts of time 

 unaltered and unchanged. This at least is pre- 

 sumed : for had they been susceptible of the opera- 

 tions of any natural agent, or of those which are 

 supposed to promote the decomposition of rocks, 



