On the Transition Rocks of the Cataraqui. 101 



leaving out altogether any notice of those porphyries and sienites 

 (which are posterior to clay slate and limestone with orthoceratites,) 

 characterized by zircon granites ; as this class does not appear in any 

 alternations of the transition rocks which have passed under our ob- 

 servation in the vicinity of Kingston. 



Previously to entering on a research thus undertaken, it is proper to 

 state that neither Humboldt's theories, nor those of any other writer, 

 are looked upon by us to exhibit such absolute proofs of verisimili- 

 tude, tliat the student of nature should be at all bound to yield obe- 

 dience to them. We have premised, that geological science is yet in 

 its infancy, and it is not from books that it can be nurtured into adol- 

 escence. A vast host of names may be adduced by an essayist, to 

 shew his reading or to support his relation, many perhaps equally de- 

 serving of respect with that of the German traveller, but there are 

 few who have had equal opportunities of observing facts so generally 

 as Humboldt, and fewer who have had the patience to develop 

 them. His theories, doubtless, partake of the same difficulties and 

 obscurities with those of the French, the English and the Edinburgh 

 schools, whilst they have also the disadvantage of being cloaked in 

 such an exceedingly heavy investiture of learning, tliat their internal 

 splendor is much obscured and greatly depreciated. 



But Humboldt, in his general outline of the divisions of the rocky 

 masses which compose the surface of the globe, appears to our hum- 

 ble conception to exhibit a simplicity of arrangement under the cloud 

 of argument and reasoning, which we have no where else observed, 

 and which, joined to his laborious display of facts, renders his system 

 a very just and very perfect exposition of the present state of geolo- 

 gical knowledge. 



The transition rocks of the Cataraqui consist, for the most part, of 

 the limestone we have already described, of sienites and of green- 

 stones. Porphyry is rare, and, what is very singular, amid the vast 

 variety of granitic boulders in this locality, all different from the 

 masses in situ, few are porphyritic, although most of them are of the 

 transition classes. 



In proceeding from Kingston eastward, the first appearance of 

 sienite is observable near the extremity of the Point, where it forms 

 a low and slightly undulated beach for several hundred yards, and 

 appears as if rising out of the bosom of the Great Lake. This si- 

 enite is covered with the lichens of ages, and from the colors they 

 impart to it. would be mistaken for a stratum of the limestone, were 



