;248 NattalPs Geological and Mineralogical Remarks, 



anthracite of Rhode-Island, (which is occasi.onally penetra- 

 ted even by seams of asbestus,) as over the bituminous, 

 coal-fields of Pittsburg and Richmond ? Why are the bed^ 

 o.f coal, at Richmond in Virginia, penetrated by veins of 

 granite ? 



Lastly, why are the same organic remains found in tiie 

 alluvial limestone of Carolina and Georgia, as those of the 

 Great Calcareous Platform west of the Alleghany moun- 

 tain? ?* Are, in fact, those supposed epochas of time, be- 

 heved to have intervened between the production of strata 

 any thing more than an imaginary distinction of formations. 

 really allied, and as strictly dependent on each other, as the 

 members of the same formation? The grauwacke and red 

 sand-stone, we perceive, contain organic remains ; the 

 grauwacke imperceptibly blends Avith the granitines, sien- 

 ite<, and greenstones of the Highlands. The hornblende 

 rock and its metaiiiferous deposites unquestionably pass in- 

 to gneiss ; gneits is foliated granite. Where then are we 

 to seek for permanent distinctions ? What is primitive — 

 what is transition — what secondary — but the alluvions of 

 rivers and of seas ? Of what importance is the inclination 

 of strata, as the uppermost must necessarily be inclined at 

 a tlecreafiing ^y,^j^\^ ? Nor are examples wanting of a con- 

 fprmable stratification of the secondary with the oldest or the 

 primitive ;f and although the rocks referred to the primi- 

 tive formation, more frequently present vertical or highly in- 

 clined planes of stratification, yet, as Mr. Greenough remarks, 

 it IS also true, that every rock in different parts of its course 

 exhibits planes both vertically and horizontally iuGlined. 



1 am, I must confess, attached to those plausible distinc- 

 tions of things which tend so importantly to facilitate inform- 

 ation and promote instruction ; yet I would not wish to 

 submit to the shackles of an imaginary system, or prostrate 

 understanding at the shrine of an ambitious theory. Na- 

 ture yet presents a wide field for contemplation; there are 

 mysterie* yet unravelled — prejudices which blind — systems 

 which for the present impose, and which must ultimately 

 vanish before the test of truth. 



* The pentrenite of Mr. Say, orasterial fossil of Parkinson, is found twelve 

 or fourteen nniles from Savannah, in the limestone, as well as in the vicinity 

 of HuiitsviUe in Tennessee. 



t See Dr. MacCullock's Mineralogy of the Isl« of Sky^ Trans. Geolog, 

 Soc. Vol. 3, pp. 50, 5t. 



\ Greeaough's Geology, p. 40. 



