308 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



across the fissure ; and not rather arranged in a stratified form, or 

 suspended in stalactitic masses ? Above all, why is the dyke through- 

 out its whole length composed of crystallized matter, and that matter 

 not at all affected by the nature of the various strata through which 

 it passes? In its progress from Maybecks to Cockfield, it crosses the 

 blue limestone and the sandstone strata above it, the coal measures 

 of our hills, the aluminous strata, the red sandstone of Cleveland, the 

 magnesian limestone, and the Durham coal measures, arriving at, or 

 approaching, the metalliferous limestone; yet the diversified nature 

 of the beds through which it runs has no effect on it. Now, as the 

 substance and structure of the dyke are nearly uniform, and have no 

 coimection with the nature or composition of the beds which it tra- 

 verses, we are compelled to think, that it is all derived from one 

 common source, and that source not above but below. And when 

 we also see along its course, effects produced by it, exactly corres- 

 ponding with the effects of ignited matter, what are we to believe, 

 but that its substance has been forced upwards in a state of igneous 

 fusion? — Hence, as we have seen that this dyke is connected with 

 slips or breaks of the strata, it is natural to conclude, that the same 

 kind of agency which forced up ignited matter into fissures of the 

 strata, may have been employed in raising the strata themselves, out 

 of the ocean in which they were formed. 



We might have drawn another argument against the formation 

 system, from the manner in which the basaltic dyke crosses so many 

 members of the series of strata ; but it is high time to proceed to the 

 next and last division of our subject, which we denominate 



HINTS AND CONJECTURES. 



From the foregoing statement of facts, and chain of reasonings 

 from facts observed, we have arrived at some important results, with 



