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relations of the rocks of Scotland were long since investigated 

 by Dr. MacCulloch; who in addition to his previous works has 

 recently begun to publish, in the Journal of the Royal Institution, 

 the result of his observations on the north and north-eastern coasts : 

 and I myself have seen in the hands of that gentleman, some years 

 ago, several portions of an elaborate geological map of Scotland*, 

 of the greatest value. The labours of Professor Jameson likewise 

 have been unremitting; and you are well acquainted with the various 

 memoirs illustrating his native country, which he has published in 

 the Transactions of the Wernerian Society and the other Philoso- 

 phical Journals of Edinburgh. 



From the situation of the capitals of England and France, at 

 a distance from primary mountains, the study of the crystalline 

 formations would there naturally occupy less attention than that 

 of the stratified rocks ; and with this circumstance, the extra- 

 ordinary interest and novelty of recent zoological discoveries have 

 concurred, to fix upon the newer strata, — not more attention than 

 they deserve, but a degree of interest which has perhaps in some 

 cases been too exclusive. The naturalist, however, who is in search 

 of general laws, should exert himself to keep every part of his sub- 

 ject in view ; and should never cease to remember, that, as in the 

 study of the newer formations Zoology and Botany are his best 

 allies, — so Mineralogy is indispensable to an acquaintance with the 

 more ancient rocks, — and Chemistry as well as general Physics, to 

 the solution of the problems connected with them. Mineralogy 

 has, from various causes, been of late less vigorously pursued in 

 England, than a few )'ears ago ; and it is probably to the previous 

 labour which this subject requires, that we are, in part, to ascribe 

 the comparatively backward state of our knowledge respecting the 

 primary portions of this country. But though nothing has within 

 the last year been published in our Transactions upon these for- 

 mations, they have not been unattended to ; and the Memoirs 

 already produced, with those which are preparing for your perusal, 

 will be found to throw great light upon the relations of our transi- 

 tion and primary rocks. 



A memoir by Mr. Phillips, of the York Institution, describes a 

 tract which is a branch from the great central mass of the slaty 

 and primary rocks of Cumberland ; and gives in detail the pheno- 

 mena of a district remarkable for the numerous and striking proofs 

 which it exhibits of dislocation, — of such amount, that in one in- 

 stance strata have been brought into immediate apposition, which 

 in their original situation were separated by a thickness of more 

 than 500 feet. 



The general relations of the mountain district of Cumberland had 

 been already briefly but correctly described by Otleyf , in a tract 

 to which I have on a former occasion referred. I am now enabled, 

 through the kindness of Professor Sedgwick, to state the general 



* See Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. i. (1819), p. 41S. 

 f Lonsdale Magazine, for October, 1820. 

 c 



