340 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



hich the appearances of regular beds 



or are 



ely wanting. The d 

 . an objed: highly wo 



ambiguous, 



cifion of this quell: 



thy of the attention of geologifls. 



303. An argument, direded at once againft the 

 igneous origin and unftratified nature of all gra- 



nite, IS g 



in a 



k 



dy 



tioned 



If granite had flowed from below, how doe 



3 



it happ 



th 



fter it had burfl: through the 



fa 



Itrata of micaceous fchiilus, &c. it did not over- 

 flow the neighbouring country ? If this hypo- 

 thefis were true, Mont Blanc could never have 

 exifl:ed '^." 



A theory is never more unfairly dealt with, 

 than when thofe parts are feparated which were 

 meant to fupport one another, and each left to 

 fliand or fall by itfelf. This, however, is pre- 

 cifely what is done in the prefent infl;ance ; for 

 Dr Hutton's theory of granite would not de- 

 ferve a moment's coniideration, if it were fo in- 

 artificially conflruded, as to fuppofe that gra- 

 nite was originally fluid, and yet to point out 

 no means of hindering this fluid from difl'ufmg 

 itfelf over the ftrata, and fettling in a horizon- 

 tal plane. The truth is, that his theory, at the 

 fame time that it conceives this ftone to have 



been 



* Mineralogy of the Scottilh Ifles, vol. i.i. p. i65. 





