1 90 Di\ Nugent on tbe Souffnere of Mont s err at. 



organized substances ; and others evidently owe their origin to a 

 volcanic agency, which is either in some degree apparent at the 

 present time, or else may be readily traced by vestiges comparatively 

 recent. There is every reason to believe, however, that some of the 

 islands are really of contemporaneous formation with the adjacent 

 parts of the continent, from which they have been disjoined by the 

 incursions of the sea, or by convulsions of nature, and it is probably 

 in those islands which contain primitive rocks, that we are chiefly to 

 look for a confirmation of this supposition. 



