AND THEIR MEETING WITH GRANITE. 99 



Douglas (now Earl of Selkirk), and that in " all this extent, 

 " where the junction of the granite with the schistus was vi- 

 " sible, veins of the former, from fifty yards to the tenth of 

 " an inch in width, were to be seen, running into the latter, 

 " and pervading it in all directions, so as to put it beyond all 

 *' doubt, that the granite of these veins, and consequently of 

 11 the great body itself, which I observed forming with the 

 " veins one continued and uninterrupted mass, must have 

 " flowed in a soft or liquid state into its present position." 



I have since, on many occasions, visited the same place, 

 and every fresh observation has confirmed my first impression, 

 and has served more and more to convince me, that the gra- 

 nite is posterior in formation to the killas, and has flowed into 

 its present position from below upwards, in a liquid state, 

 whilst the stratified mass was hard, or at least sufficiently so 

 as to break with sharp angles, and to allow the liquid granite 

 to mould itself upon its fractures. 



I observed every circumstance that might be expected in 

 such a case. I saw the granite meeting the strata in every 

 possible angle. In one case, which occurs in the bed of the 

 river, at the High Bridge of Dee, I saw the bounding surface 

 of the granite dipping at an angle of 45 degrees from the 

 centre of the granitic mass, and the strata lying upon it, in 

 what (in the Wernerian language) is called a conformable posi- 

 tion to the granite, and corresponding exactly to what they 

 have held out as the mode in which the granite always meets 

 the strata. 



The Hill of Lauren, which occupies the south-west of Loch 

 Ken (on the side of the granitic mass, nearly opposite to the 

 spot last mentioned) presents a junction of these bodies, 

 whose character is as completely different as could well be 

 conceived. At the southern extremity of the ridge, the junc- 

 tion is well seen, characterised by large features. The strata 



N 2 are 



