ON THE CARTLANE CRAIG. 



The whole extent of the Cartlane Craig, along 

 its edges and steep faces, particularly on the low- 

 er side, is richly fringed and beautifully clothed 

 with plantations and brush- wood, so as to exhibit 

 one of the finest and naost romantic pieces of 

 natural scenery, that can be imagined. In spite, 

 however, of this Covering, and of the waste 

 which must have gone far in the course of ages, 

 to disfigure the face of the rock, and destroy the 

 traces of its fracture, the more remarkable fea- 

 tures of this extraordinary mineral appearance, 

 are still discernible on the slightest inspection. 

 It presents a succession of projecting and re- 

 entering angles, reaching from the top to the bot- 

 tom of the solid front, which are most distinctly 

 observed towards the centre or highest part : each 

 projection on the one side having its correspondent 

 recess on the other, and the opposite faces or 

 edges of the disrupted strata shewing their origi- 

 nal continuity. 



These circumstances, render it probable, that 

 the cliasm in question has owed its existence to 

 the operation of some cause, not of a slow and 

 silent kind, as the wearing of water, or the de- 

 composition of the rock, but more sudden and 

 violent in its action : and to explain it satisfac- 

 torily, I would now propose, as a geological 

 problem, of no inconsiderable curiosity and in- 

 terest. 



