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GEOLOGICAL REMARKS, 289 



primitive strata on which they rest, and of which 

 we shall afterwards speak, renders it impossible 

 to admit the hypothesis of their having been dis- 

 placed by any irregular or violent agency ; and, 

 along with the obvious phenomena of their struc- 

 ture, leads us irresistibly to the conclusion, that 

 they were originally formed as we now see them. 

 Nor will this position appear unnatural, if we re- 

 flect on the manner in which the debris of wast- 

 ing rocks must necessarily arrange itself, in fall- 

 ing down the sides of mountains. For example, let 

 any one look at the face of the steep under Salisbury 

 Craig, and he will easily satisfy himself, how t 

 supposing the presence of a consolidating power^ 

 a mass of conglomerate might be gradually form - 

 ed by a succession of layers from the waste of the 

 rock, with a very considerable inclination. In 

 fact, the acclivity on which the fragments are 

 now accumulated, has in general, an inclination 

 of more than 5o Q . The same materials under 

 water, by which the action of gravity is dimi- 

 nished, might assume a position still more nearly 

 approaching to vertical ; and such is the manner 

 in which we account for the general inclination 

 of the conglomerate at Callender. 



We remark at the same time, that particular 

 beds, in the process of waste, losing their sup- 

 port on the lower side, may at length, by the ac- 

 tion of the weather, or the force of torrents,, 

 have come to stand still more erect, as at the falls 

 of Brackland* Taking the subject in this view, 



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