354 OK THE HIGHLANDS. 



it may not be improper, in concluding, to state 

 the grounds on which it appeared to me, that the 

 operation, of fire cannot be recognized in the struc- 

 ture of Ben-Nevis. 



Had this vast body of mountain been thrown 

 up from below, we might naturally expect, that 

 the strata on which it is erected, should some- 

 where be found opening or separating, to allow a 

 passage for the ejected matter. Such an appear- 

 ance, I could not discover. Far otherwise, the 

 strata appear pursuing their course undisturbed, 

 till they run beneath the mountain, and re-appear 

 on the other side. It is also observed, that the 

 different substances of which Ben-Nevis consists, 

 meet in smooth and uniform contact, without 

 any symptom of that disturbed and irregular junc- 

 tion, which the igneous theory alleges. 



With regard in particular, to the upper dark- 

 coloured portion of this formation, whatever 

 opinion may be entertained on the subject of its 

 oryctognostic characters, or geognostic relations, 

 its whole phenomena forbid us to consider it as a 

 product of heat. The horizontal direction in which 

 it lies along the subjacent mass of rock, was a na- 

 tural effect, if the whole be considered as a depo- 

 sition ; but is altogether incompatible with the 

 hypothesis, that if projected upwards, it could 

 have assumed such a position over a substance, 

 which, on the principles of this theory, was itself, 

 also an effect of the same agent. Both these rocks 

 could not have been ejected in a fluid state, be- 



