BEN-NEVIS. 357 



quartz been injected by fusion, the whole mass, 

 whether of stratified or of unstratified matter, 

 must not only have had its structure destroyed by 

 the violence of explosion, but have been rendered 

 as porous in every direction as a sponge : for if 

 the appearances we now observe, did not belong 

 to the original formation of the rock, the supposed 

 material in fusion must have penetrated its sub- 

 stance not less intimately than the matter of 

 perspiration passing through the pores of the 

 body; which is inconceivable. To admit the 

 possibility of injection in this form, we must 

 also admit, according to a known law of na- 

 ture, that the substance which contains the 

 injected crystals, must have been fused to a 

 higher degree than the mass from which the 

 crystals were thrown up ; that is to say, the superi- 

 or matter, or what was farthest from the cause 

 of the fusion, must have been more fluid than the 

 substance nearest to it, or more immediately under 

 its agency ; which is impossible. 



If any thing, therefore, in this department of 

 natural science, is capable of proof, we have the 

 evidence of mineralogical demonstration, against 

 the igneous origin of Ben- Nevis. 



1 have only to add, that though veins of quartz 

 occur frequently in the great mass of this forma- 

 tion, they are seen terminating in every direction. 

 Such veins, occasion no real difficulty, in account- 

 ing for the appearances which they present, 



Z3 



