AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Ill 



which has been mentioned ; and its fragments cor- 

 respond to the neighbouring- primitive substances, 

 namely, clay-slate, quartz, felspar, &c. It must, at 

 the same time, be acknowledged, that from the 

 oryctognostic characters of some specimens of this 

 conglomerate, we might be entitled to conclude, 

 that it is entirely a chemical deposit. 



Beregonium. — Beregonium, the reputed an- 

 cient capital of Scotland, if we may judge from any 

 remains that are now to be traced, seems to have 

 been nothing else, than one of those vitrified forts, 

 which are observed in different parts of the High- 

 lands. This is indicated by the nature of the 

 ground on which it stands, and of certain substances 

 taken out of the soil, in the line of what appear to 

 have been the walls. These substances, it is more 

 than probable, are pieces of the neighbouring amyg- 

 daloid, both massive and slaty ; which have been al- 

 tered by fire, thougli not partially vitrified like the 

 other substances, along with which they had been 

 piled up for that purpose, and which submit more 

 easily to an imperfect vitrification, such as the dif- 

 ferent kinds of greenstone. Or, perhaps, they may 

 have been a species of clay-slate, containing a great 

 proportion of lime, similar to that, of which, as we 

 shall presently see, the island of Lismore is compos- 

 ed. The materials filling the vesicular cavities, be-r 

 ing more fusible or easily driven off, than the rest 

 of the mass, seem to have yielded to the heat, leav- 

 ing the substance now observed. In some fragments^ 



