SOS jDr Hibbert on the Distribution 
direction in these conglomerate strata, though certainly variable^ 
IS much less so than are the circumstances of inclination, being ge- 
nerally, as we trace their direction from the south, N. 80® E. dif- 
fering 80® or 40® or more in opposite directions from this points 
Now, in connection with the structure lately explained, by which 
the inferior edge^ of the strata of the conglomerate rock are in 
contact with the superior edges, or outgoings, of the fundamental 
strata, we may, I think, reasonably assign to the conglomerate 
strata a thickness varying in the course of their depth after the 
manner pointed out ; it may then be easily shewn, how the la- 
teral planes of those strata, which in one place assume a posi- 
tion nearly vertical, differ so much in inclination from collateral 
strata only a few yards distant, which are nearly horizontal. The 
truth is, that if the line of bearing, in any set of strata, be only 
tolerably uniform, in relation to any given point of the compass, 
it is not necessary for our notion of collateral or conformable 
strata, that the seams of stratification should exhibit a corre- 
sponding uniformity downwards ; or, in other words, that the 
seams should be perfectly straight during the whole deep course 
through which our imagination may trace them, as from their 
superior edges or outgoings down to their lower edges, by 
which they are attached to a fundamental rock. 
The circumstances of stratification now pointed out, irresisti- 
bly lead to speculations respecting the laws which have influ- 
enced the consolidation of the Earth’s surface. The laws, which 
on a minute scale have variously affixed certain crystals to rocks 
by their terminal edges rather than by their lateral planes in 
opposition to the laws of gravity, seem identified in those pri- 
mary causes, which have attached strata to a fundamental rock by 
their lower edges, rather than in consonance with mechanical no- 
tions, by their sides only. But it worild be taking too contract- 
ed views of the operations of Nature, to suppose that in the 
present instance the laws of gravity had not their influence also. 
On the contrary, the strata often show in their outgoings, that 
they receive some faint impression of the kind of surface on which 
they rest. In the Island of Bresky, for instance, on the decli- 
vity of a hill, strata of sandstone or granular quartz dip at an 
inclination of 80® or 40® towards a point of the compass which 
looks in a direction opposite to certain contiguous strata of a 
