I 
SIO Dr Hibbert on the Distribution 
Qthly, These cemented portions occur in such situations, that 
a reference of their origin to any rocks of the same nature, co- 
r^existing in their immediate neighbourhood, seems impossible. 
They occur, for instance, in the enclosed valleys of clay -slate. 
But in the conglomerate rocks occupying such situations, no 
clay-slate is to be found, and, consequently, no accumulation 
can have filled up the valleys caused by the wearing down or de- 
tritus of impending rocks. Also, when the conglomerate rock 
comprehends portions of granite, quartz, and felspar, the fun- 
damental strata consist, in one place, of quartz, mica-slate, 
and limestone ; in another, of clay-slate and sandstone ; and in 
many places, no other rock than clay-slate appears to be the fun- 
damental one. The conglomerated sandstone might be supposed 
to have resulted from the decomposition of a contiguous mass, 
consisting altogether of granular quartz. But we must, at the 
same time, account for the disseminated portions of granite, 
which give to this rock its true distinction, and for the associa- 
tion of the conglomerated sandstone with granitic masses of a 
similar structure. This circumstance must refer the conglome- 
rated rocks to an origin perfectly unconnected with the detritus 
of contiguous masses. 
ItJily, No evidence is afforded that the apparent fragments of 
this conglomerated rock were brought from any distance. We 
may indeed for the occasion advance such causes as debacles, 
streams, or waves, the usual agents in geological visions. These 
would, however, fail to convince us of the modus operandl by 
which the conglomerated strata, and rocks contiguous to them, are 
made by turns to occupy every possible variety of situation in 
isolation to each other ; or why certain districts, necessary in the 
track of a debacle or wave (or any such convenient agent, by 
whatever name it may be called), should leave no memorial in 
the presence of a solitary fragment of a catastrophe of this nature. 
It is thus, in the absence of evidence tending to refer 
this accumulation of cemented portions, rounded as well as an- 
gular, to rocks distant or contiguous, that I am inclined to 
seek repose in the notion, that the conglomerated form is an 
original peculiarity of structure, subsequently, perhaps, in seve- 
ral instances, altered by causes of a mechanical nature. Thus, 
there seems an original form of distinct globular concretions. 
