countries, is so covered by the soil, as to be visible in very few places. In the autumn of this same year, however, Dr Hutton had an opportunity of observing another instance of it in the bank of the river Jedd, about a mile above the town of Jedburgh. The schistus there is micaceous, in vertical plates, running from east to west, though somewhat undulated. Over these is extended a body of red sandstone, in beds nearly horizontal, having interposed between it and the vertical strata a breccia full of fragments of these last. Dr Hutton has given an account of this spot in the first volume of his Theory of the Earth, p. 432, accompanied with a copperplate, from a drawing by Mr Clerk.

In 1788 he made some other valuable observations of the same kind. The ridge of the Lammermuir Hills, in the south of Scotland, consists of primary micaceous schistus, and extends from St Abb's Head westward, till it join the metalliferous mountains about the sources of the Clyde. The sea coast affords a transverse section of this alpine tract at its eastern extremity, and exhibits the change from the primary to the secondary strata, both on the south and on the north. Dr Hutton wished particularly to examine the latter of these, and on this occasion Sir James Hall and I had the pleasure to accompany him. We sailed in a boat from Dunglass, on a day when the fineness of the weather permitted us to keep close to the foot of the rocks

which line the shore in that quarter, directing our course southwards, in search of the termination of the secondary strata. We made for a high rocky point or head-land, the Siccar, near which, from our observations on shore, we knew that the object we were in search of was likely to be discovered. On landing at this point, we found that we actually trode on the primeval rock, which forms alternately the base and the summit of the present land. It is here a micaceous schistus, in beds nearly vertical, highly indurated, and stretching from S. E. to N. W. The surface of this rock runs. with a moderate ascent from the level of low-water, at which we landed, nearly to that of high-water, where the schistus has a thin covering of red horizontal sandstone laid over it; and this sandstone, at the distance of a few yards farther back, rises into a very high perpendicular cliff. Here, therefore, the immediate contact of the two rocks is not only visible, but is curiously dissected and laid open by the action of the waves. The rugged tops of the schistus are seen penetrating into the horizontal beds of sandstone, and the lowest of these last form a breccia containing fragments of schistus, some round and others angular, united by an are

naceous cement.

Dr Hutton was highly pleased with appearances that set in so clear a light the different formations of the parts which compose the exterior crust of the

earth, and where all the circumstances were combined that could render the observation satisfactory and precise. On us who saw these phenomena for the first time, the impression made will not easily be forgotten. The palpable evidence presented to us, of one of the most extraordinary and important facts in the natural history of the earth, gave a reality and substance to those theoretical speculations, which, however probable, had never till now been directly authenticated by the testimony of the senses. We often said to ourselves, What clearer evidence could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? We felt ourselves necessarily carried back to the time when the schistus on which we stood was yet at the bottom of the sea, and when the sandstone before us was only beginning to be deposited, in the shape of sand or mud, from the waters of a superincumbent ocean. An epocha still more remote presented itself, when even the most ancient of these rocks, instead of standing upright in vertical beds, lay in horizontal planes at the bottom of the sea, and was not yet disturbed by that immeasurable force which has burst asunder the solid pavement of the globe. Revolutions still more remote appeared in the distance of this extraordinary perspective.

*

*For a fuller deduction of the conclusions here referred

The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow. As for the rest, we were truly fortunate in the course we had pursued in this excursion; a great number of other curious and important facts presented themselves, and we returned, having collected, in one day, more ample materials for future speculation, than have sometimes resulted from years of diligent and laborious research.

In the latter part of this same summer, (1788,) Dr Hutton accompanied the Duke of Athol to the Isle of Man, with a view of making a mineral survey of that island. What he saw there, however, was not much calculated to illustrate any of the great facts in geology. He found the main body of the island to consist of primitive schistus, much inclined, and more intersected with quartzy veins than the corresponding schistus in the south of Scotland. In two places on the opposite sides of the island, this schistus was covered by secondary strata, but the junction was no where visible. Some

to, see Theory of the Earth, Vol. I. p. 458; also Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, p. 213.

This

granite veins were observed in the schistus, and many loose blocks of that stone were met with in the soil, or on the surface, but no mass of it was to be seen in its native place. The direction of the primitive strata corresponded very well with that in Galloway, running nearly from east to west. is all the general information which was obtained from an excursion, which, in other respects, was very agreeable. Dr Hutton performed it in company with his friend Mr Clerk, and they again experienced the politeness and hospitality of the same nobleman who had formerly entertained them, on an expedition which deserves so well to be remembered in the annals of geology.

Though from the account now given, it appears that Dr Hutton's mind had been long turned with great earnestness to the study of the theory of the earth, he had by no means confined his attention to that subject, but had directed it to the formation of a general system, both of physics and metaphysics.

* At what time these last speculations began to share his attention with the former, I have not been able to discover, though I have reason to believe, that before I became acquainted with him, which was about 1781, he had completed a manuscript treatise on each of them, the same nearly that he afterwards gave to the world. His speculations on general physics were of a date much earlier than this.

The Physical System referred to here forms the third part of a work entitled, Dissertations on different Subjects in Natural Philosophy, in one vol. 4to. 1792.