Extract

In transmitting to the Society the specimens from the hill of Kinnoul which accompany this paper, I have thought it necessary to enter into a description somewhat detailed, of appearances attended with considerable interest, and involving some difficulties. We are yet, it is to be feared, in want of a theory capable of solving all the cases which the increased activity of geological research is daily bringing to light. It is among difficult and unexplained phenomena that we are to seek for the stimulus which will lead us to pursue those researches on the multiplication of which alone we can hope to found a true system; and it is to a salutary distrust of the all-sufficiency of any hypothesis, that we must look for protection from its paralyzing effects.

The hill of Kinnoul, from which the specimens now before the Society were selected, has been frequently visited by geologists and mineralogists, more perhaps with a view to the minerals which the rock contains than for the purpose of examining those remarkable geological phenomena which it exhibits. Except the account of it in the travels of Faujas de St. Fond, I know not that any description of this hill has been laid before the public. The peculiar opinions of that author are well known, and I believe that in this country it is not necessary to enter into any refutation of his conclusions. As far indeed as the appearance of the trap rocks and their peculiar mineralogical character are concerned, the