I have only farther to observe, that those schisti mountains of Wales,
of Cumberland, and of the south alpine part of Scotland, where these
marine objects have been found, consist, of that species of stone which
in some places makes the most admirable slate for covering houses; and,
in other parts, it breaks into blocks that so much resemble wood in
appearance, that, without narrow inspection, it might pass for petrified
wood.
We are therefore to conclude that the marks of organised bodies in those
primary mountains are certainly found; at the same time the general
observation of naturalists has some foundation, so far as the marks of
organised bodies are both rarely to be met with in those masses, and not
easily distinguished as such when they are found.
But this scarcity of marine objects is not confined to those primary
mountains, as they are called; for among the most horizontal strata, or
those of the latest production, there are many in which, it is commonly
thought, no marine calcareous objects are to be found; and this is a
subject that deserves to be more particularly considered, as the theory
may thus receive some illustration.
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