7. Here it must be carefully observed, that, among the primary rocks, the granite is not meant to be included, except where that stone is stratified, and either coincides with veined granite or with gneiss. The primitive strata, in Dr Hutton's theory, comprehend, besides gneiss, the micaceous, chlorite, hornblende, and siliceous schistus, together with slate, and some other kinds of argillite; to which we must add, serpentine, micaceous limestone, and the greater part of marbles. These are mostly distinguished by their laminated structure, by having their planes much elevated with respect to the horizon, and by belonging more to the mountainous than the level parts of the earth's surface. They rarely contain vestiges of organized bodies; so rarely, indeed, that they were called primitive by the geologists who first distinguished them from other rocks, on the supposition of their being part of the primeval nucleus of the globe, which had never undergone any change whatsoever; but this, I believe, has now almost ceased to be the opinion of any geologist.[4] The Neptunists hold the rocks, here enumerated, and also granite, to be produced by aqueous deposition; but maintain them to be in the strictest sense primeval, and of a formation antecedent to all organized bodies. [Footnote 4: NOTE III.] 8. In opposition to this, Dr Hutton maintained, that the primary schistus, like all the other strata, was formed of materials deposited at the bottom of the sea, and collected from the waste of rocks still more ancient. When, therefore, he conformed to the received language of mineralogists, by calling these strata primitive, he only meant to describe them as more ancient than any other strata now existing, but not as more ancient than any that ever had existed. They are distinguished, in his system, by the name of _Primary_, rather than of _Primitive_ strata.