In forming an opinion where there are great authorities on opposite sides, a man must trust chiefly to his own observations, and ought to esteem himself fortunate if these lead to any certain conclusion. Mine incline me to differ from Dr Hutton, on the one hand, and from the Neptunists, on the other, as they convince me, that granite does form strata where it has no character of gneiss; and, at the same time, induce me to suspect, that the stratification ascribed by the Neptunists to the granite mountains, is, in many instances, either an illusion, or at least something very different from what, in other stones, is accounted stratification. 294. The first example I ever saw of granite that was stratified, and yet had no character of gneiss, was at Chorley Forest, in Leicestershire. The greater part of that forest has for its base a hornstone schistus, primary and vertical; and, on its eastern border, particularly near Mount Sorrel, are beds of granite, holding the same direction with those of the schistus. The stone is a real granite; it has nothing in its internal structure of a schistose or fissile appearance; and its beds, which it is material to remark, are no thicker than those of the hornstone strata in the neighbourhood. This granite is remarkable, too, for being close to the secondary sandstone strata; I did not see their contact, but traced them within a small distance of one another; so that I think it is not likely that any body of rock intervenes. At the same time that I state my belief of this rock of granite being in regular strata, I must acknowledge, that a very intelligent mineralogist, who viewed these rocks at the same time, and whose eye was well practised in geological observation, remained in doubt concerning them. 295. Another instance of a real granite, disposed in regular beds, but without any character of gneiss, is one which I saw in Berwickshire, in Lammermuir, near the village of Priestlaw. The little river of Fassnet cuts the beds across, and renders it easy to observe their structure. The beds are not very thick; they run from about S.S.W. to N.N.E. like the schistus on either side of them. I was in company with Sir James Hall when I saw these rocks; we examined them with a good deal of attention, and traced them for more than a mile in the bed of the river; and, if I mistake not, our opinions concerning them were precisely the same.