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Image source: Scrope, George Poulett (1797-1876). Memoir on the geology of central France; including the volcanic formations of Auvergne, the Velay, and the Vivarais. London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827

Vulcan's Forge and Fingal's Cave

Volcanoes, Basalt, and the Discovery of Geological Time

Whinstone and Limestone at Stirling Castle, 1814

MacCulloch, John (1773-1835). "On the Junction of Trap and Sandstone, at Stirling Castle." Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 1814, 2:305-308.

John MacCulloch was a Scottish geologist who came to believe, following Hutton and Hall, that whinstone was an igneous rock. One of the places he visited was Stirling Castle, and he found there evidence that would have delighted Hutton. There were many places where whinstone met limestone, and at such junctions the limestone was often displaced and bent, as if it had been melted when the whinstone was intruded.

In the colored lithograph that accompanied his paper, the limestone is the light-colored stratified rock at the bottom, and the whinstone lies above it; note the displaced piece of limestone. MacCulloch uses the term "trap," which is a synonym for whinstone (or basalt).

Dean 1992, James Hutton and the History of Geology, pp. 177-178; Eyles, V.A., “MacCulloch, John,” in DSB 8:593-595.

Junction of sandstone and basalt at Stirling Castle. Image source: MacCulloch, John. "On the Junction of Trap and Sandstone, at Stirling Castle." Transactions of the Geological Society of London, vol. 2, 1814, pl. 13.

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