2^ M. B. Studer on the Origin of Granite, 



phyries, diorites, serpentines, and trachytes. AH these postu- 

 lates, however, it will be observed, rest, in the last instance, 

 upon the necessary demand of our reason for a fixed founda- 

 tion for the first sedimentary deposits, and a sufficiently cooled 

 stony bottom for the primeval ocean ; and in what rock, it may 

 be asked, if not in granite, shall we seek for the material of this 

 basis. 



The doctrine is grounded upon the philosophy of the past 

 century, which assumed that the foundation of all things, in- 

 cluding the sea, had been narrowly and sufficiently examined ; 

 that it was as easy to give an account of the history of man, 

 and the organic world, as it was to ascertain the intentions of 

 nature in matters the most insignificant and most important. 

 Far more useful, however, would it be, than many of those 

 sections which geologists are in the custom of hanging about 

 their rooms, were they supplied with a representation of a 

 large circle, exhibiting, exactly in due proportions, the semi- 

 diameter of the earth, with the extent of its crust so far as it 

 is accessible to us. A glance of this plan would be much 

 more instructive to many of us, than the display of the 

 coloured profile of the MM. Webster and Noggerath; and 

 it would go far to overthrow the belief of many who ima- 

 gine that we have succeeded in penetrating, through the 

 diversified surface, to the primitive mass beneath. If geo- 

 logists are content to be ignorant of the primitive condition 

 of the globe, and to recognise nothing but chaos anterior to 

 the oldest sedimentary formations, then the above-mentioned 

 facts remain the only supporting points of our explanations. 

 When we see the common Fucoid slate and Macigno sand- 

 stone, passing into chlorite-slate, serpentine, and gabbro, we 

 shall, till additional observation teaches us otherwise, assign 

 the same kind of origin to all serpentines and gabbros. And 

 when, in other places, the same strata change into mica-slates 

 and gneiss ; and in others still, the gneiss becomes converted 

 into gneiss-granite, then must we also regard granite univer- 

 sally as the product of metamorphosis. It by no means sur- 

 prises us that the most perfect granite is principally to be 

 found at great depths, at the base or nucleus of the crystalline 



