M. B. Studer on the Origin of Granite, 299 



strata : for it is there that the product of the most complete 

 transformation must necessarily occur. 



Although I affirm that the metamorphosis of Flysch rock 

 into crystalline quartzose rocks is a fact, yet I am far from 

 pretending that I can explain this process. Chemistry has 

 indeed furnished us with some important explanations con- 

 cerning many hitherto enigmatical appearances, but it is not 

 yet in a condition to solve the higher problems of geology ; 

 and observation has far outstript theory. To deny facts for 

 any such reason as this, however, as is actually done, is to imi- 

 tate those who rejected the laws of Kepler, before Newton 

 had deduced them from gravitation. The Newton of Che- 

 mistry, I may add, has yet to appear, who, resting upon geo- 

 logical observations, has to demonstrate the higher, principles 

 upon which the construction {Slochiologie) of the System of the 

 Alps is regulated. All endeavours of this kind have hither- 

 to been unsuccessful, and the cause of failure may in part be 

 discovered. For, supposing that our elements could be reduced 

 to still simpler ingredients — and no chemist will assert the con- 

 trary (?) — and that under the pressure of the whole weight of 

 the sea, and at temperatures which lie far beyond the limits 

 with which we are acquainted, forces were in action, of which 

 we can scarcely form an idea, as certainly existed at the time 

 when our mountains were raised from the depths of the ocean 

 to the regions of eternal snow, — then, to subject these condi- 

 tions, and all the appearances and processes which accompa- 

 nied this great event, to the laws of our Chemistry, could have 

 a result similar only to our exposition of the planetary move- 

 ments, in the times of Galileo, when it was sought for solely 

 in the empirical laws of gravitation. Besides, we are placed 

 here in far more disadvantageous circumstances, for the mighty 

 processes now under consideration do not pass along the sphere 

 of our observation, as do the phenomena of the heavenly bo- 

 dies, but become known to us only in the traces they leave 

 behind them. 



The formation of crystalline rocks from sedimentary depo- 

 sits, has been compared to the changes which are produced by 

 trap-dykes in the neighbouring rocks, or by tlie smelting fire 



