M. B. Studer on the Origin of Granite. 303 



issued from the interior of the earth in a liquid state ; and he 

 felt embarrassed by their sometimes assuming the appearance 

 of stratification. His opponents, also, it should be noted, have 

 particularly dwelt upon the close connection between granite 

 Paid gneiss, and have properly shewn how inconsistent it was 

 with nature to assign an entirely different origin to the two 

 rocks. Playfair, long ago, answered this objection in words 

 we might still use (see paragraph 146 of the Illustrations), by 

 assuming that in stratified granite, as in gneiss, the lines of 

 stratal separation in the original sedimentary deposit of the 

 beds have still been preserved, whilst the mass itself under- 

 went a metamorphosis by crystallization, whereas in masses of 

 unstratified granite these traces are wanting. Playfair, more- 

 over, believed, that granite itself had its origin from older se- 

 dimentary deposits. 



After the re-opening of literary intercourse with Britain, 

 tliese views spread upon the Continent, chiefly by means of the 

 French translation of " The Illustrations," which appeared 

 in the year 1815, — of the work of Boue in 1818, and of Necker 

 in 1821, both of whom studied geology carefully in Edin- 

 burgh under Professor Jameson, and also of MacCulloch's 

 work, and the Transactions of the Geological Society. They 

 found a general acceptance, however, only after the dominion 

 of the Wernerian geology was completely overthrown by Voa 

 Bucli's celebrated treatise on the southern Tyrol, and when 

 tlie original Plutonic principle of the theory of rocks, origi- 

 nating in Italy, was again restored to its proper place. In the 

 same work, Von Buch has made a more decided and most in- 

 teresting application of the principle of metamorphosis, and, 

 at the same time, has essentially extended it, as he has done 

 the theory of elevation itself, by the important agency he as- 

 signs to sublimation, and the power of vapours. 



On one occasion, I well remember, as M, Merian and I 

 were wandering in the Glarner Alps, in tlie summer of 1826, 

 the origin of gneiss and mica-slate from sedimentary rocks 

 was frequently the subject of our conversation ; and in a short 

 notice which I gave of that journey in the Zeitschrift fur 

 MtJieralogie^ our opinion as to tke correctness of tliese viewa 



