Naumann on Primitive Formations, 25 & 



again abandoned by him. Saussure, also, expressed himself in 

 most decided opposition to Von Beroldingen's views. While 

 narrating that Monte Rosa, from base to summit, consists of gneiss 

 and rocks related to it, he says : " On ne dira done plus, que les 

 granites veines, le gneiss et les autres roches de ce genre, ne sont 

 que les debris des granits, rassembles et agglutines au pied de& 

 baut^s montagnes."* Moreover, (in a note to § 2143 of the work 

 just quoted), Saussure, otherwise mild and delicate in judging and 

 confuting the opinions of others, deals very severely with Von 

 Beroldingen's gneiss theory. f 



Somewhat related to this old view is the supposition expressed 

 more recently by Dana, that gneiss and mica-schist bear a rela- 

 tion to granite, similar to that in which basaltic tufa stands to 

 basalt, or volcanic tufa to lava ; the materials of these rocks (the 

 gneiss and mica-schist) having been thrown up to the surface 

 before and during the eruptions of the granite, in the form of 

 sand-like ejections, and transformed into gneiss and mica-schist 

 by the action of glowing hot water. The perfect and thoroughly 

 crystalline character of the gneiss, the enormous extent which 

 the primitive formations occupy in so many districts, the archi- 

 tecture of these great gneiss districts, and their occurrence totally 

 independent of larger granitic masses, are all incompatible with 

 this idea. 



In certain respects the Huttonian theory, which afterwards be- 

 came so influential, may be compared with that of Von Beroldin- 

 gen's, since this celebrated Scottish geologist, in his Theory of 

 the Earth in 1795, attempted, with much minuteness, to prove 

 that the whole of the so-called primitive rocks had been formed 

 of the debris of older preexisting rocks, deposited on the bed of 

 the ocean; the strata, consisting originally of loose materials, hav- 

 ing been, under the pressure of the ocean, exposed to a high tem- 

 perature for a long time, in which manner their consolidation was 

 effected. I 



* Voyage dans les Alpes, § 2139. 



t Especially on account of Beroldingen asserting that the opponents 

 of his theory were destitute of all geological knowledge, and saying 

 that the circulation of their writings ought to be prohibited. Beroldin- 

 gen's writings, Saussure thought it was altogether unnecessary to pro- 

 hibit ; " I'extreme d^sordro, I'intol^rable diflfusion, et les perpetuelles 

 contradictions qui y regnent en d^gouteraient assez le plus grand nom- 

 bre des lecteurs." 



t Compare Explication de Playfair sur la theorie de la tcrrc, par 

 Button, traduit par Basset. 



