PROCEEDIN(;S FOR 1890 LXXXIII 



recent occasion, December, 1895, referrinj^ to metuniorphic rocks, says : 

 "I began about 1881 with the Alps and ever since then 1 have been 

 trj^ing to decipher the history of the crystalline schists and gneisses in 

 this chain and in other lands — perhaps 1 have been chasing an ignis 

 fatuus — that time must show." I have been exactly tifty j'cars at the 

 same work, and now propose in the following remaks to briefly record 

 my conclusions — whether erroneous or otherwise, time must show. 



De la Eèche said m 1839 : " We would scarcel}' exjîect that there 

 would not be a mass of crystalline rocks produced at first which, how- 

 ever they may vary in minor points, should still preserve a general char- 

 acter and as])ect, the result of the first changes of fluid into solid matter, 

 crystalline and subcrystalline substances prevailing.'' 



This is exactly what the Archaean rocks themselves teach us, whether 

 massive or schistose, granite or gneiss. 



This small speck of the universe which we call Earth, so important 

 to us as being that on which we temporarilj^ "live and move and have 

 our being," may be regarded as consisting of a triune s^jhere : 



1. The Lithosphère. 



2. The Atmosphere. 



3. The Hydrosphere. 



The above is obviously the order of its genesis. We may now inquire 

 to what extent, and how, during the millions of years of its refrigeration, 

 did the lithosphère contribute of its elements to the atmosphere ; and the 

 latter, during the further millions of years of its evolution, slowly liberate 

 them, some, perhaps, to be returned to the lithosphère, and others to be 

 used in the production of the then unborn hydrosphere. These are 

 questions which, though closely connected with my text, " The Origin 

 and Evolution of Archa?an Eocks," I had best leave to the physical and 

 chemical geologists to discuss and to explain. 



In any case, the three generations above outlined certainly entered 

 into a "combine," with their plant, material and labour, and thence for- 

 wai'd — unlike, I fear, the combines about which we now hear so much — 

 honestly, vigorously and incessantly worked on the further evolution of 

 the planet, with the marvellous and glorious results recorded for our 

 observation and instruction in the triune kingdom — mineral, vegetable 

 and animal — of the book of nature. 



This numerically small but physically gigantic, thoroughly honest, 

 unselfish and industrious "combine" has undoubtedly been operating for 

 millions of centuries, quietly, uniformly and peaceably, without strikes, 

 riots, revolutions, cataclysms or wars. 



Now, when we pause to consider the age of even the youngest 

 member of this oldest "combine," we find it, as recenth' tabulated from 

 the opinions of nineteen different writers, to vary from 28 millions to 



