XC ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



"It .seeius to me that tlie real reason of their not having been more 

 generally recognized in Anieriea lies in the fact that Dana neither recog- 

 nized nor made any mention in his 'Manual' (ed. 1874) of Pala30zoic or 

 Archaean volcanoes or their products ; but page 716 refers to all such 

 rocks as 'non-volcanic eruptions,' and instances the clearly volcanic 

 eruptions of 'Western Great Britain, Wales, etc..' as examples of such 

 rocks. I tirst wrote about the volcanic rocks in Canada, group 2 of my 

 paper,' of February, 1879, which, I said, 'is locally made up of altered 

 volcanic products, intrusive and interstratified, the latter being clearly 

 of contemporaneous origin with the associated sandstones, slates, schists, 

 etc' And it M'as stated that the age of the whole series was either 

 Huronian or Lower Cambrian. 



Oui- Huronian, about which there has been recently so much discus- 

 sion and so little investigation in the field, is often largel}^ made up of 

 volcanic matter, originally — like those of recent times — molten, muddy 

 and fragmentary, but now, unlike those of recent times — all more or less 

 met amorphic. 



" The fact has been recognized and stated years ago in Canada, and it 

 is gratifying to me to find that the microscope, in the skilful hands of 

 yourself and others, is contii*ming conclusions which were then based on 

 purely stratigrajthical and physical considerations, and which, it seemed 

 to me. were the only possible explanation of the manner in which crystal- 

 line and non-crystalline strata were to be found associated ; a possibility 

 apjjarently not recognized by Dana when he criticized the remarks I 

 then made, and Avrote as if I had stated that the occurrence of lime- 

 felspar was proof of volcanic origin, and as if I had referred the rocks 

 mentioned to that origin without geological investigation. 



•'However, all I then wrote wider experience has amply confirmed. 

 At that time (1879) Dana clearly did not recognize what was evidence of 

 the existence of volcanic action, and consequently of volcanoes. It was 

 certainly not the presence of labradorite or of any other particular min- 

 eral. Now, I fancy, Dana no longer regards my announcements as 

 ' belonging to fancy sketches.' His statement that these rocks are ' not 

 igneous but metamor])hic in origin ' elicited my remarks on page 15a of 

 the Geological Survey iicport for 1877-78. I inclose you a copy of my 

 letter to Dana on the subject, 9th December, 1879. It was never acknow- 

 ledged or answered in any way. but has some interest in this connection. 

 I have just been glancing over A. Winchell's ' Last Word with the Huron- 

 ian.' His views are to me utterly unintelligible. es])ecially the last two 

 ]iaragraphs, in which he compares things wholly incomparable, and wants 

 to make more new systems. Taconic and Huronian neither have nor ever 

 had any connection. Taconic can only be compared with the Quebec 

 group, and, liUe it, has now been resolved into its elements, which Avcre very 



1 "Canadian Xaturalist." 



