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July 8th. 



ORDINARY MEETING.— MR. PANKHURST ON 



"THE ORES OF IRON." 



The presence of veins of materials in the rocks of the earth 

 still gave to geology and chemistry some of its most interesting 

 problems. Whence came all the gold and silver, lead, and iron ? 

 By what agencies were they deposited, and under what conditions, 

 in the state in which we found them ? Why were certain metals 

 always found associated with the older I'ocks, others generally with 

 more recent ones ? These were questions which must suggest 

 themselves to the least observant of ti-avellers, ashe journied among 

 the granitic masses of Cornwall, the bold limestone hills of 

 Derbyshire, or the gentle uplands of the Yorkshire lias and oolites. 

 All were acquainted with the now generally accepted theory of the 

 earth's origin. Everything tended to show us that it was once 

 part and parcel of the fiery mass of the sun from whence it was 

 whirled, itself still a glowing fragment, into an independent 

 existence of its own. Such being our pai-entage, it was not strange 

 to find that we recognised in our parent the qualities which we 

 oui'selves possessed. Of the 64 terrestrial elements, some twenty 

 had already been discovered in the luminous gases which surrounded 

 the sun. 



And here he must call their attention to the bold and 

 suggestive line of inquiry recently entered on by Mr. Norman 

 Lockyer, and which perhaps would eventually answer for us some 

 of those questions with regard to the metallic veins in the eai'th's 

 crust, with which he commenced his paper. The following was 

 taken from the inaugural address lately delivered by Mr. Prestwich, 

 at the University of O.'cford : — " If now we turn to the earth's crust 

 we find it vei'y generally assumed that the fundamental igneous 

 rocks which underlie the sedimentai-y strata, and which formed 

 originally the outer layers, may be divided into two great masses, 

 holding generally and on the whole a definite relation one to the 

 other — an upper one consisting of granite and other plutonic 

 rocks, rich in silica, moderate in alumina, and poor in lime, iron, 

 and magnesia ; and of a lower mass of basaltic and volcanic rocks 

 of greater specific gravity, with silica in smaller proportions, 



