IS\4.] on Transition Rocks. 5f>5 



think she ought to fix her phice of rest on his countenance rather 

 than on mine. 



After all, sir, why this mighty bustle by Mr. Allan about his 

 geological labours in Cornwall ! One would be tempted to think, 

 from tiie importance he seems to attach to them, that he had been 

 able to tell us a great deal wtiich we did not previously know con- 

 cerning that quarter. But is there any thing in his paper to justify 

 such expectation ? He informs us of little that I can perceive, ex- 

 cept the occurrence of granite veins at St. Michael's Mount, of 

 fragments in the granite there, and of the occurrence of a rock 

 immediately incumbent on this granite different from the ordinary 

 transition rocks of the district. All this, however, we had pre- 

 viously learnt from Professor Playfair and Dr. Berger. 



Mr. Allan says that 1 am spell-bound, i It may be so ; for I be- 

 lieve, one of the most untoward symptoms of tliis disease called 

 spell-binding is, that the patient so affected is quite unconscious of 

 his disorder, and can never be persuaded that there is any thing at 

 all the matter with him. But then how is Mr. Allan sure that he 

 is not spell-bound himself? And if so, who knows how long both 

 he and I may remain in this deplorable condition ? We sliall, how- 

 ever, hoDe for the interference of some Icind magician to break the 

 spell. On looking at me Mr. Allan sees nothing but a wretched 

 captive loaded with " fetters," and fixed like the fair ^Ethiopian 

 princess of old to a transition rock. Now I do declare that to my 

 visual organs he appears to be exactly in the same situation. What 

 can this arise from but the above-mentioned terrible disease of 

 spell-binding on both sides ? He says 1 will never persuade him, 

 that any thing else than spell-binding " will account for a man 

 gravely teaching the aqueous formation of pumice and obsidian." 

 I again am of opinion that notliing less than this same malady will 

 account for a man gravely teaching the igneous formation of stra- 

 tified metallic veins, of veins of clay-slate, or of a more fusible 

 substance crystallized in a less fusible one, such as crystals of 

 silver shooting into quartz ; or that substances soluble in water, as 

 rock salt and gypsum, were mechanically deposited at the bottom 

 of the sea. 



Mr. Allan acknowledges that " be could see no line of division 

 at the Louran between the altered rock," as he terms it, "and the 

 common grcywacke." He does not, however, think that on this 

 account I ought to imagine that he " had reason to conclude that 

 tli«;re was none •," and '= begs leave to diH'er from me, and to assure 

 nie, that he is more inclined to believe his owin-yes, than any othqr 

 species of demonstration that can possibly be oliered." Now, sir, 

 I wish there may not lie something of spell-binding here again j 

 for on what principle a man should believe his own eyes wlicn he 

 does nt)t see, 1 am uualile to determine. 



I must now take my leave of Mr. Allan, wishing every success 

 to liis future geological researclics, and repealing, as I retire, his own 



