Professor Geikie on the " Pitchstone " of Eskdale. 221 



grand source of energy, whereby the marine sediments, com- 

 pressed and hardened into stone, are from time to time 

 elevated into new land. 



Living in a country where so many conspicuous memorials 

 of ancient volcanic activity obtrude themselves on the notice 

 of every passing traveller, Hutton at an early date recognised 

 the fact that, while stratified rocks have been hardened and 

 upheaved through the operations of underground heat, they 

 have likewise been invaded by masses of molten rock that 

 have risen from below. He observed this circumstance 

 among rocks of different ages in a region remote from any 

 active volcano, and in which he found no trace of volcanic cones 

 or craters. In Glen Tilt he discovered, as he had anticipated, 

 that the granite of the Highlands sends out veins into the sur- 

 rounding rocks in such a manner as to show that it must once 

 have been in a state of fusion. So great was his glee over this 

 corroboration of liis theoretical deductions that, as his bio- 

 grapher narrates, the Highland gillies who accompanied him 

 concluded that nothing less than the discovery of a vein of 

 silver or gold could call forth such exultation.* In the low- 

 lands of Scotland also he instanced many examples of rocks 

 that had certainly been erupted in a molten condition, and 

 had been injected among the ordinary sedimentary strata.f 



The publication of Hutton's " Theory of the Earth" did not 

 immediately awaken much sympathetic interest in his doctrine. 

 This arose partly from the somewhat cumbrous style in which 

 he wrote, but chiefly because he was so far in advance of his 

 age, that men were unprepared to recognise in his teaching a 

 wide induction from carefully observed facts, instead of the 

 speculation of one of the visionary enthusiasts of whose pro- 

 ductions the world was now getting weary. He met, eventually, 

 with determined opposition from De Luc and Kirwan — the 

 latter of whom even insinuated a charge of atheism and 

 impiety against him. Kirwan's was a formidable name, for 

 his reputation as a chemist and mineralogist stood high. His 

 capacity for geological research, however, will now be placed 

 in a very subordinate position by any one who can find time 



* Playfair, Trans. Hoy. Soc. Eclin. , v. , part iii. , p. 68. 



+ Theory of the Earth, part i. , chap. i. , sect. 3 and 4 ; chap. v. 



