Professor Geikie on the " PitcJistone " of Eskdale. 225 



While such was the state of inquiry here, the origin of 

 such rocks as basalt was by no means a settled question on 

 the Continent. For many years much controversy had been 

 carried on, and scientific societies even offered prizes for the 

 solution of the problem as to the volcanic or non-volcanic 

 origin of basalt.* In France, indeed, the question had been 

 answered confidently by independent observers, who found in 

 the singularly interesting district of Auvergne streams of 

 basalt connected with still perfect cones and craters, as well 

 as isolated portions of similar basaltic sheets capping hill-tops, 

 and separated from any cones. The writings of Desmarest,-(- 

 Montlosier,j Dolomieu,§ and others, ought to have settled for 

 ever the truly igneous origin of the basaltic rocks. 



While this question was still in dispute, Werner began his 

 career at Freiberg. Devoting himself with great industry 

 and enthusiasm to mineralogy, he was thence naturally led 

 to consider the formation of rocks. The hills of Saxony 

 furnished him with material, out of which he constructed a 

 system that was meant to explain the structure of the globe. 

 He taught that instead of framing theories of the history of 

 the planet, it was needful first of all to ascertain the nature and 

 distribution of the strata composing the earth's crust. This 

 investigation he termed " geognosy." But his own example 

 serves to illustrate the fact that we cannot go on as mere 

 machines, laboriously collecting facts, without consciously or 

 unconsciously framing some hypothesis to give them a living 

 connection. While disclaiming the theories of the cosmolo- 

 gists, Werner himself framed a theory not less crude and un- 

 founded than the wildest of those which he opposed. Turn- 

 ing his extensive knowledge of mineralogy to the investigation 



* In the year 1787 a natural history society at Berne proposed as a subject for 

 investigation the question " What is basalt? is it volcanic or is it not ?" and 

 adjudged the prize to Widenmann's essay, in which non-volcanicity was 

 maintained. In 1804 a similar subject was offered for a prize essay by the 

 Gescllscliaft Naturforschender Freunde at Berlin. — K. C. von Leonhard's 

 "Basalt-Gebilde," vol. i., p. 2, note. 



i Histoire de I'Academie Royale des Sciences Naturelles, ami. 1771, pp. 23, 

 705 ; ann. 1777, pp. 39, 599. 



X Essai sur la Theorie des Yolcans d'Auvergne. Clermont, 1789. 



§ Journal des Mines, No. 41, p. 393; No. 42, p. 405. 



