400 A. B. Hunt — The Crystallisation of Granite. 



with improved universities, and improved students with keener 

 perceptions of Nature's minute differences, the old stagers will no 

 doubt welcome them gladly. The British Association meets at 

 Cambridge in 1904, with a Trinity College golfer as President, an 

 ex-captain of the " Eoyal and Ancient," so here is a chance for the 

 new learning, to elucidate tourmaline and shame the effete. 



Personally this granite problem has worried me beyond all reason. 

 For some years I absented myself from the meetings of the British 

 Association and Geological Society, determining not to go to the 

 former until I could attend as an outsider and accept in silence any 

 view whatsoever, and not to go to the latter at all. In 1900 

 I thought I had attained this state of geological grace, and went to 

 Bradford, where I looked forward to hearing an interesting volcanic 

 debate in luxurious indifference. Now it so happened that when 

 the petrological papers came on, the President and most of the 

 Vice-Presidents had to attend the Committee of Eecommendations, 

 while the Vice-President in the chair happened to be a distinguished 

 President of the Geologists Association, to which society the Torquay 

 naturalists had been privileged to show a little attention. No doubt 

 by way of a very pretty compliment to the Torquay Society, and as 

 I happened to be one of the oldest members of committee present, 

 I was requested to take the chair on the spur of the moment, and 

 even after one of the papers had already been read, with instructions 

 to foster a good discussion for a distinguished foreign petrologist. 

 That, with the tact of the Eecorder, was easily managed. I was, 

 however, in an extraordinarily false position, as I knew absolutely 

 nothing of the special points under discussion, but I noticed that the 

 old physical theory of granite was ignored by everyone. By way of 

 returning the compliment I submitted a little paper at Belfast which 

 I intended to confirm and elucidate the doctrine I supposed to be 

 orthodox ; and lastly, I wrote my short paper on vein-quartz to the 

 Magazine with the view of indicating to students a fruitful subject 

 of enquiry on strictly orthodox lines. I want it to be distinctly 

 understood that I am not writing the present paper as an ex- 

 chairman of Section C and a smatterer in petrology, attempting ta 

 teach my betters ; but that I am writing as an outside observer, 

 a unit in the crowd of uneducated Englishmen styled by Mr. Wells 

 the "Grey" and the "Abyss," a member of that university and 

 college which modern scientists affect to despise, a naturalist " by 

 grace of the dredge," that abomination of Huxley, and last, but not 

 least, the captain of a golf club. As such I would, in the spirit of 

 friendly expostulation, point out to petrologists how desperately they 

 are puzzling the average Englishman. 



Let us face the matter squarely. In the first half of the last 

 century De la Beche expounded the problem of the Western granites 

 macroscopically, with almost unerring precision and prophetic insight. 

 In the early years of the second half of the century Dr. Sorby created 

 the subject of micropetrology with his epoch-making researches on 

 fluid inclusions in their various aspects. His paper of 1858 was an 

 astounding one, but surely one must not blame it if not final and 



