490 THE PROBLEM OF THE LIZABD ROCKS. 



Before proceeding with observers iu the order in which Mr. 

 Pox places them, I may be allowed to intercalate the name of 

 the Eev. E. Budge, vicar of Manaccan, whose patient investiga- 

 tions added to his advantages as a local resident carry great 

 weight with them. 



Commenting upon the rocks of the eastern district, he says : 

 " There are the most evident proofs that the hornblende and the 

 serpentine pass into each other by a transmutation so subtle as 

 to defy all attempt at separation." 



We next come to Professor Bonney, whose valuable and 

 painstaking researches in 1876 and 1881, already referred to in 

 my last paper, form a central point in the history of geological 

 research in the district. They are valuable and instructive 

 beyond all previous investigations, from the fact that, for the first 

 time, that most powerful means of modern research, the micro- 

 scope, wielded by a master-hand, is brought to bear upon the, 

 geological investigation of the district. 



Professor Bonney's papers are a perfect storehouse of facts, 

 and though at present unconnected by any tenable theory, and, 

 therefore, perplexing to the general student, may prove of the 

 utmost value, and fall into their proper places, in the hands of 

 some future elucidator. 



Professor Bonney sums up his researches in no less than ten 

 axiomatic conclusions, some contradictory of each other, and all 

 vitiated by his assumption of the necessarily igneous irruption 

 of the serpentine, and of the necessarily archaean age of the 

 whole group of the Lizard rocks. 



Before entering into a fuller discussion on these points, I 

 shall take up Mr. Fox's order of the Lizard investigators, and 

 name the two other recent investigators whose scientific acquire- 

 ments and lucid exposition claim consideration, I mean Messrs. 

 Collins and Teall. 



Mr. Collins, in 1884, refers to distinct evidence of stratifica- 

 tion in the serpentine, and to serpentinous change of stratified 

 materials in situ — a conclusion supported by chemical analysis 

 of hand specimens ; and he adds his belief that "of an originally 

 differing series of comformably bedded rocks some have been 



