Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 229 



Sir James Hall, who, with Prof. Playfair and Prof. Thomas Hope, 

 maintained with signal ability, the igneous theory of Hutton. It 

 did not become one who was still a youth and a novice, to enter 

 the arena of the geological tournament where such powerful 

 champions waged war ; but it was very interesting to view the 

 combat, well sustained as it was on both sides, and protracted, 

 without a decisive issue, into a drawn battle. 



Scotland and its isles present a great geological cabinet, where 

 especially the phenomena attributed by Yulcanists to igneous ac- 

 tion, are exceedingly remarkable. They had been examined 

 with a severe and discriminating scrutiny by Dr. Hutton and his 

 followers ; Playfair had reviewed them in his splendid illustra- 

 tions of the Huttonian theory, and had followed them into the 

 few districts of England, Derbyshire, Cornwall, &c. where simi- 

 lar phenomena had then been observed. Dr. Murray had also 

 published a lucid comparative view of the Huttonian and Wer- 

 nerian theories. Wales, now made classical ground, both for the 

 ancient fossiliferous and for the igneous rocks, by the memorable 

 researches of Murchison and Sedgwick, was then regarded merely 

 as a country of quarries, whose mountains were indeed rich in 

 slate and coal, but presented, as was supposed, no particular geo- 

 logical interest. 



The conflicts of the rival schools of Edinburgh — the Neptu- 

 nists and the Vulcanists, the Wernerians and the Huttonians, 

 were sustained with great zeal, energy, talent, and science ; they 

 were indeed marked too decidedly by a partisan spirit, but this 

 very spirit excited untiring activity in discovering, arranging, and 

 criticising the facts of geology. It was a transition period be- 

 tween the epoch of geological hypotheses and dreams, which had 

 passed by, and the era of strict philosophical induction, in which 

 the geologists of the present day are trained. No state of things 

 could, however, have been better adapted to excite the enthusi- 

 asm and fix the taste of a youthful mind, just beginning to feel 

 the vast power of geological truth, and to relish with intense in- 

 terest both its researches and its speculations. 



I was therefore a diligent and delighted listener to the discus- 

 sions of both schools. Still the igneous philosophers appeared to 

 me to assume more than had been proved regarding internal heat. 

 In imagination we were plunged into a fiery Phlegethon, and I 

 was glad to find relief in the cold bath of the Wernerian ocean. 



