296 



Correspondence, 



has been obliged to devote his time to commercial affairs. I may- 

 be allowed to record my regret on learning this, for I had looked 

 forward to the publication of a revised and improved edition of a work, 

 which is beyond doubt the most useful of any with which I am ac- 

 quainted. 



It is gratifying to learn, however, that although the opinions regard- 

 ing Geological phenomena, which Dr. Boase has assumed from his own 

 observations are totally at variance with the opinions generally re- 

 ceived, and the current theories, and if proved by future research to be 

 correct, will tend to overturn all existing systems, yet his labours have 

 been well appreciated by the Geological Society, who have paid him the 

 flattering compliment of electing him a member of their Council ; a 

 compliment the more gratifying, as it was entirely unexpected on 

 Dr. Boase's part. 



It is singular, that the information of the discoveries by Sedgwicke 

 and Murchison should have reached us just about the time of the dis- 

 coveries by Messrs. Kaye and Cunliffe at Sydrapettah, for from my 

 knowledge of the Geology of the country lying to the west of this 

 locality, I consider it most probable, that like the Dartmoor formation, 

 the fossiliferous beds are superposed immediately from the granitic. 

 Dr. Boase remarks, " You will have learnt by the reports of the Geolo- 

 gical Society, that Sedgwicke and Murchison have traced the fossiliferous 

 strata to the immediate vicinity of the granite of Dartmoor; they as- 

 sert even to the very contact therewith, and traversed by granite veins. 

 I should have liked to investigate this point, but had no opportunity 

 before leaving the West of England. That the strata with organic 

 remains may approach very near to, and even overlap the granite, is 

 well known ; and it would not be easy to trace the line of demarcation 

 between them and the primary slates, should any here intervene, 

 because the one being formed of the detritus of the other, and being 

 of so old a formation, would be perfectly consolidated, and exhibit the 

 same lines of structure. Now, if true granite veins, that is, elongations 

 of the same mass of granite intersect the strata, and pass into or 

 shew a similar mineral composition, then it is evident that the 

 strata adjacent to the granite are primary according to my views, that 

 is, contemporaneous with the granite." 



Dr. Boase considers the crystalline schists and argillaceous slate 

 not to be of sedimentary origin, but to be mechanical modifications of 

 primary rocks, and that they are not stratified. An opinion which I 

 consider to be corroborated by my own observation, and which I had 

 entertained and explained to a friend at Hoonsoor, long before I met 



