Editorial Comment. 391 
ite than in the limestone, at least their frequency should increase 
toward the granite. According to the author the reverse is 
the fact. 
It is apparent that the author does not rely implicitly on his 
conclusion, since he refers semi-approvingly to the hypothesis 
of Michel-Levy and other French geologists to the effect that 
the granite as now seen, and the associated crystalline rocks, 
are products of the fusion of sedimentary rocks. There may 
have been in all the cases studied, an original deeper seated 
granite which was intruded into and absorbed the sedimentary 
rocks. "Of so-called intrusions [inclusions?] in the granite 
Lacroix says : * Je considere done toutes ces couches metamor- 
phiques isoles aujourdhui au milieu du granite comme le re- 
sidue non digere des assises sedimentaires dont le granite a 
pris la place.' 
"If these views are correct, they would serve to explain 
nearly every phenomenon observed in this occurrence in cen- 
tral Ontario. But the great weakness in them is the lack 
of chemical proof. Till that is at hand it may be said that 
'while the transfusion of a certain amount of material into 
the limestones along the immediate contact of the intrusions, 
and also a solution of the limestones to a limited extent in 
certain cases seems highly probable, the wholesale transforma- 
tion of limestone into dioryte, or of shale into gneiss and gran- 
ite — is as yet very far indeed from being proved.'* It may 
be said in their favor, however, that as the study of this area 
has gone on these views have come to appear to the writer, at 
least less and less irrational."' (p. 37). In other words, the views 
of Hutton, in this instance as in many others, who deduced his 
results from broad as well as minute, observations of the macro- 
structures of crystalline rocks as exhibited in the field, and who 
believed that the banded gneisses and schists, as well as the 
granites, are modified conditions of clastic rocks, are becoming, 
in the opinion of the microscopist as well as of the chemical 
geologist, "less and less irrational." 
After a battle the defeated army retreated in the night. 
The victorious general pursued next day. It was plain, by the 
appearance of the road, the occurrence of canteens and re- 
jected guns, where the enemy had passed, but the subordinate 
• Adams. Jour. Geol., vol. ix. p. 4-6, 1901. 
