194 
Editorial Comment . 
Dr. Lawson's lately published conclusions, because these apper¬ 
tained, as it seemed, to a region possessing very similar charac¬ 
ters. Dr. Lawson’s reply to these criticisms will probably con¬ 
tribute something to a convergence of general opinion toward 
the views which he opposes. He has brought no new evidence 
to sustain his inferences; and it is therefore unnecessary to re¬ 
state my disagreements. Having presented nothing but itera¬ 
tions of former utterances, involving a number of personal con¬ 
tradictions of my statements, joined to a few principles which 
approach the character of paradoxes, the candid reader, if suffici¬ 
ently interested may re-examine the original publication of each 
of us; while those less interested must conclude that the igneous 
theory of gneisses has been completely exhausted of arguments 
by Dr. Lawson’s first essay. 
My former and only contention, it will be noted, was for the 
original sedimentary condition of the great granitic and gneissic 
masses—and I cited foliation, among other evidences, as an in¬ 
dication of this. The metamorphism of the original sediments 
I contemplated in a large way, and suggested, as others have 
done, that it seems to have reached, many times a state of plas¬ 
ticity, or even semifluidity—reminding the reader that such 
state would be reached, as geologists now well understand, at a 
temperature comparatively low—from 700° to 1000° Fah. 
Yet Dr. Lawson has the originality to declare that ‘ ; we know 
nothing of the kind;” and to make this appear, proceeds to dis¬ 
prove something not asserted. In the end, Dr. Lawson makes- 
it appear that he has come almost to my position; for he ex¬ 
presses himself thus: “I experience no difficulty in admitting 
the possibility of a former sedimentary condition of the gneiss.” 
Then wrapping himself in the u glory” and “immortality” of 
the “British school of geologists,” he disappears from the scene. 
It is to be hoped Dr. Lawson will interview some other adher¬ 
ents of the “British school.” Among these, Sir Andrew Ram¬ 
say will tell him that it is impossible to work among the old 
rocks of Anglesea without being impressed with the idea that the 
granite and its veins “are merely the result of a more thorough 
metamorphosis than was attained in the production of the asso¬ 
ciated gneiss; that is to say, that absolute fusion of portions of 
the strata occurred under such conditions of depth beneath the 
surface, that a reconsolidation of the fused portions produced 
