A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological MonumentsLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
Meanwhile Hutton, a contemporary of Werner, began to teach, in Scotland,
that granite as well as trap was of igneous origin, and had at various
periods intruded itself in a fluid state into different parts of the
earth's crust. He recognized and faithfully described many of the
phenomena of granitic veins, and the alterations produced by them on the
invaded strata, which will be treated of in the thirty-second chapter.
He, moreover, advanced the opinion, that the crystalline strata called
primitive had not been precipitated from a primaeval ocean, but were
sedimentary strata altered by heat. In his writings, therefore, and in
those of his illustrator, Playfair, we find the germ of that metamorphic
theory which has been already hinted at in the first chapter, and
which will be more fully expounded in the thirty-fourth and
thirty-fifth chapters.
At length, after much controversy, the doctrine of the igneous origin of
trap and granite made its way into general favour; but although it was, in
consequence, admitted that both granite and trap had been produced at many
successive periods, the term primitive or primary still continued to be
applied to the crystalline formations in general, whether stratified, like
gneiss, or unstratified, like granite. The pupil was told that granite was
a primary rock, but that some granites were newer than certain secondary
formations; and in conformity with the spirit of the ancient language, to
which the teacher was still determined to adhere, a desire was naturally
engendered of extenuating the importance of those more modern granites, the
true dates of which new observations were continually bringing to light.
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