In general metamorphism, water appears still to be the principal agent. As it is infiltered through the various beds it will modify their composition, either by dissolving certain substances, or by introducing into the metalliferous deposits certain new substances, such as may be seen forming, even under our eyes, in mineral springs. This has tended to render the sedimentary deposits plastic, and has permitted the development of that crystalline structure, which is one of the principal characteristics of metamorphic rocks. This action has been seconded by other causes, notably by heat and pressure, which would have an immense increase of power and energy when metamorphism takes place at a great depth beneath the surface. Dr. Holl, in an able paper descriptive of the geology of the Malvern Hills, read before the Geological Society in February, 1865, adopts this hypothesis as explanatory of the vast phenomena which are there displayed. After describing the position of this interesting and strangely-mingled range of rocks, he adds: “These metamorphic rocks are for the most part highly inclined, and often in a position nearly vertical. Their disturbance and metamorphism, their being traversed by granitic veins, and still later their invasion by trap-dykes and their subsequent elevation above the sea-level, were all events which must have occupied no inconsiderable period, even of geological time. I presume,” he adds, “that it will not be maintained in the present day that the metamorphism of rocks over areas of any but very moderate extent is due to the intrusion of veins and erupted masses. The insufficiency of such agency becomes the more obvious when we consider the slight effects produced by even tolerably extensive outbursts, such as the Dartmoor granite; while in the case of the Malverns there is an absence of any local cause whatever. The more probable explanation in the case of these larger areas is, that they were faulted down, or otherwise depressed, so as to be brought within the influence of the earth’s internal heat, and this is the more likely as they belong to an epoch when the crust is believed to have been thinner.” When it is considered that, according to the doctrine of modern geology, the Laurentian rocks, or their equivalents, lie at the base of all the sedimentary deposits; that this, like other systems of stratified rocks, was deposited in the form of sand, mud, and clay, to the thickness of 30,000 feet; and that over an area embracing Scandinavia, the Hebrides, great part of Scotland, and England as far south as the Malverns, besides a large proportion of the American continent, with certain forms of animal life, as recent investigations demonstrate--can the mind of man realise any other cause by which this vast extent of metamorphism could have been produced?