—Will any kind philologist come to the aid of the geologists in ascertaining the meaning of this uncouth word? In the current number of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (No. 29.) we read:
"Certain quartziferous porphyries which occur in the mining districts of Cornwall as veins, partly in granite, partly in clay-slate, have been long there known under the name of 'Elvans.' We have in vain sought for the origin of this term in English writers. Henwood expressly says (Trans. Geol. Soc. of Cornwall, vol. v.) that the etymology of the word is unknown. May it not perhaps be derived from a place called 'Elvan?' Reuss says, in his Lehrbuch der Geognosie, that porphyry occurs near Elvan in Westmoreland."
On turning to Borlase (Natural History of Cornwall, p. 91.), I find that he gives the derivation as follows:
"Quasi ab Hel-vaen, i.e. the stone generally found in brooks; unless it be a corruption of An-von, which in Cornish signifies a smith's anvil, and might fitly represent this very hard stone."
The term is a Cornish one, and applied to a crystalline rock usually hard enough to strike fire readily on sharp friction; and may it not have been derived from the Cornish word "Elven, a spark of fire," given in Borlase's vocabulary.
S. R. P.
Launceston.
Wiclif.
—There are few names of equal celebrity that have been so variously spelt, the sound remaining the same whether written Wiclif, Wycliff, Wickliffe, Wykcliff, &c. Can any authority be given, to ascertain the correct spelling?
J. K.