292 [October, 



miles, and in breadth 15 miles of the district it represents, and is about 14 feet 

 long. It is a complete geological and topographical representation of this import- 

 ant district, and would be alone a monument to a man of science, if he had never 

 executed any other labor. 



As soon as the mining interests of the country had become relieved from the 

 pressure which had prevailed for a few years, he again was called on to explore 

 and investigate many mineral districts, connected with the working of gold, silver, 

 lead, copper, coal, asphaltum, &c. Most of these reports were published, and it 

 is believed that, in every case, they were so correctly executed as to leave no 

 doubt in the minds of those who employed him, as to his judgment, his candor 

 and his scrupulous representations of that which he was employed to examine. 

 It was one of the characteristics of Mr. Taylor, as all his intimate friends were 

 perfectly aware, that his openness and frankness were such as to induce him 

 never to hesitate to express a candid opinion, or to make known a fact, however 

 much it might be against his own interests. It was this which induced the most 

 unbounded reliance, among his friends, on his representations. Beside the numer- 

 ous engagements he had in various States, he frequently had calls to examine 

 important mines in other parts of America; the copper mines of Cuba, the gold 

 mines of Panama, the asphaltum of New Brunswick, &c. In Cuba he was employed 

 to examine and report on the vein of asphaltum near Havana, of which he pub- 

 lished an account in the Trans, of the Am. Phil. Soc, with a plan and section* 

 The last work of this nature he was engaged in, was the examination of the injected 

 vein of asphaltum at Hillsborough, in the Province of New Brunswick, which is 

 now in litigation. His testimony in this case, as taken down, and since published, 

 is a specimen of such thorough knowledge in his profession, such clearness, exact- 

 ness and completeness, as to be worthy of all praise. It should have a place in 

 all geological libraries. He was greatly interested ia this singular litigation, 

 which seems, strange as it may appear to geologists and mineralogists, to depend 

 on the decision of a jury, whether an injected vein of asphaltum be not a seam 

 or bed of bituminous coal, belonging to true coal measures! Nothing could be 

 more clear, nor more to the point, than Mr. Taylor's evidence to the contrary. 

 While in the examination of various districts, in his professional employment, he 

 carefully noted every fact connected with general geology and palaeontology, and 

 the results were generally given in the form of papers to scientific bodies, and 

 published in their Transactions. These will be found in various learned transac- 

 tions in England and this country particularly in those of the Am. Phil. Soc. 

 the Acad, of Nat. Sciences, and the Geological Soc. of Penn., on this side of the 

 Atlantic. They all bear internal evidence of a philosophic mind, schooled in the 

 consideration of philosophical facts. 



Notwithstanding what has been said in regard to all these labors of a most 

 industrious life, the reputation of Mr. Taylor will rest chiefly on a work which 

 has not yet been mentioned his " Statistics of Coal," published in this city, in 

 8vo. pp. 754, in 1848. It included the geographical and geological distribution 

 of mineral combustibles or fossil fuel, as well as notices of localities of the various 

 mineral bituminous substances employed in arts and manufactures, illustrated by , 

 maps and diagrams, embracing, from official reports of the great coal producing 

 countries, the respective amounts of their production, consumption, and commer- 

 cial distribution, in all parts of the world. 



