THOMAS NUTTALL 187 



have been a printer of the Benjamin Franklin order, since while engaged 

 at his trade he became proficient in the knowledge of the sciences, 

 Greek and Latin, and kindred subjects. During the period of six or 

 seven years that he was in London he appears to have made the acquaint- 

 ance of a number of the scientific men of the day. At least it is prob- 

 able that at this time he acquired some familiarity with Smith's dis- 

 coveries, which were at that date attracting wide attention from English 

 scientists. It is also quite possible that ISTuttall gained much of his 

 scientific information through setting up the types for those very 

 memoirs which have since become geologic classics. It is not unlikely 

 also that he even met Smith, since the latter is known to have been 

 often in London at that time, and to have taken up his permanent 

 residence there several years before the printer-naturalist left his native 

 country. 



At any rate, Nuttall had been in America scarcely a year before he 

 was putting his geological knowledge to test. His familiarity with 

 Martin's " Petrifacta Derbiensia " and Smith's principles clearly indi- 

 cates that he must certainly have acquired his information at least 

 several years previous. Then, too, his acquaintance with that pioneer 

 American geologist, William McClure, for twenty years president of the 

 American Philosophical Society at this period, should not escape notice. 

 Two other papers, partly geological in nature but chiefly mineralogical 

 in character, on the rocks and minerals of Hoboken, and of Sparta, 

 NeAv Jersey, and the many keen observations on the rocks recorded in his 

 journal of a trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh attest his unusual 

 intimacy with matters in geology. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the brief memoir which Thomas Nut- 

 tall published on Iowa-land and the contiguous regions was the only 

 one which he seems ever to have printed on strictly geological subjects 

 so important are the principles set forth for the first time in this single, 

 simple, short contribution to the literature of American terranal corre- 

 lation that it places its author in the front rank among pioneer geolo- 

 gists, not only of Iowa, but of our country. Although one of the fore- 

 most botanists of his day, and an ornithologist of world-wide reputation 

 his great service in first pointing out by method and by means the 

 fundamental concepts of modern historical geology in America should 

 not be forgotten. 



