Progress of Geology, ^\ 



In the same year, 1813, appeared a translation of Baron 

 Cuvier's Essay on the Theory of the Earth, with notes, by Pro- 

 fessor Jameson. This work, so deservedly celebrated, which 

 has contributed so much to extend the taste in this country 

 for such pursuits, reached its fifth edition in 1827. Few 

 scientific essays have been studied with such interest as this ; 

 and so strongly do the sentiments impress themselves on the 

 memory of the reader, that it would be difficult to point out 

 a modern geological writer who has not unconsciously adopted 

 some expressions of its eloquent author. 



About the same time some highly interesting discoveries 

 were made, by Mr. Webster, in the Isle of Wight and on the 

 southern coast of England, which established some remarkable 

 facts relative to the vertical strata in that quarter, and the co- 

 incidence between the fresh-water formations in the basin of 

 Paris and those, previously unknown, in the Isle of Wight. 

 To the talents of this gentleman, both as an artist and an 

 accurate observer, science is under great obligations. 



For elucidations of the natural history of those obscure 

 tribes, the Encrinites, the Belemnites, and other animals allied 

 to them, we are indebted to the labours of Mr. Miller. 



Messrs. Coneybeare and Phillips, authors of Outlines of the 

 Geology of England and Wales, have, in that useful treatise, 

 made us acquainted, in detail, with the entire series of deposits 

 from the tertiary to the carboniferous class. The introductory 

 compendium of the general principles of geology is tlie best 

 of its kind ; and we may be excused, if, during the progress of 

 the following pages, we occasionally draw our information from 

 a source so authentic. In a field so extensive and so newly 

 explored, it would be remarkable, indeed, if some omissions, 

 some unintentional inaccuracies, were not occasionally dis- 

 coverable ; yet such is the value which we, in common with 

 other practical enquirers, attach to these Outlines, that we 

 cannot but regard the period of their appearance as an epoch 

 in the progress of the science. It only remains for us to 

 express the hope that the second volume, so long delayed, 

 will ere long make its appearance. 



Many occasional writers, particularly the contributors to 

 the Transactions of the Geological Societies of London, Edin- 

 burgh, and Cornwall, the Royal Societies of London and 

 Edinburgh, the Wernerian Society, and the Cambridge Phi- 

 losophical Society, have elucidated various portions of our 

 mineral and mountain districts, or have exhibited much sagacity 

 in unravelling the zoological labyrinth of a former world. 



The geological professors at Oxford and Cambridge have 

 each largely and liberally contributed to our knowledge of the 



