5 1 Geological Society. 



United States. — Though this be not the occasion on which I may 

 dilate upon the productions and discoveries of our. foreign contempo- 

 raries in Germany, Italy, and France, still I may offer a few brief re- 

 marks on the strides which have been recently made by our coadjutors 

 in the Western hemisphere, connected as they are with us by commu- 

 nity of origin and language. 



In the United States of America our science, cultivated upon 

 true principles, rises steadily in public estimation. A Geological 

 Society is formed at Philadelphia, which commencing energetically 

 in the collection of specimens, and inviting descriptive sections 

 from all parts of Pennsylvania, shows how effectually the intelligence 

 and public spirit of this State have been drawn to our subject, — an 

 effect chiefly due to the writings and lectures of our zealous Associate, 

 Mr. Featherstonhaugh. 



Another of our Fellows, Mr. R. C. Taylor, has begun to apply his 

 acquaintance with English geology, in describing a large bituminous 

 coal-field on the flank of the Alleghany Mountains, which seems to 

 bear a striking resemblance to the carboniferous districts of Great 

 Britain. 



To Dr.Haerlam, already known by his valuable contributions to the 

 works of Cuvier, we owe several important recent additions to fossil 

 zoology. 



Dr. Morton, Corresponding Secretary of the Academy of Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, who had illustrated the organic remains of the ferru- 

 ginous sandstone of Pennsylvania, has also formed an instructive and 

 rich collection of the tertiary shells of that State, which have met 

 with an excellent expositor in Mr. Conrad. The First Number of a 

 work, long desired by every European geologist, has just appeared, 

 entitled " Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America," 

 by this author 5 and I may confidently recommend it as a most instruc- 

 tive performance, the continuation of which will at length enable us 

 to speculate with confidence upon one important class of the deposits 

 of that vast continent. Some inaccuracies of comparison seem to be 

 owing to the author's unacquaintance with those conchological di- 

 stinctions which have been so very recently applied to the tertiary 

 groups by Desnoyers, Lyell, and Deshayes. Without entering upon 

 the nature of the vast alluvial and diluvial accumulations of North 

 America, which upon minute and careful examination will probably 

 be found to offer all the subdivisions they are capable of in Europe, 



condary Rocks in the neighbourhood of Bassano." — (Phil. Mag. and Ann. 

 vol.v. June 1829.) At some future day I may point out the extent to 

 which M. Pasini has misunderstood the facts I have explained ; probably 

 from his rigorous interpretation of a hastily drawn section. This slight 

 sketch was simply intended to show, that within a very limited district on 

 the southern flank of the Alps, the tertiary strata were highly inclined in 

 conformity with the scaglia or chalk, as clearly exhibited in the bed of the 

 Brenta. Of the dolomite of that region, it was not my intention to have 

 spoken ; and I regret that the few words relating to the disrupted masses 

 of that rock in the defiles of the Brenta should have been thought worthy 

 of so much criticism on the part of the ingenious author. 



