54 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



Scotland, 1763, d. in San Angel, Mexico, Mar. 23, 1840], a 

 Scotch merchant who amassed a large fortune by commercial 

 connections with this country, and became a citizen of the United 

 States about 1796. His most important service to American 

 science was that of a patron, for he was a liberal supporter of the 

 infant Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, and for twenty-two 

 years its president, besides being an upholder of other important 

 enterprises. 



The publication in 1809 of his "Observations on the Geology 

 of the United States" marks the beginning of American geo 

 graphical geology and the first attempt at a geological survey of 

 the United States. This had long been the object of his ambi 

 tion, and, in order to prepare himself for the task, he had spent 

 several years in travel throughout Europe, making observations 

 and collecting objects in natural history, which he forwarded to 

 the country of his adoption. 



His undertaking was undoubtedly a remarkable one. " He 

 went forth with his hammer in his hand and his wallet on his 

 shoulder, pursuing his researches in every direction, visiting 

 almost every State and Territory, wandering often amidst path 

 less tracts and dreary solitudes until he had crossed and re- 

 crossed the Alleghany mountains not less than fifty times. He 

 encountered all the privations of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and ex 

 posure, month after month and year after year, until his indom 

 itable spirit had conquered every difficulty and crowned his 

 enterprise with success,"* and after the publication of his me 

 moir he devoted eight years more to collecting materials for a 

 second and revised addition. 



The geological map of the United States, published in 1809, 

 appears to have been the first of the kind ever attempted for an 

 entire country. Smith's geological map of England was six 

 years later, and Greenough's still subsequent in date. 



* MARTIN: Memoir of William Maclure, p. n. 



