daily opportunities of gainins; a knowledge of the wonders of the phy- 

 sical universe. To a cotemporary observer, or to a narrator of facts in 

 after times, he might be regarded simply as an apprentice in an apothe- 

 cary store ; but in reality, this was a university education for him. 

 Here he could learn the forces which dwell everywhere in the organic 

 world. Every article in the store, every mineral he handled, every 

 common stone in the street, was seen by him to be filled with wonders, 

 and to possess a long history through which it had passed in the in- 

 conceivable ages gone by. This was the most decisive period in his 

 life. Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Minerology and Greology un- 

 folded to him their treasures, and allured him with prospects of an 

 indefinite career of knowledge. He persevered six years in these pur- 

 suits not knowing whither they .would lead; but it was enough for 

 him to know that he was progressing rapidly in the knowledge of the 

 great creation around him. At the end of that time it was decided 

 that he should give up forever all thoughts of being employed in the 

 peculiar duties of pharmacy, and that he should enter on a more ex- 

 tended sphere of contemplation. Geology at that time, 1828, was 

 awakening a deep interest in America, and he made preparations for his 

 first geological tour. In the autumn of that year, in company with 

 two or three young friends, he set out on an excursion for geological 

 investigations through the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Their mode 

 of travelling was on hoi'seback, and their route lay up the Delaware 

 river to the Lehigh; up the Lehigh and through the coal and moun- 

 tain regions on its head waters; thence across the dividing watershed 

 to the basin of the Susquehanna ; through the Wyoming valley and its 

 adjacent coal fields; then down the Susquehanna to its junction with 

 the West Branch at Northumberland and Sunbury; thence eastwardly 

 again across the dividing watershed to the head branches of the Schuyl- 

 kill; then through the Schuylkill coal region; and finally down that 

 river to its mouth at Philadelphia. As geology was then a new sci- 

 ence in America, this pioneer exploration of these young men was 

 highly creditable. Henceforward the geological history of our globe 

 was never to be absent from the mind of Wilson. He saw its deep 

 significance, and how all the natural sciences, organic and inorganic, 

 must be made tributary in order to understand the long process by 

 which our world has become what it is. He was now to decide what 

 course to adopt with a view of laying still more thoroughly and broadly 

 the foundation of his future scientific course. Accordingly, in the 

 autumn of the same year he entered the University of Pennsylvania as 



