332 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



that of North Carolina, authorized a geological survey to be 

 liiade. This example was followed in 1830 by Massachusetts, 

 and soon after by New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other 

 States, and also by the national government, until, as is now well 

 known, the whole territory of the United States and Canada 

 either has been or is in the process of being surveyed. Several 

 of the State surveys published independent volumes on the mine- 

 ralogy of their respective States, and these surveys have been a 

 powerful auxiliary in extending our knowledge of the occurrence 

 of minerals on this continent. The opening of mines and quar- 

 ries throughout the country has also furnished abundant material 

 for study. The large number of original contributions which 

 have been published in the volumes of State surveys, the treatises 

 by American authors, and the still larger number of memoirs 

 and papers communicated to our academies of science and scien- 

 tific journals cannot be even enumerated in this place, neither is 

 it my purpose to attempt to give here a list of the names of those 

 who have been actively engaged in making researches on Ameri- 

 can minerals. Still less can I attempt to give an account of the 

 work that has been and is being done by living mineralogists. 

 The sketch which I have presented of the four typical workers 

 has in a measure shown the character of our early mineralogists, 

 the earnest spirit in which they labored, and what they accom- 

 plished in the first quarter of the century. The point to which 

 the science has reached in the last quarter of the century cannot 

 be unfamiliar to you all. In the time that remains I desire to 

 call your attention to some of the developments made in the field 

 in which our mineralogists have worked. It was thought by 

 many scientists in the first half of this century that our rocks 

 seemed likely to aS"ord less variety of mineral contents than the 

 rocks of Europe. Further study, however, and more careful and 

 extended observations encouraofe us to believe that our mineral 

 riches, even in variety of species, will compare favorably with 

 those of other continents. Already fully one-half of the known 

 mineral species have been found here. The present number of 

 known minerals is variously estimated to be from seven hundred 

 to one thousand. There have been described, as occurring here, 

 nearly three hundred supposed new American minerals. Of these, 

 perhaps one quarter are new to science and the remainder have 

 either been proved to be identical with species already described, 

 or their characters are so imperfectly given that further investi- 



