MINERALOGY. 
HAVING ranged over the diversified and com- 
plex field of organized nature, as developed in our 
beautiful district, we next arrive at the science 
which treats of the unorganized matter, composing 
the crust of the Earth, and which was for a long 
time, less attended to, than any of its kindred ones. 
The difficulty of obtaining characters sufficiently 
constant and precise, to distinguish minerals from 
each other, as compared with those furnished by 
organized substances, was, and still remains, a very 
serious obstacie to the satisfastory study of them. 
The simple elements of which they are composed, 
being mixed and blended, in the great Labratory of 
Nature, in almost infinitely various modes, and 
proportions, we should search in vain for the well- 
defined, and uniform characteristics that constitute 
our idea of species in the other Kingdoms of Nature. 
To this we must further add, the difficulty of ob- 
taining access to them; the Ocean effectually 
