WEST OF ENGLAND JOURNAL 



No. I. JANUARY, 1835. Vol. 1. 



Art. I.— essay INTRODUCTORY TO GEOLOGY, 



BY THE REV. W. D. CONYBEARE. 



In ofifering to the public the first number of a new provincial journal, 

 which professes to take as its principal object the endeavour to assist — as 

 far as it may — in the general advancement of the various branches of 

 scientific research, with an especial view to the development and more 

 effectual application of the local resources and facilities afforded to the 

 cultivation of those sciences by the various philosophical institutions, mu- 

 seums, &c. dispersed through the western district, which must constitute 

 our peculiar sphere of influence; it has been held desirable to introduce 

 our several subjects by short prefatory essays on their general nature, and 

 on the peculiar local advantages to which we have adverted. To open with 

 these views that department of our work which will be dedicated to 

 Geology, will form tlie object of the following remarks. 



It cannot be necessary to dwell at any length on the general importance 

 and interest of this branch of pliysical enquiry — the strong hold, which, 

 from its very infancy, this youngest of the sciences has exerted over the 

 public mind, at once evinces the general conviction on these points j nor 

 can this popularity be regarded as unsupported by the justest claims ; for 

 let IIS only cast a rapid glance at the principal subjects of investigation to 

 which it invites our attention. 



Like every other science of observation, Geology must in the first place 

 be divided into its descriptive and theoretical portions ; the former being 

 the simple record of the phenomena observed, and the latter devoted to 

 the examination of the inferences which these phenomena appear necessarily 

 to suggest as to their causes. — We say " the inferences necesmrily sug- 

 gested," for no imputation can be more groundless than that which supposes 

 tliat geological theories are mere fictions of the imagination gratuitously 

 assumed d priori ; they have ever, on the contrary, been based on strict 



No. 1.— Vol. I. B 



