

4 Memoir of William Maclure. 



Gulf of Mexico ; and the memoir which embraced his accumula- 

 ted facts, was at length submitted to the American Philosophical 

 Society, and printed in their Transactions for the year 1809.* 



Novel as this work was, and replete with important details, its 

 author did not suspend his researches with its publication, but re- 

 sumed them on a yet more extended scale, in order to obtain ad- 

 ditional materials, and test the correctness of his previous views. 

 In after life he often recurred with pleasure to the incidents con- 

 nected with this survey ; some of which, though vexatious at the 

 time, were subsequently the theme of amusing anecdote. When 

 travelling in some remote districts, the unlettered inhabitants see- 

 ing him engaged in breaking the rocks with his hammer, suppo- 

 sed him to be a lunatic who had escaped from confinement ; and 

 on one occasion, as he drew near a public house, the inmates, be- 

 ing informed of his approach, took refuge in-doors, and closing 

 the entrance held a parley from the windows, until they were at 

 length convinced that the stranger could be safely admitted. 



Incidents of this kind, and many others which occurred to him, 

 appear to have influenced the following remarks in the Preface to 

 his Geology : " All inquiry into the nature and properties of rocks, 

 or the relative situation they occupy on the surface of the earth, 

 has been much neglected. It is only since a few years that it 

 has been thought worth the attention of either the learned or un- 

 learned ; and even now a great proportion of both treat such in- 

 vestigations with contempt, as beneath their notice. Why man- 

 kind should have so long neglected to acquire knowledge so use- 

 ful to the progress of civilization — why the substances over which 

 they have been daily stumbling, and without whose aid they 

 could not exercise any one art or profession, should be the last to 

 occupy their attention — is one of those problems perhaps only to 

 be solved by an analysis of the nature and origin of the power of 

 the few over the many*" 



Notwithstanding that Mr. Maclure thus felt himself almost 

 alone in his pursuits in this country, he did not relax his ardor 

 in the cause of science, but continued to extend and complete his 

 geological survey; which, after receiving his final revisions, was 

 again presented to the Philosophical Society on the 16th of May, 



* This memoir is entitled, "Observations on the Geology of the United States, 

 explanatory of a Geological Map." It was read January 20, 1809, and is publish- 

 ed in the sixth volume of the Society's Transactions. 



