44«8 Dr. Fitton's Notes on the Histoty of English Geology. 



* want ofsomethingelsetodo, at my leisure in my study, — but 



* it is a real scheme, taken upon tlie spot with patience and 

 ' diligence, by frequent or rather continual observations, in 



* the course of my journeys of business through almost every 



* the minutest parcel of the country : digested at home with 



* much consideration, and composed with as much accuracy, 

 ' as the observer was capable ot.' — P. 98. 



Bu ache's map of the Northern Hemisphere, published in 

 1756*, with his other pi'oductions, relate more properly to 

 physical geography, than to geology ; and were founded upon 

 an hypothesis which assumed the existence of a frame-work, 

 or skeleton, of the eardi, consisting of chains of mountains, — 

 which were supposed to traverse not only the continents, but 

 the seas and oceans, throughout the face of the globe. The 

 islands were considered only as the more prominent points 

 of these chains ; and in order to connect the islands of the 

 greater oceans with the continents, the author was obliged to 

 form by interpolation, or to imagine, submarine chains, of 

 many thousand miles in length. 



GuETTARD appears to have been the first author, in France, 

 who formed the project of a mineralogical map. His plan was 

 that of representing upon ordinary maps, by means of detached 

 characters, the several mineral substances found at each point 

 observed : but his general views were very loose and hypo- 

 thetical ; nor was there a sufficient stock of facts, at that time, 

 to support them. 



The Mineralogical Atlas and Description of France, by 

 MoNNETf, was undertaken and conducted in continuance of 

 Guettard's, and expressly upon his principles ; though, for 

 some reasons which are not stated, he himself withdrew from 

 the direction of the work. It was an elaborate undertaking ; 

 and the value certainly is not proportioned to the labour and 

 expense bestowed upon it : though, if the observations were 

 correct, the collection would still furnish useful materials to 

 those who examine the country with sounder general views. 

 The great defect appears to be, that the authors of the work do 

 not seem to have been impressed with, or to have acted upon, 

 the stratigraphic principles, so well explained by Michell 



• Philippe Buache, — Essai de Geographic P/iysiqite, oii Pan propose des 

 vues generales, sur tcspece de charpente du globe, composce de chaines des 

 montaities, cj id i raver sent les mers comine lestcrrcs. — Mem. de I'Acacl. 1752, 

 pp. 399,416.— Buache was born in 1700, and died in 1773. 



+ Atlas et Description Mineralogiqiie de la France, cntrepris par ordre 

 du Rot; par MM. Guettard et Moniicl. Publies par M. Alonnct, d'apres 

 ses nouveaux Voyages— Ire Partie; — Paris: folio, 1780; pp. 212, with 31 

 Maps. 



