Geology of England and Wales, &c.” 205 
gling with almost every difficulty, and producing as the re- 
sult ofa life of laborious, self denying effort, a single volume, 
which, in the opinion of the world, placed its author among 
the candidates for Bedlam; we now find in the “ crystal 
hunter,” many a Reverend. and many a Right Honourable: 
while numerous respectable societies, pour forth. their 
splendid annual, and semiannual quartos, rich with subter- 
ranean intelligence. So rapidly do facts accumulate, so im- 
perfect are the former definitions found to be, so many old 
principles are overturned, and so many splendid hypotheses 
exploded, that it is hardly safe for a geologist in this coun- 
tty, who has not a very direct communication with London 
or Paris, and who has not read the European Journals of 
the preceding quarter, it is hardly safe for such an one to 
describe a geological fact, if he would not stand corrected 
or ignorance in the next review. And even if all things be 
favourable, he cannot be without some well grounded fear, 
that the next arrival from Europe will throw all his efforts 
into oblivion 
fn this country. geological science was not commenced 
until a period still later than in Europe. Most-of those, 
who bore the heat and burthen of the day of its introduction, 
still live and continue to devote their talents and fortunes to 
the promotion of their favourite science. By one of these, 
afew years ago, ( i818) the following testimony was given. 
“ Only fifteen years since, it was a matter of extreme diffi- 
culty to obtain. among ourselves, even the names of the most 
Common stones and minerals; and one might enquire ear- 
nestly. and long before he could find any one to indentify 
even quartz, feldspar, or hornblende. among the simple min- 
erals; or gramte, porphyry, or trap, among the rocks. 
ed to, the: zeal of such men as  Maclure, 
Gibbs, Bruce, Cleaveland, Silliman, Waterhouse, and 
Seybert, who Jed the vawin this effort to conquer the 
