228 Prof. Silliman’s Address before the 
castellated trap rocks of Edinburgh, rising in black frowning 
peaks and ridges, in the very bosom of that beautiful city. Ar- 
riving in Edinburgh at midnight, the morning light disclosed to 
+ 
ER: ot 
my view the noble outlines of a grand and beautiful country, Sabal 
and I was in an instant transported to my own quiet city of De 
New Haven, the hills near to which, (of whose geological char- ey 
acter I was far from feeling assured, even up to the hour of my 
leaving them behind,) I now felt convinced were true trappean 
ridges and peaks, adorned, like Salisbury Craig, Arthur’s Seat, 
and the Castle Rock of Edinburgh, with grand colonnades and 
castellated summits. 
In Edinburgh, that focus of talent and knowledge, chemistry 
was then cultivated with great zeal and success, both in the 
“university and in private courses; it presented ample stores of 
science, with rich and satisfactory proofs by experiment. All 
the departments of physical science were indeed well sustained 
» but our limits of time will allow us to speak on the pre- 
sent occasion only of geology. In that science, Edinburgh was 
then farin advance of London. It shone as a brilliant boreal 
aurora, whose coruscations mounting to the zenith, were observ- 
ed even in the distant south, soon to be illuminated in its turn 
by an increasing and steady effulgence. T’o produce this state 
of things, various causes had concurred. The region around 
Edinburgh is rich in geological facts; that for many miles around 
London was then supposed (although erroneously) to possess 
very little geological interest ; for its tertiary treasures had been 
little explored, and they, as well as the similar deposits in other 
countries, had as yet received no distinct classification in geol- 
ogy. Prof. Jameson having recently returned from the school of 
Werner, fully instructed in the doctrines of his illustrious teacher, 
was ardently engaged to maintain them, and his eloquent and 
acute friend, the late Dr. John Murray, was a powerful auxiliary 
in the same cause ; both of these philosophers strenuously gop 
taining the ascendancy of the aqueous over the igneous agencies, 
in the geological phenomena of our planet. 
_ On the other hand, the disciples and friends of Dr. Hutton* 
Were not less active. He died in 1797, and his mantle fell upo 
Pos Dr. James Hutton, born 1726, was graduated as M. D. at Leyden in 1749, set- 
7 two volumes octavo, which was explained with additional 
c fai - . e Pe +”. 
