Prospectus. 3 



lo vindicate the natural history of America, and the reputation 

 of American naturalists. 



It is proposed to issue one number of this work monthly ; each 

 number to consist of fifty pages, with appropriate figures and 

 illustrations, got up in an instructive and artist like manner. 



Each number will contain a continuous Essay on Geology as 

 a science, treated in an elementary manner, divested of all 

 technicalities ; so that the great principles, from which philoso- 

 phical views of the arrangements and operations of nature are 

 drawn, may be lucidly brought forward. 



The various branches of Natural History, Zoology, Botany, 

 Mineralogy, Meteorology, and the nature and forces of all physical 

 natural agents, will be treated of and illustrated in a familiar 

 and instructive manner. 



Comparative Anatomy, together with the habits and propen- 

 sities of animals ; also the phenomena attending vegetable na- 

 ture, especially American nature, whether fossil or recent, will 

 be liberally discussed in the pages of this journal. 



It is the intention of the editor to insert occasional papers on 

 the aboriginal antiquities of this country, and on the structure of 

 the Indian languages. All communications which aim at illus- 

 trating the physical and moral progress of our own species, will 

 be favourably received. 



The state of trans-atlantic natural science will be reviewed 

 in each number. All new discoveries, and able examinations 

 of their bearing upon natural science, will be noticed. Chemistry 

 will be included as applied to all changes in nature. 



Critical reviews and examinations of works on natural history 

 will occasionally appear. Upon all these important subjects, 

 approved original papers from correspondents, bearing the stamp 

 of good sense, will be published on convenient occasions, leaving 

 the writer responsible for facts and opinions. 



It being intended to make this work accessible to the greatest 

 number of readers, with a view to the most extensive difTusion 

 of the knowledge of nature, it will be issued at an expense to 

 the public, as low as the experiment can possibly be made with 

 reasonable hopes of continuing the work. — The price, therefore, 

 for about six hundred pages annually, with at least twelve oc- 

 tavo plates, illustrating a great variety of objects, is limited to 

 $'} r)0 yearlv. 



