Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 429 



intention of the Society to construct a geological map of the 

 State. When this shall be accomplished, it will be a monument 

 worthy of the labours of the men who have established the first 

 Geological Society in the United States of America, that holds 

 out a most encouraging promise of not being " Vox et praeterea 

 nihil." We believe the day is rapidly passing away, when the 

 value of an acre of land is to be estimated solely by its capacity 

 for producing a certain number of bushels of wheat, or cords of 

 wood. How many tons of coal, of lead, iron, copper, how 

 many potinds of gold, may be extracted from it ? are becoming 

 important inquiries with American land owners. The value of 

 this kind of knowledge will soon become properly appreciated, 

 and then the State Legislatures will furnish the means for the 

 execution of surveys by competent persons, and for the construc- 

 tion of geological maps, which alone give the proper indications 

 of the mineral resources of a State. This will be well under- 

 stood by and by : in the mean time, it is for zealous individuals 

 to draw the public attention to so great a subject. 



The queries in the accompanying Circular, appear to embrace 

 the most interesting objects connected with geology. It rarely 

 occurs that any one district furnishes matter of observation re- 

 specting all the objects especially mentioned in this circular, but 

 it appears to us, that individuals will find the objects enumerated 

 which are found in their respective parts of the country : it wdll 

 not be found very troublesome for any particular individual to 

 furnish the Society with information of what exists around him. 

 We most sincerely hope this most commendable and extensive 

 plan for bringing out the geological information of the State of 

 Pennsylvania, will meet with perfect success. The Society 

 having constituted this Journal the organ of its transactions, we 

 shall do every thing in our power to aid in giving effect to its 

 labours, as well as in rendering justice to individual exertions. 

 To be instrumental in collecting and extending the knowledge 

 of the geology of this State, will te very grateful to us ; but, as 

 our object is to make the geological information of any particu- 

 lar part of the country subservient to a knowledge of the general 

 geology of the United States, we beg to intimate to our sub- 

 scribers who reside out of the State of Pennsylvania, that we 

 should feel ourselves under a great obligation to them, or any 

 of their friends, if they would communicate to us the informa- 



