PORTION OF THE SCHUYLKILL COAL-FIELD. 85 



has long been practiced in the admirable representations of 

 mountainous regions in Southern Europe, by sldlful artists. 

 Many of the European museums contain extremely beautiful 

 models of Alpine districts. Some of these even embrace a large 

 portion of Southern Europe ; constituting, in fact, maps in relievo, 

 elaborately executed and truly valuable as works of art. For the 

 most part they are designed as pictoria] representations of highly 

 interesting regions ; without particular reference to their geology, 

 or to the interior structure and arrangement of their elevated 

 masses. Although these much-prized models obtained a place 

 in the English collections, as splendid specimens of a peculiar 

 art, the application of that art to economic geology, and to kin- 

 dred subjects, for ^vhich it is especially adapted, has been but 

 little employed in England, and its introduction is of compara- 

 tively recent date. The geological model, for which the Society 

 of Arts conferred their gold medal, in 1830, was the first which 

 had been exhibited in that excellent institution. A recommenda- 

 tion to adopt the more frequent application of the system, has 

 been occasionally urged by prominent geological authorities. 

 Since the date referred to, two most elaborately executed models, 

 on a very large scale, have been exhibited in London ; tht one rep- 

 resents the field and battle of Waterloo, the other depicts the beau- 

 tiful lake scenery of the north of England; both of them the 

 result of vast labor and singular perseverance. Those models 

 which, in Germany and some other mineral countries, represent 

 the internal economy of the mines and mining operations, belong 

 to a class extremely useful, but different from that which has 

 given rise to the present memoir. 



We come now to the consideration of the model before us. 

 In point of mineral value, of geological peculiarities, of statis- 

 tical intricacy, and of highly picturesque features, the district 

 here represented in miniature, yet with sufficient faithfulness as 

 regards characteristic distinctness, has perhaps no equal, "wdthin a 

 similar area, in America. Its approximation to the tide waters of 

 the Atlantic coast, moreover, confers upon it a commercial value, 

 in connection with the sources of industry and of remuneration 

 for labor, manifestly within its limits. We are justified in ad- 

 verting to these circumstances, because the useful results, and the 



