GEOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BY ROZELLE PURNELL HANDY. 



[Rozelle Pvirnell Handy, author; born Richmond, Va. ; educated at Frederick (Md.) 

 female seminary; special writer for Chicago newspapers, 1892-1902; removed to 

 Berlin, Md., wlu-re she has become a practical scientific farmer and contributor to 

 agricultural periodicals; also contributor to magazines; author, Girls of the Bible, 

 Tales from Longfellow, A Girl's Year on a Farm.] 



The science of modern geology dates from the publi- 

 cation, in 1830, of Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. 

 Previously to that time geology had its distinguished in- 

 vestigators in America, and since then the United States 

 has taken its place at the head of the world's nations as 

 the country productive of the most important discoveries 

 in that department of science. The earliest records of geo- 

 logical research in this country were made when the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical society of Philadelphia had begun the 

 publication of geological papers very early in the century, 

 and on January 10, 1809, William Maclure read at one of 

 its meetings his memorable essay entitled. Observations 

 on the Geology of the United States, Explanatory of a Geo- 

 logical Map. The author had undertaken a gigantic task — 

 one infinitely greater than was occupying William Smith 

 in England. Alone and at his own expense he made a geolog- 

 ical survey of the entire United States, a work which earned 

 for him the name he has received of the '^father of American 

 geology." The work was cne of many years' duration. He 

 crossed the Allegheny mountains fifty times, and visited 

 almost ever}^ state and territory in the union. He traced 

 the great groups of strata then designated as the transition, 

 secondary and alluvial, from the gulf of Mexico to the St. 

 Lawrence. After an exhaustive exploration of our own 

 country he went to Europe in order to recognize the corre- 

 sponding formations of the other continent, and in 1816 and 

 1817 he studied the formations of the Antilles. 



About this time the importance of geological surveys, 

 with the view of ascertaining the agricultural and mineral 



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