PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 431 



American Institute, Polytechnic Association, ) 



October 31, 1861. J 



Prof. Cyrus Mason in the chair. 



AMERICAN GEOLOGY. 



Dr. Stevens. — I have been requested to give a history of the 

 formation of the American Continent, as deduced from the explo- 

 rations of geologists in Canada and in the United States, and I 

 will begin to do so to-night. 



Prof. Hutton, at Edinburgh, is the author of the doctrine that 

 all the rocks of the earth were formed by fire in its present form. 

 And he found corroborative evidence in his own country, for the 

 rocks of Scotland very generally bear evidence of having been 

 changed, at some time, by the action of intense heat. But, in 

 Germany, where the rocks are generally sedimentary, the doc- 

 trine was promulgated by Werner that all the rocks of the earth 

 were formed by water. While these two doctrines were contend- 

 ing for supremacy, William Smith, a county surveyor in England, 

 conceived the idea that he could identify geological strata by 

 means of the organic remains contained in them. After twenty- 

 five years research, he published a map of England, exhibiting 

 formations classified upon this principle, which from that time 

 has been received as the basis of the theory of the sedimentary 

 rocks. I should explain the original formation of the earth some- 

 what in the following way : 



There are sixty-six original elements of matter known to sci- 

 entific men. Now, if we suppose that these were created pure, 

 the moment that oxygen and hydrogen were created and came 

 together, water would be formed. In the same way, silicon and 

 oxygen would combine and form sand ; aluminum and oxygen 

 would combine and form clay ; and so on until we reached all 

 the chemical combinations now existing. But this is the chemi- 

 cal history of the globe ; geology finds the world created, and 

 explains the history of its subsequent changes, and more especi- 

 ally the history of animal and vegetable life as connected with 

 the early history of the earth. In this view it becomes a sublime 

 science, teaching us the progress, from simple beginnings, upwards 

 and onwards through every successive age, until finally, man 

 made his appearance upon the planet. 



In the earlier ages of the globe, it was impossible for man to 

 live upon it, for there was nothing for him to live upon. If we 

 begin at the Adirondack mountains, in New York, and travel 



