GEOLOGY a discourse concerning the earth the 

 signification of the two Greek words from which 

 the term is derived ranks next to astronomy in 

 the interest and grandeur of its revelations. It 

 treats of the elementary substances of which the 

 crust of the globe is composed ; the structure of the masses 

 of rock which form its rind ; the order in which they 

 occur ; the agencies that have operated in their production ; 

 and of the fossilised organic remains with which they 

 abound. This is an investigation which requires the aid 

 of several branches of natural knowledge of mineralogy, 

 of chemistry, of mathematical dynamics, of zoology and 

 comparative anatomy, and of botany : but a number of 

 illustrious men have appeared, in modern times, in whom 

 these various accomplishments have centred, who have suc 

 ceeded in gaining an intelligent apprehension of the arrange 

 ments and combinations of the accessible parts of our planet 

 have unfolded forms of organic life, now withdrawn from 

 the sphere of living existence, which flourished in succession 

 upon the surface of the globe, in ages long anterior to the 

 era of man's creation upon its soil and have demonstrated 

 the story of its past career to be a longer chapter than commonly imagined, marked 



