GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY : THE WESTON METEOR. 217 



riclian of life, was among the most zealous of my compan- 

 ions, and with activity and perseverance he dismounted 

 with me to examine every feature of the country which was 

 not intelligible when viewed from the saddle. His large 

 mind admitted every species of knowledge, and the fruits 

 of his untiring industry in the prosecution of truth are 

 garnered in his admirable Dictionary. 



I arrived in New Haven from Scotland on the first of 

 June, 180G, and on the first day of September I read to 

 the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences a report 

 on the mineral structure of the environs of New Haven, 

 which was printed in the first volume of the transactions 

 of the Academy. This -report occupies fourteen pages, 

 and having been published more than fifty-two years ago, 

 when I was twenty-seven years of age, I have been grati- 

 fied to find that an attentive re-perusal yesterday, (January 

 6, 1859,) after I know not how many years of oblivion, 

 suggested very few alterations, and I have not discovered 

 any important errors. As regards the trap-rocks, and their 

 relation to the associated sandstone and conglomerate rocks, 

 the analogy is fully sustained between Edinburgh and New 

 Haven. The coal formation, and the fossiliferous lime- 

 stones and fossil trees of Edinburgh, are not found here ; 

 but the relation of the trap and sandstone formations to 

 the primary slates, now called metamorphic, is here imme- 

 diate and accessible, and thus affords the geological student 

 an interesting field of observation and instruction. On the 

 whole, I do not see any reason to be ashamed of rny youth- 

 ful effort in geology, nor do I think that half a century has 

 materially improved my style of writing. In a literary 

 point of view, I could not do the work any better now than 

 I did it then. 



In the autumn of 1806, I found myself, four years after 

 my appointment, in a condition to attempt a full course. 

 Through that winter and spring, and through half of the 



