284 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



porcelain, the porcelain especially of Philadelphia, which 

 compared very well with that of Sevres. We were at 

 Sevres early in April 1851, and saw this extensive collec- 

 tion in the ceramic art, and surveyed with admiration the 

 splendid productions of the manufactory. 



William Maclure : His Contributions. This gentleman, 

 born in Scotland in 1763, resided some years in London 

 as a member of a mercantile firm, and early became opulent. 

 He retired from business about 1798-9. He visited the 

 United States in 1782, at the age of nineteen, and again in 

 1796. In 1803 he appeared in London along with two 

 colleagues, as a commissioner of claims upon the French 

 government for spoliations on American commerce. During 

 some years following he visited most of the countries of 

 Europe and collected specimens in geology and other 

 branches of natural history, which he sent to the United 

 States, his adopted home. He then came to America and 

 commenced the exploration of its geology, and the result 

 was published in 1809 in the Transactions of the Philosoph- 

 ical Society of Philadelphia. In 1817, eight years after, 

 he published a revised edition of his memoir, enlarged and 

 made more perfect, and it appeared also in a small separate 

 volume, with maps. His observations were extended through 

 nearly all the States, from Canada to the Mexican Gulf, 

 and from Maine to the Mississippi, also including the 

 West Indies. In order to obtain correct sections of the 

 Alleghanies', he crossed that chain of mountains fifty times, 

 back and forward. During all his journeys he collected 

 geological specimens which, from time to time, he boxed 

 and forwarded to Philadelphia, or other places of deposit. 

 He came to New Haven in the autumn of 1808, and I 

 passed several days with him in exploring our geology. He 

 had then come from Maine, and had become acquainted 

 with Professor Parker Cleaveland, whom he greatly admired. 

 He travelled in a private carriage with a servant, and a 



