OBJECTS AND ENDS OF GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. 9 



or by which they may be arranged. Their peculiari- 

 ties of form and disposition, whether constituting ir- 

 regular masses, strata, or veins, are subsequent objects 

 of consideration ; and their natural history is rendered 

 complete by investigating their order of succession or 

 their other mutual relations, the influence which they 

 may exert on each other, the general analogies which 

 they bear to the whole system, and the causes, nature, 

 and consequences of the changes which they have un- 

 dergone or may be undergoing. Lastly, for the pur- 

 poses of mineral topography, it is necessary to deter- 

 mine their geographical boundaries : the geologist 

 being thus enabled, by the aid of maps and sections, 

 to refer accurately to them, whether for economical 

 objects or the mere purpose of elucidation. The exa- 

 mination of mineral or metallic veins, forms another 

 distinct object of geological investigation: nor is the 

 geologist exempted from the study of minerals, though 

 mineralogy has been erected into a separate pursuit. 

 The mineralogist may pursue the minutiae of his own 

 department, with little aid from geology ; but he will 

 be a very imperfect geologist who is not acquainted 

 with those objects, for the discovery of which, mine- 

 ralogy will most frequently be indebted to him. 



If the multitude and variety of organic remains 

 shall appear sufficient to exempt the geologist from a 

 minute investigation of all these objects, and to permit 

 him to divide this labour with the cultivators of Zoo- 

 logy and Botany, still it is his especial duty to deter- 

 mine the substances in which they are imbedded, the 

 nature and relative antiquity of these, and a multitude 

 of other circumstances which it would now be super- 

 fluous to detail. For his own immediate ends, he must 

 possess, at least a considerable knowledge of the cha- 

 racters and analogies of fossil animals and vegetables. 



