306 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



greater specific gravity in the central portion of the globe 

 than in its crust, as opposed to a theory that was then advo- 

 cated of an interior void. Yet he thought " we are advertised, 

 by the phenomena of earthquakes, that this interior abounds 

 with oxygen, hydrogen gas, caloric, and sulphur, and that ex- 

 traordinary geological changes are affected by their action. 

 It does seem improbable that the proposed expedition will 

 trace any open connection with such an interior world ; but 

 it may accumulate facts of the highest importance." There 

 was something, however, about the getting up and organiza- 

 tion of the expedition which he did not like, and an appre- 

 hension whether Congress would not cripple it by voting 

 meagre supplies and outfits. He declined to go. 



A note from Mr. G. W. Featherstonaugh, giving a disparag- 

 ing view of American scientific achievement, and inclosing the 

 prospectus of a journal designed to correct these things, gave 

 Mr. Schoolcraft opportunity for bearing strong tribute to the 

 genuineness of real American scientific research. The critic's 

 remarks might be true as to a certain class, who had not made 

 science a study ; but, if applied to the power and determin- 

 ation of the American mind devoted to natural history, it was 

 "not only unjust in a high degree, but an evidence of an over- 

 weening self-complaisance, imprecision of thought, or arro- 

 gance. No trait of the American scientific character has 

 been more uniformly and highly approbated by the foreign 

 journals of England, France, and Germany than its capacity 

 to accumulate, discriminate, and describe facts. For fourteen 

 years past, Silliman's Journal of Science, though not exclu- 

 sively devoted to natural sciences, has kept both the scientific 

 and the popular intelligent mind of the public well and 

 accurately advised of the state of natural science the world 

 over. Before it, Bruce's Mineralogical Journal, though con- 

 tinued but for a few years, was eminently scientific ; and 

 Cleaveland's Mineralogy has had the effect to diffuse scientific 

 knowledge not only among men of science, but other classes 

 of readers. In ornithology, in conchology, and especially in 

 botany, geology, and mineralogy, American mind has proved 

 itself eminently fitted for the highest tasks." 



The Michigan Historical Society was founded, chiefly 

 through Mr. Schoolcraft's instrumentality, in 1828, and the 

 Algic Society on February 28, 1832. The latter organization 



