RANDALL'S GEOLOGY. 85 



In regard to Devons, so beautiful in themselves, so thrifty, so rich in milk, and 

 so docile in the yoke — we are not so familiar with otlicr herds — but, if we were 

 in the way of betting, we would freely wager that there is not in all old Eng- 

 land a herd snpenoT, if c(/ual for I /tc number, (which is very large,) to that which 

 grazes on the broad and fertile fields of Mr. Patterson. There have been Devons, 

 however, advertised near Baltimore, picked up here and there in the way of trade, 

 that may or may not have been altogether of the " true grit." 



Finally, we heartily concur with the Editor of the American Agriculturist in 

 saying — 



" Let us now sustain each other — at least until our domestic demand shall carry prices up 

 to something like a compensating ammiiit for the heavy capital already invested in our im- 

 prove<l stock ; or until the reduced clunipness on tlie other side the Atlantic~shall be a suffix 

 cient reason for passing by animals and herds of equal excellence on this." 



RANDALL'S GEOLOGY. 



INCENTIVES TO THE CULTIVATION OF THE SCIENCE OF GEOLOGY. Designed for the Use 

 OP THE Young. Bv S. .S. Rand.ai«-, Depiuy Superintendent of Common Schools of the State of New. 

 Yorlc. New-York : Greeley 6c McElnith. 



We can deem no apology necessary for appealing, again and again, to parents 

 and to all men who have influence, political or social, to make it their first care 

 to watch over our common schools, and to see that such books are placed in the 

 hands, and such direction given to the minds of our youth, as will beget an earlv 

 fondness for reading, and an eagerness to explore those fields of knowledge in 

 which all acquisition must, more or less directly, contribute to their success in 

 the business by which they are to gain their livelihood, and by which those who 

 are destined for Agriculture may at the same time entitle themselves to rank with 

 the cultivated men of other professions. 



It gives us unfeigned delight whenever a new book falls in our way which 

 seems calculated to lead to this result, by adapting natural sciences to the com- 

 prehension of the young, and, in that way, smoothing the otherwise rugged path 

 over which they might have to travel in pursuit of entertaining and useful know- 

 ledge. 



Of such a nature and tendency is the small volume, " Incentives to the Culti- 

 vation OF the Science of Geology, Designed for the Use of the Young ; bv 

 S. S. Randall, Deputy Superintendent of Common Schools of the Slate of New- 

 York," which has been laid on our table by the Publishers, Greeley & McElrath. 

 To our own Sillijian (it is of such men a country has a right to be proud), and 

 to Lyell, who has traveled much and recently in America, the scientific world 

 is much indebted for the means of dilFusing a knowledge of modern geological 

 discoveries. 



Its connection with Agriculture — lying, as it does, at the foundation of agricul- 

 tural science — is too obvious to need any illustration. Enough to repeat what has 

 been said in general terms, that 



" There is this, therefore, to recommend geology, that it excites a distinct interest in the 

 external characters of a countiy or district, inde[)endent of the beauties, or mgirediiess. or 

 sublimity of its as;)ect, or of its geographical peculiarities, and endeavors to trace a cfMinectiou 

 between its exterior features and /«/er/o/- structure ; and in these, its sim])lest details.it 

 bears upon Agriculture, and ultimately upon all tho.se numerous arts in which mineral sub- 

 stances are concenied. The fanner should be a geologist, smd so should the architect : the 

 miner and the mineralogist must be so. But this is, as it were, the mere title of the volume ; 

 for when we come more narrowly to penise its contents, we do indeed find it "as a book 

 wherein man may read sti-ange matters." It is full of relics, so extraordinaiy as to arivst the 

 (181; 



