PREFACE. 



THIS book is intended to meet the wants of beginners in the study 

 of Geology, and especially young beginners. There are many ele- 

 mentary books, so called, on this science, but they all, so far as I 

 have seen them, contain much matter which is suited only to those 

 who have already become acquainted with the subject. They cover 

 too much ground for a beginner. And, besides this, they are not 

 sufficiently simple in their explanations and illustrations. These 

 defects I have endeavored to avoid in the construction of this book. 

 My object has been to produce a text-book fitted to prepare those 

 who are wholly unacquainted with the subject for the farther study 

 of it in the books of professed geologists. I would gladly have left 

 this task to some of them, but, as no one has met the existing want, 

 I have undertaken to do it, though with some hesitation, from my 

 lack of familiarity with the full minutiae of the subject. But per- 

 haps the fact that I have been obliged to be, to some extent, a learn- 

 er, in order to accomplish my task, has the better fitted me for it, as 

 I have thus become sensible of the wants of the learners for whom 

 I write. 



As in my Chemistry (Part II.), so in this book, I have made it a 

 point to convey to the pupil simply that knowledge of the study 

 which every well-informed person ought to possess, leaving out those 

 minutiae which are of value only to one who intends to be a thorough 

 geologist. I have also brought out very prominently those common 

 geological phenomena which are within the scope of ordinary ob- 

 servation. so that the pupil may be prompted, by what he learns in 



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