TO 



IENJAMIN SILLIMAN, LL. D. 



PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY" 

 IN YALE COLLEGE, 



&c. <fcc. 



DEAR SIR, 



The distinguished services you have rendered to the 

 cause of Mineralogy and Geology in America, not merely 

 in contributing to their early introduction, but to their 

 efficient cultivation among us, prompt me to dedicate the 

 present work to you. 



The wisdom and zeal of those exertions which secured 

 to l[ale College the most splendid collection of minerals in 

 the country, the valuable instruction and enthusiasm im- 

 parted by your lectures to a great body of young men now 

 dispersed through the whole nation, and the public spirit 

 which has led you at a po- nal sacrifice to maintain in the 

 American Journal of Sri e a free medium for the dif- 

 fusion of this kind of kno \ r e. are too well known and 

 justly appreciated to r he feeble acknowledgment 



