Sect. IV.] Geology. 203 



so many mines of more rral value to a nation liavo 

 been discovered, and profitably wroui^lil within 

 the last age, in the United States, that we may 

 safely wish for the extension and the more dili- 

 gent improyement of these discoveries. 



SECTION IV. 

 GEOLOGY. 



In the investigation of the natural history of the 

 Earth, little progress had been made prior to the 

 commencement of the eighteenth century. In- 

 deed, as Mineralogy is the alphabet, by the prin- 

 ciples and combinations of which the great vo- 

 lume of geological science must he formed, it is 

 plain, that, as long as the former remained in an 

 uncultivated state, the latter would receive but little 

 light or improvement. During the century under 

 consideration, geology has become an object of the 

 attention and inquiries of many distinguished phi- 

 losophers. The discoveries of chemists and niine- 

 ralogists, and the observations of intelligent travel- 

 lers, have all tended to facilitate these inquiries, 



mine in the town of Mount-Pleasant, Westchester county, slate 

 of New York. This mine is near tlie margu) of the Hudson, 

 thirty-six miles above the city of New York, and on Isnd belong- 

 ing to William Street, esq. It was discovered about forty yearn 

 ago J and, for some years before the revolutionary war, was 

 wrought to tolerable advantage. The convulsions and derange- 

 ments attending that struggle suspended the operation, of the 

 company engaged in Uie business, and they have not suice been 

 resumed. 



