GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN ESSEX COUNTY, MASS. 



BY B. F. MCDA.NIEL. 



THE first organized effort in the United States for the 

 study of geology and mineralogy was the "Mineralogical 

 Society," formed in New York city in 1798. 



In appealing for aid and sympathy, information was 

 especially desired as to the localities, quantity, and quality 

 of gunflints, brimstone, saltpetre and lead. 



Evidently the society meant to justify its existence. 

 The state of the science is forcibly revealed by Professor 

 Silliman, the elder, in 1818. "Notwithstanding the laud- 

 able efforts of a few gentlemen," he says, "to excite some 

 taste for mineralogy, so little has been effected in forming 

 collections, in kindling curiosity, and in diffusing informa- 

 tion, that only fifteen years since (1803), it was a matter 

 of extreme difficulty to obtain the names of the common 

 stones and minerals ; and one might inquire earnestly and 

 long before he could find any one to identify even quartz, 

 feldspar, or hornblende among the simple minerals, or 

 granite, porphyry, or trap among the rocks. 



We speak from experience, and well remember with 

 what impatient, but almost despairing curiosity we eyed 

 the bleak, naked ridges which impended over the valleys 

 and plains that were the scenes of our youthful excur- 

 sions. 



In vain did we doubt that the glittering spangles of 

 mica and the still more alluring brilliancy of pyrites gave 

 assurance of the existence of the precious metals in those 

 substances, or that the cutting of glass by the garnet and 

 quartz proved that these minerals were the diamond ; but, 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XVI. 9* (133) 



