134 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY 



if they were not precious metals and diamonds, we in vain 

 inquired of our teachers what they were." 



In the next twenty-five years, interest in this science 

 rapidly increased. In 1825 Dr. Samuel Robinson pub- 

 lished a " Catalogue of American Minerals," an octavo of 

 300 pages, giving the localities of all known minerals in 

 the United States and British Provinces. Prof. Parker 

 Cleaveland's " Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology" was 

 first published in 1816, and marked an epoch in American 

 science. 



In 1824, North Carolina, the first state to take such 

 action, authorized a geological survey. 



In June, 1830, Massachusetts commissioned Prof. 

 Edward Hitchcock to do the same work for this state. 

 Other states followed, until now the whole extent of the 

 country has been or is now being surveyed. 



It is here to be noticed that the sciences of geology and 

 mineralogy have made great and important strides away 

 from the comparatively primitive knowledge and methods 

 of the early part of this century. Then the terminology 

 of both sciences was largely based on the external appear- 

 ances of rocks and minerals. Hence an imperfect classi- 

 fication and many errors. The long and fierce quarrel 

 between the Wernerian or Neptunian, and the Huttonian 

 or Plutonian schools of geology had not yet settled down 

 into the present dispassionate weighing of evidence. 



The science of geology was not yet free and independent, 

 but was subjected to tests and made to do duty in foreign 

 fields, where its development was checked. 



But the practical study of geology and mineralogy won 

 many minds who cared little for speculative discussion, and 

 who, indeed, did not feel competent to master the abstract 

 principles of either science. The early local scientific 

 societies were not largely made up of scientific men, but 



