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DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 



CHAPTER I. 

 PRELUDE TO SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 



Sect. 1. Ancient Notices of Geological Facts. 



THE recent history of Geology, as to its most 

 important points, is bound up with what is 

 doing at present from day to day ; and that portion 

 of the history of the science which belongs to the 

 past, has been amply treated by other writers 1 . I 

 shall, therefore, pass rapidly over the series of 

 events of which this history consists ; and shall only 

 attempt to mention what may seem to illustrate and 

 confirm my own view of its state and principles. 



Agreeably to the order already pointed out, I 

 shall notice, in the first place, Phenomenal Geology, 

 or the description of the facts, as distinct from the 

 inquiry into their causes. It is manifest that such 

 a merely descriptive kind of knowledge may exist ; 

 and it probably will not be contested, that such 

 knowledge ought to be collected, before we attempt 

 to frame theories concerning the causes of the phe- 

 nomena. But it must be observed, that we are 



1 As MM. Lyell, Fitton, (Jonybeare, in our own country. 



