322 INTRODUCTION. 



the environs of the city. The rapid and increasing march 

 of knowledge, since I was there, has outdone all former 

 example. 



My continuance in Edinburgh, enabled me to study 

 under able masters. My tours around that great seat of 

 learning-, and an excursion to the mountains, rendered 

 me more than an admirer of natural scenes in perspective. 

 I was taughf to penetrate beyond the surface, and to con- 

 ceive something of geognostic formation. Now, how* 

 ever, the light of science shines wider, and deeper, and 

 brighter ; and enables her favourite labourers, more than 

 ever, to share the benefit of its rays. 



On my return to North America, I found my fellow citi- 

 zens of New-York occupied in a negotiation with the 

 Five Indian Nations, for the purchase of their land, situ- 

 ated to the westward of Fort Schuyler, and extending 

 away to Lakes Ontario and Erie. I became convinced, 

 on attending that important treaty in 1T88, that a proper 

 acquaintance with the productions within its limits and 

 along its confines would add most important materials 

 to natural history. After all that the travellers and ob- 

 servers had done, from Father Hennepin to John Bartram 

 and Lewis Evans, there appeared to be a boundless field 

 for investigation. 



I had an opportunity to make further observations when, 

 in 1796, 1 performed an excursion at the request of the So- 

 ciety for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manu- 

 factures> for the purpose of exploring the region near the 

 banks of the Hudson river and its tributary streams, for 

 minerals. I made a report on the several tracts of coun- 

 try I had visited. These I divided into, 1. the Graniti. 

 cal ; 2. The Shistic; 3. The Sand-stone; 4. The Lime- 



