326 INTRODUCTION. 



in a few years, the attention of our citizens has been turn- 

 ed to the pursuit of geology and mineralogy with an inte- 

 rest and success never known before. It is in consequence 

 of the information brought home by tourists and travellers, 

 and that which I have collected during many trips 

 and excursions of my own, that I was enabled to com- 

 pose a memoir on the organic remains of the region 

 around New-York, and read the same to the Literary and 

 Philosophical Society. In that paper I described up- 

 wards of twenty animals which I presumed to be extinct, 

 because there were no living vestiges of them known. 



Many new facts have been disclosed since that time. 

 I am satisfied that New-York is as important a centre of 

 geological productions and occurrences, as London, Pa- 

 ris, or Rome. Under this persuasion, I have consented 

 to add a brief memorandum concerning American fos- 

 sils, and some of the geognostic features of those dis- 

 tricts where they lie. It may serve as an outline of the 

 great work, now just begun, and perhaps as a direction 

 to the inquiries of those who shall engage in these or simi- 

 lar investigations. 



