TO 



DAVIES GILBERT, ESQ. 



D. C. L. (BY DIPLOMA,) F. R. S., HON. M. R. S. B., HON. M. R. I. *., 

 ?. B. A., r. L. S., F. O. S., F. R. A. 3., BTC. ETC. 



MV DEAR SIR, 



I ONLY fulfil a gratifying duty in dedicating to you the 

 present Essay, which owes its existence principally to your 

 favourable opinion of my ability to discharge the trust con- 

 fided to me. 



To have been thus selected for such a service, is a dis- 

 tinction which I prize as one of the most honourable results 

 of my devotion of many years to the study of the mineral 

 structure of the Earth. I fear, however, that your estimate 

 of my qualifications has been raised above my deserts, by 

 your afl;ectionate regard for the University, with which it 

 has been our common happiness to be so long connected. 



Whatever other results may have attended my public ex- 

 ertions in this place, I assure you that it is a source of much 

 satisfaction to me to find them thus rewarded by the appro- 

 bation of a Philosopher, whose attainments placed him in 

 the chair once occupied by Newton, and who is endeared 

 by his urbanity to all, who have ever enjoyed the happiness 

 of communication with him, cither as the President of the 

 Royal Society of London, or in that more familiar inter- 

 course of private friendship to which it has been my privi- 

 lege to be admitted. 



Believe me to remain,. 

 My dear Sir, 

 Your much obliged and faithful Servant, 



William Buckland. 

 Christ Church, Oxford, 

 May 30, 1836. 



1* 



