406 Emmons on American Geology. 
their sacred er to light, and cast them once more u upon 
troubled shore.”—p. 26, The belts of sand which skirt our Ate 
lantic coast, ‘‘in time support a scanty vegetation and admit of pas- 
turage for mules, horses, and sheep. The horses which run wild 
upon these semi-desert ts belong to the pony breed; but they are 
tough and hardy,” and our author naively adds, “ They invaria- 
bly refuse corn when first taken.”—p. 12. 
The moon “that luminary which shines with such silvery 
light and appears so plane and even” to Mr. Emmons, and which 
he calls ‘‘a smaller pattern of our earth” appears to have exercised 
a strong influence upon his imagination; he gives “a diagram 
roa the Penny Cyclopedia,” in order that the student “ may lo- 
cate the volcanic peaks,” some of which he tells us “ exceed one 
and a-half miles in height.” We may remark that according to 
the accurate measurements of Beer and Meedler there are six of 
these mountains which are over 19,000 feet and more than twenty, 
over 15,000 feet in height. A little farther Me the moon’s mass 
and densi ity being given, we are told, ‘‘ Hence a body weighing 
six pounds at the earth, would weigh one ain at the moon, if 
each weight retained its terrestrial gravity !”—p. 119. 
In his report on North Carolina just quoted, he compares the 
cycles of the heavenly bodies with geological periods, and adds, 
“for us space is a unit, and it gives us a measure of time, so that 
time is space, and space is time, but geology cannot eae time 
into space, nor space into time.” He then in the style of Mr. 
Chadband inquires “ why ge ae gives us no unit” of nfs and 
consoles himself with the reflection that ‘the inquiry is futile, 
and wecan only say, that i¢ can have no final cause; it can have 
no ear use.””—p. 86. 
As he draws to the close . ma first part ge his American Ge- 
ology, and alludes to the ress of the science, our author 
speaks approvingly of the “ ane after wear and he tells us: 
“« What is to be discouraged are the attempts to leap the wall ata 
single bound. We are to climb, and the steps are to be cut by labor. 
Proceeding in this way, even the essential nature of things may 
opened before us. And whoshall forbid i inquiries into the essential na- 
ture of spirit? Step by step we climb the ascending pathway. Light 
eams up in the distance. The essence of cause, the essence of God, 
may faintly illume the horizon of our prospects. Iti is the goal of man’s 
pes and aspirations.” —p. 193. 
This is sheer nonsense, or it would be blasphemy, of which we 
are willing to acquit the author. But we have copied enough of 
this, and our only object in calling attention to such a production 
as ‘been to utter a protest, in which we are sure that every one 
who has the honor of his country or the advancement of science at _ 
e, against Dr. Emmons and his book as expo 
Xe 
