AMERICAN GEOLOGY MAOLUREAN ERA, 1785-1819. 217 



easier to believe that two Yankee professors will lie than to admit that 

 stones can fall from heaven."" 



A pudgy duodecimo volume of some 500 pages, from the pen of a 



Dr. James Mease, and bearing- the date 180T, may be mentioned here, 



not so much on account of the scientific value of its contents as the 



pretentiousness of its title: A Geological Account of 



Mease's Geological _, it 



Account of the the I inted States, Comprehending a short Description 



United States, 1807. . r ° l 



of their Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Productions, 

 Antiquities, and Curiosities. The portion really geological comprises 

 some 30 pages, though 25 more are given up to a catalogue of minerals. 

 The geological part is acknowledgedly a compilation from the writings 

 of Volnev, Mitt-hill, and others. The country is divided into (1) 

 granitic region, (2) region of sandstone, (3) calcareous region, (4) 

 region of sea sand, and (5) region of river alluvions, the boundaries of 

 each of which are given in some detail. The truly scientific character 

 of the work is shown by the following quotation taken from a descrip- 

 tion of the narrows of the Connecticut River. 



No living creature was ever known to pass through this narrow except an Indian 

 woman, who was in a canoe, attempting to cross the river above it, but carelessly suf- 

 fered herself to fall within the power of the current. Perceiving her danger she took 

 a bottle of rum she had with her and drank the whole of it; then lay down in her 

 canoe to meet her destiny. She marvelously went through safely, and was taken out 

 <>!' the canoe some miles below quite intoxicated. 



The year 1809 must ever be notable in the history of American geol- 

 ogy, since it brought forth Maclure's Observations on the Geology of 

 the United States, with a colored geological map of the region east of 

 „ , the Mississippi. With the exception of Giittard's 



Maclure on the l 



Geology of the in lneralogical map of Louisiana and Canada, published 



United States, 1809. . f r ' ^ 



in 1(52, it was the earliest attempt at a geological map 

 of America, and has caused its author to become known as the father 

 of American geology and the William Smith of America. 6 



Maclure's personal history is not without interest in itself, and is 

 worthy of note here on account of his relation to American science and 

 as illustrating the conditions under which a man at that date could rise 

 to prominence in geological circles with little or no preliminary training. 



"G. Brown Goode, Beginnings of American Science. This writer, however, dis- 

 credits the authenticity of the report, regarding it one of the millions of slanders to 

 which Jefferson was subjected in those days. 



b See article by J. W. Judd, < reological Magazine, London, October, 1897, for account, 

 of Smith's work. What is believed by Professor Judd to be actually the first geo- 

 logical map in existence is one of Smith's, published in 1799. This bears the follow- 

 ing title: A map of five miles around the City of Bath (England), on a scale of one 

 inch and a half to the mile, from an actual survey, including all the new roads, with 

 alterations and improvements to the present time (1799), printed for and sold by A. 

 Taylor and W. Moyler, booksellers, Bath. 



The map by Cuvierand Brongniart of the environs of Paris bears the date of 1809, 

 which is the same as that of the lirst edition of Maclure's. 



