AMERICAN GEOLOGY — DECADE OF 1830-1839. 347 



The possibility of the occurrence of beds of coal at Small Point 

 Harbor near Phippsburg was investigated. As a result it was 

 announced that there was no possibility of such being included in rock 

 of the nature there found, and that the coal sometimes thrown up on the 

 beach was presumably from English sources. So early a statement of 

 this nature is interesting in view of borings for coal which have taken 

 place along this coast within a very few years. 



Jackson's views on the glacial deposits were naturally crude. The 

 " horsebacks" (ridges of glacial gravel) were regarded as diluvial 

 material transported by a mighty current of water. 



It is supposed that this rushing of water over the land took place during the last 

 grand deluge, accounts of which have been handed down by tradition and are pre- 

 served in the archives of all people. Although it is commonly supposed that the 

 deluge was intended solely for the punishment of the corrupt antediluvians, it is not 

 improbable that the descendants of Noah reap many advantages from its influence, 

 since the various soils underwent modifications and admixtures which render them 

 better adapted for the wants of num. May not the hand of Benevolence be seen 

 working even amid the waters of the deluge? 



It is, perhaps, doubtful if the hard-fisted occupant of many of 

 Maine's rocky farms would be disposed to take so cheerful a view of 

 the matter. 



However Jackson's work may impress the reader of to-day, it was 

 considered by a reviewer in the American Journal of Science (XXXII, 

 1837) as a "model of its kind. It has certainly not been surpassed by 

 any similar effort in this country," and "The present sketch of Maine 

 is a masterly production." 



In 1839 the general assembly of Rhode Island appropriated the sum 

 of |2,000 to pay the expenses of a geological and agricultural survey 

 of the State, and Doctor Jackson, fresh from his work in Maine, was 

 placed in charge of this also, making his report the 

 Jackson's survey of following year. This constituted the first, last, and 

 Rhode island, 1839. only survey ot - Rhode Island carried on under State 



auspices. 



Such a work was naturally productive of little of importance, and 

 no new principles whatever were evolved. Aside from the gathering 

 of a few facts of possible economic value, it resulted on.y in an exten- 

 sion of knowledge relative to the distribution of certain geologic 

 groups. This, however, was a feature of all the work carried on by 

 Jackson. As further illustrating the condition of geological knowl- 

 edge, the report is, however, worthy of consideration. 



In his introduction he remarked on the attempt on the part of some 

 geologists to abandon the name Transition and to group these rocks 

 with the Secondary, according to the original schemes of Lehman, and 

 felt that a numerical division would doubtless be found preferable to 

 any of the fanciful names proposed for some of its subdivisions. 

 The names Cambrian and Silurian, as proposed in England, he 



