Jnirodudory Remarks. 7 



this research has now assumed a more sober character ; 

 the science of geology has been reared upon numerous and 

 accurate observations of facts; and standing thus upon the basis 

 of induction, it is entitled to a rank among those sciences which 

 Lord Bacon's Philosophy has contributed to create. Geologi- 

 cal researches are now prosecuted, b)'^ actually exploring the 

 structure and arrangement of districts, countries, and conti- 

 nents. The obliquity of the strata of most rocks, causing their 

 edges to project in many places above the surface ; their 

 exposure in other instances, on the sides or tops of hills and 

 mountains ; or, in consequence of the intersection of their 

 strata, by roads, canals, and river-courses, or by the wearing 

 of the ocean ; or their direct perforation, by the shafts of 

 mines ; all these causes, and others, afford extensive means of 

 reading the interior structure of the globe. 



The outlines of American geology appear to be particularly 

 grand, simple, and instructive ; and a knowledge of the im- 

 portant facts, and general principles of this science, is of vast 

 practical use, as regards the interests of agriculture, and the 

 research for useful minerals. Geological and mineralogical 

 descriptions, and maps of particular states and districts, are 

 very much needed in the United States ; and to excite a spirit 

 to furnish them will form one leading object of this jo\irnal. 



The science of natural philosophy, with its powerful aux- 

 iliary, mathematics, and the science of chemistry, the twin 

 sister of natural philosophj', are of incalculable importance to 

 this countr}'. A volume would not suffice to trace their appli- 

 cations, and to enumerate the instances of their utility. 



As one which may be allowed to stand, instar omnium, we 

 may mention the steam engine ; that legitimate child of physi- 

 cal and chemical science — at once more powerful than the 

 united force of the strongest and largest animals, and more 

 manageable than the smallest and gentlest ; raising from the 

 bowels of the earth the massy treasures of its mines, drawing 

 up rivers from their channels, and pouring them, in streams 

 of life, into the bosom of cities ; and, above all, propelhng 

 against the currents, the winds, and the waves of the ocean, 

 those stupendous vessels, which combine speed with certaint}^ 



