80 Notice of a Geological Model. 



Art. IX. — Notice of a Model of the Western portion of the 

 Schuylkill or Southern Coal-Field of Petuisylvania, in illus- 

 tration of ati Address to the Association of Ama^ican Geolo- 

 gists, on the most appropriate modes for representing Geologi- 

 cal Phenomena; by Richard C. Taylor, Member of the 

 Amer. Phil. Sec. ; Fellow of the Geol. Soc. of London, and 

 of other Societies in Europe and the United States. Read 

 9th of April, 1841. 



On the 18th of June, 1830, I had the honor of presenting to 

 the Geological Society of London, and of reading a concise de- 

 scription of two models and sections of part of the mineral basin 

 of South Wales, in the vicinity of Pontypool. 



On the present occasion I take the liberty of exhibiting to the 

 Association of American Geologists, at their second annual meet- 

 ing, a model of the western half of the Schuylkill coal-field, in 

 Pennsylvania. This is, in all probability, the first geological 

 model that has been constructed in the United States ; as was, I 

 believe, that of the Welsh mineral district, the earliest of its kind ; 

 and as such was received in the exhibition of the Society of Arts.* 

 I have felt anxious, I may say ambitious, to introduce the first 

 American geological model to this Association. It seems neces- 

 sary to the occasion to make a few explanatory observations, and 

 I desire especially to address some general remarks to this meet- 

 ing, on the available methods of geological illustration. 



Before proceeding to the descriptive details of the present work, 

 and of the region which it represents, I would advert to the ex- 

 treme applicability of the science of modeUing to the purposes of 

 geological elucidation. 



During a somewhat active life, embracing thirty six years of 

 occupations connected either with the superficial features of our 

 earth's surface, in various climates, or with investigations of the 

 positions of rock formations, the modes of representing the prin- 

 cipal phenomena, and the different systems resorted to for prac- 

 tical illustrations, have, of course, been long and frequently under 

 deliberation. The result, it need scarcely be added, is an increas- 

 ing conviction of the vast superiority of that method which ad- 



* The gold Isia medal being awarded to the exhibitor in 1830. 



