228 Prof. Silliman''s Address before the 



castellated trap rocks of Edinburgh, rising in black frowning 

 peaks and ridges, in the very bosom of that beautiful city. Ar- 

 riving in Edinburgh at midnight, the morning hght disclosed to 

 my view the noble outlines of a grand and beautiful country, 

 and I was in an instant transported to my own quiet city of 

 New Haven, the hills near to which, (of whose geological char- 

 acter I was far from feeling assured, even up to the hour of my 

 leaving them behind,) I now felt convinced were true trappean 

 ridges and peaks, adorned, like Salisbury Craig, Arthur's Seat, 

 and the Castle Rock of Edinburgh, with grand colonnades and 

 castellated summits. 



In Edinburgh, that focus of talent and knowledge, chemistry 

 was then cultivated with great zeal and success, both in the 

 university and in private courses ; it presented ample stores of 

 science, with rich and satisfactory proofs by experiment. All 

 the departments of physical science were indeed well sustained 

 there, but our limits of time will allow us to speak on the pre- 

 sent occasion only of geology. In that science, Edinburgh was 

 then far in advance of London. It shone as a brilliant boreal 

 aurora, whose coruscations mounting to the zenith, were observ- 

 ed even in the distant south, soon to be illuminated in its turn 

 by an increasing and steady effulgence. To produce this state 

 of things, various causes had concurred. The region around 

 Edinburgh is rich in geological facts ; that for many miles around 

 London was then supposed (although erroneously) to possess 

 very little geological interest ; for its tertiary treasures had been 

 little explored, and they, as well as the similar deposits in other 

 countries, had as yet received no distinct classification in geol- 

 ogy. Prof. Jameson having recently returned from the school of 

 Werner, fully instructed in the doctrines of his illustrious teacher, 

 was ardently engaged to maintain them, and his eloquent and 

 acute friend, the late Dr. John Murray, was a powerful auxiliary 

 in the same cause ; both of these philosophers strenuously main- 

 taining the ascendancy of the aqueous over the igneous agencies, 

 in the geological phenomena of our planet. 



On the other hand, the disciples and friends of Dr. Hutton* 

 were not less active. He died in 1797, and his mantle fell upon 



* Dr. James Hutton, born 1726, was graduated as M. D. at Leyden in 1749, set- 

 tled in Edinburgh in 1768. He published various works on science, and in 1795 his 

 Theory of the Earth, in two volumes octavo, which was explained with additional 

 illustrations by his friend, Prof Playfair. 



