Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 249 



With the exception of Dr. Daubeny, the visit of Mr. Lyell is 

 perhaps the first that we have received from a distinguished Eu- 

 ropean geologist. To us, it is an important advantage to compare 

 our views with his, and thus to be assured, by visible symbols, 

 that we do indeed understand each other's language. The kind 

 and respectful manner in which, in his public lectures, he has 

 treated the labors of our geologists — the prominence which he 

 has given to their observations, and the gratifying coincidence 

 between his views and theirs in relation to our geology, afford us 

 satisfactory proof that the geologists of the old and of the new 

 world do indeed observe and think alike. 



But, gentlemen, allow me to observe, that American geologists 

 have important duties to discharge towards each other — duties of 

 justice, honor, fidelity and delicacy. Cultivating a field of vast 

 extent and surpassing richness, separated by distance from each 

 other, and laboring often alone, we cannot always be early in- 

 formed of our respective observations and discoveries. In ac- 

 cordance therefore with the best feelings, and with the strictest 

 rules of geological courtesy, while we maintain with good temper 

 and dignity our own personal claims, it will I trust be our pleas- 

 ure to place in prominent relief, the claims of our fellow laborers, 

 to do full justice to their observations and discoveries, and to 

 find more satisfaction in the advancement of science by our com- 

 mon efforts, than in any partial or personal acquisition of fame. 

 The harmony and unity of effort which have thus far been happily 

 maintained among us, will thus be perpetuated ; and our annual 

 meetings, (always, we trust, to be in future honored by the attend- 

 ance and cooperation of our foreign friends, actuated by, and 

 received in, the same spirit,) will then be equally instructive and 

 delightful ; they will become both focal and radiant points of in- 

 tellectual light and moral influence, to the honor of our country 

 and the common benefit of mankind. 



Gentlemen — pardon me, if in my honest zeal for our noble 

 cause, I have presumed to speak as a Mentor ; or, if in giving 

 historical notices of the shooting of American geology, as an offset 

 from the European stock, I have ventured also to speak of my 

 own humble participation in this arduous enterprise. As an origi- 

 nal witness, I hope I have not transgressed the proprieties of the 

 occasion, while I have frankly and honestly told the things I 



Vol. xLiii, No. 2.— July-Sept. 1842. 32 



