aCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 105. 



who had distinguished himself by his in- 

 vestigations of the lead mines of Missouri. 



GEOLOGY. 



1820. Edwin James, who made the first 

 geological report of a "Western expedition, 

 was a pupil of Amos Eaton. It was not 

 until 1832 that Eaton adopted the system 

 of identifying 'and correlating rock for- 

 mations by means of their contained fossils. 

 At the time of James' explorations geolo- 

 gists only attempted to distinguish rocks 

 by their external lithological characters as 

 belonging to one of the general great divis- 

 ions of primitive, transition, secondary and 

 alluvions, or recent deposits. Although James 

 was evidently a shrewd observer, one would 

 obtain but a confused idea of the structure 

 of the country from his notes. Neverthe- 

 less he was one of the first, as Walcott re- 

 marks (Correlation Papers, Cambrian, p. 

 396) to attempt an extended correlation of 

 geological formations of North America. 

 He observed the general succession of rocks 

 in the Appalachian, Ozark and Eocky 

 Mountains, respectively, finding granites at 

 the base in either case, and tracing the Car- 

 boniferous limestones through the two for- 

 mer. 



He considered the red sandstones of the 

 Appalachian and Lake Superior regions and 

 of the Eocky Mountains to be of the same 

 age and to probably correspond to the old 

 red sandstone of Werner. He was the first 

 white man to ascend Pike's Peak, and the as- 

 cent which was made from Manitou Springs, 

 was by no means as easy as at the present 

 day. He and his companion passed the 

 night part way up the slope, where the 

 ground was so steep that they had to prop 

 themselves up by poles between two trees 

 to keep from rolling down as they slept. 

 James suggested the probable existence of 

 artesian waters under the Great Plains, 

 then called the Great American Desert. 

 The material that Schoolcraft discovered in 



1819 near Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi 

 Eiver, and thought to represent the Chalk 

 formation of Europe he found did not effer- 

 vesce with acid, and classed it as a native 

 Argil. 



Schoolcraft, whose first government ob- 

 servations were made in the same year, 

 devoted himself more particularly to the 

 economic resources of the country. Al- 

 ready in 1818 he had spent three months in 

 examining the lead mines in Missouri, and 

 had extended his observations beyond the 

 settlements into the Ozark Mountains. De- 

 termined to call the attention of the govern- 

 ment to the value of its mines, he returned 

 to New York via. New Orleans, and there 

 published his book on the lead mines, which 

 brought him to the attention of Mr. Cal- 

 houn, then Secretary of War, and resulted 

 in his commission with the expedition of 

 General Cass. His observations upon geol- 

 ogy appear somewhat primitive and quaint, 

 but are characterized by a shrewd common 

 sense, as will be shown by a few quota- 

 tions. 



In speaking of the red sandstone on the 

 south shore of Lake Superior near Grand 

 Island, he says " the sandstone laps upon 

 the granite and fits into its irregular in- 

 dentations in a manner that shows it to 

 have assumed that position subsequently to 

 the upheaving of the country. Its horizon- 

 tality is perfectly preserved even to the im- 

 mediate point of contact. A mutual decom- 

 position for a couple of inches into each rock 

 has taken place. As to the geological age of 

 the sandstone I possess no means of form- 

 ing a decisive opinion. It consists of grains 

 of quartz or sand united by a calcareous 

 cement and colored by the red oxide 

 of iron. In some places it imbeds pebbles 

 of quartz of the size of a pigeon's egg, to- 

 gether with rounded masses of hornblende 

 and other rocks, and it then resembles a 

 pudding stone. It has no imbedded relics 

 of the animal or vegetable kingdom so far 



