48 THE GEOLOGIST'S TKAYELING HAND-BOOK. 



REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING DESCRIPTIONS. 



Paleontologists will be disappointed in this introduction, from which that is 

 omitted which seems to them the most important, and gives the most interest and 

 significance to the subject, namely: the life which they find in the formations, 

 and which serves so important a purpose in their identification and classification. 

 But another book would have been required for that purpose, and it would have 

 been useless without a large number of expensive engravings.* Paleontology is 

 the province of all the text-books on geology, to which this work is a supplement, 

 not a substitute. Its only object is to teach local geology. The descriptions were 

 an after-thought, and they should be regarded as an attempt to present to the 

 unlearned a first-lesson in geology, in the vernacular tongue, in the hope that it 

 may help on the cause of popular science. They have swollen much beyond the 

 original design, which was definitions, rather than descriptions ; but they will 

 serve to show that paleontology is not the whole of geology, and that the 

 formations are more than a mere cabinet of fossils. 



There are some things in the descriptions that are not accepted by all 

 geologists. But the scope of the work did not permit any account of the con- 

 flicting opinions on disputed points, or discussions of the history of geological 

 nomenclature and classification. Whether the Oriskany sandstone should be placed 

 at the base of the Devonian, or at the top of the Silurian ; whether Hudson 

 River, Loraine, Nashville, or Cincinnati, is the best name for that formation ; and 

 whether Cambrian should include one, or all, or none of the Lower Silurian 

 formations, and similar questions, seem of less importance to the ordinary reader, 

 for whom the descriptions are intended, than to the professional geologist. 



All kinds of geological tables are given, for, in accepting the valuable con- 

 tributions of others on local geology, it was necessary to let them have their own 

 way, in the chapters on their own States, in regard to the names and the arrange- 

 ment of the formations. A common number, attached to them throughout the 

 book, serves to identify the formations by whatever name they are called. 



The valuable part of the book is the Geological Railway Guide, the design or 

 plan of which is original with the author, as it is believed nothing of the kind 

 has ever appeared, in any language. It is the work of many hands, and the hearty 

 thanks of every lover of the science are due to all those who have contributed to 

 its pages portions of the multitude of facts, forming this index to the geology of 

 all important places in the United States and Canada. The reader will never know 

 the amount of time, patience, labor, and care that it has cost. 



* See " THE ANCIENT LIFE HISTORY OF THE EARTH," a comprehensive outline of the princi- 

 ples and leading facts of Paleontological Science. By H. A. Nicholson. Published by D. Appleton 

 & Co., New York. 8vo., 407 pp. $2.00. A very convenient and excellent manual of Paleontology 

 only. 



