58 



planet, and still influence the changes which are in progress upon it. 

 It is our good fortune, and the fact is intimately connected with the 

 commercial wealth of our country, that it affords perhaps a greater 

 variety of strata and of geological appearances, than most other por- 

 tions of the civilized world of such limited extent ; while the range 

 and variety of our coasts unveil the geological anatomy of England, 

 with an obviousness and convincing facility to the observer, that have 

 greatly accelerated our inquiries. The Geology of England, therefore, — 

 which, with a view only to commercial advantage, and to the com- 

 forts and conveniences of life, would have well deserved all the labour 

 that has been bestowed upon it, — acquires a new and more dignified 

 interest, when we reflect that this island is in a great measure an 

 epitome of the globe ; and that the observer, who makes himself fa- 

 miliar with our strata, and the fossil remains which they include, 

 has not only prepared himself for similar inquiries in other quarters, 

 but is already, as it were, acquainted by anticipation with what 

 he must expect to find there. If, therefore, I were called upon 

 to state in what manner those who have leisure, health, and talent 

 for such inquiries, can most effectually advance the bounds of our 

 science, and increase the reputation which England has begun to ac- 

 quire in this department of natural knowledge, — I should say, that it 

 would be, — First, by rendering themselves accurately familiar with the 

 geological phenomena of our own country ; and then, — by taking 

 abroad with them the knowledge thus acquired, and comparing the 

 phenomena with those of distant regions; since it is only from the 

 multiplication of such comparisons, that sound general views can 

 be derived. 



But even within the British Islands, there still are tracts, and of no 

 small extent, which are comparatively, and a great part of them abso- 

 lutely, unknown. More than one half of Ireland is in this condition : for 

 the publications of Conybeare and Buckland, Stephens, Weaver, Grif- 

 fith, and Dr.Berger, comprehend nearly all that has been done in that 

 country. But this subject, as I have already mentioned, has passed into 

 such hands, as will, no doubt, accomplish every thing that can be 

 desired. 



In the North and North-west of England, the labours of Otley*, 

 Smith, Professor Sedgwick, and some other inquirers, have already 

 ascertained the principal relations of one of the most important dis- 



* The work here referred to, is a brief but valuable notice, " On the 

 succession of rocks in the district of the Lakes," published in the Lonsdale 

 Magazine, or Provincial Repository, for October 1820: — Vol. I. No. x. 

 pp. 433, &c. 



