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United States. — Though this be not the occasion on which I may 

 dilate upon the productions and discoveries of our foreign contempo- 

 raries in Germany, Italy, and France, still I may offer a few brief re- 

 marks on the strides which have been recently made by our coadjutors 

 in the Western hemisphere, connected as they are with us by commu- 

 nity of origin and language. 



In the United States of America our science, cultivated upon 

 true principles, rises steadily in public estimation. A 'Geological 

 Society is formed at Philadelphia, which commencing energetically 

 in the collection of specimens, and inviting descriptive sections 

 from all parts of Pennsylvania, shows how effectually the intelligence 

 and public spirit of this State have been drawn to our subject, — an 

 effect chiefly due to the writings and lectures of our zealous Associate, 

 Mr. Featherstonhaugh. 



Another of our Fellows, Mr. R. C. Taylor, has begun to apply his 

 acquaintance with English geology, in describing a large bituminous 

 coal-field on the flank of the Alleghany Mountains, which seems to 

 bear a striking resemblance to the carboniferous districts of Great 

 Britain. 



To Dr. Haerlam, already known by his valuable contributions to the 

 works of Cuvier, we owe several important recent additions to fossil 

 zoology. 



Dr. Morton, Corresponding Secretary of the Academy of Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, who had illustrated the organic remains of the ferru- 

 ginous sandstone of Pennsylvania, has also formed an instructive and 

 rich collection of the tertiary shells of that State, which have met 

 with an excellent expositor in Mr. Conrad. The First Number of a 

 work, long desired by every European geologist, has just appeared, 

 entitled " Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America," 

 by this author ; and I may confidently recommend it as a most instruc- 

 tive performance, the continuation of which will at length enable us 

 to speculate with confidence upon one important class of the deposits 

 of that vast continent. Some inaccuracies of comparison seem to be 

 owing to the author's unacquaintance with those conchological di- 

 stinctions which have been so very recently applied to the tertiary 

 groups by Desnoyers, Lyell, and Deshayes. Without entering upon 

 the nature of the vast alluvial and diluvial accumulations of North 

 America, which upon minute and careful examination will probably 

 be found to offer all the subdivisions they are capable of in Europe, 

 I must remark, that in the triple classification of the tertiary forma- 

 tions, the author errs in supposing that the shells of our crag, which 

 he identifies with his upper marine, are all of existing species ; it 

 being ascertained that the crag contains only about 45 per cent, of 

 shells identical with those now living. 



Nor can the middle tertiary formation of Mr. Conrad be positively 

 identified with the " calcaire grossier," until we are supplied with 

 lists of the relative numbers of the existing and extinct species. The 

 lower tertiary formation, it is evident, cannot be classed with the " ar- 

 gile plastique" of M. Brongniart, upon the test of lignite alone ; since 

 that substance is no longer deemed characteristic of one particular pe- 



