﻿Modern Attainments in Geology. 273 



as only there, where our outposts are, can we see in what 

 direction further advance is being made. AVhether I 

 shall be successful, I do not know; but the subject is 

 such a comprehensive one that I must not permit myself a 

 longer introduction. 



Let us first glance at the road already trodden. One may 

 say that the geology of to-day started at the great Mining 

 School of Freiberg in the last century. There it was, 

 under the lead of Werner, that deep study was given 

 to the manner in which different rocks were deposited, 

 and where continuous districts were systematically inves- 

 tigated. But not till Cuvier had pointed out in the first 

 decade of this century that the remains of mammals 

 found in the gypsum of Paris really belonged to extinct 

 species ; not till the Englishman Smith showed that in the 

 different layers of stratified rocks different fossils occurred 

 and that hence it was possible to classify these strata 

 according to the fossils contained in them ; not till 

 Leopold von Buch had given a tremendous impulse to the 

 investigation of the structure of mountains, could one 

 recognize what an extraordinarily wide new field was 

 opened to human investigation. 



Further great advances were made in the first half and 

 the middle of the present century. In Freiberg geology 

 was originally studied for the purpose of tracing ores 

 of the noble metals which occurred there in the form of 

 veins. Later it was found that coal and iron possessed a 

 much greater value for a state, and finally people were 

 convinced that a much more insignificant portion of our 

 earth — the soil — was of supreme importance for the well- 

 being of a country. 



Thus we have gradually come to the conclusion that 

 the investigation of the geological structure of a country 

 is an important preliminary to the advancement of its 

 agricultural development ; and it has therefore come 

 about that not only the countries of Europe, but many coun- 



