SCHOEPF's contributions to AMERICAN GEOLOGY. 593 



The work of Schoepf which is of the most interest to geologists is the ^^Beytrdge 

 zur Miiieralogischen Kenntnlss des dsflichen Theils von Nordamerika undsenier Gehurgey* 

 Descriptions of eastern North America, containing more or less reference to its 

 geology and physical geography, had before been published by INI. Catesby,t Steph. 

 Guettard, j Lewis Evans, | and Peter Kalm,|| but none of these equal for exactness or 

 scientific spirit the work of Schoepf. In his dedication of it to Hofrath Schreber 

 he says : "'As I left Europe in 1777 you gave me the commission ' to investigate the 

 an-angement of soil and rock beds in America and to discover to w^hat extent the 

 sequence established by von Ohain and Ferber for Europe held good also for the 

 New World.' " These, for that time, remarkably clear instructions were conscien- 

 tiously carried out, and the results communicated in the ^^Beytrilge.^^ He says that 

 he explored the Appalachian mountain region only between the Hudson and Po- 

 tomac, but that he carefully traversed the coastal region, including the crystalline 

 rocks of the Piedmont plateau, by land from Rhode Island to Florida. 



The little book contains 194 pages, divided into 47 numbered sections. The first 

 thirteen sections (pages 1-34) deal with the Coastal Plain deposits, and the follow- 

 ing twelve (pages 34-77) with the highly crystalline or granitic belt forming the 

 eastern part of the Piedmont plateau. In this the Baltimore gabbros are quite cor- 

 rectly described. Between tlie granitic belt, which he calls "der Erste Fehreihe,'^ 

 and the mountains proper, Schoepf correctly distinguishes three limestone and two 

 crystalHne belts, which, for the latitude of Maryland, he describes with admirable 

 clearness. These are: ^ ' Erste K(dchlage^' (the marble belt) ; '^Zweite Fehreihe^' (the 

 western Piedmont semi-crvstalline zone) ; ^'Ziceite Kalchlage^' (the Frederick valley 

 limestone); ^'dritte Felsrelhe^' (South mountain or the Blue ridge); and '^ dritte 

 Kdlchlfige^' (the Great or Cumberland valley). Sections 32 to 37, inclusive (pages 

 105-143), are devoted to the mountains proper {Hauptgehurge^ , with a special de- 

 scription of the Kittatinny and accounts of two sections carefully traversed from 

 the Kittatinny to the Sus<iuelianna at AVyoming and from Shippensburg to Pitts- 

 burg. 



To these descriptive portions succeed discussions of the drainage and soils ; of the 

 fossils in the mountains and their significance ; of the origin of wind and water 

 gaps, and of the comparative newness of the Coastal Plain deposits, with proofs of 

 tlie sinking of the area east of the granitic zone. Many of the conclusions here set 

 forth are in the main those now generally accepted, and bear witness to the acumen 

 of tlieir author. 



A few pages are added on the country north and west of the mountains in Canada 

 and New Fngland, but as what they contain was derived from hearsay and not 

 from i)ersonal ol^servation they are of little iui])ortance. 



Sources of information regarding Schoepf and his work are — 

 Fikenscher: Das gdchrtc Fdrstenfhnni, Bayreuth, 1795. 

 Mensel : Lexlknn der vom Jahre, 1750 his 1800, verxforbiiien Tcutsclten SchriftsteUer, vol. 



12, 1812, p. 364, with complete bibliography. 

 G. Browh Goode : Beginnings of Natural History in America. Proc. Biol. Soc. AVash., 



vol. iii, 1880, p. 92. 

 Fr. Ratzel : Biographical Notice in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 32, 1891, 

 p. 352. 



* Erlaiigen, 1787, pp. 104. 



t Nutitral History of Carolina, Florida, and Bahama Islands, 1731. 



X Moiiioire dans laquelle on compare le Canada et la Suisse par rapport a ses mineraux, 17r)2. 



§ Analysis of a general map of the Middle British Colonies, 17o6. 



II En Resa til Norra Amerilva, 1753-61, 3 vols. English translation by J. R. Forster, 1770-'71. 



