Book Notices. 445 



Facts have, however, been added from other continents go far as was required 

 to give compleieness to the work and exhibit strongly the comprehensiveness 

 of Its principles." 



It has long been a just source of complaint that the students of geology 

 must seek in vain for any compact and well arranged view of the sj-stem 

 of American Geology, and few but professional geologists have had the 



official Reports of the various State Geologists ; while still fewer have felt 

 themselves able to reconcile the numerous discrepancies growino- out of a 

 want of unity in plan and nomenclature among the authors of these 



Prof Dana, with that methodizing skill and philosophic power which 

 is a prominent feature of his mind, has here for the first time produced 

 in full detail what may be emphatically called the American System of 

 Geology. The science is here taught from American examples, and while 

 no important principle or class of phenomena is left unillustrated by the 

 choicest European or cosmopolitan instances, the student is delighted by 

 finding the keys of the subject in his own hands, the field of study and 

 observation being within his own reach. 



to the study of British Geology by the 

 Murchison, Lyell, Bakewell, Manteil, 

 re from the vigor and beauty of their 

 style as authors, than from the fact that the subject was brought home to 

 Bntish tourists by the local interest inseparable iVom the name and fame 

 of familiar domestic scenes. Such a service has Prof Dana rendered to 

 American students and tourists in his present work. But we should do 

 the author injustice if we left the impression that this was the most im- 

 portant feature of the work, interesting as this is to American students. 



It is as the historian of the earth's progress through the successive 

 stages of its development that the author has shown his original power. 

 From this point of view the volume demands tlie attention of a wider 

 audience than can be asked for any mere text-book or local manual. It 



more of the earth's surface than ]'rof. Dana, and his powers and oppor- 

 tunities as an original observer have been second only to his power of 

 analysis of the true value of the labors of others. The same character- 

 istics of accurate and exhaustive statement and lucid order, which have 

 made Dana's Mineralogy an authority in all countries, will carry the 



The spirit in which the book is writt"en is well exp'ressed in the con- 

 cluding lines of the preface. 



" Geoloo-v is rapidly taking its place as an introduction to the higher history 

 of man. If the author has sought to exalt a favorite science, it has been with 

 the desire that man — in whom geological history had its consummation, the 

 prophesies of the successive ages their fulfillment— tnight better comprehend 

 his own nobility and the true purpose of his existence." 



