32 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



dressed notes to Mrs. Anne Mitchell Macy * and Mrs. 

 Maria L. Owen, soliciting their assistance in the mat- 

 ter, the graceful responses to which will be found in the 

 following scholarly and valuable contributions, which 

 are hereby gratefully acknowledged. 



The Botany, Conchology, and Geology of Nantucket. 



By Anne Mitchell Macy. 



When the island of Nantucket was at its best estate, 

 not only commercially considered but in an educa- 

 tional point of view, it had its own scientists, including 

 its geologist, its conchologist, its botanist. Each of 

 these had, in connection with extensive foreign collec- 

 tions, departments respectively devoted to the treas- 

 ures found on the island itself. 



The great fire of 1846 swept away these valuable cabi- 

 nets. The scientific men have one by one passed away; 

 and the present encyclopaedias , though duly considering 

 its tides, its harbors, indeed all of the maritime rela- 

 tions, describe the island itself as a mere sandy plain. 

 Even an unskilled, untrained eye will perceive at once 

 the fallacy of the statement, as he sees in the place of 

 this " mere plain " a beautifully undulating surface. 



As regards its geology, there is no better authority 

 than one of its own sons, who speakes of it in his 

 " Reports of the Coast Survey "as a heap of glacial 

 drift. Yet a little more than half-way down the high- 

 est cliff at Sancoty is found an ante-glacial deposit of 



* Widow of the late Hon. Alfred Macy, and sister to Prof. 

 Maria Mitchell (see page 118). 



