Memoir of William Maclure. 395 



During the year 1817 Mr. Maclure chiefly occupied him- 

 self in the publication of his Geology in a separate volume . 

 after which he devoted himself with assiduity to the interests 

 of the Academy. Previous to the year 1819 he had already 

 presented the institution with the larger part of the fine li- 

 brary he had collected in Europe, embracing nearly fifteen 

 hundred volumes ; among which were six hundred quartos 

 and one hundred and forty- six folios on Natural History, 

 Antiquities, the Fine Arts, Voyages and Travels. " The 

 value of these acquisitions was greatly enhanced by the fact 

 that they were possessed by no other institution on this side 

 of the Atlantic. The Academy therefore derived from this 

 source a prosperity and permanence which, under other cir- 

 cumstances, must have been extremely slow and uncertain ; 

 while Science at the same time received an impulse which 

 has never faltered, and which has been subsequently im- 

 parted to every section of our country."* 



In the winter of 1816-17 Mr. Maclure visited the West 

 Indies, for the purpose of ascertaining, by personal observa- 

 tion, the Geology of that chain of islands known as the An- 

 tilles. With this view he visited and examined nearly twenty 

 of these islands in the Carribean Sea, from Barbadoes to San- 

 ta Cruz and St Thomas inclusive. He bestowed especial at- 

 tention on those portions of the series which are of volcanic 

 origin, of which the Grenadines form the southern and Saba 

 the northern end of the chain. The results of this voyage of 

 observation, in which he was accompanied by his friend Mr. 

 Lesueur, were submitted to the Academy on the 28th of Oc- 

 tober 1817, and soon afterwards published in the Society's 

 Journal.f 



In 1819 Mr. Maclure's active mind was again directed 

 to Europe. Embarking at New York he went direct to 

 France, and not long afterwards to Spain. He was induced 



* Notice of the Academy of Natural Sciences, p. 13. 

 t Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. i. 



