SILLIMAN'S INTRODUCTION. V 



for metals, and in forming a conclusion as to the probable continu- 

 ance, enlargement, or cessation, of metallic veins. 



Decisions of Science. — The negative which science often pro- 

 nounces with entire confidence, may save many an excited mind 

 from delusion, and preserve for agriculture, and the useful arts of 

 life, the resources which might have been lavished, in reckless pro- 

 fusion, upon vain and unproductive mining operations. It is rarely 

 that metallic mines will justify the abandonment of a useful calling 

 in the common walks of life; even where there is abundance of 

 valuable ore, few individuals can, alone, afford to encounter the 

 enormous expense of mining, and to wait its uncertain, and, it may 

 be, distant and stinted returns. A good quarry of soapstone, 

 granite, gypsum, or sandstone, may be worth more than a mine of 

 gold, and such have actually been the opposite results in some 

 signal cases in this country. To these few instances of the import- 

 ance of geological knowledge to the common interests of life, many 

 more might be added, but these are sufficient to illustrate our argu- 

 ment ; if, indeed, it be necessary to prove, that he who acts with 

 consummate knowledge proceeds with safety, walking in the full 

 and certain light of science, while he who adventures in the dark 

 has no right to expect anything but disaster and ruin. 



Geological Surveys by Public Authority. — That there is a just 

 appreciation of this subject among the people of this country, is 

 sufficiently evinced by the geological surveys of many states and 

 territories, either already accomplished or in progress. More than one- 

 half of the States have, by public authority, instituted such surveys ; 

 the reports which have been published evince industry, knowledge, 

 and skill : great progress has been made in developing the mineral 

 resources of the country, and in amassing stores of materials to 

 serve for a future digested and systematical account, both scientific 

 and practical, of North American geology ; while, at the same time, 

 excellent schools are thus established, in which to form young geo- 

 logists by actual and responsible explorations and surveys. These 

 good works will, we trust, proceed, until our whole territory has 

 been geologically examined, when some gifted individual will give 

 us the grand result. In a scientific relation, these researches are 

 deeply interesting, and we are in this way, as well as by personal 

 efforts, contributing our share of materials towards the general 

 stock of geological knowledge. 



7. Some features in North American Geology. — Perhaps 



