12 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



on account of a deficiency and an excess of water ; the former 

 rendering the works inoperative, and the latter invading or sweep- 

 ing them away. 



The future civilized inhabitants of the countries near the Rocky 

 Mountains (excepting, of course, the immense sandy deserts, which, 

 near the eastern slope, emulate the sterility of Arabia and Zaliara) 

 will enjoy advantages in many respects similar to those of Piedmont, 

 Switzerland, Germany, and France ; and it is easy to predict, that 

 peculiar structures, and a peculiar state of society, will be modelled 

 upon the sublime physical features of those truly Alpine regions. 

 From this, his native land, we have too much reason to expect, that, 

 despite of the efforts of the benevolent to avert the impending doom, 

 the red man of the forest, not reclaimed to humanity, but aban- 

 doned to his fate, will vanish before the knowledge and power, and 

 the still more prevailing seductions, of civilized life, — the extermi- 

 nated victim of cupidity and cruelty. 



Influence of Geological Structure on Society. — It is perfectly appa- 

 rent to geologists, that the scenery of a country is not more exactly 

 stamped by its geological formations than are the manners and 

 employments of its inhabitants. 



New England. — Thus the bleak hills and long winters of New Eng- 

 land being unfavourable to the most extensive and profitable agricul- 

 tural pursuits, while the extensive and deeply indented sea-coasts 

 abounding in harbours, headlands, rivers, and inlets, naturally produce 

 an impulse towards the ocean, conspire with the original adventurous 

 character of the population, to send them roving from the arctic to 

 the antarctic circle, till the wide world is laid under contribution 

 by their enterprise. The numerous streams and waterfalls furnish 

 the cheapest means for moving machinery, and thus manufactories 

 spring up, wherever, in the expressive phraseology of the inhabi- 

 tants, there is water-power, and steam supplies local deficiencies of 

 moving force. Ingenuity, conspiring with a general system of 

 education, is excited, under such culture, to produce numerous 

 inventions; and hosts of young men seek their fortunes successfully 

 abroad, as mechanics, seamen, traders, instructors and politicians, 

 and thus operate powerfully, and, we trust, beneficially, on other 

 communities. 



Southern States. — The immense tracts of rich alluvium in the 

 southern states — the mildness of the climate — the coasts less 

 abounding with safe inlets, and often modified by the action of the 



