14 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



them up by proper moral and intellectual culture, which, alone, can. 

 render them sources of public and private happiness. 



Geological deficiencies — Upper Secondary. — Of the upper secondary, 

 below the chalk, and above the new red sandstone, lying higher than 

 the coal, we have no well ascertained strata : rocks of oolite struc- 

 ture we may have, but it is not ascertained that we have the true 

 oolite of England and continental Europe, nor have we traced the 

 Wealden nor the Lias* with their colossal animal wonders. 



Equivalent of Chalk. — Chalk, properly speaking, appears to be 

 absent from the United States, but there is an equivalent to the 

 chalk formation in vast beds of sands and marls, containing many 

 European cretaceous fossils, between the Delaware river and 

 the shores of New Jersey, as well as in various places in the 

 south.f 



Absence of Volcanoes. — The principal deficiencies in the geological 

 formations of the United States, are in the absence of active 

 volcanoes, and of most of the members of the upper secondary. 

 However interesting active volcanoes, with their earthquakes and 

 eruptions, may be to speculative geologists, the sober unscientific 

 population of our States may well rest contented without them, 

 satisfied to barter the sublime and terrific for quiet and safety. 

 Although the soils formed from decomposed lava are often fertile, 

 and the vine flourishes luxuriantly on the flanks and at the feet of 

 the volcanic mountains of warm countries, these influences are too 

 local to be of much importance to agriculture. 



Within the United States proper, including the states and terri- 

 tories beyond the Mississippi, and east of the Alleghany mountains, 

 there is not, so far as we know, a single active volcano, nor even an 

 unequivocal crater of one that is dormant. It remains yet to be 

 decided, whether in and beyond the Rocky Mountains, quite to the 

 shores of the Pacific Ocean, there are any active volcanoes within 

 our parallels of latitude. Both north and south of our limits, there 

 are, on the islands and shores of the Pacific, numerous volcanoes, and 

 it would be strange, indeed, if there were none within our extensive 

 possessions on the same coast. 



Records of volcanic action in the far West. — However this may be, 

 there remains no doubt that fire lias done its work, on a great scale, 



* It is plain that the Lias, so called, in the West, is not the Lias of England, 

 t See Dr. Morton's Synopsis of Organic Remains of the Green Sands of the 

 United States, 1 vol. 8vo. with plates. 



