Samuel Franklin Emmons 



fuller data he advanced the problem 

 of the origin of the various kinds of 

 volcanic rocks far beyond the point 

 reached by any of his predecessors." 



In his chapter on Orography, King 

 says, in speaking of the causes of 

 crust motion : " I can plainly see that 

 were the critical shell established its 

 reactions might thread the tangled 

 maze of phenomena successfully, but 

 I prefer to build no farther until the 

 underlying physics are worked out." 

 He was at that time already very 

 strongly impressed with the imperfec- 

 tion of the then existing knowledge 

 of terrestrial thermo-dynamics and 

 the indispensability of more exact 

 data in this branch of science for a 

 rational discussion of the fundamental 

 problems of geology. 



This idea found a practical out- 

 come a few years later in the estab- 

 lishment of a physical laboratory, 

 immediately after his assumption of 

 287 



