n6 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



cated by broad divisions or bands. Of these bands, there were 

 three : the Sandy band, the Marly band and the Schistose or Metal- 

 liferous band. Although rough in outlines, this map even vet indi- 

 cates in a general way the character of the rocks of the Paris basin. 

 His work on this and several other maps attracted considerable at- 

 tention at the time and the Academy of Science 1 stated that the 

 work " opens up a new field for geographers and naturalists, and 

 forms, so to speak, a link between two sciences which have hitherto 

 been regarded as entirely independent of each other." Geikie 2 

 from whom these facts in regard to Guettard's work have been 

 taken, says that this " gifted Frenchman " may be called the father 

 of all the national geological surveys which have been instituted by 

 the various civilized nations of the old and the new worlds. 



The earliest map in colors, showing the aereal distribution of 

 rocks was that of J. F. W. Charpentier, of the Mining School at 

 Freiberg. This was published in 1778 at Leipsig, accompanying- his 

 Minemlogische Geographic der Chiirsachsischen Lande, and the 

 distribution of gneiss, schist, loam, granite, limestone etc. was indi 1 

 cated by the use of eight tints. 2 



Previous to the year 1809 a few sketches concerning the geology 

 of the United States had appeared, several of them dealing with 

 New York State. The first definite geological mapping, however, 

 was the work of William McClure who has been termed by various 

 writers " The father of American Geology," '* the William Smith 

 of America," etc. This map was a hand-colored geologic chart of 

 the United States east of the Mississippi, and was published with 

 his paper on Observations on the Geology of the United States, in 

 the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society of Phila- 

 delphia. Appearing when the influence of Werner and his classi- 

 fications were at their hight and Hutton's more rational views had 

 not yet been accepted by the majority, it strongly favored the 

 Wernerian classification, the rocks being indicated in four colors 

 called Primitive, Transition, Secondary or Floetz, and Alluvial. 



Although crude in all details and but a poor substitute for the 

 later maps of the United States, when one recalls that the science 

 was still in its infancy, that the stratigraphic studies of Murchison 

 and others were still in the future, that petrography had but re- 

 cently become a science, he can not but marvel at the results 

 achieved. Then, too, McClure. in common with all the geological 



'Mem. Acad. Roy. Sciences, France. 1751; Jour. p. 105. 

 1 Geikie, Founders of Geology, p. 22. 



