389 



SUPPLEMENT BY THE EDITOR, 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



An outline of the annual course of geological lectures in Yale Col- 

 lege, was annexed to the former American edition of this work, pub- 

 lished in 1829, and was designed, primarily, for the use of the students. 

 That short tract, including important additions to facts and some modi- 

 fications of opinion in regard to theory, would have been revised and 

 annexed to the present edition, had not the principal work been so 

 much augmented by the author, as to render it inexpedient to make it 

 materially larger. 



An elementary treatise, presenting a copious, but condensed, gener- 

 alization of the geology of this continent, and sustained by numerous 

 and precise facts, is a desideratum. 



Mr. Maclure, many years ago, led the way by a masterly sketch, 

 covering a large part of the United States, and of some of the adja- 

 cent provinces and islands. 



Professor Eaton has given us many valuable facts, relating, princi- 

 pally, to the state of New York and to New England ; and recently, 

 Professor Hitchcock, with the advantage of all the lights held out by 

 his predecessors, has ably detailed, in an octavo volume, the geology 

 of Massachusetts. 



We have many good memoirs on particular districts ; they are to 

 be found in scientific journals, in books of travels, especially of the 

 scientific expeditions sent out by the American government, in the 

 transactions of learned societies, in detached publications, and some- 

 times even in the newspapers. These materials are of great value ; 

 but much more must be done before they will be sufiiciently copious 

 to enable some master spirit to reduce the whole subject to order, and 

 thus to give a full and digested account of American geology. Foreign 

 geologists will do us the justice to remember, that our field is vast, 

 while our laborers are comparatively few, and they are, generally, men 

 occupied by other pursuits ; this country is rarely explored by those 

 whom fortune leaves at ease to follow a favorite pursuit. The learn- 

 ed leisure of Europe, and especially of England, is here almost un- 

 known, and our most efficient cultivators of science are also laborers 



