374 



Scientific Geology. 



dicious. This remark, however, ought perhaps to be limited to his 

 theories in respect to the primary rocks, for the reason above sug- 

 gested.* 



I have thought it proper to make these remarks, because I have so 

 often in this Report followed the opinions, and applied the theories, of 

 Dr. Macculloch, in the explanation of geological phenomena. 



All the varieties of rocks mentioned above, viz. hornblende rock, 

 hornblende schist, primitive greenstone, and greenstone slate, occur, I 

 believe in Massachusetts ; and the system which regards them as sep- 

 arate formations, and some of them stratified and others unstratified, 

 has long rendered their history obscure and perplexing. But by 

 uniting them, as Dr. Macculloch has done, and regarding them as 

 mere varieties of the same formation, very much of this obscurity 

 vanishes. In Massachusetts their characters correspond with those 

 given by the writer so often referred to. Although for a limited 

 space the hornblende rock and the primitive greenstone appear, with- 

 out close inspection, to be unstratified, and wanting in a schistose 

 structure ; yet the unstratified character is very limited, and a fresh 

 fracture will commonly reveal an obscure slaty structure. 



Miner alogical Characters. 

 1. Of Hornblende alone. Sometimes this variety is laminar, and 



* After having- published so many separate geological works, and so many sepa- 

 rate papers in the periodicals and transactions of learned societies, which were 

 distinguished, for the most part, for the calm and dispassionate manner in which 

 they were written, how unexpected to find in this last work, produced in mature 

 years, so much of overweening self-conceit, so much of rude and overbearing 

 intolerance, and of low jealousy and envy towards the distinguished school of ge- 

 ologists that are now advancing the science with unexampled rapidity ! While 

 he exhibits the principles of geology with a clearness and power to which I con- 

 fess I know of no equal, he exhibits also a bitterness of feeling and violence of 

 prejudice, to which, I had almost said, I know of no parallel. What a pity that a 

 work, which might have gone down to posterity as a splendid monument of the 

 commanding geological and chemical ability of its author, and have proved al- 

 most the " Principia" of geology, should have infused into it so much of the leav- 

 en of depravity, as to excite disgust in the reader, strong enough to destroy almost 

 every feeling of respect ! Of the private history and character of Dr. Macculloch 

 I know nothing. His geological writings alone have led me to make these remarks. 

 May he live long enough to publish an expurgated edition of his System of Geolo- 

 gy, and thus free his setting sun from that angry fiery cloud in which it is now 

 enveloped. 



