56 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Granite ranks amongst the oldest formations ; it may be con- 
sidered good and dm'able in proportion to tlie fineness of the 
component parts^ and especially in proportion to the abundance 
of quartz and scarcity of felspar. In Cornwall and part of De- 
vonshire, the granite is remarkable for the superabundance of 
well defined and large crystals of white felspar which it contains,, 
and it is from this cause, that it is less durable than the granite 
of Aberdeen or Guernsey, in which quartz and mica preponde- 
rate greatly. 
The quality under all circumstances improves in proportion to 
the depth from which it is quarried. — Abridged from the " Tran- 
sactions of the Institute of British Architects 
On the Geology of the United States. By Charles Moxon. 
Em'ope has, since the geological era, been so continually the 
subject of geological research, that we are comparatively well 
versed already in its details, generally speaking, whilst the 
comparison has extended only to a very small distance beyond 
its bounds — we have therefore trodden out of the beaten course, 
in fulfilling the promise which we held out of a series of essays 
on local geology, and have selected America as the fii*st object of 
remark, not only on account of the growing interest which geo- 
logy is acquiring within its boundaries, through the medium of 
the most able members of the American Association of Geolo- 
gists and Naturalists,^^ but because it is peculiarly interesting 
also in an economic point of view, both to the geological and 
commercial classes of the community. As yet, however, the re- 
searches into the minute details have not extended sufficiently 
far to enable us to present a general map of the exact geological 
structure of this region, such as we already possess with refer- 
ence to most of the kingdoms comprised in Em'ope, in fact, 
although the geology of some of the states is accurately knoAm, 
