PREFACE. 



c The Geologist/ at which I have laboured with assiduity and 

 pleasure for more than six years, is brought unexpectedly to a close, 

 with only half the quantity of matter usually devoted to a volume. 

 A new geological magazine is announced, and having received an 

 intimation from my publishers that to continue ' The Geologist ' in 

 rivalry with it would be attended with anxiety, and perhaps with 

 loss, I have decided to retire from the field rather than take part in 

 a contest that might prove injurious to both. 



To give up this monthly intercourse with so many friends at home 

 and abroad is, naturally enough, a source of regret to me, if not of 

 pain. I labour, however, neither to gratify vanity nor for gain. The 

 honest wish of spreading and advancing knowledge, and of giving 

 free scope to the expression of geological theories and criticism, has 

 been my motive for maintaining this periodical, and I may with truth 

 assert that, during the period of its publication, it has been a means 

 of free intercourse among all classes of geologists. To its pages it 

 has been my pride that all should, fairly and freely, have admission. 



My duties are done ; and in for ever closing this work I will but 

 add, that had there been any option left with me I should have pre- 

 ferred to have completed this volume in full to the end of the year. 

 There are, however, stronger reasons than I can control for closing 

 it at once. "With all my numerous friends I beg, however, to re- 

 main in personal correspondence ; while the new works I hope to 

 project will soon put me again in open communication with the 

 world, and will, I trust, prove not merely my desire but my capacity 



