loo Geology as a means of culture — A. Winchell. 
recurrence of a single stratum in tiiis distance, yet it may be possible 
hereafter. In whatever manner the force really operated, it seems to 
have produced an effect analogous to that of xi plough in turning up 
successive furrows, leaving them parallel and standing upon their edges. 
There can be no doubt, however, that in the twenty-three or four miles 
east of the Hudson, the distance which these rocks extended, there are 
numei'ous repetitions of the same layers, for it cannot be supposed for 
one moment that any of the formations above the primary can be of this 
enormous thickness, which observation seems to indicate. 
I must now close my remarks, having extended them farther than was 
intended when I commenced. I have done this, however, in hopes that 
some of my observations may induce others to follow out some of the 
suggestions. Probably there is no field more interesting than the one 
in which these observations have been made, nor one which is so obscure 
and which, therefore, will require a multitude of observers before it can 
possibly receive its full and perfect elucidation. 
GEOLOGY AS A MEANS OF CULTURE. 
BY ALEXANDER WINCHELL. 
II. 
3. Diversified aspects of Geological Study. 
Unlike mathematics and many other subjects of study, the 
science of geology consists of various ranges and kinds of knowl- 
edge. It is not a mere body of facts of observation, like polit- 
ical or physical geography in the ordinary acceptation ; nor of 
facts of record, like history in the scholastic sense. It is not 
merely a field stocked with the products of imagination and 
sentiment, like popular literature. It is not merely a realm of 
abstract concepts and necessary ideas, like metaphysics. It is 
not merely a system of deductive processes all firmly bound to- 
gether and to first principles by necessary laws of thought, like 
mathematics. It is not merely a department of mental activity 
where conclusions are balanced on probabilities, and moral cer- 
titude is the highest satisfaction afforded the aspiration to know, 
as in many ecclesiastical, political and educational questions. It 
is all these, and more than these. Geology as the science of the 
natural world, embraces all which the natural world contains; 
