STATICS AND DYNAMICS OF GEOLOGY. 
191 
enough has been said to prove that our mining interests are to 
become one of the great sources of wealth, and that the real 
additions to the wealth of the nation is hereafter to be largely 
derived from its mines and quarries. 
STATICS AND DYNAMICS OF GEOLOGY—CONCLUSION, 
§ 114. Geologists have often employed the phrase, “ The 
Dynamics of Geology ,” which, if it is appropriate, has its 
counter phrase, “ The Statics of Geology .” The first compre¬ 
hends all that relates to the processes which are productive of 
chanp-e: the latter, all that relates to the rocks and formations 
as they are, without regard to the cause or causes which have 
been influential in the development of their present condition. 
Statical geology stands first in the order of time; it is de¬ 
scriptive in its objects and ends, and contains a record of the 
phenomena which they exhibit. 
When statical geology was wholly neglected, dynamical ge¬ 
ology was ridiculous and absurd. Indeed, it is impossible to 
construct the dynamics of the science, without first perfecting 
the statics. The dynamics of our principal mountain ranges 
will be better understood when their statics have been more 
thoroughly studied. The dynamics of our great system of lakes 
seem to point to diluvial action as a cause, but wm require more 
facts before that theory can be established. If our dynamics 
do not grow out of, or legitimately follow from our statics, we 
are likely to beget error rather than truth. If, on the contrary, 
the dynamics grow out of our statics, truth is begotten, and 
geology becomes an inductive science. 
The dynamics of geology have too often been formed or con¬ 
structed from what may be termed the possibles. It is evident, 
however, that they can not be true because they are possible; 
it only saves them from absurdity. The truth of our dynamics 
is to be tested by their conformity to the statics of a region in 
each particular case. 
As an instance illustrative of this kind of error, I may cite 
