448 
PROCEEDINGS OF 
London of Great Britain ; but Washington has no museum of the United Stales, 
though so much richer in all these specimens. 
In mineralogy, the work of Cleveland is most distinguished. Shepherd, Mather, 
Troost, Torrey, and a few others, still pursue mineralogy for its own sake; but, gen¬ 
erally, our mineralogists have turned geologists, studying rocks on a large scale, 
instead of their individual constituents, and vying with their brethren in Europe in 
bold and successful generalization, and in the application of physical science to 
their subject. McClure was one of the pioneers, and Eaton and Silliman contri¬ 
buted much to the clock of knowledge. This school has given rise to the great 
geological surveys made or progressing in several of the States. Jackson, in 
Maine,—Hitchcock, in Massachusetts,—Vanuxen, Conrad, and Mather, in New 
York,—the Rogers’ in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,—Ducatel, in Mary¬ 
land,—Owen and Locke, in the West,—Trocst, in Tennessee,—Horton, in Ohio,— 
the courageous, scientific and lamented Nicolet, in Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin, 
have made contributions, not only to the geology of our country, but to the science 
of geology itself, which arc conceded to be among the most valuable of the present 
day. The able reports of Owen and Nicolet were made to Congress, and deserve 
the highest commendation. 
In geographical science, the explorations of Lewis and Clark,—of Long, Nicolet, 
and the able and intrepid Fremont,—the effective State survey of Massachusetts,— 
the surveys of our public lands,—the determination of the boundaries of our States, 
and especially those of Pennsylvania, by Rittenhouse and Elliot, of part of Louisiana, 
by Graham and Kearney, of Michigan, by Talcott, and of Maine, by Graham,—have 
gained us great credit. The national work of the coast survey, begun by the late 
Mr. Hassler, and prosecuted through all discouragements and difficulties by that 
indomitable man, has reflected honor upon his adopted country, through the Go¬ 
vernment which liberally supported the work, and through whose aid it is now pro¬ 
gressing, under now auspices, with great energy. The lake survey is also now 
advancing under the direction of Capt. Williams, of the Topographical Corps. 
Among the important recent explorations, is that of the enlightened, untiring, and 
intrepid Fremont, to Oregon, which fixes the pass of the rocky mountains within 
twenty miles of the northern boundary of Texas. Lieutenant Fremont is a mem¬ 
ber of the Topographical Corps, which, together with that of Engineers, contains 
so many distinguished officers, whose labors, together with those of their most able 
and distinguished chiefs, Col. Totten and Col. Abert, fill so large a portion of the 
public documents, and are so well known and highly appreciated by both Houses of 
Congress and by the country. The Emperor of Russia has entered the ranks of our 
Topographical Corps, and employed one of their distinguished members, Capt. 
Whistler, to construct his great railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The 
travels of our countrymen, Stephens, to Yucatan and Guatemala, to Egypt, Arabia, 
and Jerusalem, and of Ur. Grant to Nestoria, have increased our knowledge of 
geography and of antiquities, and have added new and striking proofs of the truths 
of Christianity. 
Fossil geology occupied much of the time and attention of the great philosopher 
and statesman Jefferson, and he was rewarded by the discovery of the megathe¬ 
rium. The mastodon, exhumed in 1801, from the marl pits of New York, by 
Charles Wilson Peale, has proved but one of an order of animal giants. Even the 
tetracaulodon, or tusked mastodon, of Godman, upon which rested his claims to 
fame, is not the most curious of this order, as the investigations of Hays and Hor- 
