2 with Lyell's work. I shall recommend its adoption next year, if as is almost certain, I meet with no work in the mean time better suited to our peculiar wants at this Institution." FROM PROF. C. B. ADAMS, OF MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. "Your elementary book on geology has afforded me great pleasure; and I have, since our Catalogue was printed, adopted it as a text book." The following notices of the work, from among the many that have appeared, have been selected from some of the leading periodicals of the country. FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS, FOR OCTOBER, 1840. "The readers of this Journal and those who know the progress of American Geology, are well aware of the important services Prof. Hitchcock has rendered to this branch of science, through a period of many years, both by his laborious explorations and his written works. In the present instance, he has attempted to prepare a work which shall fill a vacancy long felt by the instructors of geology in this country, a work which, while it gives a good view of the progress of the science in other countries, draws its illustrations mainly from American facts. From the rapid glance which we have been able to bestow upon this performance, we should think that Prof. Hitchcock had succeeding in imparting this feature to his book." FROM THE AMERICAN BIBLICAL REPOSITORY, FOR OCTOBER, 1840. "The appearance of this volume from the pen of Prof. Hitchcock, will be peculiarly gratifying to many in the community. It is designed to be used as a Text Book for classes in geology, in Colleges and other Seminaries of learning, and also, to supply the wants of the general reader, who has not the leisure to study the numerous and extended treatises that have been written on different heads of this subject. The plan of it, we think, is admirably adapted to the first of these uses, and nearly or quite as well suited to the second." FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, FOR JANUARY, 1841. "Professor Hitchcock has been too long and favorably known to scientific men, both of the new world and of the old, to make it necessary for us to say, with what ample qualifications he undertakes the task before him. His work is no 'secondary formation,' based on the published works of European writers, but in every part bears the impress of acute and original observation, and happy tact in presenting the immense variety of subjects treated in the following Sections into which the book is divided. "The fifth Section is devoted to Organic Remains. It occupies one fourth of the whole work, and is illustrated with the best cuts in the book. We venture to say that there is not in our language so neat and compressed, yet so clear and correct, an account of the 'Wonders of Geology.' ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY. BY EDWARD HITCHCOCK, LL. D. PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL HISTORY IN AMHERST COLLEGE: GEOLOGIST THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE, BY JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D., F. R. S., & F.G.S. DIVINITY TUTOR IN THE COLLEGE AT HOMERTON, LONDON. wwwwwww NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY MARK H. NEWMAN, 199 BROADWAY. NANVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BY EXCHANGE JUN 23 1939 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern STEREOTYPED BY SMITH AND WRIGHT, PREFACE. IN preparing this work, three objects have been kept principally in view. The first was to prepare a Text Book for my Classes in Geology: the second, to bring together the materials for a Synopsis of Geology, to be appended to my Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts, now in the press: And the third was, to present to the public a condensed view of the present state of geological facts, theories, and hypotheses; especially to those who have not the leisure to study very extended works on this subject. In its execution, the work differs from any with which I am acquainted, in the following particulars. 1. It is arranged in the form of distinct Propositions or Principles, with Definitions and Proofs: and the Inferences follow those principles on which they are mainly dependent. This method was adopted, as it long has been in most other sciences, for the convenience of teaching: but it also enables one to condense the matter very much. 2. An attempt has been made to present the whole subject in its proper proportions; viz. its facts, theories, and hypotheses, with their historical and religious relations, and a sketch of the geology of all the countries of the globe that have been explored. All geological works with which I am acquainted, either omit some of these subjects, or dwell very disproportionably upon some of them. 3. It is made more American than republications from European writers, by introducing a greater amount of our geology. 4. It contains copious references to writers, where the different points here briefly discussed, may be found amply treated. 5. It contains a Paleontological Chart, whose object is to bring under a glance of the eye, the leading facts respecting organic remains. Whether these peculiarities of the present work will be regarded by the public as improvements, important enough to deserve their patronage, time only can show. Type of two sizes is employed in this work. The most important principles, facts, and proofs, are in larger type, to call the special attention of the student or reader: while many of the details and remarks are in smaller type. The subject is subdivided into the following heads; whose abbreviations will not need explanation: viz. Definition: Principle: Description Inference: Remark: Proof: Details: Illustration. Where an inference depends upon several principles, I have added a synopsis of all the proofs on which it rests. In European countries especially, and to a good degree in our own country, geology has become a popular and even fashionable study. In most of our higher Seminaries of learning, it is explained by at least a course of lectures. But in Institutions of a lower grade, it receives far less attention than its merits deserve. Why should not a science, whose facts possess a thrilling interest; whose reasonings are admirably adapted for mental discipline, and often severely task the strongest powers; and whose results are many of them as grand and ennobling as those of Astronomy itself; (such Astronomers as Herschel and Whewell being judges,*) why should not such a science be thought as essential in education as the kindred branches of Chemistry and Astronomy? That all the parts of this Science are not yet as well settled as those of Astronomy and Chemistry, is no objection to making it a branch of education, so long as every intelligent man must admit that its fundamental facts and principles are well established. Amherst College, THIRD EDITION. In presenting thus early a third edition of this work to the public, I will only say, that I have done all in my power to introduce into it all the important discoveries and improvements which have been recently made in the science. To enforce still more strongly the remarks of Dr. Smith, in the unsolicited Introductory Notice of this work which follows, respecting the importance of an acquaintance with Geology to the minister and the missionary, I will quote a few sentences from the letters of two esteemed missionary friends, now in active service in distant lands. Rev. Justin Perkins, American Missionary in Ooroomiah in Persia, under date of Oct. 1, 1839, thus writes. "Did not my missionary work press upon me so constantly, and with such mountain weight, I should feel strongly tempted to study geology, (of which I know very little,) so wonderfully Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks, in the scale of sciences, next to astronomy." " Sir John Herschel. |