BY EDWARD HITCHCOCK, LL. D.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL HISTORY IN AMHERST COLLEGE: GEOLOGIST
TO THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS: MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: OF THE
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, ETC.

Second Edition.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE,

BY JOHN PYE SMITH, D. D. F. R. S. & F. G. S.

DIVINITY TUTOR IN THE COLLEGE AT HOMERTON, NEAR LONDON.

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY DAYTON & SAXTON.

SCHOOL BOOK PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS,
CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU STS.

AMHERST:

J. S. & C. ADAMS.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by

EDWARD HITCHCOCK,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts

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,
Aug. 1, 1840.

SECOND EDITION.

THE call for a second edition of this work so early, has been unexpected. But I have exerted myself to adapt it to the advancing state of the Science. The most important addition, relates to the subject of Glaciers and Glacial Action, which is now exciting so great an interest in Europe. Through the kindness of Dr. J. Pye Smith of London, and of Prof. Silliman of New Haven, I have been favoured with an early access to the recent work of Agassiz, entitled Etudes sur les Glaciers, and to some papers recently read before the London Geological Society by Agassiz, Buckland, and Lyell, on the same subject. Some of

"Geology, in the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to astronomy."-Sir John Herschel.