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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

GOULD AND LINCOLN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED BY W. F. DRAPER, ANDOVER, MASS.

PRINTED BY GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, BOSTON.

M. N. W.

PREFACE

то

THE AMERICAN

EDITION.

THIS new volume, from the pen of HUGH MILLER, is a legacy wholly unlooked for by the American public. It was known to many of his admirers on this side of the Atlantic that he had been laboring for years on a work designed to be the magnum opus of his life -"THE GEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND." But his untimely death, it was supposed, had cut short his labors, and left the work in a state so fragmentary that his literary executors would not venture to publish it. The impression was a correct one, as related to the design of the author, in its magnitude and completeness. But the present volume supplies, to general readers, what the proposed work would have done for the scientific world. It gives the geological history of Scotland

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ligible to all, and with an affluence of anecdote, and incident, and literary allusion, in which HUGH MILLER was without an equal among the scientific writers of our century. It gives precisely what

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a multitude of readers in this country have been longing to find

a rational account of the manner in which all the strata of the earth's crust have been formed, from the foundation of unstratified granite and gneiss to the alluvial deposits of its surface. Scotland is literally taken to pieces, like a house of many stories; and one looks on the processes of the Divine Architect, as he would on the work of a human builder. The hypotheses (for they can be regarded only as such) are original, and curious, and plausible. Some readers may doubt their accuracy, but none will question the eminent ability with which they are developed. The volume will add to the reputation of the author, and the popularity of his writings; and will aid many, who have a slight acquaintance with geological science, to form habits of practical observation in their country rambles. The American Publishers have given the title of "Descriptive Sketches" to sundry papers which Mrs. Miller has selected from unpublished manuscripts of her husband, and to which, with characteristic modesty, she gave the simple name of "Appendix." regarded these papers as an important part of the volume, and demanding, from their intrinsic merits, a distinctive title.

BOSTON, APRIL, 1859.

They

THE REV. W. S. SYMONDS,

RECTOR OF PENDOCK, HEREFORDSHIRE.

DEAR SIR,

Am I presuming too much on my position, as merely the editor of the following Lectures, when ask leave to dedicate them to you? It is unquestionably a liberty with the production of another which only very peculiar circumstances can at all excuse. Yet, in the present case, I venture to think that those peculiar circumstances do exist; and I feel assured he would readily pardon me, whose work this is, and whose memory you so much revere. Without your coöperation, I believe that neither the "Cruise of the Betsey" nor these pages could by this time have seen the light. When my own overladen brain refused to do its duty, you gave me to hope, by offers of welltimed assistance, that the task before me might still be accomplished. Your friendly voice, often heard in tones of sympathizing inquiry when I was unable to endure your own or any other human presence,—even that of my dear child,-was for a time the only sound that brought to my heart any promise or cheer for the future. It was then, while unable to read the very characters in which they were written, that I put into your hands the papers containing "The Cruise" and "Ten Thousand Miles over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland." You undertook the editorial duties connected with them con amore, and performed your task in a manner that left nothing to be desired.

During the preparation of the present volume for the press, you have given me all the advantage of your ready stores of information, both in carefully scrutinizing the text to see where any addition was required in the form of

notes, and in referring me to the best authorities on every point regarding which I consulted you. And while so doing, you have confirmed my own judgment, perhaps too liable to be swayed by partiality,- by expressing your conviction that this work is calculated to advance the reputation of its author. Long may you be spared to be, as now, the life and soul of those scientific pursuits so successfully carried on in your own district! Many a happy fieldday may you enjoy in connection with that Society of which you are the honored president. Would that all associations throughout our country were as harmless in their methods of finding recreation, as invigorating to body and mind, and as beneficial in their results to the cause of science! In exploring the beautiful fields, and woods, and sunny slopes of Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, in earnest and healthful communings with nature, and, I trust, with nature's God, -the perennial springs of whose bounty are seldom quaffed in this manner as they ought to be,-I trust that much, much happiness is in store for you and for the other gentlemen of the Malvern Club,* to whom, as well as to yourself, I owe a debt of grateful remembrance.

And for the higher and nobler work which God has given you to do, may he grant you no stinted measure of his abundant grace, to enable you to perform it aright.

Ever believe me, dear Sir,

Yours most faithfully,

LYDIA MILLER.

* The Malvern Club devotes stated periods,-monthly, I think,- to rambles over twenty or thirty miles of country, when the naturalists of whom it is composed, - botanists, geologists, etc.,- carry on the researches of their various departments separately, or in little groups of two or three, as they may desire. They all dine afterwards together at an inn, or farm-house, as the case may be, where they relate the adventures of the day, discuss their favorite topics, and compare their newly-found treasures. As a consequence of this, the Malvern Museum is a perfect model of what a local museum ought to be. There is no town or district of country where a few young men, possessing the advantage of an occasional holiday, might not thus associate themselves with the utmost advantage both to themselves and others.

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