CHAPTER
I.
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015 016
017
018
019 020
021
Voyage. -- Harbour of Halifax. -- Excursions near Boston. -- Difference
of Plants from European Species, and Correspondence of Marine Shells.
-- Resemblance of Drift, Erratics, and Furrowed Rocks, to those of
Sweden. -- Springfield.New Haven. -- Scenery of the Hudson. -- Albany.
-- Geological Surveys. -- Mohawk Valley. -- Ancient or Silurian
Formations. -- Prosperity and rapid Progress of the People. -- Lake
Ontario. -- Tortoises. -- Fossil Remains of Mastodon.
[013] [Regarding the geological survey
of New York] "...several of the geological surveyors,... reported,
among other results, their opinion, that no coal would ever be
discovered in their respective districts. This announcement caused no
small disappointment, especially as the neighbouring state of
Pennsylvania was very rich in coal."
[015] [On travelling across the state of New York] "I became convinced
that we must turn to the New World
if we wish to see in perfection the oldest monuments of the earth's
history, so far at least as relates to its earliest inhabitants.
Certainly in no other country are these ancient strata developed on a
grander scale, or more plentifully charged with fossils; and, as they
are nearly horizontal, the order of their relative position is always
clear and unequivocal. They exhibit, moreover, in their range from the
Hudson River to the Niagara, some fine examples of the gradual manner
in which certain sets of strata thin out when followed for hundreds of
miles, while others previously wanting become intercalated in the
series."
[017] [On a visit through Rochester, New York] "When we reflect that
some single towns, of which the foundations were laid by persons still
living, can already number a population, equal to all the aboriginal
hunter tribes who possessed the forests for hundreds of miles around,
we soon cease to repine at the extraordinary revolution, however much
we may commiserate the unhappy fate of the disinherited race."
CHAPTER
II.
022
023
024
025
026
027 028
029
030
031
032
033
034
035
036
037
038
039
040
041
042
043
Distant and near View of the Falls of Niagara. -- Whether the Falls
have receded from Queenston to their present Site. -- Geographical
Features of the Region. -- Course of the River above and below the
Falls. -- Recent Proofs of Erosion. -- Historical Data in the Works of
Hennepin and Kalm. -- Geological Evidence derived from Fluviatile
Strata or Remnants of an old River-bed in Goat-Island and elsewhere. --
Difficulty of computing the Rate of the Retrograde Movement. -- Varying
Hardness and Thickness of the Rocks undermined. -- Future Recession. --
Age of the Drift and Limestone Escarpments. -- Successive changes which
preceded and accompanied the origin of the Falls. -- Reflections on the
Lapse of past Time.
[042] [Regarding the gradual erosion of
the Niagara Falls] "If such events can take place while the zoology of
the earth remains almost stationary and unaltered, what ages may not be
comprehended in those successive tertiary periods during which the
Flora and Fauna of the globe have been almost entirely changed! Yet how
subordinate a place in the long calendar of geological chronology do
the successive tertiary periods themselves occupy! How much more
enormous a duration must we assign to many antecedent revolutions of
the earth and its inhabitants!"
CHAPTER
III.
044
045
046
047
048
049
050
051
052
053
054
055
056
057
058
059
060
061
Tour from the Niagara to the Northern Frontier of Pennsylvania. --
Ancient Gypsiferous Formation of New York. -- Fossil Mastodon at
Geneseo. -- Scenery. -- -Sudclen Growth of New Towns. -- Coal of
Blossberg, and resemblance to British Coal-Measures. -- Stigmaria. --
Humming Birds. -- Nomenclature of Places. -- Helderberg Mountains and
Fossils. -- Refractory Tenants. -- Travelling in the States. --
Politeness of Women. -- Canal Boat. -- Domestic Service. -- Progress of
Civilisation. -- Philadelphia. -- Fire-engines.
CHAPTER
IV.
062
063
064
065
066
067
068 069
070
071
072
073 074
075
076
077
078
079
080
Excursion to New Jersey. -- Cretaceous Rocks compared to European. --
General Analogy of Fossils, and Distinctness of Species. -- Tour to the
Anthracite Region of the Alleghanies in Pennsylvania. -- Long parallel
Ridges and Valleys of these Mountains. -- Pottsville. -- Absence of
Smoke. -- Fossil Plants same as in Bituminous Coal. -- Stigmari. --
Great Thickness of Strata. -- Origin of Anthracite. -- Vast Area of the
Appalachian Coal-Field. -- Progressive Debituminization of coal from
West to East. -- General Remarks on the different Groups of Rocks
between the Atlantic and the Mississippi. -- Law of Structure of the
Appalachian chain discovered by the Professors Rogers. -- Increased
Folding and Dislocation of Strata on the South-eastern flank of the
Appalachians. -- Theory of the Origin of this Mountain chain.
CHAPTER
V.
081
082 083
084
085
086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094 095
096
097
098
Wooded Ridges of the Alleghany Mountains. -- German Patois in
Pennsylvania. -- Lehigh Summit Mine. -- Effects of lee during a Flood
in the Delaware. -- Election of a Governor at Trenton and at
Philadelphia. -- Journey to Boston. -- Autumnal Tints of the Foliage.
-- Boston the Seat of Commerce, of Government, and of a University. --
Lectures at the Lowell Institute. -- Influence of Oral Instruction in
Literature and Science. -- Fees of Public Lecturers. -- Education Funds
sunk in costly Buildings. -- Advantages of anti-building clauses. --
Blind Asylum. -- Lowefl Factory. -- National Schools. -- Equality of
Sects. -- Society in Boston.
CHAPTER
VI.
099
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
Fall of Snow and Sleigh-driving at Boston. -- Journey to New Haven. --
Ichthyolites of Durham, Connecticut. -- Age of Red Sandstone. -- Income
of Farmers. -- Baltimore. -- Washington. -- National Museum. -- Natural
Impediments to the Growth of Washington. -- Why chosen for the Capital.
-- Richmond, Virginia. -- Eflècts of Slave Labour. -- Low Region
on the Atlantic Border, occupied by Tertiary Strata. -- Infusorial Bed
at Richmond. -- Miocene Shells and Corals in the Cliffs of the James
River compared with Fossils of the European Crag and Faluns. -- Analogy
of Forms and Difference of Species. -- Proportion of Species. --
Commencement of the present Geographical Distribution of Mollusca
CHAPTER
VII.
112
113
114
115 116
117
118
119 120
121
Pine Barrens of Virginia and North Carolina. -- Railway Train stopped
by Snow and Ice. -- The great Dismal Swamp. -- Soil formed entirely of
Vegetable Matter. -- Rises higher than the contiguous firm Land. --
Buried Timber. -- Lake in the Middle. -- The Origin of Coal illustrated
by the Great Dismal. -- Objections to the Theory of an ancient
Atmosphere highly charged with Carbonic Acid.
CHAPTER
VIII.
122
123
124
125
126
127 128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
Tour to Charleston, South Carolina. -- Facilities of Locomotion. --
Augusta. -- Voyage down the Savannah River. -- Shell Bluff. -- Slave
Labour. -- Fever and Ague. -- Pine Forests of Georgia. -- AIligators
and Land Tortoises. -- Warmth of Climate in January. -- Tertiary Strata
on the Savannah. -- Fossil Remains of Mastodon and Mylodon near
Savannah. -- Passports required of Slaves. -- Cheerfulness of the
Negroes.
CHAPTER
IX.
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
Return to Charleston. -- Fossil Human Skeleton. -- Geographical
Distribution of Quadrupeds in North America. -- Severe Frost in 1835 in
South Carolina. -- White Limestone of the Cooper River and Santee
Canal. -- Referred to the Eocene Period, not intermediate between
Tertiary and Chalk. -- Lime-sinks. -- Species of Shells common to
Eocene Strata in America and Europe. -- Causes of the increased
Insalubrity of the Low Region of South Carolina. -- Condition of the
Slave Population. -- Cheerfulness of the Negroes, their Vanity. --
State of Animal Existence. -- Jnvalidity of Marriages. -- The coloured
Population multiply, faster than the Whites. -- Effect of the
Interference of Abolitionists. -- Law against Education. -- Gradual
Emancipation equally desirable for theWhites and the Coloured Race.
[149] [Remarking on the anti-slavery movement] "The more I reflected on
the condition of the slaves, and endeavoured to think on a practicable
plan for hastening the period of their liberation, the more difficult
the subject appeared to me, and the more I felt astonished at the
confidence displayed by so many anti-slavery speakers and writers on
both sides of the Atlantic. The course pursued by these agitators shows
that, next to the positively wicked, the class who are usually called
'well-meaning persons' are the most mischievous in society."
[151] "Had the measure of emancipating all the slaves been carried
through as rapidly as some abolitionists have desired, the fate of the
negroes might have been almost as deplorable as that of the aboriginal
Indians.
... I am by no means disposed to assume that the natural capacities of
the negroes, who always appeared to me to be an amiable, gentle, and
inoffensive race, may not be equal in a moral and intellectual point of
view to those of the Europeans, provided the coloured population were
placed in circumstances equally favourable for their development. But
it would be visionary to expect that, under any imaginable system, this
race could at once acquire as much energy, and become as rapidly
progressive, as the Anglo-Saxons. To inspire them with such an aptitude
for rapid advancement must be the work of time -- the result of
improvements carried on through several successive generations. Time is
precisely the condition for which the advocates of the immediate
liberation of the blacks would never sufficiently allow."
CHAPTER X.
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168 169
170
Wilmington, North Carolina. -- Mount Vernon. -- Return to Philadelphia.
-- Reception of Mr. Dickens. -- Museum and Fossil Human Bones. --
Penitentiary. -- Churches. -- Religious Excitement. -- Coloured People
of Fortune. -- Obstacles to their obtaining Political and Social
Equality. -- No natural Antipathy between the Races. -- Negro
Reservations.
[164] [Regarding a wealthy black man in
Philadelphia] "I was rejoicing that his colour had proved no impediment
to his rising in the world, and that he had been allowed so much fair
play as to succeed in over-topping the majority of his white
competitors, when I learnt, on further inquiry, that, after giving an
excellent education to his children, he had been made unhappy, by
finding they must continue, in spite of all their advantages, to belong
to an inferior caste. ...
"In many states, the free blacks have votes, and exert their privileges
at elections, yet there is not an instance of a single man of colour,
although eligible by law, having been chosen a member of any state
legislature. ... no well educated black has ever yet had an opportunity
of ripening or displaying superior talents in this or any other
civilised country. Canada and Ireland teach us how much time and how
many generations are required for the blending together, on terms of
perfect equality, both social and political, of two nations, the
conquererors and the conquered, even where both are of the same race...
but when, in the same community we have two races so distinct in their
physical peculiarities as to cause many naturalists, who have no desire
to disparage the negro, to doubt whether both are of the same species,
and starting originally from the same stock; when one of these, found
in Africa in a savage and unprogressive state, has been degraded, by
those who first colonized North America, to the lowest place in the
social scale -- to expect, under such a combination of depressing
circumstances, that, in half a century, and in a country where more
than six-sevenths of the race are still held in bondage, the
newly-emancipated citizens should, under any form of government attain
at once a position of real equality, is a dream of the visionary
philanthropist, whose impracticable schemes are more likely to injure
than to forward a great cause."
[167] "If there be any place where distinctions of birth, wealth,
station, and race should be forgotten, it is the temple where the
Christian precept is inculcated that all men are equal before God."
CHAPTER XI.
171
172
173 174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182 183
184
185
186
187
188
Philadelphia. -- Financial Crisis. -- Payment of State Dividends
suspended. -- General Distress and Private Losses of the Americans. --
Debt of Pennsylvania. -- Public Works. -- Direct Taxes.Deficient
Revenue. -- Bad Faith and Confiscations. -- Irresponsible Executive. --
Loan Refused by European Capitalists in 1812. -- Good Faith of Congress
during the War in 1812-14. -- Effects of Universal Suffrage. --
Fraudulent Voting. -- Aliens. -- Solvency and Good Faith of the
Majority of the States. -- Confidence of American Capitalists. --
Reform of the Electoral Body. -- General Progress of Society, and
Prospects of the Republic.
CHAPTER
XII.
189
190
191
192
193
194 195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
New York City. -- Geology. -- Distribution of Erratic Rocks in Long
Island. -- Residence in New York. -- Effects on Society of increased
Intercourse of distant States. -- Separation of the Capital and
Metropolis. -- Climate. -- Geology of the Taconic Mountains. -- Stratum
of Plumbago and Anthracite in the Mica Schist of Worcester. -- Theory
of its Origin. -- Lectures for the Working Classes. -- Fossil
Foot-Prints of Birds in Red Sandstone. -- Mount Holyoke. -- Visit to
the Island of Martha's Vineyard. -- Fossil Walrus. -- Indias.
CHAPTER
XIII.
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215 216
217
218
219 220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227 228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
Meeting of Association of American Geologists at Boston. -- Popular
Libraries in New England. -- Large Sale of Literary Works in the United
States. -- American Universities. -- Harvard College, near Boston. --
English Universities. -- Peculiarities of their System. -- Historical
Sketch of the Causes of the Peculiarities not of Medieval Origin. --
Collegiate Corporations. -- Their altered Relations to the English
Universities after the Reformation. -- Constitution given to Oxford by
Leicester and Laud. -- System of Public Teaching, how superseded by the
Collegiate. -- Effects of the Change.. Oxford Examination Statute of
1800.Its subsequent Modification and Results. -- Rise of Private Tutors
at Oxford and Cambridge. -- Consequences of this Innovation. --
Struggle at Oxford in 1839 to restore the Professional System. --
Causes of its Rejection. -- Tractarianism. -- Supremacy of
Ecclesiastics. -- Youthful Examiners. -- Cambridge, advocacy of the
System followed there. -- Influence of the English Academical Plan on
the Cultivation of the Physical Sciences, and all Branches of
Progressive Knowledge. -- Remedies and Reforms.
[237] [On the state of education at
Oxford and Cambridge] "After the year 1839, we may consider
three-fourths of the sciences, still nominally taught at Oxford, to
have been virtually exiled from the University. The class rooms of the
profefssors were some of them entirely, others nearly, deserted. --
Chemistry and botany attracted, between the years 1840 and 1844, from
three to seven students; geometry, astronoy, and experimental
philosophy, scarcely more; mineralogy and geology, still taught by the
same professor who, fifteen years before, had attracted crowded
audiences, from ten to twelve.... "
[240] [Continuing] "At Cambridge, all branches of knowledge taught by
the professors ... have had sentence of banishment passed upon them in
the form of new compulsory examinations... The professors of chemistry
and anatomy, who had formerly considerable classes, have only mustered
six or seven pupils ... The chairs of Modern History ... once numbering
audiences of several hundreds, have been in like manner deserted."
