The Elements of Geology

A Valley with Rocky Ledges cut in Horizontal Strata, Scotland

THE ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY BY WILLIAM HARMON NORTON PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN CORNELL COLLEGE
GINN & COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON

Copyright, 1905, by WILLIAM HARMON NORTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 5511

PREFACE
Geology is a science of such rapid growth that no apology is expected when from time to time a new text-book is added to those already in the field. The present work, however, is the outcome of the need of a text-book of very simple outline, in which causes and their consequences should be knit together as closely as possible,—a need long felt by the author in his teaching, and perhaps by other teachers also. The author has ventured, therefore, to depart from the common usage which subdivides geology into a number of departments,—dynamical, structural, physiographic, and historical,—and to treat in immediate connection with each geological process the land forms and the rock structures which it has produced.