I am therefore inclined to think, that in geology the best mode for the greatest part of the secondary would be to give the relative position of the strata of each valley or basin; and I am rather of opinion that they would all differ from one another.
The French and English basin having chalk for the lowest stratum, which has occupied the geologists of both countries for these 10 or 15 years, is perhaps the best known; yet they do not know the relative position of the chalk and coals, because coals have not been found in the same basin with chalk: coals occupy basins filled with different kinds of rocks, and have no resemblance to the rocks found covering the chalk.
Art. II. On the Geology, Mineralogy, Scenery, and Curiosities of Parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and the Alabama and Mississippi Territories, &c.
Art. II. On the Geology, Mineralogy, Scenery, and Curiosities of Parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and the Alabama and Mississippi Territories, &c. with Miscellaneous Remarks, in a letter to the Editor. By the Rev. Elias Cornelius.
To Benjamin Silliman, Professor, &c.
SIR,
Having recently returned from a tour of considerable extent in the United States, I avail myself with pleasure of the first leisure moment, to communicate, agreeably to your request, some facts, relative to the Mineralogy and Geology of that part of the country through which I passed.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.