Excerpt from Commemorative Biographical Record of New Haven County, Connecticut: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families In entering upon the duties of this place, my thoughts turn rather to the past than to the subject of the present hour. I feel that it is an honored place, honored by the labors of one who has been the guardian of American science from its child hood, who here first opened to the country the won derful records of Geology; whose word-s of elo quence and earnest truth were but the overflow of a soul full of noble instincts and warm sympathies, the whole throwing a peculiar charm over his learn ing, and rendering his name beloved as well as illus trions. Just fifty years since, Professor Silliman took his station at the head of chemical and geologi cal science in this college. Geology was then hardly known by the name in the land, out of these walls. Two years before, previous to his tour in Europe, the whole cabinet of Yale was a half bushel of un labelled stones. On visiting England he found even in London no school, public or private, for geologi cal instruction, and the science was not named in the English universities. To the mines, quarries and cliffs of England, the crags Of' Scotland, and the meadows of Holland, he looked for knowledge, and from these and the teachings of Murray, Jameson, Hall, Hope and Play-fair, at Edinburgh, Professor Silliman returned equipped for duty and creating almost out of nothing a department not before rec ognized in any institution in America. While in Edinburgh, Professor Silliman became interested in the discussions. Then at their height between the W ernerians and Huttonians. And attend ed lectures on geology; and on his return he began the study of the mineral structure of the vicinity Of New Haven. I arrived in New Haven fro-m Scot land Ou the first of June, 1806. And on the first day of September I read to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences a report on the mineral structure Of the environs of New Haven, which was printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the Acad emy. This report occupies fourteen pages, and hav ing been published more than fifty-two years ago When I was twenty - seven years of age - I have been gratified to find that an attentive re-perusal yester day (jan. 6, 1859) - after I know not how many years of Oblivion - suggested very few alterations, and I have not discovered any important errors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.