first time ascertained, and measured in miles and yards with the certainty that belongs to an ordinary geodetic operation.
It is of the nature of all science, to be but the portal to greater and higher truth beyond. Such is peculiarly the case with Seismology. The exact knowledge of earthquakes, of their distribution in time and space, of their movements result and proximate cause however interesting in themselves, are yet but means to an end.
As palæontology—itself dependent upon natural history—lithology, and many other cognate knowledges, are but instruments of geology, so is seismology chiefly to be viewed and valued, as the instrument by which a knowledge of the deep interior of our planet will be attained; the only instrument yet discovered to this end, yet one possessed of vastly greater power and directness of aim, than any of those that physical geology has previously called to its aid.
Though the youngest branch of cosmical science, it is to be regretted, that it has not been already better understood, and more applied by observational geologists, many of whom, had they mastered even its rudiments, might ere now have come laden with fruit from various regions.
Physical geology, much as it owes to the labours, of the topographical and field geologist, to the patient observer and comparer of nature's superficial phenomena, can no longer rest satisfied with such modes of investigation
