XIII.—Remarks on the Geology of Jamaica.

Abstract

The detailed observations, which alone can establish on a secure basis the solution of those great geological problems, on which the hope of ultimately arriving at any satisfactory theory must of necessity depend, are, notwithstanding the rapid progress which geology has recently made, as yet confined to districts comparatively limited. The investigation of the order in which the mineral masses constituting the earth’s surface rest upon each other, and the inquiry how far that order is invariable,—whether the remains of successive races of organized beings, which characterize the different members of the geological series, exhibit in distant countries general features of analogy, or of distinction,—and how far the action of the various geological causes which appear to have operated in those localities with which we are best acquainted can be recognised in others,—are questions which have hitherto been principally confined to a few European countries. Even the very valuable materials which the comprehensive mind of Humboldt has accumulated, must be considered rather as indicating the extent of the field before us, than as having fully occupied any part of it. In the present state of our knowledge, detailed monographs of particular districts, although from their very nature in themselves dry and tedious, and little calculated to attract the general reader, must necessarily precede those extensive views, which are more delightful in proportion to the higher intellectual powers which they require for their developement. In the hope of contributing in the more humble manner towards the advancement of