The Elements of Geology

The Elements of Geology, by William Harmon Norton, says in its preface that 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 preface says the author has ventured 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. The text says that a fine plastic clay which, when white and pure, is known as kaolin, is used in the manufacture of porcelain.

The text says that no earthquake of history has produced greater geological effects than that which shook northeastern India in 1897. The text says that vast water bodies, which at one or more periods were greater than all the Great Lakes combined, discharged at various times across the divide at Chicago.