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[Page 3]
must submit, however reluctantly, to delineate objects which will certainly not exhibit his talents to the best advantage. He must be guided in fact in their selection by the man of Science & must consider the accuracy of his portrait as the greatest test of its merit, avoiding every thing like picturesque embellishment.
Mountains too which are not volcanic & the natural sections of the Strata on the Sea Shore will frequently afford very interesting subjects for geological drawings.
For the forms of hills & mountains are often characteristical of the Strata which compose them & sometimes they expose to view their constituent Strata.
Both the distant & the near views which are taken of every new land, will furnish a very adequate idea of the form of its superficies, but if description is to be employd [employed] in aid of delineation, it will be difficult to avoid incongruity, for it is mortifying to observe that the language of geological description is not yet formed or fixed, insomuch that nothing can be more vague & indeterminate than what has been hitherto used for that purpose by travellers & Naturalists. Not only the terms are confounded but the order inversed too in which they ought to be applied, in consequence of which no clear ideas are presented to the mind & no information.
Travellers indeed more frequently belong to the class of picturesque than of geological observers & their descriptions of the face of a Country relate more to its effects on the eye than to its structure & composition; but in a voyage like this, it is presumed that the latter will be thought a much