282 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii. 



Public opinion did not encourage them. This was not 

 the case with geology. People in general, and agricult- 

 urists in particular, soon showed an eager desire to know 

 the resources of the soils, the rocks, and the mines. 

 Geological surveys were started at the expense of the 

 State in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsyl- 

 vania, New Jersey, the New England States, New 

 York, and Ohio. A desire to agree on points of classi- 

 fication and to know one another brought together the 

 state geologists, who founded in 1840 the " Association 

 of American Geologists," the first national scientific 

 organization, and which held its meetings at different 

 places in the Union. 



The two visits of Lyell in 1841 and 1845, and the 

 important journey of de Verneuil in 1846, among the 

 palaeozoic formations from the State of New York and 

 Canada, to the Ohio Valley, the Upper Mississippi 

 River, and Lake Superior, had given a strong impulse 

 to geological researches, in bringing about the much 

 needed comparison with European classification and 

 synchronism. The field was well prepared, if not 

 zoologically, at least palaeontologically, to receive one of 

 the greatest palaeontologists hitherto produced by Europe. 

 The coming of Agassiz was anticipated with great joy 

 by all American naturalists, and the more so, because at 

 first his stay was announced to be only temporary. 



After a few weeks spent in Boston, making the ac- 

 quaintance of the Boston naturalists, and visiting the 

 surrounding country, more especially the seashores and 

 beaches, Agassiz went to New Haven, New York, 

 Princeton, Philadelphia, Washington, and Albany. In 



