26o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lished results of systematic field studies of a system which has 

 since been elaborately investigated by other geologists. 



The Geological Society of Pennsylvania, though its career was 

 only brief 1833 to 1836 lived long enough and was vigorous 

 enough to secure the institution by the Legislature in 1836 of a 

 geological survey of that State. On the organization of the sur- 

 vey. Prof. Rogers was appointed geologist, with James Curtis 

 Booth and John F. Frazer assistant geologists, and Robert E. 

 Rogers, the fourth of the " Rogers brothers," chemist. Six annual 

 reports of the progress of this survey were made to the Legisla- 

 ture from 1846 to 1852, when it was suspended through the failure 

 of the two houses to make an appropriation for its further prose- 

 cution. For the next ten years 1842 to 1851 Prof. Rogers was 

 employed by various coal companies as an expert. During this 

 period in 1846 he established his residence in Boston. In 1855 

 the preparation of a final report of the Pennsylvania Geological 

 Survey was committed to him, on condition that he should re- 

 ceive sixteen thousand dollars, should furnish the State one 

 thousand copies of the book, and should own the copyright of it. 

 In order to command the best work possible with the amount 

 appropriated by the State, he had the printing and engraving of 

 the book done in Edinburgh, more cheaply and quickly than they 

 could be afforded in like style in the United States, and removed 

 there in order to supervise them. The report, which embodies the 

 results of eighteen years of labor, brought the author fame and 

 applause, but pecuniary loss instead of profit ; for the cost of it 

 exceeded the appropriation by many thousand dollars. The book, 

 in two quarto volumes, contains 1682 pages, is illustrated by 778 

 woodcuts and diagrams in the text, 69 plates, and 18 folded sheets 

 of sections, and was published by W. Blackwood & Sons (Lon- 

 don and Edinburgh), and J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 

 in 1858. The highest commendation was given to this work by 

 Prof. Rogers's successor on the geological survey, who said that, 

 on the reading of the special memoirs at the end of the second 

 volume, there could be " no sentiment but one of admiration for 

 the breadth of his views and the clearness, force, and elegance of 

 his delineations. No geological paper has ever appeared excelling 

 in every good quality his memoir on coal." 



In a report of the proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, of which Prof. Rogers was a member, dated 

 May 28, 1867, these words appear : " His first systematic geo- 

 logical labor was that of conducting the survey of the State of 

 New Jersey. . . . While thus engaged, a similar survey of the 

 great State of Pennsylvania was provided for by the Legisla- 

 ture, and placed under his direction. . . . During the early prog- 

 ress of this work he produced in conjunction with his brother. 



