THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 803 



is the author of several important papers on mineralogy, and was the 

 discoverer of the occurrence of native tungstic acid as a mineral spe- 

 cies. For more than fifty years he continued as teacher in Yale Col- 

 lege, and when he resigned his professorship, in 1853, he had the satis- 

 faction to have as his successor in the department of mineralogy and 

 geology Professor James D. Dana, who was already among the fore- 

 most mineralogists of the day, and whose published works, before and 

 since his accession to this professorship, have done so much for the 

 advancement of mineralogy. . . . 



It will be inferred from what has been said of these pioneers that 

 the developments and discoveries of minerals, during the first twenty- 

 five years of the century, were due entirely to individual enthusiasm 

 and private enterprise. Up to this time no aid had been received from 

 either State or national governments, and in looking over the work 

 accomplished during this period we are filled with wonder and admira- 

 tion at the energy and rare devotion to science exhibited. The larger 

 portion of the continent was an unbroken wilderness, and the facilities 

 of communication even in the settled parts of the country were of the 

 most primitive character. Yet at the present day, with our means of 

 rapid transportation, many naturalists would hesitate to undertake the 

 long journeys then made for purely scientific purposes. 



Geologists as well as mineralogists will recall how much science is 

 indebted to such men as William Maclure, James Pierce, Thomas Nut- 

 tall (the botanist), and others who made extensive trips through the 

 whole territory east and in some instances to the west of the Missis- 

 sippi River. Maclure not only devoted his time and money to making 

 and publishing a geological survey of the United States and Canada, 

 the first report of which was made in 1809, but to him the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, owes its first endowment. 



I shall be pardoned, I trust, if I mention still another signal instance 

 of private liberality in this connection. General Stephen Van Rens- 

 selaer, of New York, a generous patron of science, defrayed all the 

 expenses of a geological survey of the country adjacent to the Erie 

 Canal, including the making of a geological section from Lake Erie to 

 the eastern coast of Massachusetts. This survey was under the charge 

 of Professor Amos Eaton, with a competent corps of assistants, and 

 was continued for four years, from 1820 to 1824, at a cost of many 

 thousands of dollars. General Van Rensselaer was also the founder 

 of the first school of technical science in this country the Rensselaer 

 Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, which was placed under the charge of 

 Professor Eaton. It may be interesting here, in these days of summer 

 schools, to recall, although parenthetically, that what was probably the 

 first Summer School of Science in the United States was established 

 more than fifty years ago in connection with this institution. The 

 school consisted of a flotilla of towed canal-boats, and the route was 

 from Troy to Lake Erie. It took two months for the trip, and visited 



