THE NEW YORK GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 817 



scientific knowledge and in the cultivation of those scientific tastes 

 which pervaded all the better classes of communities for many years. 

 Much had already been done, therefore, to prepare the way, and the 

 public mind was fully awake to the interests and importance of a geo- 

 logical survey, when the Albany Institute, in 1834, memorialized the 

 Legislature for some action in that direction.* 



These memorials were referred to a committee of the Legislature, 

 who recommended a resolution by which the Secretary of State was 

 " requested to report to the Legislature at its next session the most 

 expedient method of obtaining a complete geological survey of the 

 State, which shall furnish a scientific and perfect account of its rocks, 

 soils, and minerals, and of their localities ; a list of all its minei'alogi- 

 cal, botanical, and zoological productions, and provide for procuring 

 and preserving specimens of the same ; together with an estimate of 

 the expenses which may attend the prosecution of the design, and of 

 the cost of publication of an edition of three thousand copies of the 

 report, drawings, and geological map of the results." 



In pursuance of the request contained in this resolution, the Sec- 

 retary of State, Hon. John A. Dix, presented a report at the following 

 session of the Legislature, w T hich contained much valuable information 

 with reference to what had already been done toward developing the 

 mineral resources of the State, giving a summary of our knowledge 

 of the subject at that time, and discussing several questions of great 

 interest ; for example, the salt and salt-bearing formations, our min- 

 eral springs, and the probabilities of finding coal within the limits of 

 the State. He also gave a statement of what had been done in other 

 States, and of work in a similar direction elsewhere in progress or in 

 contemplation. 



Under their distinctive heads he discussed the botany and zoology 

 of the State, and gave reasons why each one should receive due atten- 

 tion. Under the head of Zoology the subject was treated under the 

 following subdivisions : Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Testacea,f Zoo- 

 phytes, etc., and lastly the Insects. 



The report concluded w r ith the recommendation of a plan for the 

 Geological Survey by a subdivision of the State into four districts, % 



* Senate Document No. 15, 1834. 



f Under this head the Secretary of State said : " Our shells, whether of marine, lake, 

 river, or land production, deserve a very critical examination, more especially as the fos. 

 sil remains of this extensive tribe of animals, both of living and extinct species, are 

 considered as affording the most certain criteria for determining the priority of existing 

 geological formations in the ord^r of time. There is no department of our natural his- 

 tory which, for scientific purposes, requires more careful investigation. Specimens should 

 be preserved for systematic classification and arrangement ; and it is by no means im- 

 probable that these collections, with the fossil specimens, which may be found imbedded 

 in our rocks and soils, will be instrumental in showing the identity of formations here and 

 in the Old World, which have hitherto been considered entirely different in their geologi- 

 cal character." 



\ The First District consisted of the counties of Suffolk, Qucens> Kings, Richmond, 

 vol. xxii. 52 



