822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of nomenclature leaves no possibility of mistake or confusion which 

 might arise from a different appreciation of descriptive terms. The 

 typical locality always remains for study, comparison, and reference, 

 and there need be no difference of opinion or discussion as to what 

 was intended by the use of any one of the terms. The progress of 

 geological science in the country is greatly indebted to this system of 

 nomenclature, and to the absolute working out of the succession of 

 the groups, and the members of the same, to which this system of 

 nomenclature has been applied. 



At the final meeting of the Geological Board the adoption of the 

 term " New York System " was considered imperative, because of the 

 impossibility of harmonizing the formations here known with those of 

 Europe. In the adoption of the names of rocks and groups the 

 nomenclature as now known there was scarcely a dissenting voice, 

 and the names as then adopted were published in the final reports, and 

 have become the nomenclature of the science in America. 



As the field-work of the survey approached completion, the ques- 

 tion of publication became a matter of deep interest to every one con- 

 nected with the work. The incumbents in each one of the depart- 

 ments were desirous of publishing their work in octavo, that the re- 

 sults of the survey might appear in a convenient form, aud become 

 hand-books for students in science. This plan, however, was over- 

 ruled by Governor Seward and his advisers, who considered it due to 

 the dignity and importance of the State of New York that the vol- 

 umes should be published in quarto form, especially as they were to 

 be presented to other States and foreign governments as emblematical 

 of the greatness of the State. Governor Seward himself wrote an 

 introduction of nearly two hundred pages to the first published vol- 

 ume of the work (Zoology Mammalia) in 1842. This volume was 

 followed by others in the same year. The geological reports were all 

 completed in 1843, and the last volume of Zoology, that upon the 

 birds of the State, by Dr. De Kay, was published in 1844.* 



In 1842 Mr. Conrad resigned his position as paleontologist of the 

 survey without communicating any report to the Governor, and the 

 four geologists who had expected to avail themselves of the results of 

 his investigations were left to their own resources. In this state of 

 affairs each one of the geologists illustrated his own report, as best he 

 could, by figures of characteristic fossils of the rocks and groups which 

 he had studied in his own district. By this means a very considera- 

 ble number of the more common and characteristic fossils were illus- 

 trated in woodcuts, which were printed in the text, thus giving au- 

 thentic guides for the determination of all the more important mem- 

 bers of the series. 



* The work thus completed embraced the following subjects: botany, two quarto vol- 

 umes ; zoology, five quarto volumes ; mineralogy, one quarto volume ; geology, four 

 quarto volumes, of each and all of which three thousand copies were published. 



