264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sisting of six hundred and fifty-six closely printed octavo pages, 

 was duly issued. There were three parts to the work, each of 

 which, if printed less compactly, would have made a fair-sized 

 volume. The first was devoted to the natural features and pro- 

 ductions of the State ; the second was the civil history ; and the 

 third was Mr. Thompson's Gazetteer, revised and enlarged. When 

 Mr. Goodrich several times urged him to issue it in three volumes 

 at six dollars instead of one volume at two dollars and fifty ceats, 

 and thereby get twice as much profit from each copy, he steadily 

 declined. Having felt the inconvenience of limited means him- 

 self, his sympathies were with those in the same position, and he 

 did not deem it right that those who could not afford the higher 

 price should be deprived of a benefit that their richer neighbors 

 enjoyed, even though the lower price would give him but scant re- 

 turn for the labor, time, and money he had expended. On its ap- 

 pearance the General Assembly of Vermont, regarding the vork 

 as a benefit to the State, subscribed for a hundred copies and "voted 

 five hundred dollars to the author. By this means and the pro- 

 ceeds of other sales he was enabled to cancel his debt to his pub- 

 lisher in little more than a year. 



At about this time Mr. Thompson issued a text-book ol the 

 Geology and Geography of Vermont, in which his power of clear 

 and concise statement is well exemplified. He found time also to 

 prepare annual astronomical calculations for the Messrs. Walions, 

 of Montpelier. In 1845 he issued a pamphlet Guide to Lake George 

 and Lake Champlain, with a map and other illustrations. 



A State Geological Survey having been authorized by the Gen- 

 eral Assembly, the Governor in 1845 appointed Prof. Charles B. 

 Adams State Geologist. Prof. Adams chose Mr. Thompson and 

 the Rev. S. R. Hall as his assistants. Li one season these two men 

 explored together one hundred and ten townships. The analyses 

 required by the survey were made at New Haven by Denison 

 Olmsted, Jr., until his death in 1846, afterward by Thomas Sterry 

 Hunt. The survey came to an untimely end by the refusal of the 

 General Assembly of 1847-'48 to make an appropriation for pre- 

 paring its final report. The notes, specimens, and other materials 

 gathered were allowed to lie in boxes at Burlington and Mont- 

 pelier for about a year. Then, having had a partial sense of the 

 value of these materials impressed upon it, the General Assembly 

 authorized the Governor to appoint some suitable person to get 

 them together and deposit them in the State House. Governor 

 Coolidge appointed Prof. Thompson, and the latter reported the 

 execution of his commission in October, 1849. Many of the field 

 notes were in a peculiarly abbreviated shorthand used by Prof. 

 Adams, and, on his death in 1853, became almost wholly useless. 



In 1847 Governor Eaton had appointed Prof. Thompson to 



