INTRODUCTION. 173 



with a view to its geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology and agriculture.'' The 

 " American Journal of Science," the " American Monthly Journal of Geology," 

 by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, and the transactions of scientific associations in Penn- 

 sylvania, New- York and Massachusetts, were very efficient in enlightening the 

 public mind concerning the importance of mineralogy and geology. A board of 

 agriculture having been established by the legislature, under the recommendation 

 of De Witt Clinton, he proposed in his annual message, in 1819, that that board 

 should be authorized to make a statistical survey of the state, and describe its 

 animal, vegetable and mineral productions. Not at all doubting that coal would 

 be found to compensate for the waste of fuel in the western portion of the state, 

 then destitute of facilities for communication with the Atlantic coast, he urged 

 that premiums should be offered to promote a search. Private liberality, how- 

 ever, anticipated this recommendation. Stephen Van Rensselaer, in 1820, autho- 

 rized Amos Eaton and T. Romeyn Beck to make an agricultural and geological 

 survey of the county of Albany. The result of their examination was a descrip- 

 tion of the rocks and minerals of the county, with an analysis of a variety of 

 soils, together with remarks upon the condition of agriculture. In the succeed- 

 ing year, professor Eaton, with the same liberal patronage, completed a similar 

 survey of Rensselaer county. In 1823, the liberality of Mr. Van Rensselaer 

 took a wider range, and professor Eaton was authorized to extend his survey 

 throughout the region traversed by the Erie canal. His report proposed a gene- 

 ral geological nomenclature, and contained a description of the strata extending 

 from Boston to Buffalo. This publication marked an era in the progress of geo- 

 logy in the country. It is in some respects inaccurate, but it must be remem- 

 bered that its talented and indefatigable author was without a guide in explor- 

 ing the older formations ; and that he described rocks which no geologist had, at 

 that time, attempted to classify. Rocks were then classified chiefly by their 

 mineralogicat characters, and the aid which the science has since learned to 

 derive from fossils in determining the chronology and classification of rocks, was 

 scarcely known here, and had only just begun to be appreciated in Europe. We 



