174 INTRODUCTION. 



are indebted, nevertheless, to professor Eaton for the commencement of that in- 

 dependence of European classification which has been found indispensable in 

 describing the New- York system. For he remarks, " After examining our rocks 

 with as much care and accuracy as I am capable of doing, I venture to say that 

 we have at least five distinct and continuous strata, neither of which can with pro- 

 priety take any name hitherto given and defined in any European treatise which 

 has reached this country." Connected with the report there was a view of the 

 section of the rocks extending in the line of the- canal through the state, and 

 another from the Atlantic ocean to Pittsfield in Massachusetts, for the latter of 

 which we are indebted to Edward Hitchcock, who has since completed a geolo- 

 logical survey of Massachusetts, under the direction of the government of that 

 state. Professor Eaton enumerated nearly all the rocks in western New- York, 

 in their order of succession ; and his enumeration has, with one or two excep- 

 tions, proved correct. It is a matter of surprise that he recognized, at so early 

 a period, the old red sandstone on the Catskill mountains ; a discovery, the re- 

 ality of which has since been proved by fossil tests. Had he followed up this 

 discovery, he could not have failed to learn what an immense series of rocks lay 

 below the old red sandstone, at that time entirely unclassified. 



The munificence of Mr. Van Rensselaer, in producing such results, is illus- 

 trated by this remark addressed to him in professor Eaton's report ; "You have 

 furnished every facility for perfecting the work. You have set no limits to 

 my expenses, nor those of the engravers and printers." The public mind was 

 now becoming prepared for the state surveys which have since been effected. 

 North Carolina has the honor of having been the first to send geologists into the 

 field. Professor Olmstead's report upon the economical geology of that state 

 was published in 1825. Since that time, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Tennes- 

 see, Virginia, Maine, Rhode Island, New-Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. 

 Ohio, Delaware, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas and Iowa, and perhaps other 

 states and territories have been explored. In 1835, the assembly of this state, 

 upon the motion of Charles P. Clinch, a representative from New- York, passed 



