292 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



principal contributions to science are contained in his Reports on the 

 Geology of Massachusetts, his papers on Ichnology or Fossil Footmarks 

 in the Connecticut Valley, and his " Illustrations of Surface Geology." 

 The former embody the results of his two otficial surveys of the State, 

 undertaken, the first in 1832, the last and most elaborate in 1837. 

 The first survey vpas ordered by the State, at Professor Hitchcock's 

 suggestion. It vpas (with the exception of an attempt on the part of 

 North Carolina) the inauguration of the long and noble series of State 

 and Territorial Geological Surveys under which the geology, mineral 

 resources, and indeed the whole natural history of North America, 

 have been developed during the last thirty years, and which have pro- 

 duced such important results, both for science and for the material 

 interests of the country. Professor Hitchcock not only explored twice 

 the whole breadth of his native Commonwealth, but was also engaged 

 in the survey of two adjacent States. That of New York, one disti'ict 

 of which was consigned to his charge, he gave up at the outset, on 

 account of feeble health. Tiiat of Vermont he courageously undertook 

 even in old age, and under increasing infirmities, and, aided by his two 

 sons, he brought it two years ago to a successful issue. His volume 

 entitled " Illustrations of Surface Geology," which passed to a second 

 edition in the year 1860, is supplementary to his Final Report on the 

 Geology of Massachusetts. That portion of it which answers to the 

 title, although only a beginning or a local fragment of a department 

 the facts of which are spread over the whole breadth of the continent, 

 has the merit of being almost the only special investigation of Amer- 

 ican terraces. 



But his scientific fame will mainly rest upon his researches in Ich- 

 nology, or the study of fossil footprints ; that is, upon his investigations 

 and illustrations of the tracks imprinted by animals, either birds or 

 reptiles, or both, upon the mesozoic rocks of the Connecticut Valley. 

 The late Dr. Deane and Mr. Marsh of Greenfield had, indeed, brought 

 these objects to his notice, and had pronounced them to be the tracks 

 of birds, — for which these gentlemen were entitled to special acknowl- 

 edgments ; but the scientific investigation belonged almost wholly to 

 Professor Hitchcock, and has been, indeed, the most arduous, and per- 

 haps the most important, scientific work of his life. The results of 

 these researches, conducted under considerable disadvantages, from the 

 want of adequate scientific preparation, are embodied in his Final 

 Report on the Geology of Massachusetts ; in his extended paper on 



