294 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



that, although the works themselves might be forgotten, some feeble 

 influence at least might remain upon the great cause of learning and 

 religion." 



It is almost superfluous to add, that Dr. Hitchcock was a man of 

 extreme simplicity and sincerity of life and character ; never disposed 

 to over-estimate himself, nor desirous of being over-estimated by others. 

 But it cannot be doubted that his scientific labors, pursued under many 

 discouragements, with entire singleness, but with much tenacity of 

 purpose, have secured for him an honored name in the records of 

 science. He will be remembered as one of the leading pioneers of 

 New England geology, as one of the original promoters of the system 

 of State and National Geological Surveys, and as essentially the 

 founder of a new department of paleontology. Nor should it be for- 

 gotten that he was a prominent originator of the American Association 

 of Geologists and Naturalists ; and when this small but spirited organ- 

 ization took the more comprehensive form of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, he continued a conspicuous sharer in 

 its labors and discussions. 



Francis Alger, who was elected into the Academy thirty-two 

 years ago, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on the 8th of 

 March, 1807. He had only a common-school education, but he was a 

 very intelligent and exact observer of facts and of natural phenomena. 

 His attention was first attracted to mineralogy as early as in the year 

 1824. Two years afterwards he accompanied his father to Annapolis 

 Basin, in Nova Scotia, where a smelting-furnace was about to be 

 erected for the working of the iron ores of that district. There he 

 collected the first Nova Scotian minerals that were brought to the 

 United States. An account of them was published by him in " The 

 Boston Joui'nal of Philosophy and the Arts," and was reproduced, 

 with some additions, in the American Journal of Science and Arts 

 for 1827. During the summer of that year he, with his friend 

 Dr. Charles T. Jackson, made a more extended mineralogical and 

 geological exploration of Nova Scotia, extending over nearly three 

 fourths of the area of the peninsula. The rich results of these joint 

 labors were published in the fourteenth and fifteenth volumes of the 

 American Journal of Science. In 1829 Mr. Alger and Dr. Jackson 

 made another mineralogical exploration of the Province. Chartering 

 a small vessel, they cruised along the coast of the Bay of Fundy, and 

 obtained a very large supply of beautiful minerals. Specimens of these 



