74 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHESTOTON", 



State in 1836, and James Hall and Ebenezer Emmons were 

 placed upon its staff'. 



G. W. Featherstonhaugh [b. 1780, d. 1866] was conducting 

 (1834-5) a Government expedition, exploring the geology of 

 the elevated country between the Missouri and Red rivers and 

 the Wisconsin territories. He bore the name of" United States 

 Geologist," and projected a geological map of the United States, 

 which now, half a century later, is being completed by the U. S. 

 geologist of to-day. Besides his report upon the survey just 

 referred to, Featherstonhaugh printed a " Geological Reconnois- 

 sance, in 1S35, from Green Bay to Coteau des Prairies," and a 

 " Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor," in London, 1847. 



In 183S the United States Exploring Expedition under Wilkes 

 was sent upon its voyage of circumnavigation, having upon its staff 

 a young naturalist named Dana, whose studies upon the crusta- 

 ceans and radiates of the expedition have made him a world-wide 

 reputation, entirely independent of that which he has since gained 

 as a mineralogist and geologist. It is customary to refer to the 

 Wilkes expedition as having been sent out entirely in the inter- 

 ests of science. As a matter of fact it was organized primarily 

 in the interests of the whale fishery of the United States. 



Dana, before his departure with Wilkes, had published, in 

 1837, the first edition of liis " System of Mineralogy," a work 

 which, in its subsequent editions, has become the standard man- 

 ual of the world. 



The publication of Lyell's " Principles of Geology " at the be- 

 ginning of this decade (1830) had given new direction to the 

 thoughts of our geologists, and they were all hard at work under 

 its inspiration. 



With 1839 ended the second of our thirty -year periods — the 

 one which I have chosen to speak of as the period of Silliman — 

 not so much because of the investigations of the New Haven 

 professor, as on account of his influence in the promotion of 

 American Science and scientific institutions. 



