io Boston Society of Natural History 



The Seventh Milestone 



iS} 7 



IN this year our members came to the conclusion that a scientific 

 survey of the State of Massachusetts was "of the utmost desira- 

 bility" and the President, Mr. George B. Emerson, was deputed 

 to memorialize the State Government on the subject. This he did, 

 laying his memorial before Governor Everett "by whom it was 

 most cordially and graciously received." In due time the Governor 

 informed Mr. Emerson that the Legislature, both houses of which 

 justly appreciated his memorial, had authorized the Executive to 

 appoint six proper persons to conduct the survey of the State and 

 had passed an appropriation to cover the expenses thereof; and he 

 requested that Mr. Emerson should suggest the names of such men 

 as he thought competent for the work. The result was that the gen- 

 tlemen appointed were almost entirely named byhim.TheGovernor 

 desired that he should hold himself responsible for all the reports 

 presented ; but his friends in the Society, knowing his ability, were 

 not satisfied except by his taking a more active part in the survey; 

 and he eventually divided the botany with Dr. Dewey, the doctor 

 taking all other plants and Mr. Emerson the trees and shrubs. The 

 report which he subsequently made to the Legislature was not only 

 admirable in its scientific features but was most charming from a 

 literary point of view. It takes one out with the writer into the 

 fields and woods and makes the reader at once the interested stu- 

 dent and the personal friend, so to' speak, of the tree or shrub which 

 the writer may be describing at the time. This report was made up 

 from the observations and study of nine successive years, nearly 

 three months of each of which he gave to the work, visiting all parts 

 of the State in its prosecution. 



