768 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Before the coming of Mitchell, Princeton thought and Prince- 

 ton methods had prevailed in the University of North Carolina 



to the exchision of all oth- 

 ers. But in 1817, Denison 

 Olmsted, a classmate of Mit- 

 chell's at Yale, was elected 

 Professor of Chemistry and 

 Geology. Messrs. Mitchell 

 and Olmsted were recom- 

 mended to Judge William 

 Gaston, then a member of 

 Congress, by the Rev. Sereno 

 Dwight, chaplain of the 

 United States Senate, as 

 young men who were likely 

 to become prominent scien- 

 tists ; and the trustees, upon 

 this recommendation, and 

 upon that of Hon. George E. 

 Badger, who had been their 

 classmate at Yale, offered 

 them chairs in the univer- 

 sity. 



In 1821 Olmsted laid be- 

 fore the Board of Internal 

 Improvements of North Carolina a proposition to undertake a 

 geological and mineralogical survey of the State. This letter is 

 preserved in the executive 

 office at Raleigh. The 

 board approved, and pre- 

 sented the matter to the 

 Legislature. But the Leg- 

 islature took no notice of 

 the matter until two years 

 later, when the proposi- 

 tion was renewed. The sur- 

 vey was authorized by act 

 of the General Assembly, 

 ratified December 31, 1823. 

 Prof. Olmsted was appoint- 

 ed to begin the survey un- 

 der direction of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, ])ros- 

 ecuting the work during 



the vacations of the university. Thus was established the first 

 geological survey by public authority in America. It was sus- 



\ 



Denison Olmsted. 

 After ii daguerreotyi>e by Moulthrop. 



First Obsekvatukt. 

 Driiwn from description furnished by John H. Wat- 

 son, Esq., Mayor of Chapel Hill, N. (\ 



