ii8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Potomac section. Thus the grand column of our Palasozoic for- 

 mations was established, and the credit of it is due to Prof. 

 Booth. . . . Both Prof. Rogers's assistants resigned at the end of 

 the year ; and Mr. Booth was then appointed immediately, or not 

 long thereafter, State Geologist of Delaware. His work in Dela- 

 ware was published in his report, an octavo volume, now so rare 

 that it is impossible to obtain a copy. My belief is that Prof. 

 Booth abandoned field work very early in his career, and devoted 

 himself to his chemical laboratory. At all events he is known 

 in science altogether as an accomplished chemist, with a great 

 reputation for diligence and accuracy, especially in the field of 

 mineral analysis." The Delaware survey was under Prof. Booth's 

 charge in the years 1837-'38; and a summary of the results to 

 which it led was published in the Annual Report of the Survey 

 in 1839, and in a memoir on the subject in 1841. 



The act providing for the geological survey of Delaware 

 required that an equal portion of the appropriation should be 

 expended in each county. But the several counties did not all 

 need the same attention. The geologist, however, was expected 

 to spend an equal portion of his time in each county. He im- 

 proved the time, when the geological work did not demand the 

 whole of it, by traversing different parts of the counties, and im- 

 parting to the people such knowledge relative to agriculture as 

 lay within the sphere of his information ; and he embodied agri- 

 cultural essays in his report. Pertinently to this instance of a char- 

 acteristic weakness of law-makers. Prof. Booth remarked in his 

 report on the unwisdom of allowing local interests to sway so 

 much in legislation, when more could be gained in the long run 

 by taking broader views. Believing that the wealth of the people 

 could be promoted by their employing their own resources, how- 

 ever limited, he directed much time to the development of such as 

 deposits of shells and decomposed organic matter, glass-making 

 materials, potter's clay, iron, and copperas. 



In explanation of the admission of theoretical matter into the 

 report, when the work was designed to possess a practical charac- 

 ter, he said : " In all probability the number of those who may 

 peruse these pages is large, and their attainments are of a varied 

 nature ; some being purely practical men, others again having 

 made considerable attainments in literature and science; and 

 hence it was deemed advisable to adapt the memoir to the various 

 demands of the community. ... I am well aware of an opinion, 

 too generally prevalent among men devoted to practical pursuits, 

 that an attention to theories is rather prejudicial than otherwise 

 to the successful pursuit of business. Whatever grounds they 

 may have for such views, they are not valid when applied in a 

 general way to theoretic investigations; for, independently of 



