GEOLOGICVL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS. 337 



The actual amount paid out by Governors Marc-y and Sewaid, and 

 by warrants is $425,375.76.' The probable reason for the difference 

 ($488.98) is shown in the report. 



The follo^Ying letters relating to the subject are of suflicient inter- 

 est to warrant reproduction entire : 



Cameuidge, July 22, Wfih 



My DiiAR Sie: I understand from Doctor Gould that you [/. e. Hall] have 

 soon to report progress before a couiuiittee of the house upoji your iialeontology 

 and that there are those who complain of the slow advance you make. I regret 

 deeply that I have no direct connection with j-our couuuittee, as it would atiord 

 tne great pleasure to explain to them various things about it. Can a private let- 

 ter be of any use to you to bring this before them? In the first place, let me re- 

 mark in a general manner that it is deeply to be regretted that with the most lib- 

 eral dispositions legislative Iwdies and governments scarcely ever understand the 

 wants of science; and having no opportunities of intercourse with men of sci- 

 ence, I do not mean professional men in scientific professions, but men of origi- 

 nal research, they can not understand fully how science can be promoted, and 

 make often the greatest blunders with the best intentions. It is unpleasant to 

 say, but it is so, and unless you can make your people understand that no 

 investigation can be hurried, you will never have independent investigators in 

 this country, and the few who prefer their scientific reputation to any position 

 In society will be left to struggle with never-endin.g difficulties. I have seen 

 your collections, your drawings, your preparatory investigations, and I must 

 Bay that I have never seen more labor better done in so short a time. Science shall 

 be forever indebted to your State, if you prevail upon your legislature to grant 

 you time and time and time to accomplish the task you have so beautifully 

 conducted up to the present day. Your first volume is valued in Europe as the 

 largest and best recent contribution to geological science, and it is a pity there 

 Is no scientific tribunal hero to ackonwledge it. If I was an American I would 

 iiplieal to my country to shake off this dependence upon European authority 

 for appreciation of American works, and I only mention it now to induce your 

 political friends to rely more tlian they have been in the habit of doing upon 

 the testimony of your best scientific men. 



I am not in the habit of appealing to authority, but I say bono auctori sit 

 aucloritas, and until there are men in America whose authority is acknowledged 

 in matters of science there will be no true intellectual independence in America, 

 however great be their political freedom. Is it not a shame for instance, that 

 you, you, Professor Hnll, should feel anxious about showing that you could not 

 have written more than one volume in two years. Come forward with 

 Cuvier's Ossemens fossiles, or Goldfuss Petrefacten, or any other work of the 

 same kind, and compare them with your own volume, and point with legitimate 

 pride to the date of publication of the successive volumes of those works, and 

 you will silence every remark. If your engravers are troublesome and un- 

 willing to do tlie Avork to that degree of perfection which is now required in 

 such publications, send thera away and have others come from Eui'ope. They 

 wMl be hnppy to come at present, under the disturbed circumstances that have 

 interrupted so many splendid publications: but for mercy sake for the dignity 

 of our science, do not allow such individuals to boss you. If you want him T 



' TMr Rnm (?4?.'i.37r>.70) does not Inplnrlf' ttip amount pfiifl for prinMiiJr tlio Roolopfsts' 

 annual rpports from ISMC, to 1S41. $10.5.10.^0 (comi)trollor's roport of 1844), nor the 

 TBiue of the lot nnd buildiiifr for museum. 92.5.000 (comptroller'.s report of 1847). 



