GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS. 339 



plMtes which will be required to finish the whole in the manner I propose and 

 in 51 s complete a manner as the volume already printed is done. I find this 

 number will be scarcely less than 250, and it can not vary 10 plates from this 

 number. 



Tills amount is much larger than I ever anticipated, but you can readily 

 understand why it is so. Until the work was commenced so little was known 

 of the matter that it was impossible to estimate with any certainty the number 

 of plates required. The increased number of plates arose from the discovery 

 of a great number of species of fossils before unknown, which in the volume 

 published has been more than quadrupled since the work began. For the same 

 reason the time originally regarded as sufficient has been extended from neces- 

 sity, and there ai'e already engraved as many plates as it was supposed origi- 

 nally would be re(]uired for tlie wiiole work. l?ut I repeat that no person could 

 have anticipated this from the commencement and no better estimate could have 

 been given at the time. 



In regard to time in future, 1 shall state very fraidvly that, if this work is 

 to be completed as I propose it can not be done in two years. Had there been 

 no legislative action at this session I proposed to complete the second volume 

 and present it to the legislature at its next session, showing that the amount 

 of work actunlly done was more than originally contemplated for the whole. 



Under present circumstances I must abide the decision of the committee in 

 relation to the subject. 



******* 



(Signed) .Jamks Hall. 



ilLLBANv, November 20, lSJi9. 

 Flon. Kelson .1. Bkach. 



Dear Sir: * * * Since you may not be iiware of (he reasons why I need 

 more room than I have at present, I will briefly state my objects. In the 8ret 

 place, I collect from different and distant localities. When I open my boxes 

 and arrange the specimens it is not suliicient to have a single good speciiuen 

 from any one locality, but I wish to have before me several specimens from 

 different localities to compare. I want, in fact, a geographical collection of 

 tJie species, that I may see their greater or less importance or preponderance 

 in certain localities, their condition arising from the conditions of the ocean, 

 and the variations in form, size, etc., as indicating more or less favorable 

 circumstances for their growth. I wisli also to observe whether the grouping 

 or congregating of certain species continues through wide areas or not, aa 

 well as numerous other facts, only to be ascertained by having an extensive 

 collection before me. It is acknowledged on all hands that the manner in 

 which palaeontology has heretofore been studied it has been of little avail. 

 I wish to have the palaeontology of New York take a higher position and to be 

 in some sort an equivalent of the liberality of the St;ite government. 



I can not forbear at tliis time to call your attention to these facts in other 

 bearings. The State of New York is publishing a work on the natural history 

 of her territory which is exciting more attention at home and abroad than all 

 else she has ever done. Already is the work sought after in all parts of Great 

 Britain and from Rome to St. Petersburg on the Continent of Europe — from every 

 Stiite in the Union come letters expressing the strongest desire to obtain tlie 

 roik. The man who laid the foundntion of this work has earned himself a repu- 

 tation undying, and the several legislatures of the State have with exceeding 

 liberality carried out this plan. I would ask you, however, if there are not 



