58 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



birth." The result is a picture of a strong, ambitious state, 

 moving rapidly along the path of jDrogress. Wm. H. Seward is 

 the author of the introduction and he remarks that ''This re- 

 view, although circumscribed and imperfect, furnishes gratify- 

 ing proof that a rej)ublican government is not unfavorable to 

 intellectual improvement." Seward, in speaking of the history 

 of geology and geological surveys in this country, calls to mind 

 (I quote) that "North (Carolina has the honor of having been 

 the first to send geologists into the field. Professor Olmstead's 

 report upon the economic geology of that state was published in 

 1825." I may add that the work of our State Survey in mak- 

 ing known the natural resources of North Carolina has kept 

 step with the general progress of the state since Olmstead's 

 time. It never was so efiicient as under the direction of its 

 present head, Dr. J. H. Pratt, and his immediate predecessor, 

 Dr. J. A. Holmes. As a pleasing piece of testimony, I call to 

 mind the beautiful volume on the Fishes of North Carolina, from 

 the pen of Dr. H. M. Smith, published in recent years as a state 

 document by the Survey. In leaving De Kay's Zoology, which 

 reflects such credit on a great state, let me mention that New 

 York at that time (U. S. Census 1840), contained only 2,428,- 

 921 inhabitants. 



Shortly after De Kay's work, appeared (1846-49) J. D. 

 Dana's report on the Zoophytes of the Wilkes Exploring Expe- 

 dition which the U. S. Government had sent out into the 

 Pacific ocean, 1838-42. Dana's descriptions of these simple 

 marine forms made a volume which took place along with the 

 best European work of its sort. In the same decade appeared 

 Gould's Invert ebrata of Massachusetts (1841), Haldeman's 

 Monograph of the Pond-snails of the U. S. (1841-44), Audubon 

 and Bachman's Quadrupeds of America (three volumes, 1846- 

 54), Storer's Synopsis of the Fishes of North America (1846). 



Up to this date the work of zoologists in America had been 

 almost completely restricted to the field of systematic zoology, 

 viz., they had been engaged in the description and classification 

 of species and, more incidentally, with habits and distribution. 

 In 1846 came the already famous Swiss naturalist, Louis 



