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APPENDIX. 





On the collection of Geological Specimens and on Geological Sur- 

 veys ; by Charles T. Jackson. 



Boston, March 12, 1836 



TO PROF. SILL1MAN. 



Sir — Having mentioned to you in private conversation, a plan 

 which I had some time since conceived, for making an universal col- 

 lection of the objects of Natural History of the United States of 

 America, which project seemed to you feasible, I beg leave, by 

 your kind invitation, to suggest it to the public, through the medium 

 of your valuable Journal of Science. 



The Geological surveys which have been made, or are now in 

 progress, and the numerous calls that are made, on our state gov- 

 ernments, for similar investigations, of their respective territories, 

 demonstrate that the community are fully aware of the advantages, 

 which must necessarily accrue to them, from a scientific examination 

 of their mineral resources. 



It is certainly a source of congratulation, that we find the Ameri- 

 can people so liberal and enlightened, in this respect. No other 

 people in the world, I may safely affirm, have ever called on their 

 governments, to furnish information of this kind ; from which fact 

 we may conclude, that the American people are more enlightened 

 respecting the application of science to the arts, than the people of 

 any European state. This is no doubt to be attributed, to the gen- 

 eral diffusion of knowledge in our country. 



The geological surveys that have been made, in Europe, have 

 generally } been executed by private exertion and enterprize, the 

 governments rarely patronizing them, or assisting in the task. 



In no instance, I believe, has any entire European state, been 

 wholly surveyed by the orders of its government. 



The first geological map of England, it is well known, was made 

 by the enterprising miner, William Smith, and it is a monument of 

 geological labor, which will forever preserve his name in the annals 

 of British science. 



