14 



are scarcely less various in their character ; the simultaneous 

 co-operation of several persons is of even greater import- 

 ance ; and the disproportion between the means employed, 

 and the work to be done, is quite as glaring in the eyes of 

 those acquainted with the nature of such surveys. But in 

 order to make this apparent to all, it may be well to cite the 

 precedents of some of the other States in which geological 

 surveys have been ordered. 



In most cases, certain sums were provisionally appropri- 

 ated for the purpose of those surveys ; while the specialties 

 of their execution, and among these the determination of the 

 force to be employed, were left, more or less, in the discre- 

 tion of the Governors and principal geologists. The work 

 could thus be placed under the conditions most favorable in 

 the judgment of competent persons, to its advancement, under 

 existing circumstances ; they were thus prosecuted as far as 

 the means permitted, additional appropriations being there- 

 after granted as they became necessary. 



Thus, the State of New York, in 1836, appropriated the 

 sum of $104,000 to carry into effect the provisions of an act 

 of which, be it remembered, the act providing for a geologi- 

 cal survey of Mississippi is almost a literal copy. The State 

 exceeded by Mississippi in area, was subdivided into three dis- 

 tricts, in each of which not a single person, but a full corps, 

 and sometimes several of these, were engaged in the opera- 

 tions of the survey. Even, thus the field work extended 

 over a considerable number of years, nor has the publica- 

 tion of the results been quite completed even at the present 

 time. Subsequent appropriations have swelled the amount 

 expended (so far as I have been able to ascertain from the 

 incomplete documents at my disposal,) to more than $200,000 

 it has been currently reported to exceed a quarter of a 

 million, at the present moment. Well may New York be 

 proud of that page of her history which bears the record 

 of her survey ; the results of which as laid down in that 

 magnificent work, the Natural History of New York aside 

 from their great practical importance, have proved to the 



