INTRODUCTORY OR HISTORICAL NOTE. 



ON the 3d of March 1830 the Legislature of Massachusetts passed 

 a Resolve, authorizing and requesting the Governor with the advice 

 of the Council, "to appoint a Surveyor well skilled in astronomy and 

 in the art of surveying upon trigonometrical principles to make a 

 general Survey of the Commonwealth, and from such astronomical ob- 

 servations and calculations as may be made, to project an accurate 

 skeleton plan of the State, which shall exhibit the external lines there- 

 of and the most prominent objects within those lines and their loca- 

 tions." 



In Governor Lincoln's Message to the Legislature May 29th, 

 1830, we find the following recomendation. 



" I beg leave to suggest to your consideration the utility of con- 

 necting with the Geographical Surveys, an examination of the geo- 

 logical features of the State, with a view to the exhibition of them 

 on the map. Much knowledge of the natural history of the country 

 would thus be gained, and especially the presence of valuable ores, 

 with the localities and extent of quarries, and of coal and lime form- 

 ations, objects of enquiry so essential to internal improvements, and 

 the advancement of domestic prosperity, would be discovered, and the 

 possession and advantages of them given to the public. I am assur- 

 ed that much has already been gratuitously done, by some eminent 

 professors in our colleges, towards the accomplishment of such a work, 

 and that, at a little expense, it might be completed, and the fruits of 

 their generous labors thus far, be secured to the State. This, howev- 

 er, will require the interposition of your authority in increasing the 

 present appropriation, and permitting an application of it, so far as 

 may be necessary, in the exercise of a sound discretion, to the end pro- 

 posed." 



In conformity with these suggestions, the Legislature, on the 5th of 

 June, 1830, "Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor, by and with 



