PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



About 1837 or 1838, His Excellency Isaac Hill, governor, urged the 

 propriety of authorizing a geological and mineralogical survey, with a 

 view to the advancement of agriculture and the arts. This was the 

 epoch when most of the states had either inaugurated or were consider 

 ing the propriety of establishing geological surveys. Massachusetts had 

 recently so successfully completed a triennial survey of her territory, under 

 the superintendence of my honored father, the late Professor Edward 

 Hitchcock, that the utility of such explorations was well appreciated. In 

 1839, His Excellency John Page, governor, advocated a survey of New 

 Hampshire with such success that the legislature passed the following 

 act in reference to it : 



AN ACT to provide for the geological and mineralogical survey of the state. 



SECTION i . Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General 

 Court convened, That the governor of this state is hereby authorized and required, as 

 soon as may be after the passage of this act, to appoint a state geologist, who shall be 

 a person of competent scientific and practical knowledge of the sciences of geology 

 and mineralogy ; and the said state geologist shall, by and with the consent of the 

 governor and council, appoint one suitable person to assist him in the discharge of his 

 duties, who shall be a skilful analytical and experimental chemist. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the said state geolo 

 gist and his said assistant, as soon as may be practicable after their appointment, to 

 commence and carry on, with as much expedition and dispatch as may be consistent 

 with minuteness and accuracy, a thorough geological and mineralogical survey of this 

 state, with a view to determine the order, succession, arrangement, relative position, 

 dip or inclination, and comparative magnitude of the several strata or geological forma 

 tions within this state, and to discover and examine all beds or deposits of ore, coal, 

 clay, marls, and such other mineral substances as may be useful or valuable, and to 

 perform such other duties as may be necessary to make a full and complete geological 

 and mineralogical survey of the state. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the said assistant to 

 make full and complete examinations, assays, and analyses of all such rocks, ores, soils, 

 or other substances as may be submitted to him by the state geologist for that purpose, 

 and to furnish him with a detailed and complete account of the results so obtained. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the said state geolo 

 gist, on or before the first day of June in each and every year during the time necessa 

 rily occupied by said survey, to make an annual report of the progress of said survey, 

 accompanied with such maps, drawings, and specimens as may be necessary and proper 



