9 



the Zoology and Botany of Vermont are concerned, we have the 

 results of the unwearied explorations and observations of Prof. 

 Thompson, embodied in his Natural History of Vermont which 

 was published in October 1842, and, beside this, we have record 

 of his more recent and matu:e labors embraced in an Appendix to 

 his History of Vermont which was published by him in a small 

 volume of sixty four pages, in April, 1853 five years after the 

 Geological Survey, under Professor Charles B. Adams as chief 

 ond Messrs S. R. Hall of Craftsbury and Zadock Thompson of 

 Burlington, as assistants, had been suspended, 



It is reasonable to suppose that if Professor Thompson had 

 been permitted to live and finish the work which the Legislature 

 had commissioned him to perform, valuable additions would have 

 been made to his botanical catalogue as printed in his History and 

 Appendix, and undoubtedly many plants would have been discover 

 ed nnd zoological discoveries made to reward his patient and enter 

 prising research. Such plants and animals however small or 

 insignificant are by no means unworthy the study or beneath the 

 notice of any scientific enquirer : but it may be seriously ques 

 tioned whether, since Professor Thompson, upon whom especial 

 reliance was placed nnd in whom the hopes of the State centred, 

 is lead and no longer able to answer the expectations which a 

 grateful people indulged, the General Assembly would authorize 

 or justify the expense which is incident to the compilation and 

 publication of those parts of the Natural History of the State 

 which comprised the departments of Botany and Zoology even 

 upon a reasonable assurance that such a work would not be in any 

 wise slighted in the hands of others than those for whom it was 

 designed. Apart from this consideration I have thus far been 

 unable to ascertain that subsequent to his appointment as State 

 Naturalist in October 1853, he had been subjected to any consider 

 able expense in preparing materials for the publication of the se 

 cond and third volumes of the Natural History of the State, as 

 contemplated by the Statute of 1853. His attention had been 

 chiefly bestowed upon a preparation for publication of a volume 

 relating to the Physical Geography, Scientific Geology and Min 

 eralogy of Vermont. 



It may be possible that the materials already collected and pre 

 pared by Professor Thompson would have been sufficient to en- 



