NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 283 



rents which oppose and cross each other on the surface 

 of men s minds in this country, there is underneath in 

 all a steady stream of patriotic feeling, which guides 

 them in the main to what is likely at once to benefit 

 and to prove creditable to their native State. This 

 great good arises to the Union out of the numerous 

 state legislatures that a constant rivalry is excited and 

 exists among them, which makes them strive to outdo 

 each other, or at least not to be left altogether behind 

 in material or social progress. 



Among the consequences of this rivalry, two important 

 labours are now in progress, creditable alike to the Legis 

 lature at Albany, and to the entire State, which it would 

 be inexcusable in me to pass unnoticed. The first of 

 these is the great work on The Natural History of the 

 State of New York, of which 16 quarto volumes are 

 already published, and four others are in course of pre 

 paration. 



Geological and mineralogical surveys, more or less 

 minute, have from time to time been executed in the 

 several States. The natural history survey of the State 

 of New York was commenced in 1836. It took from the 

 first a wider range and more expensive form than those 

 of many other States ; but the plan has been enlarged 

 and extended from time to time as the field of inquiry 

 opened, and the demands of science and of the country 

 itself became better understood. The original plan con 

 templated the publication of three octavo volumes, and 

 an atlas of plates, a period of four years to complete 

 them, and an expenditure of 104,000 dollars. The 

 quarto form was afterwards adopted, of which size six 

 teen volumes have already been published. Fourteen 

 years have elapsed since the work commenced, 425,000 

 dollars have already been expended upon it, and four 

 volumes more, with an additional expenditure of 150,000 

 dollars, are still expected. 



