86 A CENTUBY OF SCIENCE 



expensive, and do not give as clear and connected a view 

 of the geological features of the state as could be wished. 

 . . . We are of the opinion that before this work can 

 become generally useful and extensively circulated, it 

 must be condensed and arranged into one compendious 

 volume" (46, 144, 1844). This was never done and yet 

 the work was everywhere accepted at once, and to this 

 end undoubtedly Owen's detailed review helped much. 



The Natural History Survey of New York was organ- 

 ized in 1836 and completed in 1843. The state was 

 divided into four districts, and to these were finally 

 assigned the following experienced geologists. The 

 southeastern part was named the First District, with "W. 

 W. Mather (1804-1859) as geologist; the northeastern 

 quarter was the Second District, with Ebenezer Emmons 

 (1799-1863) in charge; the central portion was the Third 

 District, under Lardner Vanuxem (1792-1848) ; while 

 the western part was James Hall's (1811-1898) Fourth 

 District. Paleontology for a time was in charge of T. A. 

 Conrad (1830-1877) ; the mineralogical and chemical work 

 was in the hands of Lewis C. Beck; the botanist was 

 John Torrey ; and the zoologist James DeKay. 



The New York State Survey published six annual 

 reports of 1675 pages octavo, and four final geological 

 reports with 2079 pages quarto. Finally in 1846 

 Emmons added another volume on the soils and rocks 

 of the state, in which he also discussed the Taconic and 

 New York systems; it has 371 pages. With the com- 

 pletion of the first survey, Hall took up his life work 

 under the auspices of the state his monumental work, 

 Paleontology of New York, in fifteen quarto volumes of 

 4539 pages and 1081 plates of fossils. In addition to all 

 this, there are his annual and other reports to the 

 Eegents of the State, so that it is safe to say that he 

 published not less than 10,000 pages of printed matter 

 on the geology and paleontology of North America. 



In regard to this great series of works, all that can be 

 presented here is a table of formations as developed by 

 the New York State Survey. Practically all of its 

 results and formation names have come into general use, 

 with the exception of the Taconic system of Emmons and 

 the division terms of the New York system. ( See p. 88. ) 



