482 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



ble that any man can be recognised as a geologist in the present 

 advanced state of the science. No description of a rock could 

 convey a perfect idea of a stratum without an enumeration of the 

 organic remains in its composition. " When we discover," says 

 Buckland, " a regular and consistent assemblage of organic remains, 

 commencing with one series of strata, and ending with another 

 which contains a different assemblage, we have therein the surest 

 grounds whereon to establish those divisions which are called geo- 

 logical formations. ' ' 



James D. Dana was one of the members of the corps who had 

 the good fortune to escape your reforming hand, and was permit- 

 ted to accompany the expedition. He is a most excellent mineral- 

 ogist as well as crustaceologist, well versed in general science, 

 and of more than usual high promise; but the accumulation of 

 burdens you have thrown upon him are too much foi* the powers 

 of any one man; and geology, the most important and extensive 

 of all the branches of science except astronomy, is actually without 

 a representative in the scientific corps of the South Sea Expedi- 

 tion ! ! ! It was, then, a Vandal act I hope,sir, after the explana- 

 tion I have made, I may be permitted to use the term to exclude 

 the palaeontologist. But you and your commander thought dif- 

 ferently ; and the president having been consulted, sanctioned your 

 learned decision. It is a little strange that neither of you seem to 

 have known that, in the state of New-York, and in several other 

 states whose geological surveys were in progress, it had been found 

 absolutely necessary to create the department and to appoint a pa- 

 laeontologist. For instance, I find among the documents accompa- 

 nying a communication from Governor Seward to the Legislature 

 of this state, under date February 27, 1839, a highly interesting 

 paper under the title " Second Annual Report of T. A. Conrad on 

 the Palceontological Department of the Survey" Had the state 

 beeu favoured with the ancient lights of your modern counsel, it 

 might have been spared the expense of this savan. 



In conclusion, suppose we were to put the eminent men whom I 

 have mentioned, the value of their works, and the justly high ap- 

 preciation in which they are held by the scientific world, in one 

 scale, and then let you, and your commander, and Governor Dicker- 

 son get into the other which do you think would kick the beam ? 

 If conceit, vanity, and asinine qualities were heavy commodities, you 



