254 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



proposition was declined by the Board of Internal Improve- 

 ments, but the survey was afterward made under the direction 

 of the State Board of Agriculture. To this board Prof. Olm- 

 sted addressed his report, which was published in two parts, in 

 1824 and 1825, and filled in all about one hundred and forty 

 octavo pages. The American Journal of Science observes of 

 this survey that, regarded especially as the gratuitous vacation 

 work of a single individual, and in view of the state of geolog- 

 ical science in this country at the time, it " must certainly be 

 looked upon as creditable in the highest degree both to the 

 enterprise and to the scientific ability of its projector; and it 

 has undoubtedly been of great benefit, not only to the State 

 which authorized it, but to the country and to science gen- 

 erally, by the stimulus which it afforded to similar enterprises 

 in other States." It was the first instance of one of the United 

 States instituting a geological survey. In the course of his 

 work Prof. Olmsted gave the first geological description of the 

 Deep River coal beds and of the new red sandstone accom- 

 panying them, and referred the strata correctly to the same 

 age with that of the Richmond coal beds and the Connecticut 

 River sandstones. 



Prof. Olmsted began researches to determine the practica- 

 bility of obtaining illuminating gas from cotton seed, but re- 

 moved to the North before he had secured definite results. 



In 1825 Prof. Olmsted was appointed Professor of Mathe- 

 matics and Natural Philosophy in Yale College. In 1836 this 

 chair was divided at his request, and the professorship of 

 Mathematics was assigned to A. D. H. Stanley. As a professor 

 in Yale he performed an unbroken service of thirty-four years, 

 till it was interrupted by his illness. His labours as a teacher 

 during the last twenty years of his life consisted, as described 

 by Dr. Woolsey in The New-Englander, " in teaching astronomy 

 by a text-book, and in three courses of lectures experimental 

 ones on natural philosophy and optics, historical ones on the 

 progress of astronomical discovery, and theoretical ones on 

 meteorology. His colleagues and friends have regarded him 

 as a born teacher, as possessing a most happy union of several 

 powers the capacity to convey instruction with clearness and 

 evidence, the capacity to impress the pupil with the importance 

 of the branches taught, the disposition to shrink from no labour 

 necessary in preparing himself for teaching, and to require of 



