PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



farm near Bristol, Pa., and soon after married a daughter of 

 his neighbour, John Newbold, Esq., of Bloomsdale. His farm 

 remained the home of himself and family for the remainder of 

 his life, about seventeen years. "While he often assisted with 

 his own hands," says Dr. Lea, " in the cultivation of the farm, 

 he never at any moment ceased to cultivate his already ex- 

 tensive acquirements in geology, mineralogy, and chemistry, 

 nor to add to a collection of specimens of great extent and 

 rareness." 



In 1836, at the solicitation of Governor Marcy, he entered 

 upon what has been pronounced " one of the most magnificent 

 investigations ever made in the geological developments of 

 any country or by any government " the geological survey 

 of the State of New York. The results are given in Geology 

 of New York, Third District, Albany, 1842. The Third Dis- 

 trict, of which he had charge, comprised fourteen counties in 

 the central part of the State. The scope of the work per- 

 formed by Prof. Vanuxem and his colleagues is thus indicated 

 by Prof. James Hall : * " During the few years of field work the 

 New York geologists had harmonized the conflicting views 

 before entertained regarding the relations of the geology 

 of the eastern and western parts of the State ; they had traced 

 the boundaries of the successive geological formations, had 

 shown the extent and limits of the iron-bearing strata, and 

 had rectified the erroneous views which had been held till 

 some time after the commencement of the survey regarding the 

 boundaries and distribution of the salt-bearing formation of 

 the State. They had also shown the limits of the granitic for- 

 mations and their associated mineral products, the thickness 

 and extent of all the limestone, sandstone, and shale forma- 

 tions of the State, and had definitely settled the relations of 

 the rocks of New York to the coal measures of Pennsylvania 

 and the geological formations of the Western States." 



The important service rendered to geological science in the 

 matter of nomenclature by the members of this survey is also 

 described by Prof. Hall, as follows : " Since there was no possi- 

 bility of identifying the individual rocks and groups of strata 

 with those of Europe, as described, the New York geologists 

 were compelled to give names to the different members of the 



* In The Public Service of the State of New York. 



