ZADOC THOMPSON. 321 



most of his time to putting together these materials and pub- 

 lishing the resulting Natural, Civil, and Statistical History of 

 Vermont. His attainments in natural history were at that 

 time limited, and he obtained considerable assistance in pre- 

 paring the accounts of the plants and several classes of 

 animals for this book from other New England naturalists. 

 Having made the mammalia quite a specialty, he described 

 these himself. 



The undertaking was most thoroughly and conscientiously 

 carried out, and by the time the book was ready for the press 

 all his savings had been expended. At this juncture the 

 Burlington publisher, Mr. Chauncey Goodrich, who was a 

 neighbour and friend of Mr. Thompson, offered to get out the 

 book for him at the usual prices for the labour and materials 

 without any contingent share in the profit, and to wait for 

 payment from the sales of the work. This generous offer was 

 promptly accepted, and the volume, consisting of six hundred 

 and fifty-six closely printed octavo pages, was duly issued. 

 There were three parts to the work, each of which, if printed 

 less compactly, would have made a fair-sized volume. The 

 first was devoted to the natural features and productions of 

 the State ; the second was the civil history ; and the third was 

 Mr. Thompson's Gazetteer, revised and enlarged. When Mr. 

 Goodrich several times urged him to issue it in three volumes 

 at six dollars instead of one volume at two dollars and fifty 

 cents, and thereby get twice as much profit from each copy, 

 he steadily declined. Having felt the inconvenience of limited 

 means himself, his sympathies were with those in the same 

 position, and he did not deem it right that those who could 

 not afford the higher price should be deprived of a benefit 

 that their richer neighbours enjoyed, even though the lower 

 price would give him but scant return for the labour, time, 

 and money he had expended. On its appearance the General 

 Assembly of Vermont, regarding the work as a benefit to the 

 State, subscribed for a hundred copies and voted five hundred 

 dollars to the author. By this means and the proceeds of 

 other sales he was enabled to cancel his debt to his publisher 

 in little more than a year. 



At about this time Mr. Thompson issued a text-book on 

 the Geology and Geography of Vermont, in which his power 

 of clear and concise statement is well exemplified. He found 



