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PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



time also to prepare annual astronomical calculations for the 

 Messrs. Waltons, of Montpelier. In 1845 he issued a pamphlet 

 Guide to Lake George and Lake Champlain, with a map and 

 other illustrations. 



A State Geological Survey having been authorized by the 

 General Assembly, the Governor in 1845 appointed Prof. Charles 

 B. Adams State Geologist. Prof. Adams chose Mr. Thompson 

 and the Rev. S. R. Hall as his assistants. In one season these 

 two men explored together one hundred and ten townships. 

 The analyses required by the survey were made at New 

 Haven by Denison Olmsted, Jr., until his death in 1846, 

 afterward by Thomas Sterry Hunt. The survey came to an 

 untimely end by the refusal of the General Assembly of 

 i847-'48 to make an appropriation for preparing its final re- 

 port. The notes, specimens, and other materials gathered 

 were allowed to lie in boxes at Burlington and Montpelier 

 for about a year. Then, having had a partial sense of the 

 value of these materials impressed upon it, the General Assem- 

 bly authorized the Governor to appoint some suitable person 

 to get them together and deposit them in the State House. 

 Governor Coolidge appointed Prof. Thompson, and the latter 

 reported the execution of his commission in October, 1849. 

 Many of the field notes were in a peculiarly abbreviated 

 shorthand used by Prof. Adams, and, on his death in 1853, 

 became almost wholly useless. 



In 1847 Governor Eaton had appointed Prof. Thompson to 

 carry out a resolution of the General Assembly in regard to 

 international literary and scientific exchanges. He wrote a 

 report of proceedings and instructions, presenting the advan- 

 tages of the exchange system so clearly as to reflect great 

 credit upon himself and upon his State. 



From an address which he delivered in Boston, in 1850, on 

 the invitation of the Boston Society of Natural History, we 

 learn something of the difficulties under which his knowledge 

 of natural science was obtained. " What I have accomplished 

 in the business of natural history," he said, " I have done with- 

 out any associates engaged in like pursuits, without having any 

 access to collections of specimens, and almost without books." 

 In this address, while showing the difficulties, he at the same 

 time insisted upon the importance of the cultivation of natural 

 history in country places. A habit of observation and com- 



