EBENEZER EMMONS. 35! 



who recognised the priority of Emmons in the following courte- 

 ous language : 



" In comparing these dates it is clear that Dr. Emmons 

 was the first to announce the existence of a fauna anterior to 

 that which had been established in the Silurian System as 

 characterizing the Lower Silurian Division, and which I have 

 named the Second Fauna. It is, then, just to recognise the 

 priority, and I think it all the more fitting to state it at this 

 time, that it has not hitherto been claimed." 



Prof. Emmons's Report on the Second District of the New 

 York Geological Survey was published in 1842. In the autumn 

 of that year his colleagues presented his name to Governor 

 Seward as a proper person to act as custodian of the collections 

 of the geological survey, then arranged, and in progress of 

 arrangement, in the old State Hall on State Street, which build- 

 ing had been assigned for that purpose by the Legislature of 

 1840. He was appointed to this position by Governor Seward 

 and assumed charge of the collections the latter part of 1842. 

 On the same occasion on which this recommendation was made 

 it was also recommended by the staff that the work in agricul- 

 ture and in paleontology which had been left unfinished should 

 be assigned to Dr. Emmons and Prof. Hall. 



In the spring of 1843 Governor Bouck directed Dr. Emmons 

 to investigate the agricultural resources of the State; and the 

 paleontology was placed under the charge of Prof. Hall, while 

 Dr. Emmons still retained his position as custodian of the col- 

 lections of the survey until 1845. The five volumes of his re- 

 port on the Agriculture of New York appeared in 1846, 1849, 

 1851, and 1854. The first was devoted to a "topographical 

 sketch of the State, climate, and temperature; agricultural 

 geology, the Taconic System, and the soils of New York " ; the 

 second to analyses of grains and other vegetable products; 

 the third and fourth, one consisting of text, the other of plates, 

 to cultivated fruits; and the fifth to injurious insects. This 

 fifth volume has been severely criticised, but it should be re- 

 membered that the writer to whom its preparation was in- 

 trusted not being versed in entomology, could only compile 

 from the best sources at his command, at a time when the sci- 

 ence was in its infancy and comparatively little was known of 

 the insects of the State. The many illustrations, which are 

 well coloured in the larger portion of the edition, were mainly 



