21 



zens, we are enabled to have some glimpses of the relative age 

 and connection of the rocks of the State as well as of some of 

 the causes which have so modified and diversified the coast of this 

 portion of our earth. So, too, we have a fair promise of being 

 able to trace the connection of the rocks of Vermont with those 

 of Canada, and of other States, as well as of other parts of the 

 globe. 



Moreover the discovery of rare organic remains by my prede- 

 cessor has awakened considerable interest among paleontologists, 

 and the paramount authority of fossils in ascertaining the rela- 

 tive ages of strata is maintained with additional force. I need 

 not say that the moral influence of such discoveries, and in fact 

 of the study of Natural History generally, must be healthful and 

 elevating, for such discoveries u constitute the links in the mighty 

 chain of causes and effects to connect created with uncreated 

 mind." 



It is a source of painful regret that the career of Professors 

 Thompson and Adams closed before the work assigned to them 

 by the Legislature had been fully performed. It was the dying 

 lamentation of Professor Thompson, who loved his native State 

 and her people and devoted his life to an enquiry into her Civil 

 and Natural History, that Providence could not permit him to 

 finish the work for which he was appointed. It is due to his 

 memory to state, that apart from the inroads upon his time and 

 opportunities for research which disease had made during the latter 

 part of his life, he met with obstacles in the way of completing 

 the Geological Survey which were almost insurmountable. One 

 and the chief of these he has alluded to in the following term s 

 which I find among the various manuscripts which he left, and 

 which by virtue of my appointment have been entrusted to my 

 examination and custody. 



" In the first place I have been very much disappointed in re- 

 lation to the field-notes of our former State Geologist, the late 

 Prof. C. B. Adams. I was aware during the progress of his la- 

 bors, that he kept many of his notes in a short hand of his own 

 contriving, and remonstrated with him for so doing. Still I hoped 

 to make out enough from them, to save the trouble of going over 

 any considerable portion of the ground again. But in this I have 

 been greatly disappointed. His notes I find to be exceedingly 



