24 



Hitchcock, Jun., are favorably noticed in Prof. Adams' Reports, 

 and to Prof. Louis Agassiz of Cambridge ; Prof. James Hall and 

 Dr. Ebenezer Emmons of Albany, N. Y ; Dr. Asa Fitch of Sa- 

 lem, N. Y; Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jun., of New Haven, Conn., 

 Dr. Samuel W. Thayer, now of Burlington, Vt., Dr. James Rob- 

 bins of Chester, Vt., and others, was Prof. Adams greatly indebted 

 for advice, assistance and friendly co-operation in his professional 

 and responsible labors. If Prof. Adams had completed his origin- 

 al design of preparing a final Geological Report, the value of the 

 services and aid of these learned gentlemen might have been in- 

 calculable. 



I am not aware that my predecessor Professor Thompson was 

 regularly aided in his arduous task by an assistant Naturalist. 

 He was, however, in constant correspondence with prominent Natu- 

 ralists in this country and abroad, and in intimate relations with his 

 friend and medical adviser, Samuel W. Thayer, M. D., who has 

 taken great interest in all matters connected with the Geological 

 Survey of Vermont from its start, and also with Professor James 

 Hall, of Albany, N. Y., who rendered aid near the close of Pro- 

 fessor Thompson's life in cataloguing valuable fossils, and in ma- 

 king scientific examination of rare trilobites which Professor 

 Thompson had obtained in his researches throughout the State. 

 Professor Henry Erni, then a Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy 

 and Toxicology in the Medical Department of the University of 

 Vermont, made on his behalf some chemical analyses which are 

 preserved in part among the manuscripts which were left incom- 

 plete by Professor Thompson at the time of his death. I greatly 

 fear that a large portion of the labors of these assistants and cor- 

 respondents cannot now be made available to the world by reason 

 of lapse of time and other untoward causes. Undoubtedly the 

 vast array of notes and memoranda belonging to the Survey 

 would have been of inestimable value if they had been prepared 

 and kept in a more methodical and intelligible manner, and the 

 difficulty of compiling final reports would have been materially 

 lessened and their value greatly enhanced. 



At the last session of the General Assembly I find that the 

 following resolution was adopted:* 



"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That 



*See Appendix, No. 3. 



