32 



At first glance, it might appear that the State Cabinet contains 

 too many specimens from the same or adjacent localities ; and to' 

 the casual observer, a greater degree of interest in the mineralogy 

 of the State might be awakened, if the specimens were fewer in 

 number and art had been employed to exhibit the beauty of each 

 to its greatest advantage. For instance, the polished specimen 

 of Isle La Motte marble, and the beautiful slabs of Verde Antique 

 marble from Roxbury and Cavendish, elicit the admiration of each 

 spectator, while the rough and unpolished rocks from the same 

 quarries possibly attract no notice whatever. 



But the careful student of Natural History and the ardent de- 

 votee of geological science desire an exhibition of the material in 

 the rough, and all the forms in which it is found in its natural 

 bed. Such enquirers are not satisfied with a superficial glance at 

 the numerous fossils found in and forming the Isle La Motte mar^ 

 ble, and contemplating the changes that have been wrought to 

 render whole races of animated nature extinct and entombed as he 

 sees them, and with a great stride pass from them to an examina- 

 tion of the beautiful statuary marbles of Vermont. He desires to 

 examine the intervening groups to determine if possible, whether 

 there be any connection between the two varieties, and if so, to 

 note the difference and ascertain the producing cause. 



It is found that as the limestone approaches the upheaved rocks 

 it becomes saccharoidal or sparry, and apparently destitute of fos- 

 sils, and eminent geologists are of opinion that our beautiful white 

 marbles are of fossiliferous origin, and altered by the agency of 

 heat and other causes, and that the white unspotted memorial 

 stones in our burying places are themselves the charnel house of 

 myriads of beings that once crawled upon ocean's bed, or sported 

 in the waters of the mighty deep. 



In arranging the minerals in the case ordered by Professor 

 Thompson I have endeavored to follow as nearly as possible the 

 plan adopted by your predecessors ; but in the new case I propose 

 with your consent, to vary so far from their plan as to present on 

 a label the full name of the mineral or fossil with that of the 

 locality and donor when known ; by means of which the spectator 

 will be relieved from the disagreeable necessity of consulting a vol- 

 uminous catalogue to ascertain the required facts and I propose to 

 append the appropriate number to the label and place it in its 

 proper place upon the catalogue; 



