PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 65 



Professor Denison Olmsted at the Montreal meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association in 1857.* 



Among the rising young investigators appear the names of 

 Joseph Henry, A. D. Bache, C. U. Shepard, the younger Silli- 

 man, Henry Seybert, William Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, 

 Percival, the poet geologist, DeKay, Godman, and Harlan. 



The organization, in 1824, of the Rensselaer School, after- 

 wards the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, marked the 

 beginning of a new era in scientific and technological education. 

 Its principal professors were Amos Eaton and Dr. Lewis C. 

 Beck. 



In 1820 an expedition was sent by the General Government 

 to explore the Northwestern Territory, especially the region 

 around the Great Lakes and the sources of the Mississippi. This 

 was under charge of Gen. Lewis Cass, at that time Governor of 

 Michigan Territory. Henry R. Schoolcraft accompanied this 

 expedition as mineralogist, and Capt. D. B. Douglass, U. S. A., 

 as topographical engineer ; and both of these sent home consider- 

 able collections reported upon by the specialists of the day. Cass 

 himself, though better known as a statesman, was a man of scien- 

 tific tastes and ability, and his " Inquiries respecting the History, 

 Traditions, Languages, &c., of the Indians," published at Detroit 

 in 1823, is a work of high merit. 



Long's expeditions into the far West were also in progress at 

 this time, under the direction of the General Government ; the 

 first, or Rocky Mountain, exploration in 1819-20; the second to 

 the sources of the St. Peter's, in 1823. In the first expedition 

 Major Long was accompanied by Edwin James as botanist and 

 geologist, who also wrote the Narrative published in 1823. The 

 second expedition was accompanied by William H. Keating, 

 Professor of Mineralogy and Chemistry in the University of 

 Pennsylvania, who was its geologist and historiographer. Say 



* See History of N. Y. Academy of Science, p. 76. 



