14 PRELIMINARY REPORT. 



geology, so as to be able, if possible, to map the terraces : also to take full notes upon the 

 extent, dip and strike of the formations, that he might be able to mark them on the 

 Geological Map, and construct the sections : a work which I wished done under my own 

 inspection, and therefore more convenient for him than for Mr. HAGEK, although the notes 

 of the latter, as our Report will show, were essential to the work. So also, were those of 

 Mr. HALL, as to the northern parts of the State. My elder son, E. HITCHCOCK, Jr., was 

 directed to attend specially to the simple minerals and to the fossil mammals of the post- 

 tertiary strata. He will, however, make no separate report, but merely describe these 

 objects in their appropriate places in the general Report. 



This Report, which I have now the honor of laying before your Excellency, will be 

 made up of the following parts : 



1. I would request that this preliminary letter from myself may stand at the head. 



2. Report on the Scientific Geology. This will be the joint work of myself and assist- 

 ants, because all have been concerned not only in collecting the facts, but in describing 

 them. I have, indeed, taken a leading part in the preparation of this report, but I have 

 been dependent upon others for the details and most of the illustrations, and some of the 

 leading descriptions. And in order that justice should be done to each one, I have 

 attached the initials of my assistants' names to each of their contributions. Nay, where 

 any facts have been referred to, as for instance, the dip and strike of strata, I have given 

 the initials of the individuals who furnished them, whether one of my assistants or a 

 previous geologist : for instance, c. B. A. for Prof. ADAMS ; z. T. for Prof. THOMPSON ; 

 A. D. H. for A. D. HAGER ; and c. H. H. for CHARLES H. HITCHCOCK.* 



3. Report on the Economical Geology, by A. D. HAGER. The facts in this report have 

 been mainly collected by him. . 



4. Report on the Chemistry of the Survey, by CHARLES H. HITCHCOCK. This brief 

 report embraces all the chemical analyses that have been made from the beginning of the 

 survey under Prof. ADAMS, amounting to OA r er one hundred. Of these, about forty 

 have either been made or obtained during the present organization of the survey. Yet, 

 as stated elsewhere, no money has been expended for them : they are all gratuitous. 



5. Catalogue of 2800 specimens of rocks, 370 specimens of simple minerals, and several 

 hundred specimens of organic remains collected by the present geological corps ; all of 

 which have been arranged, ticketed and named, and are displayed in the State Cabinet. 

 Great care has been taken to make the specimens just three inches square, where it was 

 possible ; and my assistants have been very successful in this operation ; and as arranged 

 in the new State House, according to my suggestions in my last Report, with the several 

 Sections drawn above them, they present a very clear exhibition of the Geology of the 

 State to every spectator. The Economical Collection has not yet been catalogued. 



6. Report of Rev. S. R. HALL, specially on the three northern Sections, with a Report 

 on the Agricultural Geology of the State. It is very gratifying that this gentleman, who, 

 as assistant geologist; begun a systematic exploration of the geology of the State fifteen 



* By such a course each member of the survey is responsible only for the facts he has stated and the opinions he has advanced. We 

 agree in all the great principles of geology ; and, so far as I know (for I have never made the inquiry), on every point discussed in this 

 Report. Yet it would be strange, if on some of the difficult questions raised, as to the position, equivalency and metamorphism of the 

 Vermont rocks, there should not be among us some diversity of views. If there is, each member of the survey is responsible only for 

 his own opinions which are given over his own name. 



