PRELIMINARY REPORT. 11 



were of little or no avail, and the speciriiens were destroyed, every part of the State must 

 be A T isited again, to trace out the rocks and collect new specimens for another State Cabinet. 

 The plan I adopted was the following : I had ascertained that the formations run 

 nearly lengthwise of the State. If, therefore, we could measure sections across the State, 

 from east to west, at intervals of only a feAV miles, we should be able to fix the limits of 

 the formations, ascertain the dip and strike of the strata, and by collecting numerous 

 Specimens along the sections and properly arranging them in a cabinet, a very complete 

 view of the Geology of the State might be presented to ocular inspection. The towns 

 lying between the sections were not to be neglected, but examined with care, and sub- 

 sections made whenever necessary. This plan has been carried out with a constantly 

 increasing conviction that it was the best and most economical which we could adopt. 

 We regret only that time and means do not allow us to review our work as much as ought 

 to be done to rectify the errors of first observation. But thirteen sections have been 

 measured, which are delineated in this Report, and illustrated by thousands of specimens 

 in the State Collection. 



After the receipt of my commission, the corps of assistants in the Survey was constitu- 

 ted as follows, with the approbation of Governor FLETCHER : 



ALBERT D. HAGER, A. M., Assistant. 



EDWARD HITCHCOCK, JR., A. M., M. D., Assistant. 



CHARLES H. HITCHCOCK, A. M., Chemist. 



It was understood that though I was to assume the responsibility of the whole survey, 

 yet it would devolve upon my assistants to work out the details of the Sections, collect 

 the specimens and the facts of economical interest, while I should visit the most impor- 

 tant points, and go over the whole State so far as to feel satisfied that the results might 

 be depended on. This has been done on their part, as I have reason to believe, with great 

 ability, industry and success. On my part, some tangled spots of much scientific interest 

 remain to be unraveled, which sickness, during the present autumn, has prevented me 

 from visiting ; and, indeed, to make the Geological Map what it ought to be, several spots 

 must be more thoroughly examined, and several difficult scientific questions settled ; so that 

 I must still ask for the opportunity to make some further explorations, though they need 

 not retard the publication of our Report, if such should be the disposition made of 

 it. For all my experience in the publication of scientific Reports shows that months 

 must elapse before a large quarto, with numerous illustrations, can be got through the 

 press creditably either to authors and artists, or the State. 



The work of exploration was commenced in the spring of 1857, by the measurement of 

 the most southerly section by myself, in connection with A. D. HAGER and C. H. HITCH- 

 COCK. The two latter have devoted nearly their whole time to it ever since. The latter 

 had, indeed, expected to devote the winter to a chemical examination and analysis of 

 substances collected ; but though the Act of the Assembly made this his duty, yet the 

 appropriation was so small, that it was found, after the expenses of the summer explora- 

 tions, that if chemical analyses were undertaken, which are necessarily expensive, even if 

 the time of the chemist be reckoned as nothing, but little would be left even for a scanty 

 salary to the assistants in the field. The next year the case was still worse : so that up to 



