10 PRELIMINARY REPORT. 



constitution to be apparently more frail than theirs. Yet I accepted the appointment, and 

 through the kindness of Providence, have lived almost to the time when I can say that a 

 Final Report is completed. 



I apprehend that an impression is quite common, that there has been a want of compe- 

 tence or of integrity on the part of some who have had a part in this survey in former years, 

 or of proper care on the part of those who had the lost collections in charge. But it seems 

 to me that such a feeling is unreasonable and unfounded. With Judge YOUNG I had not 

 the pleasure of a personal acquaintance ; yet his Report on the History of the Survey is 

 certainly a valuable document, and his plans seem to have been judiciously laid. With 

 the two first principals I was not only personally acquainted, but on terms of cordial 

 friendship. No one familiar with Professor ADAMS' rigid adherence to scientific accuracy 

 in every other enterprise, and his exact fulfillment of every promise to the very letter, 

 could believe that he did not do his work thoroughly and faithfully ; and though it might 

 be more labor, as Prof. THOMPSON suggests, to decipher his hieroglyphic notes than to go 

 over the ground anew, it was all clear as crystal to him, as would have been manifest had 

 he made out his Final Report. Indeed, his annual Reports were above the average of such 

 documents that have appeared in other surveys, and they contain a large amount of valua- 

 ble information upon the Geology of Vermont, and upon general Geology. With such a 

 preliminary, we shall feel authorized to pass over the general subject much more briefly. 



Professor THOMPSON'S notes were kept with great neatness, distinctness, and acuracy : 

 but after all, it is chiefly what he has published in his History of Vermont and elsewhere, 

 that is of value. For the fact is, until a man has actually put down his facts and mature 

 thoughts in writing or on Maps and Sections, his notes will be of no great service to those 

 who come after him. At first, they are crude to himself, and it is not till he has gone 

 through many tentative processes, and made many comparisons, that he gets a clear idea 

 of the Geological structure of a country, or of its Zoology. The Appendix to Professor 

 THOMPSON'S History of Vermont, as I apprehend, gives us the first fruits of the Geologi- 

 cal and Zoological Survey he had undertaken ; and his plan, as given by Judge YOUNG, 

 shows how rich the entire harvest would have been, had he been permitted to gather it in. 



In fine, in looking back over the history of this Survey, I see evidence everywhere of 

 eminent ability, untiring industry, economy and integrity in the principals and their able 

 assistants ; nor are the fragmentary results of their labors to be despised. If blame is to 

 be imputed anywhere, it must be to the Providence of God, which has so often sent death 

 into the ranks of those who have been engaged in this work, and thus severely tried the 

 patience of the people of the State by dashing their hopes so often, just on the point of 

 realization. 



In this point of view, this history, as I remarked in my report of 18'58, is truly a mel- 

 ancholy one. Leader after leader has been stricken down, and calamity after calamity 

 has fallen upon the work ; and did not our duty to the living forbid, the impulse of our 

 feelings would be to dedicate the results of our labors to the dead. 



When this work was committed to my hands, it was obvious, that though prosecuted 

 for ten or twelve years, it must be essentially commenced anew. For though a general 

 idea of the geology of the State was obtained from an outline map left by Prof. ADAMS, 

 as well as from my own cursory examinations, yet since the notes that had been taken 



