PRELIMINARY REPORT. 



To His EXCELLENCY, HILAND HALL, 



Governor of Vermont : 

 HONORED SIR : 



I have the pleasure of being able, at last, to lay before you a Final Report on the 

 Geological Survey of the State. A few preliminary remarks from myself, as the respon- 

 sible head of the survey, seem requisite. 



The history of this survey has been so eventful and extraordinary, that a volume might 

 be devoted to it, which would be full of moral interest at least. It startles one to find that 

 the first movement on the subject was made in the General Assembly as early as 1836. 

 In 1837, Governor EATON, then Chairman of the Committee on Education, made his able 

 report on the subject, which was never lost sight of till the first act, authorizing a survey, 

 was made in 1844. Professor CHARLES B. ADAMS, the first State Geologist, entered upon 

 his duties in March, 1845. He made four annual Reports, which, in the aggregate, formed 

 a volume of 399 pages, with illustrations. In 1853 Professor ZADOCK THOMPSON was ap- 

 pointed to take charge of the work upon the decease of Prof. ADAMS. He never made 

 any formal Report, though in other modes he brought out many facts, which were the 

 result of his researches ; and the outline of his proposed Final Report, published by Judge 

 YOUNG, shows how wide were his plans, and how valuable the final result would have been, 

 had he lived. After his decease another attempt was made to carry forward the survey to 

 completion, by the appointment of the Hon. AUGUSTUS YOUNG, as its principal. His 

 feeble health prevented JUDGE YOUNG from much active labor in the field. But he 

 published a valuable Report on the History of the Survey, in a pamphlet of 88 pages, and 

 then he, too, died. 



A fourth effort was made by the General Assembly to resuscitate and complete the work 

 in the autumn of 1856, and I was requested to take charge of it. Meanwhile, during the 

 following winter, another heavy Providential disaster fell upon the work, in the destruc- 

 tion by fire of the fine collections made by Prof. ADAMS and others : a ruin so complete, 

 that probably not fifty specimens remain fit to take a place in the new Cabinet. 



In view of so many calamities, I confess to have been somewhat affected by a feeling, 

 which my judgment would call a superstitious fear, as if the frown of heaven rested upon 

 the work, and that I too might expect to follow the triad of distinguished men who had 

 boon summoned away before the completion of tho survey ; especially as I knew my 



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