viii LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE AND 



 <-ral classes of fossils, the number of drawings already made of each one, and 

 llic estimated number to be made, and to be lithographed, with the cost of the 

 whole at the then established prices. This schedule was accepted by the com- 

 mittee and the appropriations were made upon that basis. 



It can readily be seen that there was a necessity for a modification of the 

 plan of 1855. The manuscript deposited in the State Library, in 1866, was in 

 accordance with the plan then contemplated. The original proposition for the 

 completion of the work was based upon the collections then known to us. The 

 idea of a special appropriation of money for further collections was of subse- 

 quent origin, and had not then been taken into account. I should have been 

 derelict in my duty to the State and to science had I not availed myself of 

 these collections to enhance the value and completeness of the work, and I 

 should have deserved and have received the censure of all enlightened men. 

 As the direct result of this valuable accession of material, Volume V has 

 expanded to two parts, containing altogether 200 plates, with nearly 500 pages 

 of letter-press already printed, as descriptive matter of the second part; requiring 

 300 pages more for the completion of the first part, without including the 

 Crinoidea and Crustacea of the originally contemplated Volume V. Among 

 an enlightened people this will not be regarded as a fault. 



The presentation of Volume V, Part II, before the completion of Part I may 

 also require some explanation. I was prepared, in 1875, to commence the 

 printing of the first part of the volume, but the Legislature of that year, on the 

 suggestion of the Comptroller, Hon. Nelson K. Hopkins, passed an appropriation 

 of $1,000 to publish Albertype copies of 100 plates of drawings already prepared 

 for the final work. This plan had two objects in view; one of which was 1o 

 place before the public,*at an earlier period than would otherwise have been 

 possible, some evidence of the work already done ; the other object was 

 to test the practicability of illustration by the Albertype process. That 

 volume, as finally published, contained 130 plates, including Gasteropoda, 

 Pteropoda, Cephalopoda, Crustacea, and Corals : the three first-named classes 

 comprising what was then intended to be included in Volume V, Part II. 

 Many of the plates there represented had already been lithographed, the draw- 



