\ LETTER TO SECRETARIES OF STATE AND OF BOARD OF REGENTS. 



■bout twenty-five plates, will be ready for the lithographer within a few months. 

 Of the Crustacea eight plates, and of the Brachiopoda more than thirty plates 

 have been printed. In addition to all this more than 800 drawings of Corals 

 have been made for the final illustration of this class of fossils. 



It is scarcely necessary for me to state that, with all this work before me, 

 and the necessity of preparing the material for draughtsmen and lithographers, 

 whose skilled services could only be secured by constant occupation, I was unable 

 to give my undivided attention to the single volume in hand. It is unfortu- 

 nately true, moreover, that the interruptions from other causes beyond my 

 control, during several successive sessions of the Legislature, have seriously 

 retarded the general progress of the work, and delayed the publication of the 

 present volume by at least one year. 



The complaints of the delay in the publication of the Palaeontology have been 

 without actual knowledge of the real conditions, or the facts of the case ; and it 

 is hoped that the foregoing frank statement of the circumstances may correct these 

 misapprehensions and set at rest the efforts which have, from time to time, been 

 made to suspend and destroy the work. At the same time I must thankfully and 

 with pride avow, that there has never been, within my knowledge, a Legislature 

 of the State of New York in which there were not enough of educated, liberal and 

 enlightened men to appreciate and sustain a work of this character against the 

 opposition of a few who would oppose the creation and dissemination of a 

 higher knowledge among the people of the State. In the Legislature of 1879, 

 the Committee on Public Education, as had, in effect, been done by other com- 

 mittees in previous years, unanimously recommended the continuation and the 

 completion of this part of the Natural History of the State. 



Under many obligations for repeated acts of kindness and consideration, and 



for expressions of confidence and encouragement, I beg leave to subscribe 



myself, 



Very sincerely and respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



JAMES HALL. 

 December 13, 1879. 



