18 I' Senate 



of the State of New-Yoi-k in this expense, that every citizen is 

 actually made richer by this bounty, and the whole crowned with 

 glory in the admiring eyes of the civilized world. But, had the 

 Legislature known the cost involved in the terms of the law, they 

 would never have passed, or would have greatly modified, the 

 statute. For science, this ignorance was most fortunate ; and for 

 the glory of the State, most propitious. 



But, you ask, how came this blessed ignorance'? In the most 

 natural way. The Legislature had no adequate conception of the 

 amount of the objects of natural history in the State ; no means 

 of knowing it. The naturalists were also in darkness on the sub- 

 ject. Take only the fossils for illustration. No geologist suspected, 

 from publications of similar surveys, that more than three or four 

 hundred species could be found in the State ; but, on examination, 

 these " medals of creation," resting in their secret habitations in 

 the rocks, appeared in unthought of multitude. The first volume 

 of the Palaeontology contains 380 species, found in a few^ of the 

 lowest series of the fossiliferous strata ; the second volume, 340 

 species in a few newer rocks : 720 species in less than half the 

 series. The three coming volumes will contain from ten to twelve 

 hundred, making in the whole near two thousand species of fossils. 

 Hence it is that the work has so grown in the hands of the na- 

 turalists, altogether beyond their highest anticipations, and that 

 unexpected appropriations have become necessary in carrying out 

 the simple letter of the statute. 



The expense for the collections, for the drawings, for the litho- 

 graphs and engravings, for the coloring of plates, and for printing, 

 binding and salaries, may be seen by a careful examination of the 

 volumes already published. It is not surprising that the Legislature 

 hesitated, and that the work had come to a temporary stand more 

 than two years ago ; but so much labor had already been performed, 

 and so great a sum already paid for results to appear in the coming 

 volumes, that the stoppage of the work would involve too great a 

 sacrifice. Consultation was needed, and consultation was had. A 

 little of the light of the " Old Fog ie" was called for, and it was 

 cheerfully presented, and cordially accepted and adopted. It was 

 felt and asserted in other States, as well as in our own, that the 

 Empire State was committed, and her honor pledged before the 



