20 [Senate 



PROF. HITCHCOCK'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. President : 



This interesting occasion turns my thoughts irresistibly backward 

 upon the early periods of those scientific enterprises, of which we 

 have before us in this city some of the magnificent results. For 

 this Geological Hall, which we meet to dedicate, would neither 

 have been devoted to this purpose, nor supplied wdth specimens, 

 had not a Geological Survey preceded it. Having been acquainted 

 with the men who originated and executed this Survey, will you 

 allow me to indulge in a few reminiscences concerning that work 

 and its results in the few moments allotted me. 



This, I believe, is the first example in which a State Government 

 in our country has erected a museum for the exhibition of its na- 

 tural resources : its minerals and rocks ; its plants and animals, 

 living and fossil. And this seems to me the most appropriate spot 

 in the country for placing the first Geological Hall erected by the 

 Government : fur the county of Albany was the district where 

 the first geological survey was undertaken on this side of the 

 Atlantic. This was in 1820, and Avas ordered by that eminent phi- 

 lanthropist, Stephen Van Rensselaer; who, three years later, 

 appointed Professor Eaton to survey in like manner the whole 

 region traversed by the Erie canal. This was the commencement 

 of a work, which, during the last thirty years, has had a wonder- 

 ful expansion ; reaching a large part of the States of the Union, 

 as well as Canada, Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, and 1 might 

 add several European countries, wliere the magnificent surveys 

 now in progress did not commence till after the survey of Albany 

 and Rensselaer counties. How glad are we, therefore, to find on 

 this spot the first Museum of Economical Geology on this side of 

 the Atlantic. Nay, embracing as it does all the departments of 

 natural history, I see in it more than a European Museum of 



