No. 109.] 21 



Economical Geology, splendid though they are. I fancy rather that 

 I see here tlie germ of a Cis-atlantic British Museum, or Garden 

 of Plants. 



North-Carolina was the first State that ordered a geological 

 survey ; and I have the pleasure of seeing before me the gentle- 

 man who executed it, and in 1824 and 5 published a report of 

 140 pages. I refer to Professor Olmsted, who, though he has since 

 won still brighter laurels in another department of science, will 

 always be honored as the first commissioned State Geologist in our 

 land. 



South-Carolina commissioned Professor Vanuxem only a year 

 later, to do for her what had been done in North-Carolina. This 

 report, however, was never pulilished save in the ncAvspapers. 

 After this there was a long hiatus in the State surveys. In 1828 I 

 published a review of Professor Olmsted's labors, in the hope of 

 turning the attention of legislators to the subject, but in vain. In 

 1830, however, I was more successful. Pardon me if I tell you 

 how. Being on my way to visit the Coal regions of Pennsylvania, 

 the newspapers informed me that the State of Massachusetts had 

 ordered a trigonometrical survey. I ventured to suggest to Gov. 

 Lincoln, how desirable it would be to have a geological survey 

 connected with the enterprise. On my return, I found that he had 

 recommended it, and that the Legislature had adopted it, and that 

 a geological commission awaited niyself. 



It was not till three or four years later, that any other State 

 moved in this enterprise : then followed Tennessee, Maryland, 

 and New- Jersey. But in 1836 New -York entered upon the work, 

 on a scale more liberal and with a plan more judicious than any 

 other State before or since. She first obtained the opinion of scien- 

 tific men as to the best mode of procedure, by a circular sent forth 

 from the Hon. John A. Dix, then Secretary of State : then she 

 appropriated over $100,000 to the survey ; and now behold the 

 magnificent result, or rather some of the results ! For the nineteen 

 splendid quartos already issued do not tell the whole story ; since 

 others are in reserve, which are looked for with deep interest by 

 scientific men on both sides of the Atlantic. This survey has de- 

 veloped the older fossiliferous rocks with a fullness and distinctness 

 unknown elsewhere. Hence European savans study the New-York 



