INTRODUCTION. 
175 
a resolution directing the secretary of state to report to the legislature, at its 
next session, the most expedient method for obtaining a complete geological 
survey of the state, which should furnish a perfect and scientific account of rocks 
and soils and their localities, and a list of all its mineralogical, botanical and 
zoological productions, and for procuring and preserving specimens of the same, 
with an estimate of the expense of the undertaking. John A. Dix, secretary of 
state, in January, 1836, submitted a report in pursuance of this resolution. That 
luminous and satisfactory document led to the passage of the act of the 15th of 
April, 1836, in the execution of which, and of the acts of May 8th, 1840, and 
of April 9th, 1842, the survey has been made.* William L. Marcy, governor, 
arranged the plan of the survey in the summer of 1836, and assigned its depart¬ 
ments as follows: The zoological department to James E. De Kay ; the botanical 
department to John Torrey; the mineralogical and chemical department to 
Lewis C. Beck; the geological department to William W. Mather, Ebenezer 
Emmons, Timothy A. Conrad, and Lardner Vanuxem. This arrangement was 
subsequently altered by the institution of a palceontological department, under 
the care of Mr. Conrad, and by the appointment of James Hall to supply his 
place as a geologist. The results of the survey appear in the following volumes, 
and in eight several collections of specimens of the animals, plants, soils, minerals, 
rocks and fossils, found within the state, one of which collections constitutes a 
museum of natural history at the capital of the state, and the others are dis¬ 
tributed among its collegiate institutions. . 
It cannot be necessary to dwell upon the benefits secured by the survey. It 
is not more necessary to know what resources are withheld from us than to un¬ 
derstand those which Providence has been pleased to bestow. In regard to the 
narrow purpose in which the survey originated, it is no unprofitable result to 
know that coal cannot be found within the state, and that we must depend for 
supplies of that mineral on trade with the countries with which we are connected. 
* It may be stated with just pride, that the law of 1836, appropriating the sum of $104,000 to the survey, was passed by 
the assembly unanimously. A further appropriation of $26,000 was made by the law of 1842. 
