312 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



economic problems should be of primary importance. His report 

 appeared in the form of House Document No. 52, under date of 1838. 

 In 1839 the legislature authorized the reprinting of all the reports, 

 with such additions and corrections as the author chose to make. This 

 reprint appeared in 1841 in the form of two quarto volumes of s:;i 

 pages, the first 126 of which are given up to a discussion of the soils, 

 their kind, origin, and fertility. 



Hitchcock here followed closely Sir H. Davy. Berzelius, and 8. L. 

 Dana, and dwelt particularly upon the problematic geine, a substance 

 resulting from vegetable decomposition and supposed to contain all 

 the essentials of plant food. This part of the work is of interest as 

 containing C. T. Jackson's expressed and well-founded doubt as to the 

 existence of such a body, and a long letter from S. L. Dana attempt- 

 ing to prove the chemical unity of the compound. Some twenty pages 

 were devoted to fossil fuels, with especial reference to the anthracite 

 of Worcester, Massachusetts, and of Rhode Island, and the bituminous 

 coal of the New Red sandstone. A list of peat bogs, with reference 

 to their possible availability for fuel, was also given. Building stones 

 were discussed, and two pages devoted to the subject of rock decay 

 and its probable cause. Metallic and nonmetallic ores were described. 



Many of the views expressed in the early reports were repeated here 

 with but slight modification. He still adhered to his six distinct 

 systems of strata which were tilted at various epochs. The oldest, 

 called the meridional system, embraced all the primary rocks lying 

 between the valleys of the Connecticut and Worcester. The second, 

 or northeast and southwest system, included the gneiss range in the 

 southeastern part of Worcester County, the central part of Middle- 

 sex, and a part of Essex. The third, or east and west system, 

 included the gneiss around New Bedford, the graywacke, and a large 

 part of the syenite, porphyry, and greenstone of the State. The 

 fourth, or Hoosac Mountain system, embraced all the rocks between 

 the Connecticut and Hudson rivers, except the trap and New Red 

 sandstone. The fifth included the New Red sandstone, and the sixth, 

 or northwest and southeast system of rocks, mainly gneiss occurring 

 in the southern part of the State bordering upon Rhode Island. In 

 the geological map which accompanied this report he employed but 

 six colors, which marked off the rocks of the State into six distinct 

 groups, the members of each of which, with the exception of the 

 fourth, were so nearly related that he thought they might be regarded 

 as belonging to the same formation. In his first group he placed the 

 granite, syenite, greenstone, and porphyry; in the second, gneiss and 

 the associated hornblende slate and quartz rock; in the third, mica 

 slate, with the associated quartz rock and hornblende slate, talcose 

 slate, and chlorite slate; in the fourth, limestone, steatite, and serpen- 

 tine; in the fifth, metamorphic slates, graywacke, argillaceous slate, 



