AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1830-1839. 



329 



J. G. Percival's 

 Survey of 

 Connecticut, 

 1835-1841. 



One of the most unique figures in early American geology was that 

 of Dr. -lames G. Percival. This man was horn at Kensington, Con- 

 necticut, September 15, 1795, and graduated at Yale College in 1815, 

 after which he studied medicine, receiving the degree 

 of M. D. in 1820, and entering upon a troubled and, 

 to his friends, troublesome career, which terminated 

 only with his death in 1856. 



He wrote poems, became editor of a newspaper, was a proof reader 

 and assistant to Noah Webster in the preparation of his dictionary, 

 and received a Government appointment as surgeon at West Point and 

 afterwards with the recruiting service at Boston. But no form of 

 practical work seemed suited to his taste, and he gave up position 

 after position that he might devote himself to literature. 



Peevish, often morbid and misanthropic to the point of insanity, 

 and always complaining, truly such is queer material from which to 

 make a geologist. ''Slender of form, of 

 narrow chest and with a peculiar stoop, a 

 large, fine head, dark eyes, and inclined to 

 sharpness of features; a wardrobe consisting 

 of little more than a single plain suit — 

 brown or gray — which he wore summer and 

 winter until it became threadbare. He 

 never wore gloves nor blacked his boots." 

 Such is the picture held up to our view by 

 his contemporaries. 



A geological and mineralogical survey of 

 Connecticut being organized in 1835, Per- 

 cival was given charge of the geology and 

 C. U. Shepard the mineralogy. Shepard's 

 report appeared in 1837. It comprised all 



told some 188 pages, but was not accompanied by a map, sections, nor 

 by figures of any kind. 



Percival's report was long delayed, making its appearance finally in 

 1812. It would seem that the survey, when inaugurated, was expected 

 to be but a superficial one, yet Percival was engaged upon it for five 

 weary and laborious years, each year rendering his researches more 

 minute, until he had collected over eight thousand specimens and 

 made record of dips and bearings still more numerous. The legis- 

 lators demanded a report, which was not forthcoming, and finally, in 

 1841, all appropriations were withheld and an abridged report pub- 

 lished, much against Percival's wishes. This volume is beyond ques- 

 tion one of the least interesting of any issued by any State. A dry 

 mass of lithological details, with little or no discrimination between 

 important and unimportant matters — no theories nor generalities. No 

 one for a moment will question that Percival had been, as he claimed, 



Fig. 25. — James Gates Percival. 



