AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE <>F 1840-1849. 



391 



LS44 that the final .steps were taken resulting in the appointment of 

 Prof. C. B. Adams as State geologist. Adams was educated at Phillips 

 Academy and Amherst College, and subsequently attended the theo- 

 logical seminary at the last-named place. In 1836 he 

 ni Ve^IIt! ia44. rk became a tutor at Amherst and for a brief period was 

 assistant to Professor Hitchcock in his work on the 

 geological survey of New York. When appointed State geologist of 

 Vermont he selected Zadock Thompson as his chief assistant, Denison 

 Olmsted, jr., and later T. Sterry Hunt aiding in mineralogy and chem- 

 istry. Rev. S. R. Hall, of Craftsbuiy. was employed to look after 

 the agricultural features. Up to March. 1848, the survey continued 

 in a fairly prosperous condition, a large amount of material being col- 

 lected, both in the way of specimens and notes, but at the session of 

 the legislature for this year appropriations were for sonic reason with- 

 held and the work stopped. Four reports in all were issued, the last 

 a mere pamphlet of eight pages. 



The purpose of the surve}^, as stated in 

 the first report, was to collect and analyze 

 the soil, the simple minerals, both of eco- 

 nomic and scientific importance, and to 

 make investigations into the character and 

 limits of the geological formations. The 

 reports on the whole were extremely frag- 

 mentary. Doctor Adams dying before the 

 manuscript of the final report was pre- 

 pared, a large part of his work was lost, 

 this mainl} T owing to the fact that he took 

 his notes in a "peculiar shorthand, which 

 onl} T he could read.-' As suggested b}' Pro- 

 fessor Thompson, it would have required 

 more labor to decipher his notes than to go over the ground anew. 



The second annual report was prepared — as was not infrequently 

 the case at that date — in the form of a general treatise on geology, 

 and began with an elementary chapter which dealt with all subjects 

 relating to geological phenomena, whether applicable to the State or 

 not. The views advanced were those given by the text-books of the 

 period and need not be mentioned in detail. An ideal section from 

 the first report is, however, reproduced here as illustrating equally 

 well the rough method of picture making with which the early work- 

 ers had to content themselves and the crudity of ideas relative to the 

 earth's crust and interior. He would, indeed, be regarded as a novice 

 in geology to-day who would not at first glance inquire what supported 

 the mass of solid material represented as resting upon the molten lava, 

 yet this question does not seem at this time to have even presented 

 itself for consideration. A little space was devoted to tin 1 subject of 



Fig. 36. — Charles Baker Adams. 



