188 Bibliography. 



thor possesses, and which, we trust, with the aid of the abundant unused 

 notes and materials at his disposal, he will at some future time make 

 public for the benefit of his fellow laborers. 



It will ever be gratefully remembered, that we owe the present report 

 on our geology, as well as that of Prof. Shepard on the mineralogy of the 

 state, (vide this Journal, Vol. xxxm, p. 151,) to the enlightened zeal of 

 the Hon. Henry W. Edwards, under whose advice, when in the guber- 

 natorial chair in 1835, the measure was originally proposed, and who has 

 since uniformly sustained it by his official and personal influence. 



2. Natural History of New York. By Authority. Part first — 

 Zoology. By James E. De Kay. New York, D. Appleton & Co., and 

 Wiley & Putnam, 1842. 4to. introduction, pp. 188; text, (zoology, class 

 mammalia,) 146 ; 33 plates. — The appearance of the first volume of the 

 final report of the commission of scientific men appointed to survey the 

 natural history of the important territory of New York, is hailed by all 

 lovers of science in America as no ordinary occurrence. This is the first 

 often volumes, which are to be divided as follows : General Introduction ; 

 Part I, Zoology, by James E. DeKay ; Part II, Botany, by John Torrey ; 

 Part III, Mineralogy, by Lewis C. Beck ; Parts IV and V, Geology and 

 Palaeontology, by William W. Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, Lardner Va- 

 nuxem, and James Hall. 



It is not our present purpose to enlarge on this subject. The volume 

 before us is a fair earnest of our expectations ; mechanically the best done 

 of any report yet published by our several states, it will doubtless prove 

 equal to the demands of public expectation in its detail. The plates are 

 better than those before published in any state report in this country ; in 

 general, they are very good, particularly the copper or steel plates, while 

 the lithographs are not a fair example of the present state of that art. 



Governor Seward's introduction is made up of matters and things in 

 general, touching the history and progress of the state of which he has 

 been for four years past the political head. It is interesting enough 

 doubtless to the inhabitants of the " Empire State" and contains a suc- 

 cinct account of the origin and progress of the survey of which the ten 

 volumes in question are the results ; but it would be more appropriate for a 

 gazetteer than as the introduction to the Natural History of a territory of 

 forty six thousand two hundred square miles and lying in the temperate zone. 



When the publication is completed, which we understand will be as soon 

 as practicable, it is our intention to give in considerable detail, a coup d'ceil 

 view of the general scope of this great work, which, accomplished by so 

 many laborers in seven years of research, and at a cost of one hundred 

 and thirty thousand dollars, will ever redound to the liberality and en- 

 lightened zeal of the noble commonwealth whose work it is, and to the 

 fame of the numerous gentlemen of science by whose united efforts it has 

 been accomplished. 



