Report on the Geological Survey of Connecticut. 175 
The rich marls of the Chesapeake and its confluent rivers are 
now beginning to be introduced into the port of New Haven as a 
manure to be transported by the Farmington canal into the interior. 
It remains to be seen whether the price and efficacy will sustain the 
undertaking. If this material should enable us to restore the culture 
of wheat it would be a very important advantage.* 
The Scientific Report scarcely admits of analysis or condensation. 
It presents a rich variety of minerals—natives of the small territory 
of Connecticut, scarcely one hundred miles by sixty. ~ Its fluor spar, 
feldspar, andalusite, chrysoberyl, topaz, emerald, tungsten, colum- 
bite, native copper, &c. are among its mineral attractions, and Mr. 
Shepard has well set forth the claims of the State to the considera- 
_ tion of mineralogists. No man is better acquainted with American 
local mineralogy. We cannot however but regret that he has in his 
scientific report rendered the dryness and repulsiveness of mineralo- 
gical language doubly difficult and disagreeable, by introducing the 
uncouth names of the school of Vienna. 
What advantage is gained by extending the term baryte, or mica, 
‘or pyrites, heretofore perfectly definite, to many substances besides 
those to which they were formerly applied with so much felicity ? 
and what advantage do we gain by such words as Atelene-Picros- 
“mine for Serpentine, Kouphone-Spar for Prehnite, Eruthrone-Ore 
for Sphene, Malacone-Metal for Bismuth and Copper, Sclerone- 
Metal for Native-Iron, Eruthleucone-Pyrites for Copper-Nickel and 
Mispickel, Polypoione-Glance for Galena, &c. &c.? Happily, 
however, his descriptive catalogue, in which he has judiciously 
placed the old familiar names in front, and ordered these foreign 
auxiliaries into the rear—especially when aided by the specimens 
themselves, well selected, arranged, and preserved as they are, will 
redeem the effect of this strange nomenclature, and his work will 
stand as a lasting and honorable monument to his industry, skill, 
‘science, zeal and fidelity in accomplishing an arduous and responsi- 
ble labor, for which he deserves the gratitude, not only of all the 
citizens of Connecticut, but of all lovers of science and of sound 
improvement in the great interests of society ; and Gov. Edwards 
will be remembered with honor as the patron of this survey, when 
the party distinctions of the times, and all whose ephemeral fame 
depends upon them, shall have passed into eternal oblivion. 
* Weare glad to observe during a recent tour, that there are numerous fine 
fields of wheatin New Hampshire, and we are assured there are many more in 
Maine.—( September 21, 1837.)—Ep. 
