Geological Survey. 359 
the purpose of investigating and describing the mineralogy, 
geology, and agricultural resources of this extensive region. 
The public have learned, not so much with surprise as 
with admiration, that an individual,* not less distinguished 
by his princely munificence, than by the judicious selection 
of the objects on which it is bestowed, has incurred the 
whole expense of this survey, occupying a period of sever- 
al years, and calling into requisition the united labours of 
an experienced geologist, Mr. Amos Eaton, already advan- 
tageously known as 2 public teacher, and as a professional 
author, and of Messrs. M. H. Webster and J. Kights—the 
latter as a draftsman, and the former as a naturalist, and col- 
lector of specimens. If we are not misinformed, this sur- 
vey has already cost a good many thousands of dollars, and 
from the style in which the first part of the report is pub- 
lished, it is apparent that no expense has been spared in 
the undertaking. This part of Mr. Eaton’s report forms a 
volume of one hundred and sixty pages, octavo, handsome- 
ly printed on good paper, and illustrated by two elegant 
sections, or geological profiles. The first, exhibiting the 
structure of the country from Boston harbour to Lake 
Erie, a distance of five hundred and fifty miles, is orna- 
mented by four perspective views, of interesting scenes 
on the canal; and forms a folded map more than four feet 
and ahalf in length. The other profile was furnished by 
the Rev. Edward Hitchcock, a geologist of well-known 
and well-deserved reputation, and extends from a little 
west of Plainfield, Massachusetts, to the harbour of Boston. 
This section, which is on a somewhat larger scale than the 
other, is subsidiary to it, and is substantially included in it. 
Strictly speaking, the country exhibited in this section is 
not included within the canal survey, which terminates at Al- 
bany—but it was very justly considered as a desirable ob- 
ject, to continue the section from Lake Erie to the ocean, 
thus presenting, probably, the most extensive geological 
profile that has ever been formed from actual observation, 
Mr. Hitchcock’s section is accompanied by a concise de- 
scription, furnished by him, not (as we understand) with a 
*The Hon. SterHen Van Renssecaur, of Albany. 
‘ 
