State Museum of Natubal Histoby. 63 



ing much to our knowledge of the limits and trend of certain forma- 

 tions, showed more clearly the necessity of farther exploration, before any 

 creditable geological map of that part of the State can be completed. 



I would most earnestly recommend that the completion of this im- 

 portant field-work be undertaken during the coming season, and that 

 the State Geologist be authorized to employ some competent person 

 under his immediate supervision to carry on the work in a systematic 

 manner to its completion. 



Some important contributions to our knowledge of the limits of the 

 Chemung and Waverly groups, in the south-western part of the State and 

 adjacent parts of Pennsylvania, have been made by Mr. C. E. Beecher, 

 of the State Museum, as the results of his own observations and those 

 of Mr. F. A. Randall, of Warren, Penn. Our information regarding the 

 position of the Panama conglomerate of the Chemung group in Chau- 

 tauqua county, and the relation of the upper members of this group 

 with the Waverly group above, has been materially enhanced through the 

 investigations made by Dr. J. W. Hall and Mr. George B. Simpson in 

 their field work and collection of fossils during the past autumn in the 

 same part of the country. 



In the mean time (1884) Major Powell, Director of the United States 

 Geological Survey, had proposed to complete and publish a geological 

 map of the three States, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with 

 a view of illustrating the geological order, subdivisions and nomencla- 

 ture of the older formations in those States where the earlier geological 

 surveys had already accomplished so much work. To aid in this object 

 I furnished a copy of the map engraved by Julius Bien & Co., together 

 with other maps, containing all the geological information possessed by 

 us, for the use of the United States Geological Survey. This infor- 

 mation has been transferred to a map more correct in its topography 

 and on a larger scale; but since the accurate limits of the geological 

 formations in the State of New York are confessedly incomplete, it is 

 consequently impossible to satisfactorily adjust the New York carto- 

 graphy to that of Pennsylvania, and the publication of the combined 

 map has been deferred. 



Since the passage of the law extending the Geological and Geographi- 

 cal Surveys of the General Government over all the States and Territories 

 of the Union I have sought to aid in establishing a cordial co-operation 

 between the several State Geologists and the Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey. Although at first opposed to and protesting 

 against such extension of the survey by the General Government, I 

 have become convinced, from my own experience, that few, if any, of 

 the individual States will ever provide the necessary means for carrying 

 on to proper completion the work of a geological survey. 



In the State of New York — the most liberal, perhaps, of all the 

 States in its publications — the work has been carried on under great 

 disadvantages, delays, and great loss of time, and always with an element 

 of uncertainty. At no time in the past has the State Geologist felt 

 secure in the necessary legislative support for the completion of the 

 work in which he has been engaged. In the original plan and organi- 

 zation of the Palaeontological work, the great importance and final 

 necessity of an accurate geological map of the State had not been suffic- 

 iently recognized, a desideratum so absolutely indispensable for the 



