3 NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE REGENTS. 



Were it necessary for the present purpose, I might go further into the 

 details of the operations to be undertaken by the museum according to 

 the plan, but this does not appear essential at the present stage of the 

 inquiry. 



The foregoing general plan appears to me to embrace the points neces- 

 sary for placing the State Cabinet of Natural History oi^ an equality 

 with similar institutions in Europe, and with the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology in Cambridge— that is, as stated in the resolution of the Legis- 

 lature, for placing it "in the condition required by the present state of 

 science, and for maintaining it in full efficiency as a museum of scien- 

 tijSc and practical geology and comparative zoology." 



I, am, very respectfully. 



Your obedient servant, 



JAMES HALL. 



P. S. In connection with what has been said of the importance of an 

 economical collection, and as an evidence of the public appreciation of 

 information having strict reference to its economic bearings in relation 

 to mines and mineral products, may be mentioned the success of the 

 school of mines attached to Columbia college. This was commenced 

 about the middle of December, 1864, and at the end of about one year 

 numbered eighty students, all of whom, I am informed, are earnest 

 workers. 



At the same time the scientific school at Cambridge, commenced some 

 fifteen years since, in all its departments, including civil engineering 

 and zoology (which are not taught at the school of mines in New York),, 

 numbers but seventy-five students, and the scientific school in New 

 Haven still fewer. Yet these schools have among their professors the 

 most eminent men, some of whom have been long known as successful 

 teachers and authors. 



The school in New York offered to the community precisely that kind 

 qf knowledge which was wanted, and* the need of which has long been 

 seriously felt. To this I attributed its great success in the outset ; 

 while by pursuing the same course, with such extensions as may be 

 found advantageous and necessary, it will doubtless become the leading 

 school of mines in the United States. 



