24 Eepoet of the State Geologist. 



This work, from its commencement in 1843, has been prose- 

 cijted amid many difficulties, and often under conditions which 

 would have justified its final abandonment. These hindrances 

 have been overcome, and a series of volumes has been published 

 and accepted as a contribution to the scientific literature of the 

 world. 



The work in the agricultural and palaeontological departments 

 was carried on in the old State Hall (State Cabinet of ]N"atural 

 History) on State street, until 1845, when the authors were com- 

 pelled to remove themselves and their work from the building. 

 This requirement proved seriously burdensome to the Palaeon- 

 tologist, necessitating at once the erection of a building of mod- 

 erate size with ordinary working rooms ; and afterward (when 

 the Legislature began to make appropriations for collections of 

 fossils), two extensive buildings were found necessary ; these 

 were erected at my own cost and fitted up with about 4,000 

 drawers, for the proper disposition of the immense collections 

 brought in from the field, together with rooms and conveniences 

 for the preparation, study and arrangement of fossils, and offices 

 for draughtsman and lithographer ; and they were occupied as a 

 museum and laboratory till the end of 1886. Prior to 1871 the 

 Legislature made no provision for the expenses of these or any 

 other working rooms, nor for clerk'^hire and incidental outlay. 



From 1850 onward for several years no appropriations were 

 made for carrying on the work, and even the author's small 

 salary was discontinued. From 1850 to 1^55 the work, except 

 the printing and lithography, was carried on entirely at the 

 author's personal expense, and it was abandoned early in the lat- 

 ter year."^ Afterward, in the same year, Hon. E. W. Leaven- 



♦ The following extract from the preface of Volume III will give a more clear idea of the then exist- 

 ing conditions : 



" This department of the Geological Survey of the State was committed to my charge iu 1843 ; Vol- 

 ume I was completed and published in 1847 ; and Volume JI, so far as regarded my own labors, was 

 completed in 1850, and the work of the third volume was at that time in progress. In the spring of 

 that year legislative enactment removed the direction of this work from the Governor of the State, 

 and placed it in the hands of the Secretary of State, who was ' authorized and directed to take charge 

 of all matters appertaining to the prosecution and publication of .the Geological Survey of the State ; ' 

 and in the third section of the same law it was^made ' the duty of the Secretary of State and the Sec- 

 retary of the Regents of the University to report to the next Legislature a plan for the final comple- 

 tion of the said survey, and to submit the estimate of the cost of such completion.' 



" In the report from this Commission to the Legislature ajproposition Avas made to pay the Palaeon- 

 tologist ' two tl\ousand five hundred dollars ' on the ' presentation <)f each successive volume, com- 

 mencing with the third, to the Secretary of State ; ' which volume was to ' contain the manuscript 

 letter-press ready for printing, and be accompanied with the very fossils described.' 



" This ' proposition ' was ' deemed a just and liberal one,' and it seems to have been anticipated that 

 the work would go on under such conditions. The sum of money here proposed to be paid to defray 



