358 Campbell — Rogers's Geology of the Virginias. 



of field work still to be done. In the last annual report which 

 he was allowed to make (December, 1841), he says : " Having 

 brought the active labors of the survey thus near their comple- 

 tion, I am now entering upon the task of preparing the final 

 report. Those who, like the Board, have been able to follow 

 me and my assistants in the diversified and laborious researches 

 in which we have been actively engaged for nearly six years, 

 and who reflect upon the immense extent of ground over which 

 our explorations have been carried, the largest area ever sub- 

 mitted to systematic geological investigation in any part of the 

 world, will be at once prepared to form a just idea of the num- 

 ber and extent of our results, and of the magnitude of the task 

 of producing a full report on the geology of the State." (p. 543) 

 The Hon. John Rutherford, at that time president of the Board 

 of Public Works, in a communication to the Virginia Legisla- 

 ture, says: " To enable him, therefore, to present such a report, 

 to arrange the numerous mineral specimens, and to prepare the 

 necessary drawings and maps, Prof. Rogers recommends that 

 the services of his corps, as at present organized, be continued 

 until the close of the present geological year in April next, and 

 that an additional appropriation of $2,500 be made for the pur- 

 poses above mentioned." 



Notwithstanding the cogent reasons given for making the 

 needful appropriation, the Legislature of a great and then 

 wealthy State, failed to grant the pitiful sum of $2,500 asked 

 for in order to complete one of the most interesting and im- 

 portant geological surveys ever undertaken on the continent. 

 Thus it happens that the fruits of nearly seven years of labori- 

 ous research have been allowed to lie hidden from the public 

 for more than 40 years — except in the form of a few obscure 

 pamphlets — until within the last few months, when Mrs. Rog- 

 ers has given them to the scientific world in a permanent form. 

 If Prof. Rogers had been allowed to complete his work and 

 reduce it to a systematic form, it would have been more satis- 

 factory to the general reader than it is as now presented ; and 

 yet the volume before us is among the most valuable contribu- 

 tions made to our geological literature in a long time. It 

 brings before the public for the first time a comprehensive 

 view of a region, to which we wish to invite the attention of 

 our fellow-laborers, as a typical field for geological studies. 



•With this end in view we propose to give a brief synopsis of 

 what the field geologist will find here. We wish to show that 

 the two Virginias embrace within their extensive area illustra- 

 tions of every geological feature of the American continent, 

 with the exceptions of the great " lava-flows " and the volca- 

 noes of the far West, and the modern coral reefs of tropical seas. 

 The excellent map and sections which accompany the volume, 



