No. 76. j 



11 



Dr. Franklin B. Hough, of St. Lawrence county, a contributor to 

 the Mineralogical and the Antiquarian Collection, has also forwarded 

 a "notice of several ancient remains of art in St. Lawrence and 

 Jefferson counties," accompanied with sketches of the same, and the 

 Regents transmit them as worthy of publication. 



Our country presents many examples of the rapid progress from 

 rude art to the most striking exhibitions of human kill, and the State 

 Cabinet would scarcely be complete, without containing specimens 

 of each. Through the liberality of Mr. McA^lpine, engineer of the 

 United States Dry Dock, at Brooklyn, there is now to be seen a plaster 

 model of that great w^ork ; various specimens of granite employed 

 in its construction, and a collection of soils, through which the neces- 

 sary excavations for this purpose were made. 



Several years have now^ elapsed since the publication of most of 

 the volumes of the " Natural History of New-York," and it occurred 

 to the Regents that means should be taken to ascertain, and as it were, 

 post up, the progress of discovery and science in each of the depart- 

 ments to the present time. The suggestion was communicated to 

 several of the persons formerly engaged in the State Survey, and the 

 Regents have now the pleasure to present, as its first fruits, a report 

 from Dr. Lewis C. Beck, the author of the Mineralogy of New- York, 

 comprising notices of the additions made since 1842. Its intrinsic 

 merits, and the labor evidently bestowed upon it, are its best recom- 

 mendations. 



The Regents, on the resignation of the curator, appointed John 

 Gebhard, Jr., of Schoharie county, to that place, and he accordingly 

 entered on its duties on the 1st of November last. Great reliance is 

 placed on his well known devotion to, and his knowledge of, Natural 

 History ; and he has already given an abundant earnest, in the indus- 

 try and zeal with w^hich he has entered on the engagements of his 

 office. 



As to the pecuniary affairs of the Institution, the Regents beg 

 leave to refer to the accompanying account current of receipts and 

 expenditures. They have every assurance, that through a clerical error, 

 the appropriation made last year for 1849 and 1850, was reduced one- 

 half, through the omission of the words " lor each of the years." 

 Had it not been discovered that a small balance in the treasury de- 



