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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



day of February in each year, setting forth the progress made 

 in the survey. 



The appointments of the principal geologists were made as 

 follows. Lieut. W. W. Mather, a native of Connecticut, who 

 had lately resigned from the United States army, was assigned 

 to the first district. Prof. Ebenezer Emmons, of Williams Col- 

 lege, was assigned to the second district. Mr T. A. Conrad, of 

 Philadelphia, was assigned to the third district, and Mr Lardner 

 Vanuxem, of Bristol Pa., to the fourth district. 



The mineralogic department was assigned to Dr Lewis C. 

 Beck, a native of Albany, but at that time a professor in Rut- 

 gers College, New Jersey. Dr John Torrey, professor of chemis- 

 try and botany in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New 

 York, was commissioned as state botanist; and Dr James E. 

 De Kay, of Long Island, as state zoologist. 



The assistants in geology commissioned by the governor were: 

 Caleb Briggs in the first geologic district, James Hall in the 

 second, Greorge W. Boyd in the third, and James Eights in the 

 fourth district. 



The instructions given to these officers were essentially the 

 same as recommended in the report of the secretary of state. 

 Each of the geologists was required to collect, in his own dis- 

 trict, eight suites of rock specimens, but no conditions of this 

 kind were imposed on the mineralogist, botanist or zoologist. 

 A special draftsman was appointed for the zoologic department 

 and also for the botanic department. The geologists were each 

 allowed a small sum ($300) annually to pay for the drawings of 

 sections, maps, etc. which might be required for the illustration 

 of their reports. 



This, in brief, was the organization of the New York natural 

 history survey at its commencement. At the end of the first year, 

 it became evident to the geologists that the relations of the 

 rock formations, the age and order of superposition, among the 

 then unknown, or very imperfectly understood, stratified de- 

 posits, could be determined only on paleontologic evidence. 

 They therefore unanimously recommended to the governor that 



