10 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The incompleteness of the plan for the contemplated uatural 

 history survey of the state was recognized by the governor and 

 Legislature; and it was also claimed that agricultural interests 

 had not been sufficiently considered in the work already pub- 

 lished. It was, therefore, decided that the department of 

 paleontology should be reestablished, and that of agriculture be 

 added to the plan of the work. The paleontology was commit- 

 ted to Mr James Hall, who entered on the work in 1844. 



The agriculture of the state was reported on by Dr Ebenezer 

 Emmons. The first of the series of five volumes bearing on this 

 subject contained a somewhat detailed discussion of the general 

 geology of the state, with a statement of the author's views 

 regarding the " Taconic " system. A geologic map was pre- 

 pared to accompany this volume, which was an almost exact 

 reproduction of the geologic map of 1842, with the exception 

 that the area considered by the author to be occupied by the 

 Taconic system was so colored on the map, though not noted in 

 the accompanying legend. This map was not widely distributed. 



During the period from 1844 to 1892 little areal work was 

 carried on, the work of Dr Hall being concentrated on paleon- 

 tology, but between 1890 and 1892, part of the general museum 

 appropriation had been used for geologic work by the writer. 



In 1892 an appropriation was secured from the Legislature 

 for the completion and publication of the geologic map of the 

 state and considerable work was done in tracing boundaries. 

 Subsequent to the publication of this map (the Hall map of 1894) 

 small appropriations were annually made for field work and a 

 certain amount of areal mapping was carried on under the di- 

 rection of Prof. Hall till his death in 1898. 



On the death of Prof. Hall the writer was appointed to suc- 

 ceed him as state geologist, while Dr John M. Clarke was 

 appointed state paleontologist and the work of areal mapping 

 has been continued as rapidly as appropriations would permit. 



