made of the streams and rivers between the Hudson and 

 lake Erie, and for several years, he was associated as 

 one of the Board of Canal Commissioners. 



From the account I have now given of his official acts, 

 an idea will readily be formed of the peculiar bent of his 

 mind on literary and scientific subjects. It would, how* 

 ever, be altogether imperfect, were I to omit a sketch 

 of his connexion with societies intended to promote and 

 advance these. 



Questionable as their utility may appear to some in 

 these days of universal doubt and disputation, I would 

 yet suggest that in this country, much room is left for 

 displaying all their valuable traits. We differ in many 

 respects from scientific Europe. Our means of investi- 

 gation are limited and partial. Our men of science are 

 scattered over the surface of a large country, and can 

 scarcely pursue its progress, except through the medium 

 of journals and societies. That we have abundance of 

 talent, is an every day's observation, but we are hardly 

 aware how much of it is wasted in oft-repeated enqui- 

 ries, and how frequently it is depressed by finding the pro- 

 duct of years of labor, useless and superfluous. Those 

 who have seen (as several in this society have witnessed) 

 the inventor presenting his supposed novelty, with a feel- 

 ing of hardly suppressed pride, as an oflfering, not only to 

 science, but also with an impression that through it he 

 will be repaid for months and years of reflection and en- 

 quiry, and then behold his depression, when in some sci- 

 entific work, all that he had thought and labored, is al- 

 ready put down, will scarcely deny that the collision of 

 mind must be of immense service. It is indeed thus that 

 societies prove infinitely useful. For the successful pur- 

 suit of natural history they are indispensable. Nor is the 

 meeting together without its utility in fostering the so- 



The oldest society in the United States is the "Ame- 

 rican Philosophical," established at Philadelphia. Of 

 this, Franklin was the first President, and Rittenhouse, 



