AN ACT 
Authorizing an abridged publication of the Natural Histo- 
ry of the State of New- York. 
,/ 
The People of the State of New- York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly i do enact as follows : 
Section 1 . The persons employed by the State of New- York to 
write the Natural History of the State, viz : Ebenezer Emmons, 
James Hall, Lewis C. Beck, John Torrey, James DeKay, Lardner 
Vanuxem and William W. Maiher, shall each respectively have, own 
and possess and forever enjoy the copyright to the several volumes 
pubhshed by them as State Geologists. 
§ 2. The said aforenamed persons shall, within sixty days after the 
passage of this act, file in the Comptroller's office a notice of their ac- 
ceptance of the said copyright, and give bonds with good and suffi- 
cient security, of which the Governor, Secretary of State and Comp- 
troller shall determine, for the sum of five thousand dollars each, pay- 
able to the State of New-York, and upon the condition that they each 
shall, within one year, abridge and put in print one entire edition of 
three thousand copies of tlie Natural History of the State of New- 
York, not to exceed eight octavo volumes, of six hundred pages each, 
and sell them to all who desire to purchase, at a price not to exceed 
one dollar and seventy-five cents per volume. 
§ 3. The State of New- York hereby give to the persons publishing 
said Natural History all maps, plates, lithographs or engravings on 
wood or stone that belong to the State, and have been used or intend- 
ed to be in the publication of said Natural History. 
§ 4. The said persons so publishing the Natural History of the 
Slate, shall also publish all the plates already embraced in said work, 
and all intended so to be, upon as good paper as the first edition is, 
and in all respects as well executed and colored as the same are in 
quarto form unbound, for the sum of twelve dollars and seventy-five 
