Xll 
PREFACE. 
acknowledgments have been duly expressed, not only to amateur collectors of 
fossils, but also to professors in colleges and scientific gentlemen generally, both 
within the State and beyond its borders, for their willing aid in the progress of 
the work. Without such aid some portions could not have been properly illus¬ 
trated (as I was compelled to depend solely on my own purse for collections 
made in the field during the preparation of the earlier volumes). These volumes 
(I, II, III), therefore, present a less complete illustration of the faunas of the 
geological formations to which they refer, than do the later volumes, which were 
published after the State had furnished means for making field collections. 
Volumes I and II should be revised and republished with all the added 
knowledge of these faunas obtained during the past third of a century. 
This work, from its commencement in 1843, has been prosecuted amid many 
difficulties, and often under conditions which would have justified its final 
abandonment. These hindrances have been overcome, and a series of volumes 
has been published, and accepted as a contribution to the scientific literature 
of the world. 
The work in the agricultural and palaeontological departments was carried 
on in the old State Hall (State Cabinet of Natural History) on State street, 
until 1845, when the authors were compelled to remove themselves and their 
work from the building. This requirement proved seriously burdensome to the 
Palaeontologist, necessitating at once the erection of a building of moderate size 
with ordinary working rooms; and afterwards (when the Legislature began to 
make appropriations for collections of fossils), two extensive buildings were 
found necessary; these were erected at my own cost and fitted up with about 
four thousand drawers, for the proper disposition of the immense collections 
brought in from the field, together with rooms and conveniences for the prepara¬ 
tion, study and arrangement of fossils, and offices for draughtsman and 
lithographer; and they were occupied as a museum and laboratory till the end 
of 1886. Prior to 1871 the Legislature made no provision for the expenses of 
these or any other working rooms, nor for clerk hire and incidental outlay. 
From 1850 onward for several years no appropriations were made for carry¬ 
ing on the work, and even the author’s small salary was discontinued. From 
