84 The American Geolog ost. February, 1892 
unsettled interior of the state, he drew up a communication on 
the subject, addressed to the executive committee, urging reasons 
for connecting it with the State University. The argument did 
not prevail, but the paper was published by the State Agricultural 
Society in its report for 1854. 
During the summer vacation of 1854 he made some excursions 
in company with Profs. A, Sager and Charles Fox, for the pur- 
pose of making collections in natural history. A specimen of 
shell-marl collected was analyzed quantitatively, and the results 
published in the Michigan Furmer. Hegavea good deal of study 
to the land and fresh-water-shells of the state, as well as to the 
reptiles and fishes. ; 
1855. In the spring of 1855, he became enlisted in an effort 
to found a state Natural History Society, in connection with the 
State Teachers’ Association, and read a paper,—published in the 
Michigan Journal of Education for March, 1855—On the Pursuit 
of the Natural Sciences. He also published a scheme of opera- 
tions proposed. But interest in such subjects was at a low ebb, 
and the organization was so loose, and scattered, that this project 
never produced much fruit. During 1855, Prof. L. Agassiz’ 
prospectus for a voluminous work on the Natural History of the 
United States was issued, and through personal request Prof. 
Agassiz appeals were addressed to the public by Prof. Winchell 
through the papers of Eutaw, Ala., and of Ann Arbor. In 
August he made a railroad survey from Ann Arbor toward Jones- 
ville, as far as Manchester. 
On the basis of an understanding reached, on his assuming the 
chair of ‘Physics and Civil Engineering,’ the University created, 
this year, the chair of ‘‘Geology, Zoology and Botany,’ and to 
this chair Prof. Winchell was transferred. The meteorological 
instruments which he had purchased and used, impelled by his 
interest in natural physics, were surrendered regretfully to his 
successor. Prof. Winchell had indeed kept up a continuous series 
of observations ever since 1848, first at Amenia, under instruc- 
tions from the New York Regents, then at Newbern, Eutaw and 
Selma on the blank forms of the Smithsonian Institution, and 
lastly at Ann Arbor. He still continued, however, with his own 
instruments, the full series excepting the barometric records. 
The habit established of regular observations of the weather is 
traceable even through the last weeks of his life, since his diary 
