66 The American Geologist. February, 1902. 
University of Vermont. During the following year he pub- 
lished a gazeteer of Vermont, a work of 300 pages. This was 
followed by several arithmetics, geographies, histories, travel- 
ers’ guides, almanacs, etc., as shown in the bibliography follow- 
ing this article. During these years he also taught school in 
several places. Before he entered colloge Mr. Thompson had 
formed a plan for collecting the material for a complete history, 
natural, civil, statistical, of his native state, and for more than 
twenty years he devoted much of both time and money to the 
execution of this plan. 
In 1842 he had gathered and arranged his materials and 
was ready to publish, but now his funds were wholly exhausted 
and his manuscript seemed likely to remain hidden in his desk. 
At this juncture an old friend and neighbor, Mr. Chauncey 
Goodrich, who was a publisher and printer came to the rescue 
and offered to print the work without the usual royalty and 
to wait for payment of all bills till returns should come from 
the sales of the book. The offer was accepted and an edition 
of five thousand copies was soon issued. The legislature of 
the state ordered one hundred copies for the use of the state 
library and after the publication of the work voted five hun- 
dred dollars to the author in token of the popular appreciation 
of what he had done. 
The work is in three parts each of which if less closely 
printed would make a fair sized volume The first part is 
devoted to the natural history of Vermont and is quite fully 
illustrated, the second is a civil history, and the third is an en- 
iarged and revised edition of the gazeteer. The unselfish 
spirit of the author is well shown in the price fixed 
upon this work. His publisher urged Mr. Thompson to sell 
the parts separately, charging two dollars each, or six dollars 
for the whole work which contained six hundred and forty- 
six pages and as books then sold, would not have been con- 
sidered dear at that price. Mr. Thompson, however, had all 
his life known the pain of wanting books that he could not 
afford to buy and he insisted that the price should be low 
so that those of limited means might not be deprived of the 
benefits of the work. The three parts were therefore sold 
together for two dollars and a half, though his own profits 
were thereby greatly lessened. 
