68 The American Geologist. February, 1902. 
desired to complete his study of the natural history of the 
state. He had been preparing since childhood for just this 
task and his whole soul went into it. He at once planned an 
extensive work and wrote out the title pages and contents of 
the three volumes of which it was to consist. Each volume 
was to be entitled “Natural History of Vermont,” the first 
was to be given to geology, the second to botany, the third to 
zoology. 
The work never went far beyond the plan indicated, for 
the shadow of death, which for years had hovered over his 
life, at last fell and in 1856 he died at his home in Burlington. 
It was a sore disappointment to Prof. Thompson that 
he could not finish his work and at first, when it was appar- 
ent that he must leave it unfinished he was sore distressed. 
The pathetic struggle was not long, however, and soon he 
patiently and quietly submitted to the will of the God in 
whom he had believed and trusted and his end was peace. 
As has been indicated, Prof. Thompson was hindered and 
often baffled, at least for the time, by lack of funds. There 
were other hindrances and discouragements. In an address 
before the Boston Society of Natural History, given in 1851, 
he says that what he had accomplished in the business of 
natural history he had done without any associates engaged 
in similar pursuits, without collections and almost without 
books. 
Personally, Prof. Thompson was tall, angular, of a very 
quiet and sober, though gentle manner, amiable, sweet tem- 
pered, loved by all who knew him. His opinions were re- 
spected as those of a man of sound common sense and good 
judgment. He was unaffected and childlike and though 
naturally conservative, his scientific training made him hos- 
pitable to all new truth. His sober manner may have been large- 
ly due to the consciousness that was always present during the 
latter part of his life that the disease of the heart which afflicted 
him for years might at any time end his life. Because of this 
he did not trust himself far from home alone. His most 
frequent companion during these years was a Mr. Hills, him- 
self a lover ‘of nature and a most gentle, sweet spirited man, 
who engraved nearly all of the illustrations in Prof. Thomp- 
son’s publications. 
