UC-NRLF

2Dfi

! }

mm

• H ;.'

;ffi^ii

I LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA J

PRELIMINARY REPORT

OX THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE

STATE OF VERMONT

BY AUGUSTUS YOUNG;

STATLJ NATURALIST.

DOCUMENTS KPA.tTM
FEB I.'-

*RY

u

BURLINGTON:
C H A U N G E.Y G 0 0 I) II I 0 IT.

185G-.

.

810LOG*
L1BRARV

IN SENATE, Oct. 23, 1856.
Referred to the Committee under the 4th Joint Rule.

IN SENATE, Oct. 23, 1856.

Reported. Ordered to lie — and that the Secretary procure
one thousand copies to be printed for the use of the General
Assembly.

257

REPORT.

To His Excellency.

EYLAND FLETCHER,

Governor of the State of Vermont : —

SIR : On the twenty-ninth day of February, 1856, I had the
honor of receiving from His Excellency GOVERNOR ROYCE the
appointment of State Naturalist, to supply, until the next session
of the General Assembly, the office which was rendered vacant by
the death* of Professor Zadock Thompson.

Conscious that my present position is more attributable to the
generous hopes of your predecessor than to any merits of my own,
I hesitated awhile, by reason of failing health, to assume upon my
self its weighty cares. Having, however, for many years devoted
a portion of my time, and all of my leisure hours, to the study of
Natural History, and especially of my native State, and become
somewhat familiar with the physical resources of Vermont, and
feeling anxious that the work, in which Professor THOMPSON was
engaged at the time of his death, should be prosecuted to its com
pletion without interruption, I ventured, not however without
some misgivings, to take upon myself the burden of its duties.

As soon, therefore, as circumstances and a proper regard for
the feelings of the family of my deceased friend would justify my
so doing, I commenced my official service, and in due time, made a
careful examination of the progress which had been made by my
predecessors towards a " thorough prosecution and completion of
the Geological Survey/'

The first object of my enquiry was to ascertain the requirements
of the Stsuutc.s authorizing a Geological Survey of the State \ and

* fc-te Appendix Nh. 'L

6

I found that to the history of the legislation of Vermont on this
subject is attached no want of interest. The matter of a Geolo^i-
cal Survey of Vermont was first brought to the consideration of the
General Assembly during the administration of Gov. Jenison, in
1836, and in the following year (October session, 1837,) the sub
ject was referred to the Committee on Education, in whose behalf
the late Gov. Eaton submitted to the Senate a carefully prepared
report,* accompanied by able and important documents. Although
the subject was discussed at each succeeding session of the Gener
al Assembly, the first Act was not passed until October, A. D.
1844,t and the second act received the executive sanction in De
cember, 1853 1 — the one making provision for the Survey, r.nd the
other providing for its completion.

The duties devolving upon the State Geologist, by virtue of the
Act of 1844, are clearly set forth in the third section of said Act,
and are as follow : " It shall be the duty of the State Geologist,
as soon as practicable, to commence and prosecute a thorough
Geological Survey of the State, embracing therein a full and scien
tific examination and description of the rocks, soils, metals and
minerals ; make careful and complete assays and analyses of the
same ; and annually, on before the first day of October, to report
to the Governor the progress of the work, the most efficient and
economical manner of conducting it, and an estimate of the ex
pense for the ensuing year/'t

By virtue of this Act, Gov. Slade appointed, as State Geologist,
Professor Charles B. Adams, at that time Professor of Chemistry
and Natural History in Middlebury College, who entered upon his
duties on the first day of March, 1845, and who made four annual
reports upon the Survey indicating its advancement, which reports
were duly submitted by the Governor to the General Assembly,
and printed and distributed among the people. The Legislature
having made no provision for embodying the facts which were
gathered during the three years of the Survey in a systematic
report, and having failed to make any appropriation for a con
tinuance of the work, the Survey was suspended— the manu
scripts, field-books and specimens being locked up in about fifty

* See Appendix No. 5.
f See Append x No. 2.
$ Sec Appendix No. 3.

boxes, and in that plight, remaining at Burlington and Mont-
pel ier.*

In 1848, the General Assembly passed a Joint Resolution pro
viding for the preservation of the materials for completing the
Geological Survey, as follows : "Resolved by the Senate and
House of Representatives, That all collections of minerals, field-
notes, and all preparations and materials amassed by the State
Geologist for a final report upon the Geological Survey, be brought
together by some suitable person to be appointed by the Governor5
and be deposited in the State House, under the care of the State
Librarian, that nothing may be lost, and that the State may have
the benefit of these collections, whenever the State sh^ll deem it
expedient to " prosecute the Survey to completion. "t

Governor Coolidge commissioned Professor Zadock Thompson
to carry into effect the foregoing resolution, whose report, under
date of October llth, 1849, is respectfully referred to and made a
part of this communication.*

A final Geological Report, embracing the entire results of his
labors and those of his Assistants, was never made by Prof. Ad
ams, and on the nineteenth day of January, 1853, he died on the
Island of St. Thomas, West Indies, summoned hence in the prime
of his life and usefulness.

In the month of October, following the decease of Prof. C. B.
Adams, the General Assembly passed "An Act to provide for
completing the Geological Survey of the State," in and by which
Prof. Zadock Thompson was appointed State Naturalist, with the
following duties : " to enter as soon as practicable upon a thorough
prosecution and completion of the Geological Survey of the State,
embracing therein a full and scientific examination and descrip
tion of its rocks, soils, metals and minerals ; make careful and
complete assays and analyses of the same ; and prepare the results
of his labors for publication, under the three following titles, to
wit:

First — Physical Geography, Scientific Geology, and Mineral
ogy-

Second, Economical Geology, embracing Botany and Agricul
ture.

*See Appendix No. 4.

fSee Session Laws, 1848. p. 36, No. 53.

Third.— General Zoology of the State.*"

It will be noticed, upon comparison, that so far as regards Phys
ical Geography, Scientific and Economical Geology and the con
comitant science of Mineralogy, the Statutes of 1844 and 1853
imposed similar duties upon the State Geologist and State Natu
ralist — to which there can be, probably, no well-planted objection
except to that requirement by which he is expected to make "care
ful and complete analyses of soils " with a view to a special appli
cation of Geology to Agriculture. Upon the doubtful utility of
this requirement, 1 propose to ofler some remarks in their proper
place.

By the act of 1853, Botany and the General Zoology of the State
are added to the previous act of 1844, thereby obviously contem
plating a complete Natural History of Vermont, in three parts or
subdivisions — a design which, if Providence had permitted Prof.
Thompson to carry out to completion, would have possibly
surpassed any thing of the kind in any of our sister States. It
was one of Professor Thompson's most ardent earthly aspirations
that he might be allowed to present to the world in an entire,
well-planned and well-executed work, the Physical Geography,
and Natural History of his native State ; and from the liberal
Views which prompted the passage of the act of 1653 it is obvious
that a like laudable feeling and ambition pervaded the General
Assembly. But in the death of Professor Thompson such ex
pectations have been disappointed ; arid we may be compelled to
satisfy ourselves with or rather to submit to such a Geological
Survey as has, in general, been satisfactory to different States in
our Union, consisting of carefully prepared and arranged reports
upon the Natural History of Vermont. It is no disparagement
to any living Naturalist or Geologist to express a doubt whether
for many years to come there will be found among us another gen
tleman so ardent in his feelings upon the subject, or so well fitted
by life-long series of observations and scientific examinations, to
execute on behalf of the State a task ot such magnitude and im
portance as was the late and highly gifted State Naturalist, Pro.
lessor Zadock Thompson.

We may, however, gather consolation in the fact that so fur as

* Sec .Appendix No- 3.

9

the Zoology and Botany of Vermont are concerned, we have the
results of the unwearied explorations and observations of Prof.
Thompson, embodied in his Natural History of Vermont which
was published in October 1842, and, beside this, we have record
of his more recent and matu:e labors embraced in an Appendix to
his History of Vermont which was published by him in a small
volume of sixty four pages, in April, 1853 — five years after the
Geological Survey, under Professor Charles B. Adams as chief
ond Messrs S. R. Hall of Craftsbury and Zadock Thompson of
Burlington, as assistants, had been suspended,

It is reasonable to suppose that if Professor Thompson had
been permitted to live and finish the work which the Legislature
had commissioned him to perform, valuable additions would have
been made to his botanical catalogue as printed in his History and
Appendix, and undoubtedly many plants would have been discover
ed nnd zoological discoveries made to reward his patient and enter
prising research. Such plants and animals — however small or
insignificant — are by no means unworthy the study or beneath the
notice of any scientific enquirer : but it may be seriously ques
tioned whether, since Professor Thompson, upon whom especial
reliance was placed nnd in whom the hopes of the State centred,
is «lead and no longer able to answer the expectations which a
grateful people indulged, the General Assembly would authorize
or justify the expense which is incident to the compilation and
publication of those parts of the Natural History of the State
which comprised the departments of Botany and Zoology — even
upon a reasonable assurance that such a work would not be in any
wise slighted in the hands of others than those for whom it was
designed. Apart from this consideration I have thus far been
unable to ascertain that subsequent to his appointment as State
Naturalist in October 1853, he had been subjected to any consider
able expense in preparing materials for the publication of the se
cond and third volumes of the Natural History of the State, as
contemplated by the Statute of 1853. His attention had been
chiefly bestowed upon a preparation for publication of a volume
relating to the Physical Geography, Scientific Geology and Min
eralogy of Vermont.

It may be possible that the materials already collected and pre
pared by Professor Thompson would have been sufficient to en-

10

able him to compile the three volumes contemplated by the act
of 1853 by the addition of such extracts from his published works
as may have been appropriate ; but it may admit of some doubt
whether any other person would be justified in making use of the
same printed matter for the same purpose. The fact has been
communicated to me that a large edition of his Natural, Civil and
Statistical History of Vermont yet remains unsold, and I am un
willing to believe that inasmuch as his literary and scientific works
constituted the chief legacy to his wife and family, any one wrould
suggest or recommend any measure tending to lessen the sale of
his valuable books or infringe upon the copy-right in which his
family must feel no slight interest. If however, the widow and
heirs of the late State Naturalist can be induced to waive their
right and interpose no objection to a judicious use of that part of
Professor Thompson's history which relates to the Natural His
tory of the State, then there would remain no obstacle or objec
tion in the way of using all of the labors of the late State Natu
ralist in carrying out the plan contemplated by the act of 1853.
Under these circumstances and influenced by the considerations
which I have briefly mentioned I have esteemed it to be my duty
for the present and until these suggestions are communicated to
the Legislature, to forbear any attempts to collect or arrange ma
terials for the Botanical and Zoological compartments of the pro
posed work, and have confined my labors and restricted my enquir
ies to those matters which relate more particularly to the Geolog
ical department in connection with Mineralogy.

My predecessor, Professor Thompson, at the time of hisxleath
had for causes to which I shall hereafter particularly advert, made
but slight progress in preparing his reports for publication. I
find, however, among the great number of papers, and collection
of matter from which the materials for his final reports were to
be drawn, a programme of his contemplated work contained in three
small pamphlets in manuscript* executed in his remarkably neat
and methodical manner, purporting to present the title-pages and
tables of contents of the three proposed volumes. Each volume
was entitled" Natural History of Vermont " — the first being devot
ed to Geology ; the second to Botany ; and the third to Zoology.*
The contents of the first volume were divided into four parts, viz :

. * See Appendix No. 9,

11

Scenograpliic Geology — Scientific Geology — Mineralogy and
Economical Geology — all constituting in my judgment, an excel
lent and most comprehensive programme : and, perhaps, no better
and more methodical table of contents on the Geology of the State
could be devised. The contents under the head or title of Sceno-
graphicGeology relate to the aspect of the country,Mountains, Hills
Watersheds, Valleys, Chasms, Caves, Springs, Streams, Ponds,
Lakes, Swamps. On these subjects Professor Thompson has left
a few pages in manuscript carefully enveloped as if prepared for
the press : but aside from these papers I have been unable to dis
cover many traces of his progress in writing out the proposed
work for publication.

I have deemed it proper and incumbent upon me to allude to
these facts in order to present a correct view of the present con
dition of the Geological Survey. Should it be thought advisable
to postpone for the present further labors in the department of
Botany and Zoology, it seems as if the materials already acquired
together with such as may be obtained or prepared at a moderate
expense n ight enable some competent Naturalist to arrange for
publication such a final report of the Geological Survey as was
originally contemplated by the act of 1844. The expense of such
a report would be inconsiderable as compared with the benefits
which would accrue, provided the analyses of the different soils
of the State were dispensed with.

With regard to the chemical analyses of soils I would suggest
that in order to have them of practical use or of scientific interest
they should be made with extreme care and thoroughness and
must, of necessity, involve greater expense than their very doubt
ful utility to the agricultural interest of the State would warrant..

The agricultural interest of a State is greatly paramount to any
other and, in fact, to all other interests combined. " To subdue
the earth," to make it perpetually fruitful is the province of agri
culture and he must be a public benefactor who can discover some,
special means whereby the farmers of Vermont are enabled to in
crease their profits and diminish their labors, and he is doing the
State some service who can induce the farming interest to adopt
the best mode of preparing the soil and putting it to the most prof
itable use and to dispose of its products most advantageously to
the soil and its owner : for thereby he advances the intelligence.

12

and promotes the happiness of those who pursue a delightful but
necessarily laborious calling. I owe it to candor to express my
doubt whether any Geologist however skillful or Naturalist how
ever learned or scientific, can, by traversing the State, collecting
and arranging statistics of the average crops and calling the at
tention of farmers, to the well-known deposits of marl, muck, lime
&c., in their respective vicinities, succeed in supplying the place
of intelligent enquiry and careful observation in an enlightened
farming community. There is no royal road to the successful pur
suit of Agriculture any more than to any branch of domestic in
dustry or department of science.

In regard to the chemical analysis of soils arid some of the
requisites of a valuable analysis I propose to offer a few remarks.
A plant derives the principal part of its sustenance from the soil.
The soil must contain certain fertilizing elements in due propor
tions to secure the perfect growth of the plant. If the soil be
deficient in one or more of these essential elements, chemical anal
ysis can detect the cause of the evil and point out the remedy
"But," says Dr. John D. Easter, " the growth of plants is influ
enced by a multitude of other circumstances to which chemical
analysis can furnish no clue, a soil may abound in all the elements
of a very fertile one and yet be perfectly barren. The soil of the
great Colorado desert in California, which I have recently anal
ysed, furnishes a good example of this. It possesses in abundance
every element necessary to extreme fertility, but is entirely barren
from the want of water.

The reverse of this also frequently occurs. The chemist re
ceives a specimen of the soil, in the chemical constitution of which
he can detect no deficiency, and in his laboratory, he can assign no
cause for its alleged unproductiveness. An examination of the lo
cality probably shows him that it is underlaid by a stiff, tenacious
sub-soil, which retains an excess of watei\ and no provision has
been made for drainage.

The difference in the mechanical texture of stiff and loose soils
is familiar to every one. The fertility of many stiff clays may be
seriously impaired by ploughing too wet, rendering them tough
and impenetrable to the tender rootlets of plants. In this case, as
no chemical change takes place, the chemist in his laboratory would
seek in vain for the cause of the difficulty.

13

Every attempt to improve the character of the soil must, there
fore, be preceded by a judicious consideration of its mechanical
texture, its power of absorbing and retaining water, and its capa
city for heat. Hence it is important that the agricultural chemist
should, if possible, himself examine the locality in order fully to
estimate the wants of the soil. The employment by every State
of an agricultural chemist, who should visit in person every part
of the State, is therefore, strongly to be recommended.

In the next place it is requisite that an analysis of the soil, in
order to be of much value should be thorough. It must include sepa
rate estimations of the parts soluble in water and in acids, and the
insoluble portion. For the portion soluble in water represents
what is available for the wants of the growing crop, while the por
tion soluble in dilute acids, is the index of what may by decomposi
tion become the food of plants. This undecomposed portion of the
soil may often, by the application of lime, ashes and other caustic
manures, be more speedily decomposed and rendered available.

The analysis should include also, if possible, the sub-soil as
well as the surface soil, in order to guide the former in the process
of deepening his soil. There are, of late, many advocates of indis
criminate deep ploughing. But a fertile soil may be underlaid by
a barren sub-soil, by throwing up large quantities of which the
fertility of a field may be destroyed for years. The subsoil, not
unfrequently. contains large quantities of protoxide of iron and
other substances which are not injurious to vegetation until they
have been subjected to the action of the atmosphere. On the other
hand, the subsoil often contains elements of fertility which are not
so abundant in the surface soil, in which case deep ploughing will
improve both. It is important that the agriculturist should know
these differences, in order that he may know where he should
plough deep and where refrain.

A still more important consideration is, that no analysis can
be of any value to the farmer who is not himself a chemist, unless
it be accompanied by a discussion of the indications it affords, and
a recommendation of suitable means of improvement. Our agri
cultural journals and reports abound in analyses which are about
as intelligible to the unscientific farmer as the inscriptions on the
pyramids, or a chapter from La Place's Mechanique Celeste.
Most of our intelligent farmers know that lime, phosphoric acid,

14

and the alkalies, play important parts in the economy of vegetation,
but few of them have any idea how much of these valuable ingredi
ents is requisite to fertility, or what are the best means of supply
ing their deficiency. Until every farmer is also a chemist, an an
alysis of a soil or manure which is not followed by a commentary
on its defects or virtues, leaves him just where the diagnosis of a
disease, without a prescription for its relief, leaves the patient.
He is no wiser nor better off than before. It will not do to presume
that when the chemist pronounces what a soil contains, the agri
culturist will know what it ought to contain, and how to supply its
wants. Every farmer should insist upon an interpretation of the
analysis furnished him by the chemist."*

In regard to the benefits to be derived by the agricultural inter
est from chemical analyses of soils, I beg leave to quote from
published letters written by President Hitchcock of Amherst College
and by Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jun. of Yale College, New Haven,
Connecticut.

President Hitchcock in a lettert to our first State Geologist says :
" I should not think it strange if some should be disappointed, as
they have been in other States, by anticipating too much from the
mere analyses of soils. The impression is very strong through
the community that the chemist, by such an analysis, can determine
what is wanting to render a soil fertile or what renders it barren.
Now even admitting that he could do this, an analysis of the soil from
almost every farm in the State, nay, from almost every field, would
be necessary to make it of much value; and it is not generally
known that every such analysis, accurate enough for this purpose^
could not consume less than two or three weeks. But I do not be
lieve that agricultural chemistry is yet far advanced enough to en
able the chemist to say in many cases what ingredient added will
be sure to render a barren soil prolific ; although it is more easy to
detect hurtful ingredients. But the analysis of some of the
prevailing soils of the State (for example those from the limestone,
mica slate, gneiss and and argillaceous slate regions,) will enable
you to make suggestions that may be of great use."

Professor Silliman, Jr., in his correspondence! with Professor

* See Appendix No 10.

•f-See First annual Report on the Geology of the State of Vermont by Prof. Adams,
pp. 07, 68.
JSee Prof. Adams' Second Annual Report on the Geology of Vermont, pp. 202, 263.

15

Adams, makes the following expressive remarks : " I hardly know
what answer to make to your enquiry about the terms for analyz
ing one hundred specimens of soils, &c. Our customary charge in
analysis has been five dollars for every determination. This makes
a round bill, but not more than a fair quid pro quo for the labor and
skill required. It is the rate affixed by the joint agreement of
several chemists. However we always make an abatement from
it in case of many analyses of the same sort. No doubt, a sort of
analysis of a soil may be made for five dollars, all told, but what
sort I will not say. In my opinion the present state of science
demands that an analysis of a soil, to be of any use whatever, must
be minute, and ought to comprise at least ten separate determin
ations, besides the ultimate analysis ol the whole mass, by alka
line fusion, which is useful as showing the extreme resource of the
soil. We now think that we must have — First, an analysis of the
matter soluble from the soil by water alone ; Second, the amount
of the matters soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid; Third, the ul
timate analysis by fusion, as just suggested; Ldstlij, we ought to
know the mechanical condition of the soil, technically called its
mechanical analysis, which requires a series of sittings, washings
and weighings, distinct from all the preceding. Going through all
these numerous but essential steps on sixteen soils for * * * * -\ye
made him a bill of five hundred dollars. The difference between
fertility and barrenness is comprised within such narrow limits
that only a minute analysis of the sort I have sketched, can be of
much use. Agriculture gains nothing from any further multipli
cation of such analyses as the bulk of those which in past years
have filled Geological and Agricultural Reports. We have enough
such already. Unless an analysis of a soil can do something more
than people have hitherto been content with, the result will soon
be that agriculturists will, with reason, question the utility of
chemical analyses as of any practical benefit."

If therefore, the foregoing quotations from the pens of the most
accomplished geologists in the Union are to be treated as author
itative in the premises, any attempt to analyze the almost infinite
variety of soils in Vermont with a view to subserve the agricultu
ral interests of the State would involve an expenditure which by
reason of any accruing benefit could not perhaps well be justified.
Thus the agricultural chemistry of the state is properly and chiefly

1G

referred to the observation and experience of its intelligent citi
zens and farmers who by no means treat the science of agricul
ture with disrespect and do not reject what is called book-knowl
edge on the subject as contained in the numerous periodicals and
other works devoted to agriculture which are so generally circula
ted in their midst.

It is not for a moment to be presumed that the intelligent farm
ers of Vermont are wholly ignorant of the difference in the nature
and fertilizing qualities of the soils pervading more extended
tracts or ranges of the State and which have been chiefly produced
by the disintegration of the different kinds of rocks which under
lie or are in the vicinity of the soils which have been formed from
simple minerals composing the rocks and consequently partake
more or less of their mineral and chemical characters.

A general acquaintance with the different simple minerals and
their characters of which these extensive ranges of rock are com
posed (and no new chemical analysis is required for this purpose,)
enables us to get a general but imperfect understanding of the
chemical composition of the soils which overlie or accompany them.
It may here be remarked that those ranges of rocks and their ac
companying soils run nearly North and South, and hence their dif
ference becomes very apparent in travelling East or West across
the State. This general difference in the chemical constituents
of the several ranges of soil is doubtless all that was intended to
be conveyed by President Hitchcock when he says that suggestions
in regard to the " prevailing soils of the State (for example
those from the limestone, mica slate, gneiss and argillaceous slate
regions,) may be of great value." *

Aside from the considerations which those quotations embody
and enforce, it is proper to add that the commonly received opin
ion that the soils of a country have originated from the rocks
immediately under them is somewhat erroneous. All soils are
derived from rocks broken or pulverized and so disseminated that
the ruins of one rock may be supposed to be mixed with the ruins
of a great many others. Every soil, therefore, may be regarded
as a mixture of many soils and may be supposed to have come
from many and often from wide spread localities. " If every par-

*See Prof. Adams' "First Annual Report on the Geology of Vermont," p. 68.

IT

tide in a cubic foot of earth were to be endowed with instinct and
were to rise up and take its departure for its original rocky home,
I have no doubt," says Professor J. A. Nash, '; there would be a
wide scattering, and I believe an extent of travel would be shown
quite surprising to those who have not reflected on the sub
ject."

It must be conceded therefore, that soils do not always depend
for their composition or capabilities upon the rocks immediately
underlaying them. Soils usually come from wide-spread regions
generally North and North-west of their present location. Ver
mont soils however partake more of the character of the adjacent
rocks than the soil of any other section of the Union. Under these
circumstances to which I have alluded in very brief and, I fear, un
satisfactory terms. I venture to suggest that the further chemical
analyses of soils ought to be postponed until they can be made up
on a more extensive scale than is contemplated by the existing
law. The time has scarcely yet arrived when the State of Ver
mont can employ an agricultural chemist to visit in person every
part of the State with the view of examining the dificrent soils
and their physical or mechanical condition or their climatic loca
tion and thus be enabled to make a practical and scientific report
upon the chemical composition and fertilizing elements of such
soils as may be subjected to such analysis and examination.

But with respect to both the qualitative and quantitative anal
ysis of the rocks and minerals of the State, there are abundant
and controlling reasons why this requirement of the Statute
should be faithfully observed by the State Naturalist. The min
eral wealth of Vermont yet remains undeveloped. To the exam
ination, description and arrangement of mineral substances already
known or partially so ; to determining the character of certain
rocks and minerals so as to indicate their economical uses and to
prevent useless experiments and wasteful expenditures of time and
money, have the labors of my predecessor been to a great degree
devoted. Circumstances to which allusion has already been
made have conspired to prevent the results of those researches
from being hitherto systematically arranged and presented to the
public in such a manner as to be of the greatest practical benefit
and most scientific interest.

There is such a diversity of soils in Vermont as to render the
3

18

Green Mountain State one of peculiar interest. The Western or
Prairie States have soils so similar in many respects throughout
their geographical limits, that an analysis of one part may be of
service in determining the chemical composititon of another,where~
as the minerals of Vermont are as various as its surface soils, and its
surface soils are so diversified as to have challenged the attention of
admirers of the beautiful and picturesque as wellas of scientific ob
servers for many years. The extensive and inexhaustible quarries
of limestone and marble, serviceable both as objects of architectu
ral beauty and agricultural utility; the beds of serpentine or verd
antique which so extensively abound in Roxbury, Cavendish, Lud-
low, Lowell, Westfield, Troy and elsewhere ; — the vast hills of
granite lying in the eastern part of Vermont, ranging from the
Provincial line of the boundary of Massachusetts, which have been
so advantageously quarried for building purposes and of whose
beauty and utility the State House at Montpelier is the most im
posing exponent ; the large slate quarries which have been
wrought so extensivelv and contributed so much to the wealth of
Vermont because of their peculiar excellence and which appear to
be in no wise inferior to the best slates of Wales ; the iron
ores of various kinds which seem to be inexhaustible and extend
from the northern to the southern limits of the State and are
found principally on the western side of the Green Mountain
range ; the large beds of manganese lying in Bennington, Rut
land and Addison Counties and to a greater or less extent in other
localities extending to the Province of Canada and which are of
such utility in the manufacture of chloride of lime, useful in
bleaching processes ; the beds of sulphuret of iron or copperas
ore which are situate in Strafford, Corinth, Shrewsbury and other
places and which under congressional protection have banished
foreign copperas from American markets ; the large beds of
steatite or soapstone which have been advantageously wrought
in Grafton, Bridgewater, Bethel, Cavendish, Moretown, Water-
ville, and other parts of Eastern Vermont ; the beds of porcelain
clay in Monkton and other localities together with fire clay of
which the best fire-bricks for furnaces are made ; the beds of
copper, lead ore and other metals — all these and others which I
have not mentioned, render Vermont a most interesting field of
enquiry for the scientific and economical Naturalist.

19

Many of the ores, metals and other minerals enumerated in
this report have been carefully " assayed" or resolved into their
constituent parts, and the results of such analysis carefully noted
and preserved. It may be necessary, however, in view of their
vast importance and utility to supply such deficiencies as may be
found to exist, that the chemical analysis of each valuable metal
or mineral may be presented, in a properly arranged descriptive
table made convenient for the use and reference of those interested
in such important items of intelligence.

While, for reasons heretofore given, the analyses of soils may
not be practicable, and are of very doubtful general utility, there
can be no limit to the importance of an analysis of the ores, metals
and other minerals which constitute so great an element in the
wealth of the State. Jn fact its utility can hardly be ex
aggerated.

While impressed with the importance of a complete develop
ment of all departments of the Natural History of the State
which savor of practical utility, and aware of and duly appre
ciating the natural and laudable wants and wishes of the people
of Vermont in this particular, I am by no means insensible to the
manifold attractions which our State presents to the scientific or
theoretical enquirer. While the geological surveys of New Hamp
shire by Professor Charles T. Jackson, of Massachusetts by
President Edward Hitchcock, of New York by William W. Ma
ther, Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, Prof. Gardner Vanuxem and Prof.
James Hall, and of the Province of Canada by Sir William Ed-
mond Logan, have greatly tended to develope their mineral and
natural resources, it cannot be expected that Vermont will be
backward in ascertaining the extent and variety of her internal
resources. The enlightened policy which gave origin to the ex
isting law providing for a completion of the Geological Survey
will undoubtedly bear the Survey onward to its proper consumma
tion. Although the science of Geology is yet in its infancy, and
the theories of to-day may give place to the more plausible theo
ries of to-morrow, yet whatever of permanent scientific interest
attaches to the Geological Survey of Vermont ought to be re
corded and presented to the world so soon as the Survey is com
pleted and the entire field has been thoroughly explored.

The objects of scientific interest in the Natural History of Ver-

20

mont are so numerous as to have attracted the attention of the
best naturalists of the world. There can be no doubt but the
thorough completion of the Geological Survey will bring to light
many valuable discoveries — valuable in the two-fold view of econ
omy and science. " Vermont," says President Hitchcock, " is
considered as the disputed ground in respect to certain problems
of sublime interest." The rock formations in Vermont are ex
ceedingly complicated both in respect to their mineral composition
and to their geological order and age. While the greater part of
the rocks exhibit plains of sedimentary deposit and thus give
proof of an aqueous origin, they are also very crystalline in their
structure and indicate that during some period of their history
they have been subjected to a very powerful metamorphic agen
cy. The series of rocks which are presented to the eye are in
volved in so great obscurity in regard to their geological periods
or epochs as to have puzzled geologists for many years.* Taking
into view the adjacent parts of New York and New Hampshire,
we have three ranges of mountains nearly parallel : the Adi-
rondac on the West, the White Mountains on the East and the
Green Mountains lying between them separated from the former
by the valley of Lake Champlain, and from the latter by the val
ley of the Connecticut river. The Adirondac and the White
Mountains differ entirely in their character from the Green Moun
tains, for while the two former consist principally of granite and
other igneous rocks, the latter, with the exception of a few trap
dykes and a range of serpentine, is composed of highly meta
morphic and crystalline shales.

Aside from the peculiarity of the rock formations, the Geology
of our State is interesting by reason of the numerous deposits of
marine shells of the pleistocene period — some of which according
to the late State Naturalist, are more than two miles inland from
Lake Champlain, and, at least, two hundred feet above its level.

The interest attached to the Geological Survey of a State so
rich in natural and mineral curiosities as Vermont, will increase
as the Survey advances. As the useful minerals continue to be
more generally understood and more freely developed, and while
the means of prosperous enterprize are continued to her citi-

*See Appendix, No G and 7.

21

zens, we are enabled to have some glimpses of the relative age
and connection of the rocks of the State as well as of some of
the causes which have so modified and diversified the coast of this
portion of our earth. So, too, we have a fair promise of being
able to trace the connection of the rocks of Vermont with those
of Canada, and of other States, as well as of other parts of the
globe.

Moreover the discovery of rare organic remains by my prede
cessor has awakened considerable interest among paleontologists,
and the paramount authority of fossils in ascertaining the rela
tive ages of strata is maintained with additional force. I need
not say that the moral influence of such discoveries, and in fact
of the study of Natural History generally, must be healthful and
elevating, for such discoveries u constitute the links in the mighty
chain of causes and effects to connect created with uncreated
mind."

It is a source of painful regret that the career of Professors
Thompson and Adams closed before the work assigned to them
by the Legislature had been fully performed. It was the dying
lamentation of Professor Thompson, who loved his native State
and her people and devoted his life to an enquiry into her Civil
and Natural History, that Providence could not permit him to
finish the work for which he was appointed. It is due to his
memory to state, that apart from the inroads upon his time and
opportunities for research which disease had made during the latter
part of his life, he met with obstacles in the way of completing
the Geological Survey which were almost insurmountable. One
and the chief of these he has alluded to in the following term s
which I find among the various manuscripts which he left, and
which by virtue of my appointment have been entrusted to my
examination and custody.

" In the first place I have been very much disappointed in re
lation to the field-notes of our former State Geologist, the late
Prof. C. B. Adams. I was aware during the progress of his la
bors, that he kept many of his notes in a short hand of his own
contriving, and remonstrated with him for so doing. Still I hoped
to make out enough from them, to save the trouble of going over
any considerable portion of the ground again. But in this I have
been greatly disappointed. His notes I find to be exceedingly

22

brief and so obscurely expressed in a system of contractions to
which he has left no key, that I find it nearly impossible to derive
any information from them. After spending much time over these
notes to very little purpose, I applied to Prof. Adams' widow,
thinking it possible that she might be so well acquainted with his
method of taking notes as to be able to decipher them ; but she
declined undertaking it, thinking it doubtful about being able to
make out anything from them which would be of service to me.'J

With regard to the collection of " minerals, field-notes, maps
and all preparations amassed by the first State Geologist for a
final report upon the Geological Survey," I would here state that
they were duly deposited in the State House in the care of the
State Librarian, and subsequently taken into the custody of the
Jate State Naturalist. The specimens which were in a proper con
dition for a State Cabinet were suffered to remain at Montpelier,
and the other specimens which have been since partially examined,
trimmed and catalogued, I have ordered to be transported to Mont
pelier. Those specimens which were in a proper condition have
been temporarily arranged in the room set apart for that purpose,
and the residue are collected in room No. 37 of the State House,
to be distributed at an early day to the literary and medical in
stitutions of the State which are entitled to the same, and the bal
ance to be in readiness for future foreign exchanges when deemed
desirable. Although at present not in such order and perfection
as might be wished, yet they indicate the abundance and variety
of the mineral wealth of Vermont, and suggest the benefits which
will undoubtedly flow from its thorough development.

In regard to the size of the specimens for the several collections,
the rule adopted at the outset of the Geological Survey prescribed
that, when the materials admitted, the specimens were to be three
inches square and not less than one inch in thickness. Eight
suites of these minerals duly trimmed, numbered and named were
to be preserved, whose destination was to be as follows : One (and
the best one when there was a choice,) for a State Collection at
Montpelier ; one for the University of Vermont ; one for Middle-
bury College ; one for Norwich University ; one for each of the
Medical Colleges at Castleton and Woodstock; one for the Troy
Conference Academy at Poultney and one to be the property of
the State Geologist.

With some exceptions, the specimens of more than two thou-

23

Band in each suite have been duly delivered to such of the afore^-
mentioned institutions as were willing to pay the expenses of trans
portation from the geological depots at Middlebury and Burling
ton. A few fossils and specimens which have been recently trim
med ana ticketed, have not yet been forwarded to their final
destination.

Rare and valuable specimens are placed where the State Na
turalist can have ready access to them while preparing for publi
cation his final Report on the Natural History of the State. The
number of specimens of rocks, fossils and minerals, which are to un
dergo a " full and scientific examination" is very great, and of
these many minerals and metals are to be "described" in a full
and scientific manner, to meet the requirements of the Statute of
1853. Apart from this laborious duty, careful and complete as
says and analyses are to be made, by means of which a determin
ation of the value of different ores and minerals can be secured j
and when these duties of examination, description and analysis are
performed, the results of the State Naturalist's labors are to be
systematized and prepared for publication in the mode prescribed
by the Statute.

In the progress of the Geological Survey under Prof. Adams,
he was assisted in the field labor by the Rev. Zadock Thompson,
and the Rev. S. R. Hall of Craftsbury ; and the chemical analyses
were performed in the well furnished laboratory of Yale College,
by Denison Olmsted, Jun., of New Haven, Conn., who was com
missioned as Assistant Geologist, and served in that capacity un
til his death, August 15th, 1846. The report of Mr. Olmsted,
forms a part of Prof. Adams' Second Annual Report, and is a valu
able portion of the Appendix. Subsequently to Mr. Olmsted's
death, Mr. Thomas S. Hunt, now of Montreal, was appointed As
sistant State Geologist, in order that his valuable services might
be secured in the Mineralogical department of the Survey, and his
reports of the chemical analyses made by him were communicated
to Professor Adams and appended to his reports on the Geological
Survey, before Mr. Hunt accepted the position which he now
holds of Chemist and Mineralogist to the Geological Survey of
Canada.

Other experienced gentlemen were engaged in field labor and as
assistants. Dr. S. P. Lathrop, Messrs. L. F. Locke and Edward

24

Hitchcock, Jim., arc favorably noticed in Prof. Adams' Reports,
and to Prof. Louis Agassiz of Cambridge ; Prof. James Hall and
Dr. Ebenezer Emmons of Albany, N. Y ; Dr. Asa Fitch of Sa
lem, N. Y; Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jun., of New Haven, Conn.,
Dr. Samuel W. Thayer, now of Burlington, Vt., Dr. James Rob-
bins of Chester, Vt., and others, was Prof. Adams greatly indebted
for advice, assistance and friendly co-operation in his professional
and responsible labors. If Prof. Adams had completed his origin
al design of preparing a final Geological Report, the value of the
services and aid of these learned gentlemen might have been in
calculable.

I am not aware that my predecessor Professor Thompson was
regularly aided in his arduous task by an assistant Naturalist.
He was, however, in constant correspondence with prominent Natu
ralists in this country and abroad, and in intimate relations with his
friend and medical adviser, Samuel W. Thayer, M. D., who has
taken great interest in all matters connected with the Geological
Survey of Vermont from its start, and also with Professor James
Hall, of Albany, N. Y., who rendered aid near the close of Pro
fessor Thompson's life in cataloguing valuable fossils, and in ma
king scientific examination of rare trilobites which Professor
Thompson had obtained in his researches throughout the State.
Professor Henry Erni, then a Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy
and Toxicology in the Medical Department of the University of
Vermont, made on his behalf some chemical analyses which are
preserved in part among the manuscripts which were left incom
plete by Professor Thompson at the time of his death. I greatly
fear that a large portion of the labors of these assistants and cor
respondents cannot now be made available to the world by reason
of lapse of time and other untoward causes. Undoubtedly the
vast array of notes and memoranda belonging to the Survey
would have been of inestimable value if they had been prepared
and kept in a more methodical and intelligible manner, and the
difficulty of compiling final reports would have been materially
lessened and their value greatly enhanced.

At the last session of the General Assembly I find that the
following resolution was adopted :*

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That

*See Appendix, No. 3.

25

the Sergeant-at-Arms be and is hereby directed to set apart and
prepare the committee room, numbered fourteen, for the use of
the State Naturalist for the deposit and arrangement of the speci
mens collected and to be collected in the Geological, Botanical and
Zoological^Survey of the State." *

This resolution which was so opportunely offered and adopted
is prospective in its character and evidently contemplates the
formation of a State Cabinet of the Natural History of Vermont
— a purpose which will meet with the approval of every thought
ful citizen. This important step has undoubtedly been taken
towards the formation of such a Cabinet for the purpose of col
lecting and preserving to all time, valuable specimens of the Nat-
Ural History of the State, and affording a safe and attractive re
pository for the discoveries resulting from the future researches
of inquisitive and scientific inquirers. The minerals and other
geological specimens already collected in great numbers by the
State Geologist and State Naturalist will form the basis of the
State Cabinet as this Resolution implies, to which great additions
can hereafter be made in the botanical and zoological departments
of Natural History.

The State House seems to be the most central and, therefore,
the most appropriate locality for such a Cabinet. Visited as the
Capitol is and always will be at all times of the year, every rare
object in such a Cabinet would be universally seen and duly ap
preciated. Those persons who are making new discoveries in
the mineral wealth of Vermont, and are desirous of exhibiting
new and beautiful specimens of marble, serpentine, steatite, &c.,
to the largest number and in the most imposing and attractive
manner would naturally contribute to it. Such contributions,
originating as they might, possibly, in a wish to advertise the
rare products of a particular locality will, of course, greatly
tend to increase the beauty and add to the value of the State
Cabinet.

Such a collection as this resolution implies will also facilitate
the too much neglected study of our Geology and Natural His
tory. If the rocks of Vermont are arranged in such a collection
according to their respective counties and the organic remains

* See Appendix No. 8.

4

26

there exhibited, reveal the connection or prove the separation of
certain strata and groups of rocks, the student of nature after
examining them in the State Cabinet can at once repair to the
localities where the rocks abound and thus familiarize himself in
a short time with the Geology of the State. The wide range of
animal and vegetable life* which belongs to Vermont will also
present a wide field for scientific examination and the State
Cabinet ought in time to possess specimens of all animals and
vegetables which have lived or grown in Vermont, and each speci
men presented or collected should be carefully preserved and named
and the locality of each properly noted and all specimens calcu
lated to illustrate the Ornithology, Erpetology, Icthyology and
Entomology of the State should have a " local habitation and a
name," in such a State Cabinet as the resolution contemplates.

Since the adoption of this resolution, the Sergeant-at-arms has
prepared the room assigned to the department of Natural History,
under the advice of the late State Naturalist with the view to exhi
bit until a more spacious room is procured, such specimens as are
in readiness for the State Cabinet.

The minerals and other objects collected by the State Geologist
and State Naturalist which have been too long locked up and there
by rendered comparatively useless for any pratical purpose will
upon being properly prepared, labelled and arranged be greatly
enhanced in value. The duty of such a preparation and arrange
ment has been intrusted to my assistant Albert D Hager, "Esq., of
Proctorsville, Vermont, whose experience and skill fit him for the
thorough and acceptable execution of this important trust and I
respectfully submit to your perusal Mr. Hager's Report which is
appended to this communication and bespeak for the suggestions
contained therein a thoughtful consideration.

I take also this opportunity to express my grateful acknowledg
ment to my friend George F. Houghton, Esq., of St. Albans, Ver
mont, to whom I have issued a commission as Assistant State Na
turalist and who has rendered me important service in the course
of my labors as State Naturalist.

I have thus presented to your Excellency, in as brief a manner
as the number and nature of the topics alluded to in this commu
nication would permit, the several facts which tend to indicate the
present condition of the Geological Survey. Although the Stat-

27

ute of 1853 requires no report to be made until " sufficient facts
and materials shall have been collected upon the subject of Phys
ical Geography, Scientific Geology and Mineralogy of the State to
form a volume of not less than five hundred pages octavo," yet the
peculiar circumstances I have referred to and the natural and
laudable curiosity of the people of the State in regard to a matter
in which they have manifested great interest from the outset of
the Geological Survey, seemed to require of me a plain and un
varnished statement of such facts and explanations as would satis
fy all reasonable enquiries.

In drawing this communication to an abrupt close I would, with
due diffidence, express a hope that this statement and the appen
dix thereto may be laid before the General Assembly at your
early convenience if your Excellency deem it proper, with such
accompanying executive remarks as may secure to it a patient
perusal and a candid consideration.

I have the honor to remain

Your Excellency's obedient servant,
AUGUSTUS YOUNG, State Naturalist.

ST. ALBANS VERMONT, October 10th, 1856.

REPORT OF ALBERT D. HAGER,

ASSISTANT STATE NATURALIST.

HON, AUGUSTUS YOUNG.

State Naturalist :

DEAR SIB. : — In compliance with the instructions em
braced in the commission of Assistant State Naturalist which you
were kind enough to issue to me, I lost no time in _ proceeding
to the Geological depot at Burlington. This depot, as you are
aware, was a small building near the dwelling house of the late
State Naturalist which had been used for a number of years by
Professors Adams and Thompson during the continuance of their
geological labors. I found that several boxes had been duly pack
ed with minerals, and were in readiness to be forwarded to their
final destination. Much the larger proportion of specimens, how
ever, were in trays and required to be carefully assorted prepara
tory to being packed and boxed up. Inasmuch as the value of
mineralogical cabinets greatly depends upon the character of the
specimens, and a correct statement of their locality and proper
ties, I aimed to pack each mineral and fossil with great care,
wrapping with each specimen in all cases the appropriate label
indicating its name and locality and in every instance of doubt had
reference to the Catalogues which you entrusted to me for my
examination and guidance.

You are aware that the specimens had been twice partly ar
ranged by the late State Geologist and late State Naturalist ; and
the disadvantages under which I labored were increased by the
system of short hand which Professor Adams used in his memo
randum books.

This short hand and initials, written for the most part jn pencil
were in many cases perplexing and unintelligible. But in every
instance where reliable information of the locality of all speci^
mens could not be had, they were placed among those where local-

30

ity was uncertain or unknown — certainty being an indispensible
desideratum in the formation of a cabinet of minerals.

In the instructions given by His Excellency Governor Slade to
the first State Geologist, he was directed " to procure one suite of
specimens fora State collection, and one for each of the three liter
ary, and two medical colleges, and one for the Troy Conference
Academy at Poultney.* Some of these institutions have not sent
for their quota, and, unfortunately the number received by each
institution was not minuted down in the books connected with the
Geological Survey in such a manner (if at all) as to be a guide to
any one but those who forwarded them. Probably the late Pro
fessors Adams and Thompson would have had no difficulty in
discharging this part of their duty— while others might be greatly
embarrassed who have no access to their private correspondence
or key to their memoranda.

But I have endeavored to assign to each institution its quota of
minerals as set apart and numbered by Professor Thompson —
packing the contents of each tray and box and noting them care
fully in my book of memoranda ; and agreeably to your order,
have forwarded them to Montpelier, so that the entire collection of
minerals obtained by Professors Adams and Thompson is now at the
Capitol either in number fourteen or number thirty-seven of the
State House except what have already been forwarded to their final
destination. The number already collected for the suites as con
templated by Governor Slade amounts to about twenty-seven
hundred specimens for the State Cabinet, and a like number for
each of the aforementioned literary institutions and medical col
leges of Vermont, or about twenty thousand specimens, including
a large number of surplus specimens which may be useful for fu
ture exchanges.

It will be my aim to collect, pack and get in readiness all of the
minerals and fossils assigned for each institution, so that each col
lege and literary institution can procure its quota upon applica
tion at the State House, during the session of the Legislature,
and if I am present at the Capitol I shall take pleasure in facili
tating their delivery.

With respect to other kinds of property belonging to the State
which was stored in the geological depot at Burlington, I took

*See Professor Adams First Annual Report, page 7.

31

them into my custody under your directions and forwarded them to
Montpelier. They consist of the following articles : sixty-three
boxes for holding and packing minerals, one hundred trays for
holding and assorting minerals, one table, one anvil and block, five
maps, fifty sections of maps, two chairs, two sledges, six hammers,
one drill, one iron bar, one box chisel, one tape measure, and a
valuable barometer. Sixty-two boxes and seventeen trays filled
with minerals and fossils, were forwarded from Burlington and
delivered at the State House.

In pursuance of the Joint Resolution of the Legislature passed
in 185c, the Sergeant-at-Arms has fitted up room numbered four
teen in the State House, under the advice and suggestions received
from Prof, Thompson in his lifetime. This room is assigned for
the " use of the State Naturalist, and for the deposit aud arrange
ment of the specimens collected and to be collected in the geologi
cal, botanical and zoological survey of the State."

In the arrangement of the cases as made by order of the late
State .Naturalist, it is apparent that they were intended for the re
ception of specimens of the birds, fishes, reptiles, insects and other
objects calculated to illustrate the Natural History of Vermont,
as well as for the reception of Vermont minerals and fossils.

I have accordingly arranged the geological specimens in the
division originally designed for their reception — thinking it high
ly probable that the State of Vermont might at no distant day
procure if possible the very valuable private collection of the pro
ducts of the State, which Prof. Zadock Thompson had taken pains
to collect during the last thirty years of his life, and which col
lection is now in the possession of Mrs. Thompson, his widow, at
Burlington. This being exclusively a Vermont collection, and
embracing objects in all departments of Natural History, ought to
be preserved entire, and it has occurred to me that the most ap
propriate place for its exhibition and preservation would be at the
State House.

In room numbered thirty-seven I found about twenty-five hun
dred geological and mineralogical specimens trimmed and number
ed — a due proportion of which I have removed to room numbered
fourteen and arranged in the case prepared under the direction of
Prof. Thompson ; but the case being insufficient for the reception
of the entire number of specimens, another case was made at my
suggestion which will be soon filled with specimens.

32

At first glance, it might appear that the State Cabinet contains
too many specimens from the same or adjacent localities ; and to
the casual observer, a greater degree of interest in the mineralogy
of the State might be awakened, if the specimens were fewer in
number and art had been employed to exhibit the beauty of each
to its greatest advantage. For instance, the polished specimen
of Isle La Motte marble, and the beautiful slabs of Verde Antique
marble from Roxbury and Cavendish, elicit the admiration of each
spectator, while the rough and unpolished rocks from the same
quarries possibly attract no notice whatever.

But the careful student of Natural History and the ardent de
votee of geological science desire an exhibition of the material in
the rough, and all the forms in which it is found in its natural
bed. Such enquirers are not satisfied with a superficial glance at
the numerous fossils found in and forming the Isle La Motte mar
ble, and contemplating the changes that have been wrought to
render whole races of animated nature extinct and entombed as he
sees them, and with a great stride pass from them to an examina
tion of the beautiful statuary marbles of Vermont. He desires to
examine the intervening groups to determine if possible, whether
there be any connection between the two varieties, and if so, to
note the difference arid ascertain the producing cause.

It is found that as the limestone approaches the upheaved rocks
it becomes saccharoidal or sparry, and apparently destitute of fos
sils, and eminent geologists are of opinion that our beautiful white
marbles are of fossiliferous origin, and altered by the agency of
heat and other causes, and that the white unspotted memorial
stones in our burying places are themselves the charnel house of
myriads of beings that once crawled upon ocean's bed, or sported
in the waters of the mighty deep.

In arranging the minerals in the case ordered by Professor
Thompson I have endeavored to follow as nearly as possible the
plan adopted by your predecessors ; but in the new case I propose
with your consent, to vary so far from their plan as to present on
a label the full name of the mineral or fossil with that of the
locality and d .nor when known ; by means of which the spectator
will be relieved from the disagreeable necessity of consulting a vol
uminous catalogue to ascertain the required facts and I propose to
append the appropriate number to the label and place it in itd
proper place upon the catalogue;

33

I would in this connection, remark that the minerals in the State
collection as well as those sent to and designed for the different col
leges and institutions before mentioned, have been hitherto barely
numbered ; and in order to ascertain their names, locality &c.
reference to a corresponding number in manuscript catalogue was
necessary, to supply the desired information. It occurred to me
(and your directions clearly point out this desideratum,) that the
names and locality should be legibly written or printed and affixed
k/each specimen, and thus afford the spectator the required infor
mation from an inspection of the mineral itself.

Accordingly I have thought it desirable to have printed
labels placed upon the minerals with their appropriate number
corresponding to the one on the catalogue, and have ordered a
suitable quantity of labels to be printed so as to supply the differ
ent institutions having a like collection of minerals from the same
localities and collected by the same geologist. These labels when
in readiness will be transmitted to their final destination upon ap
plication of those interested-.

It would give me great pleasure if I could arrange the mine
rals and fossils in groups and in the order in which they occur;
For instance, I would be glad to arrange in one case the rocks and
fossils belonging to the Champlain division by themselves, so as
to indicate the natural order in which the formations occur — be
ginning with the calciferous sandstone and following in order the
birds-eye limestone, Isle La Motte limestone, Trenton limestone,
tltica slate and Hudson River shales to the red sandstone
formation;

In another case there might be arranged the Taconic group of
rocks, giving a separate place to the subdivisions of roofing slatej
sparry limestone, magnesian slate, Vermont marbles and granular
quartz, and so on, until all the minerals and fossils of the State
of Vermont are represented fully, and each in its proper place.

With this arrangement there should be appended to each case
a brief description of the group or system therein exhibited, its
locality, extent, position and age, compared with other groups
represented in adjacent cases.

But in the small room assigned by the Legislature for the ex
hibition of the specimens already collected, and hereafter to be col-
5

84

lected to illustrate the Natural History of the State of Vermont,
this arrangement could not be thoroughly carried out. If, how
ever the Legislature should deem it expedient to assign the ad
joining room on the east, and order an opening to be made so as
to unite the two rooms, there would be ample space to carry out
the plan I have suggested, and thus exhibit in a convenient man
ner the various specimens of scientific and economical interest
with which Vermont, more than any other State in the Union
abounds.

I would, in this connection, remark that many prominent citi
zens of our State have shown their willingness and desire to pro
mote the success of this undertaking by making voluntary contri
butions to the State collection, and others have expressed a de
termination to do so, now that suitable cases are prepared for the
reception and exhibition of specimens.

To such as propose furnishing specimens of marble, slate, stea
tite, <fcc., for exhibition in the State collection, I would respect
fully suggest that it is desirable, in all cases when practicable,
to have the specimens about three inches square, or three inches
wide and six to nine inches in length, and not to exceed one inch
in thickness ; and with the polished specimens it is desirable to
have furnished one or more samples in the rough, as free from
hammer marks as possible.

With each specimen there should be given the locality, name of
the quarry, the owners name and that of the donor, that the same
may be placed upon a label attached to the specimen.

I have been greatly encouraged while prosecuting my labors at
Burlington and Montpelier, to receive evidences from day to day
that the public interest in this matter of developing the resources of
the State by means of the Geological Survey, has not in the least
abated by reason of the unforeseen obstacles and calamities which
have surrounded its progress. I have reason also to acknowl
edge my indebtedness to the learned Professor Hall, of Albany,
N. Y., for his labor in determining the genera and species of the
various fossils found in the Champlain system of rocks, and I
would, before drawing this tedious report to a close, return my
thanks to you for the commission with which you have honored
me, and I tender my grateful acknowledgements to all from whom

35

I have received many tokens of kindness during the progress of
my geological labors.

With sentiments of high regard,

I remain, Dear Sir,

Your friend and obedient serv't,

ALBERT D. HAGER,
Assistant State Naturalist.

NATURAL HISTORY ROOM, MONTPELIER, VT., ?
October 9, 1856. \

APPENDIX I.

Obituary of Professor Thompson.

[The following carefully prepared notice, from the pen of a friend of the deceas
ed, was originally communicated to the " Franklin County Journal," pub
lished at St Albans, Vermont.

We discharge a melancholy duty in announcing to our readers
the death of this eminent Vermonter. His widely known and
universally esteemed reputation justifies us in preparing a detailed
memoir of his life and literary labors.

Professor Zadock Thompson, died at Burlington on the 19th of
January, 1856, of ossification of the heart. He was born in
Bridgewater, Windsor County, Vermont, in the year 1796 and, at
the time of his death, must have been in the sixtieth year of his
age. His early life was a continual struggle with poverty and
his education was acquired while successfully combatting the evils
of pecuniary embarrassment. At the advanced age of 27 years he
was graduated from the University of Vermont,having for his class
mates in 1823 and now living, the Hon. Frederick H. Allen, a,n
eminent lawyer in Boston, and Warren Hoxie, of Westford, Vt.

From his childhood he had a passion for writing and publish
ing books. His first publications were almanacs, which he sold
by traveling about the State on foot to raise means to fit himself
for college ; and " Thompson's Almanack " became as famous
in Vermont as Robert B. Thomas' in Massachusetts. Hia
first bound volume was an Arithmetic, which he published in
1826. This had a general sale through the State, and was su
perseded in part by others for no other reason than a failure of his.
publisher to supply the demand during the author's residence in
Canada as Principal of an Academy, where he published a Geog-

38

raphy and map of Canada for schools, which has passed through
several editions.

Within a twelvemonth from his graduation he published at
Montpelier iiis " Gazetteer of Vermont " pp. 312 and, in 1833,
he published, at Burlington, his " History of Vermont from its
early settlement to the close of the year 1832" pp. 252. In the
year 1832, he was editor of and principal contributor to the " Green
Mountain Repository," a monthly _magazine ^ published for about
a year in Burlington. After pursuing his study of theology and
occasionally teaching at the " Vermont Episcopal Institute " and
elsewhere, he was prepared for orders and was ordained to the
diaconate in the Protestant Episcopal Church by the Rt. Rev.
Bishop Hopkins, in 1836. He subsequently preachedjin several
parishes in Northern Vermont and New York, and supplied the
pulpit at St. Paul's Church, Burlington, during the illness or ab
sence of the Rector ; but his feeble health prevented his assuming
the active and onerous labors of a parish.

From the time, he published his first almanac it was his inten
tion to publish a complete history of the State, and for more
than twenty years he was engaged in collecting materials, and for
this purpose traveled on foot into^most of the towns to have per
sonal interviews with the " oldest inhabitants," examine records,
Natural History — Geography, &c., &c. and from 1838 to 1842
he was engaged in preparing from the mass of materials thus
collected his general History of Vermont.

At this time, when he had expended all his little earnings in pre
paring his work, he was so fortunate as to have his friend and
neighbor Mr. Chauncey Goodrich voluntarily offerjto furnish all
the material necessary, and publish his work, charging only the
usual cash prices, for paper and printing, /or all which he might
pay from sales of the book. This liberal offer enabled him to
publish, promptly, an edition of 5000 copies of his work of 656
closely printed, double column, octavo pages, using more than five
tons of printing paper, and although the expenditure was more
than $5000 to secure all the profits to himself.

Our Legislature was not unmindful of the great service he had
rendered the State. When he issued his proposals for publish
ing his Civil, Natural and Statistical History of Vermont, they
directed the Secretary of State to subscribe for onejiundred

39

copies, and on its publication in 1842, presented him with five
hundred dollars. This sum, with the sales of his book, enabled
him to pay all his pecuniary obligations, with his large debt to
his publisher, in little more than one year from its publication.

Professor Thompson, in all his actions, had a desire to benefit
all, whether rich or poor in worldly goods. When his publisher,
to whom he was indebted for his means for carrying out his plans,
and whose opinions were entitled to more consideration than any
and all others, for more than six months prior to his issuing pro
posals for publishing his work, importuned him to publish his
History in three volumes at $6, instead of one volume at $2,50,
assuring him that his profits would be more than twice as great,
his only reply was, that many would want his book who could
pay $2,50. arid could not afford to pay $6,00 ; and that it was
not right thus to deprive them of a benefit their richer neighbors
enjoyed.

The prosecution of this purpose necessarily brought him into
contact or correspondence with the naturalists of the country. In
completing his account of the birds of Vermont he was greatly as
sisted by Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, of Boston, in determining sever
al species of Reptiles and Fishes, he was aided by Dr. D. H. Storer
also of Boston. For a full description of our molluscous animals,
he was indebted to Prof. Charles B. Adams, then of Middlebury
College, and to Prof. George W. Benedict, then of the University
of Yermont. For his catalogue of plants he was indebted to the
late William Oakes, of Ipswich, Mass., to Prof. Joseph Torrey
William F. Macrae, and John Carey, Esquires, and others. With
these aids in his arduous labors, Prof. Thompson succeeded in
embracing in his work everything of special importance relative to
the Natural and Civil History of Vermont ; and published it in
so condensed and cheap a form as to place it within the reach of
every family in the State, having but little regard to a pecuniary
recompense from the sale of a book which had cost him so much
travel, research, time and expense in its preparation.

Prof. Thompson found time also to prepare annual astronomical
calculations for the Messrs. Walton of Montpelier and to publish
a valuable arithmetic and elementary work on the Geology and
Geography of Vermont for the use of schools, a Geography of
Vermont for children, with county maps, and to write for

40

Silliman's " American Journal of Science and Arts," valuable
scientific communications, all prepared in the systematic, lucid and
condensed manner which imparted so much value to all of his
publications.

In 1845, Governor Slade, appointed Prof. Charles B. Adams
State Geologist, who with the approbation of the Governor^ ap
pointed the subject of this memoir one of his assistants in the field
labor. Prof. Thompson and the Rev. S. R. Hall, the other as
sistant, visited and explored " more or less thoroughly " about 110
townships in one season ; and Professor Thompson was actively
engaged in this important scientific labor until the Legislature of
Vermont neglected to make an appropriation for a Final Report
on the Geology of our State, and thus permitted the materials,
manuscripts, books and specimens belonging to the Survey to re
main at Montpelier and Burlington locked up in about fifty boxes.
The brief and expressive Report of Professor Thompson address
ed to Governor Coolidge, in October 1849, was published in the
appendix of the House Journal for that year and is a sad commen^
tary on the folly of which our State has been guilty in regard to
the matter of a Geological Survey. After the suspension of the
Geological Survey, Dr. Horace Eaton, Governor of the State in
1847, appointed Professor Thompson to carry out the Resolution
of the Legislature in relation to international literary and scien^
tific exchanges ; and in pursuance of his appointment he present
ed the exchange system in its clearest light so that it commended
itself to the approbation of every benevolent mind." The prepa
ration of the Report of " Proceedings and Instructions," which, by
the bye, was beautifully printed in a pamphlet of 80 pages, re
flected great credit upon Mr. Thompson, and upon the State and it
is greatly to be deplored that the historical interest which was
then awakened throughout the State by the visit of the founder
of the system of exchanges and by the labors of such men as
Professor Thompson, Hon. Hiland Hall, of Bennington, Henry
Stevens, of Barnet, Daniel P. Thompson^ of Montpelier, Prof.
James D. Butler, then of Norwich, Vt., and others, should so soon
and so thoroughly have subsided and become almost extinct.

In June 1850, Professor Thompson delivered upon invitation
an address at Boston before the Boston Society of Natural History
in which he made the announcement that " what he had accomplished

41

in the business of Natural History he had done without any as
sociates engaged in like pursuits, without having any access to
collections of specimens and almost ivithout books" In that ad
mirable address (which, as it had only been partially reported and
published in certain newspapers, his friend Mr. Goodrich, at his
own expense, printed in handsome pamphlet form for distribu
tion,) he illustrated the importance and difficulties of a thorough
cultivation of Natural History, in country places, insisting that
a habit of observation and comparison of objects of Natural His
tory could be as quickly acquired in the country as in the city and
urging that the study of Natural History should be more gener
ally taught in our common schools and colleges for the obvious
reason that such a study '; would refine and improve the moral
sensibilities of our people, and sharpen and invigorate their intel
lectual powers."

In such labors, beset with the difficulties so freely confessed be
fore the " Solid Men of Boston " on the occasion of the delivery of
the last mentioned address, he passed his quiet life. At one time
he was a teacher of the exact sciences ; at another time prosecu
ting his researches into Natural History ; and then he might be
found preaching in his modest and reverential manner the sublime
doctrines of the Christian creed which he had adopted, and whether
in or out of the pulpit always seen and known as the industrious,
patient, humble and 'exemplary disciple of Him who was born in
the manger and died on the cross. Professor Thompson thus won
friends not " in single spies but in battalions," friends who know
ing the anxiety he felt to see the wonders of the great exhibition
at London, in 1851, gladly put into his purse that " material aid "
of which teaching and preaching, and authorship had not gathered
a superabundance. Chiefly through the kindness of friends, which
he has beautifully acknowledged in one of his books, he was en
abled to enjoy a trip to the Old World, " beholding the wonders of
the great deep, and seeing and admiring the wonderful things of
Nature and Art which lie beyond it." After an absence of three
months, spending a few weeks in London and Paris and after
travelling about 7500 miles, he came back refreshed in spirit and
health to his humble dwelling at Burlington and after a while
yielded to the importunities of his friends and published a neat
volume of 143 pages, entitled a "Journal of a trip to London^ Paris

42

and the Great Exhibition in 1851." Although this " Journal " is
composed of notes for each day from May till August, jotted
down when travelling or sight-seeing, for the private eye of fam
ily and friends and with no expectation that they would ever be
printed : yet they contain much that is new and valuable, and al
though published as a " thank offering to his friends," yet the
reading public have perused it with equal pleasure and profit.

Since the publication of his History of Vermont in 1842, rail
roads and magnetic telegraphs have been introduced into the State
and other changes have taken place ; and early in 1853 Professor
Thompson published an appendix to the History, chiefly in the
department of the Natural History. This appendix, although,
containing only 64 pages, is a most valuable supplement to hia
large work, and if his life had been spared a few years, as he says
in the Preface, he might have re-written the whole history.

"We have now arrived in chronological order at his last work, up
on which the Professor was engaged when the summons came for
him to join the majority and be " gathered to his fathers." It will
be remembered that the labors of Professor Adams and his as
sistant had ceased in 184T on behalf of the State. The cold
shoulder of " men most noted for wisdom arid virtue " was turned
toward them, after it was an established fact " that as much labor
was performed and as much investigation effected as were ever
accomplished with the same expenditure in any other State" —
Prof. Adams' final report was never made, and January 19th 1853,
he died on the island of St. Thomas, W. I., cut down in the prime
of life and usefulness, when all that remained of the Geological
Survey of Vermont was shut up in short hand in the field-books
of the State Geologist, and those of his assistants or locked up in the
fifty boxes of unticketed and untrimmed specimens at Burlington
and Montpelier. Years after the field work was done and when
Prof. Adams was slumbering in his grave, the men " most noted for
wisdom and virtue," discovered that they had made a mistake in
arresting the progress of the survey. Then it was that Professor
Zadock Thompson was appointed by Statute, State Naturalist with
the following duties : " to enter upon a thorough prosecution and
completion of the Geological Survey of the State, embracing
therein full and scientific examination and description of its rocks,
soils, metals and minerals ; make careful and complete assays and

43

analyses of the same and prepare the results of his labors for pub
lication under the three following titles, to wit :

First- -Physical Geography, Scientific Geology and Miner
alogy.

Second — Economical Geology, embracing Botany and Agri
culture.

Third— General Zoology of the State.

[Session Laws, 1853 pp. 45, 46.]

He was pursuing the labors of this responsible task which the
State had honorably to herself and to him commissioned him to
perform, when death bereaved his family and friends and the
community of a man who in all things was the type and exemplar
of his race. On the same day. three years before, his predecessor
went to his long home, both leaving the matter of a Geological Sur
vey, in which both delighted and in which both had spent long
nights and laborious days, still unfinished.

At the time of his death, Professor Thompson was a Professor of
Natural History in the University of Vermont, an institution to
which he had been greatly attached since his graduation in 1823 ;
and the eminent self-taught Naturalist who had devoted his life
in a quiet and unpretended way to independent scientific enquiry
and the labors of authorship and the ministry, died in his humble
dwelling near the University with his intellectual armor on ere his
" eye had grown dim or his natural force abated." Dr. Thomas
M. Brewer, Editor of the Boston Atlas, and a naturalist of great
research and acquirement, thus alludes in touching language to the
death of his valuable friend.

"His loss both as a citizen and a public man is one of no
ordinary character — he has not left his superior in science behind
him, in his own State. We have known him long and well, and
in speaking of such a loss we know not which most to sympathize
with, the family from whom has been taken the upright, devoted
and kind-hearted head, or that larger family of science, who have
lost an honored and most valuable member. Modest and unas
suming, diligent and indefatigable in his scientific pursuits, at
tentive to all, whether about him or at a distance, and whether
friends or strangers, no man will be more missed, not merely in his
immediate circle of family and friends, but in that larger sphere
of the lovers of natural science, tlun Zadock Thompson.

44

"At any time we should hear of the death of such a man with
deep regret and grief, and these feelings are increased in the
present case, when we remember that he has been called from the
field of his usefulness when the great work of his most useful life
has been but partly done. But he has been taken, and we may
not murmur at the inscrutable decree by which that work has
been arrested, just as it was on the eve of completion. New
England may have more brilliant and more popular illustrators
of her natural science, but one more thorough or more devoted
we have never known ; nor one who once known has been more
honored and esteemed by Naturalists, or beloved .by friends, than
the late Professor Zadock Thompson."

A correspondent of the " Gospel Messenger" a brother cler
gyman of the Diocese of Vermont, who was present at the fu
neral together with the Rev. Dr. Hicks, of Rutland, and the
Rev. W. T. Webbe. of Middlcbury, thus eloquently alludes to
the funeral of the deceased which was holden in St. Paul's Church,
and to certain characteristics of the lamented Professor :

" A very large congregation assembled at the Church to pay
the last tribute of respect to the deceased ; and the closing of the
stores, shops and offices, in the midst of a very busy day, was a
most appropriate and affecting testimony of the estimation in
which he was held where his moral worth and scientific character
were best known.

" Owing to a disease, of the heart which terminated his life, he
was long since incapacitated for the pastoral office, and from
purchasing that £ good degree ' to which the diaconate would have
entitled him, and gave himself up to those, scientific investigations
and employments with whose successful and happy results very
many beyond his native State are familiar.

"A very appropriate discourse was delivered at the Church by
Dr. Hicks, in which though little was sard of the dead, he was
briefly and very happily referred to as a man of rare intellectual
endowments, who was above all praise in ability and accuracy of
scientific research, and who, perhaps, an all-wise Providence di
rected into such channels, that he might be a witness to their
compatibility with divine revelation.

" To his eyes, nature and revelation were pages written by the
same Omnipotent finger, and never disagreeing ; and no man

45

had a more accurate and discriminating mind, better able to weigh
and compare the facts narrated by Moses, or placed upon the
more recondite leaves or layers which compose the book of na-«
ture, which so many Naturalists and Geologists read with skeptic
eyes.

" I could but reflect as I passed by the humble dwelling- of his
earthly abode on the following morning, under what different cir
cumstances the leap of worlds is made by mortals when the sum--
mons comes, and how little influence this world's pomp will have
in determining their welcome and distinction in the celestial
courts. The rich who live only for ease or enjoyment in the
fashions and follies of life, leave sumptuous dwellings and a few
dollars, which through prodigal heirs, often perish almost with
the pomp of their funeral, while the man we yesterday bore from
the unpretending tenement where a lone widow weeps, has be
queathed to the world that which has a value above the wealth of the
State to purchase.

"Mr. Thompson has received small aids as Geological Sur
veyor appointed by the State, and for his services in the Col
lege ; but not enough to prevent his dying poor — the fate of too
many men, who are starved to death by the same public eco
nomy which praises them when dead, and erects monuments over
their graves !

"But science, sanctified by religion, is a precious jewel, which
however despised and neglected in the hands of the poor and un
assuming in life, is never lost to the world ; and it is of little mat^
ter from what unpretending hands or hovels it descends to man
kind, and goes up to sparkle in the crown of a Christian student,
when this re-constructed tabernacle shall be what talent — not
money — makes it."

After these eloquent and deserved tributes, little remains for
our partial pen to add. We have known him well since 1834,
in his various relations, as a teacher, as a clergyman, as a Pro-.
fessor, as a correspondent, and as a friend. During the quarter-
of a century that he devoted hirr.self to the instruction of youth,
to the labors of authorship, and to scientific research, he exhibited
himself as an unselfish and unambitious man. He loved his pu-.
pils, his friends, his church, his associates, his State, his town,
and. above all, his home. As a teacher, he was kind and tlio--

46

rough ; as a clergyman, what has been appropriately called his
"deep and unconquerable modesty of spirit," prevented his ever
rising above the Diaconate in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
As a fellow clergyman in that able paper, the New York Church
Journal writes : " the uncertainty of his health for many years
past prevented his undertaking the labors of a parish. His gen
tle, quiet, and deep piety of character won him universal esteem.
He was chiefly known by the many works in which he has em
bodied the history, the topography and the natural endowment of
his native State. In natural science, his proficiency was so re
markable that he was in correspondence with most of the leading
Naturalists of this country and many of those abroad. He re
ceived one of the medals of the late French Exhibition in this de
partment. His place thus made vacant in Vermont, it will be
hard to fill."

As an author, he has won high distinction for the profundity
of his research, and wonderful accuracy of date and detail has
characterized all of his historical productions. His astronomical
and meteorological observations were carefully made and noted,
and he was one of the best and most reliable correspondents of
the Smithsonian Institute.

As his life has been chiefly spent in the development and illus
tration of the natural productions of his native State ; the scien
tific world, and especially Vermonters, will cherish his memory as
that of a man who devoted his life with energy and singleness of
purpose to objects of lasting interest and usefulness to the whole
community.

In all of these note-worthy respects, he was not unlike the ven
erable Professor T. Romeyn Beck, author of the valuable work
on Medical Jurisprudence who died in November last at Albany,
N. Y.j after having been identified for forty years with every
leading measure in the State of New York for the promotion of
education and medical and general science and letters. Dr.
Beck, too, was a teacher of youth, and for more than twenty
years of the early part of his life, was the Principal of the Al
bany Academy. Dr. Beck was, like Prof. Thompson, unambi
tious and unselfish ; and both occupied comparatively humble po
sitions, but only for the purpose of doing good. Both Professors
aimed to render their scientific and literary attainments available,

47

and both regarded their knowledge as holden in trust for the good
of others. The minds of both bore fruit for the world. Both
were men of " simple manners, genial nature, social habits, large
humanity and radiant faith. The efforts of both to promote edu
cation, science, improvement, virtue and Christianity, were always
well and wisely directed." Their associations through life were
with the truly good and great. The society of both was sought
by those who could appreciate public worth and social excellence.
In the halls of the Academy and the Capitol ; in the recitation
room and cabinet of the University which their presence once
brightened and gladdened, there are now darkness and sorrow.
Let the memory of such men be kept in perpetual bloom !

SUUM CUIQUE.
ST. ALBANS, VT.

APPENDIX II.

An Act to provide for a Geological Suryey of

the State.

'SECTION

K Governor directed to appoint a

State Geologist.
2. State Geologist may appoint and

SECTION

3. Duties of the State Geologist.

4. Appropriation of two thousand dol
lars annually for 'three years.

direct assistants. j 5. Auditor to allow accounts, &c.

SEC. 1. The (governor is hereby authorized and directed to ap
point a State Geologist, who shall have a competent knowledge of
scientific and practical geology and mineralogy, and shall be sub
ject to the orders of the Governor for the time being, and remov
able at his pleasure,

SEC. 2, The State Geologist, with the approbation of the Gov
ernor, shall, from time to time, appoint all proper and necessary
assistants, fix their compensations, direct them in their labors and
remove them and appoint others whenever it shall be found neces
sary or expedient

SEC. 3, It shall be the duty of the State Geologist, as soon as
practicable, to commence and prosecute a thorough geological and
mineralogical survey of the State, embracing therein a full and
scientific examination and description of its rocks, soils, metals,
and minerals ; make careful and complete assays and analyses of
the same, and annually, on or before the first day of October, to re
port to the Governor the progress of the work, the most efficient
and economical manner of conducting it, and an estimate of the ex
pense for the ensuing year.

SEC. 4. For the purpose of carrying into eflect the provisions

50

of this act, the sum of two thousand dollars, annually, for the term
of three years, is hereby appropriated.

SEC. 5. All claims, under the provisions of this act, shall be
presented to the auditor of accounts, for allowance, who shall draw
orders on the Treasurer of the State for the amount he shall find
due, equal to, but not exceeding in any year, the annual appropri
ation.

Approved, October 28, 1844.

APPENDIX III.

An Act to provide for completing the Geologi
cal Survey of the State.

SECTION

1. The governor to appoint Professor
Zadock Thompson, State Natural
ist to be subject to his orders and re
movable at discretion.

2. Duties of State Naturalist.

3. When facts, &c. are collected suf
ficient to make a volume of five hun
dred pages octavo, State Naturalist
to make report to Secretary of State,
with estimate of cost of publication.
Secretary of State to issue circulars
to the several town clerks, specifying
number, &c. of engravings, and also
to publishers of newspapers. Town
clerks to receive and return subscrip
tions within forty days.

4. Sec'y of State to issue proposals for

SECTION

time and place to examine, and accept
the lowest responsible bid. Secretary
to take a bond from the person whose
proposal is accepted, in double the
cost of the work. Secretary to distri
bute the work to the constables of the
several towns, who shall collect the
cost and pay the same into the state
treasury.

5. Volumes under the second and third
titles to be published agreeably to
sections three and four.

6. One thousand dollars appropriated
annually, for three years, and until
otherwise ordered.

7. Auditors of accounts to receive and
allow all accounts, equal to, but not
exceeding the annual appropriation.

printing said work, and that specified

It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
Vermont, as follows :

SEC. 1. The Governor is hereby^directed and authorized to
appoint Professor Zadock Thompson, State Naturalist ; who shall
be subject to the orders of the Governor, for the time being, and
removable in his discretion.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the State Naturalist to enter,
as soon as practicable, upon a thorough prosecution and comple
tion of the Geological Survey of the State, embracing therein a

52

full and scientific examination and description of its rocks, soils
metals and minerals ; make careful and complete assays and analy
ses of the same, and prepare the results of his labors for publica
tion under the three following titles, to wit :

First — Physical Geography. Scientific Geology and Mineral
ogy-

Second — Economical Geology, embracing Botany and Agri
culture.

Third — General Zoology of the State.

SEC. 3. Whenever sufficient facts and materials shall have
been collected upon the first of the above named subjects to form
a volume of not less than five hundred pages octavo, the State
Naturalist shall make report thereof to the Secretary of State
with an estimate of the size and probable cost of publication, who
shall immediately issue a circular addressed to the several town
clerks in the state, specifying the nature, size, number of engra
vings, and estimated cost of the work, and requesting them to
post up such circular in their respective offices ; also to convey
notices of such circular to the public by such other means as they
may adopt to receive subscriptions for the work, and within forty
days from the time of their receiving such circular, return such
subscriptions to the said secretary ; and said secretary shall also
transmit like circulars to all the publishers of newspapers printed
within this State, with a request for gratuitous publication of the
same.

SEC. 4. Immediately upon the expiration of the above named
period and the return of said subscriptions, the Secretary of State
shall issue proposals for printing said work, specifying the size
and quantity of engravings, style of binding, quality of paper and
number of volumes required, which shall not exceed more than
one fifth the whole number of subscriptions returned ; the period
within which said work shall be completed and the time and place
for opening bids ; and at the said specified time and place
the said secretary shall open and examine the bids, and the lowest
bid, having due regard to the ability and responsibility of the per
sons making the same, shall be accepted. And the said secretary
shall take a bond from the person whose bid is accepted, con
ditioned upon faithful performance of his said contract, in a sum
not less than double the cost of the work. And when the said
•work shall be completed and accepted by said secretary, he shall

58

cause to be sent to the constable of each town such number of vol
umes as have been subscribed for in such town, with a list of such
subscriptions, and each of said constables shall deliver the said
volumes, collect the actual cost thereof, and pay over the same into
the treasury of the State.

SEC. 5. Whenever sufficient facts and materials shall have
been collected and arranged under the second and third titles
specified in section second, the same shall be published in their
order agreeably to the provisions of sections three and four of this
act.

SEC. 6. The sum of one thousand dollars, annually, is hereby
appropriated for the term of three years, and until otherwise or
dered by the legislature of this State, for the purpose of carrying
into effect the provisions of this act.

SEC. 7. All claims under this act shall be presented to the
auditor of accounts for allowance, who shall draw orde-rs on the
treasurer of the State for the amount he shall find due, equal to but
not exceeding, in any year, the annual appropriation.

Approved, December 6, 1853.

APPENDIX IV.

Report of Zadock Thompson,

ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

To His Excellency,

CARLOS COOLIDGE, ESQ.,

Governor of Vermont :

SIR: — Having been commissioned by your Excellency to carry
into effect a resolution of the General Assembly of Vermont, passed
at their session in 1848, in relation to the materials of the Geolo
gical Survey of the State, I beg leave to submit the following

REPORT I

In the fall of 1847, Prof. C. B. Adams, the State Geologist, hav
ing accepted a Professorship in Amherst College, Massachusetts,
and being about to remove his family out of the State, directed me
as Assistant Geologist, to obtain a suitable room in Bnrlington, to
serve as a depot for the specimens and materials of the Survey
which were to remain in the State. The room being provided
about the 1st of Oct. 1847, materials, consisting of boxes of spec
imens, furniture for the room, tools, &c., to the amount of several
tons, were forwarded from Middlebury to Burlington, and deposi
ted in it. The State Geologist removed to Amherst some time in
October, and, expecting that provision would be made by the Leg
islature for the completion of the Survey and the preparation of
a Final Report, he took with him the field notes and manuscripts, a
portion of the tools and the furniture of the depot, the specimens
which had been ticketed for the state collection, and all the speci
mens containing fossil, or organic remains.

56

Thinking that the General Assembly, when adopting the rds*
olution for the collection of all the materials of the Survey at Mont-
pclier, might, perhaps, be unaware of the amount of transportation,
which would be required, and of the unnecessary expense and in
convenience, which would be incurred by carrying out the resolution
literally, I ventured to inform your^Excellency of the amount and
conditions of the articles at Burlington, and with your consent have
suffered them to remain unmoved.

Professor Adams, who had in his possession the materials of the
Survey, which had been carried to Amherst, left that place before
I received my appointment, and passed the winter at Jamaica in the
West Indies. He returned to Amherst in May, and in the latter
part of that month, I went to that place and procured from him the
field notes and tools, and the specimens which had been ticketed
for the State collection. The specimens containing fossils, were
unticketed, and Prof. Adams was entitled to a share of these in virtue
of an arrangement between him and Gov. Slade, when he received
the appointment of State Geologist. He also had a claim for the
rent of the room at Amherst, in which the materials were kept.
Being in doubt whether I was authorized by the resolution to
make the division of the specimens, and to pay rent, I returned to
obtain the advice and direction of your Excellency. After receiving
it I again proceeded to Amherst, divided the fossils with Prof. Ad
ams, paid the rent of the room with articles of furniture, which would
cost in the State but little more than their freight from Amherst
to Montpelier, and forwarded the fossils, belonging to the State
and the remaining articles of furniture, to Montpelier.

The materials of the Survey delivered into the charge of the
State Librarian, consist of one roll of maps, one box, containing
manuscripts and tools, 11 boxes of specimens ticketed for the State
Collections, 11 boxes of specimens containing fossils, which are
unticketed, 1C trays for minerals, and two small stands.

The materials in the room at Burlington, consist of a variety
of tools and furniture, and about 50 boxes of specimens which are
untrimmed and unticketed, being in the crude state in which they
were collected in the field. The gross weight of these 50 boxes
amounts to several tons.

The first 11 boxes of specimensjmentioned as being in charge
of the State Librarian, embrace all the specimens which are now in

57

a condition to be placed in the State Cabinet. Those in the other
11 boxes at Montpelier, and all the specimens at Burlington, re
quire to be examined, trimmed, ticketed and catalogued, to make
them valuable in the State collection or in any other.

The room in Burlington, in which the materials of the Survey
are deposited, was hired by direction of the State Geologist at an
annual rent of $20. This rent since Oct. 1847, has not been paid.
I am informed that all the money appropriated has been expended.
I also find an unpaid bill of $1,62 for transportation, which has
not been embraced in the accounts paid by the Auditor. These
amounting to $42,62, 1 believe to embrace all the indebtedness of
the Survey.

With the highest respect, I am

Your Excellency's ob't serv't,

Z. THOMPSON.

Montpelier, Oct. 11, 1849.

APPENDIX V.

Mr. Eaton's Report.

IN SENATE, OCT. 31, 1837.

Mr. Eaton, from the Committee on Education, to whom was re
ferred the communication of His Excellency, the Governor, with,
accompanying documents, on the subject of a Geological and To
pographical Survey of the State, submitted a Report, from which
the following is an extract :

" In a Geological Survey the various rock formations which
support the soil must be ascertained, and their characters and
their relations must be compared with those of similar rocks in
other parts of the world. The peculiarities of known mineral
veins — the regions where valuable mineral treasures, such as me
tallic ores, coal beds, marl bottoms, useful substances for archi
tectural and other purposes, may exist, and of course be wisely
sought for, must be pointed out, and also the regions where, judg
ing from the experience of the world, it will be in vain to look for
them. The nature of the various coverings which overlie the
solid foundations of the State must also be investigated, and their
relations to the natural and artificial vegetation found on them.
The connection of these facts with such natural causes as are
known to have operated in the world, or are now in action, needs
also to be traced as far as practicable."

The importance, then, of these Surveys would perhaps be suffi
ciently obvious to every intelligent mind. The Legislatures of
some of the neighboring states have so far appreciated their
value and importance as to order them — more especially Geologi
cal Surveys — made at the public expense ; and in other in-

60

stances, individuals, prompted by the love of science, and a de
sire to extend the blessings it confers upon mankind, have pur
sued their labors and enquiries to a very considerable extent.
And wherever these surveys have been made, they have been at
tended with useful results to the various branches of industry and
enterprize.

But although the Committee have thus classed these surveys
together, and acknowledged the importance of both ; still their
execution is not necessarily connected, and there is, in the esti
mation of your Committee, a considerable difference between them
in point of immediate practical utility. It is true a Topographical
Survey, by fixing certain station points in various parts of the
State and determining their relative height, with their distances
and direction from each other — 'and by ascertaining the drainage
or fall of streams from their sources to their mouths, would form
data for calculation relative to the construction of canals and rail
roads. It would enable us, likewise, in any given place to deter
mine the position or direction of the true meridian ; to settle the
boundaries of towns and counties with such unvarying precision as
almost to supersede the necessity of the usual landmarks ; to ascer
tain with unerring certainty from time to time the variations of the
magnetic needle — without having recourse to the more tedious pro
cess of astronomical calculations, now so often necessary to deter
mine these points. These, it must be admitted in general terms, are
objects of high importance. But the data which would be indis
pensable in calculations relative to the construction of canals and
railroads, would be of little practical use until business and wealth
should indicate the necessity and furnish the means of putting
these works in operation ; and the other advantages which have
been alluded to, can be dispensed with, although at the expense
of some inconvenience^ and perhaps at times uncertainty^ in im
portant calculations.

That some preliminary facts, relative to the Topography of the
State, would form a starting point for geological investigation, and
in a considerable degree facilitate its progress, is readily admitted ;
and if it were a settled point that both Surveys should be under
taken within a few years, unquestionably the Topographical
should take precedence in order of time. But as one is not es
sential to the accomplishment of the other, and as the expense of

61

an accurate Topographical Survey, carried only to such an extent
as would doubtless be deemed advisable, if it were undertaken at
all, would be, according to the estimates before us, not less than
ten or twelve thousand dollars, the Committee, in view of the con
siderations already suggested, and others yet to be adverted to,
are of the opinion that a Geological Survey should be first under
taken, leaving the other enterprise to some future period, when
its execution should be more imperiously demanded by the wants,
and more clearly justified by the wealth of the State. If this
order of proceeding were adopted, the relative localities of various
formations could not, it is true, be so precisely determined ; but
still the positive location of each could be marked by indicating-
its position relative to other fixed objects ; and the names of towns
would have to be substituted, in a description, for those of some
more definite points, whose precise relations could be universally
known.

It might be thought by some lovers of science, who look at the
remote as well as at the immediate advantages which science
always brings, that the Committee have taken a narrow and lim
ited view of the subject, and that they should have recommended
the immediate execution of a Topographical Survey, in terms of
the warmest commendation. But representatives, as they are, of
a peculiarly practical and real-life people, they would not, what
ever might be their own private opinions, feel justified in recom
mending to them any expensive enterprize from which they could
not expect to derive some direct, as well as definite and tangible
advantage.

But it does not require any broad and comprehensive view of
the subject in order to discover the immediate and direct benefits
to be derived from a Geological Survey of the State. These
benefits are too clear and obvious not to be] discernible at the
most hasty glance. If they were limited to a development of our
mineral products, in the shape of metallic ores, (as some might be
disposed to limit them, if they had made no inquiry to ascertain
the proper boundaries of geological research, and the appropriate
objects which come within its scope,) even this would not be deemed
a matter of small importance. Accident, without the aid of any
thing like scientific and systematic investigation, has already
brought to light many valuable treasures in the shape of iron,

02

copperas, manganese, marble, &c., whose importance as sources
of wealth to our State, none can fail to appreciate. What other
additional discoveries might be made by a thorough Geological
Survey, its accomplishment alone could determine. Another obvi
ous and palpable benefit to be derived from such a survey, would
be the prevention of those fruitless searches so often engaged in
at the expense of much time and labor, for discovering articles,
which the science of Geology might assure us are not to be found
within our limits. We might, as one of these visionary schemes,
name the project of boring for salt water, entered into a few
years since in this State. Geology, on the authority of well
known laws, would have informed us beforehand that the search
would end in disappointment — that we might as well expect to
find the white bear of the polar regions herding with lion in
an African desert, as to find salt springs in such a locality, or
amidst such geological formations as this part of the country
exhibits.

But when we enter further into the broad field of inquiry, which
the science of Geology legitimately opens before us. we find other
ends to be accomplished and oilier advantages to be acquired, be
sides the mere discovery of what are usually termed mineral
treasures. Among the most prominent and important of these
advantages would be the development of facts having a direct
bearing upon the advancement of agricultural science. The va
rious kinds of soil which the surface of the globe exhibits, con
sist of decomposed rocks, and are as easily reducible to a regular
and exact classification as are any of the various mineral produc
tions which lie scattered over the surface of the earth, or imbedded
in its bosom. Geology gives to each of these various kinds and
varieties of soil, its specific name. Each of these varieties of soil,
too, is more especially favorable to the growth of some certain
vegetable products. There is scarcely a tree, a plant, or a
flower that does not manifest a londness for some certain locality,
and exhibit an attachment to some particular soil as most con
genial to its nature. And it comes within the legitimate province
of Geology to note these facts. There is then, most clearly, an
intimate relationship between this science and that of agricul
ture, and in truth the former might be said to constitute the basis
of the latter. And your Committee believe that the proposed

63

survey would give to the agricultural interest in this State a
new impulse, and inspire it with new life ; especially if those en
trusted with the execution of the enterprise, were instructed to
keep this object steadily in view. There are in every town in
this State intelligent men, whose knowledge of these sciences and
their relations is indeed limited, but who are capable of appre
ciating their importance, and would acquire, in the progress of
the work contemplated, a vast amount of practical information,
which would gradually be diffused through every town and neigh
borhood in the State. Among other beneficial results of this in
formation, one would doubtless be the prevention of those errors
so often practised, of committing plants to inappropriate and un
congenial soils — errors which are as certain to insure a failure, as
would be the planting of the hyacinth upon the brow of the
volcano.

Admitting then the utility of the measure proposed, the next
question which would properly present itself for consideration
would be its expense. From the estimate made by Prof. Bene
dict, apparently with much care, it might safely be set down as
not exceeding twelve thousand dollars, including the expense of
publishing the necessary report. This would amount to less than
five cents for each individual in the State, and the payment of this
sum might, as suggested by Prof. Benedict, be extended into two,
three, or more years, according as it should be deemed expedient
to prosecute the work with greater or less rapidity. And in
view of the immense benefit to be derived, your Committee has
no hesitancy in expressing the opinion that the work should be
immediately undertaken.

But inasmuch as the subject has been never fully before the
people of the State, and the measure proposed involves considera
ble expense, they forbear recommending any appropriation for this
object the present session — choosing to leave the decision of the
question to the intelligence of the people — confident in the belief
that they will appreciate the importance of the subject, and that
the popular voice will demand the commencement of the enterprize
another year.

APPENDIX VI.

Extract from Prof. Thompson's Address, on the
Natural History of Vermont.

The Green Mountains have, for some years past, presented to
geologists an interesting problem, which was — the determination
of their geological ogc and character, and particularly the age and
character of that portion of the western slope of these mountains
which have been denominated the Taconic System. And as the
larger part of this range of mountains was within the limits of
Vermont, the attention of the geologists of the country was direct-
ted to the geological survey of that State, as being likely to fur
nish a satisfactory solution of the problem- and during the con
tinuance of the survey, that object was kept constantly in view by
those engaged in it. Many sections were traced from the well
known Silurian rocks, which occupy the valley of Lake Champlain,
to the center of the Green Mountain range, and many facts were
brought to light which have an important bearing upon the prob
lem which I have mentioned ; but just as the examinations wrere
being completed, and the results and facts were to be brought to
gether, systematized and weighed, the survey was suspended ; and
whether it will ever be resumed or not, is a problem which time
only can solve.

The rocks in the western part of Yermont, in the valley of
Lake Champlain, arc highly fossiliferous and clearly belong to
that portion of the lower Silurian, denominated by the New York
geologists, the Champlain group. To the eastward of these, and
mostly in the south part of the State, lie the so-called Taconic
9

66

rocks. These last consist principally of slates, limestone,* and
quartz rock. A few fossils are believed to have been found in
them, but they are extremely rare and obscure ; and the question
with regard to these rocks is, as I understand it, whether they are
a series of fossiliferous rocks which are older than the Champlain
group, or arc metamorphic members of that group, whose fossils
have been mostly obliterated by heat.

To the eastward of the Champlain and Taconic group, I am not
aware that any fossiliferous rocks have been found, in place, with
in the State. Lying next to these, is a belt of talcoso slate forma
tion, varying from 15 to 30 miles in width, and extending through
the entire length of the State from south to north. This belt em
braces all the highest summits of the Green Mountain range. The
rocks, though generally more or less talcose, contain in many
places, a large proportion of mica, and in some places are highly
chloritic. Near the eastern margin of this belt there is a narrow
range of steatite, extending through the State, having associated
with it or embraced within it, in many places, extensive beds of ser
pentine rock, which are capable of furnishing, in great abundance
and of excellent quality, that beautiful variety of magnesian marble,
called Verd Antique. In this serpentine, in the north part of the
State, large veins of the magnetic oxyde, and also of the chromic
iron, have been opened. The whole belt which I have mentioned,
is entirely destitute, certainly in the north half of the State, both
of limestone and granite.

Between this belt of talcose rocks and Connecticut river, the
formation consists of clay, mica, hornblende, and talcose slates,
gneiss and limestone frequently interstratified, and of numerous
protrusions, and some extensive regions of granite. This granite
is of excellent quality for building-stone, but the limestone of this
formation is all too silicious for the manufacture of good quick-
lime.t

* The limestone of this series furnishes inexhaustible quarries of the most beautiful
white marble.

f While all the western parts of Vermont abound in the best of limestone, there is in
the eastern and north-eastern parts of the State no limestone from which good quick
lime can be made. In the south- vestern part of Windsor connty, and western part of
Windham county, there is a gray limestone, and in the north-eastern part of the State
are extensive beds of shell marl, which make a tolerable lime for ordinary purposes.
The marl-beds were originally formed in the bottoms of ponds ; but these ponds have, in

67

One of the most marked peculiarities in the geology of Vermont,
is found in the general dip of the stratified rocks, which is, with a
few trifling exceptions, towards a synclinal axis extending north
and south near the center of the Green Mountain range. Along
the shore of Lake Champlain the rocks are nearly horizontal,
having only a slight easterly dip ; but the dip increases pretty
uniformly, in proceeding eastward, till it becomes vertical at a
line a little westward of the principal summits of the Green Moun
tains. From this line, for a distance of seven or eight miles east
ward, the dip of the strata continues nearly vertical. This space
embraces the highest part of the mountain range, and. to the
eastward of it, the general dip of the rocks is distinctly westward ;
but the rocks are here more disturbed, and the dip less uniform,
than on the west side of the mountains.

With regard to the question, whether the rocks, which form the
Green Mountains and extend eastward to Connecticut river, are
truly primary, or antepalaeozoic, as was formerly supposed, or are
metamorphic silurian rocks, which are newer than the Champlain
group, as has been more recently suspected, I would only observe
that evidence in favor of the latter opinion was constantly accu
mulating during the continuance of our survey, and has been
greatly increased by the labors of Mr. Logan, the provincial geol
ogist of Canada, along our northern boundary.

The rocks in place, in Vermont, arc, for the most part, covered
by the drift formation ; but wherever exposed, they are found to be
worn and smoothed, arid, usually, striated or scored in the direc
tion in which the drift materials have been transported, which is,
generally, from a little west of north to a little east of south ; but
this direction is, in various places, very considerably modified by
the direction of the ridges and valleys being north and south in the
lower parts of the valleys of Lake Champlain and of Connecticut
river, but from north- west to south-east, and in some places nearly
from west to east, in the valleys and gorges of the Green Moun-

many cases, entirely disappeared,and the places they occupied become dry laud, One
of the most interesting of these marl-beds is in Williamsto\vn. It covers about seven
acres, andis in some parts tSfeetdeep. Itisa very pure carbonate of lime, consisting
entirely of comminuted fresh water shells. This marl is formed into a paste, moulded
in the form of bricks, and then burned inakiln. The quicklime thus obtained is quite
white, and for most purposes is scarcely inferior to that obtained from the Champlain
and Taconic limestone.

68

tains. Vermont furnishes many very interesting cases of the trans
portation of boulders to a distance of many miles from the quarries
in which they originated, Rolled masses of a peculiar kind of
granite, often of several tons weigh t, are found scattered over the
lower parts of Caledonia county, from 20 to 30 miles to the south
eastward of the locality, in Orleans county, from which they were
evidently derived, and blocks of a calcareous sandstone, found, in
place, only along the shore of Lake Champlain, are met with far
into the interior of the State, and, in some cases, to the eastward
of the principal summits of the Green Mountains.* I mention
these merely as examples. Many other cases might be adduced of
equal interest.

The unstratified drift in the western part of the State, and the
Champlain rocks, are to a great extent covered by a post-tertiary
marine deposit of stratified sand and clay, which has been called
the Pleistocene formation. The strata of this formation are nearly
horizontal, and are, for the most part, undisturbed and regular,
showing that they were deposited in a tranquil sea. The depth
of this deposit, in places, exceeds 100 feet, and the highest parts
of it are about 400 feet above the present level of the ocean. The
fossils found in it are considerably numerous, and are, in general,
such as are now found in a living state on the coast of New Eng
land. The fossil bones of a small species of whale, which Iliad
the pleasure to exhibit before this Society in December last, were
found in this formation.

From the remarks which I have made, it must be obvious that
Vermont combines in its geology the characteristics of western
New England with those of New York. The meeting, in Vermont,
of two great botanical and zoological districts or provinces, is equal
ly apparent.

* Some of thes
cst parts of the same rock as they are now found in place.

APPENDIX VII.

Extract from Prof. Thompson's Address on the
Natural History of Vermont.

Vermont, for a small inland State, is regarded as peculiarly rich
in vegetable productions ; and some portions of the State have been
pretty thoroughly explored by skillful botanists. When its settle
ment was commenced, its entire surface was covered with forests,
which were probably unsurpassed, in density and luxuriance, by
those of any other section of our country of equal area. The
sugar maple and white pine found no where else a more congenial
soil ; and the evergreens, spruce, and fir, which covered the surface
of our mountains, and first suggested for them the name of Verd
Mont, grow to a respectable size almost to their highest summits,
several of which exceed 4,000 feet in height. With the exception
of seven or eight species, our list of forest trees embraces all that
have hitherto been found in New England, and three, or more
species, which have been found in no other New England State.

Aside from the marine plants furnished by the sea board, and a
few alpine plants found on the White Mountains of New Hamp
shire, Vermont is known to produce nearly all of the indigenous-
plants of New England, and in addition to these, some 40 or more
species, which are not found in any other New England State.
These forty or more species, which are not found to the eastward
of Vermont, arc mostly confined to the western border of the State
and are, in general, such as are common in the State of New
York, arid further westward. As the botany of Vermont has yet
been only partially explored, there still being considerable sec--
tions of the State which no skillful botanist has ever visited, it is,
not unreasonable to suppose that many new plants remain to.
stimulate and reward the labor of future search.

While the laborers in Vermont, in the fields of Geology and

70

Botany, have been very few, those engaged in the investigation
of the Zoology of the State have been still fewer. The meagre
account of our animals contained in Dr. Williams' valuable history
of Vermont, until very recently embraced almost all that had ever
been published respecting them. But that work was written at a
very early period, when the subject of Natural History, in this
country, was little understood, and when an examination of the
State, to which it relates, had hardly been commenced. In that
work, (although the attempt to assign to our animals and vegeta
bles their scientific names, was a failure,) he collected together
from the hunters and early settlers, much that is valuable in re
lation to the magnitude, habits, &c., of our larger animals, and
saved from oblivion many facts which are no where else pre
served.

After the publication of Dr. Williams' history, the last edition
of which was issued more than forty years ago, nothing further
was published respecting the Natural History of the State, ex
cepting a catalogue of Vermont minerals by Prof. Frederick Hall,
and a catalogue of the plants of Mi Idlebury and vicinity, by Dr.
Edwin James, previous to the publication of my Natural and
Civil History of the State, in 1842. Having myself, devoted
considerable attention to the vertebrata of the State, and being
kindly aided in the department of botany by the late William
Oakes, Esq., of Ipswich, Mass., and in conchology by Prof. C. B.
Adams, then of Middlebury College, with occasional assistance in
other branches of zoology, kindly rendered by members of this
Society, I was enabled to embrace in that work nearly all that was
then known of the Natural History of the State. Since the
issue of that work, much more has been done, and many facts
accumulated, which have not been made public, and still the in
vestigation of some branches of the Natural History of Vermont
is not yet commenced.

Quadrupeds and birds possess such facilities for locomotion,
that they could not be expected in Vermont to differ much from
those of the neighboring States. The number of species of our
native quadrupeds, which have been carefully determined, is,
at least, 45 ; and of birds more than 160 species have been ascer
tained.

Our largest native quadruped, the Moose, which grew to the
size of an Ox, and whose flesh furnished to our early settlers an

71

excellent substitute for beef, is now, if not entirely exterminated,
confined to a small section in the north-east corner of the State.
The Beaver, whose skin was once an important article of export,
is wholly extirpated. The Panther, the Wolf, the Wolverine,
the Deer, the Bear — in short all the larger species, have been
gradually diminishing, and most of the kinds have become exceed
ingly rare. The native black Rat (Mus Americanus) has van
ished but the immigrant gray Rat, (Mus decnmanus) has in
some parts of the State, usurped its place, and has become a great
nuisance. Yet it is a curious fact that there is. in the north part of
the State, an extensive region which has been settled more than
half a century, in which, it said, no rats were ever seen.

In the birds of Vermont, considerable changes have taken place
since the settlement of the country, in the number of individuals
of the same species at different periods ; and there have probably
been also a withdrawal of some species and the substitution of
others. Of some species, which abounded when the country was
new, an individual is now seldom, or ever seen ; while other spe
cies,, which were then unknown, have been exceedingly common.
The American Crossbill, (Loxa curcirostria) and red-headed
Woodpecker, (Picas crythrocphalus^) may be mentioned as ex
amples of the former, and the Cliff Swallow, (Hirundo fulva,}
of the hitter. Forty years ago, as I well remember, the red-headed
Woodpecker was one of the most common birds in our forests ;
but is now so rare that, while I have traveled extensively over
the State, I have hardly seen half a dozen in the last 20 years.
On the other hand, I cannot learn that a Cliff Swallow was ever
seen in Vermont till about the year 1817 ; but they now swarm
in hundreds, about the eaves of barns in various parts of the
State.

While the species of the two higher classes of the vertebrata of
Vermont are, generally, the same as in the other New England
States, the case is quite different in regard to the reptiles and fishes ;
so much so, that in reference to these, the Western part of Ver
mont clearly belongs to a different Zoological district from the
eastern, and from the other parts of New England. The dividing
line between these districts is along the summits of the Green
Mountain range, which separate the waters falling into Connecti
cut river from those which are tributary to the St. Lawrence.
The reptiles and fishes found in Vermont to the eastward of this

72

line, are sucli as are common in other parts of New England, while
those found to the westward of it, are generally different, corres
ponding, for the most part, with the fauna of Western New York.
Of the reptiles foiind in the western part of Vermont, which are
not, so far as I am informed, found to the eastward of the Green
Mountains, may be mentioned the E-niys geographica^ the Trion-
yx ferox, the liana horiconenses and the Menobranchus ma-
cidatus. Our Ribbon Snake, if identical, as it probably is, with
the Coluber Sauriter of the eastern part of New England, often
far exceeds in length the measurement of this species usually giv
en in books.

But the fishes on the two sides of this dividing line differ even
more than the reptiles. The whole number of species of Vermont
fishes is about fifty. Of these more than forty species are pretty
well determined ; and of those determined, not more than four or
five are common to the two sides of the Green Mountains. There
are perhaps seven or eight species, which are found on the east
side of the mountains and not on the west, and at least thirty spe
cies on the west side, which are not found in any Vermont waters
on the east side : and more than twenty of these thirty species
are not, so far as I am informed, found in any other New Eng
land waters. Of these twenty or more species not found to the
southeastward of western Vermont, six belonging to the Perch
family, four to the Salmon family, three to the Herring family
two to the Pike family, tivoor more to the Carp family, one Cottus
one Corvina, one Catfish, one Eel, and one Sturgeon.

The Mollusca of Vermont have, by the labors of Prof. G. W.
Benedict and Prof. C. B. Adams, been pretty thoroughly examin
ed; but hardly any attention has been given to the other classes
of our invertebrated animals; There are I believe, a few species
of fresh water Mollusks, in Lake Champlain, which have been
found nowhere else, and a considerable number of species which
are not found to the eastward of the Green Mountains. One of
these last, is the Limnsea nugasoma ; and the only known locality
of this species in Vermont is in Burlington, where they have some
times been found plentifully in a few small creeks in low stages of
the water, but from which it is feared they will soon be extermina
ted by the drying up of the creeks, in consequence of their having
become exposed to the sun and winds by the removal of the forest
trees and shrubbery which protected them.

APPENDIX VIII.

Resolution to set apart a room in the State House
for the State Naturalist.

OCTOBER 18, 1855.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That
the Sergeant-at-Arms be and is hereby directed to set apart and
prepare the committee room, numbered fourteen, for the use of the
State Naturalist, for the deposit and arrangement of the speci
mens collected and to be collected in the Geological, Botanical and
Zoological Survey of the State.

10

APPENDIX IX,

Contents of the proposed Volumes,

BY ZADOCK THOMPSON.

NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT,

VOL. I.-GEOLOGY OF VERMONT.

PART I — SCENOGRAPHIC GEOLOGY,

Aspect of the Country.

Mountains.

Hills.

Water Sheds.

Vallies.

Chasms.

Caves.

Springs.

Streams.

Ponds.

Lakes.

Swamps.

PART II — SCIENTIFIC GEOLOGY.
General View of the Vermont Rocks.
Age of Vermont Rocks.
Order of Succession.

76

Description of the Champlain group, and characteristic
fossils.

Description of the Potsdam Sandstone.
" " Calciferous Sandstone.

" Isle La Motte Limestone.
" " Trenton Limestone.

" " Black Shales.

" Dove-Colored Limestone.
" Red Sand-Rock Series.
Taconic Rocks :

Sparry Limestone,

Taconic Slates,

Magnesian Slates,

Stockbridge Limestone,

Granular Quartz.
Brown Iron Ore Series :

Silicious Limestone,

Quartz,

Kaolin,

Lignite.
Green Mountain Rocks :

Talcose Slate,

Clay Slate,

Chlorite Slate,

Green Mountain Gneiss,

Mica Slate,

Steatite,

Serpentine.
Calcareo-Mica Slate Formation :

Clay Slate,

Silicious Limestone,

Mica Slate,

Hornblende Slate,

Silicious Slate,

Gneiss.
Iff neons Rocks :

Granite,

Trap,

Porphyry,

Feldspar,

Quartz.

77

Superincumbent Formations :

Drift Formation and Phenomena,
Erratic Blocks, Boulders,
Gravel, Sand,
Moraines,

Pleistocene Formation,
Brown and Blue Clays,
Fossils of the Pleistocene.

Mammals, Elephos, Belaga, Equus.

Shells, Mya, <fcc.

Woods.
Modern Formations :

Marl and Muck Beds,
Alluvion.

PART III — MINERALOGY.

General Notice of Vermont Minerals.

Catalogue of Minerals.

Description of Minerals and Localities.

PART IV — ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY.
Building Materials:

Granite,

Gneiss,

Limestone,

Marble,

Quick-Lime, Water-Lime.
Serpentine,
Steatite,
Slate,

Clay, Roofing, Writing, Pencils, Flagging and Tiling.

Mica, &c., Flagging.
Clay and Sand,

For Bricks, Fire Bricks, Pottery.
Kaolin, for Pottery, Paper, &c.,
Sand, for Glass, Moulding,
Earths, Ochres, Paint, &c.

78

Metallic ores and Mining- :
Iron,

Manganese,
Copper,
Lead,
Silver,
Gold,
Zinc,
Cadmium.

NATUEAL HISTORY OF VERMONT.

VOLUME II.— BOTANY.

Preliminary Remarks.
PART I. — CLIMATOLOGY AND METEOROLOGY.

Temperature, Elevation — Comparison :
Rain,
Snow,
Hail,
Fog,

Range and Changes of Temperature,
Phenomena of Lake Champlain,
Anchor Ice,
Meteors, Rainbow,
Aurora Borealis,
Thunder and Lightning.

PART II. — SCIENTIFIC BOTANY.
Catalogue of Indigenous and Naturalized Plants.
Woods of Vermont, Shade Trees,
Shrubs of Vermont,

Berries, Ornamental Shrubs,

Shrubs useful.
Herbaceous Plants.

PART III. — AGRICULTURE.

Varieties of Soil,
Analysis of Soils.

80

Mineral Manures :
Muck,
Marl,

Clay,

Sand,

Gypsum.
Artificial and Organic Manures :

Dung,

Ashes.
Field Crops:

Grasses,

Wheat,

Eye,

Oats, Peas,

Barley,

Maize,

Potatoes, Pumpkins,

Turnips, Beans,

Carrots,

Beets.
Garden Crops :

Cabbages, Cauliflowers,

Onions,

Parsnips,

Tomatoes, Beans,

Horse Radish,

Rhubarb,

Celery,

Lettuce,

Radish.

Tree Fruits :

Apple,

Pear,

Plum,

Cherry,

Peach,

Quince.

81

Shrub Berries :

Currants,

Gooseberries,

Raspberries,

Barberries.
Vinous and Herbaceous Fruits :

Grapes,

Strawberries.

NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT.

VOLUME III.— ZOOLOGY,

Preliminary Chapter".
Vertebrated Animals :

PART I — MAMMALIA — QUADRUPEDS.
Catalogue of Vermont Quadrupeds,
Native — Introduced.

PART II — ORNITHOLOGY — BIRDS.
Introductory Remarks,
Catalogue of Vermont Birds,
Wild — Domesticated.

PART III — HERPETOLOGY — REPTILES.

Introductory Remarks,
Catalogue of Vermont Reptiles.

82

PART IV — ICTHYOLOGY — FISHES.
Introductory Remarks,
Catalogue of Vermont Fishes.

Invertebrated Animals.

PART V — ARTICULATA — ARTICULATED ANIMALS.
Insects,
Remarks,

Catalogue of Vermont Insects,
Descriptions of Insects, Injurious,
Myriapeds,

Spiders, Arachnoidians.
Crustaceans,
Annelidians.

PART VI — MOLLUSCA, SHELLS.
PART VII — RADIATA.

APPENDIX X.

The true Valus of Chemical Analysis of Soils,

BY DR. JOHN D. EASTER, OF BALTIMORE.

[From the Journal of the N. S. Agricultural Society, 1856.

It is not Ion* since the practical farmer sneeringly derided the
value of book learning and stubbornly resisted the interference
of scientific men, in what he considered a purely practical bus
ness. But that feeling seems to have passed away, and even those
who still refuse to acknowledge the value of scientific researches
upon the composition of the soil, and its relation to the functions
of vegetation, are not slow to avail themselves of the benet
which others have derived from them. Indeed we have reason to
fear that scientific superstition has taken the place of scientit
incredulity, and the farmer now expects as much too much from
chemistry, as he formerly expected too little. The result of these
overwrought expectations is, naturally, disappointment, and the
deluded farmer throws the blame of his failure on science, and is
more than ever determined to adhere to his old ways.

I propose, in this paper, to consider the true use of chemical
analysis' of soils, and some of the requisites of a valuabl

analysis. . e

As it is from the soil that plants derive the principal part of
their constituent elements the presence in the soil of these ele
ments, iu P-rms in which they may be absorbed by the rootlets of
the plant.; and assimilated in their cells, is indispensable to their

84

perfect growth. Where the want of fertility arises from the ab
sence of one or more of these constituents, or their being locked
up in combinations in which plants cannot use them, chemical
analysis is perfectly competent to detect the cause of the evil
and point out its remedy.

But the growth of plants is influenced by a multitude of other
circumstances to which chemical analysis can furnish no clue. A
soil may abound in all the elements of a very fertile one, and
yet be perfectly barren. The soil of the great Colorado desert
in California, which I have recently analysed, furnishes a good
example of this. It possesses in abuud.inco every element neces
sary to extreme fertility, but is entirely barren from the want of
water.

The reverse of this also frequently occurs. The chemist re
ceives a specimen of soil, in the chemical constitution of which he
can detect no deficiency, and in his laboratory, he can assign no
cause for its alleged unproductiveness. An examination of the
locality probably shows him that it is underlaid by a stiff tena
cious subsoil, which retains an excess of water, and no provision
has been made for drainage.

The difference in the mechanical texture of stiff and loose soils
is familiar to every one. The fertility of many stiff clays may be
seriously impaired by ploughing too wet, rendering them tough
and impenetrable to the tender rootlets of plants. In this case,
as no chemical change takes place, the chemist in his laboratory
would seek in vain for the cause of the difficulty.

Every attempt to improve the character of a soil must therefore
be preceded by a judicious consideration of its mechanical texture,
its power of absorbing and retaining water, and its capacity for
heat. Hence it is important that the agricultural chemist should,
if possible, himself examine the locality, in order fully to esti
mate the wants of the soil. The employment by evciy State, of
an agricultural chemist, who should visit in person every part of
the State, is therefore strongly to be recommended.

In the next place it is requisite that an analysis of the soil, in
order to be of much value, should be thorough. It mast include
separate estimations of the parts soluble in water and in acids,
and the insoluble portion. For the portion soluble in water rep
resents what is available for the wants of the growing crop,

85

while the portion soluble in dilute acids is the index of what may
by decomposition become the food of plants. This undecomposed
portion of the soil may often, by the application of lime, ashes,
and other caustic manures, be more speedily decomposed and ren
dered available.

The analysis should include also, if possible, the sub-soil, as
well as the surface soil, in order to guide the farmer in the pro
cess of deepening his soil. There are, of late, many advocates
of indiscriminate deep-plowing. But a fertile soil may be under
laid by a barren sub soil, by throwing up large quantities of
which the fertility of a field may be destroyed for years. The
sub-soil, not unfrequently, contains large quantities of protoxide
of iron and other substances which are injurious to vegeta
tion until they have been subjected to the action of the atmos
phere. On the other hand, the sub-soil often contains elements
of fertility which are not so abundant in the surface soil, in
which case, deep plowing will improve both. It is important
that the agriculturist should know these differences in order
that he may know where he should plough deep, and where
refrain.

A still more important consideration is, that no analysis can be
of any value to the farmer who is not himself a chemist, unless it
be accompanied by a discussion of the indications it affords, and a
recommendation of suitable means of improvement. Our agri
cultural journals and reports abound in analyses which are about
as intelligible to the unscientific farmer as the inscriptions on the
pyramids, or a chapter from La Place's Mechanique Celeste.
Most of our intelligent farmers know that lime, phosphoric acid,
and the alkalies, play important parts in the economy of vegeta
tion, but few of them have any idea how much of each of these val
uable ingredients is requisite to fertility, or what are the best
means of supplying their deficiency. Until every farmer is also
a chemist, an analysis of a soil or manure which is not followed by
a commentary on its defects or virtues, leaves him just where the
diagnosis of a disease, without a prescripton for its relief, leaves
the patient. He is no wiser nor better oif than before. It will
not do to presume that when the chemist pronounces what a soil
contains, the argiculturist will know what it ought to contain, and

86

how to supply its wants. Every farmer should insist upon an in
terpretation of the analysis furnished him by the chemist.

In conclusion, I would call your attention to the duty of the in
telligent agriculturist to acquire a theoretical knowledge of so
much chemistry as relates to his profession, that he may Le ena
bled to judge for himself of the value of a substance from the
chemical analysis of it, and also of the probable value of the analy
sis itself, for at least one half of the analyses which farmers daily
pay for are absolutely unreliable and worthless. The agricultur
ist should also he able to judge for himself of the texture, moisture
and C'jlor of the soil, and the means within his reach of modifying
them. At the same time, I would by no means advise that he
should attempt to become a practical chemist and do his own
chemical analysis, as some persons of more zeal than judgment
insist lie may. I have pointed out the necessity for thoroughness
in chemical examinations of the soil, and every one who has had on
ly a few month's experience in a laboratory knows that a thorough
analysis of a soil requires much time, great care and dexterity in
manipulation, and a knowledge of all the disturbing influences and
sources of error. This, fewihrmetfl have the time or opportunity
to acquire, and few would, for the sake of making the few chemical
examinations they might in their life-time require, be willing to
devote to the study time which might be so much better spent in
acquiring a practical knowledge of their own noble profession.
Besides this, the expense of fitting up a laboratory would more
than pay for all the analyses any farmer is likely ever to need. The
liiiiny formulas which have been proposed for the use of farmers
are there fore of very doubtful utility. Let every fanner make a
laboratory of his barn-yard, and carefully collect and employ all
the liquid as well as solid manures within his reach and if the
chemist is not euriehcd thereby, his fields will be."

APPENDIX XI.

Commission

FKOM AUGUSTUS YOUNG, STATE NATURALIST,
TO ALBERT D. HAGER.

To ALBERT D. HAGER, ESQ., Proctorsville, Vt. :

SIR : Upon the suggestion and recommendation of several
prominent citizens, and reposing special trust in your ability, fidel
ity and taste, I hereby appoint you Assistant State Naturalist and
commission you accordingly :

You will proceed to Burlington, and by enquiry and examina
tion, ascertain the number and condition of the minerals and fos
sils and other specimens there collected by the late State Natu
ralist, and take all the instruments and tools and other property
belonging to the department of the Geological Survey into your
custody. The specimens and all said property you will send to
the State House, and arrange them in their proper apart
ment.

You will arrange in room number fourteen, a proper cabinet of
minerals, fossils, &c., taking especial care to present the speci
mens in such a scientific order as you may deem most appropri
ate and attractive, and place all surplus specimens designed for
colleges and other institutions of the State, as well as for exchange,
in their proper place in room number thirty seven.

All specimens are to be numbered and marked with their com
mon and scientific name, and the labels on each should indicate its
locality and by whom collected or presented. The Catalogues
prepared by Professor Adams and Thompson will be entrusted to
you for your aid while attending to this branch of your duties.

You will make an inventory of all specimens arranged in number
fourteen and of such as are stored in number thirty-seven, taking
pains while packing and unpacking to avoid all accident, and also

88

at all times to prevent all losses of rare specimens by fire, accident
or otherwise

You will make a detailed report of your doings as soon as may
be, that I may submit it with a communication I propose to make
to His Excellency the Governor, taking pains, if you please, to
embrace in your said report such facts and practical suggestions
as you may deem appropriate.

AUGUSTUS YOUNG,

State Naturalist.

ST. ALBANS BAY, Sept. 20, 1856.

ERRATA.

On page 19, for " Professor Gardner Vanuxem," read Professor
Lardner Vanuxem.

14 DAY USE

RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

Biology

OJ/ Cx

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or

on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

LD 21-50m-8/57
(C8481slO)476

General Library

University of California

Berkeley

-

\