estion here. So large a portion of our country
has now been examined, more or less thoroughly, by the several
State governments, that it does seem to me the time has come when
the National government should order a survey--geological,
zoological, and botanical--of the whole country, on such a
liberal and thorough plan as the surveys in Great Britain are now
conducted; in the latter country it being understood that at
least thirty years will be occupied in the work. Could not the
distinguished New York statesman who was to have addressed us
to-day be induced, when the present great struggle in which he is
engaged shall have been brought to a close, by a merciful
Providence, to introduce this subject, and urge it upon Congress?
And would it not be appropriate for the American Association for
the Advancement of Science to throw a petition before the
government for such an object? Or might it not, with the consent
of the eminent gentleman who has charge of the Coast Survey, be
connected therewith, as it is with the Ordnance Survey in Great
Britain.

The history of the American Association was then given:--

Prof. Mather, I believe, through Prof. Emmons, first suggested to
the New-York Board of Geologists in November, 1838, in a letter
proposing a number of points for their consideration. I quote
from him the following paragraph relating to the meeting. As to
the credit he has here given me of having personally suggested
the subject, I can say only that I had been in the habit for
several years of making this meeting of scientific men a sort of
hobby in my correspondence with such. Whether others did the
same, I did not then, and do not now know. Were this the proper
place, I could go more into detail on this point; but I will
merely quote Prof. Mather's language to the Board:--

* * * * "Would it not be well to suggest the propriety of a
meeting of Geologists and other scientific men of our country at
some central point next fall,--say at New-York or Philadelphia?
There are many questions in our Geology that will receive new
light from friendly discussion and the combined observations of
various individuals who have noted them in different parts of our
country. Such a meeting has been suggested by Prof. Hitchcock;
and to me it seems desirable