In regard to this matter of geological surveys, I can hardly
avoid making a suggestion 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.