. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OK 1840-1849. 381 Sketch of James Hall. rence County. plished beneath the ocean, when it entirely covered the surface of the country and was subject to tides and currents like the present ocean. Thus we may conceive this whole extent of country to have been submerged beneath the ocean for a long period; and that in its subsequent elevation it lias been washed by the advancing and retiring waves, which have worn the d
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OK 1840-1849. 381 Sketch of James Hall. rence County. plished beneath the ocean, when it entirely covered the surface of the country and was subject to tides and currents like the present ocean. Thus we may conceive this whole extent of country to have been submerged beneath the ocean for a long period; and that in its subsequent elevation it lias been washed by the advancing and retiring waves, which have worn the deep indenta- tions in the limestone cliffs and broken up the edges of the strata. Hall was born at Hingham, Massachusetts, in LSI 1, and studied under Eaton at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1832, after which be served for a short time as librarian, and was then appointed assistant to Eaton, at a salary of $600 a 3Tear. His first systematic work in geology was done under the patronage of Stephen Van Rensselaer in St. Law- With the organization of the State geological survey in 1836 he was appointed assistant to Emmons, but, after the with- drawal of Conrad, was placed in charge of the fourth district— the level, uninteresting western portion of the State, which be was told was good enough for a young man • if twenty-five. The region was not the western New York of to-day; mads were less numerous and less carefully made; exposures were rare and poor. It was necessary to wade along streams for miles to gain fragments which were to be pieced into tenta- tive sections; the people were suspicions, fearing some new scheme for increasing the taxes; but none of these things moved him; as in later years, diffi- culties only increased his determination. So bis is the only one of the four final reports which deals broadly with the problems of the young science, and, though upon the contemned fourth district, it is the only one which has endured with authority and
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