RK-166

31

Fredonia Chautauqua Co July 12^th 1856

Mr Kennicott

Dear Sir

Will you pardon the liberty I am now taking. To address a gentleman by letter without an invitation to do so is considered a violation of etiquette but I believe in Northfield this ceremony is dispensed with or may be when occasion would require its violation I have stumbled upon a very valuable scientific work which is so immediately connected with your and your brother's pursuits that I thought you might like to possess it, and as I found the work for sale I thought I would attempt to give you a description of it. The work contains twenty volumes of quarto size and is divided in to six parts very well bound on fine paper and

good paint. Part 1^st vol 1^st contains first an Introduction of 188 pages, By Gov Seward Zoology of Nyork By James E De Kay Part 2^nd, Botany By John Torrey Part 3^rd Mineralogy By Lewis C Beck Part 4^th Geology. By Wm W Mather and Lardner Vauxam Part 5^th Agriculture By Ebenezer Emmons Part 6^th Paleontology By James Hall

But to give you a more particular description Part 1^st of Zoology, gives Mammalia 136 pages of letter press description and 33 plates including the fur bearing animals

in this volume there are two and three figures on each plate many of them of the Natural size. Part 2^nd of Zoology, contains 380 pages of letter press description and 141 plates in the Same volume the plates contain from 1 to 3 figures. This volume is Ornithology the plates are colored to the life and some of them of the natural size The observations for them are taken in Nyork but yet con =tains those found in the same latitude

Part 3^rd of Zoology contains two volumes one of which contains 79 plates of Reptiles and Amphibians from one to five figures on each plate the other volume gives 4/5 pages of letter press description of the plates, those plates are not colored. Part 5^th and 6^th of Zoology contains 271 pages of letter press description of Mollusca and 40 plates with from 2 to 40 figures on each plate all colored. it also contains 70 pages of letter press description of Crustacea with 13 plates from 1 to 6 figures on each plate all colored, this completes the Zoological department, and is in 5 volumes. Oh by the way

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part 4^th in Zoology I have not examined it being left at the office this will make six volumes in Zoology. The next general di= vision is Botany including the Flora of NYork Upon examination I find this work includes a great variety of our [illegible] plants and flowers The Botany is in two volumes. The first contains 484 pages of letter press discrip tion and 72 plates. These are not colored The second volume contains 572 pages letter press and 161 plates The descriptions are ample. Part 3^rd contains but one volume, Minerology. In this there are 533 figures and 536 pages of letter press description with quite a number of additional plates Part 4^th of the general division is Geology. This is in four volumes The first by Martin contains 659 pages of letter press and 45 plates The plates are many of them large on extended sheets comprising whole dis= tricts Vol 2^nd gives the Second district It contains 427 pages letter press and 17 plates This is by Emmond. Vol 3^rd gives the 3^rd dis=trict contains 306 pages with plates in terspersed This is by Bannnrm vol 4^th gives Scenery of district four. It contains 525 pages of letter press description 192 illustrations interspersed and 19 additional plates This is by James Hall. This gives also a description of the Geological formations of the Western States

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Part 5^th is Agriculture. This is in five volumes The first contains 21 plates and 367 pages of letter press description plates and maps interspersed - Vol 2^nd contains 343 pages of letter press descriptions, 50 pages of tables 57 plates 14 plates of observations. Many of the plates in this volume are colored. They are of grains and roots. Vol 3^rd has 340 pages of description of fruits and grains and in Vol 4^th 81 plates of fruits of natural size and color this is one of the finest volumes of the whole work. Vol 5^th contains 272 pages of letter press description of insects with 47 colored plates from 4 to 20 figures on each plate

Part 5^th Paleontology This has two volumes The first contains 338 pages letter press 87 plates many of these plates require three or four pages