TO HIS EXCELLENCY Gov. BRIGGS: Dear Sir, THE accompanying Report concludes the work of the Commissioners on the Zoological and Botanical Survey of the State. It has been prepared with especial reference to the instructions of Gov. Everett, accompanying his commission, and directing the Commissioners "to keep carefully in view the economical relations of every subject of their inquiry." I trust it may do something "to promote the agricultural benefit of the Commonwealth," by leading citizens who are land owners to a consideration of the importance of continuing, improving, and enlarging the forests of the State. It is due to the Legislature, and to yourself, that I should make some apology for the tardy appearance of my Report. It is well known to your Excellency, that ever since the commission was issued, in 1837, I have been occupied, for ten months of every year, in a pursuit which left me no leisure for the Survey, and little for reading, on subjects connected with it. I have, therefore, been able to give to it only the summer vacation, and of that a considerable portion has, every year, been necessarily taken up with other things. Under these circumstances, it was hardly possible for me to give to the Survey the attention it deserved, and let my Report appear at an earlier period. I am, respectfully, Your Excellency's friend and servant, GEO. B. EMERSON. September 19, 1846. |