James Gates Percival - poet, musician, linguist, botanist, and early Connecticut geologist - walks through the woods in a poetic mood.

then only to stop a friend on the street and strike up an hour-long conversation on the most arcane minutia. Fits of romantic and artistic depression drove him to such acts as pounding his head against a tree until he bled or attempting suicide (unsuccessfully) by an overdose of opium. Percival's apartment on Chapel Street in New Haven was as one might expect: a few small rooms crammed with books and littered with interesting rocks, bulging plant presses, and assorted odd objects that had struck his fancy.

Percival seems to have had little knowledge or sense of normal social decorum and is reported to have dreaded conversation on any but the most learned topics. He was particularly uncomfortable in the presence of women (he never married), although reportedly not uninterested in the opposite sex. One story of his total unawareness of even the most everyday social dynamics concerns a grudge he held for a number of years against Benjamin Silliman. Apparently, Percival was invited to give a lecture at a meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in New Haven. As was usual for such lectures, it was expected that Percival would speak for no more than an hour or so. (Even geologists start to get fidgety after an hour's discourse on rocks.) Several hours into the talk, Percival finally paused an instant for breath. Silliman, who was presiding, "with great presence of mind ... leaped to his feet and adjourned the meeting. "³ Percival never forgave this affront, and it was some time before he could bring himself to talk to Silliman again.

In 1835, Governor Henry W. Edwards appointed Percival and Shepard to undertake a geological survey of the state. Shepard was to describe the economic potential of Connecticut's geology, and Percival was to map the rock formations. The legislature appropriated a modest sum, expecting the work to take a year at most. That summer, the two men traveled together throughout the region in a one-horse wagon, passing nights at country inns or farmers' houses and eventually visiting every parish in the state. They submitted preliminary reports and convinced the legislature to extend the survey for one more year.

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