274 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



to attribute to Dr. Houghton very much more than he 

 ever directly expressed, and gave his methods an air of 

 mystery which really set imaginations to work. But, in 

 fact, he was chiefly bent on enterprises which had an eco- 

 nomical outlook; though in the upper peninsula he ac- 

 complished a large amount of careful stratigraphical and 

 mineralogical work. It is not to be taken as any dis- 

 paragement of Dr. Houghton that he had no such concep- 

 tion of the geology of the lower peninsula as would render 

 possible the theory which has been attributed to him. 



In the first place, h.p. had no conception of the existence 

 of any '"'salt basin''' ivhatever in the peninsula. He held 

 the opinion that there existed a general strike of the 

 rocks from northeast to southwest. In his Report, 1839 

 (p. 9), he says: ''The line of bearing of the members con- 

 stituting this group of rocks, not only in the northern 

 but in the southern portion of the peninsula, is regularly 

 northeasterly and southwesterly. * * * j^jy examina- 

 tions would lead me to infer that the coal of the central 

 portions of our state, and that upon the Illinois River, is 

 embraced in a rock which belongs to the same portion of 

 the great basin [the Mississippi valley]. * * * j am 

 also led to conclude that the portion of the rock series 

 which in Illinois and Wisconsin embraces the ores of 

 lead, is identical with a portion of the rock formation 

 which occurs in the northern part of our own state, a 

 circumstance which misrht fairlv have been inferred from 

 the general line of bearing of the rock" (p. 10). * * * 

 "A slight glance at the map of our state will sufticiently 

 explain the relation which Saginaw Bay, of Lake Huron, 

 holds to the line of bearing already mentioned. This 

 great arm of that lake stretches in a southwesterly direc- 



