Report of the President 19 



Chapter 292 of the laws of "Wisconsin, " an act to provide 

 for a complete geological survey " of the state, contains the 

 following provision : 



" Section 3. It shall be the duty of said geological corps, in the 

 progress of the examinations hereby directed, to collect such specimens 

 .of rocks, ores, fossils, minerals, etc., as may be necessary to exemplify 

 the geology of the state; sets of these specimens shall be deposited with 

 the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and the State 

 University, and with each one of the incorporated colleges of the state' 

 and with each of the normal schools, provided application be made to 

 the chief geologist before the commencement of the field work." 



&^ 



Under this provision there has doubtless been collected, 

 during the past year, much valuable material illustrative of 

 the geology and miiieralogy of Wisconsin ; but, up to this 

 date — doubtless owing to the lack of time on the part of the 

 commissioner to make a proper classification and division of 

 the specimens — little or nothing has been derived from this 

 source. 



For such collections as were sent in by Commissioner Mur- 

 rish and were without shelf-room for their display, his Excel- 

 lency, Governor Wastiburn, made suitable provision by the 

 construction of additional cases. 



A large museum, illustrative of the several Departments of 

 Natural History, is still and for some time must continue to 

 be a desideratum in Wisconsin. None of those formed by 

 the collegiate institutions of the State are as yet anything like 

 adequate to the wants of their Scientific Departments, much 

 less to the needs of specialists. It is one object of the Acad- 

 emy to meet this want. And when it has so far advanced as 

 to have the means of securing exchanges of specimens with 

 the numerous scientific associations in various parts of the 

 world with which we are seeking to establish relations, it will 

 possess extraordinary facilities for the formation of such col- 

 lections as will greatly subserve the uses of Science and of 

 Scientific Education in the State. 



