8 JOURNAL OF THE 



renewed his connection with the State Survey, hoping that he 

 might be able to complete certain unfinished work. But the end 

 came and found his hope unrealized. 



In endeavoring to understand clearly the character and extent 

 of the work undertaken bv Professor Kerr in the organization 

 and prosecution of his survey, it will be well for us to review 

 briefly the work done and that left undone by his predecessors. 

 As to the survey by Professors Olmsted and Mitchell (1824-':^8), 

 at so late a date as 1866, it was of interest mainly from an his- 

 torical stand-point, as being the first geological survey under- 

 taken by any one of the States. It located a few of the valuable 

 mineral deposits and approximately some of the geological for- 

 mations, but as a scientific survev it could liardlv be considered 

 more than a preliminary geological reconnolsscmce. After the 

 close of this survey (1828), Professor Mitchell continued for sev- 

 eral years to make explorations in different portions of the State 

 at his own expense, and the general results he published in 1842 

 in a small volume'^ accompanied by a geological map of the 

 State. This geological map of the State was the first published, 

 and none other appeared until 1875. It reflected credit upon its 

 author, but was uot found suflicnentlv accurate in detail to be of 

 any great value, in the work of the survey under Professor Kerr. 



Dr. Emmons, while State Geologist (1851-'63), did a large 

 amount of valuable work, especially in connection with the 

 geology and agriculture (including the swamp lands) of the 

 eastern region, and the geology, mining and agriculture of the 

 middle region; and he made several geological excursions into 

 the western portion of the State. At the breaking out of the 

 civil war, he had nearly completed a geological map of the State, 

 a map of the coal fields, manuscript reports on the agriculture 

 of the middle section, and a partial report on the general 

 resources of the western section, of the State. But in the tur- 



* Elements of Geolog}', with an Outline of the Geolooy of North Carolina: for 

 the use of the students of the University. By Elisha Mitchell, Professor of 

 Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, in the University of North Carolina. 1842, 

 12 mo., 141 pp., with a geological maj) of the State. 



