GEOLOGICAL AND NATl^^AL HISTORY SUllVEYS. 27 



])Ublisbofl by the American Pbilosophicul .Society in its Proceedings, volume "0, 

 pages 217-318. Tbe parts by Means and myself were never publislied. 



Other reports were also in prepsuation, one of wbicb, on the Pliospliate Jtoclis 

 of Arlvansas, by J. C. Branner and J. F. Newsom, the director of the Arkansas 

 Experiment Station was induced to publish in 1902 as Bulletin 74. 



There is also a lot of unpublished ni.ut<>!- on tiic general geciogy and j)aleon- 

 tology of tlie State and on the mineral resources. 



CALIFOENIA. 



FIRST Oi:OLOGICAL SURV?^' rXl)!!II>i:. -i . P.. IKASK, t s.-.O-j ,s r, (i. 



Orgams,ation. — Leaving out of consideration tlie purely geographi- 

 cal explorations of Capt. J, C. Fremont in 1844, and Maj. W. H. 

 Emory in 1846, and also the priv;vte work of IMiilip T. Tyson in 1850, 

 the history of scientific surveys in California under public — that i.s 

 State — auspices may be said <o have begun with the appointment of 

 Dr. John B. Trask as State geologist in 1853.' Doctor Trask, it 

 would appear, had, of his own ^■olilion acquired a certain amount of 

 information regarding the geology of the State, which, through a 

 joint resolution of the legislature, v.a.s published as a State document 

 in the form of a pamphlet of 31 pages entitled : A Keport on the 

 Geology of the Sierra Nevada, or the California Range. 



On the 0th of Ma}' of this same year a joint resolution passed the 

 assembly authorizing further geological examinations of some parts 

 of the Sierra Nevada and Coast ?>Ii)i!ntains. The following is a tran- 

 script of this resolution : 



Resolved, That the senate and assembly of tlie Stnte of California do hereby 

 .•lutliorize Dr. John B. Trask to report more fully and especially on the unoccu- 

 pied mineral lands lying upon the eastern borders of the valleys of the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin, and alluded to in his rojiort of Ajtril 0, 1853. on the 

 Geology of tlie Mineral District of Sierra Nevada, and contained in section 2 

 of said report, under head of " Mineral Resources " ; said report to comprise, 

 as near as possible, tlie area of such lands in each county in said valleys, and 

 the facilities they offer, and requisitions necessary to insure their occupancy 

 and improvement. 



RcsolvcO. That an examination of ihe cojist range, as far as practicable, and 

 as far as the means within his power v.ill .-idmit of. be ma<le, and that a full 

 report be prepared and furnished the next legislature. 



Resolved, That the amount of money which the legislature m;iy appropriate 

 shall be a compensation for the information already obtained, and that wliich 

 shall be embodied in the report to be made the next legislature. 



The day following a supplemental act Avas [>;issed, the purport of 

 Vv-hich was to reimburse Doctor Trask for previous outlay, and to 



'In 1852, at what was the third sossiou of fho !ej:lsla(urc of thn new State or Oali- 

 foinia, a resolution was reported calling lor imiiiediate nttontion and action on the part 

 of Consress, " not only for the piiri)ose of more speedily d(;velopin;j: the mineral resources 

 of this State, hut to enable the agriculturalist to predicate the success of his labors upon 

 a sure data, and not be entirely dependeni upon rains to suslain and mature his crops." 

 •Vothins seems, however, to have come of iliis. 



