GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS, 175 



As to the zoological and botanical departments, Doctor Houghton 

 makes the statement that the several assistants had resigned their 

 positions immediately after the adjournment of the legislature of 

 1839. No cause of this is given or intimated. It could not have been 

 for lack of appropriations, for these had been made in 1838. The 

 writer [Wincliell] on inquiry of Mrs. Sager, who still resides in Ann 

 Arbor, was informed that these resignations were provoked by igno- 

 rant criticisms and caricatures indulged in by mejnbers of the legisla- 

 ture in public debates on questions connected with the survey, espe- 

 cially in the departments. Subassistant Dr. George li. Bull only had 

 consented to retain h.is position, and he had been placed in charge 

 of the botanical collections. A year having tlius been lost. Doctor 

 Houghton expresses the conviction that " no competent man would 

 be willing to hazard his reputation in attempting, within the space 

 allowed, to complete either tlie botany or zoology of our State." 

 If the time were extended for these departments "they must in the 

 end be separated from the general work, which will require no such 

 extension." Tlie geological and topographical work tlie State geolo- 

 gist expected to complete "within the current year (1840) being the 

 time originally assigned by the act authorizing the survey " (p. 32).* 

 He therefore suggested a suspension of the zoological and botanical 

 departments. Deeming the bulk of the work j^et remaining to be done 

 as lying in the district between Keweenaw Point and the Porcupine 

 Mountains, he alludes to the advantages gained by his previous visit 

 to the region, and expresses the conviction that as the survey is to 

 continue but one year more "the whole will be accomplished within 

 that time." 



It is a sufficient commentary on the contrast between earlier and 

 later conceptions of a geological survey to remind the well-informed 

 reader that with all the subsequent study bestowed on the region by 

 Houghton. Jackson, Foster and Whitney, Purnpelly, Irving, and 

 others, the " whole work is not yet accomplished." 



FOURTH YEAR OF THE SURVEY, 1840. 



The legislature by an act approved March 28, 1840, abolished the 

 zoological and botanical departments, and appropriated $2,000 to 

 meet expenses of preparation of State and county maps on the plan 

 already in progress. The money was to be expended under the direc- 

 tion of the State geologist. 



The State geologist's report on the results of the work during 

 1840, inclusive of tlie appended documents, covers 184 pages, of 



>A difforont constrncf Ion appears fo hnve beon siibsoqiiontly put upon the act. for the 

 annuni nfiproprlatlons wore held to continue till Mnr. 1. 1841, ■which would providf.' for 

 the work fill Mnr. 1, 1842. 



136075—20 \3 



