218 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



geologist, however, continued to serve the people of tlie State as 

 before, and they seemed generally to regard him as still in the employ 

 of the State. As the Civil War, which had broken out, Avas generally 

 supposed destined to short duration, he exerted himself to preserve 

 for the survey a quasi existence, believing the next legislature would 

 be able to make fresh provision for its support. He therefore at- 

 tended personally to a very large correspondence, and freely advised 

 citizens, touching the numberless geological questions which they 

 presented. 



In Jul}', 1862, he revisited the Saginaw Valley and made detailed 

 investigations of the borings of numerous salt wells between Sagi- 

 naw and Bay City. The result of this study was the conclusion that 

 the shallower Bay City wells were supplied from tlie Parma sand- 

 stone, though the deeper ones, like tliose located farther up the river, 

 were supplied from the Napoleon sandstone. This conclusion, to- 

 gether with the reasoning employed to reach it, was first announced 

 in the Saginaw Courier. It followed that the coal measures in Michi- 

 gan are a third and uppermost salt basin; and this led the way to 

 the subsequent generalization that the basin-shaped conformation 

 of the Michigan strata has caused all of them to retain a large por- 

 tion of their original saline constituents. 



Public interest in the discovery of petroleum was now rapidly 

 rising, and the late State geologist made a professional and scien- 

 tific study of all the oil regions east of the Mississippi River. Special 

 studies were made of certain districts in Michigan, and his views 

 were embodied in sundry rej)orts and communications to newspapers 

 and scientific journals. He recorded the opinion that the bituminous 

 shales of Wayne, St. Clair, and Sanilac counties were of the same 

 geological age as those within the limits of the oil region of Ontario. 

 He taught that the oil-yielding Genesee shale underlaid some of those 

 parts of Michigan, and the equivalent of the Marcellus shale was 

 also present. But the conditions of oil accumulation and retention 

 did not appear to be favorable. Still, he maintained that some pos- 

 sibility existed of such a rock condition somewhere in the region 

 as would permit the accumulation of the oil and gas which he re- 

 garded as undergoing constant production, and some distinct evi- 

 dence of Avhich could be detected at the surface. 



The subject of official resumption of the survey was canvassed 

 among members of the legislature of 1863, and Professor Winchell, 

 by invitation, delivered an address before the body in February; 

 but apprehensions respecting the future of the country still re- 

 strained all expenditures not immediately essential. A special ap- 

 propriation,' however, of $1,500 for 1863, and a like sum for 1864, 



•Laws of Michigan, 1863, No. 212. 



