248 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



for which iudemnity lands have since been granted to the State by an act of 

 Congress approved March 3, 1879 : Therefore 



Be it enacted by the legifilatufe of the State of Minnesota: 



Section 1. That the hinds granted by Congress to this State by an act en- 

 titled " An act granting lands to the State of Minnesota in lieu of certain lands 

 heretofore granted to said State," approved March 3, 1879, be, and the same are 

 hereby, transferred to the custody of the board of regents of the University of 

 Minnesota, which lands the said board may sell in such amounts as they may 

 deem most expedient and beneficial, the proceeds thereof being held in trust 

 by them, and only disbursed in accordance with the law ordering a geological 

 and natural history survey of the State, and the said board shall make report 

 of their doings in the premises, as provided by law. 



Sec. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. 



Approved February 24, 18S5. 



Administration. — The administration of the survey was ahnost 

 wholly in the hands of the State geologist. He was left to lay such 

 plans as he chose, governed by his own apprehension of the financial, 

 economic, scientific, and educational circumstances that might be in- 

 fluenced by them. These were submitted to the regents or to their 

 executive committee prior to their execution for their formal approval. 

 Tn some instances certain public or widespread want for information, 

 expressed in correspondence or in the public press, such as the demand 

 for information concerning the grasshopper plague and the ways and 

 means of alleviating the evil, the call for peat fuel on the woodless 

 prairies, the ravages of insects injurioiy? to horticulture, the general 

 belief in the existence of coal in the State or of mineral wealth in the 

 northern part of the State, the demand for authoritative statements 

 founded on scientific data touching the nature and extent of the 

 forests, or the quality of the soil, or the water used for domestic pur- 

 poses, or the probability of brine for the manufactvire of salt, or the 

 quality of native building stones. While answering these purposes as 

 nearly as possible the survey was rendered useful to numerous indi- 

 viduals by private correspondence, saving the useless expense of ill- 

 guided exploration in many instances, and directly influential in 

 promoting economic industry by advising expenditures where a rea- 

 sonable expectation existed of remunerative results. 



This economic side of the survey was kept in mind constantly, 

 though not made conspicuous. The annual reports embodied com- 

 mon, patent facts, and descriptions, cast in a semiscientific mold. 

 They were addressed primarily to a home constituency in order to 

 show them the utility of the work of the survey. It is highly prob- 

 able that if such a moderate course had not been pursued the legis- 

 lature, instead of always manifesting good will and determination to 

 liave the work well sustained, would have refused the financial aid 

 that was asked of it, and the work might have had the short-lived 

 existence that has been the fate of so many other State surveys. 



