GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HLSTORY SURVEYS. '255 



At the same time the survey called attention to the possibility of 

 obtaining artesian water at a moderate depth in the drift deposits 

 over a wide tract of country in the northwestern part of the State — 

 a circumstance that has latterly been widely improved with the most 

 satisfactory results. 



While these material benefits can easily be enumerated, those that 

 are invisible can not so readily be pointed out. Some good must 

 result from a diffusion of knowledge concerning the physical fea- 

 tures of the State, and from the publication of accurate statements 

 concerning its natural undeveloped resources. There must be some 

 benefit to the State in having its geology and natural history known. 

 The scientific facts that are ascertained help to swell the data on 

 which important conclusions are based, and to point out needed cor- 

 rections in others that may have been published. The additions to 

 science which have resulted from the survey can not here be enumer- 

 ated. They are the common property of educators and scientists 

 who may wish to use tliem, and, at the same time, some of them are 

 still subject to further investigation, and hence can not be concisely 

 described nor categorically stated. 



MISSISSIPPI.' 



Organization. — The geological and agricultural survey of the State 

 of Mississippi had its origin in an act of the legislature entitled "An 

 act to further endow tlie University of Mississippi," approved March 

 5, 1850, which took effect on the 1st of June following. This act is 

 worded as follows: 



Section 1. Be it enacted, etc.. That the further sum of $3,000 be, aud the 

 same is hereby, semiauuually appropriated, subject to the draft of the president 

 of the board of trustees of the University of Mississippi, to be applied by them 

 to the purchasing of books and apparatus, aud the payment of the salaries 

 of professors and assistant professors of agricultural aud geological sciences 

 In said university: Provided, That one half only of the amount of said appro- 

 priations shall be from the revenue in the treasury and the other half shall 

 be made out of the sale of the lands belonging to the seminary fund, hereafter 

 to be sold as provided by law. 



Sec. 2. That the authority required by the State treasurer for the payment 

 of the trustees shall be the warrant of the president of the board of trustees, 

 drawn In favor of any person whatever. 



Sec. 3. That at least one-half of the amount herein appropriated shall be 

 expended in making a general geological aud agricultural survey of the State, 

 under the direction of the principal professor to be appointed under the first 

 section of this act. 



Sec. 4. That the survey herein provided for shall be accompanied with proper 

 maps and diagrams, and furnish full and scientific descriptions of its rocks, 



> See Historical Outline of the OeoloRical .nnd AtiriotiltniMl Survey of (ho State of 

 Mississippi, by E. W. Hilgard. American Geologist, vol, 27, 1P01, pp. 284-311. 



