GEOLOGICAL, AND NATURAL HLSTORY SURVEYS. 3G3 



NOETH CAEOLINA.* 



As early as 1819 a board of internal improvements was organized 

 by an act of the general assembly for the purpose of taking charge 

 of recently inaugurated public works, relating mainly to the im- 

 provement of internal navigation. During the period from 1821-- 

 1843 surveys were made of all rivers east of the Blue Kidge, and 

 during that time and subsequently numerous surveys at public ex- 

 pense were made for railroads, turnpikes, and canals. The field 

 notes, drawings, and plans of these surveys have not been preserved, 

 and as they were necessarily crude they are referred to here as of only 

 historical interest. Incidentally, however, the board was directed 

 to make surveys of the numerous swamp areas of the eastern portion, 

 owned by the State, for the purpose of determining their area, prac- 

 ticabilit3\ and cost of drainage, as well as their possible value for 

 agricultural purposes. Some 800,000 acres are said ' to have been 

 surveyed, but the results have proved to be of slight practical value. 



The first attempt at a survey coming properly within the scope of 

 the present history was that inaugurated by Prof, Denison Olmsted 

 in 1824, and continued by him and Prof. Elislia Mitchell until 1828. 

 This was followed in 1852-1864 by a survey by Ebenezer Emmons, 

 and this again l)y one by W. C. Kerr, the latter, however, being in 

 fact a renewal of the Emmons su.rvey after the deatli of Emmons 

 and the close of the Civil War, 



THE OLMSTED-MITCHELL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1824-1 82 S. 



In a letter laid before the board of public improvements in North 

 Carolina, August 1, 1821, Denif-on Olmsted, of Connecticut, at that 

 time professor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy in the Univer- 

 sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, proposed to devote his vaca- 

 tions to the making of a geological and mineralogical survey of the 

 State, and asked for merely such an appropriation as might be neces- 

 sary to defray the expenses of the undertaking, naming the sum of 

 $100 a year as sufficient for the purpose. The following is the full 

 text of his letter as given in the minutes of the Board of Internal 

 Improvements of North Carolina, August 1, 1821: 

 To the Hon. Board of Internal Improvements: 



Among the objects which solicit the attention of the board for developing 

 and extending the internal resources of the State, I beg leave to present to 

 their notice the advantfigos thnt would result from investigating its geology. 

 By this, as connected with the subject of internal improvements, I mean such 

 an investgatiou as would furnish to the board and the public an account of the 

 various useful productions of the mineral kingdom, which either have been 



' Compiled in part from manusciipt by J. A. Holmes. 



* Report on Swamp Land.s of North Carolina, l)y W. C. Kerr. 



