874 BULLETIN lOi), UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Keport of a geological reconnoissance of that portion of Nortii 

 Carolina west of tiie Blue Eidge, south of and including Buncombe 

 County. By C. D. Smith. 1860. 



Reports of Dr. M. A. Curtis, including a Catalogue of Plants of 

 North Carolina ; ' a Description of the Quadrupeds ; a Description of 

 the Reptiles; and (in preparation) a Description of the Birds of 

 North Carolina. 



Mr. Smith's report was made and presented to Professor Emmons 

 in 1860 and incorporated with the report of the latter presented 

 to Governor Ellis in 1861. and was lost or destroyed along with 

 that report. 



Benefits. — It is impossible to estimate the material benefits that 

 have resulted to the people of the State from the prosecution of thi?^ 

 survey. At the time the results should have fairly begun to be 

 realized the war came on, and public enterprises looking to the de- 

 velopment of the natural resources of the State were stopped, the 

 inJBux of people or capital for several years thereafter was out of the 

 question, and the geological survej- as such was suspended. 



Professor Emmons himself claimed ^ that the beneficial results were 

 considerable in that (1) it "discouraged undertakings which would 

 have resulted in failure," and thus saved large sums of money which 

 would have been lost, and it stopped those works where money was 

 being wasted upon hopeless prospects; and (2) by making careful 

 examinations of mineral pi'operties as to the value of which there 

 were favorable indications, and [>ublishing the results of such exami- 

 nations, enterprises likely to prove successful were encouraged. 

 Proper direction was given to the investment of capital sit home, and 

 capital from abroad was brought into the State. 



Concerning the additions to science made by this surAey, it may be 

 said that the character and the outlines of the geological formations 

 of the State were described more fully than had been done before. 

 The investigations of the fossil flora of the Mesozoic coal deposit- 

 resulted in the discovery, according to recent determination, of 3i> 

 species, nine of which appear to be peculiar to North Carolina.^ The 

 investigations in connection with the animal remains of the Tertiary 

 and Mesozoic deposits resulted in adding to science, directly or in- 

 directlj'^, according to the list given by Cope,* four species of fossil 

 fish, one batrachian, eight reptiles, and four mammals. 



> Published In 1867. 



' Report of Progress, 1855, pp. 7-1.3. Geology of Midland Counties of Nortli Caro- 

 lina. 1856, p. xix, and Report of Progress, ISCO. p. 2. 



8 Fontaine, Older Mesozoic of Virginia, pp. 122 and 123. See also Emmons's Geology 

 of Midland Counties of North Carolina, 1826 ; and American Geology, pt. 4. 



* Kerr's Geology of North Carolina, 1875. Appendix B. 



