436 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



advantages; a survey not so much for the discovery of the unlaiown 

 as for making known to the public discoveries which in a multitude of 

 private hands awaited publication ; a survey not so much for the mere 

 publication of this vast concealed store of facts as for the critical ex- 

 amination and discussion of them, putting them into true relationship 

 to each other, getting from such discussion intelligent comprehension 

 of what Avas known and wdiat still remained unknown, and clear indi- 

 cations of how the investigation of the geology of the State should b<> 

 pursued. 



Such, then, was the animus which inspired a limited number of the 

 most intelligent citizens of the State to obtain, in 1873, an act of the 

 legislature for the geological siirve}' of Pennsylvania. 



The immediate motive for the survey was probably the clamor of 

 the oil men in 1873 for a survey of the oil regions, for in that year 

 the annual production of petroleum suddenly advanced from 

 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 barrels, while the price of a barrel sank from 

 $4 to $2, throwing western Pennsylvania into a state of the highest 

 excitement, reflected by the stock exchanges in every city, and rivet- 

 ing the attention of merchants at European ports. Every one was 

 asking: How long will the flow of oil last? What is its original 

 source? Where are the limits of its reservoirs? Who can give us 

 a rule to locate a Avell ? Hom- many oil sands are there ? Can geology- 

 teach us anything? Why does the State legislature not provide for 

 a scientific examination of the phenomenon ? 



The three other great mineral industries of the State — iron, anthra- 

 cite, and coking coal — thought that they knew their geologies suffi- 

 ciently well, and one of them at least, the anthracite, had special 

 business reasons for not pressing its claims to a resurvey; for the 

 railroad companies were acquiring and consolidating the collieries, 

 and desired no interference ; the bituminous coal measures were well 

 understood in the local districts which produced most ; and the iron- 

 works had their own geological advisers. 



But when the demand for a State survey was made by the oil 

 interest it was supported hj intelligent men from all parts of the 

 State, each district hoping for discoveries valuable to itself, and the 

 poorer counties believing that their mineral poverty was merely a 

 mistake or oversight chargeable to the inadequacy of the old survey. 



The legislative act instituting the survey was couched in the fol- 

 lowing terms : 



Sfxtion 1. Be it enacted, etc., That the governor, with the advice and consent 

 of the senate shall, as soon as practicable after the passage of this act, ap- 

 point 10 suitable commissioners from different sections of the State, who, 

 with the governor a^ chairman ew offlcio, shall constitute a board to prosccut<' 

 the work contemplated in this act; tlie persons so appointed shall hold ofiice 

 during the continuance of the work, and any vacancies in their number caused 



