468 BUl.LKTIJS' 10->, UNITED .STATES NATfONAL MUSEUM. 



2. The sum of $20,000 shall be appropriated for the geographical 

 survey of the State, in four equal annual installments of $5,000 each, 

 to be expended under the direction of the board of survey, provided 

 that the board sliall contract with a capable and responsible person to 

 complete the topogra])hical plane-table survey of the State on the 

 coast survey standard and scale of field work, as described, for a 

 sum not to exceed $20,000, and also [)rovided that the United St&tos 

 Coast Survey will furnish the requisite triangulation. 



3. A map of the State, on a scale of 4TrTnnr» ^'^^^^ ^^^ published 

 by the board on the completion of the geograpliical survey. 



4. A geological survey of the State shall be made after the geo- 

 graphical survey, under the direction of an able geologist, appointed 

 by the board. The details of the plan of the geological survey shaii 

 be decided liereafter by the board. 



5. A compilation of the natural history of the State shall be the 

 subject of recommendation to the general assembly by the board 

 on the completion of the geological survey, 



6. The board shall report annually to the general assembly. 

 Nothing seems to have come from this, and no survey under State 



auspices has since been made, although Governor Brown, in his mes- 

 sage of 1885 to the general assembly, commended a plan for a topo 

 graphic surve}' in connection with the United States Geological Sur^ 

 vey, with an expenditure of $3,000 a year for two years. In 1887 

 Governor Wetmore called attention to the value and importance of 

 a geological survey, but nothing was done beyond the publication by 

 the Franklin Society of Pro^^clence of a pamphlet of 130 pages, 

 containing a bibliography of publications relative to the geology 

 and mineralogy of tlie State and a list of its minerals, rocks, and 

 fossils. 



In 1895, in response to the popular demand for improved roads, 

 there Vvas passed by the assembly the following resolution: 



Resolved, That Messrs. Walter A. Read, of Gloucester, aud John Carter 

 Brown Woods, of Providence, on the part of the senate, aud Messrs. William H. 

 Covell, of Frovideuce, and Ellery H. Wilson, of East Pro\ideuce, on the part 

 of the house, are hereby constituted n commission to forthwith cause a geo- 

 logic.il survey to be made of those portions of tlie State contnining rocks adapted 

 to road making, and the sum of .$],000, or so much thereof as may be neces- 

 sary, is hereby appropriated to defray the expense of the said commission; and 

 the State auditor is hereby directed to draw his orders on the general treasurer 

 from time to time for the payment of the same upon vouchers approved by thi^ 

 governor. 



Passed May 25, 189.5. 



Under this resolution Mr. Frederick P. Gorham, ;i graduatti 

 student in Brown University, was authorized to prepare an areal 

 geological map and collect specimens in triplicate. I am informed 



