52 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIEXCE. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



In 1839 and 1840 a geological survey of the State of Khode Island was made. At 

 the January session of the General Assembly, in 1839, they appropriated $2,000 to the 

 advancement of the survey. There has been no subsequent appropriation : making the 

 total amount of appropriations only §2,000. 



The Secretary of State in his report further states, that owing to the lapse of time 

 since the survey was made, he is unable to state what benefit the people have derived 

 from it. He also adds that it was evidently deemed important when the survey was 

 made, as he finds that the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic In- 

 dustry, at a meeting held December 28th, 1838, voted to appropriate §500 in aid of the 

 survey, provided, however, the State should appropriate the residue. At the January 

 session of 1875 a commission was appointed to prepare a plan for a geological survey of 

 the State. They made a report, but no further action was taken. Five hundred dollars 

 was appropriated for the purpose. 



CONNECTICUT. 



Communications from Connecticut report that there has never been any geological 

 survey of their State made. 



NEW YORK. 



Professor John Hall, State Geologist of New York, makes the following statement in 

 reply to our inquiries, referring to the questions in the order of one, two, three, four and 

 five, as marked in the margin : 



1. A geological survey of the State has been made. 



2. In 1836 an appropriation was made of §104,000, to cover the salaries of a geologist, 

 a botanist, a mineralogist and four geologists, with their assistants, together with the 

 current expenses of the field-work for four years. 



3. The appropriations made since that time have been chiefly for the publication of 

 the natural history of the State, including botany, zoology, mineralogy, geology, paleon- 

 tology, and agriculture. These appropriations have not always been made annually, 

 though expenses have been annually incurred. The expenses have been for publication 

 and for the salaries of those engaged in the work. The publications embrace the quarto 

 volumes of natural history, and the reports (octavo) of the State cabinet and State 

 museum. 



4. The total of appropriations, including that of 1836, together with the appropria- 

 tions for the publications of the natural history, the establishment and support of the 

 State museum, and the publication of its reports for thirty -six years; also the publication 

 of the natural history of the State, a highly-illustrated work, which now numbers over 

 twenty bound volumes of 3,000 copies each, making in all 75,000 quarto volumes, which 

 have been distributed to the people of the State of New York. 



5. Among many other things, great practical benefits have arisen from the fact that 

 the limits of the vein-bearing formation in the State have been pointed out in the several 

 geological groups, and their areas delineated upon the maps. This knowledge has en- 

 couraged the application of intelligent industry to their development, and their produc- 

 tion is an immense source of profit to those engaged in the work. 



The limits of the true salt-bearing formations are shown upon the maps, and the 

 original suggestion, that the source of the brine spring was in the solution of rock salt 

 in the undisturbed strata, has been verified. The working of this product has of late 

 become an important industry, which is likely to be extended in the near future. 



Formerly, much time and money were wasted in fruitless endeavors of borings for 

 brines in the lower formations which the geological survey has shown to be barren of 

 such mineral products, or to contain small quantities of very impure brine, with no 

 source of considerable supply. The investigation and publications of the survey have 



