PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 127 



seek the precious metals at the point of contact of the poiphyry and trachyta. 

 I do not doubt this law as far as the great formation of South America is con- 

 cerned, but it appears to me that here and in all South America the upheavals 

 have taken place at several intervals and relatively on a small scale, so that all 

 is confounded. 



You will excuse, I trust, sir, the meagreness of onr remittance, in considera- 

 tion that it is barely two years since the university has possessed a laboratory. 

 The work of organization, indeed, is not yet fully completed. I have no pre- 

 parator, and the most advanced of my pupils have had less than two years' 

 tuition. I have a number of schemes in view which can only be realized by 

 degrees. In all that relates to a serious study of the country, it was impossible 

 to commence anything before providing assistants, without whom an isolated 

 explorer, however earnest his purpose, would find himself reduced to two hands 

 and 12 hours' laljor per diem. The government, by which the laboratory has 

 been established, has always protected us with a liberality sufHciently indicative 

 of its enlightened views, and I hope that ere long myself and my disciples will 

 be enabled to give far other proofs of our existence than a scanty remittance 

 of some 39 specimens. 



It is possible that we shall remain for some time among the poorer correspond- 

 ents of the Smithsonian Institution, but have the goodness to believe that we 

 shall be among the most zealous, and of the number of those always most ready 

 to contribute, according to our resources, to the noble objects which the Institu- 

 tion holds up to view. 



