344 OHIO STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
Ohio were two published by Caleb Atwater of Circleville in vol- 
ume I. of the American Journal of Science, the first entitled “On 
the Prairies and Barrens of the West,” and the second, ‘Notice 
of the Scenery, Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, ete., of Belmont 
County.” ‘The first state geological survey was created pe the 
authority of an act passed by the Legislature in March, 1837, pro- 
viding for “a complete and detailed oe) survey of the State,” 
which also included the construction of 1 geological map of the 
state and the collection of the fossils oie the various formations. 
The Legislative Committee recommended an annual appropriation 
of £12,000 for four years, the appointment of “a skilled geologist,” 
with not more than four assistants and in addition a topographical 
engineer. The Governor appointed as Principal Geologist, Lieut. 
Wm. W. Mather, at that time Geologist of the First District of 
New York; Drs. S. P. Hildreth and John Locke and Professors J. 
P. Kirkland and C. Briggs, Jr., as assistants, with Col, Charles 
Whittlesey as topographical engineer. The field work was begun 
late in 1837 but was actively ‘prosecuted during the field season 
of 1838 and at the close of that year the survey ‘had cost the state 
$16,000, when it was abruptly terminated. Two annual reports 
were published by Mather and his assistants, which were quite 
similar in plan to those of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
and a beginning was made toward a description of the geology of 
the state. How elementary most of this was, however, may be 
seen from the section of central Ohio in the second report in 
which the Devonian limestones on the Scioto at Columbus are 
given as “Mountain limestone,” which belongs in the Subcarbon- 
iferous; while what is now known as the drift was referred to the 
Tertiary. Still the survey, brief as was its life, was of great value 
and Dr. Orton has made the statement that “The state never re- 
ceived larger returns from any other equal expenditure than from 
the $16, 000 used” for its maintenance, and that the increase of 
wealth in a single county due to “the development of mining in- 
dustries, largely based on the work of the survey, was * * * 
many times more than the entire expenditure which the state 
had made in its support.”* 
From the termination of the first survey at the close of 1838 
until the passage of the bill in March, 1869, “providing for a 
Geological Survey of Ohio” the state did absolutely nothing toward 
furthering the knowledge of its geology and geological resources. 
This was a formative period in American geology in which nearly 
all the northern states and part of the southern had supported 
state surveys for a longer or shorter period and published fairly 
accurate reports. Even the first tier of states beyond the Missis- 
sipt had published quite elaborate reports of large octavo or quarto 
1 Jour. Geol., Vol. II, 1894. p. 507, 
