A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. 109 



see; yet when we consider the area and probable thickness of our coal measures, 

 with the number of beds of coal, and associate iron ores; their accessibility 

 and proximity to the materials required for their reduction; the levelness, 

 fertility and extent of the arable lands of Indiana; the prospects for an ample 

 supply of salt, and that all these staple articles lie in the immediate 

 vicinity of our principal navigable streams, we have every reason to be abun- 

 dantly satisfied, not only with our agricultural advantages, but also with our 

 mineral resources, which are, in fact, far greater than could be reasonably 

 anticipated, considering our position near the center of the vast and fertile 

 Valley of the Mississippi. Looking to the sources of wealth and the stimulants 

 to industry which lie buried in the strata of our coal formation, we may con- 

 fidently anticipate that our young and growing State will not only continue 

 to rival her sister states as an agricultural people, but that she will also, ere 

 long, be able to enjoy an equal share in all their commei'cial and manufactur- 

 ing advantages." 



Thus did he affirm his loyalty to his adopted State Avhose citizens, aside 

 from her geologists, have never appreciated or given proper credit to the 

 work which he did. He was the pioneer who in two years' time and in two 

 brief reports laid the foundations of our geological knowledge of the State, 

 and he laid them so well that in all the super-structures since erected, the 

 builders have followed very closely his outlines and his plans. 



The legislature of 1839 passed an act, approved on February 18, "Providing 

 for an examination and report of the Mineral Resources of the State and for 

 other purposes." The salary was continued at $1,500 with $250 for expenses. 

 The appointee was to be a "person of suitable scientific and practical knowl- 

 edge and acquirements" and was to hold his situation for only one year. 

 In addition to examining in a detailed manner the "productive mineral 

 resources of the State," he was to report whether in his opinion the raising 

 of silk and the manufacture of sugar from the sugar beet can be successfully 

 prosecuted in the State. The last section also provided that "it shall be a 

 part of his duty to make examinations and experiments with the disease 

 commonly called the 'Milk Sickness' with a view of the discovery of the 

 causes and remedy of the same and to report the result of these experiments 

 annually to the legislature." 



We can find no record of the appointment being offered to Dr. Owen or 

 to any one else. If offered to him he evidently turned it down, perhaps not 

 relishing the new duties at the old munificent salary. It was, as we have noted, 

 about this time that the "internal improvement" bubble fostered by the 

 State went up in hot air. It is very probable that the office of State Geologist 

 provided for in the act of February, 1839, went up -with it. 



Soon after terminating his survey of Indiana in 1838, Dr. Owen was ap- 

 pointed to make one of that part of the Northwest Territory now comprising 

 the states of Wisconsin and Iowa and a part of Illinois. His report of this 

 great undertaking was published at the expense of the Government in 1844, 

 and is "noted for the beauty and correctness of its illustrations and the 



