A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. 121 



more rapidly than now, and into which cross ditches can be cut, thereby 

 rendering many thousand acres so much di'ier than at present, as to bring 

 land up from three and fom* dollars per acre to thirty and forty." 



That portion of the report devoted to the detailed descriptions of the 

 counties closes with that of Benton County in the following words: "Flights 

 of cranes were seen and we frequently shot, for camp use, the pinnated grouse, 

 or, in the groves, the wild pigeon, besides startling the meadow lark and a 

 few smaller birds from their prairie nests. For the geologist and physical 

 geographer, the botanist and zoologist, as well as the lover of scenery such as 

 the boundless vision of the day and the gorgeous sunset of the evening often 

 afford, this ocean-like prairie region, and these island-like groves are replete 

 with interest and instruction." 



Chapter III of the report is entitled "The Physical Geography of Indiana," 

 and deals with its altitudes, water sheds, and the part which the State plays 

 as a part of the Hydrographic Basin of the Mississippi River. The most 

 interesting portion of this chapter is that in which is set forth the evidence 

 to prove that our prairies are but the beds of vast extinct fresh water lakes 

 and estuaries; also to show that the muck and peat deposits of the northern 

 part of the State are but forms of incipient coal. 



Richard Owen closes his part of the report and this chapter with the follow- 

 ing statement, dated Camp Tippecanoe, June 20, 1861: "It was the in- 

 tention to subjoin a chapter on Drainage; also one on Paleontology, system- 

 atically arranging the fossils of Indiana obtained from the different formations, 

 etc., then to follow with an exhibit of the main facts collected regarding the 

 localities, causes and other concomitants connected with milk-sickness, and 

 finally to close with a miscellaneous chapter containing suggestions with re- 

 gard to the best mode of prosecuting the Survey, the most useful manner of 

 arranging the State collection for refierence, lithologically, paleontologically 

 and zoologically, as well as recommendations regarding the formation of 

 minor illustrative collections for public schools; but a call to serve my country 

 in maintaining the Union and the Constitution precludes the possibility of 

 completing that design, and compels me to close the report." 



He returned from the war with the rank of Colonel, was afterward, until 

 1879 at the head of the Department of Natural Sciences in the State Uni- 

 versity, and died at New Harmony, Indiana, on March 21, 1890. 



Following Owen's report in the volume of 1862 is a Report of the chemical 

 analysis of thirty-three Soils of Indiana, by Dr. Robert Peter, Professor of 

 Chemistry at Lexington, Kentucky. Soils from each of the great rock forma- 

 tions of the State are analyzed and the tables of constituents were accom- 

 panied by valuable introductory and explanatory remarks, setting forth 

 the now well known facts "that eeitain elements, essential to vegetable and 

 animal development, are gradually consumed from the soil in the crops — that 

 the soil is not a unit in composition — that while the great bulk of it acts only 

 mechanically, or physically, in the support of vegetables, the mineral ele- 

 ments which are essential for the nourishment and growth of organic beings. 



