A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. 123 



by that accomplished Topographical Geologist, Mr. J. Lesley, is now framed 

 and suspended in the Geological Room of our State Capitol." Where it is 

 now only the Gods of the past know and they are forever silent. In his coal 

 report of 1898, George H. Ashley commented on this work of Mr. Lesley 

 as follows: "It is of no small interest that Mr. Owen, almost simultaneously 

 with the starting of the reconnaisanee of the State, should start a detailed 

 topographical map of its area. Unfortunately the lapsing of the survey pre- 

 vented further work of the kind and as a result the State has paid out in the 

 past for successive partial reports on the same areas more than enough to have 

 made complete detailed maps and reports, showing topography, location, 

 extent and value of all rocks or minerals of economic importance, surface 

 geology and distribution of soils." 



On account of the Civil War and the questions of importance which arose 

 immediately after its close, we have little to record of Geological activities 

 in Indiana between 1862 and 1869.* 



In 1866 there appeared a pamphlet of 30 pages, the title page of which was 

 as follows: "Report of a Geological Examination made on the lands of the 

 Wabash Petroleum and Coal Mining Comx^any, in Warren, Fountain and 

 Parke Counties, Indiana, bj^ Richard Owen, Professor of Natural Science, 

 Indiana State University and State Geologist of Indiana. Analyses of the 

 Ores, by E. T. Cox, Chemical Geologist." 



The pamphlet was issued by the company and was an advertising of 

 their holdings in the counties mentioned. It contains analyses of many coals, 

 iron ores, limestones and claj's; also of the bituminous shales above the coal, 

 'which the company proposed to grind and use in making roofing. 



Dr. Rj'land T. Brown appears to have been the leader in geological and 

 scientific work in the State during that period. There was published in the 

 State Agricultural Report of 1867 a paper by him entitled "An Essay on the 

 Natural Resources of Indiana." In it he speaks very highly of the oolitic 

 stone, by that time being quarried extensively in Lawrence, Monroe and 

 OAven Counties. He also stated that Prof. Lesquereux "has the honor of 

 inaugurating the great work of the sj^stematic examination of the Coal 

 Measures of Indiana." 



In 1868 there was issued for private distribution a pamphlet entitled 

 "Indiana and her Resources," compiled at the request of Conrad Baker, 

 Acting Governor of the State, by R. T. Brown. 



In 1869 the legislature of the State, at the earnest solicitation of Dr. 

 Brown and the leading members of the State Board of Agriculture passed 

 an act authorizing a Geological Survey, creating the office of State Geologist, 

 etc. Since that date the office of State Geologist has been in continuous 

 operation, though the title of the office, the duties imposed and the salaries 

 and expenses allowed have, as we shall see, been changed on several occasions 



*A geological map of the State on the scale of five miles to the inch is said to have 

 been published at Cincinnati by N. Sayler in 1865, but the writer has never been able 

 to see a copy of it. 



