10 



vey is essential to the development of those resources ; and 

 that when made, it is necessary that it should be well done 

 to be of use ; then it remains to be considered whether, 

 taking into account the area of the State, the provision at 

 present existing for the execution of this work, is adequate, 

 and proportioned to the amount of labor to be performed ; 

 and whether its failure hitherto to realize the expectations 

 entertained, may not to a great extent be traced to an in- 

 adequacy in this respect. 



It is my conviction that this failure would to some extent 

 have occurred, under existing circumstances, even if the sur- 

 vey had been in competent and efficient hands all the while. 

 And I may add, that this disappointment is very likely to 

 continue, unless some further provision is made, more ade- 

 quately commensurate with the magnitude of the work. 



The original Act, worded so as to embrace in the geologi- 

 cal and agricultural survey, botany and zoology, (or in other 

 words, providing for a complete natural history of the State, 

 almost in the terms of the Act providing for the survey of 

 the State of New York.) made the Principal State Geolo- 

 gist, a Professor of Zoology at the University of Mississip- 

 pi. He was to spend four months of the year in the field, 

 himself, while his Assistant was to be engaged in the field 

 survey continually, as far as the seasons permitted. And to 

 carry into effect the provisions of this Act, an appropriation 

 of $3,000 per annum, was made. 



This arrangement was faulty in principle, inasmuch as 

 during the first years especially, it is indispensible that the 

 Principal should chiefly be in the field himself ; and it failed 

 in practice, the Principal being unable to extricate himself 

 from his accumulative University duties. Besides, the sub- 

 jects to be embraced in the survey according to the original 

 plan, were too numerous by far, to be successfully prosecuted 

 simultaneously with means so limited. Hence we find, in the 

 interesting and ably written volume forming the First Re- 

 port, by Prof. B. L. C. Wailes, geology occupying a subordi- 

 nate position, comparatively, among the subjects treated of. 



