02 



copperas, manganese, marble, &c., whose importance as sources 

 of wealth to our State, none can fail to appreciate. What other 

 additional discoveries might be made by a thorough Geological 

 Survey, its accomplishment alone could determine. Another obvi 

 ous and palpable benefit to be derived from such a survey, would 

 be the prevention of those fruitless searches so often engaged in 

 at the expense of much time and labor, for discovering articles, 

 which the science of Geology might assure us are not to be found 

 within our limits. We might, as one of these visionary schemes, 

 name the project of boring for salt water, entered into a few 

 years since in this State. Geology, on the authority of well 

 known laws, would have informed us beforehand that the search 

 would end in disappointment that we might as well expect to 

 find the white bear of the polar regions herding with lion in 

 an African desert, as to find salt springs in such a locality, or 

 amidst such geological formations as this part of the country 

 exhibits. 



But when we enter further into the broad field of inquiry, which 

 the science of Geology legitimately opens before us. we find other 

 ends to be accomplished and oilier advantages to be acquired, be 

 sides the mere discovery of what are usually termed mineral 

 treasures. Among the most prominent and important of these 

 advantages would be the development of facts having a direct 

 bearing upon the advancement of agricultural science. The va 

 rious kinds of soil which the surface of the globe exhibits, con 

 sist of decomposed rocks, and are as easily reducible to a regular 

 and exact classification as are any of the various mineral produc 

 tions which lie scattered over the surface of the earth, or imbedded 

 in its bosom. Geology gives to each of these various kinds and 

 varieties of soil, its specific name. Each of these varieties of soil, 

 too, is more especially favorable to the growth of some certain 

 vegetable products. There is scarcely a tree, a plant, or a 

 flower that does not manifest a londness for some certain locality, 

 and exhibit an attachment to some particular soil as most con 

 genial to its nature. And it comes within the legitimate province 

 of Geology to note these facts. There is then, most clearly, an 

 intimate relationship between this science and that of agricul 

 ture, and in truth the former might be said to constitute the basis 

 of the latter. And your Committee believe that the proposed 



