16 



supplied by the State University, was so far advanced by an 

 appropriation of $15,000, placed in the hands of a Tuousey, 

 that at the period of the untimely demise of that eminent 

 man, it might be considered as half completed, although in 

 his labors he had been aided by but one Assistant. Unfortu 

 nately, however, in this case, the appropriation failed to be 

 renewed in proper time, and during the consequent sus 

 pension of operations (not even the printing of a report hav 

 ing been provided for,) a large part of the results so far ob 

 tained, were buried with the observer. It must be recollect 

 ed, that when a work of this kind is suddenly stopped at a 

 point, when, if prosecuted, half of the labor might be con 

 sidered as having been performed, that first half will not by 

 any means contain a proportional amount of useful informa 

 tion ; no more than if we arrest the manufacture of cloth at 

 the point when the yarn is ready for the loom, we can use 

 that material as an inferior kind of cloth ! 



It may be that the evils attendant upon the uncertainty of 

 the renewal of an appropriation necessarily subject every few 

 years, to discussion in the political arena, are among the 

 reasons which induced other States to adopt a different form 

 of appropriation ; which, by rendering a repeated special dis 

 cussion unnecessary, should make the continuance of a work 

 of acknowledged importance to all, less liable to obstruc 

 tion by every variation of the political wind-vane. But in 

 most cases, while avoiding Seylla, they have fallen into 

 Charybdis. They intended to shield the young tree from 

 being prematurely cut off ; but while successfully preventing 

 this, they forgot to supply to it such nourishment as should 

 enable it to grow at all. Both in Tennessee and Mississippi, 

 where this policy has been pursued, the annual appropria- 

 ations are insufficient to secure the completion of their geo 

 logical surveys within a deceunium or two. Tennessee has 

 done even less than Mississippi. Yet we see (and this fact 

 has added to the dissatisfaction of the Mississippians,) that 

 the geological survey of the former State stands high in the 

 good graces of the public. With a due appreciation of the 



