82 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Owen, 1850. 



necessarily embraced many geological and chemical questions, and required 

 at least a preliminary geological survey. The earlier reconnoissances ot 

 Majors Long and Pike, and Mr. School craft, embraced many isolated impor- 

 tant facts bearing on the geology and natural history of Minnesota, made 

 incidentally along the routes they took, but Dr. Owen's survey was more 

 comprehensive and more detailed. Its primary object being an examination 

 of the country and not a military reconnoissance, it did not contend with 

 the difficulties incident to rapid marching, complained ot by Keating and 

 Beltrami. His report throws the first real light, derived from the system- 

 atized science of modern times, on the geology and the present fauna and 

 flora of Minnesota. The work was sufficiently prolonged to enable the 

 naturalists who co-operated with him to gather reliable facts enough to 

 lay down correctly the ground-work ot a vast extent ot scientific research. 

 His report not only corrected prevalent errors, but established on correct 

 paleontological evidence the age ot most of the bedded rocks of Minnesota, 

 and disseminated information concerning its topography and soil.* 



*Dr. Owen's corps consisted of the following gentlemen: J. O. NORWOOD. Assistant Geologist; J.EVANS B F 

 SHUMABD, B. C, MACY, C. WHITTLKSEY, A. LITTON, K. OWEN, heads of sub-corps; G. WARREN, H. PRATTEN, F. B. MEEK, 

 J. BEAL, sub-assistants. 



Dr. Owen's own report, covering the first 206 pages of the volume, is divided into six chapters. He gives a brier 

 history of the explorations of the various corps, sketches the difficulties and adventures that befell them, and names the 

 salient points of interest in the progress, and the results of the survey, in the Introduction. The chapters are as follows : 



1. Formations of the upper 5lississippi and its tributaries, belonging to the Silurian Period. 



2. Formations of the Cedar, and part of the lower Iowa river, belonging to the Devonian Period. 



3. Carboniferous rocks of southern and western Iowa. 



4. Formations of the interior of Wisconsin and Minnesota. 



5. Formations of lake Superior. 



6. Incidental observations on the Missouri river, and on the Mauvaises Terres (Bad Lands). 

 Dr. Norwood's report on some portions of the country adjacent to lake Superior consists of 



1. Boundaries and topographical notices. 



2. Descriptive catalogue of the rocks referred to in his report. 



3. Narrative of the explorations made in 1847, between La Pointe and St. Louis river, and between Fond du Lac 

 and the falls of St. Anthony, and on the St Croix river. 



4. Physical structure and geology of the northwestern and western portions of the valley of lake Superior. 



Col. ('has. Whittlesey's report pertains to that portion of Wisconsin bordering on the south shore of lake Superior, 

 with the following chapters : 



1. General description and geology of the Bad river country, and of that between the Bad river and the Brule ; 

 with descriptions and detailed sections of rocks like those "which in Michigan are copper-bearing; and accounts of the 

 magnetic-iron beds of the Penokie Iron range, and of" Iron Ridge", in Dodge county, Wisconsin. 



2. Description of the country between the Wisconsin and Menomonie rivers ; with a discussion of the general 

 geology, and its relations to other parts of the Northwest. 



3. Red clay and drift of Green bay and Wisconsin. 



4. Barometrical and thermometrioal observations. 



5. Lumbering on the waters of Green bay. 



Dr. B. F Shumard's report pertains to local and detailed observations in the valleys ot the Minnesota. Mississipp 

 and Wisconsin rivers, as follows ; 



1. Detailed observations of the St. Peter's and its tributaries 



2. Local sections on the upper Mississippi. 



3. Local sections on the Wisconsin and Baraboo rivers. 



4. Observations on Snake. Kettle, and Rush rivers. 



Dr. J. Leidy furnished for the volume a memoir on the remains of extinct Mammalia and Clieloitia, from Nebraska 

 territory. 



The Appendix embraces 



1. Descriptions of new and imperfectly known genera and species 01 organic remains collected during the geo- 

 logical surveys of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. By D. D. Owen. 



2. Descriptions of one new genus and twenty-two new spacies of Orinoiilta from the Subcwboniferous limestone 01 

 Iowa. By D. D. Owen and B. F. Shumard. 



3. Summary of the distribution of orders, genera and species in the Northwest. By D. D. Owen and B. F. Shumard. 



4. Additional chemical examinations. By D. D. Owen. 



5. Systematic catalogue of plants of Wisconsin and Minnesota. By C. C. Parry. 



K. Table of stratigraphieal and geological distribution of genera and species in the Northwest. 



The volume is illustrated with twenty-six plates of fossils, twenty maps and large plates of geological sections, and 

 a general geological map of the whole country reported on ; the whole constituting at that time one of the largest 

 and most expensive scientific publications of the United Hlatec government, and a monument at once to the learning the 

 zeal and wise management of Dr. Owen. 



