94 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Hanchett and Clark, 1864. 



Whatever part of the survey is undertaken and reported on, should be of the most substantial 

 kind. All that is possible for human knowledge to accomplish should be accomplished. There 

 should be no slighting of the work no necessity for tearing down and building up again. 



There is a vast accuin ulation of experience before us. We have the history of surveys in other 

 states. If we are wise we can profit by what has been in many instances their loss. We can see 

 where they have made gross mistakes in the management of their affairs. It would be useless to 

 enumerate their errors. One, however, that I would not be doing my duty to pass in silence, is 

 that of allowing party prejudices to interfere in any manner with a survey of this kind. I might 

 mention some of our neighboring states, that have had sad experience in this respect. But that 

 would be personal and might give offence. I may be permitted to say, however, that rewarding a 

 political leader with the office of state geologist, and a liberal yearly salary, when he is totally 

 incompetent for the task, is a thing that has been, but I trust will not be again. 



As to the cost of such a survey, the strictest economy, consistent with the attainment of the 

 object sought, should be rigidly pursued. If such were the course adopted, after the first year the 

 survey, instead of being an expense, would be remunerative, at least indirectly so. Attention 

 would be called to our mineral resources, and the erection of manufactories, it may be of iron, 

 copper or lead, would soon engage the attention of capitalists, and an inflow of population would 

 be the result, more than enough to repay the state the small appropriation made each year for the 

 survey. But let us look at the subject in a more general way. 



When we reflect on the amount of money that goes out of our state each year for articles 

 that, with a little encouragement, might just as well be manufactured at home, it is no wonder 

 that we hear so continuously the cry of " hard times." With as good iron ore as the world can 

 produce, the United States still imports three million dollars worth of that article ; Minnesota 

 receiving her share. Copper is sent from lake Superior to England, there to be manufactured, and 

 returned to us at a cost of more than two hundred per cent. With a deposit of coal in North 

 America twenty times the area of all the known deposits of the eastern continent, and almost 

 thirty-five times as large an area in the United States as Great Britain's coal area, yet the Atlantic 

 cities import annually 285,869 tons ; and all these things because our home resources are not opened 

 up, and because there is not sufficient encouragement to our own enterprise. What might be said 

 of the United States, or any one of the states, in this respect, might also be said of Minnesota. 



So much in regard to "counting the cost." Instead of the survey, if properly conducted, 

 running the state in debt, it will be a means most potent in relieving her of financial embarrassment, 

 and causing a feeling of independence, in being able to exist by her own internal richness. 



HANCHETT AND CLARK. 



Nothing seems to have been done, after the publication ot the report ot 

 Anderson and Clark, respecting a geological survey of the state, till the 

 meeting ot the sixth legislature (1864), when the subject was revived, and 

 resulted in the passage of a resolution authorizing the Governor to appoint 

 and direct a state geologist. Dr. Aug. H. Hanchett was appointed, and 

 Thomas Clark was his assistant. The report of Dr. Hanchett, dated New 

 York, November 13th, 1864, covers eight pages, and embraces little of value 

 to the state. He seems to have visited the shore ot lake Superior, and 

 coasted as far as Pigeon river, but to little purpose. 



Mr. Clark, who accompanied him, was much more industrious in gath- 

 ering facts and making observations. His report is valuable ; it contains 

 seventy pages, with chapters on 



