ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1873. 13 



To Mr. James "Wilson, Jr., of Cassville, the survey is indebted for 

 R traced copy of his detailed and very valuable working map of the 

 Muscalunge diggings in Grant county, showing in full detail the ex- 

 act location, direction, and extent of all the drifts, adits, and shafts, 

 with the depth of the principal shafts, and the local names by which 

 they are known. This map will be of general interest as showing the 

 intricate and complicated nature of these drifts in the lead region. It 

 could only be constructed from surveys made at different times dur- 

 ing the history of mining operations; for many of these drifts and 

 shafts, having been abandoned, are now obstructed with rubbish or 

 filled with water. To explore and survey them at this time would 

 require a heavy outlay in clearing these passages; an outlay which 

 would scarcely be justified, except for the purposes of the owner in 

 recommencing the work of mining. 



The experience gained during the past year will perhaps enable us 

 to do a greater amount of work hereafter. Much of the detailed in- 

 formation collected does not properly come into a report intended 

 more especially to show the progress of the work, and to give early 

 notice of important discoveries. Our note books will again be called 

 into service in the preparation of the final report, intended to em- 

 brace the whole subject. 



PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. The propri- 

 ety of a more general diffusion of accurate knowledge of the simplest 

 facts and deductions in modern geological science is evinced by the 

 very positive assurances of numerous letter writers that coal is found 

 having been dug out by badgers, or otherwise exposed in this 

 state, which is well known to be entirely underlaid by strata of date 

 much older than the coal-formation. We found one party diligently 

 boring into a stratum of soft green shale, just like as he informed 

 us the clay under which coal is found in Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

 The slightest examination of the fossils found in this shale sufficed 

 to show that it belonged to the Silurian age, and was deposited 

 long before those peculiar conditions were brought into existence, 

 which gave origin to the coal. "We had here a practical illustra- 

 tion of the importance of the study of paleontology, the index, 

 by means of which any given formation wherever found, can at 

 once be referred to its proper position in the geological series, and 

 thus lead with unerring certainty to inferences of the greatest practi- 

 cal importance. 



Other parties were found sinking shafts, or digging wells under the 

 direction of " spiritual mediums," or of persons skilled with the di- 



