Geology and Mineralogy 641 



port for 1851 it is stated "that the specimens are of much 

 scientific interest, showing, as they do, for the first time, the 

 existence in this country of an Eocene deposit rivaling in the 

 number of its species of extinct animals the celebrated basin 

 of Paris." This was the modest prophecy of that wealth 

 of discovery in mammalian paleontology which was destined 

 to be made in the half-century of this history by Leidy, 

 Marsh, Cope, Osborn, and Scott. 



Until the organization of the United States Geological 

 Survey, the Smithsonian Institution was the headquarters of 

 the geologists in the service of the government. The Insti- 

 tution aided in providing their outfit, its annual Reports 

 briefly announced their discoveries, and their collections were 

 received into its Museum, and studied within its walls or 

 under its direction. The geological work done by the Mexi- 

 can Boundary Survey, the Pacific Railroad Surveys, the 

 Colorado expedition of Lieutenant Ives, the expeditions of 

 Lieutenant (afterward General) Warren to the Yellowstone, 

 the Black Hills, and the Loup Fork, the explorations of Doctor 

 D. D. Owen, Foster and Whitney, Doctor Charles T. Jackson, 

 Doctor John Evans, and Doctor F. V. Hayden were all 

 more or less intimately related with the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. Within its walls were carried on the patient and con- 

 scientious labors of F. B. Meek, by which the paleontology 

 of the United States was so greatly advanced. 



The Institution actively cooperated in the expedition to 

 Alaska under the auspices of the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company ; and Kennicott and Dall and the other naturalists 

 of that expedition were among the scientific men whose 

 headquarters was in the Institution. Much of geological 

 knowledge was gained by this- expedition. 



In 1867 geology acquired a more independent position than 

 it had previously held in relation to the government of the 



