viii VW. KKi'oirr of I'K<»(;uess. c. e. beecher. 



will depend upon the infelliijent interest of the citizens of 

 tlie State wlietlier or not tlie good beginning shall be pro- 

 secuted to a good end. 



If the question of utility be raised ; if it be asked — as it 

 undoubtedly will be by the common run of l)usiness men — 

 AVI Kit is the use of such a report as the one I have now the 

 honor to transmit to you '. Why sliould the State expend 

 the hard-earned money of its citizens in publishing draw- 

 ings of strange creatures buried in tlie mud of ancient peat- 

 bogs or in the sands of the sea bottom of ages long ago — 

 creatuies unlike any wliich now live, creatures belonging to 

 an order of the world long since changed and done away— 

 I have no definite answer to make to such a question. In 

 a business sense it is of no use whatever, if one regards 

 merely the facts drawn on the page plate. But even the 

 merest business man will comprehend its utility, if he be 

 interested in coal mines and can assure himself that the re- 

 cognition of certain forms in one particular coal bed is likely 

 to aid him in identifying that particular coal bed in other 

 localities. The study of fossil shells found in formations 

 beneath the coal measures is a really practical guide to cer- 

 tain limestone beds, and sometimes fixes in a very practical 

 manner the order of rocks containing iron ore deposits, es- 

 i:)ecially where downthrow^ faults have disturbed or con- 

 cealed that order. If the location of mineral beds has any- 

 thing to do with the order of formations, which no intelli- 

 gent person questions, and if the study of fossils is a help 

 in the study of the order of formations, which all geologists 

 know to be true, then the Government is justified in order- 

 ing a complete survey of the fossils of the State, and the 

 publication of their forms for the instruction of the people. 



But apart from all money considerations, every plate of 

 these extinct forms, so strange to living eyes, is a lesson for 

 each and every man, enlarging the range of human educa- 

 tion, and discii)lining the intellect to the love and compre- 

 hension of the laws and forces of nature, so benificent to 

 mankind. 



J. P. Le.sley. 



PldJadelphia, June 18, 188 J^.. 



