4 Geological Surveys [202 



feature of the Survey no matter how much independence may 

 be granted in individual instances. 



Although;, individual effort of a sporadic sort had long 

 not until the appointment of Werner in 1775 



as t J^ofQSsor at. Freiberg in Saxony that geology can be said 

 \tcf ^a^etSeeriv'recognized as an independent science and 

 admitted as such into academic surroundings. The great 

 influence of Werner in securing recognition for geology, 

 although many of his conceptions were erroneous, has led to 

 his being called the Father of Geology. For a half-century 

 after his time much work was done by private initiative both 

 in and out of the university to advance the science of geology, 

 but it began to be recognized more and more that individual 

 resources were inadequate to secure the vast number of facts 

 in the field on which most lines of geology depend. It was 

 then that public aid was solicited and secured, but secured 

 not wholly because the legislator was impressed with the pos- 

 sibility of advancing geology for its own sake but because the 

 geologist was able to impress him that out of this work some- 

 thing of a practical nature might be speedily or in the more 

 distant future secured. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that the 

 geologist, if he is to secure public support for such work, must 

 be to some extent what is called a lobbyist, although the time 

 and energy employed are not wholly lost in that his vision is 

 broadened by frequent contact with men of affairs. Not all 

 representatives of the people, to be sure, consider the public 

 interest of first importance, but there are always some, often 

 many, who do ; at least that has been my experience. 



It is to America that we have to look for the first recogni- 

 tion of the part the public may play in the support of geologi- 

 cal work through legislative appropriations, and it was North 

 Carolina that established the first official Geological Survey. 

 This was in 1823, when the General Assembly of the State 

 authorized the Board of Agriculture to pay the expenses of 

 " geological excursions " for a period of years and appointed 

 Professor Denison Olmsted, of the State University, subse- 



