340 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



In March, 1830, sixteen years after her establishment on a basis of 

 independent statehood, the legislature of Maine authorized the appoint- 

 ment of " some suitable person" to make a geological survey of the 

 State "as soon as circumstances will permit," appro- 

 Ma&'l3 G 6 e 39 gy °' Plating the sum of $5,000 to cover expenses/' On 

 June 25 a contract was entered into with Dr. C. T. 

 Jackson for the carrying out of the same. Jackson seems to have 

 entered upon his duties promptly and energetically, making his first 

 report, a volume of 110 octavo pages, in December, 1830. This was 

 accompanied by an atlas of 24 plates. His results were apparently 

 satisfactory to the legislature, the appointment being renewed the fol- 

 lowing year and $3,000 appropriated for expenses. Under this appro- 

 priation a second annual report of 168 octavo pages was forthcoming. 

 This in its turn was seemingly satisfactory, for the geologist's salary 

 was increased from $1,000 to $1,500 a year, while the sum appropri- 

 ated for the carrying on of the work was made discretionary with 

 the governor and council. Under such favoring conditions it is not 

 strange perhaps that the State geologist became effusive and brought 

 his third (and last) report up to 270 pages, with an appendix of <i4 

 pages, containing a catalogue of the collections. 



These reports, examined in the light of to-day, contain very little 

 which would be considered of geological importance. Jackson seems 

 to have roamed somewhat at random over the State, with little idea of 

 the geological structure as a whole, and to have contented himself with 

 making detailed notes on whatever was immediately at hand, regard- 

 less of its possible relationship to other formations at a distance and 

 with an eye particularly to economic questions. 



From the finding of marine shells at Lubec in layers of clay now 

 some twenty-six feet above high- water mark, he rightly conjectured 

 that the land had been elevated that amount within a comparatively 

 recent period. He regarded the sandstones now known to be Devo- 

 nian in the extreme eastern counties as identical with the red Triassic 

 sandstones of Nova Scotia, and seriously discussed the possibility of 

 their containing bituminous coal. The slates of Piscataquis County 

 were classed as transition, and the possibilit}' of their carrying anthra- 

 cite coal was likewise discussed. 



In his third annual report he noted the occurrence of fossil plants 

 in the slates of Waterville and remarked on the discovery as being a 

 strange occurrence, since the rocks belong to the older Transition 

 series. 6 



« The legislature of Massachusetts authorized State cooperation in this survey so far 

 as it related to certain public lands which were the joint property of the two States. 



h At the second session of the American Association of Geologists in Philadelphia, 

 1841, Professor O. P. Hubbard exhibited a specimen of this slate and was able to 

 show by the aid of "Murchison's Silurian system " that they were nut plant remains 

 but annelid trails, a view which Jackson accepted. 



