432 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Emmons's second report, comprising- 351 pages, was issued in 185t>. 

 It related chiefly to the geology and mines of the so-called midland 

 counties. In 1858 his Report on the Agriculture of the Eastern Coun- 

 ties was issued. About one-third of this, notwithstanding its title, 

 was given up to paleontological matters. In 1860 two more reports, 

 both short, appeared — the one devoted mainly to agriculture and the 

 other a special report on the swamp lands. 



In the report for 1858 Emmons announced a principle which has 

 since been enunciated in somewhat different words by our mos.t emi- 

 nent authority on soils. This, in his own words, is as follows: 



In the examination of soils the physical properties require as much attention as 

 the chemical, for in order that a good chemical mixture of elements may be fertile 

 they should possess a certain degree of adhesiveness or closeness which will retain 

 water. 



A good deal of attention was given to the marls of the State with 

 reference to their availability for fertilizing purposes, though he 

 recognized the fact that, unfortunately for the best interests of agri- 

 culture, these marls are too sandy to bear transportation to distant 

 points. 



A geological survey of Illinois was organized under an act of the 



general assembly approved February IT, 1851. This act authorized 



the governor, auditor, and treasurer to employ a competent geologist, 



who was required to make "a complete geological 



MYi™i°° d i8M°i857. an( l mineralogical survey of the entire territory of the 



State," and provided that — 



The said geologist should proceed to ascertain the order, successive arrangement, 

 relative position, dip, and comparative magnitude of the several strata or geological 

 formations in the State, and to search for and examine all the beds and deposits of 

 ores, coals, clays, marls, rocks, and such other mineral substances as may present 

 themselves; to obtain chemical analyses of the same, and to determine by baromet- 

 rical observations the relative elevation of the different portions of the State. 



He was also required " to procure and preserve an entire suite of 

 the different specimens found in the State, to be preserved and prop- 

 erly arranged in a cabinet, and placed in the office of the secretary of 

 state in the State Capitol;'* and eventually "to publish with the final 

 reports a geological map of the State." 



Under the provisions of this act Dr. J. (i. Norwood was appointed 

 State geologist, and the work was begun in October, 1851, by an 



