552 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Fio. 85.— George Little. 



Although this was a period of great aetivit} r on the part of the Gen- 

 eral Government, State and provincial governments were by no means 

 quiescent. Important work was being done by T. C. Chamberlin in 



Wisconsin, J. W. Dawson in Nova Scotia, 

 W. C. Kerr in North Carolina, Eugene A. 

 Smith in Alabama, and J. D. Whitney in 

 Cal if ornia. There were also organized a sec- 

 ond geological survey of Pennsylvania, with 

 J. P. Lesle}' at its head, and a geological 

 and natural history survey of Minnesota, 

 under N. H. Winchell. Both of these last- 

 named organizations continued their work 

 beyond the period of the limit set for this 

 history. An attempt at establishing a geo- 

 logical survey of Georgia in 187-A resulted in 

 the appointment of George Little as State 

 geologist and the subsequent issuance of two 

 reports comprising altogether but 52 pages. 

 In 1870 (?) John Murrish was appointed by Governor Lucius Fair- 

 child, of Wisconsin, commissioner of the survey of the lead district of 

 that State. Murrish was, according to his own statement, "a practical 

 man" and had served an apprenticeship in the mines 

 wV s r Jonsin^870 in °^ Cornwall, going through the regular course of prac- 

 tical training for a miner's occupation and a miner's 

 life. Under these conditions, it is perhaps scarcely just to compare 

 his writings with those of men who have had better opportunities and 

 training. Nevertheless, as he had to do with the survey of an 

 important mining region, it is impossible to ignore the work here. 



Under the title of Report of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of the Lead Regions, Mur- 

 rish published his observations in the form 

 of a pamphlet of 05 pages, in which he 

 set forth his views of the various geolog- 

 ical phenomena. He thought to have dis- 

 covered that the lead-bearing fissures were 

 grouped into ranges, the various ranges 

 forming themselves into four well-defined 

 belts running parallel to each other. The 

 lead veins, according to his theories, occur- 

 red along the elevation of the land running 

 in a generally north-and-south direction, the 

 elevation itself being "a line of physical 

 disturbance." Concerning the character of 



this physical disturbance he was not perfectly clear, but he did not 

 regard it as due to an active volcanic disturbance nor earthquakes in 

 the ordinary meaning of tin 1 terms. 



Fig. SO. — John Murrish. 



