570 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



the conglomerate forming the lower layer of the Potsdam sandstone 

 and derived from the Archean rocks; (4) in trachyte and porphyry 

 intruded at the time of the elevation of the hills; (5) "in deposits in 

 the slates and sedimentary rocks produced by the intrusion of the tra- 

 chyte and porphyry," and (6) '"in placer gravels resulting from the 

 decomposition and erosion of the above formations in Tertiary times." 

 The quartz veins he did not regard as "true fissure veins, 1 ' but, as 

 they occurred filling fissures between the lamellae of the schists formed 

 in the process of the folding, were referred to as " interlaminated 

 fissures." 



The fossils collected by this expedition were worked up by Whit- 

 field while at Albany in 1876. 



Under act approved March 18, 1873, a geological survey of Wiscon- 

 sin was authorized, and I. A. Lapham appointed State geologist by the 



then acting governor, C. C. Washburn. 

 Owing to an apparent oversight on the part 

 of Governor Washburn, 

 wTsco™ S in S "873 y ° f Professor Lapham's name 

 was, however, not sent to 

 the senate for approval, and an opportunity 

 thereby offered for Governor Washburn's 

 successor, W. R. Taylor, to supersede him 

 by Dr. O. W. Wight. So far as shown by 

 public records, the transaction was purely 

 political and not at all creditable to Gov- 

 ernor Taylor. 



Lapham therefore served but two years, 

 during this time rendering two reports. 

 These were not published independently, 

 but subsequently formed the first 65 pages of the second volume of the 

 reports of State geologist, T. C. Chamberlin. He was assisted by R. D. 

 Irving, T. C. Chamberlin, and Moses Strong. The two reports 

 referred to were naturally of a preliminary nature, designed to form 

 the basis for future work. Lapham, perhaps even more than others of 

 his time, was an all-round naturalist — a type not possible in this day 

 and generation. Beginning life as a stonecutter and afterwards a civil 

 engineer, he yet found time to study and observe in nearly all branches 

 of the sciences, and this, too, with remarkable accuracy. His first 

 paper of a geological nature is said to have been prepared when he 

 was but sixteen } 7 ears of age, and was published in the American 

 Journal of Science for 1828. This gave an account of the geology 

 in the vicinity of the Louisville and Shipping-port Canal, and was illus- 

 trated by a map and geological sections of a nature very creditable 

 to a j^outh of his years. 



His bibliography includes upward of fifty titles, embracing, besides 

 geology, articles on climatology, archaeology, botany, and cartogra- 



