10 
REPORT ON THE GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 
By Josian D. Wuitney, Sturgis-Hooper Professor of Geology. 
DurinG the year 1885-86, a course of lectures, about sixty in 
number, on Hconomical Geology, was given by the Professor to 
a class consisting chiefly of undergraduates (Seniors), with a few 
candidates for a higher degree. Most of his time not thus occupied 
was devoted to the preparation of the article ‘‘ United States ” for 
the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In connection 
with this work material was collected and illustrations gathered 
for a course of lectures to be given during the College year 1886-87, 
on the material resources of the United States. In this course 
everything bearing on the development of these resources, with 
reference to the past, the present, and the possible and probable 
future, will be discussed, so far as can be done in the allotted time. 
The statistics of every important branch of industry will be pre- 
sented, with an analysis of the climatic, geographical, and geologi- 
cal conditions having relation to the development of that industry. 
The investigation of the relations of climate to man, in all aspects, 
will be a special feature of the course, which is intended to be, in 
fact, an introduction to all earnest study of history and political 
economy, but always with particular reference to conditions pre- 
vailing in the United States. 
A considerable amount of time has also been given to the study 
of the origin and meaning of some of the more difficult words in 
physical geography, geology, mining, and metallurgy for the Cen- 
tury Company’s Dictionary of the English Language. 
Field work has been continued in connection with the inves- 
tigations of the surface and glacial geology of North America, 
mentioned in the last Report as having been begun. Portions of 
the supposed “ terminal moraine’ in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Dakota, and also in New Jersey, have been examined with care, 
and considerable work has been done in the New England States, 
as well as in Northern New York, with the same object in view. 
