700 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



nized by the legislature the explorations were still carried on at 

 the expense of the University of Alabama. When the state 

 later appropriated money to conduct the survey, Professor 

 Tuomey resigned his position in the universit}^. The present survey 

 of Alabama was instituted by law in 1873, although the trustees 

 of the university had required the professor of geology the year 

 previous to revive the plan which was established under Profes- 

 sor Tuomey. The survey as such is not under the direction of 

 the university trustees. The governor, the secretary of state, 

 and the state geologist constitute the board of control. 



The plan of the Minnesota survey was recognized at once as 

 a new departure and was thus referred to by a high authority: 1 



"We spoke in the June number of the Popular Science Monthly of the 

 advantages that would arise from connecting the scientific exploration of the 

 several states with their higher educational institutions. We have been since 

 reminded that this is an accomplished fact in at least one of the states, and 

 we hasten to give credit to Minnesota for having taken this new departure in 

 scientific education. It is one of the youngest states in the Union, and a 

 generation ago was but a land of savages, an indefinite tract in the great 

 "Northwest Territory," beyond the "Wisconsin," beyond the distant Missis- 

 sippi, that we now see taking the lead of the older states in organizing the 

 new education by devoting her university to the comprehensive and practical 

 study of nature. This step has been but recently taken, and its benefits are 

 prospective, but if thoroughly carried out there can be but little question of 

 the advantages that must arise to the people of the state The move- 

 ment in this case, it is evident, has been initiated mainly in the interest of the 

 geological survey, but it is to be hoped that the larger objects of education to 

 which it is a means will not be lost sight of. The university will undoubtedly 

 be benefited by taking the responsibility of the work, but the movement will 

 fall greatly short of the good it might accomplish if it is not vitally connected 

 with the educational system of the state." 



This survey has been in uninterrupted progress under its 

 original law from the date of its establishment to the present. 

 It requires the regents not only to conduct a purely geological 

 survey, but also to make a natural history survey, including 

 botany and zoology, to construct a topographical map of the 

 state, and to investigate its meteorology. The law establishes a 



'Editorial in the Popular Science Monthly, Vol. III., p. 391, 1873. 



