GEOL O GICA L IN VES TIG A TIONS IN MINNESO TA. 7 01 



museum at the university, which is ordered to be kept in good 

 order and accessible to the public, and provides for the exchange 

 of specimens with other institutions. This law was drafted by 

 President W. W. Folwell, of the University of Minnesota, and 

 is still in force in all its provisions. It was introduced in the 

 Senate by Hon. J. S. Pillsbury, of St. Anthony. The legislature 

 has sometimes passed supplementary laws to facilitate the exe- 

 cution of the main law, or directing the methods of publica- 

 tion of the survey reports, but has in no way changed the 

 original law. 



To accomplish this survey an annual appropriation of one tlwu- 

 sand dollars zvas made by the legislature ! The writer was appointed 

 to conduct it in July, 1872, and tendered his first report December 

 31, 1872. The funds being so meager, the state geologist was 

 required to earn the greater part of his salary by teaching the natural 

 sciences in the State University, and he held the chair of geology 

 and mineralogy and discharged all its functions, in addition to 

 the work of the survey, until 1878, when the regents made other 

 provision for such instruction. It is apparent, on the slightest 

 consideration, that a state survey based on such a fund would go 

 so slowly that more than a century would lapse before its com- 

 pletion, and that it would not be apt to receive the respect of the 

 people, nor maintain its rank amongst such enterprises. In cast- 

 ing about for some means to establish the survey on a better 

 footing, the writer, when engaged in the field work of the first 

 year's campaign, was much with Hon. W. D. Hurlbut, of 

 Rochester, Minn., and received from him the suggestion that the 

 state lands known as Salt Spring lands, might be made to sup- 

 port the survey. This United States land grant had been the 

 prey of various chimerical schemes for developing imaginary 

 natural resources, and it appeared evident that it would be 

 entirely absorbed by unprincipled and ambitious designers unless 

 it were taken care of by the legislature in such a way as to put 

 the lands beyond their reach. The suggestion of Mr. Hurlbut 

 may have resulted from conversations with the state auditor, 

 Hon. O. P. Whitcomb, who was his townsman, and who was also 



