50 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 211. 



stances showed that relief from malaria 

 could be obtained with unsuspected ease, 

 and that many miles of noxious swamp 

 could be converted into lands well fitted for 

 residence. 



The first survey of Pennsylvania was 

 purely scientific in inception and execution. 

 Economic questions had little of interest 

 for its head, and in the work their place was 

 very subordinate to those in pure science ; 

 yet the outcome was inevitable. The study 

 of the Appalachian folds and the discovery 

 of the steeper northwesterly dif) revealed 

 the structure of the anthracite region and 

 made it possible to determine the relations 

 of the anthracite beds ; the vast extent 

 of the bituminous area and the importance 

 of the Pittsburg coal bed were ascertained 

 during the search for facts to explain the 

 origin of the coal measures ; the ores of the 

 central part of the State were studied with 

 rigorous attention to detail that the prob- 

 lem of their origin might be solved. But 

 these and other scientific studies brought 

 out a mass of facts which were seen at once 

 to possess immense importance, and the re- 

 ports were published broadcast. New in- 

 dustries were established ; old ones, pre- 

 viously uncertain, became certain and de- 

 veloped prodigiously; the coal and iron 

 interests moved at once to the front, so that, 

 within two or three years after the survey 

 ended, 'Tariff' became the burning polit- 

 ical question throughout the State. The 

 results of the second survey were even 

 more remarkable in their influence upon 

 the development of the Commonwealth and 

 the increased comfort of the population. 



Among the earliest results of the first 

 survey of Michigan was the determination 

 of the value of the salt lands and the an- 

 nouncement of iron ore in the Upper Penin- 

 sula. The successors to this survey, but 

 under the United States supervision, made 

 studies of numerovia localities and de- 

 termined the excellence of the ores. Un- 



questionabl}', the importance of the deposit 

 became known to capitalists very largely 

 through the reports of this survey, though 

 at that time economic geology had no 

 charms for its head. Much of the enor- 

 mous development of the Lake Superior 

 iron region was due to the influence of the 

 later survey between 1869 and 1873. 



The first Ohio survey, made sixty years 

 ago, was at greater disadvantage than the 

 Pennsylvania survey, yet in the first year 

 the coal area was defined and during the 

 second the geologists determined the distri- 

 bution of the several limestones and sand- 

 stones which, as building stones, have be- 

 come so important. The second survey 

 was made effective at once by the tracing 

 and identification of the Hocking Valley 

 coal, which brought into the State a vast 

 amount of new capital and changed the 

 face of a great district. The third survey 

 determined the distribution of oil and gas, 

 the relations of the coal beds and the char- 

 acteristics of the clay deposits in such fash- 

 ion as to remake the rnanufacturing in- 

 terests of the State. 



The Mesabi and Vermilion ranges of 

 Minnesota contain deposits of iron ore 

 which, for the present at least, appear to 

 be even more important than those of north- 

 ern Michigan. Almost fifty years ago J. 

 G. Norwood, while studying the easterly 

 end of the region, discovered the Mesabi 

 ores ; a few years later Whittlese}-, after a 

 detailed examination farther west, pre- 

 dicted the discovery of similar ores, a dis- 

 covery actually made in 1866 by Eames, 

 who was then State Geologist and engaged 

 in studying the Vermilion range. Though 

 not utilized at once, these announcements 

 were not forgotten and systematic explora- 

 tion was begun in 1875, when the need of 

 high-grade ores at low prices made neces- 

 sary the opening of new areas. Almost at 

 once, the State Geological Survey deter- 

 mined the extent of the ore-bearing region. 



