13 



Of these, two are alreacty issued, and eight more are in a forward 

 state of preparation, the illustrations of three of them being nearly all 

 drawn, and a portion of them already engraved. The amount of time 

 required to complete the series of thirteen volumes will, of course, 

 depend upon the vigor with which the work is pushed, and that, again, 

 on the amount appropriated by the Legislature. With a sufficiently 

 liberal appropriation, it is probable that the fieldwork may be finished 

 before the time expires when the office 'of State Geologist will by con 

 stitutional limitation cease to exist April the fourth, eighteen hundred 

 and sixty-eight. The completion of the printing and engraving will of 

 course require a longer time; but it will perhaps be reasonable to esti 

 mate that within four years, from the present time the full series of 

 volumes may be in the hands of the public. 



No provision has yet been made by the Legislature for the arrange 

 ment and exhibition of the collections made by the survey, as was con 

 templated in the original Act under which our work was commenced. 

 These collections are already very extensive, embracing many thousand 

 specimens of rocks, fossils, minerals, and ores, as well as the extremely 

 important suites in the zoological and botanical departments. All these 

 specimens are of great value, as illustrating the natural history, the 

 geological structure, and the mineral resources of the State. Such of 

 these as have not been required for use in the preparation of our report, 

 remain packed in boxes and stored away at the office of the survey. 

 Unfortunately, we were obliged, for want of room, to store a portion of 

 our specimens in a (so-called) fireproof warehouse in San Francisco, 

 and these have already been destroyed by fire, entailing a serious loss 

 on the survey and the State. In view of this calamity, it will not be 

 necessary for me to enlarge on the necessity of providing a permanent 

 fireproof building for our collections, as has already been repeatedly 

 urged by me in my annual communications to the Legislature. The 

 only official step thus far taken by the Legislature towards the estab 

 lishment of a State Museum, is the passage of the following resolution 

 b}^the Legislature of eighteen hundred and sixty-two and eighteen hun 

 dred and sixty-three. 



" Resolved, by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That Professor J. 

 D. Whitney, State Geologist, John Swett, State Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, and J. F. Houghton, Surveyor General, be and they 

 are hereby constituted a Board of Commissioners, to report to the 

 Legislature on or before the second Monday of December, one thousand 

 eight hundred and sixty-three, upon the feasibility of establishing a 

 State University, embracing an Agricultural College, a ' School of Mines/ 



