LETTER. 



SAN FRANCISCO, January 1, 1866. 



To His Excellency, F. F. Low, 



Governor of California : 



SIR : The Legislature, during the session of eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-three and eighteen hundred and sixty-four, re-established the office 

 of State Geologist, then about to expire by constitutional limitation, by 

 passing the following Act : 



"AN ACT 



TO CREATE THE OFFICE OF STATE GEOLOGIST, AND TO DEFINE THE DUTIES 



THEREOF. 



11 The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assem 

 bly, do enact as follows : 



11 SECTION 1. J. D. Whitney is hereby appointed State Geologist. He 

 shall be commissioned by the Governor, and it shall be his duty, with 

 the aid of such assistants as he may appoint, to complete the geological 

 survey of the State, and prepare a report of said survey for publication, 

 and superintend the publication of the same. Such report shall be in 

 the form of a geological, botanical, and zoological history of the State; 

 and the number of copies of each volume to be printed, and the style, 

 form, maps, diagrams, or illustrations to be contained therein, or to be 

 printed separately, shall be determined by the State Geologist; and said 

 report, when published, shall be sold upon such terms as the Governor 

 and Secretary of State may decide upon, and the proceeds of such sales 

 shall be paid into the Common School Fund of the State. 



u SEC. 2. It is hereby made the duty of the State Geologist and his 

 assistants to devote the time not necessarily required in the preparation 

 and superintendence for publication of the reports provided for in sec 

 tion one of this Act, to a thorough and scientific examination of the 

 gold, silver, and copper producing districts of this State, and to such 

 scientific and practical experiments as will be of value in- the discovery 

 of mines and the working and reduction of ores. 



