i8 



heads of the Smithsonian Institution, and addressed to the State 

 Geologist, under date of October 18, 1865 : 



" Volume I of the Geological Report of California is a work of 

 which the State may well be proud, as, while of almost unrivaled 

 typographical execution, its contents are of the first order of scientific 

 merit. It needs but the full completion of your plans in regard to the 

 entire series to give to the Pacific slope of the United States an 

 encyclopaedia of information respecting its natural and physical his 

 tory far more perfect and complete than is possessed by any other 

 State in the Union, New York even not excepted. You may safely 

 assure the Governor and Legislature of California if such indorse 

 ment is necessary that there are no dissentient views among the 

 men of science here as regards their interest in the Survey in its 

 various branches, and their satisfaction with the character of its 

 plans and execution, as far as it has gone." 



To this it might, however, be answered by the opponents of the 

 Survey that a jury of scientific men is not the proper kind of a one to 

 sit in judgment on this work. If that be the case, then I am not the 

 proper kind of a person to carry on the Survey ; and to adopt such 

 a principle, or suggest any other tribunal than a scientific one, 

 would be at once to destroy all that gives character and respectability 

 to our work. We assume that those men who have devoted their 

 whole lives to investigations of this kind, and attained the highest 

 positions and universal recognition as representative men in science, 

 are best qualified to judge in regard to the value of work done in 

 their respective departments, and that if the authority of their opin- 

 ions'is not appreciated by the people at large, it is because the people 

 have not arrived at a sufficiently high stage of educational develop 

 ment to understand what is for their own interests. But I do not 

 mean to be understood as saying that non-professional men have not 

 given us their hearty support in many cases, and that the Survey is 

 only appreciated by the few. On the contrary, we have received the 

 most satisfactory assurances of sympathy and regard for our work, 

 and of its practical value, from many who would not claim to be con 

 sidered as other than practical men themselves. The only difficulty, 

 as before hinted, has been to induce the opponents of the Survey to 

 give our work a candid examination, or *ny examination at all. They 

 have conceived a blind prejudice, based on some little matters which 

 have no relation to the real merits or plan of the survey, and have 

 acted accordingly, entirely regardless of the fact that, if successful in 

 their opposition, they would be incurring an amount of odium which 



