accomplish too much ; that our plans were too extensive, and that 

 we were aiming at something it was beyond our power or that of 

 the State to accomplish. Let us see : the Legislature ordered " An 

 accurate and complete geological survey of this State, with proper 

 maps and diagrams thereof, together with a full and scientific de 

 scription of its rocks, fossils, soils and minerals, and of its botanical 

 and zoological productions." I quote the exact language of the Act. 

 Suppose, now, it had read thus : " The State Geologist shall make a 

 hasty and inaccurate survey of the State, and furnish unreliable and 

 worthless maps of the same, together with a popular and amusing 

 account of his travels, and private reports to mining speculators, on 

 the principle of the bigger the fee the more favorable the report." 

 Does any one suppose that a scientific man, with a reputation and 

 a conscience, could have been found to lend his name to such a 

 I ridiculous proposition ? And the scientific man who should make 

 himself responsible for the statement that anything but a hasfy and 

 inaccurate, and consequently worthless, survey could be made without 

 much time, labor and money, would be either a knave or a fool, or 

 both. 



The State Geologist is not responsible for the plan of the survey ; 

 all he has sought to do was to carry out the arduous task set before 

 him by the Legislature to the best of his ability, giving the best years 

 of his life and his undivided energies to the work, with no other ob 

 ject in view than that of so executing it that it would be of permanent 

 value to the State, and consequently a credit to himself. 



What, then, is the object of the Geological Survey, and for what 

 purpose has it been instituted? This question I will endeavor to 

 answer, and I will then show, as far as possible, within the limitations 

 imposed on me by time and place, how much progress has been 

 made in it ; and finally, will give some reasons why, as I think, the 

 work should be continued to completion, and that on the scale and 

 with the plan on which it was started, and on which it has thus far 

 been carried on. 



The object of the Geological Survey may be succinctly stated in 

 these words : " It is to give to the world, and especially to our own 

 citizens, an encyclopaedic statement of the natural resources and 

 capabilities of the . State." Its scope may, perhaps, be better com 

 prehended if we consider what a private individual would do if he 

 were to come into possession, by legacy or otherwise, of a vast estate 

 of unexplored and unsurveyed territory, in regard to the value of 

 which there were no certain data in existence. If unable to examine 



