Not a whisper of opposition has ever been raised against the work, 

 which has quietly and effectively been going on for the last twenty 

 years on our coast, at an annual cost ten times greater than that 

 of the Geological Survey, but at the expense of the United States, 

 and the object of which is to give to this State, and all who need it, 

 a map of the line along which old Ocean thunders against our rocky 

 shores. No ; the money does not come directly out of our pockets, 

 let the great work go on ; we see its value and approve its progress. 

 But the Geological Survey that is quite another thing : getting 

 information gratis, and paying for the same, are two essentially dif 

 ferent institutions. 



A bill has been, or is to be, introduced, I am told, abolishing 

 the State Geologist and consigning him to the tomb of the 

 Capulets. This seems to me decidedly a work of supererogation, 

 since that unfortunate officer is, to speak metaphorically, already in 

 the last gasp of dissolution. If the Act is to be of any value it 

 must be passed in a hurry, or you will be hanging a man who has 

 just died of starvation. The train can be stopped just as well, and 

 with less damage to the property of the State which is on board, by 

 putting no more wood under the boiler and shutting off steam grad 

 ually, as by putting a rail on the track and thus throwing the engine 

 off and smashing things generally. 



At the time of commencing the survey, I had the honor of deliv 

 ering my inaugural address before the Legislature, and in this I gave, 

 in a highly condensed form, a history of the development of the 

 mineral resources of the United States with special reference to what 

 had been accomplished in this behalf by the different State Geologi 

 cal Surveys. Having glanced at the condition of the mining interests 

 of this country, as compared with those of other parts of the world, 

 I stated what the Act by which this survey was authorized called for, 

 and laid out the work on which we were about to enter as well as 

 could be done by one bringing with him a large amount of experi 

 ence gathered in other regions, although but little acquainted, from 

 personal observation, with the new field on which he was about to 

 enter. 



The next year, having the honor of addressing the Legislature 

 without being especially called on by that body to select any particular 

 subject, I endeavored to give some idea of the nature of geological 

 inquiries, in their broadest and most generally attractive direction, 

 and to awaken an interest in our work by setting forth some of the 

 most interesting results at which geologists have arrived during the 



