344 OHIO STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Ohio were two published by Caleb Atwater of Circleville in vol- 

 ume I. of the American Journal of Science, the first entitled "On 

 the Prairies and Barrens of the West," and the second, "jS^otice 

 of the Scenery, Geology, Mineralog^^ Botany, etc., of Belmont 

 County/' The first state geological survey was created under the 

 authority of an act passed by the Legislature in March, 1837, ]iro- 

 viding for "a complete and detailed geological survey of the State," 

 which also included the construction of a geological map of the 

 state and the collection of the fossils of the various formations. 

 The Legislative Committee recommended an annual appropriation 

 of $12,000 for four years, the appointment of "a skilled geologist." 

 with not more than four assistants and in addition a topographical 

 engineer. The Governor appointed as Principal Geologist. Lieut. 

 Wm. W. Mather, at that time Geologist of the First District of 

 jSTew York; Drs. S. P. Hildreth and John Locke and Professors J. 

 P. Kirkland and C. Briggs, Jr., as assistants, with Col. Charles 

 Whittlesey as topogTaphioal engineer. The field work was begun 

 late in 1837 but was actively prosecuted during the field season 

 of 1838 and at the close of that year the survey had cost the state 

 $16,000, when it was abruptly terminated. Two annual reports 

 were published by Mather and his assistants', which were quite 

 similar in plan to those of 'New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, 

 and a beginning was made toward a description of the geology of 

 the state. How elementary most of this was, however, may be 

 seen from the section of central Ohio in the second report in 

 which the Devonian limestones on the Scioto at Columbus are 

 given as "Mountain limestone," which belongs in the Subcarbon- 

 iferous; while what is now known as the drift was referred to the 

 Tertiary. Still the survey, brief as was its life, was of great value 

 and Dr. Orton has made the statement that "The state never re- 

 ceived larger returns from any other equal expenditure than from 

 the $16,000 used" for its maintenance, and that the increase of 

 wealth in a single county due to "the development of mining in- 

 dustries, largely based on the work of the survey, was * * * 

 many times more than the entire expenditure which the state 

 had made in its support."^ 



From the termination of the first survey at the close of 1838 

 until the passage of the bill in March, 1869, "providing fpr a 

 Geological Survey of Ohio" the state did absolutely nothing toward 

 furthering the knowledge of its geology and geological resources. 

 This was a formative period in American geology in which nearly 

 all the northern states and part of the southern had supported 

 state surveys for a longer or shorter period and published fairly 

 accurate reports. Even the first tier of states beyond the Missis- 

 sipi had published quite elaborate reports of large octavo or quarto 



1 Jour. GeoL, Vol. II, 1894, p. 507. 



