STATE GEOLOGIST 11 



appropriation for that purpose. This was made, and the survey- 

 commenced by Dr. Houghton.* According to the plan agreed 

 upon between Dr. Houghton and Mr. Burt, the township lines of 

 the Upper Peninsula were to be run by Mr. Burt, or under his 

 supervision, while the subdivisions were to be made by other 

 deputy surveyors — Dr. Houghton having the especial control of 

 the whole. All rocks crossed by lines were to be examined, 

 specimens taken, and the exact locality noted, while at the same 

 time as much information as could be obtained, was to be col- 

 lected in relation to the geological and topographical features 

 of the country. The surveyors were to be accompanied along 

 the lines by a special barometrical observer. This system had 

 been fairly organized, and the field work of one season nearly 

 completed, when his melancholy death by drowning, occurred 

 during a storm on Lake Superior, near Eagle river, on the night 

 of Oct. 13th, 1845.f This unfortunate termination of the survey 

 was communicated to the Legislature by S. W. Higgins, on the 

 7th of January, 1846.J 



According to the plan entered upon, a full and minute report 

 was to have been prepared and returned by Dr. Houghton, to 

 the office of the Surveyor General. On the decease of the head 

 of the survey, his administrators employed Messrs. William A. 

 Burt and Bela Hubbard, to compile reports on the geological 

 results of the work for 1845, from the field notes of that yeah 

 Mr. Burt's Report was prepared from his own notes, and Mr. 

 Hubbard's from those of Dr. Houghton. These two Eeports§ 

 unfold in an admirable manner the geological structure of the 

 trap and metaphorphic regions of Lake Superior, and anticipate 

 results which were subsequently worked out by the United 

 States Geologists. The notes and maps of three townships 

 were in Dr. Houghton's possession at the time of his death, and 

 were never recovered 



Thus ended the first geological survey of our State — a work 



* Seo " The Mineral Region of Lake Superior," by Jacob Houghton, Jr. 



+ lb. Also Foster and Whitney, Rep. Vol. I, p. 14. 

 _. I Joint Doc. 1846, No. 12. 



• Z For my knowledge of these Reports I am entirely indebted to the work of Jacob Houghton, 

 Jr. # before referred to. 



