10 REPORT OF THE 



3. Geology, by C. C. Douglass, 15 pp., devoted mainly to the 

 general geology of the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula, 

 bordering on Lakes Huron and Michigan. The geological 

 series, as here made out, will also be embraced in the table. 



4. Geology, by B. Hubbard, 33 pp., devoted to a general 

 resume of the geology of the organized counties, with tables of 

 the formations. 



5. Topography, by S. W. Higgins, 26 pp., containing valuable 

 tables of magnetic variations, and of (he rise and fall of water 

 in the lakes. 



On the 4th February, Dr.. Houghton presented a Report of 

 the progress of the County and State maps* 



Through the pressure of the financial crisis under which the 

 State and country were still suffering, the Legislature was in- 

 duced to curtail the appropriations for the continuance of the sur- 

 vey. The Fifth Annual Report therefore, dated January 25th, 

 1842, "j" is a brief paper of six pages, containing some notices of the 

 geology of the western portion of the Mineral District of Lake 

 Superior, surveyed by Dr. Houghton in connexion with his 

 duties as Boundary CornmissioEe.'. Dr. Houghton, not content,' 

 tbat a work to which he had devoted so much labor, and for 

 which he had undergone so many privations, should be inter- 

 rupted, and pei'haps frustrated, by the supposed inability of 

 the State to carry it on, devised, in 1844, in connexion with 

 William A. Burt, Esq., the plan of connecting the linear 

 surveys of the public lands of the United States, with a 

 a geological and mineralogical survey of the country. This 

 plan was fully set forth in a paper prepared and read by 

 him before the " Association of American Geologists '' at 

 Washington, in that year. The immense advantages likely 

 to result from such a survey, if successfully carried into exe- 

 cution, were at once comprehended. The Commissioner of 

 the General Land Office, having obtained a promise from Dr. 

 Houghton to undertake the work, recommended to Congress an 



9 House Doc. , 1841 , p. 94. '. 



t Joint Doc, 1842, p. 436. 



