PREFACE. xiii 



prove a source of as much pleasure and profit to our people as the facts that have 

 been gathered in regard to the mineral resources of the State. In the geological sur- 

 veys which have been organized by the most enlightened communities of our own 

 and other countries, the fossils found have uniformly been the subjects of careful 

 study and profuse illustration. This has not been the result of a vain craving for 

 notoriety on the part of the palaeontologists, but has been a response to a demand 

 created by an interest in such subjects which pervades every cultivated population. 

 That such an interest exists among our own people is shown by the avidity with 

 which our palseontological reports have been sought, and by the value attached to 

 them by those who possess them. 



In the plan proposed for the Final Report of the Geological Survey, in addition to 

 the reports on Geology and Palaeontology, it was suggested that there should be one 

 volume devoted to Economic Geology, and another to Zoology, Botany, and Agricul- 

 ture. Of these volumes, the first was intended to include an exhaustive and accurate 

 review of all our mineral staples — coal, iron, peat, clay, salt, oil, building material, 

 etc. — both as regards their geology and technology. A large amount of labor has 

 been expended in the preparation oi this volume, and it may be said to be more than 

 half done. But the investigations of which this report was to embody the results 

 had not been finished when, in February, 1874, the appropriations for the field and 

 office work of the Survey were exhausted. An attempt has been made in the prepara- 

 tion of this volume to determine the quality, uses, and best methods of manufacture 

 of our mineral staples, not only by means of the ordinary chemical analyses, but by 

 carefully gathering the results of all the trials to which they have been subjected in 

 real life, and by original experiments made with an amount of material and under 

 such conditions as would afford a practical and "working" test of each. For the 

 completion of this volume six months' time and an expenditure of $4,000 to $5,000 

 would be necessary. 



The volume on Zoology and Botany has been nearly completed, and at a very small 

 expense to the State. The Botanical report was prepared by Dr. C. H. Beardsley, of 

 Painesville, who has given a large part of two seasons to it, with no other compensa- 

 tion than his expenses. 



Dr. J. M. Wheaton, of Columbus, has charged himself with the preparation of the 

 report on Birds. This is nearly or quite ready for publication, and is very full and 

 accurate. In the execution of his work Dr. Wheaton has received no other compen- 

 sation than the payment of his expenses in visiting the museums at Washington, 

 Philadelphia, and other eastern cities, where he had an opportunity of comparing his 

 material with all that collected in other portions of our country. 



