PREFACE. 



The plan for the publication of the Final Report of the Geological Survey sub- 

 mitted by the Chief Geologist to the Geological Board, and adopted by them, provided 

 for two volumes on Geology, two on Palaeontology, one on Economic Geology, and 

 one on Zoology, Botany, and Agriculture. It alBO contemplated the preparation of a 

 general geological map of the State. In framing this plan, the requirements of the 

 organic law of the Survey, as construed by the Geological committees in the Legisla- 

 ture, the Geological Board, and the Geological Corps, were carefully complied with. 



Section 5 of the act authorizing the Geological Survey provides that " when the 

 said survey shall be fully completed, the Chief Geologist shall make to the Governor 

 a final report, including the results of the entire survey, accompanied by such draw- 

 ings and topographical maps as may be necessary to illustrate the same, and by a 

 simple geological map showing by colors and other appropriate means the stratifica- 

 tion of the rocks, the character of the soil, the localities of the beds of mineral de- 

 posits, and the character and extent of the different geological formations." In obedi- 

 ence to this requirement, but before the completion of the field and office work of the 

 Survey, the Chief Geologist submitted to the Governor sufficient material to form two 

 of the volumes specified in his plan for the Final Report. The publication of this 

 material was authorized by the Legislature as Volume I. of the Final Report of the 

 Geological Survey, and twenty thousand copies of this volume were ordered to be 

 printed. The quantity of material presented was, however, so large that it could not 

 be conveniently included in a single cover ; and it was, therefore, thought by the Geo- 

 logical Board best to publish the volume in two parts, one of which should be de- 

 voted to Geology, and the other to Palaeontology. In the very generous provision 

 made for the publication of this volume, it was specified that it should be published 

 on paper of superior quality, and that, in all respects, the work should be done in the 

 best possible style. No special provision was made, however, for securing the publi- 

 cation of the report in the style contemplated by the Legislature, and when the mat- 

 ter was placed in the hands of the printer it was found that no authority had been 

 conveyed to the Geological Board, or any other officer of the State, to purchase and 

 use any other paper than that supplied under the general contracts made by the Sec- 

 retary of State. As a consequence, Part I. of the volume was printed on paper simi- 



