24 REPORT OF THE 



public conveyance. Our party of two, was thus converted into 

 two parties, each attending, more or less, to all the departments 

 of the survey. In the beginning of autumn, we met by appoint- 

 ment, at Grand Haven, and proceeded over the country to Grand 

 Rapids. Here I made an examination of the geological rela- 

 tions of the gypsum and salt, and announced, as is believed, for 

 the first time, the true geological position ol those important 

 products. Here Mr, White was detained severs weeks by an 

 intermittent, contracted from exposure at Grand Haven . In 

 the mean time, however, he succeeded in making several excur- 

 sions into the northern part of Kent county. Toward s the 

 last of October, I returned to Grand Rapids, and after complet- 

 ing my geological observations, communicated, by request, to 

 James Scribner, Esq., in writing, my conclusions as to the 

 geology of the Grand River Valley, and the depth at which the 

 brine horizon would be found to lie. I stated that the source of 

 the brine was from the shales of the gypseous group, near its 

 base; and that I had no evidence of the existence of stronger 

 brine at any greater depth in the formations which outcrop in 

 the southern part of the State. I said that though the under- 

 lying formations are all somewhat saliferous, they are not 

 strongly so, but that there are fissures and powerful currents of 

 water at certain points, which would render extremely unprom- 

 ising the search for salt below the gypsum formation. I recall 

 these declarations at this time, for the purpose of vindicating 

 the reliability of geological inductions, however unfavorable to 

 individual or local interests and prejudices. 



From Grand Rapids I proceeded to a cursory examination of 

 the coal of Shiawassee county, and the brine of Saginaw 

 county, while Mr. White proceeded through Barry, Eaton and 

 Jackson counties, to Ann Arbor. I found the salt boring at 

 East Saginaw progressing successfully under the enlightened 

 management of Dr. Lathrop, one of the best geologists in our 

 State who had stimulated this enterprise as an inference from 

 purely geological data. My observations upon the"outcr©pB of 

 the rocks which this boring was penetrating, enabled me to 



