10 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 



By Josiah D. Whitney, Sturgis-Hooper Professor of Geology. 



During the year 1885-86, a course of lectures, about sixty in 

 number, on Economical Geology, was given by the Professor to 

 a class consisting chiefly of undergraduates (Seniors), with a few 

 candidates for a higher degree. Most of his time not thus occupied 

 was devoted to the preparation of the article " United States " for 

 the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In connection 

 with this work material was collected and illustrations gathered 

 for a course of lectures to be given during the College year 1886-87, 

 on the material resources of the United States. In this course 

 everything bearing on the development of these resources, with 

 reference to the past, the present, and the possible and probable 

 future, will be discussed, so far as can be done in the allotted time. 

 The statistics of every important branch of industry will be pre- 

 sented, with an analysis of the climatic, geographical, and geologi- 

 cal conditions having relation to the development of that industry. 

 The investigation of the relations of climate to man, in all aspects, 

 will be a special feature of the course, which is intended to be, in 

 fact, an introduction to all earnest study of history and political 

 economy, but always with particular reference to conditions pre- 

 vailing in the United States. 



A considerable amount of time has also been given to the study 

 of the origin and meaning of some of the more difficult words in 

 physical geography, geology, mining, and metallurgy for the Cen- 

 tury Company's Dictionary of the English Language. 



Field work has been continued in connection with the inves- 

 tigations of the surface and glacial geology of North America, 

 mentioned in the last Report as having been begun. Portions of 

 the supposed " terminal moraine " in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 

 Dakota, and also in New Jersey, have been examined with care, 

 and considerable work has been done in the New England States, 

 as well as in Northern New York, with the same object in view. 



