Charles Whittlesey.— A. Winchell 259 
meagre and provisional statements contained in two annual 
reports were alone preserved ; but the full elaboration of the 
results, even of two years work, by the highly competent corps 
of geologists enlisted, was totally lost to the Commonwealth. 
True, the State was then in its infancy ; and the science itself 
had scarcely advanced beyond the infantile stage ; and one 
may, perhaps, feel less surprise that the undertaking was 
abandoned than that it had been deliberately begun. "Fifty 
years since," wrote colonel Whittlesey in 1884, "geology had 
barely obtained a standing among the sciences, even in Europe. 
In Ohio it was scarcely recognized. The state at that time was 
more of a wilderness than a cultivated country, and the sur- 
vey was in progress little more than two years. It was unex- 
pectedly brought to a close, without a final report. No pro- 
vision was made for the preservation of papers, field-notes and 
maps." And yet, one who knows what was accomplished by 
that early survey, and has watched the later developments of 
industry and civilization in Ohio, understands well that even 
such an incomplete survey has been worth many times its cost 
to the State. 
During his connection with the survey, and during the two 
following years, colonel Whittlesey gave much attention to 
the ancient earth-works in the state, and may be said to have 
completed an examination of them. It was fortunate for 
American archaeology that a student so competent was led to 
devote his efforts to the subject while yet the relics of the 
aboriginal race remained comparatively intact. 
In 1844 he made an agricultural survey of Hamilton county. 
The same year the information was spread abroad that the 
geological investigations in Michigan had disclosed the exist- 
ence of large deposits of copper in the Upper Peninsula. One 
of the companies organized in Detroit for explorations in that 
region engaged colonel Whittlesey as geologist. The explor- 
ing party coasted from the Sault Ste. Marie to the present site 
of Marquette. The ores of iron observed in abundance, had 
little value at that time, in consequence of the difficulties of 
transportation. The party pushed on to Copper Harbor, and 
thence to the Ontonagon region, wearied by labors, imperiled 
by winds and waves, but always sustained by the hope of rich 
discoveries. It was on this shore that Dr. Houghton lost his 
life in 1845. A life-like account of this journey was pub- 
