March, 1902 
) 
156 The American Geologist. 
mine. As with the-Vermilion range, the Minnesota Survey 
followed all the developments and sometimes guided them and 
prior to this date had mapped the range from Gunflint lake 
to the Mississippi river. This map was published in the 
spring of 1891,* and was widely distributed. After the publi- 
cation of this map, and the report which accompanied it, ex- 
plorations were more systematic and less expensive. 
Attention should be called, at this point, to an important 
fact bearing on the utility of geological surveys. It will be 
noted that both iron ranges were discovered by geologists con- 
nected with official surveys, and that in their reports they 
called attention to the probable future value of these deposits. 
When the lately closed survey of Minnesota was engaged in 
that part of the state, the annual reports repeated and empha- 
sized the importance of these ores, describing them as fully 
as the circumstances would permit, and urging the citizens of 
the state to take steps to retain their Wealth within the state 
rather than have it diverted to eastern capitalists. Elsewhere 
the writer has made use of the following language: 
“Geological surveys are sometimes accused of not discoy- 
ering anything. Their function is described to be, to estimate 
and map out and describe discoveries made by others. They 
cannot go into the field equipped with the necessary tools for — 
digging and blasting. The practical explorer and the actual 
iriner must do that. The explorer is a scout who usually pre- 
cedes all strictly geological surveying, and the miner is the 
rank and file of the regular army which opens up the mining 
industry and leads to the advance of other modern industries. 
The geological survey of a state may be considered, in general - 
terms, a corps of ‘sappers and miners,’ or skilled engineers, 
ready to serve in any emergency, to guide in explorations, to 
construct and repair bridges, or to conduct the whole cam- 
paign, as cceasion arises. At least that has been the function 
of the Minnesota survey in respect to the development of the 
iron ores. They were discovered on both ranges by the State 
Geological Survey, under Mr. Eames, who made the first 
known description of them. They have been repeatedly pub- 
+ ae : andialice 
* The iron Ores of Minnesota, Bulletin vi, Geol. and Nat. Hist. Sur. Minn., 
Minneapolis, 1891, p. 112 and map. 
+ Discovery and development of the iron ores of Minnesota. Collections of 
the Minnesota Historical Society, vol. viii, p. 33, 1895 [1898]. 
