62 
FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
duction of a small quantity of animal mucilaginous matter, 
serving the same purpose as the carbonate of lime, that of 
increasing the cohesive attraction. 
“2. That the surface or crust rock has been solidified by 
having, in addition to the above agencies, the aid of a series 
of chemical decompositions and recompositions, resulting im 
the formation of a cement.” 
With regard to the source of lime in corals Horsford 
concludes that: 
“The carbonate of lime of corals may be due to the decompo¬ 
sition of the sulphate present in sea-water with the exhaling 
carbonate of ammonia from coral animals yielding insoluble 
carbonate of lime on the on© hand, and soluble sulphate of , 
ammonia on the other.” 
The General Assembly of Florida passed an act in 1853 
establishing the office of State Engineer and Geologist 
The geological part of the work, however, seems not to 
have been provided for. The first report of the Stat* 
Engineer and Geologist occupies pages 19-36 of Docu¬ 
ments accompanying the Message of the Governor of 
Florida, submitted November 28, 1854. That part of the 
report relating to geology occurs on page 20 of the appen¬ 
dix and reads as follows: 
“On th© subject of the Geology of the State, I have 
made no report, from the fact that the General Assembly failed 
to specify any duties or make any appropriations to defray 
any expenses incurred in reference to the matter. Conse¬ 
quently nothing has been done by me, except to obtain speci¬ 
mens of soils and minerals from the various localities (where 
marked changes were perceptible), visited by me in the per¬ 
formance of the duties of Engineer.” 
The office of State Engineer and Geologist was abol¬ 
ished by an act of the Legislative Assembly of 1855. 
A paper by Professor John LeConte published in 1861 
is of interest in its geological relation, from the fact that 
the writer describes the character of the Florida lime¬ 
stone accurately, stating that it consists typically of a 
mass of shells, with occasional masses of flint. (117). The 
