APPENDIX. 
EEPOET OF THE GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY OF THE 
MIN ERAL EEGIONS. 
To His Excellency, C. C. Washburn, 
Governor of Wisconsin: 
Sir — The object of the law, as amended last winter, if I understand it cor¬ 
rectly, is not to make a geological survey, but to obtain as correct information 
as possible of all minerals of economic importance to the state, having espec¬ 
ial reference to their practical, rather than their scientific value. That is to 
say, my work is not to deaf with laws and principles, but with objects and 
facts. It is important, nevertheless, in order to furnish an intelligible report, 
to present these objects and facts, as far as possible in their geological order, 
and with reference to their geological relations. 
The history of mining has now pretty well established the fact, that there are 
geological order in the strata and geological relations between the ores of the 
metals, and the rocks in which they are found. For instance, we .find that the 
ores of one class of metals are found in one class of rocks; while the ores of 
another class of metals are found in another, the ores often varying in kind 
or form, as the age, character or composition of the rock differs. This rule, 
we know, is not invariable; it has exceptions, but these relations are so far 
distributed in the mineral kingdom, that a man by long practice, can almost, 
when a specimen of ore is handed him, infer the class of rock from which it 
was taken; or from a specimen rock, the kind of ore, if any, that would be 
found in it. 
And again, no rock is metalliferous of itself. These different strata are 
metalliferous only along lines of physical disturbance, where they have been 
exposed to mechanical and chemical influences or agencies, not in opera¬ 
tion everywhere. Hence, there are geological relations that we do well to 
regard, not only between our ore deposits and the rocks in which they are 
found, but between our ore deposits and those lines in the earth’s crust that 
bear the marks of mechanical and chemical activity. 
These lines of physical disturbance belong to a class of natural phenomena 
