561965 
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PREFACE. 
This volume, though for sufficient reasons wanting in such 
statistical information as gave special value to the preceding, 
will nevertheless be found to contain a large amount of im¬ 
portant matter, including several prize essays on practical sub¬ 
jects designated by the Executive Board. 
It was the expectation of the secretary that the geological 
report of the Hon. John Murrish, state commissioner for the 
survey of the lead region, would be so much matter over and 
above the five hundred pages to which the Society’s annual vol¬ 
ume is limited by statute ; but owing to the peculiar terms of 
the law providing for the republication of said report with the 
Transactions, and various circumstances connected with its first 
publication in the legislative journals and in pamphlet form, 
it became necessary to embrace it within the limits so pre¬ 
scribed. The subject of the report is so important, however, 
and, withal, bears so direct a relation to the practical indus¬ 
tries of the state, that its inclusion will be gratifying to all 
readers interested in the measures adopted by the legislature 
for determining the nature and extent of our mineral resources. 
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As the undersigned had retired from the office of secretary 
and entered upon other duties ere the papers to be embraced in 
this volume had all been received, and even some weeks before 
the printing of the volume could commence, the revision of 
