Executive to take possession of the property in the hands of the State Geologist, meeting with the same fate. The State Geologist had, during the session, continued the work of the survey on a small scale, relying for the continuance of the appropriations on the favorable and unanimous report of the Assembly committee, and because it could not be stopped without great loss and inconvenience in case its renewal should afterwards have been authorized. In this way the deficit, which had been about eight thousand five hundred dollars, at the close of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, had been increased to about eleven. thousand five hundred dollars at the termination of the session of the Legislature, at which time the field work was entirely suspended, leaving, however, the work of publication still progressing, and the valuable collections unprovided for.

At the time of the adjournment of the last Legislature, the work of the survey had been going on uninterruptedly for a little over seven years. There had been appropriated for its support the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred dollars, and the manner in which this had been expended had been made known to each Legislature, not only by special reports on this subject from the State Geologist, but by others from committees appointed for the purpose. At every session, a joint committe of the Senate and Assembly had visited the office of the survey, made a personal examination of the work done and doing, and in every case their reports had been favorable to its continuance. Five successive Legislatures had passed upon the survey and made appropiations for its continuance; and, although the sums voted had been less than was required for a rapid prosecution of the work, yet, with economy, the amount and value of the results attained had been such as to call forth the warmest ecomiums from eminent scientific authorities, both in the Eastern States and in Europe. Five volumes of the reports were in process of publication, and two more were in preparation. Two had already been published, besides one large map and several smaller works in pamphlet form. Eminent men were employed in different parts of the country in preparing for publication the materials placed in their hands, while engravers and lithographers were at work on maps and other illustrations for the different volumes, no pains having been spared to make them in all respects worthy of a State of great and varied resources.

The adjournment of the Legislature, without having taken any definite action in regard to the continuance of the survey, left the whole of this work in the hands of the State Geologist, who had entered into various contracts for printing and engraving, and for preparation of materials for the press, and who was personally responsible for the payments required for work already done or in progress.

The question then arose, whether the State Geologist should stop all this work, making such arrangements as should insure the least pecuniary loss to himself, throwing up the survey and abandoning it forever, leaving the materials scattered over the country; or whether, on the other hand, he should endeavor to carry on the work of publication at his own risk and expense, so that the results of eight years of labor should not be lost to the State and the scientific world, and that another Legislature might have an opportunity of passing upon the question of the resumption of the field work and the completion of the survey according to its original plan, or, at least, of winding it up in a business like and honorable manner, and with the least possible loss of materials

collected with so much expense, and pronounced valuable by the highest scientific authorities.

The State Geologist, in view of the facts and considerations above presented, and trusting to a future Legislature to indorse his course, or, in default of such indorsement, to the scientific world to appreciate and justify his position, concluded to assume the risk and responsibility of continuing the publications of the survey, so far as the same could not be suspended without manifest serious loss. In accordance with this resolution, the following work has been accomplished during the past year and a half:

The second volume of the paleontology, with three hundred and fourteen pages of text and thirty-six lithographic plates, uniform in style and appearance with the other volumes of the survey reports, has been published. It contains descriptions of the marine invertebrate fossils of the tertiary age which have been discovered in this State, and such additions as have been made to the cretaceous paleontology since the publication of the first volume, thus completing our work in this department of the survey, so far as the newer rocks are concerned, and for the marine invertebrate fossils. Should the opportunity be given, another volume will be issued, devoted to the extremely interesting land animals and plants which have been found entombed Beneath the rocks, and form the organic bodies of microscopic size which play so important a part in the geology of California.

By section five of the Act of the Legislature accepting the grant of the Yosemite Valley and of the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, the State Geologist was authorized to prepare and issue a description of the region thus granted, and of its surroundings, which should serve as a guide book for travellers, and which should be accompanied with accurate maps, such as could only be prepared under State authority and with considerable expenditure of time and money.

Such a guide book has been issued by the State Geologist in two distinct editions-one called the "Yosemite Book" is in quarto form and illustrated by twenty-eight fine photographs; the other is in octavo, and contains a selection of the finest wood-cuts from " Geology, Vol. Í" of our series. Both editions have the same maps; these are two in number, and they exhibit the topography of the Yosemite Valley and of that portion of the Sierra which is adjacent to it, being the first accurate maps of any high mountain region ever published in this country. The octavo edition is called the "Yosemite Guide Book." No pains or expense have been spared to make these volumes as attractive as possible, and they have been pronounced by good authorities the handsomest volumes ever issued from the American press. The statistical information embodied in the guide book is full and reliable, being almost exclusively the work of the survey, as fully detailed in the last letter of the State Geologist to the Governor, giving an account of the explorations made in the years eighteen hundred and sixty-six and eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and in the volume itself. Only two hundred and fifty copies of the Yosemite book were issued; but of the guide book the text is electrotyped.

The map of the vicinity of the Bay of San Francico, mentioned in the last official communication of the State Geologist as being nearly completed, arrived soon after and is now on sale. The first edition having been all sold, a second one was prepared, in which all the changes in the official boundaries of the ranches, which had been made since the completion of the original map in eighteen hundred and sixty-three,