UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Bulletin 109 CONTRIBUTIONS TO A HISTORY OF AMERICAN STATE GEOLOGICAL AND EDITED AND COMPILED BY GEORGE P. MERRILL Head Curator of Geology, United States National Museum ADVERTISEMENT. The scientific publications of the United States National Museum consist of two series, the Proceedings and the Bulletins. The Proceedings, the first volume of which was issued in 1878, are intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original, and usually brief, papers based on the collections of the National Museum, presenting newly acquired facts in zoology, geology, and anthropology, including descriptions of new forms of animals and revisions of limited groups. One or two volumes are issued annually and distributed to libraries and scientific organizations. A limited number of copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, is distributed to specialists and others interested in the different subjects as soon as printed. The dates of publication are recorded in the tables of contents of the volumes. The Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising chiefly monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, and catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, etc. The majority of the volumes are octavos, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable. Since 1902 a series of octavo volumes containing papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum, and known as the Contributions from the National Herbarium, has been published as bulletins. The present work forms No. 109 of the Bulletin series. Administrative Assistant to the Secretary, II PREFACE. A work along the lines of the one here presented was projected and begun by the Director of the United States Geological Survey in 1885. In connection therewith a circular, bearing date of April 10 of that year, was issued, from which is made the following abstract: Recent inquiries by the United States Government concerning foreign scientific surveys have demonstrated the desirability of recording in permanent and accessible form all available data relating to the organization, administration, cost, and material results of geologic, geodetic, geographic, mineralogic, agricultural, natural history, and other scientific surveys officially instituted at various times by the several States of the Union. The necessity for immediate action in the collection of such data is manifest, since much valuable information-particularly details of administration and cost has never been published, but exists only in the memory of men, in private records, and in public records liable to become destroyed or forgotten with the decadence of the present generation. It is accordingly proposed by the United States Geological Survey to collect material for a History of American State Surveys, with a view of publishing it, if possible, during the present year. It was the original intention, in order that the plan might be carried out most expeditiously and accurately, to invite geologists or others especially familiar with the scientific surveys of particular States, to prepare detailed histories in such form that after having served their purpose as material for the general history, they might be published individually under such conditions as the authors might elect. A considerable number of the histories were thus prepared, as is noted later, and a few published. What led to the abandonment of the plan is not known to the present writer. A study of the circular and the manuscripts submitted in response thereto, leads one to infer, however, that the outline was too detailed and comprehensive, and in but few instances was it possible even for those who actually participated in the work to furnish the information desired. The result was that the histories were of unequal length and value, surveys of the least importance often being made to appear as of first magnitude. Concerning what was unquestionably the most important of all the surveys undertaken, not a line was furnished. It was while engaged in the final revision of his Contributions to a History of American Geology,' that the present writer became 1 Annual Report U. S. National Museum, 1904 (1906). |