Dr. David D. Owen was, among the older American geologists, the one who most steadily kept the agricultural interests in view and gave them prominence in his researches and reports; and while my personal intercourse with him predisposed me to follow his example in this respect, my further experience has only served to strengthen my conviction that a reasonable proportion of attention given to agricultural work would effectually smooth the path of our public surveys, whose fate is forever trembling in the balance at each reassembling of the legislative bodies upon which their continued endowment depends and by whose country members their utility is constantly called in question. No such question was raised in Mississippi after the publication of my report for 1860, and legislative appropriations for substantially similar work done by me on behalf of agriculture have since been liberally maintained in California, despite the conspicious disfavor with which the geological survey of that State has for 12 years past been regarded by the public. Had that survey been adapted to the legitimate needs of the State, by proper diligence in the pursuit of its agricultural side, the discontinuance of the work would never have been carried through the legislature.

As a striking exemplification of the change wrought in public sentiment by the energetic prosecution of agricultural survey work, I may quote the action taken at the called session of the Legislature of Mississippi in August, 1861 Under the terrible stress brought to bear on the State even then by the impending conflict, it would have been natural to expect the complete extinction of the appropriation for the survey work. Instead of this, an act was passed suspending the appropriation for the geological survey "until the close of the war and for 12 months thereafter; except the sum of $1,250 per annum, which shall be applied to the payment of the salary of the State geologist, and the purchase of such chemicals as may be necessary to carry on the analysis of soils, minerals, and mineral waters and to enable him to preserve the apparatus, analyses, and other property of the State connected with said survey."

This appropriation was actually maintained during the entire struggle of the Confederacy, and, so far as the vicissitudes of war permitted, the chemical work (and even some field work) was continued by me during the same time. The scarcity of salt suggested the utilzation of some of the saline waters and efflorescences so common in the southern part of the State, and some 40 (unpublished) analyses of such saline mixtures are on record. I made an official report on the subject to Governor Pettus, dated June 9, 1862. I also made a special exploration on the several limestone caves of the State with a view to the discovery of nitrous earths; but from the fact that these caves are all traversed by lively streams. I found nowhere a sufficient accumulation of nttrates to render exploitation useful.

MISSOURI.1

FIRST SURVEY UNDER GEORGE C. SWALLOW, 1853-1862.

Organization.-About the earliest record available of official action on the part of the State of Missouri in the direction of a geological survey is given in the message of Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs to the tenth general assembly, in 1833. In this he recommended an

1 See also Geological Survey of Missouri, Journal of Geology, vol. 2, 1894, pp. 207–221, and Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., vol. 4, 1878-86, pp. 611-624.

appropriation for a geological survey as a part of a general system of internal improvement.

Apparently as a result of the spirit prompting this recommendation, surveys of the Meramec, the Salt, the North, Grand, and Osage rivers were started, under a board of internal improvements, and the geological examination of the Osage River was made under Dr. Henry King, president of the Western Academy of Natural Sciences. After this the matter of investigation by the State seems to have fallen into neglect for several years.

In October, 1846, at a convention held in Springfield in the interest of internal improvement a memorial was framed to the general assembly, in which special stress was laid upon the value of the development of the mineral resources of the State.

In the message of Gov. John C. Edwards to the assembly in the same year the subject of a geological survey was again recommended for consideration. The matter was referred to the committee on internal improvement, of which Dewitt C. Ballou was chairman. In a report of eight pages this committee strongly advised the inauguration of such an undertaking. No immediate action, however, followed, and at the session of the general assembly of 1848 a memorial of 13 pages was presented from the Historical and Philosophical Society of Missouri, again inviting the attention of the legislature to the matter. The immediate effect of this was another memorial from the legislature to Congress urging that the National Government have made a geological survey of the State. Nothing seems to have resulted from this memorial, and in the following year (1850) Gov. Austin A. King, in his message to the sixteenth general assembly, again urged the importance of attending to these matters. Again nothing immediate seems to have been done, but the matter continued to be agitated, and during the session of the legislature of 1853 an act creating the first geological survey of the State was passed and approved.

The following is the text of this act:

An act to provide for a geological and mineralogical survey of the State.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows: 1. The governor of this State is hereby authorized and required, as soon as may be after the passage of this act, to appoint a State geologist, who shall be a person of competent scientific and practical knowledge of the sciences of geology and mineralogy; and the said State geologist shall, by and with the consent of the governor, appoint any number of suitable persons, not exceeding four, to assist him in the discharge of his duties, who shall be skillful, analyti cal, and experimental chemists; and may appoint such other subordinate assistants, as he may deem necessary.

2. It shall be the duty of the said State geologist, and his said principal asdistants, as soon as may be practicable after their appointment, to commence

and carry on with as much expedition and dispatch, as may be consistent with minuteness and accuracy, with a view to determine the order, succession, arrangement, relative position, dip, or inclination, and comparative magnitude of the several strata, or geological formations, within this State; and to dis cover and examine all beds or deposits or ore, coal, marls, and such other mineral substances, and mineral waters, as may be useful or valuable, and to perform such other duties as may be necessary to make a full and complete geological and mineralogical survey of the State.

3. It shall be the duty of the said assistants to make full and complete examfnations, assays, and analyses of all rocks, ores, soils, or other substances, as may be submitted to them by the State geologist for the purpose, and to furnish him with a detailed and complete account of the results so obtained. 4. It shall be the duty of the said geologist on or before the 1st day of December in each and every year during the time necessarily occupied by said survey, to make an annual report of the progress of said survey, accompanied with such maps, drawings, and specimens as may be necessary and proper to exemplify and elucidate the same, to the secretary of state, who shall lay such report before the legislature.

5. It shall be the duty of said State geologist to cause to be represented on the map of the State, by color and other appropriate means, the various areas occupied by the different geological formations in the State, and to mark thereon the localities of the respective beds or deposits of the various mineral substances discovered; and on the completion of the survey to complete a memoir of the geology and mineralogy of the State, comprising a complete account of the leading subjects and discoveries which have been embraced in the survey.

6. It shall be the duty of the State geologist to forward to the secretary of state from time to time, during the progress of the survey, such specimens in triplicate of the rocks, ores, coals, soils, fossils, and other mineral substances discovered and examined, and may be proper and necessary to form a complete cabinet collection of specimens of the geology and mineralogy of the State; and the said secretary shall cause one set thereof to be deposited, in proper order, in some convenient room in the State capitol, there to be preserved for public inspection, and another set with the State university, and another set with the city of St. Louis, to be deposited by said city in some convenient place or with some public institution in that city for public inspection.

7. For the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act the sum of $10,000 is hereby annually appropriated, for the term of two years, to be expended under the direction of the governor: Provided, however, That the salaries of the said State geologist and his assistants shall not commence until they have been entered upon the execution of their duties; and upon presentation by the said State geologist of the proper vouchers, the auditor of public accounts is hereby required to draw his warrant on the treasurer for the amount of the cost of any chemical apparatus or other outfit, deemed necessary by said State geologist, and also for the amount of the quarterly pay of the said State geologist and his assistants, on presentation of the proper vouchers, by said State geologist, and upon the order of the governor, who shall be satisfied that the services for which such pay shall be demanded have been performed; Provided, That the amount of such cost and pay shall not, in any one year, exceed the amount herein appropriated.

8. The said State geologist and his principal assistants, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, shall each take an oath before some judge or Justice of the peace faithfully to perform all the services required of them under