Mr. SPEAKER: The Committee on Mines and Mining Interests, who were instructed by a resolution of this House to visit the rooms of the State Geologist, at San Francisco, to inquire into the progress of the Geological Survey, to report upon the propriety of continuing the same, and the probable appropriation required therefor, beg leave to report: That, in conjunction with the Senate Committee on Mines and Mining, they appeared before the State Geologist, at his rooms in San Francisco, on Monday, February twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. Your Committee made inquiry into the financial condition of the Survey, and from statements submitted by Prof. Whitney, and on examination of bis accounts are of the opinion that the appropriations made by a preceding Legislature were fairly and legitimately expended, within the provisions of the Act creating the office of State Geologist and authorizing the Survey. Owing to a meagre and inadequate appropriation by the Legislature of eighteen hundred and sixty-five and eighteen hundred and sixty-six, the progress of the Survey has been less rapid and not as satisfactory as was hoped for and expected. To keep alive the Survey in its various branches, the appropriation was exhausted several months before the meeting of this Legislature, and the State Geologist has advanced about ten thousand dollars; besides which, a small amount is due to others in the employ of the State, for services which have been and are being performed. Your Committee examined the specimens on exhibition, carefully classified and labelled in the various rooms of the State Geologist, embracing the mineralogical, botanical, ornithological and zoological departments, said to number more than twenty thousand specimens. The geological department proper was represented by a large collection of metals and minerals, among the most useful of which were to be found gold, silver, copper, iron and lead ores, and cinnabar, sulphur, coal, etc. The botanical department held in preservation an extensive and complete collection of every herb and flower to be found in the State. The specimens in ornithology were numerous and exhaustive, comprising birds and fowl both useful and beautiful. The zoological cabinet contained the exhumed frames of animals of the present and medieval ages of the earth, including the megasthenic mammalia coupled with the piscine remains of a diluvian period. The topographical feature of this great work is evidenced by a number of finely drawn maps completed, and many more in various stages of progress. These maps are bought with avidity in this State, in the Eastern States and in Europe, and the sale of them, when the set is complete, promises to be immense. By law, the sums derived from this sale are paid to the credit of the State School Fund, and give promise of aiding materially in supporting our common schools. The different branches of science embraced within the scope of this survey are being wrought up under the care of eminent Eastern professors; and, when completed and published, will present an able and exhaustive treatise on the geology, zoology and botany of this State and a valuable auxiliary to the text books used in our common schools and State Universities of learning. Like all great public enterprises, this Survey has grown upon its projectors and patrons, in extent and importance, as the work progressed. The utilities, curiosities and wonders, the result of geological investiga tions in this State, have been various and many, and have opened a vast field for the researches of the merely practical, as well as for antiquarian and scientific investigation. Scientific research, then, under the auspices of this State Survey, having developed in mineralogy the existence of metals and minerals hitherto unknown, and having thus added to the material and prospective wealth of the State and the individual, the eyes of all classes of citizens are looking with interest to the full, rapid and successful accomplishment of this survey. This Legislature may fail to make proper appropriation for its continuance; but ultimately, and shortly too, this work will be resumed. Shall this work, now in some branches nearly completed, and in all others in a fair way of progression, be permitted to die, and the sum of one hun. dred and twenty-five thousand dollars already expended be lost to the State and the citizens thereof, who deemed the survey a necessity, inaugurated it and sustained it thus far? The connecting links in the chain of our progressive development should not be broken, in the judg ment of your Committee, by either apathy or antipathy on the part of the members of this Legislature to the granting of an appropriation adequate to and commensurate with the rapid and successful completion of this work-peculiar, distinctive and necessary to us as the greatest and richest of States for minerals known. Our State is about to establish, under the patronage and subsidies granted by and asked for from Congress, a College of Mines. This College should receive that further and appropriate endowment-the scientific and practical knowledge to be gained only by the full completion of this State Survey. Under the estimates of the State Geologist, the amount of money yet required to be expended to fully complete the work is one hundred and twenty thousand dollars-sixty thousand dollars of which are asked for at the present session. With the amount asked for, the State Geologist assures us this survey can and will be completed within four years from this time. The want of proper information with regard to the progress and utilities of this work, and the necessary cost attending its prosecution, has engendered prejudices against its continuance. Your Committee would. respectfully suggest to the State Geologist 'the propriety of advising the public, from time to time, in epitome, through the medium of the press, where investigations and surveys are going on, and the general results of his labors. Local information and support will thus be gained and added to the store of general information acquired; and the people, who are taxed for its support, will give more largely and less grudgingly when its benefits are set before them and they assume a practical form with happy results, demonstrable and tangible. All of which is respectfully submitted. CLARK, Chairman. |