pg 005: First report of progress of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas Publication 14212432

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Great Britain, and also in New York and other Northern States has more than doubled the amount per acre of their agricultural productions, and more than tripled the value of their lands.

The State collection at the Geological Rooms, although damaged to some extent during the war, is still very valuable. There are many duplicate specimens which should finally be distributed among the leading schools of the State. In 1861 we had applications from three different colleges in Texas for specimens to illustrate geology, mineralogy and botany; for it is off little use to teach t i se studies without the aid of suitable specimens We think the main collection, should when completed, form the cabinet of the State University. We believe the most effectual, the most; speedy and the most economical way of protecting the frontier, is make known the mineral wealth of Western Texas, when the tide of emigration would be such as to stop the inroads of the Indians.

REPORT.

The Geological Rooms, having been used in the manufacture of percussion caps during the late war, the cabinet very much injured, the specimens were thrown in Maps, covered with dust, their labels displaced, and many of the most valuable taken away. It leis required much time and labor to restore the fragments to a position suitable for exhibition, or for scientific study. This I have been enabled to do, in part front having in collecting a large portion of them. The value of many specimens is much diminished from the loss of the labels which specified the particular localities where they were found. Such can only be named and placed among the group of rocks or fossils to which they naturally belong. This is not intended to be a, full report of what has been done in the Geological Field ; but it will chiefly embrace matters of practical utility to the people of the State, and most things which merely have a scientific interest will be omitted. In order that all may understand the subject better, the following synopsis of the principal Geological subdivisions is given, omitting such as have not been found, or are not expected to be found in Texas. The names of the periods and epochs for the Paleozoic of America, are the same that have been to those rocks by the Geologists of the New York Survey, which are now adopted by most American Geologists