The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-28

Annual Report of the State Geologist.
The twelfth annual report of the State Geolo-
gist, and the second by DIR. Collett, the present
incumbent, is in no wise behind the report OF
1881 as an accurate useful and scientific expose
OF the labors of the year. Detailed surveys by
counties have been made OF Marion county, by
DR.. R. 7. Brown; OF Jay county, by d. 8. McCas-
lin; of Randolph county, by DR.. A. ]. Phinney,
and OF Decatur county by DR.. Moses N. Elrod.
THESE occupy one-thrd the body of the report;
each has its local interest. That of Marion
county, by DR.. Brown, occupies but twenty
pages, and is written with the EXTREMIST care, es-
peeial attention being given to the water supply
as shown by driven wells of this city. All of the
reports on counties are creditable, ami aAt for:I
lucidly the geography, history, topography, gen
eral geology, soil, water-courses and drainage,
as we'll as the natural history and archaeology OF
the counties considered.
catalogue of the plants of centraeastern
Indiana, comprising 500 species, and based
mainly on Prof Coulter's Flora of Indiana, is
presented by DIR. A. ]. Phinney
The report of the State museum is especially
gratifying as, excepting the collection in Wabash
College, it is the only series of fossils that illus
trates with any degree of fullness the ancient
life of the State. 1t is especially rich in fossils
of the lower series-up to and including the sub
carboniferous rocks. The total number of speci-
| mems reported for 1881 was $4,000; there are
now by purchase, collection and donation over
100000 ana valued by Prof Hall, of New York,
| at as many dollars. These collections and re-
ports are not only additions the science of the
age, but enable students and teachers at a
| nominal cost to add the geology of their own
State to their private libraries. 1t is but justice
| to the State Geologist to say that the present
report is entirely without verbose dilution or
| literary and typographical padding. 1t is re-
markable that report of this nature, comprising
400 pages of text and thirtyeIght engraved full
page plates and descriptions, is produced at less
| than 81 a volume. The appropriation
| for this department is but $4,000; Georgia
annually appropriates s 10000, New York $685.
900 and Pennsylvania $4,000. The Ohio and
/ Illinois re ports cost over So a copy.
! The State is fortunate that Prof. Collett has
| been able to command the time. labor and inter
est of the most eminent of American biologists
and biologists in the strictly scientific portion
of this report. Every state geologist expects
and usually annually receives n verbose and
| harmless blast from those reviewers who can
| not, from lack of natural wit or scientific edu-
| cation, see the relation of archaeological
search to the economic interests of the State.
| But such relation does none the less exist. and
a State geological report which does not carry
| its researches in the natural history of the rocks
| which uuderlie the State IL represents, abreast
of the work done in sister States lying in the
same geological horizon, is behind The times. In
this respect the present well as the preceding
report is eminently successful, setting forth the
last chapters in the geological history of our
rocks so fully that these reports in demand
among scientists in all parts of the world, and
| off isS hau hpn "A
| The present report contains fourteen plates of
VanCleaves fossil corals. This series of plates is
worth $4,000 and was kindly loaned Professor
Colett by DR.. Julius 8. Taylor, of Kankakee, Ill.
They were never before published. This work is
a continuation OF that by DR.. A. White, United
| States paleontolOgist to the Smithsonian Institu-
tion By these plates many of the common and
characteristic forms of the Indiana fossil corals
will be easily identified by college students and
amateur naturalists.
| There are also fourteen plates specially drawn
| and photo-engraved for this report of fossil cor
ais from the Niagara and upper Helderburg
| groups of Indiana, as they occur in southern In
diana, and especially at the Falls of the Ohio,
where there is one of the finest coral reefs In the
Niagara rocks, and scarcely excelled by the
reefs now forming off the coast of Florida or
Australia. These are accompanied by forty
| pages OF letter-press by Prof. James Hall, the
| eminent State Geologist of New York.
| Four plates of the famous spergen Hill fossils,
representing the St. Louis group OF the sub
carboniferous limestone of Indiana, with text
by Professor Hall, complete the
archaeological department of this re-
port, making accessible to the student
of our rocks the necessary literature for their
study and Identification.
| George L. Curtis, OF Jeffersonville Ind, has
contributed several plates of diatoms collected
from the pond and hydrant waters of Indianap-
oils and vicinity. There Is also review of the
economic geology OF the State, calling attention
to the deposits OF pure white plate glass sand of
the southern countless to the kaolin beds of Har-
rison, owen and Lawrence counties, the finest
in the world, and now used by the encau site
fireworks, and 10 the Goals, fre-clays gravels
and building stone; also, the original instruc
tions of the sUrveyor-general TO the deputies
who surveyed the State originally, and which
are not elsewhere published.
On the whole, the report is extremely credit
able, and cannot but be acceptable to every one
interested in either the natural history or eco
nomic resources OF the State of Indiana. Prof.
L. D. Cope, the distinguished comparative
anatomist; Prof. Newberry, of Columbia College,