Already, however, during the progress of our work, a large amount of information has been collected in regard to the mode of occurrence and abundance of the useful ores and minerals of this State and the adjoining Territories. The principal deposits of coal have been carefully examined, and their geological position ascertained. Most of the important quartz mines of the State have been visited by Mr. Ashburner, and a large amount of information has been collected by him, preparatory to an elaborate investigation and report on this important branch of the industry of the Pacific Coast. Considerable work has been done, preliminary to a full report on the geology, mineralogy, and metallurgy of the Washoe region.
In the department of botany and agricultural geology, the work has thus far been chiefly confined to collecting the plants of the State.
Extensive duplicate suites have been preserved both for study and exchange, the specimens now collected amounting to not less than twelve thousand or fifteen thousand in number, and embracing probably half of all the species described from the State, besides many new and undescribed ones. The collections have been made by Professor Brewer while engaged in geological explorations, at a very trifling expenditure of time and money.
In the department of Agriculture proper, less has been done, owing to limited means. Partial preparation was made for investigating the subject of grape culture, and the production of wines; but discontinued from the same cause. Especial attention has been paid to our native forage plants, to aid in devising some means of arresting the rapid decrease of forage in this State, and correspondence entered into to obtain all possible information on this subject from other regions whose climates are similar to our own.
In the zoölogical department—in charge of Dr. J. G. Cooper, who has been employed about half the time since the Survey was commenced—the annexed table gives a succinct idea of what had been accomplished, up to the close of the year 1862, in the way of collecting.
| Class. | Number of species in the collection. | Of which there are new to California. | Believed to be new, or undescribed. | Other Californian species not yet collected. | Total number credited to California. | Of which there are found east the Mississippi. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mammalia | 32 | 10 | 3 | 45 | 77 | 14 |
| Birds | 170 | 28 | 4(?) | 150 | 320 | 141 |
| Reptiles | 36 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 45 | 0 |
| Fishes | 58 | 16 | 16 | 75 | 133 | 0 |
| Mollusca | 335 | 123 | 123 | 65 | 400 | 0(?) |
Of Articulata and Radiata no statistics can be given for want of works especially devoted to the California species.
From this it appears that, notwithstanding the large collections made by Government expeditions and by individuals, during the last ten years, which have been elaborately described in the Pacific Railroad and Mexican Boundary Reports, the Smithsonian publications, and various other works, we have been able to add materially to the known Fauna of California, and of the country at large, even among the highest and best known classes.
Arrangements have been made for having the collections in natural history referred to the highest authorities in each branch, and portions of our materials have already been placed at the disposition of eminent men in Europe and the United States for examination and description.