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2. IIAstride the occidental mule" I have shown how useful, even indispensable, fossils are to the student of geology, and I am happy to k-now that their significance and value are coming to be generally known. -John Strong Newberry The necessities of the War Department demand geographical surveys to be made . .. that work has been done always by our War Department, since the formation of this Government, and I am satisfied that it will continue to be done, and that the wants will become larger year by year. -Lt. George M. Wheeler A Volunteer Assistant Gilbert's request was more than a bid for a job. So far his education in geolog~ except for occasional episodes exhuming bones and examining potholes, had been confined to reading textbooks, cataloging mineral specimens, and labeling assorted fossils. Neither the principles stated in the texts nor the particles funneled through Cosmos Hall taught the hard methods of fieldwork. Once committed to a career in geolog~ the twenty-six-year-old Gilbert wanted an apprenticeship even more than simple employment. The Ohio Survey was an excellent choice. Gilbert's experience with James Hall at Cohoes brought to mind the influential New York State Geological Surve~ and it is likely that he encountered John Newberry during the process of excavating and reassembling the mastodon-all of which pointed to a survey job in Ohio, where Newberry was the newly appointed chief. Besides, its Great Lakes terrain was not much different from that around Rochester. There were negative reasons as well: the available options were few. Museums were a possibility Gilbert rejected; he was unsuited for teach- A Volunteer Assistant 23 ing, even if any academic positions had materialized; federal science ' except for the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the agriculture service, was largely confined to the military. Academic surveys, like academic science, were just beginning to develop. Although by 1869 O. C. Marsh was shepherding Yale students to Nebrasl{a via the Union Pacific, and even Illinois Normal was conducting informal tours to the Rockies led by an ambitious Civil War veteran named John Wesley Powell, their function was basically to collect specimens for museum study and display. To Gilbert that must have seemed like an antecedent to Cosmos Hall. Of the choices open, the Ohio Survey made wonderful sense, except that Gilbert was not a native Ohioan and Hayes refused his petition on those grounds. Apparently GK had enough cheek left to turn his other to Newberry. That personal appeal also failed, for the same political considerations. But Newberry's refusal was not unconditional . Perhaps he remembered an enormous skeleton from Cohoes that had been painstakingly reassembled, or maybe he simply needed some inexpensive talent. For whatever reasons, the two men worked out an agreement: Gilbert would work as a volunteer assistant, with fifty dollars per month for expenses. He had his apprenticeship . The incident was as forward an act as Gilbert had yet dared but because of it he was a member of the Ohio Surve~ well on his way to superb training as a field geologist.1 The Ohio Survey of 1869 built on the practical and theoretical results of its 1837 predecessor, captained by W. W. Mather. But in many respects, in both style and emphasis, it differed. The early survey reflected the politics of the internal improvements movement. A general reconnaissance of natural histor~ it accentuated as economically valuable those resources which related to agricultureclimate , soil, and potential transportation routes for canals or railroads . In this the state survey paralleled the inventory conducted by the federal government in its rapidly expanding western territories. Like the colleges which proliferated at the same time, the state surveys aspired both to bring civilization to the frontier and to celebrate local resources. Indeed, just as the same man often served as a canal engineer and geologist, so he also frequently taught at a local academy. However, separating the two surveys were three events: the Civil War, the Origin of Species, and rapidly spreading industrialization . The Ohio Survey of 1869 absorbed their consequences. This meant that as a scientific enterprise, the survey described the geologic record in terms of historical evolution; in utilitarian terms, it was translated into an investigation of those resources and manufac- 24 "ASTRIDE THE OCCIDENTAL MULE" tures relevant for the state's indus.trial growth. As Newberry summarized it, the survey was conceived as a means of "repairing the breaches of war, and moving faster the retarded wheel of progress." Perhaps...

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