260 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



work of the two preceding years, which was transmitted through the 

 governor to the legislature, with the recommendation that it bo 

 printed. The legislative committee to whom it was referred reported 

 back the act of March 1, 1854, already referred to, under which the 

 survey was thereafter carried on for a number of years. 



It will be noted, further, as stated by Professor Hilgard, that, 

 although the act of 1854 designated Wailes as State geologist, it did 

 not create that office, which still remained an appendage of the chair 

 of geology in the University of Mississippi. It was expected that 

 Wailes would be elected to that chair, which in the autumn of 1853 

 had been vacated by Doctor Millington. At an election held in June, 

 1854, however, the choice fell on Lewis Harper,' then a teacher of 

 natural science at an academy near Greenville, Alabama. Wailes 

 thereupon immediately resigned his position, which remained vacant 

 until September, 1855. Up to the summer of 1855, Harper, bearing 

 the titles of professor of geologj^ and agriculture and State geologist, 

 had not taken the field himself. He was now, by action of the board 

 of trustees, relieved of a portion of his duties as instructor, and di- 

 rected to take the field personally, for the purposes provided for in 

 the act, while Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, then professor of physics at the 

 university, was requested to secure a competent assistant geologist 

 at a salary of $1,000 a year during a contemplated visit to the North, 

 Dr. Barnard fulfilled his mission by tendering the appointment to 

 Dr. E. W. Hilgard, then lately returned from Europe, who promptly 

 accepted it. 



Reaching Oxford about the middle of September, 1855, Hilgard 

 found that Harper had then just returned from a rapid reconnois- 

 sance of the Cretaceous and Tertiary prairie regions in eastern 

 Mississippi, and it was agreed that they should as soon as possible set 

 out on a joint exploration over the same route, to be continued to 

 the Gulf shore, thence across the southern counties of the State to 

 the Mississippi River. The start was made early in October, the 

 outfit consisting of an ambulance carrying a camping outfit, and a 

 negro driver, who at the same time performed the office of cook. The 

 Cretaceous prairie country on the Tombigbee River was reached near 

 Okolona, whence the route lay through xA.bercleen to Columbus; 

 thence, leaving the Cretaceous territory, through Neshoba and Kem- 

 per counties to Enterprise on the Chickasawhay River, and along that 

 stream, crossing all the marine Tertiary stages, as far south as Leaks- 

 ville. Green County, whence, owing to the lateness of the season, they 

 were obliged to return to Oxford bj'^ way of Fort Adams, Mississippi, 

 and Memphis, Tennessee. 



* Properly, Ludwig Hafuer. of Hamburg. Germany, a law student, who, for political 

 reasons, left his country before graduation and subsequently became interested in natural 

 history. 



