GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS. 265 



of the board of trustees of the State university, the whole was trans- 

 ferred to a front room in the university building at Oxford, which 

 Hilgard fitted up as a laboratory, at a personal expense of $G0O, for 

 the time being. By this evasion of the law framed under Harper's 

 auspices (which was mandatory only in respect to the location of the 

 " office." but not of the laboratory), the survey was again practically 

 restored to its original connection with the university, without which 

 the work could not be successfully carried on under so small an 

 appropriation. 



Hilgard took the field again in April with the same outfit — an 

 ambulance with two mules and a negro driver — and, starting at the 

 Ripley Cretaceous, devoted the season to the verification of a full 

 section across the Tertiary areas, from north to south, including 

 also the detailed examination of the fossiliferous localities near 

 " Jackson " and " Vicksburg " stages in their most characteristic 

 development. 



In passing through the State Hilgard became painfully conscious 

 of the fact that the survey had become extremely unpopular, as a 

 consequence of Harper's incumbency and report, so much so that it 

 was often very difficult to obtain information or even civil answers to 

 inquiries. He felt that it would be necessary to throw off and purge 

 the survey completely of the obnoxious antecedents if the appropria- 

 tion was to be sustained at the coming session of the legislature. 

 He therefore, after consulting with Governor McWillie, wrote a short 

 Report upon the Condition of the Geological and Agricultural 

 Survey of the State of Mississippi, of 22 octavo pages, which was 

 printed by executive order and circulated prior to the session of the 

 legislature in the winter of 1858-59. In this report he discussed — 

 first, the need and advantages of a thorough geological and agri- 

 cultural survey of the State; recited the causes of the slow progress 

 and failure to satisfy the public, chief among which were inadequate 

 appropriations and the incompetency of the late incumbent; also 

 gave examples of what had been done in the matter in other States; 

 and closed with a recommendation for the repeal of the law locating 

 the headquarters of the surve}' in the State penitentiary and for the 

 restoration of the geological assistantship, in connection with a 

 more reasonably adequate appropriation. 



The storm, however, broke loose when the legislature assembled. 

 Those who had been instrumental in passing Harper's bill in 1857 

 were now most eager to have the survey " wiped out " to allay their 

 soreness. A special committee was appointed to investigate the 

 subject, and, without giving Hilgard a hearing, that committee 

 promptly reported "A bill to abolish the geological and agricultural 



