GEOLOGICAL AND NATUKAL HISTOKY SURVEYS. 267 



previous act defining the objects of the survey, but provided for the 

 appointment of an assistant geologist at a salary of $1,500, enhirging 

 the limits of the annual " expenses necessarily incurred in fitting up 

 a chemical laboratory," and repealed the provision for keeping an 

 office at Jackson, permitting the alternative of having it at Oxford. 



Soon after the beginning of the Civil War the university faculty 

 was dissolved and the survey discontinued. Professor Hilgard being 

 first detailed by the governor to take charge of the State property 

 at the university and afterwards appointed an agent of the niter 

 bureau. In these and kindred capacities he served until the renewal 

 of the work in 1866. 



The mule team of the survey was sold under authority from the 

 governor soon after the suspension of the survey. There being no 

 legal mode of turning the proceeds into the State treasury, they 

 remained in the custody of Doctor Hilgard in the form of notes, 

 issued during the work by the State upon cotton pledged for their 

 redemption and hence known as " cotton money." At the close of 

 the war these notes were worthless and the survey left without 

 means for repurchase. Subsequently, however, a suitable team was 

 procured out of the appropriation for current expenditures. 



Dr. George Little, formerly professor of natural sciences at Oak- 

 land College, near Eodney, Mississippi, was appointed assistant 

 geologist in July, 1866, and shortly thereafter took the field for de- 

 tailed exploration of the loess region from Rodney to its farthest 

 point in Louisiana, the especial object being to ascertain its relation 

 to the " coast Pliocene" or Port Hudson beds on the one hand, and 

 to the southern equivalent of the " yellow loam " of Mississippi and 

 Tennessee on the other. The general results of this exploration are 

 briefly stated in Memoir No. 248 of the Smithsonian Contributions, 

 page 4, namely, that the loess material gradually changes toward 

 that of a noncalcareous and nonfossilferous hardpan or indurated 

 silt, from a point about 8 miles below the Louisiana line, and seems 

 also to thin out. No detailed report or field notes of this trip are 

 on record.. 



In view of the difficulties and insecurity besetting the office of 

 State geologist under the regime then existing in the State of Missis- 

 sippi, in October, 1866, Doctor Hilgard accepted permanently the 

 chair of chemistry at the university, and Doctor Little was then 

 appointed State geologist. He took the field in the autumn of 1867, 

 in order to recxplore the section of the Tertiary strata afforded by 

 the ChickasaAvhay Eiver, between Enterprise and Winchester. He 

 descended the stream in a canoe, making numerous portages over shal- 

 low stretches. The result of this reexamination was simply a con- 



