12 



records is of the utmost importance, so long as any investi- 

 gations connected with the subject are in progress. Nor can 

 any report or theoretical discussion, however complete, re- 

 place the original record in this respect. 



Concerning the report of the late State Geologist, its 

 merits as a scientific work, have received no higher commen- 

 dation at the hands of the scientific world, than its position 

 in the scale of usefulness has entitled it to in public opinion 

 at home. It may be proper to mention that although the 

 facts relating to the counties of Tippah, Tishomingo, Pon- 

 totoc and Itawamba, together with the diagrams and maps 

 illustrating them, are almost exclusively derived from my 

 field notes of a special survey of those counties, my obser- 

 vations have been perverted and misinterpreted to such an 

 extent, that I am obliged to disclaim entirely any responsi- 

 bility for the statements given, these having been made 

 to correspond to the preconceived ideas of the writer, 

 rather than to facts. I have to disclaim likewise, the special 

 maps of those counties, which have been enlarged from those 

 accompanying my freld notes ; not only have some of the 

 lines been arbitrarily changed from those laid down by my- 

 self on the spot, but the enlarged scale exhibits a specious 

 pretension to a degree of accuracy not attainable under the 

 circumstances. 



In that part of the book in which the materials gathered 

 by myself have been made use of, truth and fiction are so 

 intricately entangled, that it is quite impossible to separate 

 the two by any correction which could be briefly made ; and 

 it is a matter of conjecture whether any other part of the 

 book is more reliable than this. Yet this work, which I 

 must consider as entirely unworthy of confidence in all its 

 parts, is all that we now possess to show what observations 

 and results have been heretofore obtained excepting the 

 matter contained in Prof. Wailes' printed Report, and my 

 own field notes. 



We have heard from 'various sources, that the speedy com- 

 pletion of the survey might be confidently anticipated. In 



