506 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



graphic work in the Mississippi Valley was done. Without at- 

 tempting here to present the history of this work, its bearing 

 upon future operations in Missouri calls for brief mention. In 

 the Indiana reports Owen makes a separation of the rocks, in 

 harmony with the English classification, into i. Bituminous 

 coal formations. 2. Mountain limestone. 3. Grauwacke. 4. 

 Crystalline and inferior stratified rocks. In the succeeding 

 reports, as the results of wider observation and more thorough 

 study, the classification was changed and differentiated until, 

 in the final report, we find a classification which, not only in 

 its general features, but in many of its details, is still adhered 

 to in Missouri." 



From 1854 to 1859 Dr. Owen was occupied wifh the geolog- 

 ical survey of Kentucky, having been appointed State Geolo- 

 gist by Governor Powell. The results of his explorations were 

 published as the work progressed, and compose four large oc- 

 tavo volumes. Dr. Robert Peter, of Lexington, Ky., performed 

 the chemical work of the survey and made a special report 

 upon it. Toward the close of his labours in Kentucky, in Octo- 

 ber, 1857, Dr. Owen was commissioned to conduct a geological 

 survey of the State of Arkansas. His principal assistant in the 

 Kentucky survey, Mr. E. T. Cox, filled the same position in 

 the new work. The chemical assistant on the latter survey 

 was Dr. Elderhorst, author of a work on the blowpipe. 



Various incidents in his surveys prove Dr. Owen to have 

 been a man of indomitable perseverance. Once, while on the 

 Red River of the North with a Canadian voyageur, the fowling- 

 piece used by the latter for procuring game was discharged in 

 such a way as to lodge a number of shot in Dr. Owen's shoul- 

 der. He did not permit the accident to delay him an hour. 

 Again, the summer occupied with the field work of the Arkansas 

 survey, a considerable part of which was necessarily spent in 

 the rich and malarious bottom lands, proved very detrimental 

 to his health, bringing him homejn the autumn with a hue de- 

 noting serious derangement of the liver. Yet he not only per- 

 severed in his explorations, but occupied himself in winter with 

 laboratory work, usually until midnight. He did not desist 

 even when suffering acutely from his last illness, but dictated 

 the closing portions of his report until within forty-eight hours 

 of his death. Between Dr. Owen and Governor Conway, who 

 had given him the Arkansas appointment, there always ex- 



