AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1830-1839. 841 



On March 6, L835, the general assembly of Virginia authorized the 

 appointment of a "suitable person" to make a geological reconnais- 

 sance of the State with a view to the general geological features of 

 the territory and to the chemical composition of its 



Rogers's Work , , w 



in Virginia, soils, rocks, ores, mineral waters, etc. 1 rot. \\ . B. 



Rogers, then professor of natural history, philosophy, 



and chemistry in William and Mary College, and brother of H. D. 

 Rogers, was selected as the suitable person, entering upon his duties 

 in 1S35 and holding the office for seven years. He was assisted from 

 time to time by George W. Boyd, Caleb Briggs, E. A. Aiken. C. B. 

 Harden, Samuel Lewis. J. B. Rogers, H. D. Rogers, R. E. Rogers, 

 Thomas S. Ridgeway, and M. Wells. The survey continued in exist- 

 ence until the close of iS-p_\ the act of authorization being repealed by 

 the legislature. 



No provision was made for the preparation of a final report, although 

 Rogers was ready to undertake the same, and the idea not finally aban- 

 doned until as late as 1854. The necessary appropriation was, how- 

 ever, not granted, and the seven brief annual reports submitted are 

 all there is to show for years of careful and patient work under most 

 adverse circumstances. No map and no sections were published at 

 the time. In 1884, after Rogers's death, a reprint of all these reports 

 was made under the editorship of Maj. Jed. Hotchkiss, an engineer, of 

 Staunton. Virginia. They formed an octavo volume of upward of rive 

 hundred pages. This was accompanied by a small geological map 

 which Rogers had previously colored for Hotchkiss, and by numerous 

 plates of sections, which are, however, not described in the text. 



Under the conditions enumerated above, it is not surprising that 

 the reports contained little of more than local interest, and that the 

 broader aspects of geology w r ere barely touched upon. The region 

 west of the Blue Ridge was described as occupied b} T fourteen groups 

 of strata, which were designated by numbers, beginning with the 

 lowermost. These all showed so general a conformit}' in superposi- 

 tion, and so remarkable a correspondence in their mineralogical and 

 physical characters, as to clearly indicate, he felt, the propriety of 

 regarding them all as parts of one great series of strata accumulated 

 over the widely expanded floor of the ancient ocean. 



No mention was made of the fossil contents of any of these beds, 

 nor attempts at correlation or determination of their geological age. 

 This seems the more remarkable when one considers the value attached 

 to fossils by Rogers in his work on the Tertiary formations, where the 

 inspection of a single shell, he claimed, would often enable one to pro- 

 nounce upon the character of the stratum from which it was taken - 

 that is, whether pertaining to the Eocene or Miocene. 



The Massanutten Mountains were recognized as one great synclinal 

 tract resting in a trough of slate. It is worthy of note, in view of the 



