AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1*40-1849. 



887 



fall line of the rivers was occupied by granitic rocks and their residual 

 soils. 



The first attempt at a systematic geological survey of South Caro- 

 lina was inaugurated in 1844 with the appointment of Michael Tuomey 

 as State geologist. The first report, an octavo pamphlet of 45 pages 

 with an appendix, was submitted in November of the same year. This 

 was devoted mainly to economic considerations, and, aside from a few 

 notes on rock weathering, contained little of general interest. His 

 final report, which appeared in 1849, will be noted later. 



Tuomey was born in Ireland in 1805, and went to England when 

 about 17 years of age, shortly afterwards coming to America. He 

 lirst settled near Philadelphia, going thence to Maryland, where he 

 served for a time as a tutor in a private family. He 

 sketch of Tuomey. entered the Rensselaer school in New York, and after 

 graduation went South, serving first as an engineer on 

 a railway in North Carolina and afterwards as a teacher in Virginia. 

 His love for natural history led him to make 

 collections of fossils, which brought him in 

 contact with Sir Charles Lyell, James Hall, 

 J. D. Dana, and others, and he shared with 

 Rogers the honor of discovering the infuso- 

 rial beds near Richmond and Petersburg. 



In 1844 he became State geologist of 

 South Carolinia, as already mentioned, and, 

 in 1847, was appointed professor of geology, 

 mineralogy, and agricultural chemistry in 

 the University of Alabama; in 1848 receiv- 

 ing in addition the appointment of State 

 geologist. As a teacher Tuomey is repre- 

 sented to us as possessing in a remarkable 

 degree the faculty of interesting the student, 



those, even, who took no particular interest in the subject-matter of his 

 lectures. His native Irish wit did much to render his lectures enter- 

 taining, especially to those who were not the victims of it, he being 

 particularly unmerciful in his rebukes and exposures of shams and 

 affectations. 



His most important publications are his official reports on the geol- 

 ogy of South Carolina, and his joint report with Dr. F. S. Holmes, of 

 Charleston, on the Pliocene fossils of that State, the latter of which 

 appeared in 1855. 



Prior to the introduction of the microscope and the study of rock 

 structures by means of thin sections (about 1870) views regarding 

 metamorphisin, particularly such as are due to sheering stresses in 

 the older crystallines, were naturally somewhat vague. With rocks 

 too line of grain to allow a determination of their structure and mineral 

 composition by the unaided eye, only mode of occurrence could be 



Fig. 35. — Michael Tuornev. 



