504 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM,' 1904. 



figure, while James Hall, by sheer physical energy, dominated in mat- 

 ters paleontological. Many new names and faces appear. Among 

 them may be mentioned those of T. B. Brooks, E. Billings, Robert 

 Bell, E. T. Cox, E. D. Cope, F. V. Hayden, C. H. Hitchcock, W. C. 

 Kerr, W. E. Logan, Alexander Murray, J. G. Norwood, Edward 

 Orton, R. Pumpelly, C. Rominger, N. S. Shaler, C. A. White, and 

 Charles Whittlesey. 



As a whole, the decade was one of extension of the geographic 

 boundaries of knowledge rather than one of discovery or announce- 

 ment of new principles. Of all subjects, that of glaeiation received, 

 perhaps, the most attention. Our line of separation between this and 

 the decade to follow must be quite arbitrary, since several important 

 surveys were organized during 1869 and continued well on into the 

 seventies. 



At the very beginning of this era there appeared R. Thomassy's 



Geologie Pratique de la Louisiane, a small quarto volume of 263 



pages, with 6 plates. Why the word "pratique'" should have been 



introduced into the title it is hard to sav, a large pro- 



R. Thomassy's . . . J ' , . , 



Practical Geology of portion of the work being - given up to geographical 



Louisiana, I860. L , , • , , . , • , , ■, i 



and meteorological or physiographical matters, and the 

 really geological portion limited to a description and discussion of the 

 lower Mississippi, its delta, and attendant phenomena. Its appearance 

 seems to have excited little interest, not being even noted in the 

 American Journal of Science, and the few original ideas advanced are 

 referred to by Hilgard and other subsequent writers only to show 

 their erroneous nature. 



Thomassy dwelt in considerable detail upon the absorption of the 

 waters of the Mississippi by the porous terranes above New Orleans 

 and their consequent diminution in volume seaward. The "mud 

 lumps," so common in the lower reaches of the river, he regarded as 

 due to mud springs, having their source at a somewhat higher level 

 on the land and opening upward in the bed of the stream. 



He considered North Island, or Petite Anse, as it is more commonly 

 known, as of volcanic origin, and thought to have discovered traces 

 of the violent corrosive action of thermal waters and acids on the rock 

 fragments which he conceived to have been ejected from the depths 

 of the Gulf through explosive action. Richard Owen, it may be men- 

 tioned, while serving in the • Federal Army and stationed at New 

 Iberia, Louisiana, studied these deposits cursorily, and came to the 

 conclusion that the island was not volcanic. On the contrary, he 

 thought the salt was the product of evaporation of modern sea water, 

 forming lagoons behind protecting ridges under the influence of occa- 

 sional high tides. (See also HilgaixTs views, p. 561.) 



In 1859, largely through the efforts of Alexander Wiuchell, then 

 professor of physics and civil engineering in the State University,, 



