AMERICAN GEOLOGY — DECADE <>f L860-1869. 505 



there was established a geological survey of Michigan. Of this Win- 

 chell was appointed director, making his first Report 



Winchells Work in „ _ ll . „ n J° . ^ 



Michigan, 1859- of Progress — an octavo volume or 339 pages — in 1861. 

 In this report he called attention to the futility of 

 efforts then being made to produce salt in the vicinity of Grand 

 Rapids, and fully anticipated the development of the same industry in 

 the Saginaw V alley, his explorations enabling him to locate the salt 

 beds at a depth of 650 feet. Attention was given, also, to the occur- 

 rence of gypsum, coal, iron, and other economic products and to the 

 geographical distribution of rocks belonging to the various formations 

 throughout the State. 



The so-called Marshall sandstone (Lower Carboniferous) he regarded 

 on paleontological grounds as lying above the Hamilton group. lie 

 found evidence which led him to conclude that the Ohio and Michigan 

 coal basins were never continuous, as had been heretofore asserted, 

 and, indeed, that the geological column in the latter State had been 

 built up quite distinct and independently from that in adjacent 

 regions. He could find no parallelism between the Carboniferous 

 limestones and those lying farther to the west, and all the evidence 

 indicated to him that these deposits were laid down in an isolated 

 basin cut off from that of Ohio to the south throughout the entire 

 period from the Helderberg to that of the drift. In consequence of 

 the outbreak of the civil war no appropriations were made for the 

 continuation of the survey after 1861. 



Winchell was born in the town of Northeast, Dutchess County, New r 

 York, in 1821. and graduated at Wesleyan University, Middletown, 

 Connecticut, in 1817. His scientific tendencies are said to have mani- 

 fested themselves at a very early age, although he 

 sketch of wincheii. showed no marked preference for any branch of study, 

 unless it was toward mathematics, in which pursuit he 

 seems to have been little shortof precocious. Immediately after grad- 

 uating he entered upon a career of teaching and lecturing, which kept 

 him prominently before the public for over forty years. 



His first public geological lectures were given at Pennington Semi- 

 nary in 1849. In 1850 he assumed charge of an academy at Newbern, 

 Alabama, but finding the conditions were not what he had been led to 

 expect, he resigned, and in the spring of 1851 opened the Mesopota- 

 mia Female Seminary at Eutaw, in the same State. Finding, however, 

 that he was illy adapted to the successful management of a Southern 

 female institution, he gave up this position to accept the presidency of 

 the Masonic University at Selraa, Alabama. While engaged in the 

 work of presenting the claims of this university before the people in 

 the southern part of the State, he made extensive geological tours 

 throughout the region and brought together large collections in natural 

 history. In November, 1853, he was elected to the chair of physics 



