AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1870-1879. 



565 



Kerr was a man of slight physique, and for the last ten or fifteen 

 3 T ears of his life suffered from catarrh of the digestive organs. The 

 funds available were too small to enable him to employ permanent 

 assistants, either in the field or as clerk or amanuensis. Under these 

 circumstances the amount of work accomplished was certainly 

 remarkable. 



He was an exceedingly liberal man — a man of generous temper and of large views. 

 He was deeply religious and always prominent, although in an unobtrusive 

 way, in matters pertaining to the church. As a Christian gentleman, those who 

 have known him best have admired him most. His heart was warm and generous, 

 his mind clear, active, and progressive, his conscience keen and indexible. He was 

 honest in every sense of the word. There was nothing of policy in his thought 

 or action; on the contrary, he was frank and outspoken, at times even to a fault. 

 (Holmes.) 



In 1873 the legislature of Alabama passed an act reviving the sur- 

 vey, which had been discontinued after the death of Professor Tuomey, 

 in 1857, and named Prof. Eugene A. Smith, 

 of the University of Alabama, State geol- 

 ogist. This office Professor 

 l^ba m S a W i°8 r 7 k 3 in Smith has continued to hold 

 down to the present time. 

 Up to and including 1880 he had made five 

 reports. These were given up mainly to a 

 discussion of the geographic distribution of 

 the various formations comprised within the 

 State limits, with extensive notes regarding 

 the economic possibilities of coal, iron, and 

 other minerals of less importance. 



In his report for 1875-76 he treated of 

 the geology of Jones Valley and the Coosa 

 Valley region and announced the practical 



identity of the formations there found with those described by Pro- 

 fessor Safford in Tennessee, recognizing the Ocoee, Chilhowee, Knox 

 sandstone, shale and dolomite, and Lower and Upper Carboniferous. 

 In those of 1877, 1878, and 1879 special reference was made to the 

 Warrior coal fields and their probable value. Several colored county 

 maps were given, but no geological map of the entire State. 



in the spring of 1873 there was organized a second geological survey 



of Kentucky, with N. S. Shaler, then professor of paleontology at 



Harvard, chief geologist and director, and A. R. Crandall, P. N. 



Moore, C. J. Norwood, and J. R. Proctor, assistants. 



Second Geological 7 



Survey of Kentucky, Dr. Robert Peter served as chemist. The oro-aniza- 



1873=1891 



tion continued as above until 1880, when J. R. Proctor 

 succeeded to the directorship through the resignation and recommenda- 

 tion of Professor Shaler, the surve} T coming finally to a close in 1891. 



A 



Fig. 90.— Eugene Alk-n Smith. 



