158 E. A. SMITH PIONEERS IN GULF COASTAL PLAIN GEOLOGY 



So in our Southern Coastal Plain we have in the Grand Gulf and La- 

 fayette two formations occupying the greater part of its surface, about 

 which our doctors disagree. As regards especially the Lafayette and its 

 origin, some demand a suHmergence of the coast and a marine deposit; 

 others an elevation and overwash deposit. ^Ye have even a denial of the 

 veiy existence of such a formation by some, who say, like the immortal 

 Betsy Prigg to Sairy Gamp concerning Mrs. Harris, "I don't believe 

 there's no such person." 



This condition of things illustrates the great difficulty in the way of a 

 definite classification of incoherent sediments devoid of fossils, and should 

 make clear the importance of much additional field study before official 

 sanction shall be given to any one of the conflicting views now held by 

 competent observers. 



In selecting a subject for discussion in this address, I have thought it 

 appropriate to give an outline of the pioneer work on the geology of the 

 Southern States as a suitable background for a more detailed account of 

 that part of the field with which I am most familiar, namely, the Gulf 

 Coastal Plain, or Mississippi Embayment, as it has most appropriately 

 been named by Doctor Hilgard. 



It is obvious, by reasons of the limitations of time and the proprieties 

 of the occasion, that this outline can not be presented in anything like 

 completeness, and that attention must be confined mainly to a few geolo- 

 gists who have been the first to state clearly the problems involved and 

 who have prepared the ground for those who have since occupied the field. 



Accordingly I shall speak in more or less detail of the work of S afford 

 in Tennessee, of Tuomey in South Carolina and Alabama, of Hopkins in 

 Louisiana, of Hilgard in Mississippi and Louisiana, of Roemer and Hill 

 in Texas, of T. A. Conrad and Angelo Heilprin in several states, and of 

 McGee in the whole area of the Coastal Plain, while I must pass over 

 with mere mention the many who have taken up the work where these 

 pioneers left off and who have themselves made most important contribu- 

 tions to our science. 



Eably Writers 



Prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century and during its first 

 decade writers on the geology of the Southern States were comparatively 

 few in number. 



What is commonly regarded as the first work on American geology is 

 Johann David Schoepf s "Beitraege zur Mineralogischen Kenntniss des 

 Oestlichen Theils von Xord Amerika und seiner Gebirge," published in 

 1787- 



