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



vations on the Geology of the United States/ with a colored map of the 

 region east of the Mississippi. 



'^With the exception of Guettard's Mineralogical Map of Louisiana and 

 Canada, published in 1752, it was the earliest attempt of a geological 

 map of America." 



During the second decade of the nineteenth century important addi- 

 tions to our knowledge of the geology of Virginia, Tennessee, and Ala- 

 bama were made by Parker Cleaveland, F. W. Gilmer, and the Eev. Elias 

 Cornelius. The map accompanying Cleaveland's Treatise on Mineralogy 

 and Geology was practically the Maclure map, with a few changes. 



American Geological Society 



In 1819 the American Geological Society was organized at Yale Col- 

 lege, with William Maclure president, and among the members many 

 men who were afterwards important contributors to the geology of the 

 Southern States, such as Emmons, Troost, Morton, Lea, and Vanuxem. 



Merrill states that "this Society, though continuing only to 1828, and 

 publishing nothing and leaving little that is tangible to tell of its exist- 

 ence, was nevertheless productive of much good in stimulating workers 

 throughout the countr}^ and leading to the organization of a number of 

 state geological surveys during the decade 1820-1829." ^ 



Early geological Surveys 



With the organization of these state surveys the systematic study of the 

 geology of the Southern States really began, and it is worthy of record 

 that in very many cases the state universities were the pioneers in this 

 work and their professors the first state geologists. 



North Carolina was probably -the first state to organize a geological 

 survey, which was done in 1823, with an appropriation of $250 a year for 

 four years, Denison Olmsted, of the State University, being State Geolo- 

 gist. Worthy successors to Olmsted in this important position were 

 Elisha Mitchell, Ebenezer Emmons, W. C. Kerr, Joseph A. Holmes, and 

 Joseph Hyde Pratt, the present incumbent. All these except Professor 

 Kerr and Professor Emmons were professors in the State University. 



South Carolina followed closely on North Carolina in establishing a 

 State Geological Survey in 1824, with Lardner Vanuxem as director, who 

 was succeeded in turn by Edmund Puffin, Michael Tuomey,' Oscar M. 

 Lieber, and Earl Sloan, whose term expired May 1, 1911. For the re- 



T Merrill : Contributions, etc., p. 239. 



