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



He reported on the fossil shells collected in California by W. P. Blake 

 in 1835; on the fossils collected by the Wilkes Expedition; the expedition 

 of Lieutenant L}Tich to the Dead Sea; the Mexican Boundary Survey, 

 and the surveys for railroad routes to the Pacific. 



In the winter of 1842 Conrad accompanied the survepng expedition of 

 Captain Powell to Florida. Besides the Pleistocene formations of recent 

 shells covering both the eastern and western shores of the peninsula, 

 Conrad found at Ballast Point, Hillsborough Falls, and possibly other 

 localities near Tampa Bay, many silicified shells which he considered as 

 belonging to the later Eocene, and he expresses the opinion that the 

 prevalent limestone of Florida, extending throughout the peninsula as 

 far south at least as Tampa Bay, will be included in this division — that is, 

 later Eocene.® 



This prediction has been abundantly verified by later observations. 



Between 1842 and 1873 Conrad was a frequent contributor to the 

 American Journal of Science and to the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Science and to the Journal of Conchology. His articles, 

 while mainly descriptive of new species of Eocene shells, yet contain many 

 valuable stratigraphical notes. One of his latest contributions was '^Xew 

 Species of Fossil Shells of North Carolina,'^ published in Professor Kerr^s 

 Geological Eeport of that state in 1875. He died in 1877. 



Concerning Conrad's personality, his mode of work, and the chief 

 events of his life, much can be learned from the Biographical Sketch by 

 Dr. W. H. Dall.i« 



His "Contributions to the Tertiary Paleontology of the Gulf Eegion" 

 probably will remain always among the most important of the publica- 

 tions in this field. 



Angelo Heilprin was another member of the group of Philadelphia 

 geologists who made important contributions to the knowledge of the 

 Coastal Plain. Besides publishing between 1873 and 1891 a number of 

 papers on the paleontology of the Tertiary formations and a memoir, en- 

 titled "Contributions to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of the 

 United States,'' he published in his "Explorations on the west coast of 

 Florida and in the Okeechobee wilderness" ^^ the first account of the 

 Floridian Pliocene. The value of this discovery is thoroughly recognized 

 by all students of Coastal Plain geology. 



The work thus begun by Conrad and Heilprin has been worthily con- 



» Am. Jour. Scl., 2d series, vol. 2, 1846, p. 47. 

 "Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. iv. pp. 112-114. 

 " Wagner Free Inst. Sci., vol. 1, 1887. 



