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



H. Ashley was appointed State Geologist, with Professors L. C. Glenn and 

 C. H. Gordon as assistants. On the resignation of Doctor Ashley, in 

 1912, Prof. A. H. Purdue, of Arkansas, the present incumbent was ap- 

 pointed his successor. 



SOUTH CAROLINA AND ALABAMA 



Prof. Michael Tuomey succeeded Edmund Euffin as State Geologist of 

 South Carolina in 1844 and published his first report in November of the 

 same year. His second and final report appeared in 1848. Meanwhile, 

 in 1847, he was called to the Universit}'' of Alabama as Professor of 

 Geology, Mineralogy, and Agricultural Chemistr}^, with the stipulation 

 that he should spend each year a part of his time in geological explora- 

 tions in the state. In accordance with this arrangement he immediately 

 began field studies, publishing in the newspapers of Tuscaloosa such ex- 

 tracts from his notes as might be of general interest. In recognition of 

 this effort, the state legislature in January, 1848, appointed him State 

 Geologist, without salary, and requested him to make to that body a re- 

 port of his work for publication by the state. Thus was begun the first 

 Geological Survey of Alabama. 



In 1849 Professor Tuomey presented to the legislature his first report, 

 which was published in 1850 by the state. The geological map, however, 

 appeared later. 



He continued his explorations at the expense of the University of Ala- 

 bama, from 1848 to 1853. In 1854 the legislature of Alabama passed an 

 act providing for a geological and agricultural survey of the state and 

 appropriating funds for the salary of the State Geologist and for the 

 expenses of the Survey. Professor Tuomey was continued as State Geolo- 

 gist, and, until his death in 1857, devoted his entire time to the Survey. 

 His office was at the University of Alabama, where he occasionally deliv- 

 ered a course of lectures. The second report was ordered to be printed in 

 1856, but was not published until 1858. It included a second geological 

 map of the state. In these two reports, with accompanying maps, the 

 geologic subdivisions of Alabama were quite accurately defined and the 

 future importance of the coal and iron deposits of the state clearly fore- 

 told. 



Concerning Tuomey's work in South Carolina, the editor of the Amer- 

 ican Journal of Science in an obituary notice^^ says: "In his survey of 

 South Carolina he brought out many facts of prominent interest, illus- 

 trating important principles in the geology of the continent and the his- 

 tory of seashore deposits." The treatise of Tuomey and Holmes on the 

 fossils of South Carolina was a work far in advance of its time. 



a Am. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 23, March 30, 1857, p. 448. 



