170 E. A. SMITHS — PIONEERS IN GULF COASTAL PLAIN GEOLOGY 



In 1873 the legislature passed an act to revive and complete the Geo- 

 logical and Agricultural Sun^ey of the state, appointed Prof. Eugene A. 

 Smith, of the University of Alabama, State Geologist, and made a small 

 appropriation for a period of ten years for the expenses of the Survey. 

 The State Geologist received no salary from the state during this period. 



For most of this time Prof. Henry McCalley was assistant on the Sur- 

 vey, serving also without pay except from the University. In 1883 and 

 again in 1891 the appropriations for the Survey were increased and sala- 

 ries for State Geologist and assistants provided for. During this period, 

 from 1873 to the present time, about forty reports and maps have been 

 issued by the Survey. 



MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA 



The organization of the first Mississippi Geological Survey followed 

 close on that of Alabama, the act taking effect early in 1850. Prof. John 

 Millington, of the University of Mississippi, was the first State Geologist, 

 though the first report was made by his assistant. Prof. B. L. C. Wailes, 

 afterwards State Geologist. In 1853 Wailes was succeeded by Lewis 

 Harper. In 1855 the position of assistant to Harper was offered to 

 Eugene W. Hilgard, then just returned from a European university 

 (Heidelberg), and thus began the career of the most distinguished worker 

 in Gulf Coastal Plain Geology. 



It is worth recording that Doctor Hilgard accepted this position ''amid 

 the sincere condolences of his scientific friends on his assignment to so 

 uninteresting a field, where the Paleozoic formations (then occupying 

 almost exclusively the minds of American geologists) were unrepresented." 



The fame which Hilgard has won for himself in this "uninteresting" 

 field is known to all geologists. He has laid the foundation on which 

 most subsequent work in the "Mississippi Emba}Tnent," as he named it, 

 securely rests, and after the lapse of more than fifty years since the publi- 

 cation in 1860 of his report his work is appreciated and referred to as 

 authoritative not only by the farmers and other citizens of that state, but 

 by the geologists who have succeeded him. 



He became State Geologist early in 1857, which position he held, at 

 least nominally, until 1872, with the exception of a few years between 

 1866 and 1870, when Dr. George Little was the director. 



From the beginning of his connection with the State Survey, Hilgard 

 saw that it could never maintain itself in the public esteem on the basis 

 of mineral discoveries alone, and that it must seek its main support in 

 what services it might render to agriculture. He accordingly made a 

 point of paying particular attention to the surface features — vegetation, 



