MEMOIR OF JAMES MERRILL SAEFORD 523 



Society were not yet born. He received appointment as State Geologist 

 of Tennessee in 1854. His first report, 164 pages, with preliminary 

 map, was published in 1856, and was mainly a reconnaissance study of 

 the mineral resources, but the final chapter gives a geological sketch ex- 

 hibiting the formations recognized in the state. A "Biennial Report," 

 published in 1857, was merely a brief statement of results. In 1860 the 

 legislature ordered the preparation and publication of a final report, but 

 the civil war followed quickly, and for a time survey work was at an end. 

 In 1868 the state found itself in condition to reauthorize the publication. 

 The report was completed, and it was published in 1869 as the "Geology 

 of Tennessee," 550 pages, with map and 7 plates. 



It is difficult for geologists of our day to do full justice to a work like 

 this "Geology of Tennessee," the outcome of field studies made fifty 

 years ago. There were no maps, for much of the state was still wilder- 

 ness; mines were few; the roads were on natural grades; there was 

 no network of railroads to give sections in critical places. Professor 

 Safford had no instruments except a compass and a pocket level, and the 

 appropriation was so small that he was without means to procure those 

 aids without which a modern geologist would think himself almost help- 

 less. Over much of the area he could not ride, and a great part of the 

 11,000 miles traveled during prosecution of the work was done on foot; 

 he was compelled to live off the country and to endure the more than 

 inconveniences inseparable from lodging in the uncomfortable houses of 

 mountaineers. Yet in this modest volume he gave a conspectus of Ten- 

 nessee geology which has borne the most exacting review. It is the out- 

 come of twenty years of labor, carried on mostly at his own expense. 



In this volume the succession of the earlier Paleozoic formations is 

 presented in detail and numerous subdivisions are suggested, most of 

 which have been accepted by geologists, and they bear the names given 

 by him. Later studies in more northerly areas have led to some modifi- 

 cations of his grouping, but these are based on careful investigation of 

 fossils such as was unknown in his day. The Black shale underlying the 

 Carboniferous was recognized as Devonian, and he noted the absence of 

 some formations which are prominent farther north in the Appalachian 

 basin. The description of the Carboniferous is brief, counted in pages, 

 but the sections are in such detail and are discussed so clearly that the 

 relations of the beds are set forth sharply in all except the extreme north- 

 east portion of the Cumberland plateau, to which he had been able to 

 devote little attention; yet even there he had succeeded in securing a 

 tvpe section. He differentiated the Tertiary and Quaternary subdivis- 

 ions and described and figured fourteen new species of fossils. An ad- 



