Maryland Geological Survey 43 



In 1834: Professor William E. A. Aikin, of Mt. St. Mary's College, 

 Emmitsburg, Md., published " Some notices of the Geology of the Countr)- 

 between Baltimore and the Ohio Eiver, with a section illustrating the 

 superposition of the rocks." The section follows the route of the jSTational 

 Road from Baltimore through Hancock and Cumberland to Wheeling, 

 West Virginia. This is one of the earliest attempts to explain the geologic 

 structure of the mountains and correlate the different formations. It 

 contains some general account of the limestones and shales to the east and 

 west of Cumberland tenned Transition, which are now referred to the 

 Devonian. 



The " Report of a Geological Reconnoissance made in 1835 " by G. W. 

 Featherstonhaugh contains considerable information regarding the 

 geology of the eastern part of the United States. Featherstonhaugh was. a 

 U. S. Geologist and while en route westward evidently crossed the 

 Paleozoic formations of Washington and Allegany counties by way of the 

 National Road. He was among the first to note the fossiliferous beds in 

 these counties and reported them about nine miles west of Clear Spring and 

 at Flint Stone twelve miles from Cumberland. He also describes Shriver 

 Ridge. 



A number of the eastern states organized official surveys during the 

 thirties and one of the first was Maryland which in 1833 appointed J. T. 

 Ducatel State Geologist. The Geological Survey of Virginia' was or- 

 ganized in 1835 with Professor William B. Rogers, of William and Mary 

 College, as State Geologist, that of Pennsylvania in 1836 with his brother, 

 Henry D. Rogers, as State Geologist, and the same year that of New York. 

 The latter State was divided into four districts with William W. Mather, 

 Ebenezer Emmons, Timothy A. Conrad, and Lardner Vanuxem as 

 Geologists; but the following year Conrad retired from active field work 

 on account of ill health becoming State Palaeontologist, Vanuxem became 

 the Geologist of the Third District and James Hall of the Fourth or 

 western New York District. 



' This was prior to the separation of West Virginia from Virginia which 

 occurred in 1863, consequently the survey covered what is now known as 

 Virginia and West Virginia. 



