198 The American Geologist. ^i"''- ^"^^^ 
\\\\\\ the strong recommendation of the faculty of 
the University of Virginia he took charge of a school at 
Demopolis, Ala., where he remained one year and part 
of another. In the summer vacation of 1877 he came to 
the geological survey of Alabama as a volunteer assistant 
and traveled with the writer through a part of the War- 
rior coal field and the valley of the Tennessee. The fol- 
lowing year, 1878, Mr. McCalley gave up his school and 
came to the University of Alabama as assistant in the de- 
partment of chemistry, then in charge of the writer of these 
lines. This position he held until 1883, at the same time 
also serving as volunteer assistant on the Geological Sur- 
vey, for during the first ten years of the existence of this 
second survey, the annual appropriation was only $500, 
none of which went for salaries. 
During the summer months of 1879 we had charge of 
a survey of the Warrior river for the engineer ofifice of the 
war department under Maj. Damrell. the object of which 
survey was primarily to ascertain the nature and extent 
of the obstructions to navigation, and to obtain estimates 
of the cost of removing or overcoming the same, and 
secondly to collect statistics of the natural resources of 
the country lying adjacent to the river. 
The levelings and soundings along the river were 
made under the direction of Mr. AlcCalley, while the geo- 
logical data were collected b}' Mr. Joseph Squire and my- 
self. Our joint report was published in a report of pro- 
gress for 1879-80. Later in the year Mr. McCalley spent 
some time in the Tennessee valley, and the results of his 
labors were given in the same report of progress. 
In 1883 the Legislature made an appropriation for the 
Geological Survey which made it possible to emplo}" 
salaried assistants, and Mr. McCalley then received the 
appointment as assistant state geologist, which position he 
held until his death, a ])eriod of twenty-one years. 
His first work in this capacity was in the Warrior 
basin on which his first report was pul)lished in 1886. 
This was the first comprehensive statement of the charac- 
ters and succession of the coal seams of this great field 
