The Mississippi Survey. — Hilgard. 289 
which still remained an appendage of the chair of geology at 
the University of ^lississippi. It was expected that Wailes 
would be elected to that chair, which in autumn 1853 had been 
vacated by Dr. ^^lillington. At an election held in June, 1854, 
however, the choice for that position fell on Lewis Harper.* 
Wailes, thereupon, immediately resigned his position, 
which remained vacant until September, 1855. Up to the 
sum^mer of 1855 Harper, bearing the titles of professor of ge- 
ology and agriculture, and state geologist, had not taken the 
field himself. He was now by action of the Board of Trust- 
ees relieved from a portion of his duties as instructor, and 
directed to take the field personally, for the purposes provided 
for in the act. Besides, Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, then professor 
of physics at the university, was requested to secure a com- 
petent assistant geologist at a salary of $1,000 per annum., 
during a contemplated visit to the North. At the Providence 
meeting of the Am. Ass'n Adv. of Science, August, 1855. Dr. 
Barnard fulfilled his mission by tendering the appointment to 
the writer (then lately returned from Europe), who promptly 
accepted it, amid the sincere condolence of his scientific friends 
upon his assignment to so uninteresting a field, where the 
paleozoic formations (then occupying almost exclusively the 
minds of American geologists), were unrepresented. 
On the way south, a few weeks later, I paid a visit of sev- 
eral days to Dr. David Dale Owen and his assistants. E. T. 
Cox and S. S. Lyon (then engaged in the work of the Arkatv 
sas state geological survey), at X'ew Harmony, with a view of 
obtaining suggestions for the work before me. This visit 
was most important and fruitful in giving direction to my 
subsequent studies and methods. 
Reaching Oxford about the middle of September, 1855, I 
found that Harper had then just returned from a rapid recon- 
noissance of the cretaceous and tertiary prairie regions in 
eastern Mississippi ; and it was agreed that we should as soon 
as possible set out on a joint exploration over the same route, 
to be continued to the Gulf shore : thence across the southern 
counties of the state to the Mississippi river. The start was 
made early in October, the outfit consisting of an ambulance 
♦Properly, Ludwig Hafner, of Hamburg, Germany, originally a student of 
law. who for political reasons had to leave tlie country before graduation, 
and subsenuently became interested in natural history': then a teacher of 
natural science at an academy near Greenville, .\labama. 
