The Mississippi Survey. — Hilgard. 293 
the detailed survey of the cretaceous area as far south as Co- 
lumbus ; and thence, as the beginning- of the rainy season ren- 
dered farther field work unprofitable. I drove across the coun- 
try to Tuskaloosa, Ala., in order to compare notes and con- 
sult with Tuomey, then state geologist of Alabama, and to 
gain an insight into the works of reference for cretaceous and 
tertiary paleontology ; of which not one had been provided by 
Harper, although at his request the costly illustrated works of 
Goldfuss, d'Ordigny and others, treating of European paleon- 
tolog>', had been placed in the University library. As these 
works did not furnish us with the means of identifying the 
fossils of the Mississippi formations, Harper seriously pro- 
posed to confer on them all, names of our own making, irre- 
spective of previous observers. Upon my suggestion that this 
was rather an unusual mode of proceeding and might at the 
very least give rise to some confusion, he agreed that I might 
try to obtain from Tuomey the necessar\' information as to 
the possibility of procuring the existing American works, of 
which he, however, expressed a very low opinion. Hence my 
excursion to Tuskaloosa, in which I reaped the benefit of 
Tuomey's previous labors, and came to an understanding with 
him in respect to the subdivisions of the cretaceous, recog- 
nized by him. It happened that he had just returned from an 
excursion to the (Ripley) cretaceous area of Chunnenugga 
Ridge, which was entirely new to him, and the relations of 
which to the other groups he had not yet made out. Recog- 
nizing the characteristic fossils and marlstones of the Ripley 
group, I was enabled to clear up that point as well as the re- 
lations of the "Tombigby Sand" fossils (which had been sent 
to him from Columbus by Dr. Spillman) to the "Rotten Lime- 
stone," which we had thus far designated as " Upper ," but jy^ 
agreed henceforth to consider as mid^leL cretaceous. I then 
learned for the first time that he had found fossils, — well pre- 
served ammonites and several gasteropods, silicified, in the 
lower cretaceous clays near Eutaw (or rather Finch's Ferry^), 
Alabama ; and we agreed to designate this lower clayey stage, 
which in Mississippi I had found entirely barren of fossils, as 
the "Eutaw" group. Subsequently, prior publication gave 
precedence to Safiford's name of "Cofifee group" for the lower 
clays, and similarly my "Tippah group" received from Conrad 
