GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF 
MISSISSIPPI. 
By A. F. Crider. 
INTRODUCTION. 
By Edwin C. Eckel. 
The following sketch of the geology and mineral resources of the State of Mississippi has 
been prepared to serve as a summary of present knowledge of those subjects. Much detailed 
field w T ork in the State will be required before any complete discussion of its geology can be 
presented, but it is hoped that the outline given here will be of service, particularly in indi- 
cating the lines along which the development of Mississippi's mineral resources will probably 
take place. 
It is with pleasure that this opportunity is taken of acknowledging indebtedness to pre- 
vious workers in the same field. In the preparation of the present sketch free use has been 
made of the various reports and papers published by Dr. Eugene Hilgard, former State geolo- 
gist. Dr. Eugene A. Smith, formerly assistant to Doctor Hilgard and now State geologist 
of Alabama, has very generously furnished notes on various phases of Mississippi geology. 
Mr. L. C. Johnson, of Pachuta, Miss., who has spent many years in geologic work in the 
State, has also contributed numerous data. 
In a paper recently published in the Transactions of the Mississippi Historical Society, 
Doctor Hilgard has given an outline of the principal events in the history of the Geological 
and Agricultural Survey of the State of Mississippi, from its formation in 1850 to its untimely 
cutting off in 1872. A summary of this valuable outline is as follows: 
The Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State of Mississippi had its origin in an act 
of the legislature entitled "An act to further endow the University of Mississippi," which 
was approved by the governor March 5, 1850, and took effect June 1 following. This act 
provided that $3,000 should be semiannually appropriated for the support of the agricul- 
tural and geologic departments of the university, at least one-half of which sum was to be 
expended in making a general geologic and agricultural survey of the State. Annual reports 
were to be made to the governor by the trustees of the university. This act, together with 
later legislation in 1852, 1854, and 1860, was the basis of all geologic work carried on by 
the State. 
In 1852, Prof. B. L. C. Wailes took up active work under the act of 1850, and in 1854 an 
appropriation for the publication of his report was made by the legislature. Professor 
Wailes was succeeded as State geologist in 1854 by Prof. Lewis Harper, and in 1857 another 
report was published. Both of these reports, particularly that of Professor Wailes, contain 
matter of much geologic and agricultural interest; but they are far inferior to the third report, 
published in 1860 by Dr. Eugene Hilgard, then State geologist. This is still the begt avail- 
able book on the geology of the State of Mississippi. 
Doctor Hilgard's report, though printed in 1860, was not generally distributed until 1866, 
as the entire edition was sent to St. Louis for binding in November, 1860, and remained 
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