6 GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF MISSISSIPPI. 
there until the close of the war. Doctor Hilgard's work on the geology and agriculture of 
the State had, however, deeply impressed its citizens. The following quotation from his 
history of the survey is of interest in this connection: 
As a striking exemplification of the change wrought in public sentiment by the energetic prosecution 
of agricultural survey work, I may quote the action taken at the called session of the legislature of Mis- 
sissippi in August, 1861. Under the terrible stress brought to bear on the State even then by the impend- 
ing conflict, it would have been natural to expect the complete extinction of the appropriation for the 
survey work. Instead of this, an act was passed suspending the appropriation for the geological survey 
"until the close of the war, and for twelve months thereafter; gxcept the sum of $1,250 per annum, which 
shall be applied to the payment of the salary of the State geologist and the purchase of such chemicals as 
maybe necessary to carry on the analysis of soils, minerals, and mineral waters, and to enable him to 
preserve the apparatus, analyses, and other property of the State connected with said survey." This 
appropriation was actually maintained during the entire struggle of the Confederacy; and so far as the 
vicissitudes of war permitted, the chemical work (and even some field work) was continued by me 
during the same time. The scarcity of salt suggested a utilization of some of the saline waters and 
efflorescences so common in the southern part of the State, and some forty (unpublished) analyses of 
such saline mixtures are on record. I made an official report on the subject to Governor Pettus, dated 
June 9, 1862. I also made a special exploration on the several limestone caves of the State, with a view 
to the discovery of nitrous earths; but from the fact'that these caves are all traversed by lively streams, 
I found nowhere a sufficient accumulation of nitrates to render exploration useful. 
Soon after the beginning of active hostilities in Ten nossee, the university faculty having been dissolved, 
I was detailed by the governor, as commander of the State militia, to take charge of the State property 
at tlie university during the war; and this, as well as a subsequent appointment by the Confederate 
authorities as an agent of the "niter bureau," prevented my being called into active service, except on 
the occasion of the siege of Vicksburg, when, toward the end of that memorable epoch, I was ordered 
to erect "calcium lights " on the bluifs above the city, for the illumination of the Federal gunboats when 
attempting to run the gauntlet of the batteries. The difficulties of construction and procuring of the 
necessary materials delayed the completion of the arrangements, so that on the occasion of the final 
passage of the fleet no adequate light could be given. From a hospital at Jackson, where I was a patient 
at the.time of its first capture, I soon afterwards made my way to my post at Oxford, where 1 remained 
on duty during the rest of the war. This duty was oftentimes a very arduous one, Oxford being then 
within the "belt of desolation" between the two armies, which swept back and forth over it. The sur- 
vey collections had several very narrow escapes from destruction when the buildings were hastily occu- 
pied for hospital purposes; they were several times transferred on hospital cots from one building to 
another, but finally escaped without any material injury. Not so the collections at the capitol at Jack- 
son, where the shelves and cases seem to have been swept with the butts of muskets, and the floor was 
strewn with broken specimens and shattered glass jars. About one-third of the collections stored there 
was entirely ruined, and of the remainder nearly all the labels were lost. 
In 1866, as the period for which the survey appropriation was suspended had elapsed, 
work was again taken up by Doctor Hilgard. Several assistants aided him in this at differ- 
ent times, prominent among these younger men being Dr. Eugene A. Smith, now State geolo- 
gist of Alabama. No further report was published by the State, however, and in 1872, dur- 
ing the days of reconstruction, the State auditor decided that the survey appropriation 
should not be paid. This arbitrary action, which could not be prevented under the circum- 
stances then existing, put a final stop to the Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State. 
Under the energetic and capable administration of Doctor Hilgard it had accomplished 
much of direct practical benefit to the citizens of the State, while its purely scientific results 
were many and important. 
In recent years considerable work has been carried on in Mississippi by the United States 
Geological Survey, resulting in several reports on various phases of Mississippi geology and 
mineral resources. In 1903 a limited cooperation was effected between the State and this 
Federal organization, Mr. R. H. Henry, World's Fair commissioner for Mississippi, having 
requested the aid of the United States Geological Survey in securing an adequate represen- 
tation of Mississippi's mineral resources at the St. Louis exposition. The field work ar- 
ranged for under this cooperative agreement was carried out in 1903 and 1904 by Mr. A. F. 
Crider, tinder the supervision of Mr. E. C. Eckel. The amount of time and money available 
for this field work was insufficient to provide for a detailed survey of the entire State. Atten- 
tion was concentrated, therefore, on certain geologic formations which were directly of inter- 
est to Mississippians because of the mineral industries which might be based on them. 
