BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Vol. 25, pp. 157-178 March 30,1914 PIONEERS IN GULP COASTAL PLAIN GEOLOGY PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY EUGENE ALLEN SMITH {Read before the Society December SO, 1918) CONTENTS Page Introductory................................................................................................... ■••• 157 Early writers......................................................................................................... 158 American Geological Society............................................................................... 160 Early geological surveys...................................................................................... 160 Work of T. A. Conrad, Isaac Lea, and Angelo Heilprin.................................. 161 Researches of G. W. Featherstonhaugh............................................................ 163 Lyell’s visits.......................................................................................................... 163 Later geological surveys and studies................................................................ 164 Texas............................................................................................................... 164 Arkansas......................................................................................................... 166 Tennessee........................................................................................................ 167 South Carolina and Alabama....................................................................... 168 Mississippi and Louisiana............................................................................ 170 Georgia............................................................................................................ 173 Florida............................................................................................................ 174 Cotton Culture Reports of the Tenth Census.................................................. 176 Researches of W J McGee.................................................... ............................. 177 I ntroductory When attending the summer meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science during the past three or four decades, I have been impressed by the fact that the majority of the papers read before Section E were concerned with the phenomena of the glacial drift. The reason for this is not far to seek, since the drift is the surface formation nearly everywhere present in the northern part of the country, and the question of its origin and the relations of its different phases make it a never-to-be-exhausted subject for the exercise of the imagination and ingenuity of the investigator. I have also been impressed by the results and conclusions of the differ­ ent geologists as illustrating how doctors disagree. 1 Received by the Secretary ot the Society January 17, 1914. (157) Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/25/1/157/3413541/BUL25-0157.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 1 5 8 E. A. SMITH----PIONEERS IN GULF COASTAL PLAIN GEOLOGY So in our Southern Coastal Plain we have in the Grand Gulf and La­ fayette two formations occupying the greater part of its surface, about which our doctors disagree. As regards especially the Lafayette and its origin, some demand a submergence of the coast and a marine deposit; others an elevation and overwash deposit. We have even a denial of the very existence of such a formation by some, who say, like the immortal Betsy Prigg to Sairy Gamp concerning Mrs. Harris, “I don’t believe there’s no such person.” This condition of things illustrates the great difficulty in the way of a definite classification of incoherent sediments devoid of fossils, and should make clear the importance of much additional field study before official sanction shall be given to any one of the conflicting views now held by competent observers. In selecting a subject for discussion in this address, I have thought it appropriate to give an outline of the pioneer work on the geology of the Southern States as a suitable background for a more detailed account of that part of the field with, which I am most familiar, namely, the Gulf Coastal Plain, or Mississippi Bmbayment, as it has most appropriately been named by Doctor Hilgard. It is obvious, by reasons of the limitations of time and the proprieties of the occasion, that this outline can not be presented in anything like completeness, and that attention must be confined mainly to a few geolo­ gists who have been the first to state clearly the problems involved and who have prepared the ground for those who have since occupied, the field. Accordingly I shall speak in more or less detail of the work of Safford in Tennessee, of Tuomey in South Carolina and Alabama, of Hopkins in Louisiana, of Hilgard in Mississippi and Louisiana, of Roemer and Hill in Texas, of T. A. Conrad and Angelo Heilprin in several states, and of McGee in the whole area of the Coastal Plain, while I must pass over with mere mention the many who have taken up the work where these pioneers left off and who have themselves made most important contribu­ tions to our science. E arly Writers Prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century and during its first decade writers on the geology of the Southern States were comparatively few in number. What is commonly regarded as the. first work on American geology is Johann David Schoepf’s “Beitraege zur Mineralogischen Kenntniss des Oestlichen Theils von Nord Amerika und seiner Gebirge,” published in 1787. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/25/1/157/3413541/BUL25-0157.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 EARLY WRITERS 1 5 9 Schoepf’s examinations extended through the Eastern States and as far south as Florida, and he noted the close similarity of the Coastal Plain lands and the occurrence of waterfalls on all the rivers at the boundary between the Coastal Plain and the hilly region to the northwest, thus recognizing the “fall line” as a physiographic feature of the American Continent.2 The travels of William Bartram, of Philadelphia, through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, east and west Florida, the Cherokee country, the extensive territory of the Creek confederacy and the country of the Choctaws, published in 1791, contain, among other things, an account of the geology, soils, and natural productions of this region, although mainly devoted to observations on the flora and on the manners of the Indians. In an article entitled “The origin of the national scientific and educa­ tional institutions in the United States,” by G. Brown Goode,3 reference is made to the scientific activities of Washington during his presidency (1789-1797). On page 63 Mr. Goode says: “He sent out with his own hand, while President, a circular letter to the best Informed farmers In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir­ ginia, and having received a considerable number of answers, prepared a report on the resources of the Middle Atlantic States, which was the first of its kind written in America, and was a worthy beginning of the great library of agri­ cultural science which has since emanated from our Government press.” Doctor Merrill, in his “Contributions to American Geology,” 4 tells us that Thomas Jefferson, when he came to Philadelphia to be inaugurated Vice-President in 1797, brought with him a collection of fossil bones from the western part of Virginia and the manuscript on them, which he read before the American Philosophical Society, of which he had been elected president the preceding year. The paper was published in 1799 in volume IV of the “Transactions of the Society.” Baron Alexander von Humboldt, in the employ of the Spanish govern­ ment, spent the years 1799 to 1804 in that part of Mexico adjacent to what is now Texas, and in his book, with map, “Journey to the Equi­ noctial Regions of the New Continent,” may be found,® “Valuable, though indirect, contributions to our knowledge of Texas, which he did not visit personally.” According to Doctor Merrill,® “the year 1809 must ever be notable in the history of American geology, since it brought forth Madure’s 'Obser- * M errill: Contributions to the History of American Geology, p. 208. •American Historical Association Report, 1899, pp. 53-161. * Page 213. * Bulletin No. 45, TJ. S. Geological Survey, p. 9. * Contributions to the History of American Geology, p. 217. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/25/1/157/3413541/BUL25-0157.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 1 6 0 E. A. SMITH----PIONEERS IN GULF COASTAL PLAIN GEOLOGY vations on the Geology of the United States/ with a colored map of the region east of the Mississippi. “With the exception of Guettard’s Mineralogieal Map of Louisiana and Canada, published in 1752, it was the earliest attempt of a geological map of America.” During the second decade of the nineteenth century important addi­ tions to our knowledge of the geology of Virginia, Tennessee, and Ala­ bama were made by Parker Cleaveland, F. W. Gilmer, and the Eev. Elias Cornelius. The map accompanying Cleaveland’s Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology was practically the Maclure map, with a few changes. A m e r ic a n Geo lo g ic a l S o c ie t y In 1819 the American Geological Society was organized at Yale Col­ lege, with William Maclure president, and among the members many men who were afterwards important contributors to the geology of the Southern States, such