016.557 
 It64e 
 
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 cop. 6 
 
 
 
 
 EARLY GEOLOGY 
 
 
 IN THE 
 
 
 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 
 
 
 An Exhibition of Selected Works 
 
 
 Held in the University of Illinois Library 
 
 
 at Urbana, November, 1962
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
 AT UI.JANA CHAMPAIGN 
 
 iLL HIST. SURVEY
 
 EARLY GEOLOGY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 
 
 An Exhibiton of Selected Works 
 Held in the University of Illinois Library at Urbana 
 
 November, 1962 
 
 by 
 
 George W. White 
 
 Geology Department 
 
 and 
 Barbara O. Slanker 
 University Library 
 
 University of Illinois 
 Urbana, 1962
 
 
 Foreicord 
 
 A tradition that scientists, as a group, are unconcerned with the his- 
 torical aspects of their disciphnes, and generally inclined to leave to hu- 
 manists and social scientists explorations of the past, is not borne out at 
 the University of Illinois. A History of Science Society, established in 
 1954, has enlisted the support and active participation of faculty mem- 
 bers from every scientific division in the institution, as well as the en- 
 thusiastic interest of scholars in other fields. In addition, formal courses 
 in the history of their subjects are currently offered by Agriculture, Bi- 
 ology, Chemistry, and Engineering, and as sections of courses in other 
 areas of science and technology. 
 
 One of the moving forces behind this lively attention to the history 
 of science is Professor George W. White, Head of the Department of 
 Geology, an avid collector himself, who, since joining the faculty fifteen 
 years ago, has been instrumental in developing an outstanding library 
 collection relating to the historical phases of science as a whole, with 
 particular reference to the history of geology. The interest is natural — 
 no scientists are more conscious of the past than are geologists. A strong 
 case can be made out, in fact, for requiring every student majoring in the 
 field of history to have as a prerequisite courses in paleontology, for 
 proper perspective upon the relatively recent events of the last few thous- 
 and years. 
 
 The exhibition on early geological writings for the Mississippi Valley, 
 prepared by Professor White and Mrs. Slanker and recorded in the pres- 
 ent catalog, is a sampling of the riches available in the Illinois collection. 
 The detailed annotations reveal the concern for geological matters of a 
 variety of commentators, American and foreign, dating back to the 
 earliest days of exploration and discovery. 
 
 Robert B. Downs 
 
 Dean of Library Administration
 
 Introduction 
 
 The growth and development of geology in America can be traced 
 through the writings of observant men, scientists, proto-geologists, and 
 professional geologists. One of the earliest works to include geological 
 description was A Briefe and True Report of the Newfound Land of 
 Virginia, bv Thomas Hariot, which was published in 1588. Reports of 
 the earliest explorers often contained geological notes, and early descrip- 
 tions of the new lands included sections on soils, minerals, and the "face 
 of the country." 
 
 Besides laving the foundation for later developments in the science, 
 the earlv books served several other important purposes. People east of 
 the AUeghenv Mountains consulted them to learn about the topography 
 of the land they \\ ould pioneer. Information about the mineral resources, 
 especially fuel, salt, iron, and lead, and the location of springs and per- 
 manent streams was vital to them. People west of the Allegheny Moun- 
 tains read the books to find what lav further west. Armed with a knowl- 
 edoe of the country, thev were stimulated to move farther west into the 
 less forested areas of the great Mississippi \^alley and its tributaries. 
 
 Arm chair travelers from all parts of the world read the books for in- 
 formation about the West. Readers in Europe sometimes read the Ameri- 
 can edition, but sometimes the London edition or a translation. The 
 geological observations were absorbed, copied, and recopied, and gradu- 
 ally entered into the bodv of common knowledge. 
 
 Following the earlv books are reports by scientists and scientifically 
 inclined travelers. There are also truly professional reports by scientists 
 in government service. The states were far ahead of the federal govern- 
 ment in supporting geological surveys, and their reports began appearing 
 about 1830. This group of reports forms the beginning of the vast bodv 
 of technical know ledge that accumulated over the following century and 
 a quarter. 
 
 Limitations of space make it necessary to show only representatives of 
 the Universitv of Illinois Library's outstanding collection of books deal-
 
 ing with earlv American geology. The works of Morton, Josselyn and 
 Captain John Smith, as well as those of Imlay, Carver, and Pike could 
 have been used, but lack of space precluded their inclusion. Michaux, 
 Brackenridge, S. L. Mitchill, Amos Eaton, and Constantine Rafinesque 
 are omitted for the same reason. Though valuable and voluminous, none 
 of the works of the French explorers, missionaries, and writers who came 
 into the Mississippi Valley from Canada is included. 
 
 In studvina the items for the exhibit, a contrast between the eastern 
 "authorities" and the western workers became apparent. The latter group 
 was not so apt to be tinged with Wernerian Neptunism, or if they were, 
 they tended to modify and even discard the hampering dogmas. The 
 westerners described the rocks as they were and made tlieir own specula- 
 tions about their origin instead of looking for German rocks. The No- 
 achian deluge and Usher chronology exerted less control over their 
 thought. It almost seems that the open spaces both attracted and led to 
 the development of more open minds. 
 
 The books selected for this exhibition in the University of Illinois 
 Library have been limited primarily to publications in book form in 
 English that dealt with the Mississippi Vallev or some part of it. Though 
 the upper valley of the Mississippi and the Ohio Valley, really the Middle 
 VVest, have been emphasized, the Alleghenv Plateau region has been in- 
 eluded. With one or two exceptions, the earliest edition of a title is 
 shown, because it was the edition which first made the author's ideas and 
 observations known to his contemporaries. Generally it was the edition 
 which was quoted, with or without credit. 
 
 A quotation from the travel diary of David Thomas, a Quaker engineer 
 
 of the early nineteenth century, concludes the introduction. A centurv 
 
 and a half ago Thomas made the following prophecy of the prairies: 
 
 In traversing such delightful regions, the mind acquires a de- 
 gree of cheerfulness that rarelv attends it in the deep gloom of the 
 forest . . . The dark days of (this) country are past. In fancy must 
 (we) view the current of population breaking from the mountains, 
 full, broad, resistless; and the vast and long deserted plains of the 
 Mississippi, fill with life, with intellect, and with elegance.
 
 1. Hariot, Thomas, 1560-1621. 
 
 A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of 
 Virginia. A Facsimile Reproduction of the 1588 
 Quarto. Ann Arbor, 1931. 
 
 A Brief e and True Report of the Neic Found Land of 
 Virginia ... (In Hakluyt, Richard. The Principal Xa- 
 vigations . . . London, 1598-1600.) 
 
 Thomas Hariot \Aas the first scientist to visit America and record his 
 observations of the new countn". Under the patronage of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh he came to \ irginia in 1585 to see the countr\ . As an accompany- 
 ing staff officer of Raleigh's expedition, Hariot sened as consulting 
 scientist and recorder. The reports he wrote included material on na- 
 tural histon.- and geologv. Though his connection with the Mississippi 
 \ allev is exceedingly tenuous, his report is included because it was the 
 first scientific report on ^America in English. 
 
 Hariot recognized the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont and knew that 
 there were mountains still farther to the west. He described some min- 
 eral deposits and their assavs bv Thomas \ aughan, the "mineral man"' 
 and assayer who accompanied the expedition. Hariot clearly described 
 the mineral resources of the Coastal Plain, and from other sources it is 
 apparent that he recognized fossils in the rocks. 
 
 Since only five copies of this earliest item of scientific Americana are 
 known to exist and just two of them are in the United States, a facsimile 
 of the report is shown. The report was reprinted bv Theodore DeBr\' in 
 1590 in Latin, Enghsh, and German and engravings of the w^ater colors 
 of John \\ hite, a member of the expedition, were added. 
 
 The great compiler of vovages and travels, Richard Hakluyt, included 
 Hariot's report in the third volum.e of his Voyages. This reprint in black 
 letter (the original is in Roman type) is almost exactly that of the ori- 
 ginal except for some additional introductor\- material. It is probable 
 that most readers derived their knov/ledge of Hariot's report from this 
 Hakluvt edition. 
 
 2. Evans, Lewis, 1700-1756. 
 
 Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and 
 Mechanical Essays. The First, Containing An Analysis 
 of A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in 
 Aynerica . . . Philadelphia : Printed by B. Franklin and 
 D. Hall. 1755. 
 
 3. Pownall, Thomas, 1722-1805 
 
 A Topographic Description of Such Parts of North
 
 America as Are Contained in the [Annexed) Map of 
 the Middle British Colonies &ic. in North America. 
 London, J. Almon, 1776. 
 4. Stevens, Henry Newton, 1855-1930. 
 
 Leicis Evans, His Map of the Middle British Colonies 
 in America; A Comparative Account of Ten Different 
 Editions Published Betueen 1755 and 1807. London, 
 H. Stevens, Son, and Stiles, 1905. 
 
 Lewis E\'ans was the great colonial cartographer, surveyor, proto-ge- 
 ologist, engraver, and pamphleteer. His map of the British colonies is 
 almost a geological map, for he showed on it mountain ridges, the Alle- 
 gheny front, the glaciated part of northern Ohio — "level rich land 
 intermix'd with swamps & ponds" — the location of deposits of petro- 
 leum, coal, clay, freestone, salt, and "elephant bones." Extending to 
 the Mississippi, the map has an inset portion for Ilhnois and Indiana. 
 
 The ^-Vnalvsis has manv pages of organized geologic and geomorphic 
 description and some theoretical speculations of high merit on fossils, 
 isostas\% erosion, peneplains, and Coastal Plain origin. Evans himself 
 did not have personal knowledge of the countn- west of Pennsylvania, 
 but he effectively synthesized the more important and accurate observa- 
 tions of others. 
 
 Evans" classification of physiographic proWnces of the United States 
 is the first such attempt; it is accurate and in broad outlines it is followed 
 today. Though usually unacknowledged, his physiographic classifica- 
 tion and descriptions provided the basis for classification by manv later 
 authors. His work was important and widely influential, and had he 
 lived longer he might well have held a position in America comparable 
 to that of the Englishman \\ illiam Smith who is considered the father 
 of stratigraphy. 
 
 Thomas PowTiall, colonial governor and friend and supporter of 
 Evans, had encouraged his 1755 publication and possibly may have col- 
 laborated ^vith him. In 1776 when Pownall reprinted the map, he re- 
 \ised and expanded the text to include even more physiographic material 
 on the western counny, especially from the sun'evs and observations of 
 Gordon, Gist, and Hutchins during the 1760's. 
 
 The Evans map was reprinted with and without credit at least twenrv- 
 six times over more than fortv years. A copy of the original 1755 map is 
 exhibited along with the Pownall reprint. The Illinois collection con- 
 tains eight other editions of the map which are not shown. These maps 
 formed the basis for Henry Stevens' 1905 monograph on the ten various 
 forms of the map: his later studies raised the nvmiber of editions to twents'- 
 six. 
 
 The three books and ten maps are contained in a sumptuous case of 
 green niger lined with red niger and chamois. The three books, all large 
 paper copies, are bound in matching green niger bv W . Pratt.
 
 5. Hutchins, Thomas, 1730-1789. 
 
 A Topographical Description of Firginia. Pennsyl- 
 vania, Maryland, and North Carolina, Comprehend- 
 ing the Rivers Ohio, Kenhaica, Sioto, Cherokee, Wa- 
 bash, Illinois, Mississippi . . . London, Printed for the 
 Author, and Sold by J. Almon, 1778. 
 
 The maps and notes on the geography of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois 
 bv Thomas Hutchins, a military engineer and surveyor, were the first 
 written from personal obser\-ation. The notes contained geological ob- 
 ser\ations, and thcv formed a \aluable source of information for many 
 years. 
 
 In the notes Hutchins described coal, salt springs, iron ore, and lead 
 deposits along the Ohio and Scioto Rivers, and the great fossils at "Big 
 Bone Springs," Kentucky. In some detail he discussed the minerals of 
 the Muskingum and \A^abash valleys and ga\'c special attention to the 
 clay deposits which he said \\ould be useful for pottery and glass pots. 
 He described the Lake Erie shore and also recognized that the strata of 
 the region west of the mountains are essentially horizontal. 
 
 The map is significant because it shows "petroleum" at several places 
 and has manv otlier notes on coal, clay, freestone, and topography. Also, 
 it shows a one-half mile coal deposit ("mine") on the Illinois River near 
 the mouth of the Vermillion River. 
 
 The Illinois copy of this book is an exceptional one, bound bv F. Bed- 
 ford for H. Stevens, and the map is a particularly fine example. Two of 
 the four sections of the map, including that part showing the "Illinois 
 Country," are displayed. The book and map are actually seperate pub- 
 lications, but they are brought together here in a beautifully simple case 
 bv Sangorski and Sutliffe. 
 
 6. Beverley, Robert, 1673-1722. 
 
 The History of the Present State of Virginia, in Four 
 Parts . . . London, Printed for R. Parker, 1705. 
 
 Robert Beverley, \ irginia planter and lawyer, \\ as the first nati\e born 
 American to write a book about America which included much about 
 natural history and some worth\\hile parts on geolog). He wrote of 
 streams, springs, cla\'s, ores, and other mineral resources. He understood 
 the relation of soil to vegetation, and the physiographic divisions, par- 
 ticularly of the Coastal Plain and Piedmont. 
 
 The bounds of colonial \ irginia extended to the Mississippi River, 
 and thus included much territory in the Mississippi basin. Though 
 Be\'erlev had never crossed the mountains, he referred to the observations 
 of Captain Henrv Batt, who penetrated to the Allegheny Plateau and 
 reached the Mississippi basin, "a fine level Country again, and discovered 
 a Rivulet that descended backwards. Down that stream they travell'd 
 
 6
 
 several davs" and came to country where the Indians made salt. These 
 are slender geological obser\'ations of the Mississippi valley, but perhaps 
 they are enough to allow inclusion of this important book. 
 
 The book includes fourteen page size engravings of Virginia, mostly 
 of Indians, that are copies of the DeBry engra\'ings from the John White 
 paintings of 1585. Beverley's explanations of the charming little pictures 
 are detailed and informative, and impressions in this copy are particularly 
 crisp ones. The Illinois copv of the book is bound in full brown gold- 
 tooled morocco by the Club Bindery, 1900. 
 
 7. Guettard, Jean-Etienne, 1715-1786. 
 
 "Memoire Dans Lequel On Compare le Canada a la 
 Suisse, par Rapport a Ses Mineraux," Histoire de 
 VAcademie Royale des Sciences (Paris) Annee 1752. 
 (1756), 189-220, 323-360, 524-538. 
 
 This curiously titled work is by the great French naturalist, Jean- 
 Etienne Guettard who was ne\er in North America. In compiling the 
 map Guettard consulted manv earlier publications and through extensive 
 personal correspondence secured much other information not yet pub- 
 lished. According to \^^ells, the map is the "oldest geological map of the 
 continent as well as one of the oldest geological maps in general." 
 
 Guettard described minerals and mineral resources and the arrange- 
 ment in belts of various kinds of rocks. He described and illustrated 
 both Paleozoic brachiopods and Pleistocene mastodon teeth, the latter 
 probably from Big Bone Lick in the Ohio Valley. Also, he suggested 
 some correlation of the rocks of North America with those of Europe. 
 
 The volume is opened to show the map of North America. It is truly 
 a geological map — note the "Bande Sabloneuse" along the east coast 
 and the "Bande Marneuse" in shaded pattern. The "Bande Schisteuse 
 ou Metallique," farther west, includes the whole Mississippi Valley. 
 Note the location of "Illinois" on the map and in it the symbols for 
 "cristal," iron, lead, and other minerals, and nearby, coal and petroleum. 
 The interesting legend is made up in part of ancient alchemical symbols. 
 
 8. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. 
 
 Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia: Printed 
 and sold by Prichard and Hall, in Market Street, be- 
 tween Front and Second Streets. M.DCC.LXXXVIII. 
 
 Notes on Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson, is a synthesis of his personal 
 observations of the eastern part of the country and his \vide knowledge 
 of written and oral accounts of the western areas of the state of Virginia 
 which then extended to the Mississippi River. His descriptions and 
 speculations of the origins of the water gap at Harpers Ferry, of the Dela- 
 ware Water Gap and the nearby Wind Gap, and of the Natural Bridge
 
 were widely read and quoted for many years. He wrote of the caverns 
 in "limestone - country," and of iron, lead, salt, and coal deposits in 
 Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. "We hear of lime-stone on the Mississippi 
 and Ohio," he said, and in the valleys between (but not on) the moun- 
 tains. 
 
 The mammoth fossils near the Ohio River and elsewhere greatly im- 
 pressed him; he thought they were from elephant-like animals, but not 
 really from elephants. In later vears he assembled a collection of mam- 
 moth, mastodon, and megalonvx bones in the White House. The in- 
 vertebrate fossils in limestone and shale he recognized as marine, but 
 as to why they were now above sea level, as much as 15,000 feet in the 
 Andes, he said "this great phaenomenon is as yet unsolved." Since his 
 book enjoyed wide popularity, it is important for understanding what 
 was geologically known and considered at the time. 
 
 The copy shown here is the first American edition. The Notes were 
 written in 1781-82, printed in France in 1784, and first printed in 
 America in 1788. In the manv editions which followed some changes 
 and additions were made. 
 
 9. Schoepf, Johann David, 1752-1800. 
 
 Beytrnege zur Mineralogischen Kenntniss des Ost- 
 lichen Theils von No7-damerika und Seiner Gebuerge. 
 Erlangen, J. J. Palm, 1787. 
 
 During the Revolutionary War, Johann David Schoepf, a scientist, 
 scholar, and academician, was attached as a physician to the Hessian 
 troops. Immediately after the war Dr. Schoepf set out on travels which 
 took him through the eastern and southern part of the countn' and as far 
 west as Pittsburgh, which brought him into the Mississippi Valley. Be- 
 sides being a keen and competent observer, he was a lucid, compact 
 WTriter, and in the years following his travels he published several books 
 and many articles about the scientific features of America. 
 
 Schoepf's book on oeologv and minerals is actuallv the first book on 
 the geology of the U.S. It was folIo\Aed the next year by a t\\'o-\olume 
 book on his travels in the United States and the two books form almost 
 a single entity. The Travels gave a day-to-day account of what he saw, 
 and the Bevtraege gave an organized summarv of the oeoloCT^' of the coun- 
 try, both from his own observations and from carefully considered re- 
 ports. 
 
 Schoepf was very well acquainted \vith the European literature on 
 mineralog)' and with the American reports of Kalm, Stork, Catesby. 
 Evans, Pownall and others. From his own observations he confirmed 
 Evans' division of the country, into Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the 
 Mountains. He described the attitude and bedding of the strata at various 
 places, as well as the relations of sand, clay and fossiliferous limestone. 
 He described and named various fossils. Although he gave most of his 
 attention to the eastern part of the country, with which he was most 
 
 8
 
 familiar, he did describe the "western country" from his own knowledge 
 as far as Pittsburgh and the upper Ohio Valley. His description of the 
 coal and associated shale and limestone at Pittsburgh is accurate and 
 probably the earliest published description of this, the world's greatest 
 coal bed, by a scientist. 
 
 The concluding theoretical part of Schoepf's book is amazingly modern 
 in its discussion of sedimentation in ancient seas, with their falling and 
 risino levels, and of the very long time necessary for the extensive erosion 
 of mountains and plateaus. 
 
 The fine copv displaved has been loaned for this exhibit by the Ed- 
 ward Orton Memorial Library of Geolog)' of the Ohio State University. 
 
 0. Volney, Constantin Francois Chasseboeuf, comte de, 
 1757-1820. 
 
 A Vieic of the Soil and Climate of the United States of 
 America . . . Translated, ivith Occasional Remarks, by 
 C. B. Broun. Philadelphia, Pub. by J. Conrad & Co., 
 1804. 
 
 This book by Count Volney is not a journal of tra\els, but an organ- 
 ized description of the phvsical features of the country?, much of which 
 he saw himself as he travelled on foot as far west as the Wabash Valley 
 from 1795 to 1798. A friend and associate of Dr. S. L. Mitchill, Volney 
 derived some of his ideas from him, and he drew on Lewis Evans for 
 some of his description of the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont and Appala- 
 chian Mountains. From his own knowledge he described and illustrated 
 the terraces of the Ohio at Cincinnati and said they had been formed by 
 the river flowing at once higher levels. His columnar sections of the 
 terrace materials are the first geological columns of American Pleistocene 
 deposits. 
 
 He observed that the rocks of the Alleghenv Plateau were mainly sand- 
 stone, whereas the lower land to the east was largely limestone, which 
 extended to or be\ond the Mississippi River. The fossils he collected 
 from rocks near Cincinnati were the ones which the great Lamarck re- 
 ported in detail and said were deposited on the "bottom, and not the 
 banks of the sea." Volney thought that the coal beds of the Mississippi 
 \'alley were consolidated deposits on ancient deltas deposited in just the 
 same way as organic matter is now being laid down on the Mississippi 
 delta, a remarkably modern conclusion. A long and valuable section 
 dealt with Niagara Falls and its retreat. 
 
 Volney s book was published in Paris in 1803, and two English trans- 
 lations appeared the next year, one in London and another in Philadel- 
 phia. The Philadelphia edition which contains interesting notes by 
 Charles Brockden Brown, the well-known early American novelist, is 
 displayed. Because Volney's descriptions of America were read exten- 
 si\'ely, his work formed the basis for much that was written by others in 
 the following years.
 
 11. Mease, James, 1771-1846. 
 
 A Geological Account of the United States... Phila- 
 delphia, Published by Birch & Small, R. Carr, Printer, 
 1807. 
 
 The Account, by James Mease, was the first book with the word "geol- 
 ogy" in the title to be published in the United States. It deals with a 
 variety of subjects — climate, soils, lakes and rivers, plants and animals, 
 as well as what is considered "eolooy todav. Some of the material w'as 
 deri^'ed from \ olnev, some second or third hand from Morse, and some 
 from other sources. 
 
 Dr. Mease, a physician of Philadelphia, mav have traveled west of the 
 mountains, but probably his journevs did not extend very far into the 
 Ohio and JNlississippi Valleys. He did recognize that the rocks of the 
 Mississippi Valley were essentially horizontal strata that included a great 
 deal of lim.estone. Though he added very little original material to Ameri- 
 can geoloCTv, his summaries of known information reached a wide audi- 
 ence, and therefore his book with all its insufficiencies is signifcant. 
 
 The copy exhibited is tvpical of the edition, with its closely trimmed 
 12mo signatures and its undistinguished binding. 
 
 12. Ashe, Thomas, 1770-18.^5. 
 
 Memoirs of Mammoth, and Various Other Extraordi- 
 nary and Stupendous Bones, of Incognita, or Non-de- 
 script Animals . . . Liverpool, Printed by G. F. Harris, 
 1806. 
 
 Thomas Ashe ^^'as an English imposter, charlatan, and swindler who 
 disliked America and Americans, especially those of the frontier. In his 
 book of tra\'els in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, he frequently de- 
 scribed things, he had not seen. It is likely, however, that he did see the 
 great deposits of bones of fossil elephants and other great animals at Big 
 Bone Lick, Kentuckv. Ashe met Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati, who had 
 a great collection of bones from the deposit, and persuaded the trusting 
 physician to let him take the bones to England for mutual profit. The 
 bones were displayed with great profit to Ashe, but none to Dr. Goforth. 
 
 There were many publications in the late eighteenth and early nine- 
 teenth century on fossil elephants and other large animals. The 1802 
 and 1803 books by Rembrandt Peale on the mammoth skeleton from the 
 Hudson Valley are better known than this one by Ashe. The book by 
 Ashe is displayed, however, because it describes material from the Mis- 
 sissippi basin. 
 
 10
 
 13. Maclure, William, 1763-1840. 
 
 "Observations on the Geology of the United States, Ex- 
 planatory of a Geological Map," American Philosoph- 
 ical Society Transactions, VI (1809), 411-428. 
 
 Except for Volney's scattered remarks on American geology and Dr. 
 Mease's well-meaning but lim.ited effort, this paper by William Maclure 
 is the first summary of the oeolooy of the United States and the first so 
 titled. It is particularly important for the inclusion of the first geological 
 map of the United States printed in America. 
 
 The paper appeared in the Transactions of the American Philosophical 
 Society, the oldest scientific society in America. The Transactions con- 
 tain scores of papers on American geology, including ones on the western 
 country published as earl)' as 1 786. 
 
 Using Wernerian terminology, Maclure described the rocks of the 
 country as Primary, Transition, Secondary, and Alluvial. He stated that 
 the yast area west of the mountains was made of Secondary rocks, except 
 in the wide alluvial valley of the Mississippi. The Secondary rocks he 
 described as horizontal strata of limestone, sandstone, and coal. 
 
 The book is opened to show the crisp, bright, hand-colored map, one 
 of the important features. This map provided the basis for geological 
 knowledge of the countr)' for more than twenty-five years. It perpetuated 
 Wernerian terminology and attitudes in American geology long after 
 they had lapsed into deserved oblivion in Europe. With all its faults 
 and misfortunate theory, it is one of the m.ost important single publica- 
 tions in early American oeolooy. 
 
 14. Maclure, William, 1763-1840. 
 
 Observations on the Geology of the United States of 
 America... Philadelphia, Printed for the Author by 
 Abraham Small, 1817. 
 
 On January 20, 1817, Maclure presented a revision of his earlier re- 
 port on geolog)' of the United States before the American Philosophical 
 Society. The revised report was published in two forms, as a book in 
 1817 and as an article in the Transactions (New Series) early in 1818. 
 More European comparisons were introduced in the revised report and 
 strict Wernerianism was somewhat questioned, but the classification and 
 descriptions were actually little changed from those of 1809. A long 
 section on weathering and soil formation from the various rocks was 
 added. A discussion of the economic prospects of the country deduced 
 from the geological resources and physiographic controls was appended. 
 The geological map was changed only in minor ways, although a differ- 
 ent base was used. 
 
 Maclure's ideas became known mainly through the publication of his 
 report in book form. Forty years ago the work was unchallenged as the 
 
 11
 
 most important earlv book in American geology and Maclure was con- 
 sidered as the father of American geology. Today some geologists are 
 apt to emphasize his errors and insufficiences rather than his truly great 
 contributions. Perhaps in future assessments when his other publications 
 are considered, Maclure will be restored to his former high and paternal 
 place. 
 
 The Illinois copy, which is in the original boards, is a presentation 
 copv signed by the author. The map displayed is in the second state on 
 a revised geographical base, which shows the Arkansas Territory, estab- 
 lished v\'hen the map was going through the press. 
 
 15. Forsyth, Gideon C. 
 
 "Geological, Topographical, and Medical Informa- 
 tion Concerning the Eastern Part of the State of Ohio," 
 Medical Repository XII, no. 4 (1809), 350-358. 
 
 Although the paper shown is of some geologic importance, it is dis- 
 played primarily to call attention to the journal in which it appeared, the 
 Medical Repository. According to Meisel, this publication is "the first 
 strictly scientific periodical in the United States." It was founded in 
 1797 and appeared until 1823. 
 
 While the journal's emphasis was on medical papers, it contained 
 much on general natural history and geology. Of even greater importance 
 are the editorials, notes, and re\'iews of the books and domestic and for- 
 eign articles on geology and the western expeditions of the day. Many 
 of the notes were by the journal's founder. Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill 
 (1764-1861), the scientifically influential, but wordy genius and poly- 
 histor, who was equalled only bv Thomas Jefferson in intellectual ca- 
 pacity, but who fell far short of Jefferson's intellectual discipline. 
 
 The paper bv Dr. Forsyth, a physician of \'\'heeling, West Virginia, 
 asserted that the Ohio River and its tributary streams gradually wore away 
 their valleys and left the hills. He understood the origin of the terraces 
 of the Ohio Ri\er and the cause of the fluctuation of the level of the 
 ground water in the \yells and in the terraces. He listed mineral re- 
 sources, including salt springs which are of no consequence now, but 
 were of utmost importance to the pioneer. Forsyth recognized the spring 
 water is harder than river water, for he says "the former does not wash 
 well." 
 
 16. Cutler, Jervis, 1768-1844. 
 
 A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, In- 
 diana Territory, and Louisiana. Comprehending the 
 Ohio and Mississippi Rivers . . . Boston, Pub. by C. 
 Williams, J. Belcher, Printer, 1812. 
 
 12
 
 One of the first settlers of Marietta was Jervis Cutler, surveyor, traveler, 
 farmer, soldier, and later engraver. He had a keen eye for topography 
 and seems to have understood the relation of topography to rock character 
 and structure. The valleys of the Ohio, the lower Mississippi and the 
 Red River were familiar to him, and he described in detail these valleys 
 and the character of the uplands. In his book, he discussed oil springs, 
 coal deposits, sandstone for building, iron ore, salt springs and furnaces, 
 mineral springs, and the great fossil deposits of Big Bone Lick and other 
 localities. His description of the lead mines of Missouri is important 
 and mav be the first of the geology of these deposits. 
 
 This unassuming book is of importance for its first-hand descriptions 
 of natural features and geolog)' and for its five plates of animals, Indians, 
 and view of Cincinnati drawn and engraved by the author. The Illinois 
 copy of this much read and often incomplete book is complete with all 
 the plates and blanks. 
 
 17. Drake, Daniel, 1785-1852. 
 
 Natural and Statistical Vieic, or Picture of Cincinnati 
 and the Miami Country, Illustrated by Maps . . . Cin- 
 cinnati, Printed by Looker and Wallace, 1815. 
 
 Daniel Drake was an outstanding physician in Cincinnati, an organ- 
 izer of medical schools, a highly competent scientist, and a pungent 
 writer. His contributions to earlv geology deser\'e to be more widely 
 known and appreciated; his geological observations were accurate and 
 his speculations and understanding of geological processes were much 
 advanced for his time. 
 
 Natural and Statistical \ iew, or Picture of Cincinnati was wrritten 
 after Drake had traveled extensiveh- in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. 
 The section of the book concernino seologv is the first organized treatise 
 on the geology of western Ohio and eastern Indiana. It deals with the 
 limestone bedrock and its fossils, alluvial deposits of the vallevs and their 
 terraces, the elephant fossils of Big Bone Lick (including an account of 
 Ashe's swindle of Dr. Goforth'i, and the glacial drift and erratics of 
 granite from north of the Great Lakes. Drake did not realize that the 
 erratics had been transported by an ice sheet, but he speculated that they 
 may ha\ie been brought to their present position in "cakes of ice." This 
 is the first hint in America of any connection between erratics and ice. 
 The appendix constitutes a valuable and accurate record of earthquake 
 history, especially the time and severity of the New Madrid earthquakes 
 of 181 1-15 as recorded in Cincinnati. 
 
 Although the copy shown has been rebacked, it is quite crisp and the 
 maps are notably fine. 
 
 18. Cleaveland, Parker, 1780-1858. 
 
 An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology 
 
 13
 
 Being an Introduction to the Study of These Sciences 
 Boston, Published by Cummings and Hilliard, 
 1816. 
 
 Written by Parker Cleaveland, professor at Bowdoin, this first Ameri- 
 can book on mineralogy is noteworthy for its completeness; it compares 
 favorably with any European work of the time. The book is divided into 
 three sections, the first of w^hich is a lengthv introduction explaining 
 mineral properties. The second and longest section treats classification, 
 crystallography, and the description and occurrence of minerals. A col- 
 ored map derived from Maclure's map of 1809 forms the basis for the con- 
 cluding section on the geology of the United States. On the map the 
 rocks from the Appalachians to bevond the Mississippi are shown as 
 "Secondary," mainly horizontally bedded sandstone and limestone, but 
 the text makes it clear that coal, salt, clays and iron ores also occur. 
 
 The book was in such great demand that the first edition was soon 
 sold out. In 1822 an extensivelv revised second edition was published 
 in which was incorporated expanded information of great value about 
 the mineral localities in the western country, especially Ohio, Illinois, 
 and Missouri. The localities, descriptions and references to mineral de- 
 posits in the Mississippi Valley are significant additions to the later 
 edition. The inclusion of ths material is an indication of the rapidly 
 expanding knowledge of western geology and mineralogy. 
 
 A copy of the 1816 edition which was once owned by the mineralogist 
 Benjamin Akerly is shown. 
 
 19. Brown, Samuel R., 1775-1817. 
 
 The Western Gazetteer; or Kmigranfs Directory, Con- 
 tainitig a Geographical Description of the Western 
 States and Territories . . . Auburn, New York, Printed 
 by H. C. Southwick, 1817. 
 
 Although Samuel R. Brown is almost unknown to historians of Ameri- 
 can science, his geological writings are of considerable importance. From 
 personal observation, letters, and published sources, he described the 
 western country. The sections on Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are espe- 
 cially detailed and include many pages of perceptive geological references. 
 The section on the "Face of the Country" which describes the "six dif- 
 ferent kinds of land in Illinois" is the first attempt to classify Illiriois 
 into physiographic regions. Repeated references to petroleum appear in 
 the book. 
 
 The very important description of the raised beaches of Lake Erie is 
 based in part on the geological chapter in his earlier book, largely un- 
 known to geologists, \'iews of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army 
 .... (Burlington, 1814). It is curious that Brown's valuable references 
 to natural history and geology have escaped the notice of historians of 
 biology and geology. 
 
 14
 
 Although several American, Irish, and Enolish editions of the book 
 were published, the first American edition is displa^'ed. 
 
 20. Thomas, David, 1776-1859. 
 
 Travels Through the Western Country in the Summer 
 of 1816... Auburn, New York, Printed by David 
 Rumsey, 1819. 
 
 The Quaker practical engineer, David Thomas, travelled from his home 
 in Cayuga County, New York, to the Wabash Valley by way of Erie, 
 Pittsburgh, and across Ohio to Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and In- 
 diana to Vinccnnes and Terre Haute. The unusual route was arranged to 
 take him from one Society of Friends to another. The first part of his 
 pleasant and enjoyable book is a journal and the second part, notes and 
 discussion. 
 
 The composition, structure, and continuity of the rock units were 
 described so completely that it is possible to identify the very formations 
 Thomas passed o\'er. Repeatedly he noted drunilins, eskers, kettleholes, 
 and various kinds of erratics, which he was sure came from the north. 
 Along with Drake he considered ice a transporting agent, but he pre- 
 ferred a great flood origin for these deposits. 
 
 In his book, Thomas advanced proof that valleys were carved b\' the 
 streams which flowed in them and that the Knobstone Escarpment of 
 Indiana was an erosional feature. His description of Kentucky and In- 
 diana caves is the most complete to his time. Drawing on his excellent 
 knowledge of mineralogy and chemistry, he proposed a theory of cave 
 origin by solution of limestone bedrock. 
 
 The many references, quotations, and long critical notes on other 
 travel accounts and textbook theories make the book particularly valuable. 
 Though the book is little known now, it was widely used at the time 
 by compilers of gazetteers and through these media his ideas reached a 
 wide audience. 
 
 Thomas' book must have been popular in its day, for most copies show 
 evidence of intensive use. It was produced by a local printer from un- 
 distinguished tj'pe on poor paper with narrow margins and irregular 
 folding. The map, however, is very well drawn and printed. 
 
 21. Nuttall, Thomas, 1786-1859. 
 
 A Journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory, Dur- 
 ing the Year 1819... Philadelphia, Printed and Pub- 
 lished by T. H. Palmer, 1821. 
 
 Though Thomas Nuttall was primarily a botanist, his book on his 
 travels to Arkansas contains many acute geological observations and spec- 
 ulations. He compared the limestones of the interior and their fossils 
 
 15
 
 with those of Derbyshire, his earl\ home. He commented on the con- 
 tinuity of the coal and other rocks along the Ohio \'alley from Pitts- 
 burgh to Cairo and noticed the erratics in the outwash gravels along the 
 \'allev. Nuttall's discussion of the rocks and structures of the Ouachita 
 Mountains and his statement that he "cannot perceive any difference" 
 between them and the Alleohenv Mountains of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
 ginia is the first comparison of these two mountain systems. Farther west 
 he saw^ badlands, and understood in what materials and under what con- 
 ditions thev were formed. 
 
 Recently it has been discovered (J. E. Graustein, "Nuttall's Travels 
 into the Old Northwest," Chronica Botanica, XIV (1950), 1-88) that 
 in a plant collecting journey in 1810-11 Nuttall recorded in his diary 
 interestina and valuable seolooical notes on erratics, sedimentary rocks 
 and oil springs in northwestern Pennsylvania and on raised beaches of 
 Lake Erie in Ohio. It is greatly to be regretted that these observations, 
 together with those of the trip up the Missouri, were not published by 
 Nuttall. 
 
 22. Bradbury, John, 1768-1823. 
 
 Travels in the Interior of America, in the Years 1809, 
 
 1810, and 1811 ... Liverpool, Printed for the Author 
 by Smith and Galway and Published by Sherwood, 
 Neely and Jones, London, 1817. 
 
 After coming to St. Louis from the Atlantic coast, the Scotch-English 
 botanist John Bradbury spent two years traveling throughout the Missis- 
 sippi X'allev. In addition to covering the whole of the central Mississippi 
 Valley, his travels extended up the Missouri River almost to Montana. 
 The observations he made during his travels are clear and factual, not 
 t\A'isted and compressed to fit preconceived theories or systems. 
 
 The first half of Bradbur\ 's book is an exciting and apparently un- 
 exaggerated travel narrative which includes some hair-raising material on 
 Indians. Though the geology is woven into the narrative, it is also 
 assembled and organized in the last half of the book. 
 
 Bradbury described the essentially flat-lying strata from the Alleghenies 
 to the Rockies and knew of their fossil content and continuit)^ Clearly 
 he recognized the erosional origin of topography and understood that 
 differences in form — badlands, smooth slopes, wide or narrow flood 
 plains — are due to differences in material, slope, climate, and vegeta- 
 tion. Since he thought that the slow action of known foirces accounted 
 for the present condition of the earth, he was one of the very early uni- 
 formitarians in America. 
 
 \^^hen the great earthquake series began at New Madrid December 16, 
 
 1811, Bradburs' and his boat crew were on their wav from St. Louis to 
 New Orleans and were only a feu' miles away. Bradbun' was the scientist 
 closest to the center of the tremors and his \'i\'id and trustworthy account 
 itself entitles him to scientific recognition. Unfortunately Bradbury's 
 
 16
 
 important work is little known to historians of American natural history 
 and totally unknown to historians of geolog)'; a full studv of the man 
 and his scientific contribution is long overdue. 
 
 The 1817 edition of the book displayed was published without a map 
 or other illustration; an edition published two vears later included a map. 
 
 23. American Journal of Science. 1818 — 
 
 In 1818 Benjamin Silliman (1789-1864) of Yale published the first 
 volume of the American Journal of Science which is the oldest contin- 
 uously published scientific journal in America. From its outset the 
 Journal emphasized geology and mineralogy and devoted impressively 
 generous space to papers on geology of the area west of the mountains. 
 
 In the early part of the last century, the Journal was an important 
 means of disseminating geological information to scientists working in 
 the west and to persons interested in the geology of the new territory. 
 Through the articles, reviews, notes, and discussions that appeared in 
 the Journal it is possible to trace the development of geology in the West. 
 
 In the very first number of the first volume of the Journal on page 
 fifty-two is a communication by Joseph Baldwin of Shawnee Town on 
 "... some interesting specimens of fluor spar. Thev are found not far 
 from Shawnee Town (Illinois) on the banks of the Ohio ..." The 
 second number of the volume contained a long paper bv Caleb Atwater 
 of Ohio "On the Prairies and Barrens of the West," in which he sua- 
 gested that the prairies may be parts of an old lake bottom, perhaps a once 
 much m.ore extensive Lake Erie. 
 
 The financial problems of the day soon oppressed the editor and many 
 of his western subscribers. In volume four the editor tells of the wide 
 distribution of the Journal in the U.S. and overseas and that "... it is 
 not without patronage beyond the Alleghenies, but the state of the cur- 
 rency has made it necessary to relinquish an extensive subscription in 
 these regions." Ne\ertheless, the Journal continued to print many ar- 
 ticles on the geologv of the West. 
 
 The Library has a complete set of the Journal. The earlv volumes were 
 acquired as acquisition No. 681 when the University was still known as 
 the Illinois Industrial University. 
 
 24. James, Edwin, 1797-1861. 
 
 An Account of an Kxpedition from Pittsburgh to the 
 Rocky Mountains . . . London, Printed for Longman, 
 Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823. 
 
 Edwin James was geologist of the 1819 expedition to the Rockv Moun- 
 tains led by Major Stephen H. Long, and it was James who wrote the 
 major part of the report of the expedition. Major Long himself is note- 
 worthy in the history of American science, because he assembled an able 
 scientific staff and encouraged them to record and publish promptly their 
 
 17
 
 obsen'ations, to which he added his \'aluablc summaries. The wealth of 
 immediately reported geologic information from the 1819 and the 1823 
 expeditions is in marked contrast to the paucit}' of such material in the 
 reports of other great explorers, such as Zebulon Pike and Lewis and 
 Clark. 
 
 James' report supplied information about the geology of the Great 
 Plains and the Rocky Mountains used by succeeding writers for many 
 years. In the chapter on geology James dealt at length with the rocks 
 and structure of the Rocky Mountains, especially with the upturned sedi- 
 mentary rocks along the eastern front of the mountains. His concept of 
 the vast extent and continuity of the various strata from the Rockies far 
 eastward is much better realized from his text than from the sections 
 he included in his report. 
 
 Additonal contributions were made by other members of the expedi- 
 tion. The chapter by Major Long entitled "General description of the 
 country ..." is one of the first physiographic descriptions of the Great 
 Plains. 
 
 First published in Philadelphia in 1823, the report contained a map 
 which showed some geological boundaries, and thus is the first geological 
 map of the trans-Mississippi region. The three-\"olume London edition 
 of the report also appeared in 1823. The second volume of the London 
 edition is displayed to show the colored plate of the canyon of the South 
 Platte recorded by S. Seymour, senior artist of the expedition. The plate 
 is not included in the American edition. 
 
 25. Keating, William Hypolitus, 1799-1840. 
 
 Narrative of an Kxpedition to the Source of St. Peter s 
 River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &c.. Per- 
 formed in the Year 1823 . . . London, G. B. Whittaker, 
 1825. 
 
 William H. Keating served as oeologist, chemist, mineralogist, and 
 historian of Major Stephen H. Long's expedition to the Upper Missis- 
 sippi Valley, the Red River, Lake Winnipeg and Lake Superior. There 
 was scarcely any part of the route from Philadelphia to Columbus to Chi- 
 cago and thence to \A^innipeg and Lake Superior to which Keating did 
 not contribute important new geological obser\^ations. His Narrative of 
 an Expedition is one of the important geological books of the period. 
 
 The observations Keating made of Ohio geolog)' are especially impor- 
 tant. Having follo^\■ed erratic boulders from Zanesville, Ohio, to Can- 
 ada, Keating recognized their source and speculated on the method of 
 their transportation, but he did not realize their glacial origin. He un- 
 derstood that tJhe Precambrian rocks of the Canadian shield extended 
 southward underneath a covering of almost horizontal sedimentary' rocks 
 which contained fossils. 
 
 Narrative of an Expedition was first published in Philadelphia in 
 
 18
 
 1824. An edition was published in London in 1825 to meet the popu- 
 lar demand for information about the American West. The first volume 
 of the London edition is displayed. 
 
 26. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. 
 
 A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri . . . New York, 
 C. Wiley & Co., 1819. 
 
 Schoolcraft \\'as an inveterate traveler through the whole Mississippi 
 Valley and the Great Lakes region. He wrote several books and many 
 articles that included oeological and mineralogical observations of merit 
 and importance. His Lead Mines of Missouri was the first American 
 work on economic geology. Many aspects of geology are considered — 
 a history of the lead mines, mine descriptions, smelting, production 
 figures, and end uses. The book also contains an extensive "catalogue 
 of the minerals of the Western country" with notes on the general geology 
 of all the western states. 
 
 27. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. 
 
 Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit Northwest 
 Through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the 
 Sources of the Mississippi River in the Year 1820. Al- 
 bany, Published by E. & E. Hosford, 1821. 
 
 Schoolcraft's account of an expedition through the Great Lakes and 
 much of the upper Mississippi Valley contains many passages on geology 
 and mineral resources. It includes some description of the geology of 
 the basin of Lake Michigan and of the "drift clav" as well as the lime- 
 stone alono the shore. Schoolcraft was able to trace "the continuance of 
 the calcareous, horizontal series of the formations of the Fox Vallev, and 
 of the islands of Green Bay, quite around those northern waters to the 
 closing up of the surveys at Point St. Ignace and Michilimackinac." This 
 is one of the earliest reports of actual tracing and correlation of strati- 
 graphic units in the Mississippi Valley, and it marks the beginning of 
 the kind of observations which formed the basis for the rapidlv develop- 
 ing geological knowledge of the next few years. 
 
 28. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. 
 
 A Memoir on the Geological Position of a Fossil Tree, 
 Discovered in the Secondary Rocks of the River Des 
 Plaines... Albany, Printed by E. and E. Hosford, 
 1822. 
 
 "A petrified tree, which is found in the bed of the River Des Plaines 
 about four rods abo\'e its junction widi the Kankakee," is the subject of 
 
 19
 
 this report by Schoolcraft. More than forty-one feet in length, the dia- 
 meter of the tree ranwd from one and one half to two and one half feet. 
 Apparently the tree suffered some decay before burial in the sand, mak- 
 ing it impossible to tell which of the large Pennsylvanian trees it might 
 have been. Schoolcraft erroneously identified it as a black walnut, a tree 
 which did not appear until about 170 million years later. 
 
 The rock in which the tree was embedded Schoolcraft identified as 
 "newer Floetz sand stone," which he might also have called "Second- 
 ary," a term then used for the horizontal Paleozoic strata. Schoolcraft 
 noted that the sandstone where the tree was found had a few other fossils. 
 He observed that the material making up the surface of the adjacent 
 prairie contained granite and other far-traveled rocks which he knew to 
 be common in the northern states to the east. 
 
 This pamphlet is displayed not because of its scientific importance, 
 but because it is one of the earliest separate publications on an American 
 fossil plant, and because it has Illinois interest. The description was 
 published also in essentially the same form in a paper in the American 
 Journal of Science, v. 4, 1822. 
 
 29. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. 
 
 Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Val- 
 ley. Comprising Observations on Its Mineral Geogra- 
 phy .. . New York, Collins and Hannay, 1825. 
 
 In this book, Schoolcraft tells of his travels from Detroit to Toledo 
 and Ft. Wayne and down the Wabash and Ohio to Shawneetown, Illi- 
 nois, and thence overland to St. Louis and up the Illinois River to Chi- 
 cago. His extensive obser\'ations on minerals, fossils, physiography, and 
 sedimentary rock units are scattered through the book and if collected 
 and summarized would have been a respectable scientific contribution. 
 
 The copy exhibited is opened to the map which shows the route of 
 the travels. 
 
 30. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. 
 
 Narrative of an Expedition Through the Upper Mis- 
 sissippi to Itasca Lake, the Actual Source of This 
 River... New York, Harper, 1834. 
 
 The report of the expedition \\'hich reached the actual source of the 
 Mississippi River forms the most important part of this book, but a great 
 deal of incidental information is included. Numerous notes on geolooy 
 are contained in the work. Schoolcraft recognized the passage from 
 Paleozoic sedimentary rocks to the Precambrian crystalline rocks, and he 
 mentioned the presence of glacial erratics though he did not understand 
 their origin. Reports on copper deposits in Michigan, fossils, and lead 
 mines and geology of the Galena, Illinois, region are mentioned. 
 
 20
 
 Narrative of an Expedition and the Narrative Journal of Travels ori- 
 ginally published in 1821 were reprinted in one volume in 1855 with 
 some rearrangement and the addition of correspondence and numerous 
 appendices, some of great geological interest and value. 
 
 31. Shepard, C. U., 1804-1886. 
 
 "Geology of Upper Illinois/' American Journal of 
 Science/xXXlV (1834), 134-161. 
 
 A mineralogist and chemist, Dr. C. U. Shepard was concerned pri- 
 marily with mineralogy and eastern geology. Paleontology had some in- 
 terest for him, and his writing contains expert and perceptive comments 
 on it. If Dr. Shepard could have given more attention to Illinois and its 
 geologv, he could have contributed much to the advancement of knowl- 
 edge of the state, its geologv, and its mineral resources. 
 
 Shepard's penetrating remarks on northern Illinois were published in 
 a decade in which Illinois geology was not being ad\'anced very rapidly. 
 The remarks were made as a result of a \'isit to the Michigan and Illinois 
 Canal, possibly as a consultant, because he discussed the engineering 
 geologv of the canal's construction. This is the first publication in which 
 the geologv of Chicago is described, and it is noteworthy that the en- 
 gineering soil conditions were recognized at this early time. Shepard 
 described the succession of raised beaches of Lake Michigan, speculating 
 on the length of time required for their formation; the "Magnesian Lime- 
 stone" near Chicago, illustrating its characteristic fossils; and the northern 
 margin of coal bearina strata, including some of their fossils. 
 
 The petrographic description and analysis of the coal near Peru con- 
 tained in the article may be the first for an Illinois coal. Shepard also 
 recognized the superior clays near Peru as well as the "extensive beds of 
 pure, white sand" (St. Peter), and for both he predicted a promising 
 economic future, a prediction which has been brilliantly fulfilled. The 
 paper shows the influence of geology on feasability and cost of construc- 
 tion projects. In turn, the new canal excavations furnished information 
 for pure science just as thev had earlier in Great Britain to William Smith. 
 
 The paper is opened to show the map of the rocks near Peru and 
 La Salle and the section which is the first to show the disturbed strata 
 of the La Salle anticline. 
 
 32. Featherstonhaugh, George W., 1780-1866. 
 
 Geological Report of an Examination Made in 1834^ 
 of the Elevated Country Betiveen the Missouri and the 
 Red Rivers. Washington, 1835. 
 
 A respected English geologist, George \\'. Featherstonhaugh (the name 
 is said to have been pronounced "Fernshaw" or "Fanshaw") was a fel- 
 low of the Royal Society and the Geological Society of London. He 
 
 21
 
 knew of the investigations in the puzzling lower Paleozoic rocks by Sedg- 
 wick and Murchison, and he used some of their findings in advance of 
 complete publication. Appointed "U.S. Geologist" by the War Depart- 
 ment, he was the first to bear the title. Thouah he was one of the best 
 equipped men of his time to examine American rocks, his writings were 
 hurried and require careful reading to extract the really valuable contri- 
 butions. 
 
 In his report on the Missouri and Arkansas country he compared the 
 rocks and fossils with those of Great Britain. He recognized facies 
 fossils as well as index fossils. The \'ein and disseminated lead deposits 
 of Missouri he described accurately, and his theory of origin is quite 
 modern. Wisely he pointed out that proper theory would lead to great 
 extension of known deposits and to increased production. He proposed 
 that valleys in limestone between parallel ridges of sandstone in both the 
 Appalachian and Ouachita mountains were stream eroded from a once 
 level plain. His descriptions of Hot Springs and Magnet Cove in Arkan- 
 sas are excellent. 
 
 The long section on shape, origin and modification of river channels, 
 especially of the Arkansas River, is of special importance. The sugges- 
 tion he made that the Army Engineers study sediment load, transport, 
 and deposition under varying conditions has brought brilliant results 
 a century later. Had the report been properly organized, illustrated and 
 edited, it would have been a major contribution to American geolog)^ 
 Though it is important, it requires the laborious effort of a sympathetic 
 reader to extract from it the remarkably prescient material. If Featherston- 
 haugh had been fortunate enough to have had a Playfair to interpret him 
 to the world, his name \^'OuId be much better known. 
 
 The report appeared in two different forms in the same year, a House 
 document and a Senate document; a copy of the House document is dis- 
 played. The House document also appeared with a variant title page 
 which omitted the Congressional references. The accompanying very 
 long colored section of only moderate quality is too large to be displayed. 
 
 33. Featherstonhaugh, George W., 1780-1866. 
 
 Report of a Geological Reconnaissance Made in 1835, 
 From the Seat of Government, by Way of Green Bay 
 and the Wisconsin Territory, to the Coteau de Prairie 
 ... Washington, 1836. 
 
 Featherstonhaugh 's second trip as "U.S. Government Geologist" was 
 from Washington to northeastern South Dakota. He described the geol- 
 ogy of the area from the Blue Ridge and the folded Appalachians to 
 Pittsburgh, thence by way of Ravenna to Cleveland, noting the erratic 
 boulders and near Lake Erie the raised beaches of earlier lake stages. 
 Passing through Detroit, Mackinac, and Green Bay, he ascended the 
 Fox River to the portage to the Wisconsin River and thence traveled 
 downstream to Prairie du Chien. On his way up the Mississippi and 
 
 22
 
 Minnesota Rivers he described the rocks and had much to say about the 
 appearance of the granite beyond and below the Paleozoic rocks. He 
 ascended the Coteau and noted the little lakes on its surface. The report 
 seems to be a rapid and unrevised compilation from much more extensive 
 notes by a tired man who had to meet a deadline. 
 
 The summary of stratigraphic geology in America, the best to that time, 
 is the most important feature of the report. Featherstonhaugh was prob- 
 ably the first in America to use the terms Cambrian and Silurian in a ge- 
 ologic column, and his is a very earlv American use of the terms Cre- 
 taceous, Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene. His correlation chart of Car- 
 boniferous and Old Red (Devonian) rocks of America, Belgium, Ire- 
 land, and Enoland is remarkablv perceptive. Cretaceous rocks of the 
 upper Missouri basin he identified on the basis of index fossils. 
 
 In discussing the rise and diminution of trilobites and other Paleozoic 
 animals and of Mesozoic reptiles, as well as Carboniferous and Mesozoic 
 plants, his ideas were unmistakablv evolutionary. He understood the 
 ecological implications of some of the animal and plant fossils, but he 
 extended the so-called Carboniferous limestone too widely, including 
 in it much that was actually Devonian and pre-Devonian. If Feather- 
 stonhaugh's stratigraphic summary had appeared in another form and in 
 a separate publication, rather than a government document, it would have 
 had wider influence. 
 
 There are apparently two forms of publication of this report, an earlier 
 one without a map here displayed, and another the same year with a map. 
 A much longer narrative form of the report was published in two volumes 
 in England in 1847, as A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, which 
 contained two very useful maps and much additional material. 
 
 34. Nicollet, Joseph Nicolas, 1786-1843. 
 
 Report Intended to Illustrate a Map of the Hydro- 
 graphical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River. 
 Washington, Blair and Rives, 1843. 
 
 The French engineer J. N. Nicollet was just able to complete his great 
 map and a compact topographic and geologic explanation before his death, 
 but unfortunately he did not complete a proposed book on physiography. 
 The map is exceedingly detailed, and its accuracy far surpassed any pre- 
 vious map of the West. His excellent work deserves to be better known. 
 
 In his geologic descriptions Nicollet wrote of the Paleozoic strata and 
 reported on the Cretaceous rocks farther west. Accurately he described 
 "erratic deposites", and he wrote about the character and distribution of 
 "erratic blocks." Though he is one of the earliest geologists to use the 
 term "erratics," he did not speculate on their origin. He described the 
 WTiite River badlands and the Pierre shale, reported measured strati- 
 graphic sections and accompanying fossils, and made many other valuable 
 observations. 
 
 Serving as Nicollet's assistant, Lt. J. C. Fremont mapped the Des 
 Moines River part of the area. The training under Nicollet formed the 
 
 23
 
 basis of Fremont's later brilliant career in western explorations and map- 
 ping. 
 
 Although not published until 1843, the book displayed was the result 
 of work done from 1833 to 1838 and essentially finished by 1841. 
 Another edition appeared in 1845 with a map printed on thinner and 
 whiter paper. The great and beautiful 30 bv 36 inch map is too large to 
 be displayed. 
 
 35. Mather, William Williams, 1804-1859. 
 
 First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio. 
 1838. 
 
 In the decade of the 1830's geological surveys of most of the eastern 
 States weie. organized, and the pattern of state participation in geological 
 investigation was begun. In the Ohio part of the Mississippi Vallev the 
 states of Virginia, PennsvKania, Ohio and Indiana established sur\'eys 
 in this decade, but the other states did not do so until later — Illinois in 
 1851, Missouri in 1853, Kentucky in 1854, and Iowa in 1855. 
 
 The Geological Survey of Ohio was authorized in 1837, and Dr. 
 W. W. Mather and his assistants, most of tliem well known and highly 
 respected scientists, published the First Annual Report in early 1838 and 
 the Second Report in late 1838, surely a record of prompt action. These 
 reports are of careful studies of modern character. They are no longer 
 reconnaissance reports, but some of them are of such detail that they are 
 still valuable. They included measured sections and diagrams of measured 
 columnar and longitudinal sections drawn to scale. 
 
 A copy of the First Report of the Ohio Geological Survey is opened 
 to show the first folding plate which illustrates the variety of geological 
 information in the \'olume. Figure three is a measured section of Pleisto- 
 cene deposits containing vertebrate fossils; figure two is probablv the first 
 American illustration of mass movement — slumping of the Devonian 
 shale and overlvina drift alono the Lake Erie bluffs at Cleveland in which 
 the curved planes of movement and backward rotation of the blocks are 
 accurately shown. Figure four is an accurate section of the strata in 
 southern Ohio, showing the regional dip and the erosion levels. 
 
 36. Owen, David Dale, 1807-1860. 
 
 Report of a Geological Reconnoisance of the State of 
 Indiana... Indianapolis, J. W. Osborn and J. S. 
 Willets, 1839. 
 
 The Geological Survey of Indiana was established in 1837, but unlike 
 Ohio, where several experienced scientists immediately set to work, the 
 Indiana Survey was the sole work of the great David D. Owen. The 
 Sur\'ey's first report is explicitly a summary, but a valuable and impor- 
 tant one. Owen began this report with an elegant summary of Ameri- 
 can stratigraphy. Then he compared the Indiana rocks with those of 
 
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 Ohio and \'er\ briefh' described the strata of each count)' or group of 
 counties. He was more inclined than his neighbors in Ohio to make 
 correlations of Mississippi \'alley rocks with those of Great Britain. 
 
 Owen's report was published in two parts, the first in 1838, the second 
 in 1839. Charts, sections, and maps accompanied the manuscript report, 
 but were not published, a regretable circumstance, because Owen was an 
 expert draftsman and competent artist, and his illustrations must have 
 been of real importance. The two parts of the report were reprinted by 
 the State in 1859. 
 
 The copy of the first report displayed has been loaned for this exhibit 
 by Dr. John B. Patton, S:;ate Geologist of Indiana. 
 
 37. Owen, David Dale, 1807-1860. 
 
 Report of a Geological Kxploration of Part of Iowa, 
 Wisconsin and Illinois. 1840. 
 
 Although state geological surveys were not established in Illinois, Iowa, 
 and Wisconsin until 1851, 1855, and 1853 respectivelv, a survev of 
 parts of the three states was made in 1839 by the Federal government be- 
 cause of the interest in determining the extent of lead-bearing rocks. 
 The report of this survey is a landmark in American geology. 
 
 David Dale Owen and his assistants surveyed several thousand square 
 miles, made the maps, illustrated the fossils, and wrote the report in less 
 than twelve montlis, an unbelieveable accomplishment! With the as- 
 sistance of Dr. John Locke, Owen accurately mapped, described and 
 correlated the rocks, w orked out the relation of ore deposits to stratigraphy 
 and structure, and determined which lands were mineral-bearing. Even 
 Owen's introduction with six diagrams on origin of strata and later struc- 
 tures IS noteworthy. 
 
 The copy exhibited here is the earliest of several printings which ap- 
 peared over five years with minor changes and differing numbers of 
 plates and maps. A complete set of plates is reported to be twentv-five, 
 but this copy has twenty-seven. The book is opened to Plate XII with 
 Owen's beautiful drawings of the characteristic fossils of the "White 
 Lim.estone," now called Cedar Valley and Wapsipinicon limestones of 
 Middle Devonian age (Dr. Charles Collinson, personal communication, 
 August 20, 1962). 
 
 38. Hall, James, 1811-1898. 
 
 "Notes, Explanatory of a Section from Cleveland, 
 Ohio, to the Mississippi River, in a Southwest Direc- 
 tion; with Remarks upon the Identity of the Western 
 Formations with Those of New York," Association of 
 American Geologists and Naturalists Transactions 
 (1843), 267-296. 
 
 25
 
 The Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, which in 
 1848 became the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
 held its first meetings in 1840. Papers of the first three meetings were 
 published in 184^. The volume of the Transactions, which shows the 
 full attainment of modern geology, includes the Rogers brothers' paper 
 on the structure of the Appalachian Mountains, as well as papers on 
 mineral deposits, fossils, correlation, continental glaciation, and reports 
 of discussions. 
 
 Many of the papers and reports dealt with the Mississippi Valley, and 
 the most important paper of all was "Notes, explanatory of a Section 
 from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Mississippi River, ..." by James Hall. 
 The correlation was in part by means of lithologic similarities, but greater 
 stress was placed on similarity of the fossils. The accumulated mass of 
 organized and detailed observations from the publications of the new 
 state geological sur\'eys was enabling such synthesis and the development 
 of a uniform stratigraphic terminology. The pioneer davs were coming 
 to an end, and professional geologists were taking over. 
 
 The sheet of hand-colored sections displayed is in three parts. The 
 lower section shows the rocks from the Precambrian at the St. Lawrence 
 River to the strata of the southwest corner of New York. The center and 
 upper sections are parts of a continuous section of the Paleozoic rocks 
 from Cleveland across the Cincinnati Arch and thence across Indiana 
 and the Illinois Basin to the Mississippi River. This section was based 
 on Hall's personal knowledge and on information supplied by D. D. 
 Owens and others. 
 
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