Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology21894univers).pdf/297
- by the state geologist during this long period, have unquestionably since been of benefit to the state, for without such experience on his part the disbursing of large sums and the directing of the work of the enlarged survey, so as to secure the best results and to avoid injudicious expenditures, would have been attended with many perhaps insurmountable difficulties. I might add further that the cost to the state of this preliminary work, as shown above, was small.
- 3) On the other hand, while at the beginning of the work these preliminary reports supplied in a measure the information then demanded, it cannot be denied that the progress of the state in the development of its great resources, especially in the latter part of this period created a demand for much more detailed and special information in certain directions than the survey could supply without some greater expenditure of money.
Second Decade.—Accordingly, a bill was brought before the General Assembly of 1882-83, providing for an annual appropriation of $5,000 for the ensuing ten years, and this bill became a law in February, 1883. Before the expiration of this ten-year limit the amount of the annual appropriation was increased in 1891 to $7,500; to continue till otherwise ordered by the General Assembly, thus avoiding the necessity of renewed legislation at every meeting. Under these laws assistants were appointed and work assigned as follows. Henry McCalley, in the Warrior Coal Field and subsequently in the Valley regions; Jos. Squire, in the Cahaba Coal Field; A. M. Gibson, in Murphree's Valley and the Coal Measures adjacent thereto, and afterwards in the Coosa Coal Field; the State Geologist, with D. W. Langdon, T. H. Aldrich, and L. C. Johnson, undertook the examination of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations of the Coastal Plain. Administrative work, the editing of reports, and the preparation of the Geological Map, have however engrossed a great part of his time. Later, Dr. George Little made an examination of the clays of the Lower Cretaceous; Dr. W. B. Phillips began the investigation of the Gold region, and Mr. K. M. Cunningham has demonstrated