MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 85

Uhler, President of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, on the
" Geology of the Surface Features of the Baltimore Area. "¹ An out-
come of the work of the field club was the preparation in 1884 of an
excursion map of Baltimore and its neighborhood by Mr. A. L. Web-
ster, a student of the University, who had formerly been a topographer
of the United States Geological Survey.

The Geological Department was organized in 1883, when Dr.
George H. Williams began his connection with the institution as an
instructor in mineralogy. His appointment marks the beginning of
a period of investigation of the geology and mineral resources of the
state that has been carried on by his associates and successors contin-
uously to the present day. It is certainly not claiming too much to
say that this period is by far the most important in the study of the
physical features of the state of Maryland.

Almost from the first the members of the geological department
have carried on their investigations in close co-operation with the
United States Geological Survey and frequently as members of its
staff, so that the results obtained have received wide publicity, and
on that account have greatly benefited the state.

The investigations of Dr. Williams were largely devoted to the
crystalline rocks of the Piedmont Plateau lying to the north and west
of Baltimore, which through his labors has become classic ground in
microscopical petrography.

The earliest work of Dr. Williams began shortly after his arrival
in 1883, his first publication upon Maryland geology being a " Pre-
liminary notice of the Gabbros and Associated Hornblende rocks in
the Vicinity of Baltimore. " ² Another article followed shortly after,
entitled " Note on the so-called Quartz-porphyry at Hollins Station,
north of Baltimore. "³

During the year 1885 Dr. Williams contributed articles upon
" Dykes of apparently Eruptive Granite in the Neighborhood of Bal-

¹ Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ., vol. ii, No. 21, pp. 52-53.

² Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ. No. 30, vol. iii, 1884, pp. 79-80.

³ Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ. No. 32, vol. iii, 1884, p. 131.