294 [October, 



The Loyidon AihencBum in its notice says, "The work of Mr. Taylor will 

 command attention, and become standard as a reference ; especially as it is the 

 only one which endeavors to concentrate the knowledge diffused through so 

 many channels, and often attainable only in the countries to which the statistics 

 refer." 



The press in this country did not withhold its proper appreciation of a work 

 so important to the great coal and iron interests this side the Atlantis. 



In the notice in Silliman's Journal it is said, "It is a sufficient guarantee for its 

 completeness and accuracy on all points on which it touches, that it received, 

 before publication, the highest and most unqualified praise at one of the meetings 

 of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists." * * * "An 

 examination of the volume, now that it has appeared from the press, gives us a 

 still higher opinion of the talents and industry of its author, and the great value 

 of his labors," &c. The Journal of the Franklin Institute stated it could scarcely 

 have been thought possible that one individual, especially in this country, could 

 have collected together such a mass of facts, and made of them so well arranged 

 and so delightful a book. Hunt's Merchants' Magazine says, " We venture to 

 say that, on no kindred subject, has a more complete or perfect treatise ever been 

 produced." 



Beside the proficiency which Mr. Taylor had acquired in economic geology, he 

 had devoted himself much to theoretic geology, and his knowledge of the various 

 formations, which make the sum of the geological series, was rarely excelled by 

 his colleagues. He had devoted himself more particularly to the strata connected 

 with the coal formation, and he was the first person, as Prof. Silliman stated to 

 a meeting of the American Association of Geologists, who had referred the Old 

 Red Sandstone, underlying the coal of this State, to its true position, correspond- 

 ing with its place in the series of European rocks. He was unwilling to engage 

 in State surveys, but his aid was sometimes required to assist in those particular 

 branches in which he so much excelled. With this view he for a short time lent 

 his services to the New York State Survey. 



In the year 1832 he was elected a member of this Academy, and in 1846 a life 

 membership was conferred upon him, " as a mark of respect and a just apprecia- 

 tion of its means of usefulness derived from him." His attachment to the 

 Academy increased with his advancing years. He frequently made donations to 

 it of specimens and books. Very recently, he presented a most elaborate geolo- 

 gical table in manuscript, colored to represent the different strata, and combining 

 the analogous nomenclature of various systems. This most valuable donation 

 was made to the Academy on condition of its never being taken from the library, 

 and it cannot fail to be most useful for consultation and reference. 



At the time of his death, Mr. Taylor was engaged in preparing a paper, for the 

 Journal of the Academy, on the fossil plants which he had discovered in his 

 recent visit to New Brunswick. The fossil fishes which he also discovered there, 

 he left with his friend Prof. Agassiz, who was to describe the new ones for him. 

 All these Mr. Taylor intended should be deposited in the collection of this 

 Academy, to which ho had already added many valuable specimens. 



Mr. Taylor was the third son of Samuel Taylor, of New Buckenham, in Nor- 

 folk, England, and a descendant of Dr. John Taylor, the author of the Hebrew 

 Concordance. He was born at Banham, in Norfolk, Jan. ISth, 1789. His bro- 



