266 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tallines — as was evident by the very valuable contributions to knowl- 

 edge in Part IV of the New Hampshire Report as prepared by Dr. 

 Hawes. 



A vexing question concerning what are now called Cambrian 

 terranes divided geologists for a quarter of a century after 1857, and 

 had to be considered in preparing the geology of Vermont in 1861. 

 This was the Taconic controversy. Trilobites had been discovered 

 in Vermont, which were misunderstood by most of the American 

 geologists following Hall, Logan, Dana, and others. In giving the 

 species the technical name first of Barrandesi and then Olenellus, 

 Prof. James Hall asserted its derivation from the Hudson River 

 group — relying upon the stratigraphical determinations of Sir W. 

 E. Logan. As soon as Barrandes's attention was called to these 

 trilobites and the attendant publication, he wrote his famous letter 

 to Logan in 1860, declaring that there must be a mistake somewhere. 

 That error was discovered in time to be eliminated from the Ver- 

 mont report of the following year. Professor Hitchcock had 

 charge of the field work in this Cambrian district, and his views of 

 the arrangement of the formations are in agreement with those of 

 the latest workers in the field. He applied the term of Georgia 

 to one division of the terrane in 1860; and the designation has 

 been generally adopted since that time. Jules Marcou claimed pri- 

 ority in the suggestion of the application of the term, but upon 

 the publication of Professor Hitchcock's statement on the subject 

 the credit of priority was awarded to him by Director Walcott, of 

 the United States Geological Survey. 



Between 1860 and 1870 Professor Hitchcock was occupied 

 largely as a mining geologist in the estimation of mineral deposits for 

 mining companies, with his office in New York. In the prosecution 

 of this business he traveled in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Alabama. Sub- 

 sequently, the study of the phosphate beds led him to the island of 

 Redonda in the West Indies. He further visited the phosphate beds 

 of South Carolina and Florida, the gold fields of eastern Oregon, 

 the Chalcedony Park of Arizona, the Grand Canon of the Colorado, 

 and the Yosemite and Yellowstone Parks. Studies made in the 

 Hawaiian Islands and their volcanoes in 1883 and 1886 resulted in 

 the contribution of important observations respecting those regions. 

 At the present writing Professor Hitchcock is spending a year of 

 further observations in those islands. 



Mr. Hitchcock was appointed, in 1858, lecturer in zoology and 

 curator of the cabinet in Amherst College; an office which he filled 

 for seven years, retiring after the death of his father. In 1866 



