SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JAMES HALL. 123 



paleontological department of the survey of Canada, under Sir Will- 

 iam Logan, but undertook the study of the graptolites of the Quebec 

 group, and published a monograph on them, which was afterward re- 

 published, with additions, in the " Twentieth Report of the New York 

 State Cabinet of Natural History." The list of his other contributions 

 to American geology includes articles in the reports of the " State Cabi- 

 net and State Museum " ; " Descriptions of Organic Remains," given 

 in the Government reports of various Western surveys, including the 

 reports of Fremont, Stansbury, and the boundary survey of the United 

 States and Mexico ; and numerous contributions to the " American 

 Journal of Science," and to various scientific societies at home and 

 abroad. He is a foreign member of the Geological Society of London, 

 and received the Wollaston medal from it in 1858 ; and is a corre- 

 sponding member of the Institute of France. 



M. Ch. Barrois, reviewing in the " Revue Scientifique " the latest 

 published volume of Professor Hall's " Paleontology," says that, like 

 all the other publications of the author, it " brings an ample harvest 

 of new and important facts. It would form the base and the founda- 

 tion of the study of the palaeozoic bivalves, if it did not have to share 

 that honor with the work recently published by our regretted compa- 

 triot Barrande, on the ' Acephalse of the Silurian of Bohemia.' Never 

 will the names be separated of these two superior men, who have de- 

 voted themselves during this century with an equal activity to the 

 study of the palaeozoic faunas. Born in countries distant from each 

 other, in environments still more widely separated in modes of thought, 

 Barrande and James Hall came to fill the same part in the history of 

 science. The same love of research and of the truth animated them ; 

 the same indomitable energy constantly encouraged and sustained 

 them ; and, with all the work that has been accomplished by numbers 

 of other specialists, every one will recognize that these two men have 

 competently described the fauna of the transition-beds. They have 

 done more in that direction than all the rest of their generation." 



Professor Hall devoted much attention to the study of crystalline 

 as well as of fossiliferous stratified rocks, and was, according to Dr. 

 Hunt, the first to point out the persistence and significance of minera- 

 logical character as a guide to their classification, in the manner which 

 has since been developed and extended by the latter geologist. Among 

 his other most important contributions to geological science is his sug- 

 gestion of a rational theory of mountains, in regarding them as the 

 products of erosion, aided by the upheaval and contortion of strata as 

 an incidental, not a chief factor. 



The magnificent collection of fossils accumulated by Professor Hall 

 during the course of his geological work has been transferred to the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and now forms a part of the 

 cabinet in the New York Central Park. 



