508 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



Messrs. Meek and Hayden to the discovery of the Permian 

 Rocks of the West. 



4. To announce still again the views of Messrs. Meek and 

 Hayden on the Permian System of the West, and to show 

 that they are right, and that all who differ from them are 

 necessarily wrong. 



5. To set forth that old array of fossds so often displayed 

 and somewhat rearranged, interspersed with numerous re- 

 marks which fhow the authors possessed of rare intuitive 

 knowledge of the unpublished views of others. 



1st. But so far as I understand the labors of Dr. Hayden 



in the Territories of " Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Idaho, Mon- 

 tana and Colorado," and the assistance rendered by Mr. Meek, 

 it appears proper to remark that we all do owe Messrs. Hay- 

 den and Meek, for their explorations and numerous papers on 

 this vast territory, no small debt of gratitude, and that that 

 debt would have been greatly increased, had they stated the 

 facts collected with a little more precision, and had not 

 mixed them up with so many hasty general deductions and 

 conclusions, (which they have felt bound to defend, or lose 

 reputation for accuracy) ; and had they spent more time in 

 perfecting their own work, and less in correcting what they 

 supposed the errors of others. 



There are many rocks in numerous localities in this vast 

 territory, and it will take no email amount of labor to collect 

 all the facts necessary for those positive general deductions 

 of science from which none may presume to differ. 



2d. In regard to the errors in my Preliminary Report, Dr. 



Hayden complains, in the first place, that I did not give 

 Messrs. Meek and Hayden the credit due them for the dis- 

 covery of Permian Rocks in Kansas. 



I omitted to declare Mr. Meek the discoverer of the Per- 

 mian System for sundry reasons. 



1st. There was no occasion for mentioning the matter. 

 2d.' In 1858, I read a paper before the American Associa- 

 tion, setting forth the history of that discovery, which was 

 accepted by all parties interested as a final settlement of the 

 dispute between Mr. Meek and Maj. Ilawn. 



Dr. Hayden, in a revised edition of an Official Report* on 

 Nebraska, sjives a full history of the Permian discovery, save 

 the part which I performed. He mentioned Maj. Hawn's dis- 

 covery and the announcements made by Messrs. Meek and 

 Hayden, and Drs. Shumard and Norwood and Mr. Worthen, 

 but my name is carefully omitted. He also speaks of what 

 was done at the American Association, and the Permian fos- 

 sils there exhibited, and still no intimation that I had any 



* Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., vol. 10, p. 144. 



