510 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



fact to the American Journal and the St. Louis Academy of 

 Science, on the 16th of February, 1858, I learned that. Mr. 

 Meek was exceedingly troubled that he had lost that small 

 honor. By the solicitation of his friends, I made a statement 

 in the American Association, at Baltimore, in May, 1858, giv- 

 ing Mr. Meek all the credit he then claimed. This statement 

 was acquiesced in by all the interested parties as a final set- 

 tlement of the whole matter; and as such, it was published 

 in the proceedings of the Association* and the American 

 Journal. 



So far as I remember, I have referred to the matter but 

 once since, and then merely to repeat one of the items in the 

 statement made at Baltimore, and that without addition, sub- 

 traction or comment, although Messrs. Meek and Hayden 

 had, both jointly and singly, made sundry statements, both 

 unjust and distasteful from one who had received from me a 

 credit for discovery, which many believed belonged to myself, 

 and which Dr. Hayden has well nigh proved does not belong 

 to Mr. Meek. The Baltimore statement was made to put a 

 final quietus upon the unprofitable discussion. But they will 

 not let it rest; they keep its miserable ghost in an everlasting 

 perambulation to the infinite disgust of the scientific world. 



As some of our most distinguished geologists doubted the 

 existence of Permian Rocks in the West, and as Messrs. Meek 

 and Hayden, even after they claimed the discovery, were so 

 very doubtful that they used no stronger expressions than 

 that their fossils indicated the existence of Permian Rocks, t 

 there seemed to be a necessity lor publishing the section of 

 Maj. Hawn and a description of the fossils which proved the 

 rocks Permian. This was done in one or two journals, and a 

 paper was read before the American Association at Balti- 

 more, where the fossils were exhibited, and a lull discussion 

 was had of the whole subject. 



Since then I have published nothing upon the geology of 

 Messrs. Meek and Hayden's peculiar provinces, (save that 

 small Preliminary Report on the Geological Survey of Kan- 

 sas, which has so sadly displeased them,) though I have lived 

 in this region 17 years, and spent a large part of that time in 

 examining its geology and noting the facts collected. 



But Messrs. Meek and Hayden have so unfairly discussed 

 f he matter of discovery that it becomes necessary to set the 

 /natter right. It is not proposed to change the settlement 



*Proc. Am. Ass., 1858, p. 220; Araer. Jour., Sept., 1858, p. 187. 



t In the record of their discovery, made in the Smithsonian Institute, 

 they say "forms indicating Permian," while the Potsdam and Carbonifer- 

 ous are mentioned in positive terms, showing decided doubts about the 

 Permian. So, also, in the title of the Paper in the Trans. Albany Ins., vol. 

 IV., in which Messrs. Meek and Hayden made their first announcement. 



