112 Barrande, Logan and Hall 



. In another letter, dated Paris, 14th August, 1860, Mr. Barrande 

 says : — 



" You will easily perceive the interest and importance of the 

 question, even if it were only raised on account of the three Oleni 

 of Georgia ; but it takes it now a much wider field, owing to a 

 letter I have just received from Mr. Billings, official palaeontolo- 

 gist of the Geological Survey of Canada, who informs me that he 

 has found lately, in the schists and limestones near Quebec, con- 

 sidered as being the prolongation of those in question in Vermont, 

 nearly one hundred species, almost all new. Twenty-six of these 

 come from a white limestone, and seem to him to be the true rep- 

 resentatives of the Primordial fauna, and he cites among them 

 ConocepkaliteSj ArionelluSy Dihellocephalus^ etc., that is, very 

 characteristic forms of this fauna. 



" In another limestone, which is gray, he finds thirty-nine spe- 

 cies, all different from the first, and representing, on the contrary, 

 the most distinct types of the second fauna. Finally, the black 

 schists furnish him with GraptoliteSy Lingulce^ etc., etc., fossils 

 which at first sight cannot determine a horizon, because they are 

 found upon several Silurian horizons. 



" While waiting for these very obscure stratigraphical relations 

 to be disentangled, and without committing in any manner Mr. 

 Billings, who should preserve the independence of his opinion, I 

 may yet express to you my view wholly personal, and of which 

 at this moment I take the entire responsibility. I think, then, that 

 this reofion of schists and limestones of Vermont, in other words 

 the Taconic system^ will reproduce in America what took place 

 in England as to the Malvern Hills, and in Spain for the Canta- 

 brian chain, — that is to say the Primordial fauna, after having 

 been disregarded, will regain its rights and its place, usurped for 

 a time by the second fauna, 



" You see it is a great and noble question, whose final solution 

 will complete the imposing harmonies existing already between 

 the series of palaeozoic faunae of America and that of the contem- 

 poraneous faunae of Europe, leaving to each the imprint peculiar 

 to its continent. 



*' I can well imagine, from the position previously taken by our 

 learned American brethren on the subject of the Taconic system, 

 that the final solution of which I speak will not be obtained with- 

 out debate, and perhaps some wounding of self-love, for some 

 opinions that appear to be dominant must be abandoned. 



