AND THE REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF VERMONT. 100 



Let me say here, that to find fossils in those lenticular masses of dolomitic limestone 

 and sandstone, at or near Parker's quarry, was not an easy task; for this ]i]ace has been 

 searched thi-onghout its whole area, and very cai-efully, by Dr. S. II. Hall, Rev. J. B. 

 Pei-ry, E. Billings, Colonel Jewett and myself; and to come after such observers and 

 detect fossils where no one of us found any, is a feat of no common occurrence. Mr. 

 "Walcott has shown himself there, as he has also at several other places in the vicinity of 

 Georgia, Swanton and Ilighgate, at Trenton Falls, Saratoga, the Great Canon of the 

 Colorado, Eureka, etc., etc., to be the ablest collector of fossils in America, and one of 

 the first the world over. I am glad to have this occasion to state my admiration for his 

 keenness, persistence and extraordinary ability for finding fossils. It is a rare and very 

 precious gift. 



The Lorraine shales versus the Hudson River group. — Having acknowledged the errors 

 corrected by Mr. Walcott, I have now to ofier some remai'ks upon points on which we 

 disagree. 



Comparing his section, pp. 15, 16 and 17 of his "Second Contribution to the studies on 

 the Cambrian faunas of North America," with mine, there are first the slates on the 

 shores of Lake Champlain. Mr. Walcott, in his "Georgia sections," p. 16, fig. 1, calls 

 them Yiudson River formations dipping 60" east. But he gives no explanations and 

 even in his "Ideal section from the Adirondacks over the line of the Georgia section," 

 p. 25, fig. 2, no Hudson liiver formation is given. 



Since my first paper, published in 1861, I have carefully avoided the use of the name 

 "Hudson Rivei- group," which has become so hopelessly involved. The confusion created 

 by its use, with its many meanings, must be checked, and the sooner the better. Mr. 

 S. F. Ford in 1885 ("Observations upon the great fault in the vicinity of Shodack land- 

 ing," in Amer. Journ. Sc, xxix, p. 16) has also i-ejected the designation "Hudson River 

 group," using instead the old synonym "Lorraine shales." 



One of the first desiderata is a careful survey of the typical localities of the Lorraine 

 shales at Sandy Creek, on Lake Ontario. Then the shales should be studied in all cen- 

 ti-al New York as far as Utica, and the old opinion first expressed by Dr. Emmons of 

 a union of the Utica slates and Lorraine shales, on account of the unifoi-mity of the 

 lithological characters thi-oughout the I'ock, should be controlled. The fauna at Sandy 

 Creek and through central New York of the "Utica and Lorraine" would require the 

 attention and careful studies of an excellent paleontologist as well as a good stratigraph- 

 ist, like Mr. AYaleott. From Utica to Schenectady, the survey should be very minute- 

 and then, as soon as the valley of the Hudson is reached near the mouth of the Mohawk, 

 where the Lorraine shales have been crushed and strongly laminated by lateral pressure, 

 jirobably it would become necessary to put aside all the slates which do not contain a 

 full fatina — at least two-thiids or certainly a good half of the number of species of the 

 Lorraine of central New York.^ We should then synchronize only the portion of the 



' " The typical rock (Lorraine shales) is (lis|ilaye(l in the "On the Mohawk at Cohoes, the sliales and sandstones 



gorges of Lorraine and Kodman, and not npon tlie Uiulson in a crushed condition are tolerably well exposed. They 



lliver. In the latter region the rock is crushed, and is by may lie traced to Schenectady and Saratoga, where they lie 



no means in a condition suitable to give character to a in a horizontal position" (American Geolorji/, Vol. I, I'txit 



group, hence it should be referred to only as a niodifled II, Taconic System, by E. Emmons, p. UO, Albany, 1855). 

 condition of the Lorraine shales." 



