IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 109 



prolix discussions did Hall abandon his early views on the 

 Devonian age of these shales which have so long been 

 called the median member of the Kinderhook, 



G. C. Swallow, the first state geologist of Missouri, with 

 the aid of the paleontologists Meek and Shumard, recog- 

 nized in his state, immediately beneath the great Encrini- 

 tal limestone a three-fold division which h-e referred to the 

 Chemung section of the Devonian . This author introduced 

 a new member into the succession by defining the Chou- 

 teau limestone. In central Missouri this limestone attains 

 a thickness of 100 feet. No one would suspect from exami- 

 nation along the Mississippi river that such an important 

 formation existed at the base of the Burlington limestone. 

 Hence, it is not strange that the geologists who had only 

 seen the river sections gave the dozen feet of earthy lime- 

 stone at the bottom of the Burlington so little consider- 

 ation. 



Meek found the Chouteau limestone in the original 

 locality to contain many forms of fossils. Their great re- 

 semblance to those in the limestone above had a tendency 

 from the first to somewhat shake his faith in the Devonian 

 age of the beds. In his later report, on Saline county, 

 Missouri, the next year (though not published until seven 

 years afterwards) he was fully convinced that the Chouteau 

 limestone should be associated with the Carboniferous 

 rather than the Devonian. It is a noteworthy fact in this 

 connection that, in central Missouri, the lower two mem- 

 bers of Swallow's Chemung appear to be wanting. 



Meek and Worthen's Kinderhook formation has a singu- 

 lar nominal history. The proposal of the term Kinder- 

 hook as a geological title was unfortunately shrouded by 

 personal animosities. When, in 1860, Worthen and Meek 

 began their labors on the geological survey of Illinois both 

 had recently become very bitter against Hall, and could 

 scarcely restrain themselves in attempts to overthrow some 

 of the latter's work. Worthen had fancied an unpardonable 

 grievance because, while connected with the Iowa survey 

 under Hall, the latter had verified some of the former's 



