OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 177 



that through this whole extent the base is continuous. The most 

 northeasterly point at which I have observed this system is at the Fox 

 Islands, off the coast of Maine ; but I have good reason to suspect its 

 existence in Newfoundland. If so, it ranks among the most persistent 

 geological formations of this country."* 



1844-46. — The quarto volume published in Albany, 1844, enti- 

 tled, '• The Taconic System, based on Observations in New York, Mas- 

 sachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island," is the work that has 

 best made known this new system of rocks. Resuming his " Final 

 Report " of 1842, Dr. Emmons here develops largely his first views, 

 and extends them by explorations and observations throughout New 

 England. The indication of fossils, all of them figured, is the most 

 important part of the work, as follows : two Trilobites, Alops trl- 

 Uncatns and EUiptocephala asaphoides, found by Dr. Fitch near Bald 

 Mountain, in Washington County, New York; several Nereites from 

 Maine ; and some GraptoUtes (fucoides) from the flagging-stone of 

 Hoosick. 



This memoir, except the Preface, is exactly reproduced in "Agricul- 

 ture of New York," by Ebenezer Emmons, Vol. I. (Albany, 1844, 

 4to), with an Appendix of four pages. It constitutes the fifth chapter, 

 from page 45 to page 112 inclusive. 



1855-56. — Dr. Emmons gives a new statement of the documents 

 relating to his Taconic system in his " American Geology," Vol. I. 

 Part II. pp. 1 to 122 (Albany, 1855, 8vo). Here are a few quota- 

 tions : — 



'• The Taconic period one of animal and vegetal life. — This system 

 is not less thoroughly peculiar in its organisms than in its physical 

 characteristics. It is true that the number of its fossils is small when 

 compared with the Silurian period ; but, as far as they go, they stamp 

 upon it a distinctiveness which is as marked as that of the SiluriaJi and 

 Carboniferous. ... As a general rule, however, the fossiliferous bands 

 occupy nearly the same horizons, and they are so rarely absent that 

 the pahcontologist always expects to find them. It is not so, however, 

 in the Taconic system ; there is a general barrenness of life and vitality, 

 which is not accounted for, unless it is regarded as due to the period 

 in which the rocks were deposited. . . . While the Silurian carries its 

 characteristic fossils for more than a thousand miles, the Taconic sys- 

 tem is equally comparatively barren for the same distance. Again, 



* American Geology, Part II. The Taconic System, (Albany, 1855,) pp. 5 

 and 0. 



VOL. XX. (N. S. XII.) 12 



