186 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Zone. I have become of late very deeply interested in this question, 



and would like to see it settled ; but I do not, owing to my peculiar 



relations with others, desire to be recognized publicly in the matter. 



It is on account of my interest in the question, and because I like your 



writings, that I take the liberty of communicating thus freely with you, 



aUliough you are a stranger to me, and may feel surprised that I should 



take such freedom. 



" Yours, with the greatest respect, 



"E. Billings." 



" Raleigh, N. C, November 6, 1860. 

 " Prop. Jdles Marcou. 



"My dkar Sir, .... But of all the erroneous opinions ever 

 published in this country, are those adverse to the Taconic system, a 

 system which stands out as boldly in our system of rocks as the Car- 

 boniferous 



"E. Emmons." 



"Raleigh, November 19, 1860. 

 " Prof. J. Marcou. 



"My dear Sir, .... I am right in the Taconic system! and 



of {_sic'\ that, though it may not be so clear in the book [referring to 



his Manual of Geology], is clear as daylight in the field. But {i)iter 



nos) I do not think Barrande goes far enough ; and I do not think 



him right in maintaining that his Primordial group is a part or parcel 



of the Silurian. And if you have taken that view you will have to 



back out, for the Lower Silurian is strictly unconformable to every 



part of my Taconic series ; and this series is sui generis, one geolocfi- 



cally, stratigraphically, and palceontologicaUy, with a host of other long 



words, separate and distinct from Silurian. 



" E. Emmons." 



« Raleigh. November 20, 18G0. 

 " Prof. Jdles Marcou. 



" My dear Sir, .... I sent, three or four weeks ago, all my 

 publications to Barrande, who has w-rittcn mo, though they had not 

 reached him. Perhaps yesterday I did Barrande injustice, if a person 

 in my position and acquirements can do so. On reading his papers, 

 I found that, after all, his Primordial group is only Loicer Silurian. 

 I conceive we have exactly his Primordial group in the band of slates 

 containing the Paradoxides. But this band is only a very nariow 

 belt of beds. 



