OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 189 



" P. S. As it regards the Potsdam sandstone I think you right, so 

 far as Owen's discoveries are concerned. It is a point I have not 

 thought of, and is new to me. The suggestion is a good one, and must 

 be met.-' 



" Raleigh, December 80, 1860. 

 " Prof. J. Marcou. 



"My dear Sir, — I wish, if not inconvenient, you would send 



three or four copies of your pamphlet to Colonel E. Jewett, Curator of 



the State Cabinet of Natural History, Albany. He is now one of the 



strongest friends I have, and will do much to disseminate the truth. 



.... I have no doubt that, for fossils, the Taconic is the best field 



for work which remains, though it may not prove to be productive in 



numbers. 



" E. Emmons." 



" Raleigh, January 23, 1861. 

 " Prof. J. Marcou. 



" Mt dear Sir, — I am under the highest obligations to you for 

 the decided part you have taken in the question respecting the Taconic 

 system. Your example and decision, and judicious statements, have 

 effected a revolution in opinion quite remarkable. I should not forget 

 Mr. Billings ; for, placed as he was, he must have run great risks in 

 the course he took ; but no man is good for anything unless he dare 



express an opinion when he has formed one It was ten years 



ago, I think, when I claimed Logan's Huronian system as nothing 

 more than the Taconic 



" It is really a matter for wonder that Sir Wm. Logan has con- 

 ceded as much as he has. I am told he has not done the thing very 

 gracefully. But the case was one that there was no way to get 

 around it, nor over it, nor through it ; sooner or later, the acknowl- 

 edgment must be made, and the sooner was the wise course. I have 

 not yet seen what he answered to Barrande. 



" Colonel Jewett is a capital man. He is not afraid to speak what 

 he thinks. 



" AVhen once the Primordial group is recognized, the rest follows 

 necessarily, unless an older system is called up and a new name given.* 



* Dr. Emmons has evidently no idea that a part of the Primordial zone will 

 be called " Quebec group," and placed above the Potsdam sandstone, and as a 

 substitute to tlie Calciferous, the Chazy, and the Trenton groups. An expedi- 

 ent so contrary to what exists in the field never came into his mind. 



