21G PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



they seem from 18G2 to 1881 to have remained stationary, while the 

 old adversaries of the Tacouic system, taking courage, have made great 

 efforts to suppress it entirely. But as 1 have avoided citing the attacks 

 and criticisms of the first period of the history of the Tacouic system, 

 1 uill not mention the numerous criticisms appearing from 18G1 to 

 1881, as these publications have brought no new facts or elements 

 into the Taconic question. 



Justice should be rendered to the labors of the palaeontologists, 

 more es[)ecially those of Billings, 8. W. Ford, "Whitfield, Hart, and 

 Matthews. Billings did not give all he promised. I'laced in a sub- 

 ordinate position in the Geological Survey of Canada, and succeeding 

 as palaeontologist a savant with whom he disagreed almost from the 

 beginning, — affected by a cruel malady that completely paralyzed his 

 power of observation in the field, — he died at a comparatively early 

 age, and was thus prevented from showing his full powers and doing 

 what was to be expected from so good an observer. In truth, no 

 American pahrontologist has ventured to touch the stratigraphic 

 question. No one has been willing to render palaeontology subject 

 to stratigraphy studied carefully on the ground. If Barrande had 

 been like them, he would never have found his " Colonies" ! 



Stratigraphists are as subject to error as other men, without doubt; 

 if they observe under the inHuence of a preconceived idea, they are 

 often mistaken. This occurred in Bohemia to Lipoid, Krejci, and 

 Marr. But when, like Barrande, they study the ground with the sole 

 object of finding the veritable structure of the rocks and their relative 

 ages, that is, the truth as it exists, they are seldom deceived. 



1881. — After twenty-one years of study in the field and researches 

 in collections I published the result of my research on the upper part 

 of the Taconic system or Taconic proper of the eastern side of Lake 

 Champlain. The memoir appeared in the Bulletin Sac. Geol. de 

 France, 3* Serie, Tom. IX. p. 18, Taris, 1881, under the title of ''Sur 

 les Colonies dans les Roches Taconiques des Bords du Lac Champlain," 

 with a detailed map of the borders of Lake Champlain between 

 Georgia (Vermont), Chazy (New York), and Phillipsburgh (Canada). 

 This region includes the typical localities of Georgia, Swanton, High- 

 gate, Phillipsburgh, and Chazy, and comprehends the two States of 

 Vermont and New York, and reaches into Canada. I give here oidy 

 the tabular view or theoretic vertical section, with its resvme of ex- 

 pl.ination, referring those who wish to know the details to the original 

 memoir. 



