OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 255 



as European, to those of India, Australia, New Zealand, Java, and 

 Africa, I ask you, in the name of justice, right of priority, and of 

 equity, to make use of the " Taconic System." 



VII. Conclusion. 



The "Taconic System" comprehends all the strata in which the 

 primordial fannte are found. These fauna? are three in number. 



The Infra-Primordial, which has as yet furnished only about ten 

 fossils well characterized, all belonging to the inferior order of beings, 

 and of a very simple organization. No trilobite has yet been found 

 there with certainty. This number of from ten to twelve species will 

 be doubled, and even quadrupled ; but it is doubtful if it ever reaches 

 fifty species. 



The Primordial fauna properly so called — that of Bohemia and 

 Scandinavia, including the great zones with Paradoxidc.s and Olenus 

 — is especially remarkable for the large trilobites, which hitherto 

 have made their appearance suddenly, without prophetic prototypes 

 to announce them. The species belong to the Crustacea (trilobites), 

 Pteropoda, and Brachiojwda, with one or perhaps two Ccjyhalopoda. 

 The number of the different species is very limited, although there are 

 from ten to thirty and forty to be counted together ; and one can 

 hardly number for the w'hole earth two hundred and fifty species. In 

 futui-e discoveries and researches we may reach twice and three times 

 that number, but it is unlikely ever to reach one thousand. 



The Supra-Primordial fauna, containing colonies of the second fauna 

 in America and Scandinavia, is much richer in fossils. Hundreds of 

 species are met with at once ; all of l!ie orders of Crustacea, INIollusca, 

 Radiata, and Brj'ozoa. Many new and previously unknown forms 

 make their appearance here. Already the number of fossils of this 

 fauna of the upper part of the '•Taconic S3'stem " reaches more than 

 fifteen hundred species, and we may confidently look forward to great 

 discoveries that will carry this number to tliree or even four thousand. 



A peculiarity common to all the primordial fauna^ which was pointed 

 nut by Dr. Emmons when he made liis discovery, is that the fossils 

 are found in a sporadic way, — here and there, or entirely isolated, — 

 contrary to the geographic distribution of the other faunae, which are 

 spread over and sometimes fdl up the strata without interruption for 

 hundreds of miles. We have here true centres of the appearance of 

 species, or "centres of creation," as Prof. Edward Forbes has well ex- 

 pressed it. In consequence of their sporadic arrangement and tendency, 



