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fauna, after having been disregarded, will regain its rights and its place, 

 usurped by the second fauna. 



" You see it is a great and noble question, whose final solution will 

 complete the imposing harmonies existing already between the series of 

 paleozoic faunae of America and that of the contemporaneous faunae of 

 Europe, leaving to each the imprint peculiar to its continent. 



" I can well imagine, from the position previously taken by our learned 

 American brothers on the subject of the Taconic system, that the final 

 solution of which I speak will not be obtained without debate, and per- 

 haps some wounding of self-love, for some opinions that appear to be 

 dominant must be abandoned. 



" But experience has taught me that in such cases the most elevated 

 minds turn always first to the light, and put themselves at the head of 

 the movement of reform. Thus, when in 1850 I recognized the Primor- 

 dial fauna in the Malvern Hills, where the second fauna only had been 

 found. Sir Henry de la Beche and Sir Roderick Murchison were the first 

 to adopt my views, to which little by little the other official geologists 

 agreed ; Ed. Forbes ranged himself publicly on my side in 1853 in ' The 

 Geological Survey,' while others still hesitated, and now there is no 

 longer any opponent. 



" I think it will be nearly the same in America, and that in some years 

 from now the opinions of your savans will have undergone a great 

 change as regards this question. 



" It is a fine opportunity for Dr. Emmons to reproduce his former ob- 

 servations and ideas with more success than in 1844. 



" Yours very truly, 



"J. BARRANDE." 



I would add to the above letter a few words on the geology of the 

 vicinity of Quebec. Twelve years ago I passed a few days in that 

 region, and my opinion, formed from my own observations made at 

 that time, ditfers wholly from the publications of Mr. Logan and Dr. 

 Bigsby on the subject. Dr. Bigsby ( On the Geology of Quebec and 

 its environs, " Quart. Journ. of the Geol. Soc. of London" vol. IX. 

 p. 82, 1853,) refers all the strata, except a narrow band of limestone 

 north of Quebec, to the Hudson River group ; the limestone band 

 extending from Montmorency to Indian Lorette is determined by 

 him as Trenton limestone. The fossils upon which he relies for 

 placing the Quebec strata in the Hudson River group are only a 

 few Graptolites. Dr. Bigsby admits that the Hudson River group 

 is enormously developed in that part of North America, that it is 

 composed of rocks almost azoic, and that he does not understand 



