SECTION IV., 1883. ; ACT] Trans. Roy. Soc. CANADA. 
XJ.—A Historical Account of the Taconic Question in Geology, with a Discussion of 
the Relations of the Taconran Series to the Older Crystalline and to the Cambrian 
Rocks. By THomas Sterry Hunt, LL.D. (CANTAB.) FRS. 
FIRST PART. 
(Presented May 23, 1883.) 
I.—Imtroduction.—Amos Eaton, and his classification of American rocks. 
I.—The Geological Survey of New York.—The work of Emmons, Mather and Vanxem ; the Taconic system and the 
Hudson-River group. Table showing the relations of the Taconic rocks. 
II. — Geological Studies in Pennsylvania.—The work of Henry D. Rogers; observations of the author, of Frazer, 
Prime and others. 
IV.—Louer Taconic Rocks in Various Regions.—The work of Emmons, Kerr and Lieber; the Itacolumitic series ; 
the Appalachian valley, the Carolinas, Maine, New Brunswick, Ontario, ete. 
V.—The Upper Taconic or First Graywacke.—Its distribution in the United States. 
VI.—The Upper Taconic in Canada.—Geological survey of Canada; the Hudson-River and Quebec groups. Distri- 
bution of Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian in northeastern America. 
NII.—Paleozoic History of Northeastern America.—Geography of the ancient seas; age of the Atlantic belt of 
crystalline rocks, 
I—INTRODUCTION. 
§ 1. The histcry of those stratified rocks which in eastern North America have been 
called the Taconic series, is one of many contradictory opinions and of much obscurity. 
Taken in the larger sense in which the name was at one time applied, this history more- 
over includes besides those rocks to which the appellation of Taconic or Taconian was 
subsequently restricted, another important series, sometimes called the Upper Taconic, 
which under the names of the Hudson-River group and the Quebec group, has been the 
subjeet of prolonged controversy. It may here be noted that one of the latest writers on 
the subject, whose views will be discussed on the present essay, still maintains for this 
latter series the name of Taconic.* The questions involved in this history are of fun- 
damental importance, and have hitherto been involved in so much misconception that 
it seems desirable at the present time to give a concise view both of the facts and of the 
various theories which have been held with regard to the whole of the rocks in question. 
For this purpose we must go back to Amos Eaton, to whom rightly belongs the honor 
of having laid the foundations of the American school of geology, so worthily continued 
by his pupils, James Hall, George H. Cook and the late Ebenezer Emmons. It is now 
half a century since, in 1832, appeared the secondand revised edition of Haton’s Geological 
Textbook, from which we may gather his matured views as to the geological succession in 
northeastern America. From this, and from his previous Geological and Agicultural Survey 

* Marcou, Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, 1880 ; (3) ix. p. 18. 
Sec. IV.#1883, 28. 
