[parks] presidential ADDRESS 5 



hall's CLASSIFICATIOX of AMERICAN STRATA 



Quaternary System 



Tertiary System 



New Red Sandstone 



Carboniferous System 



Old Red System or Old Red Sandstone 



I Erie Division 

 Helderberg Series 

 Ontario Division 

 Champlain Division 



The New York system and its divisions have disappeared from 

 the literature but most of the numerous formations into which the 

 divisions were subdivided are still retained. 



The reports of Vanuxem, Mather, and Emmons are for the most 

 part in accord with that of Hall except for the introduction below the 

 New York system of another called the Taconic. This difference of 

 opinion developed later into quite a celebrated controversy, the 

 "Taconic Question." 



In considering these New York reports in the period under consi- 

 deration (1820-1840) we have gone slightly beyond our time limit, 

 but it must be remembered that the work was inaugurated in 1836 

 and began to exert an influence before the date of publication. About 

 1840, therefore, we have in North America a lingering of Wernerism, 

 a growing local classification, a catastrophic philosophy, a fixed con- 

 viction of the value of fossils for the determination of horizons, and 

 a recognition of the value of state-aided geological surveys. In 

 Canada, as we have seen, very little geological work had been done 

 and except in a few isolated areas the country was terra incognita 

 geologically. 



Period 1840-1870 



The first attempts to establish a geological survey of the pro- 

 vinces began in 1832 but it was not until 1841 that these efforts bore 

 fruit. In that year a grant of £1,500 was made for the purpose and 

 Mr. William Edmond Logan, on the recommendation of Sedgwick, 

 Murchison, Buckland, and de la Beche, was charged with the modest 

 task of preparing a Geological Report on the Province of -Canada. 

 The actual work of the Survey began in 1843 but Logan's first report 

 bears the date September 6, 1842, and his last May 1, 1869. These 



