STRATIGRAPHIC GEOLOGY 343 
engaged in researches among the clastic rocks. | Most of the New 
York formations were named from geographic features so chosen 
as to indicate type localities and to permit endless rearrangement 
of the duly labeled rock divisions as research progressed and other 
divisions were recognized; and this system of nomenclature which 
was practically original in the New York survey as appled to 
minor divisions in [the] geologic column, stopped not at the boun- 
daries of the state, but has spread over the country and the world, 
and is today the accepted system of civilized lands.”? 
The New York survey was organized in July, 1836, and the 
state was divided into four districts with a Chief Geologist for 
each one; but with no one as State Geologist or chief in authority, 
save the Governor. The first year the geologists of the four districts 
were Lieut. William W. Mather of the First, Dr. Ebenezer Emmons 
of the Second, Timothy A. Conrad of the Third, and Lardner Van- 
uxem of the Fourth, while James Hall, a young man of twenty- 
four, who had been a student of Eaton in the Rensselaer School, 
graduating in 1832, was an assistant geologist of Dr. Emmons in 
the Second District. The following vear the boundaries of the 
districts were changed considerably. Conrad became the Paleon- 
tologist, Vanuxem was transferred to the Third, and Hall placed 
in charge of the Fourth District. The law provided for the con- 
tinuance of this survey for four years with an annual appropriation 
of $36,000 and at its expiration was continued for an additional 
two years. At the conclusion of this work a quarto volume was 
prepared by each geologist for his district, while Professor Hall 
remained to describe the fossils and continued as State Geologist or 
Paleontologist until his death in his eighty-seventh vear in 1898. 
He has appropriately been termed the Nestor of American Geolo- 
gists. The magnificent series of volumes devoted to the geology 
and paleontology of New York are known to eyery geologist 
throughout the world and have cost that state over a million and a 
half dollars. In New York there are three formations of hitu- 
minous shales with extended outcrop, which are lithologically sim- 
ilar to shales often found in association with coal, and on account 
of the early determination of the greater age of these shales than 
coal-bearing rocks it has been estimated that the amount of money 
saved from useless exploration fully equals the sum the state has 
expended for its Geological Survey. The work, however, is con- 
sidered as far from finished and under Dr. John M. Clarke, the 
worthy successor of Professor Hall, the survey is energetically 
‘continued. 
Now let us consider the history of geological work in Ohio, 
and in the time allowed me, this will of ‘necessity be a very brief 
review. Perhaps the earliest papers relating to the geology of 
1. Science, N. S,, Vol. IV, Nov. 13, 1896, p. 702. 
