HISTORICAL SKETCH. XI 



ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF THE PALEONTOLOGY OF THE LOWER SILURIAN IN THE 



UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

 Sir John Franklin. 



1823. Narrative of a journey to the shores of the Polar sea in the years 1819, '20, '21 and 

 '22, by JOHN FRANKLIN, R. N., F. R. S., Commander of the expedition; with appendixes. 

 Quarto, plates and maps, London, 1823. 



In the appendix Dr. Richardson gives some general observations on the limestone seen 

 at lake Winnipeg and further northward. From the numerous remains of orthoceratites 

 he thinks this limestone may belong "to the formation under the new red sandstone " 

 i. e., to the "mountain limestone." 



Note to page 506. "Professor Jameson, having been requested to examine the specimens of lime- 

 stone collected on the shores of lake Winnipeg, and in the Cumberland House district, obligingly sent the 

 following note: 



'The specimens of limestone received from you contain examples of the following fossil organic 

 remains: Limestone with encrinites. The encrinites are in fragments. 

 Limestone with Orthoceratites. 

 Limestone with Terebratulce. 

 Limestone with Caryophyllitaj. 

 Limestone with Lingulas. 



'These fossils would seem to intimate that the rock in which they are contained belongs to the 

 mountain limestone formation, by many referred to the transition, by others to the oldest or deepest part 

 of the secondary class of rocks.' " 



Henry R. Schoolcraft. 



1823. Summary narrative of an exploratory expedition to the sources of the Mississippi 

 river in 1820; resumed and completed, by the discovery of its origin in Itasca lake in 1882, by 

 HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. Philadelphia, 1855. (First published in 1823). 



The only allusions Schoolcraft makes to the age of the rocks embraced in this report 

 are so vague and general that they are of no value. Once he refers to the falls of St. 

 Anthony being ' 'in the Silurian basin, " and at another time he calls the limestone forming 

 the falls ' 'the same metalliferous limestone which for so great a length and in so striking 

 a manner characterizes both banks of the Mississippi below St. Anthony falls." Op. cit., p. 

 330. He evidently was inclined to consider the lead-bearing rocks about equivalent to the 

 lead-bearing limestones of England, i. e., the mountain limestone or Sub-Carboniferous, now 

 known as the Mississippi limestone. 



William H. Keating. 



1823. Narrative of an expedition to the source of St. Peter's river, lake Winnepeek, lake of 

 the Woods, etc., performed in the year 1823, by order of the Hon. J. G. Calhoun, Secretary of War; 

 under the command of Stephen H. Long, U. S. T. E. Complied from the notes of Major 

 Long, Messrs. Say, Keating and Calhoun, by WILLIAM H. KEATING. London, 1825. In 

 two volumes; pp. 1-458 and 1-248, and appendix pp. 1-156. 



A general description of the geology of the country from lake Michigan to the mouth 

 of the Wisconsin river is given. Here the author finds two distinct magnesian limestone 

 formations separated by a considerable thickness of fine grained friable sandstone. These 

 three formations make up the rocks of this part of the route. He considers these strata 



