164 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



atoost interesting matter ; and at the proper time he would show 

 that there was also a fresh water formation on the Upper Missouri, 

 and also many others he hoped to find in the United States. 



Prof. Bailey said that nearly all these fossil infusoria that he had 

 examined were of species that now existed. He showed draw- 

 ings of the Eunotia gibba, Spicula of Spongilla, Gallionella distans. 

 Surillella splendida, Gallionella nov. sp., &c. &c. 



Prof. Silliman said, then, that down to the limestone of the Hud- 

 son river series, &c. we had these microrcopic forms accompany- 

 ing us as far as we had any proofs of life at all. 



Prof, Hall said that Lt. Fremont had found specimens in Ore- 

 gon of the cretaceous period, and some very similar in lithologica! 

 formation to the Bath Oolite ; also south of this he found an ar-i 

 gillaceous limestone, and fossil ferns in shale ; these were east ox 

 where the infusoria were found. The whole of the Oregon regio] 

 was of the greatest interest to the geologist. Through several d 

 grees of it to the south of where the above were found, there ex- 

 isted immense salt lakes and mountains of salt. And through all 

 the recent limestone formations there the trap rocks have pass© 

 up and disturbed the strata from the Rocky Mountains to the Pa- 

 cific shores. And over all there were seen numerous extinct vol-i 

 canic hills, and also some volcanoes still in activity. 



The meeting then adjourned to dinner. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



After some trifling preliminary business, such as arranging th»i 

 order of committees, &c. the President said that the subject for thu 

 afternoon was 



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THE TACONIC SYSTEM OF ROCKS. 



Mr. Haldeman stated that Mr. Emmons considered he had dis- 

 covered a new sedimentary rock much older than any of the Siluj 

 rian series. 



Prof. Rogers said himself and his brother had long since showB 

 that all those rocks, supposed to be older than the New- York Pa 

 leozoic rocks of the Apalachian chain, are parts of that same serie» 

 of rocks, folded and changed by plication — by some change o. 

 mineral type, and by igneous metamorphoses, which had almos* 

 destroyed their fossiliferous character. If Professor Emmons' sc 

 called Taconic System was correct, we should have had wholi 

 mountains and plains made up entirely of this group. Not merelyi 

 as he says, that the Taconic rocks have been uptilted and then th< 

 fossiliferous rocks of New-York been deposited on the uptiltet 

 edges of the Taconic rocks — the earliest life-bearing periotl of tht 

 globe. Emmons places the lower Silurian rocks of England, and 

 his Taconic rocks, on a level longanteriorto the New-York group. 



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