1846.] The Taconic System. 203 



of no use whatever to them. When this is so, all we can say is 

 skip it and turn over to something else. 



The series of rocks termed the Taconic system by us, is the 

 oldest in which organization appears. For this reason they pos- 

 sess a peculiar interest; and certainly the enquiry what was the 

 construction of the organized beings which were first created, in 

 what condition did life first appear, and in what was it clothed, 

 are questions in which in common with many others we have felt 

 a deep interest. The solution of these questions could not be at- 

 tempted until the true palaeozoic base had been reached, it must 

 be determined what sedimentary rocks were first laid down. 

 The determination of this point, as experience has fully proved, 

 is not easy, neither can we be sure that we are always right in 

 our decision, for time has so changed their appearance, that or- 

 dinary and common indications which the sedimentary masses 

 give are nearly obliterated in the most ancient of the class. The 

 same changes affect organic atoms, when they cease to be 

 vivified; and when they pass from the dominion of life, they 

 obey forever after the laws of inorganic nature, and undergo 

 thereby a series of changes w^hich may end in the obliteration 

 of every trace of organism belonging to the former state, and 

 which life had impressed upon them. But as these changes 

 are modified by circumstances, we may often find that they have 

 escaped the transforming powers of dead matter, and may have 

 come down to us wearing some of the livery in the period in 

 which they lived. The first work and which must be finished 

 before we con attempt to speculate on the condition of the earth 

 in its trmisition state, (pardon the word for there must have been 

 a transition state,) is the determination of the palseozoic base. 

 To this end, we have studied with great care a series of deposits 

 which we consider as strictly of this character. That they are an- 

 terior to the rocks denominated the New York or Silurian system, 

 we think we have proved beyond a doubt; if so, life and or- 

 ganization is carried back to a period anterior to that system. 



The discussion referred to, had for its object the establish- 

 ment of this proposition, and if our facts do not sustain us in the 



