STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. 445 



States was undertaken by C. D. Walcott, whose results 

 showed that, as Emmons had contended, the Taconic system 

 was a well-developed complex of strata below the Potsdam 

 Sandstone, and containing an exclusively primordial fauna. 



Walcott then went to survey in the Far West, where 

 Gilbert and Hague had described Cambrian deposits in the 

 Eureka district of Nevada. In several important publications 

 (1884-90) Walcott has elucidated with full details the exten- 

 sion, lithological character, stratigraphical relations, sub- 

 divisions, and fauna of the Cambrian system in North 

 America. 



The "Transitional Rocks" in the vicinity of Prague had 

 very early attracted the attention of collectors and geologists 

 on account of the profuse abundance of fossils, and these had 

 been made the subject of palaeontological memoirs by Born, 

 Count Sternberg, Beyrich, Emmrich, Corda, and others. The 

 first geological work of note in this district was accomplished 

 by Joachim Barrande. 1 By his life's devotion to the cause of 

 research, this quiet, retiring geologist made Bohemia classic 

 ground for the study of the oldest fossiliferous formations. 



In the year 1846 Barrande published a short account of the 

 Bohemian Silurian basin. He^ described its structure as con- 

 sisting of a number of stages (ILtagcs), which he designated by 

 the letters A to G. The succession, stratigraphical position, 

 and the fossil contents were determined with the utmost pre- 

 cision, and a comparison was instituted between the Bohemian 



1 Joachim Barrande, born on the nth August 1799, in Sangues (Haute 

 Loire), was educated in Paris, and intended to be an engineer, but left Paris 

 in 1820 with the banished Royal Family of France, following them at first to 

 England and Scotland, and then to Bohemia. In the year 1831 he 

 became tutor to Prince Henry of Chambord, with whom he continued in 

 intimate relations all his life as the administrator of the Prince's property. 

 After relinquishing his post of tutor, Barrande devoted himself to the 

 geological and palaeontological investigation of the Silurian basis of Bo- 

 hemia. He acquired an unrivalled collection of fossils: no trouble was 

 spared to secure the spoils of the rocks: quarries were opened, workmen 

 engaged, collectors kept constantly occupied and carefully trained, until 

 Barrande's collection in Prague became the admiration of the geological 

 world. His private life was uneventful. He lived quietly and simply, 

 and the only interruption to his monotonous existence was when he under- 

 took some longer journey for the sake of comparing his fossils and his 

 stratigraphical results. He had considerable private means, which he 

 almost entirely sacrificed to his scientific requirements. He died in 

 October 1883, at Count Chambord's estate of Frohsdorf. Barrande 

 bequeathed his valuable fossil collection to the Bohemian Museum. 



