AMERICAN GEOLOGY DECADE OF 1850-1859. 467 



It was noted that the Potsdam sandstone seemed likely to be found 

 strongly developed in the Rocky Mountain region. 



Subsequent to this period, however, every sedimentary formation indicates the 

 proximity of land on the east. The great thickness of strata, coarse materials, and 

 numerous fucoids of the Hudson River group in its eastern extension indicate prox- 

 imity to land, or the course of strong currents, while in the west the formation dies 

 out in some inconspicuous fine shaly and calcareous beds, which, both in nature and 

 condition of the material and in the fossil contents, indicate great distance from land 

 and a quiet ocean." 



Hall took the ground that the treeless character of the prairies was 

 due mainly to the character of the soil, and inferred, on what seemed 



«The volumes of this work now in the library of the National Museum were the 

 personal property of F. B. Meek, and many of the statements made by Hall are sav- 

 agely criticised by the former in marginal notes. Thus, with reference to Hall's 

 statements as to the Potsdam, Meek notes: "It was quite safe for him to make this 

 prediction, when he knew at the time he was writing it, I had identified Potsdam 

 fossils in Hayden's collections from the Black Hills. These fossils were then in Pro- 

 fessor Hall's house — he had seen them and heard me say I regarded them as Potsdam 

 species." 



Still jealous of his diseovei'ies of supposed Permian fossils in the West, Meek also 

 bitterly criticised Hall's reference to the occurrence of Permian and Jurassic rocks in 

 the Rocky Mountain region, and added in the margin: "This was all intended to 

 bear the date of 1857, although every word of it was written after the publication of 

 our (i. e., Meek and Hayden) Permian and Jurassic discoveries in 1858." 



Again on page 142, Hall stated: "In the early part of 1857 Mr. Worthen placed 

 in the hands of the writer some peculiar fossils collected several years since in 

 Illinois and supposed to be from the Coal Measures. These, however, were at once 

 recognized as of peculiar forms, differing from Coal-Measure fossils, and a farther 

 examination proves them to be of Permian types, and closely allied to British 

 species." To this statement Meek has added the following marginal note: "At the 

 time he obtained these fossils from Mr. W. he told Mr. W. he regarded them as 

 lower Cretaceous forms." Also "If he had stated when this 'later' examination 

 was made, it would have been all right; but he leaves it to be inferred that it was 

 sometime in 1857, when, in fact, it was not until after the publication of our paper 

 on the Kansas fossils on the 2nd of March, 1858; and yet he intended at that time 

 that this report should bear the date of 1857." 



On page 144 Hall suggested the probability of finding in the West beds of the age of 

 the Jura or Oolite of Europe. To this Meek has added the following: "How wonder- 

 fully sagacious he was to make this prediction, when he knew we had Jurassic fossils 

 then in his house (which he had seen) from the Black Hills, Nebraska! Yet what 

 is here written is intended to date in 1857." 



Again, Hall says: "Thus far the collections made in the explorations across this 

 western country have brought us no true Jurassic fossils, ami it is only in the far 

 north and upon the Pacific coast, as well also as in the southern extremity of the 

 continent, that we have the evidences of the existence of these rocks below the Cre- 

 taceous formation." To which Meek appended the following: "At the very time 

 when Professor Hall wrote those words some of Doctor Hayden's Jurassic fossils from 

 the Black Hills were lying in a tray within fifteen feet of him, in an adjoining room. 

 I had called his attention to them and told him I was satisfied they must be Jurassic 

 forms." 



It is the old story of jealousy and heartburning (warranted in this case, it may be) 

 which seems an almost invariable outcome of any attempt at mutual collaboration. 



