AMERICAN GEOLOGY THE TACONK 1 QUESTION. 



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Inasmuch as the value of the evidence furnished by the fossil remains 

 had become largely a matter of individual opinion, a committee, of 

 which Mr. S. S. Haldeman was chairman, was appointed at the same 

 meeting- of the association to investigate. The report, as given by this 

 committee in the American Journal of Science for 1848, was to the 

 effect that so far as could be determined from the fragmental character 

 of the specimens submitted, Atqps and Triarthrus were not identical. 

 but A. triMneatus was "a fossil characteristic of the stratum invest i 

 gated and named bv Professor Emmons." 



Fig. 134. — EUiptocephala asaphoides. a is a large individual much flattened by pressure; the natural 

 joints of the slate pass through the specimen. The tail ami a portion of tin.- body are wanting. I 

 have named this EUiptocephala asaphoides. The ellipse upon the buckler appears to be a charac- 

 teristic marking, while the ribs and middle lobe resemble very strongly the same parts of the 

 Asaphus tyrannns. In its perfect form the ellipse seemsto belong to the old and perfect individual. 

 ?j is the head of a small individual of the same species. The ellipse in this individual has an 

 anterior segment not to l»- seen in «, which I suppose may be obliterated by age. c is a fragment 

 ei a trilobite, probably, but the ribs bear a different character from those we generally meet with. 



To this report Hall naturally took exception, and in the Journal for 

 the same year reviewed the subject and published figures giving rea- 

 sons for thinking that the distinctions noted by the committee were 

 not ".actual and constant/ 1 but merely those of individuals, and reaf- 

 firming the statement that the two forms were essentially identical. 

 Hall was iti turn replied to by Emmons, but nothing conclusive was 

 brought forward. 



