C>68 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



upon no other basis than prejudice in favor of or against certain indi- 

 viduals. From the time of his Pacific Railroad survey work Marcou 

 did scarcely anything- in the field, but contented himself with sitting 

 as critic upon the work of others. For this reason he was of little 

 actual service to American geology and his writings and opinions 

 are not quoted in detail here, although unquestionably many of his 

 suggestions were of value. 



In 1861 there was issued the final report on the geology of Vermont 

 by Hitchcock and A. D. Hager. On paleontological evidence the 

 Stockbi'idge limestone was here set down as not older than Silurian. 

 Cross sections showed Mounts Anthony, Equinox, iEolus, and others 

 to have a synclinal structure, the limestone beneath and the slates above 

 as Emmons had shown for Mount Greylock. The stratigraphy was, 

 therefore, in favor of Emmons's view, but the paleontology was 

 against it and no decision was reached as to the age of the quartzite. 

 In 1863, the year of Emmons's death, there appeared the first edition 

 of 1 )ana's ( reology. In this the Potsdam sandstone was made to include 

 the Primordial and the equivalent of the era 

 of the Paradox !<l(s and the Primordial beds 

 of Scandinavia and Bohemia. The Georgia 

 slates were also recognized as Primordial, in 

 this conforming to the ideas of Barrande and 

 Emmons. 



In 1869 Prof. J. B. Perry, of Vermont, 

 entered the lists and argued in favor of the 

 system as presented by Emmons. He was 

 subsequently shown, through the discovery of 

 fossils and the existence of numerous unsus- 

 pected faults and folds, to have been in error. 

 In 1870 the Rev. A. Wing, of Vermont, working with the avowed 

 intention of settling the vexed question as to the age of the limestone, 

 slates, and quartzites in the West Rutland region, found fossils in the 

 limestone which Billings identified as probably belonging to the Chazy 

 epoch of the Canadian (Lower Silurian) period. Still others were 

 found, sufficient to show that the beds range from the Calciferous to 

 and including the Trenton, and that consequently the overlying slates 

 must be of Utica or Hudson River age, and were not limited to the 

 Quebec group, as Logan had supposed. 



In 1872 Elkanah Billings published in the Canadian Naturalist an 

 article on the age of the black slate and red sandrock of Vermont, in 

 which he took occasion to refer to the Taconic system and announce 

 his views on the subject. He contended that in the consideration of 

 this question ''nearly all of the leading geologists of North America 11 

 had ranged themselves upon the wrong side; that, while for nearly a 

 quarter of a century Doctor Emmons stood almost alone, during the last 



Fig. 137. — Glenn* rrrinonliiiKi. 



