THE NAME "NEWARK" IN AMERICAN 

 STRATIGRAPHY: 



A JOINT DISCUSSION. 



I. 



Much time and ink have been wasted in discussing the claims 

 of alternative stratigraphic names. In many instances contro- 

 versies arise over questions of fact, but there are also numerous 

 cases in which the facts are well understood, and individuals dis- 

 agree only as to the bearing of the facts on the questions of 

 nomenclature. Opinions differ so widely as to the principles 

 which should determine the selection of names that facts which 

 some regard as conclusive appear to others not at all pertinent. 

 The road to ultimate peace lies through a war of principles ; and 

 the valuable controversy is one in which the fundamental postu- 

 lates of the contestants are exposed. Holding this view of the 

 general question, I would be understood as joining in the discus- 

 sion of the term "Newark" only because a principle of strati- 

 graphic nomenclature appears to be involved. 



In a recent article B. S. Lyman says : 



" For those rocks have, from their conformability throughout, and their 

 predominant color, and a comparative lack of fossils through a great part of 

 them, been commonly lumped together as only a single group, formation, or 

 system, under the general name of New Red, or Triassic, or Jurassico-Triassic, 

 or Rhstic. Nearly forty years ago, with the bold assurance born of ignorance, 

 perhaps quite pardonable at that time, the special name of Newark group 

 was proposed for the whole lot, from one of its most striking local economic 

 features, though otherwise an extremely subordinate one, and even economi- 

 cally perhaps inferior to the Richmond coal ; and latterly there has been an 

 effort to revive the name, long after it had fallen into well-merited oblivion."^ 



I am one of those who have seconded Russell's proposal to 

 revive the name "Newark,"^ and despite the brief argument 



' Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, Vol. 31, p. 314. 

 = Am. GeoL, Vol. 3, 1889, pp. 178-187. 



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