1 68 CHARLES R. KEYES 



relatively unimportant as critical criteria, either in classification 

 or correlation. 



The principle underlying the recent naming of geological 

 formations gives to each stratigraphical unit a special geographic 

 designation, derived from some prominent town, watercourse 

 or land form, within the boundaries of that formation. As thus 

 established the latter is a well-defined and independent unit,, 

 having a definite place in the general geological scheme, no 

 matter how this may change afterward, or what method of classifi- 

 cation may be followed. This definite stratigraphical unit con- 

 trasts strangely with the unwieldy, ill-defined and usually little 

 understood large formation of the past, the very name of which 

 indicated either lack of exact knowledge of it itself, or a cover- 

 ing up of ignorance regarding its affinities. By this new method, 

 or if it be more exact, by the vigorous application of an old principle 

 that was so loosely followed as to be almost unrecognizable, 

 geological nomenclature has been certainly greatly increased,, 

 even enormously enlarged by the introduction of the new plan. 

 The former list of names numbered only about two score, indi- 

 cating all of the smallest subdivisions which went to make up 

 the general geological column. The names of the new list run 

 up into the hundreds and even thousands, are different in every 

 considerable area, and additions are constantly being made. 



It is against this copious multiplication of geological names 

 that the protests have been chiefly made. Curiously enough 

 the struggle has been reduced to a clash between the practical 

 field geologist on the one hand, and on the other the laboratory 

 worker, those especially interested in the other departments 

 than stratigraphy and the palaeontologists, who see their standard 

 classification abandoned, and their usefulness in the domains of 

 geology diminished. And the former have won. 



When, a decade and a half ago, various geological surveys 

 in this country were established or reorganized, those entrusted 

 with the work soon found that, if speedy and exact results were 

 to be secured, and if substantial data were to be obtained upon 

 which all other workers could also build, something else must 



