484 A great American Geologist — James Hall. 



York Series of Geological Formations ", as set forth by the four 

 State Geologists, elicited Hall's ardent support in all his descriptive 

 work upon the fossils of these formations. Some of its terms ante- 

 dated those now in common acceptance ; thus, " Champlain " 

 was an earlier and better defined name than Ordovician or Lower 

 Silurian ; Erian an earlier and more clearly defined term than 

 Devonian ; and on the basis of priority of fossil evidence the term 

 " Taconic ", of Emmons (though this was fought over for two 

 generations and not highly regarded by the New York geologists), 

 has on the basis of its fossils a chronologic right of way over the name 

 Cambrian. It was only very slowly and with obvious reluctance 

 that Hall yielded to the personal arguments of Murchison in adopting 

 the term Silurian for the terms in the series that are now commonly 

 or provisionally grouped under the name Ordovician, and it is very 

 interesting to a student of the development of geological ideas in 

 America to see how these now commonly accepted divisions of the 

 lower rocks had to straggle for recognition in this part of the Western 

 Hemisphere. 



The adoption, on folceontological grounds, by the late James Hall 

 and other American geologists of the common English (and 

 European) names for the divisions of the Palaeozoic rocks, has been 

 already attended with the most splendid results, and if carried out 

 (internationally) by the authors of our textbooks and the professors 

 in our colleges will enable us to synchronize all the great geological 

 formations of the globe. 



Hall was born and spent his boyhood along the coast of Eastern 

 Massachusetts, and acquainted himself with the marine life of those 

 shores as well as a boy could do who had no books or teachers. 

 He walked from his home at Hingham, Mass., a distance of 200 

 miles, to attend the Rensselaer School at Troy, not far from Albany, 

 N.Y., and his knowledge of the common life of the sea and his wide 

 acquaintance with botany were always put to their ultimate service 

 in his reconstruction of the extinct life of the Palaeozoic rocks. His 

 work was of necessity largely descriptive, as he was engaged in the 

 portrayal of the succession of fossil faunas as a pioneer in a virtually 

 unknown field. All students of his books will bear testimony to the 

 accuracy and fidelity of his work, and the volumes of his early 

 years are still as essential to the study of the Palaeozoic faunas of 

 America as the works of Murchison to a knowledge of the " Silurian 

 System". Through his impressive personality, his unrestrained 

 vigour, and his ability to convince persons in authority that he was 

 in dead earnest. Hall was enabled to keep his palseontological work 

 generously supported by the State of New York, even when other 

 departments of science were languishing for public support. But 

 he did all this much as St. Paul carried on his missionary endeavours ; 

 he was often in trouble, and not infrequently had to fight the wild 

 beasts at court who thought his j)reaching foolishness. 



Incidentally to his other work, Hall did many fine pieces of closely 



