Obituary — Professor James Hall. 431 



but also indexed for ready reference. Under these circumstances 

 the editor and author considered a special glossary to be superfluous. 



Secondly, your reviewer is mistaken in describing the lettering 

 of fig. 91, p. 143, as the result of undigested compilation. The 

 interpretation of the squamosal and supratemporal bones in the 

 Squamata there given, is intentional, and based especially upon 

 the researches of my colleague, Mr. Boulenger. Anyone interested 

 in the subject may refer to the figures of the skulls of the Agamoid 

 Calotes and the typical Varanoid, Va7-anns, given in his volume on 

 Eeptiles and Batrachians contributed to Dr. Blanford's " Fauna 

 of British India." He seems to demonstrate clearly that in Lacertilia 

 the squamosal always retains its normal" connection with the post- 

 frontal in front, but eventually separates from the parietal behind ; 

 while the supratemporal in that case slips backward to occupy the 

 cleft thus formed. 



I am much indebted to your reviewer for pointing out that the 

 legend of fig. 185 {Palceotherium) only applies to the true molars, 

 not to the fourth premolar, which, I had omitted to observe, 

 bears the same lettering. In the matter of new illustrations, I have 

 met with unusually liberal treatment at the hands of the publishers ; 

 but it was unfortunately impossible to dispense with borrowed 

 electrotypes, and hence the non-uniformity of lettering which is 

 sometimes perplexing. A, Smith Woodward. 



JAMES HALL. 



BoEN September 12, 1811. Died August 7, 1898. 



By the death of Professor James Hall geology has lost its oldest 

 and one of its most distinguished leaders. He was born at the 

 quaint old town of Hingham on the south shore of Boston Bay, 

 and was educated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 

 and at the age of twenty-five received an appointment on the 

 Geological Survey of New York State. Two years later he issued 

 his first original scientific contribution, — a short note on some 

 trilobites. His official duties were connected with both stratigraphy 

 and paleontology, and at first he was apparently more interested 

 in the former branch of geology. He studied the recession of the 

 Niagara Falls and acted as guide to Lyell, who visited the Falls 

 in 1841. In 1843 Hall was appointed State Palgeontologist, in 

 which capacity he wrote or edited no fewer than thirteen large 

 imperial quarto volumes on the Palasontology of New York, which 

 have been issued at intervals between 1847 and 1894. The first 

 volumes of this series formed the most magnificent contribution 

 to extra-European Palasontology that had been issued at that 

 time, and some of the later volumes are still the richest mine 

 of information on some branches of Devonian paleeontology. 

 In addition to the extensive series of new fossils described in 

 these monographs, Hall published many further important additions 

 to American Palgeontology in the reports of other State Surveys, 

 as of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri, and in papers in various 



