Professor John M. Clarke. 293 
For twelve years this intimate association with Hall continued— 
until his death in 1898 at the age of 87; and the longer it grew the 
more the various responsibilities of the work of the State Geological 
Survey fell upon the shoulders of the younger man. Though Hall 
believed that the Paleontology of New York would die with him, 
he taught his associate to plan his work on broad and comprehensive 
lines, a lesson which was interestingly emphasized by the publication 
a few months after his death of the most impressive of all his volumes, 
the great monograph of the Devonian Hexactinellid Sponges, which 
appeared jointly over the names of the master and his assistant. 
On the death of Hall, Mr. Clarke was made State Paleontologist, 
and six years later, under a reorganization of the State Education 
Department and the University of the State of New York, he was 
installed as State Geologist and Paleontologist, which positions 
involved also the Directorship of the State Museum and the Depart- 
ment of Science of the University. These responsibilities have 
continued since 1904. During this period the study of the older 
rocks of the State of New York and the exposition of its extraordinary 
postglacial history have gone on with activity and the necessary 
publications, with the help of a strong body of skilled men, have 
grown to the number of several hundred. New York is a State 
covering 4,500 square miles, and its rock geology extends from the 
Precambrian complex of the Adirondack Mountains and the lower 
Hudson Valley to a fringe of Cretaceous and Tertiary along the 
marine shore of Long Island, all between being the Paleozoic 
plateau in which the faunas of the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, 
and Devonian are extraordinarily rich and well preserved. Nearly 
one-half the area of the State is built on the Devonian and this is 
the formation and fauna that have called forth Mr. Clarke’s special 
labours. As a general consequence of the progress of the survey 
work, the great geological map of New York State on a scale of one 
mile to the inch, has been somewhat more than half completed in 
careful detail. 
Mr. Clarke’s active interest in the study of the Paleozoic rocks 
has extended beyond the confines of his State, and he has published 
quarto volumes on the Devonian geology and paleontology of the 
Gaspé Peninsula of Lower Quebec, New Brunswick, and Maine. 
Invited by the late Orville A. Derby, F.G.S., to participate in the 
geological work of Brazil, he has prepared papers on the Paleozoic 
faunas of the Amazonas and a quarto memoir, the only one thus 
far issued by the present Federal Survey of Brazil, on the Devonian 
of the State of Sao Paulo. 
Among the requirements of administrative work, the creation of 
a new State Museum has been of foremost importance. This is 
a purely scientific museum, devoted to the exemplification of the 
Natural History of New York State only, and is very effective in 
the character of its exhibits, but the installation of this extensive 
museum in its new quarters in the Education Building has not 
interfered with the progress of scientific research. Among the lines 
