DECEMBER 15, 1899. ] 
stratigraphic. It did not purpose to ex- 
press tle time units or groups thereof ex- 
cept so far as such a subdivision of the 
strata must of itself imply a corresponding 
division of time. Nor did the geologists 
contemplate any uniform grouping of their 
units in terms intermediate between their 
major and minor divisions. 
It has, however, come to pass that such 
a grouping of the early New York units 
has found its way into quite general use. 
Such terms as Niagara group, Hamilton 
group, Chemung group, are current ex- 
pressions in contemporaneous writings and 
they are not employed at all in the sense in 
which they were sometimes used by Van- 
uxem and Hall. This fact is well known 
and itis generally recognized by all students 
concerned with the stratigraphy of the 
early formations, that this condition has 
come about indirectly through the influence 
of the important summaries of American 
geology published by the late Professor J. 
D. Dana (Manual of Geology, four editions). 
In presenting the succession of paleozoic 
events these works have treated the subject 
as history must be treated, as a succession 
of time units. These units, which have 
been termed epochs, were grouped together 
into periods, and each period was given the 
name of the most conspicuous, widely dis- 
tributed or otherwise best characterized of 
its epochs. Thus have arisen terms for 
secondary divisions in the paleozoic history 
of New York which duplicate names that 
must remain permanently in use for time 
units and their stratigraphic equivalents. 
The duplicating terms thus introduced into 
New York history are the following : Tren- 
ton, Niagara, Onondaga, Corniferous, Ham- 
ilton, Chemung. The distinguished author 
to whom reference has been made never 
employed these terms in any other than a 
chronologic sense ; the present frequent ap- 
plication of them with a stratigraphic mean- 
ing of precisely the same scope as the time 
SCIENCE. 
875 
divisions, is a perfectly natural and legit- 
imate outcome. This practice has, how- 
ever, not only caused confusion from dupli- 
cation within the boundaries of the State, 
but it has led to much embarrassment in 
the correlation of the stratigraphic succes- 
sion of other states with that of New York. 
The point has doubtless been reached when 
these terms, representing though they do 
important divisions of time and sedimenta- 
tion, must give way to others of equivalent 
value which shall obviate the duplication 
and confusion with which we are now em- 
barrassed. 
This paper, frankly stated, is a proposi- 
tion to substitute for these terms in their 
stratigraphic application and hence neces- 
sarily in their chronologic equivalence, a 
series of designations derived from char- 
acteristic localities of the New York paleo- 
zoic, and thus to preserve, under the neces- 
sity of change, the eminent title of New 
York State'to its full and ancient represen- 
tation in the classification of the paleozoic 
deposits and time. 
Incidentally it also takes cognizance of 
and suggests a suitable remedy for the 
present incongruity in the nomenclature of 
the stratigraphic units. As the propriety 
and necessity of local terms for the designa- 
tionofsuch units is generally acknowledged, 
those formations which have hitherto borne 
names of other significance are now super- 
seded by appropriate geographic names. 
1. Champlainic. This most appropriate designation 
was introduced by the concurrence of the four geol- 
ogists for the formations here assigned to it (exclu- 
sive of the Potsdam sandstone), and it has clear right 
of way over the later application of the name to 
the period of post-glacial alluvium. That the later 
term has become ingrained in literature renders it all 
the more conspicuous as an infraction of the law and 
of the rights of the men who first proposed it. In the 
face of Champlain, 1842, the term Ordovician has no 
standing. 
2. Ontaric. Vanuxem placed the base of the On- 
‘tario division at the ‘gray sandstone,’ Hall and 
Emmons at the Medina, Mather at the Shawangunk 
