NOVEMBEE 13, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



709 



ascribe the chief stimulus in the produc- 

 tion of the ' Paleontology of the State of 

 New York.' 



Through these investigations and in 

 many collateral channels he has amplified 

 and augmented the results of his original 

 survey. 



It is not to be thought that he ever re- 

 garded his work in this region completed 

 with his reports, for those here who have 

 known him best will bear me out in the 

 statement that no man of science is more 

 open to conviction, to the correction of his 

 own observations if evidence shows them to 

 be imperfect; he was always strong to main- 

 tain his conception of the truth, but ready 

 to yield if the facts were against him or to 

 modify his conclusions, if needful, with the 

 acquisition of new data. 



Not long ago we completed a somewhat 

 exhaustive treatise on the Brachiopoda. It 

 had been the consecutive work of nearly 

 seven years. Very extensive collections 

 had been at the disposal of the work; 

 every effort had been made to bring to- 

 gether the sum of knowledge pertaining 

 especially to the paleozoic genera of these 

 most significant organisms. When the last 

 proofs of the last quarto volume had been 

 read. Prof Hall made this remark to me, 

 '* We have labored very hard on this book 

 and have brought out some knowledge that 

 will be useful to the scientific world, but, 

 for my part, I feel that I would now like to 

 begin the study of the Brachiopoda." 



Thus in all his lines of activity no work 

 is finished; it may be done for the present 

 and laid aside in hope of a return thereto, 

 or taken as preliminary to the upbuilding 

 of a more elaborate superstructure. 



To-day, with sixty years behind him of 

 service to the geology of New York, no one 

 can realize as he the vast amount of work 

 yet remaining, requiring prime abilities and 

 the best equipment. 



Our conviction of the great success of 



this survey is not lessened by the fact that 

 Mr. Hall's colleagues were men of high ac- 

 complishments, careful training and a 

 larger professional experience than he. 

 Lieut. Mather, a West Point graduate, 

 had been with Featherstonnaugh on his 

 western survey. Dr. Emmons had learned 

 and taught mineralogy and geology both at 

 Troy and on the complicated rocks of Mas- 

 sachusetts, and possessed an admirable 

 equipment for combatting the difficult prob- 

 lems presented by the Second, or northern 

 District; Lardner Vanuxem, after receiving 

 a technical training in the schools of France, 

 had done no little geological work in the 

 Ohio valley and elsewhere. I have heard 

 him characterized by one who knew him 

 well as at this time the most proficient 

 geologist of the country. He certainly was 

 a most acute observer, and the value of his 

 work in the Third District is becoming con- 

 stantly more evident. 



Mr. Hall, but four years before the organ- 

 ization of the Survey, had emerged from the 

 Eensselaer school at Troy and the inspir- 

 tutelage of Prof. Eaton. In the interval 

 he had been associated with Prof. Eaton 

 and Dr. Emmons in teaching geology and 

 mineralogy as well as chemistry and physi- 

 ology at this school, and had acquired the 

 good will of both Prof. Eaton and Mr. 

 Stephen Van Eensselaer, whose influences 

 in the organization of the Natural History 

 Survey were paramount. 



It is an interesting fact that Prof. Hall 

 was the only one of the geologists to seri- 

 ously attempt a correlation of the New 

 York formations with those of Europe as 

 they had been described by Murchison and 

 Sedgwick, It was, indeed, too soon for 

 any such attempt to be successful and, 

 though it was made only as a corollary 

 to his elaborate descriptions, it seems a 

 most natural undertaking for a student of 

 Prof. Eaton, who had employed, perforce 

 perhaps but often perfunctorily, such classi- 



