342 OHIO STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



"strata in that remarkable section, collected their fossils and pro- 

 posed their own stratigraphic terms/'^ some of which as for 

 example, Pentamerns limestone and Tentaculite limestone are still 

 familiar names to geologists. 



This work of Eaton and the Gebhards marked the beginning of 

 stratigraphic geolog}^ in America which, in eighty-five years has 

 extended to every state and territory of this country.' and to every 

 province of Canada. 



It is claimed that North Carolina was the first state to order 

 a geological survey. In 1824 Professor Olmstead was appointed 

 State Geologist and in that year and the fo'llowing one he published 

 a report of one hundred odd pages. Her sister state of South 

 Carolina followed in 1825 with the appointment of Professor 

 Vanuxem; but as his results were not published by the state they 

 were consequently lost, except what appeared in the periodicals. 

 In 1830 Massachusetts ordered a trigonometrical and geological 

 survey of the state witli Professor Edward Hitchcock of Amherst 

 College as State Geologist. The thirties were prolific years in the 

 organization of state surveys and during this period such sTirA^eys 

 were established by Maryland, Tennessee, Arkansas, New York, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Maine, Connecticut, 

 Ohio, Michigan, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, the David 

 Dale Owen Survey of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, and in Canada 

 by New Brunswick and Newfoundlancl. 



The Geological and Natural Histor3^ Survey of New York 

 was not authorized until twelve years later than the first one of 

 North Carolina. Still it must be conceded by any one conversant 

 with the history of geology that none of the other survey's exerted 

 so great an influence in the development of American geology : nay. 

 I will go further and state that the combined influence of all the 

 other states was not equal to that of New York. This may seem 

 like a strong statement but permit me to read from an address by 

 McGee delivered at the celel^ration in honor of the sixtieth anni- 

 versary of Professor James Hall's public service as a geologist of 

 New York. Let us remember in passing that McGee is a native 

 of Iowa, was never a resident of New York nor a member of its 

 survey and was not a paleontologist. Among other things he 

 said: "Other systems of nomenclature have come and gone; the 

 brilliant and attractive * * * system proposed by the Eogers 

 brothers for a time competed with the system devised in New 

 York; but no other system has endured the test of time * * * 

 The New York formations were defined by fossil contents, as were 

 those of England and the Continent, while the nature and genesis 

 of deposits were given greater weight than before; and this method 

 has been followed more or less closely by the geologists of the world 



1. Dr. John M. Clarke in High School Bill. 25, 1903. p. 497, 



