STRATIGRAPHIC GEOLOGY 343 



engaged in researches among the clastic rocks. Most of the ]S[ew 

 York formations were named from geographic features so chosen 

 as to indicate type localities and to permit endless rearrangement 

 of the dul}^ labeled rock divisions as research progressed and other 

 divisions were recognized ; and this system of nomenclature which 

 was practically original in the New York survey as applied to 

 minor divisions in [the] geologic column, stopped not at the boun- 

 daries of the state, but has spread over the country and the world, 

 and is today the accepted system of civilized lands. "^ 



The N'ew York survey was organized in July, 1836, and the 

 state was divided into four districts with a Chief Geologist for 

 each one; but with no one as State Geologist or chief in authority, 

 save the Governor. The first year the geologists of the four districts 

 were Lieut. William W. Mather of the First, Dr. Ebenezer Emmons 

 of the Second, Timothy A. Conrad of the Third, and Lardner Van- 

 uxem of the Fourth, while James Hall, a 3^oung man of twenty- 

 four, wdio had been a student of Eaton in the Eenssclaer School, 

 graduating in 1832, was an assistant geologist of Dr. Emmon& in 

 the Second District. The following year the boundaries of the 

 districts were changed considerably. Conrad became the Paleon- 

 tologist, Vanuxem was transferred to the Third, and Hall placed 

 in charge of the Fourth District. The law provided for the con- 

 tinuance of this survey for four years with an annual appropriation 

 of $36,000 and at its expiration was continued for an additional 

 two years. At the conclusion of this work a quarto volume was 

 prepared by each geologist for his district, while Professor Hall 

 remained to describe the fossils and continued as State Geologist or 

 Paleontologist until his death in his eighty-seventh year in 1898. 

 He has appropriately been termed the Nestor of American Geolo- 

 gists. The magnificent series o-f volumes devoted to the geologT 

 and paleontology of New York are known to every geologist 

 throughout the world and have cost that state over a million and a 

 half dollars. In New York there are three formations of bitu- 

 minous shales with extended outcrop, which are lithologically sim- 

 ilar to shales often found in association with coal, and on account 

 of the early determination of the greater age of these shales than 

 coal-bearing rocks it has been estimated that the amount of money 

 saved from useless exploration fully equals the sum the state has 

 expended for its Geological Survey. The work, however, is con- 

 sidered as far from finished and under Dr. John M. Clarke, the 

 worthy successor of Professor Hall, the survey is energetically 

 continued. 



Now let us consider the history of geological work in Ohio, 

 and in the time allowed me, this will of necessity be a very brief 

 review. Perhaps the earliest papers relating to the geology of 



1 Scieuce, Iv^. S., Vol. IV, Nov. 13, 1S96. p. 702. 



