REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I916 I 5 



Survey was done in this building, and from this laboratory were 

 graduated many geologists who afterwards attained distinction in 

 the science, among whom may be mentioned Ferdinand V. Hayden, 

 director of the United States Geological Survey; William M. 

 Gabb, state geologist of California ; Fielding V. Meek, United 

 States geologist; Robert P. Whitfield, paleontologist; Charles D. 

 Walcott, director of the United States Geological Survey and pres- 

 ent secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ; Charles E. Beecher, 

 professor of paleontology, Yale University; Charles Schuchert, 

 professor of historical geology and paleontology, Yale University. 

 In the building were written not only the volumes of the Paleon- 

 tology of New York, various geological reports of New York 

 issued during those years, but also reports on the, geology of the 

 states of Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio, and various government 

 scientific expeditions ; the Mexican boundary survey, the Pacific 

 Railway survey, the Stansbury expedition, etc. For a generation 

 the influences which emanated from this building were the most 

 potent factor in the development of American geology, and in 

 recognition of this fact, now that the building has become the 

 property of the city and is used for purposes connected with the 

 maintenance of the Lincoln Park, it has been decided by the 

 Association of American State Geologists to perpetuate its asso- 

 ciations by placing thereupon a commemorative bronze tablet. The 

 money has been provided for this purpose and the tablet will be 

 presently erected. We have received from the commissioner of 

 public works of the city of Albany the assurance that the building 

 will be maintained intact in perpetuity. 



The field meeting of the Association of American State 

 Geologists. By the desire of the officers of the as(sociation, the 

 annual field meeting of the official geologists of the States was held 

 under the auspices of the Museum in September. The associa- 

 tion was represented by a party of about thirty-five, which included 

 several representatives of the United States Geological Survey. 

 In spite of rather forbidding weather the field meetings were 

 instructive and satisfactory. The first day was given to a trip by 

 automobile into the classical Paleozoic sections of the Helderberg 

 mountains, the Indian ladder, with its succession of formations, 

 and from there upward the geological series was followed along 

 the outcrops through Thompson's lake and on by Warner lake, 

 into Knox; thence, on returning, the geologists were entertained 

 at Altamont at the home of Mrs John Boyd Thacher, the 



