INTRODUCTION 



815 



I described a definite lithe-logic and stratigraphic unit of the Chester 

 series, which has since been recognized by the characters then ascribed 

 to it, from Caldwell County through southern and eastern Kentucky into 

 southwestern Virginia and Tennessee and thence into Alabama. That I 

 failed to select a satisfactory name for this limestone, which would have 

 secured for me the credit of naming so important a formation, might be 

 counted as more of a misfortune than a misdemeanor. 



But, while these and other instances of ungenerous treatment might 

 safely be left to the judgment of fair-minded readers, there are other 

 statements in Weller's Hardin County Eeport that may not be passed by 

 with like confidence in the outcome. Much of the paleontologic and 

 stratigraphic evidence published by me he ignores entirely, and some of 

 this is very clearly out of harmony with his own statements and con- 

 clusions. 



In other places he states my conclusion on the question under discus- 

 sion and dismisses it with the simple, unqualified, and wholly unsup- 

 ported assertion that there is no reason or basis "whatsoever" for it. 

 And yet in each of the two or three cases of this kind I gave the evidence 

 on which the opinion is based and devoted two or more pages to its dis- 

 cussion. Whether my evidence in these cases appears weak or strong in 

 the opinion of others, it certainly deserves more respectful treatment 

 than Weller gives it. 



And then there are matters of fact — indeed, very many of them — such 

 as the occurrence and range of fossil species or the identification of par- 

 ticular zones or formations. When my account of them disagrees with 

 his own experience or belief, he either ignores it completely or seeks to 

 discredit it in one way or another. In cases where he has chosen the 

 latter course he implies either incompetence, carelessness, or insincerity 

 on my part; and in more than one instance, to make good on his refuta- 

 tion, ' he cites only those parts of my statement that fit in with the point 

 he seeks to make. 



THE LOCALITY NEAR LEVIAS, KENTUCKY 



To give an example of implied incompetence and incomplete statement 

 of fact, I refer to what he says, first on page 130 and again in nearly the 

 same words on page 141, about 



"the one locality that has always been mentioned by Ulrich in discussion of 

 this question [the occurrence of Fredonia fossils in the Upper Ohara], where 

 he claims to have collected Platycrmus pcnicillus and other unquestioned 

 Sainte Genevieve species in the 'Upper Ohara,' is near Levias, in Crittenden 

 County, Kentucky, where the fossils are said to have been secured less than 

 50 feet beneath the sandstone formerly called Cypress by him, but now 



