PREFACE. 



The accompanying paper has been communicated as a pari of 

 and to the report of the State Geologist with the object of pre- 

 senting to the public an example of the kind of work I had 

 proposed to do under the provisions of the law of L883, which 

 appropriated the sum of $5,000 annually for the purposes of 

 publishing the " scientific contributions " of the "museum staff 

 and such other scientific contributions as they," the trustees, 

 "may deem expedient; and by means of printed handbooks 

 describing said collections and, in such other ways as may be 

 practicable, to make the said museum a means of instruction 

 to the people of the State." 



It had long been my desire to accomplish by some means a 

 diffusion of the knowledge of the Palaeontology of the State as a 

 guide and help to students in geology in our colleges and higher 

 schools. In the earlier work of the Palaeontology of the State, 

 when the publications were compelled to follow immediately 

 upon the acquisition of fossils from the field, it was necessary to 

 include all the classes of organisms from the formation, or series 

 of formations,, under discussion, and, therefore, the earlier 

 volumes present only a very partial attempt at a biological 

 arrangement of the material. As soon as collections had accu- 

 mulated to such a degree as permitted the treatment of each 

 class of fossils, from one or several formations, in their biological 

 relations they were so discussed and illustrated. 



It was not until the time of the publication of the fourth 

 volume upon the Devonian Brachiopoda that such a method of 

 treatment could be adopted, and during this work I became 

 more fully aware than ever before of the necessity of preparing 



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