114 C. D. WALCOTT OUTLOOK OF THE GEOLOGIST IN AMERICA 



In the early stages of American paleontology it was necessary that 

 the fossils should be given names, and at the beginning of the present 

 century we are more or less acquainted with many thousand forms. 

 This great wealth of known forms will be very materially increased by 

 future collections and studies; yet, with this great # mass of material to 

 be described, along with a reworking of many known forms, the pale- 

 ontologist of the next decades will busy himself rather with the broad 

 problems of stratigraphy, correlation,- geographic distribution of fossils, 

 relations of movements of uplift and subsidence, etcetera. 



All our text-books refer to the historical formations as if they were so 

 many clean-cut superposed time elements, but, speaking broadty, this 

 indicates that we do not know the transition faunas. In these problems, 

 and there are nearly as many as there are formations, local investigators 

 will do their best work, since no great collections or libraries are neces- 

 sary for the working out of local faunas. The fossils need to be col- 

 lected in abundance, and the material from one zone and locality care- 

 fully kept together. The new species need to be carefully described and 

 accurately figured and the type specimens deposited in one .of the large 

 central museums of paleontology, since in these centers of research the 

 final sifting takes place. In this connection the large centers of re- 

 search can cooperate with the local workers by advice, loan of material, 

 and access to collections. In every geologic province a great field awaits 

 the local institution, and no class of fossils can be neglected. One of the 

 great omissions in paleontology has been the general neglect to gather 

 the microscopic fossils like the Ostracoda, small Bryozoa, Foraminifera, 

 and the young of Brachiopoda and Mollusca. 



With the working out of the local faunas the solution of the intricate 

 problems of time correlation will be possible, and we shall also be certain 

 of the duration of species in time. With the species thus limited and 

 restricted, lines of migration will become apparent, and in evolution our 

 phylogenetic classification will have more certainty on account of the 

 ascertained chronogenesis. 



The investigations of the paleontologist have materially increased the 

 subject-matter of the two biologic sciences, zoology and botany, and have 

 anticipated them by mai^ important histologic discoveries. The con- 

 nection of paleontology with geology is even more intimate. Only by 

 a study of their included faunas can the chronologic succession of clastic 

 rocks be determined in many cases. In the main, paleontology is the 

 ultimate foundation of historical geology. 



The problems of structural geology may be said to be comprised in 

 the relations of rock masses, the mechanics of movements involved in 



