KINDERHOOK FORMATION 277 



is a noteworthy fact in this connection that in central Missouri the lower 

 two members of Swallow's Chemung appear to be wanting. 



MEEK AND WORTH EN'S KINDERHOOK FORMATION 



The proposal of the term Kinderhook as a geological title was unfor- 

 tunately made amidst personal animosities. When, in 1860, Worthen 

 and Meek began their labors on the geological survey of Illinois, both 

 had become very bitter against Hall, and could not restrain themselves 

 from making attempts to overthrow some of the latter's work. Worthen 

 had fancied an unpardonable grievance because, while connected with 

 the Iowa geological survey under Hall, the latter had verified some of 

 the former's observations on his own account, and instead of adopting the 

 names of formations which had previously been suggested in manuscript 

 had used titles of his own. Meek had just retired from Hall's laboratory 

 m Albany as a result of a quarrel, in which he was greatly at fault, 

 about the proper draughting of some fossils for the latter's New York 

 report. Intense* rivalry had also now arisen between Hall and Meek 

 and Worthen as to who should first describe all the new fossils which 

 were about this time being discovered in the rich fields along the Mis- 

 sissippi river in Illinois and the adjoining states. 



Thus, in considering the beginnings of the Kinderhook controversy, 

 there is a large element of biased judgment that has to be eliminated. 

 Many misstatements of fact, misquotations of contemporaneous opinion, 

 and misinterpretation of published work appeared in the first paper by 

 Meek and Worthen on the Kinderhook.* No doubt the intentions of 

 the Illinois authors were to present the facts exactly as they existed; but, 

 with glasses somewhat colored, enthusiasm born of new discovery, and 

 jealous rivalry, they evidenced a haste that was not customary with these 

 usually very careful workers. 



But, aside from the shortcomings mentioned, there appears to be a far 

 more important factor overlooked in the proposal of the group Kinder- 

 hook and in assigning it all to the Carboniferous. Meek and Worthen 's 

 conclusions were far too sweeping. The triple-membered Chemung of 

 Swallow had not all been examined by the authors named. To them 

 practically only the upper member had yielded fossils. The Vermicular 

 (Hannibal) shales and Lithographic (Louisiana) limestone were ad- 

 mittedly barren of organic remains, except perhaps half a dozen species 

 and almost as few individuals, which had been accidentally secured from 

 the layers at the very base of the last mentioned formation. 



Meek had already studied in Missouri only the fossils from the typical 

 Chouteau limestone, and had come to regard them as Carboniferous 



*Am. Jour. Sci. (2), vol. xxxii, 1861, p. 1G7. 



