16 GENERAL VIEW OF THE TACONIC SYSTEM. 



I feel prepared to lay before tin- American lt « • < * I < » it i > ' ^ «lic results of mj observations. In 

 doing tin*. m\ design is to present them no) only with the additional evidence I have 

 i enlly acquired of the truth of m\ former position respecting this system, but also, a* 

 far as circumstances will permit, with the whole evidence in regard to it. I do iliis for 

 (he purpose of correcting some errors, and elucidating the subject more fully, as well as 

 making il of greater value to American geology. In the following pages, I believe (lie 

 i ider will be satisfied that in these rocks we have, for this countr) al Least, the true 

 pa'aozoic ha.*, , and that in them exists those organic forms which are strictlj entitled to the 

 gnation profozoic. 



^ 2. Opinions of geologists on the taconic and Cambrian systems. 



The published opinions of geologists in regard to the Taconic rocks, it is deemed will 

 be of sufficient interest to merit a transcription in these pages. I give them in the order 

 of their publication. The first, (hen, is from the Report of Prof. Mather, one of my 

 Colleagues in the New-York Survey, who, in Ins preface, has penned the following para- 

 graphs : 



'• The views "feme* of my colleagues are different on some of the problems of geology, 

 «* I have |\isi learned bj Beeing Ins published works. Time will determine who is right ; 

 and the author, if wrong, will without hesitation yield the point. Prof. Emmons has 

 discussed the long rexed ipi<-*non of the age of the Taconic rocks (the peculiar slates, 

 lim etc. along the eastern line of New York from Lake Champlain to the High- 



lands). He has ihe advantage of having lived on and among them, and of exploring 

 them with much minuteness during many years; and probably every geologist, from 

 examining them where he has, would arrive at the same conclusion as to their age. He 

 admits that they are not found at any locality resting on the primary, but thai the Potsdam 

 sandstone is the lowest known rock resting upon that formation. 



c - Prof. Hitchcock, the Geologist of Massachusetts, bas also entered into a discussion of 

 tlf age of the Taconic rocks, as they occupy some spue in the western pari of Mas 

 ehusetts. His observations, and those of Prof. Dana, have long since drawn the attention 



of i - to these rocks. Prof. H. views these rocks as meta rphic, a conclusion 



entirel] opposite to that of Prof. Emmons; but he could find no data from which lo mlei 

 their age or place in the geolog • s. Both these gentlemen, Profs. H. I), and \Y. B. 



Rogers, and various oilier geologists, have come to the conclusion that these rocks, and 

 in fact most ( ,f those from the Hoosic mountain range to the Hudson, have been wrinkled 

 up and folded over, all in one direction, so as to give the same direction of dip; audi 

 concur with them in this opinion. My own observations on these rocks, and those of 

 the Hudson valley, conducted with much care through their whole extent in New- York, 



* By personal inquiry, Mr. M \ther informed the author that he was the colleague referred to. 



