422 J. D. Dana — Brief history of Taconic ideas. 



later rocks than the Primordial, at least as late as Lower 

 Silurian; and hence the term Taconic could not have been 

 substituted for Primordial, as only a small part of the system 

 was Primordial : the name belonged by first right to the origi- 

 nal Taconic of 1842. The Primordial addition to the top of 

 the Taconic column made by Emmons in 18^4 was rectified 

 by simply recording the facts in their proper places. The 

 Eolian or Stockbridge limestone and other "Lower" Taconic 

 rocks are mentioned in the Manual under the Calciferous 

 (pp. 175, 176) in connection with remarks on the Quebec 

 group ; but it is added that " fossils probably of the Trenton 

 period occur in the Vermont limestone " ; and on p. 391 y 

 evidence in favor of a Trenton rather than a Calciferous 

 or Quebec age is presented, based on the facts from the 

 Vermont Geological Survey and the remarks by Billings. 



By the close of the year 1862, therefore, the Black slates of 

 the "Upper" Taconic had reached their right place in a Geo- 

 logical Manual. There remained however to be yet made out 

 their particular horizon in the Cambrian, the particular periods 

 of the Lower Silurian represented in the Stockbridge limestone r 

 and the age of the quartzyte. 



1865 to 1872.— -In May, 1870, Rev. A. Wing, of Vermont, 

 collected fossils from the limestone at West Rutland "not 100 

 yards from an abandoned marble quarry," which were sent a year 

 later (June, 1871), to Mr. E. Billings, of Montreal, who reported 

 upon them in this Journal for 1872, pronouncing them probably 

 Chazy.* Mr. Wing had been exploring since 1865, in order to 

 " ascertain if possible the geological age of the limestones, slates 

 and quartzite," and relied on Mr. Billings for the determination 

 of his fossils. f In 1867, Mr. Billings identified for him Asaphus 

 canalis, two or three species of Bathyurus, Maclurea matu- 

 tina, from the limestone in Cornwall, Vt.,-and made the species 

 Calciferous. The same year he found the Trenton fossil 

 Trinucleus concentricus in place "in great abundance" in 

 Sudbury ; also about this time or between it and 1872, he found 

 " Bathyurus Saffordi, a Quebec Group trilobite " in East Corn- 

 wall; Bathyurus extans, a Birdseye species, Columnaria 

 alveolata, a Black River species, and the Trinucleus, east of 

 Shoreham ; and confirmatory species as to the Calciferous as 

 well as the later periods from other localities. 



By 18724 Mr. Wing had established one of the points he had 

 in view, that the limestone was not, as Logan had held, of the 

 Quebec group, or of Calciferous and Chazy only, but embraced 

 the Trenton also, and apparently all the Lower Silurian forma- 



*E. Billings, this J., Ill, iv, 133. 1S72. 



\ A. Wmg, this J., II, xiii, 332, 405, 1877. 



{This J., Ill, iv, 1872 ; and for his conclusions, p. 414. 



