Geology and Mineralogy. 476c 



States Geological Survey. It is, therefore, manifestly absurd 

 that my name should be employed in their support, and that I 

 should thus be made virtually to condemn the work of all of my 

 assistants actually engaged in works of survey throughout the 

 United States. 



Long experience and careful consideration of this subject have 

 led me to the conclusion that no detailed taxonomic scheme can 

 be adopted for the entire country ; but that there are many 

 geologic provinces, and that in each one a distinct taxonomic 

 scheme is necessary in order properly to present the facts ex- 

 hibited in nature. On the other hand, I believe that a general 

 time scale can be adopted to which the taxonomic schemes of the 

 several geologic provinces can be referred with greater or less 

 certainty. The general classification of the formations of each 

 geologic province must be constructed and reconstructed with 

 the course of investigation, and it should not be hampered with 

 preconceived classifications ; but geologists may well be fur- 

 nished with a purely artificial or conventional time scheme to be 

 used in the progress of their work. 



A system of geologic conventions in common usage through- 

 out the world seems to be desirable for two potent reasons : first, 

 geologists will be able thus to understand one another's work 

 with a great saving of labor and time ; and second, a common 

 language of geology will make the science available to a much 

 larger number of people, and its beauties and truths may soon 

 become the common property of all educated people. But how 

 shall a universal system of conventions be established ? If by 

 direct agreement through a congress of the world's active 

 workers in geology, it may be a compromise and may not be the 

 very best. On the other hand, any good universal system is 

 better than the multiform systems now in use. To be estab- 

 lished as a general system, it must meet with very general if not 

 universal acceptance, and no system should be promulgated 

 which has a large number of opponents, lest it add to the con- 

 fusion. 



There is another method by which a general system may be 

 secured. Geologists may go on devising, amending, and improv- 

 ing their systems severally, each new worker adopting such a 

 system as he may think best ; until at last, by a course of intelli- 

 gent selection, a common system is evolved. A system evolved 

 in this manner can be reached only in the distant future, and in 

 the meantime the disadvantages of diverse systems will retard 

 investigation and keep the science more or less buried from the 

 general public under a cloud of conventions. Whether a system 

 shall be formulated by enactment or evolved by practice is a 

 question worthy of consideration. The legislative method may 

 be tried, and if it fails the judicial method remains. 



The following is the abstract of my report to the committee. — 

 The full report was never completed. 



The Quaternary or Pleistocene period is represented by all those 



