438 Obituary. 



In the present connection, his accomplishments in the domain of 

 science are of chief interest, but in any estimate of this his rela- 

 tions to the state and its scientific staff must not be lost sight of. 

 With the possible exception of Barrande in Bohemia, no one has 

 made known to the world so many extinct forms of animal life 

 from the Paleozoic System. This work forms the bulk of the 

 famous series of quartos known as the "Natural History of New 

 York," and is generally referred to as the " Paheontology of 

 New York." Besides this voluminous work Hall published a 

 great many memoirs and smaller papers in the annual reports of 

 the State Museum, the reports of the State Geologist, in the pro- 

 ceedings of learned societies, and in various scientific journals. 

 Altogether, in the description of new genera and species of 

 Paleozoic invertebrates his work forms the main structure around 

 which similar work of other states cluster, and upon which other 

 investigators have built. His energies were not wholly confined 

 to the limits of New York, for in 1855 he was made the State 

 Geologist of Iowa ; and in 1857, he held a similar position in 

 Wisconsin. Many of his papers were based upon material from 

 other parts of the continent, especially Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and 

 Canada. 



As a field geologist his best work was derived from a study 

 of the Paleozoic sediments later than the Cambrian. His correla- 

 tions of the New Y r ork formations with those of the Mississippi 

 Valley and with Europe were of prime importance and helped to 

 make geology more than a provincial science. 



In the year following Dana's address on the origin of conti- 

 nents, delivered in 1856 at the meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, Hall proposed, on a similar 

 occasion, his theory of mountain-building by previous regional 

 subsidence, and maximum accumulation of sediments. Both of 

 these theories have since become generally recognized. 



James Hall was born at Hingham, Mass., Sept. 12th, 1811. He 

 was graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 

 New York, in 1832, and continued his services there for some 

 years as professor, first of Chemistry and Natural Science, and 

 later of Geology. In 1842 he received the degree of M.A. from 

 Union College, and that of LL D. from Hamilton in 1863, and 

 McGill in 1884. He joined the organization of the Geological 

 Survey of the State of New York in 1836, and remained in con- 

 tinuous service up to the time of his death, which occurred August 

 7th, 1898. 



