1887] Editors’ Table. i 643 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: E. D, COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY. 
THE principal object of the International Congress of Geol- 
ogists is the unification of geological methods. This means the 
adoption of a general system of nomenclature for formations 
and a system of coloration for maps. The utility of such a 
project cannot be questioned. Diversity in the practices of dif- 
ferent countries on these points is as inconvenient as it is unsci- 
entific. It is not a matter of prime importance what names or 
what colors are used, but it is important that these should be 
uniform for the world. Two objections have been made to this 
project. One of these is that there is not identity, properly so 
called, between the geological formations of the different con- 
tinents. The other is, that no system adopted under our present 
knowledge is adapted to express discoveries yet to be made in 
unexplored regions. 
o the first of these so-called objections it may be replied 
that, since time is one, so geological ages are one for all parts 
of the earth. Vast tracts of sediments and intrusions have been 
produced contemporaneously in the past, as they are being now 
produced in the present. When these formations are identified 
as contemporaneous they should receive identical names, and be © 
identically colored on geological maps. Of course, the begin- 
nings and ends of the processes of deposition have not been 
always contemporaneous ; so that we have, in variations of this 
kind, ground for subdivisions of minor extent and importance. 
But the great “time boundaries’—as they are well termed by 
Professor Dana—are identical in their central features for the 
whole earth. The parallelism may be even traced to a lesser 
- grade of divisions, as is well known. It is only in what might 
be termed the third grade of time divisions based on stratig- 
raphy, that we begin to find identifications impossible. So, Os 
course; the work of the Congress can proceed no further in this — 
direction. 
It can, however, digest and codify the results of geological 
research in all countries to its lowest subdivisions. It can cata- 
~ logue and compile. Thus an invaluable index to all the forma- 
a tions of all countries may be produced. Such a list, like all 
