} 
846 — General Notes. 
This criticism, then, assumes the form of a serious sor 
pun, or a puzzle based upon the ambiguity of a word. As 
greater number of the world’s geologists have not yet accepted 
this new use of “ Archean,” the criticism is not fatal. Of cours, 
if the new group be accepted, the Keweenawan will be interpo 
lated between it and the Paleozoic. w 
It is not the purpose of this article to criticise the plan of tht 
Spectrum proposed by Mr. Gilbert. As he says, it has been vey 
fully discussed in the proceedings of the Bologna Congress; tł 
it may be said that one of his canons—viz., that the groups 0 
“hues and tones,” called by the vulgar simply colors, which 4 
to serve as a scale— 
“f. . . must be so chosen that the degree of separateness of adjacent colors shall 
everywhere the same, as judged by the orma/ human eye.” 
will be very difficult to carry into effect, in default of the dè 
covery of, and agreement upon, that normal eye. To no 
eyes of the ordinary kind would the “ separateness” be likely 
appear the same. It ought also to be mentioned that, in att 
the hues of purple to one end or the other of the 1 
increase the range of the time-scale colors, he violates his ¢ 
rule, and renders it impracticable to assign by its wave-length 
color to an intermediate rock-mass se ae 
_ the portion of the address, however, most open to object?! 
is the end of it. He says,— 
“A classification i i i ts of observation of 
the domain of the Viti: <p iam aera cent ae its salient ee 
eventually recognized, whether its authority is individual or collective. it 
not comprise them it will inevitably be superseded, by whatever authority 
have been instituted.” 
This argument savors somewhat of Oriental fatalism, ! 
of the 
Ni I am opposed to the classification by the Congress © 
prt ny formations, and likewise to the classification of the voleami rocks eyi 
T regard it as ill advised that the Congress undertook the preparation % . 
pe, for that, if more than a work of compilation, is a work of Saki au 
Poor Congress! About to be bereft of the power f° 
the objects for which it was created, why was it called into 
poseless being ? Suppose that when Lavoisier an 
e 
d his on 
