Marcou.] 344 [March 2, 



to help him by pointing out errors in " these preliminary studies," 

 as he calls them, adding candidly that he "will be glad to have his 

 attention called to them." 1 



It is in answer to his demand that I will call his attention, first, to 

 " the use of the name Taconic ;" and later, in another paper which 

 will promptly follow, on " the Taconic of Georgia, Vermont." 

 Mr. Walcott has a long explanation entitled : "On the use of the 

 name Taconic," in his " introductory observations " (see pp. 65 to 

 71), where he tries to show why he is " compelled to use Cambrian 

 in preference to Taconic." 



Mr. Walcott says that the fauna published in "his paper is 

 the fauna of the Upper Taconic of Emmons as defined by him 

 in 1855 ;" moreover, he admits that "Dr. Emmons was correct in 

 classifying the Upper Taconic as Pre-Potsdam ;" and further he 

 says that " Dr. Emmons deserves great credit for the work that 

 he did." Yet notwithstanding all these friendly admissions of the 

 discovery and value of the Taconic system, and the singular state- 

 ment that the lower division " will be dropped entirely ;" and that 

 " the Upper Taconic which," according to Mr. Walcott, "is not now 

 known to occur in the Taconic area, would be taken as the true 

 Taconic, which it does not appear to be, although Dr. Emmons in- 

 cluded the Black Slates in it in 1847;" farther on he adds, "it is 

 one of the misfortunes of his (Dr. Emmons) career that he began 

 his work on the Taconic system in the Taconic area, instead of 

 Western Vermont or along the Hudson river, etc." Emmons, on 

 the contrary, ought to be highly complimented, because he first 

 worked out, in a difficult part of the country, the arduous and most 

 important problem of finding an immense system of strata below 

 the Potsdam, collecting stratigraphic and palaeontologic proofs 

 at and near the Taconic range. The name is excellent in all re- 

 spects, being indigenous, a beautiful Indian denomination, indi- 

 cating a range of mountains well defined, where the first observa- 

 tions were made, and is as appropriate as the Jurassic, from the 

 Jura mountains. 



As to the Taconic area not being truly Taconic, and " that most, 

 if not all, of the strata included by Emmons in his original Ta- 

 conic are of Lower Silurian age," Mr. Walcott, by his own researches 



1 Second Contribution to the Studies, etc., on pp. 58, 59 and 65. 



