Marcou."| 348 [March 2, 



to our just claim of having first recognized the Primordial fauna 

 and first named the Taconic system. The vote in favor of the Ta- 

 conic would have been carried by a large majority, according to the 

 proposition made by Prof. G. Dewalque as Secretary of the Com- 

 mission for the uniformity of the nomenclature. To say that the 

 Silurian is mainly an English question is an assertion, which the 

 "loud murmurs" of the members present at the meeting have suffi- 

 ciently disposed of as unjust. The question is cosmopolite and 

 international, and all the geologists of the world have a right to 

 investigate and express their views. 



In this connection I shall call attention to u A geological map 

 of the United States" by C. H. Hitchcock, published lately in the 

 Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1 

 November, 1886, Vol. xv, p. 486, purporting " to illustrate the 

 schemes of coloration and nomenclature recommended by the In- 

 ternational Geological Congress." In that map Professor Hitch- 

 cock has anticipated the decisions of the Congress, in using the name 

 Cambrian and placing under one system instead of two, the second 

 fauna and the third fauna which is called Silurian. The Congress 

 has postponed the subject of naming the Lower Palaeozoic rocks 



1 In a foot note, p. 479 and p. 15 of the separate pamphlet accompanying his Geo- 

 logical map of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Mr. Hitchcock says, 

 " Bulletin No. 7, published by the U. S. Geological Survey, is entitled Mapoteca 

 Geologica Americana, a catalogue of geological maps of America (north and south) 

 1752-1881, in geographic and chronologic order; by Jules Marcou and John Belknap 

 Marcou, 1884. It professes to enumerate every geological map ever published relating 

 to American geology, together with a brief statement of the circumstances attending its 

 publication and various comments. Some of our statements given on previous pages 

 are at direct variance with those of the Mapoteca, and more in accordance with the 

 views of American geologists. Since this chef cVoeuvre of Logan and Hall is noD men- 

 tioned in the Bulletin, even by title, the publication must be compared to that cele- 

 brated performance of Hamlet where, owing to infelicitous circumstances, the part of 

 Hamlet was omitted." 



The title of this chefd'ceuvre of Logan" is on p. F 29, No. 59, of the*Mapoteca, represented 

 by the reduced maps or " index " as Logan calls it, on the scale of 125 miles to one 

 inch, of the larger maps in eight sheets. That index, or tableau ^assemblage of the 

 eight sheets maps, is absolutely identical with the large map : the same title, the same 

 nomenclature, the same explanation of the colors, the same coloring, the same letters 

 and Arabic numerals, the same geographical distribution of the group of rocks. The 

 complaint of Mr. Hitchcock is an exaggeration of an insignificant oversight. The slip 

 of paper on which the large map was written, was left in the drawer, containing the 

 manuscript, and it was not found until too late for its insertion in the Mapoteca. A 

 material oversight which happily does not affect the completeness of the Mapoteca. 



As to the " statements " of Mr. Hitchcock " at direct variance with those of Mapo- 

 teca" they will be treated with details, giving all the dates and exact issue of the maps, 

 volumes and pamphlets in my next paper on the " Taconic of Georgia and the Report 

 on the Geology of Vermont." 



