87 



the new formation ; on the contrary, he said M Prof. Swallow seems rather 

 indifferent to the matters," and I was left to infer, which I did, that he was 

 merely going to Columbia with his Carboniferous fossils to have them classi- 

 fied, and compared with the Missouri collections, as he had stated in his 

 former letters, otherwise we certainly would not have attempted to describe 

 them. 



About this time I went on to Washington city, to investigate, in connec- 

 tion with Dr. Hayden, a collection of fossils recently brought in by Lieut. 

 Warren's exploring expedition to the Black Hill, in Nebraska ; and took with 

 me Major Hawn's Kansas collections. On arriving at Washington, Dr. J. 

 G. Cooper presented to us a small collection of the same fossils from another 

 locality in North Eastern Kansas, which tended still more to strengthen the 

 opinion that these were Permian types. A more thorough comparison was 

 then made, where we could have access to books we had not before seen, on 

 Permian fossils, which led us to think they must belong to rocks of that age, 

 and a record was made at the Smithsonian Institution, of our views on this 

 subject. We then wrote out descriptions of the species, and some remarks 

 on the age of the formation. 



On my return to Albany, from Washington, I received a letter from Major 

 Hawn, dated Columbia, Mo., Jan. 25th, 1858, in which he informed me he had 

 arrived at Columbia, and stated : " I have unpacked my collections in Kansas, 

 and classified the specimens. I have been highly complimented on their 

 extent and beauty. Dr. Shumard [Palaeontologist of the Missouri Geological 

 Survey] pronounces them all Carboniferous, most of which have been found 

 in the Coal measures of Missouri, but some few are new." This letter also 

 contained no intimation that Major Hawn had changed his mind in regard to 

 having us describe the fossils I supposed to be of Permian age. 



I then wrote him that we were now more than ever inclined to the opinion 

 that they must be Permian ; informing him that we had written out descrip- 

 tions of his new species, and requesting him to borrow from Prof. Swallow, 

 the specimens in his possession from this rock, for our use. * 



After the lapse of several weeks during which we were daily expecting to 

 receive a section, and some other information Major H. had promised, in his 

 letter of the 4th January, above quoted (written just before he started to 

 Columbia), to send, and when the whole matter was in this posture, and we 

 had expressed to our friends at Washington, here, and at Philadelphia, our 

 opinion respecting these fossils, and had our paper describing them all 

 ready for publication, much to my astonishment I received from Major Hawn 

 a letter, dated Columbia, Mo., February 22, 1858, informing me that he had 

 inferred from the tenor of some of my letters, that I had abandoned the in- 

 tention of investigating these fossils,* and he had consequently prevailed upon 



♦In this Major H. was certainly mistaken, as I had never for a moment abandoned the 

 idea of describing the fossils from the new formation. 



