62 



University of California. 



[Vol. .'(. 



of the Survey. It opens the door immediately to the reconsid- 

 eration of the whole question, and it is to promote this reconsid- 

 eration that this brief note has been written. Onr sense of 

 justice has been injured by the attempt to displace Archean by 

 Algonltiav . The rights of the older geologists have been ignored 

 in the effort to establish a new name. No one objects to the 

 use of the term for the few thousand feet of strata which inter- 

 vene in the Lake Superior region between the Upper Cambrian 

 and the Archaean, but the extension of the Algonkian across the 

 Eparchsean Interval is entirely unwarranted, not only on this 

 claim of justice to the earlier writers, but also on account of the 

 departure from our practice in historical neology, and on account 

 of the confusion which must inevitable me if this departure 

 is persisted in. 



I trust that this criticism may bt taken in the impersonal 

 spirit in which it is offered. I have a warm regard and a high 

 admiration for the men who are doing so much to advance our 

 knowledge of that difficult branch of geology, the pre-Cambrian. 

 But in regard to the principles herein touched upon I believe 

 them to be in error. If I am right, that error can only be elim- 

 inated by a free discussion of the questions involved. I am 

 further strongly of the opinion that, where there are clearly two 

 sides to a scientific question, so powerful an organization as the 

 United States Geological Survey should use a nomenclature 

 which is non-committal as to the theories involved. The 

 present seems to be an opportune occasion for a discussion and 

 reconsideration, inasmuch as the Canadian geologists are taking 

 a more active interest in the problem, which is peculiarly theirs; 

 the United States Geological Survey is reconsidering the scheme 

 of nomenclature which involves the objectionable definitions of 

 Algonkian and Archaean ; and Professor Van Hise has abandoned 

 those definitions as inconsistent with the facts as he finds them. 



University of California, 



Ma;/, 1902. 



