RETORT OF THE STATE PALEONTOLOGIST 1899 GG3 



The Memoir an the paleozoic reticulate sponges, which carries with 

 it 70 lithographic plates of large quarto size, and is published in 

 parts in the 15th and lGth annual reports, has been prepared for 

 its special edition, which has required repaging, and is also 

 ready for deliver} 7 . Under the special provision just referred 

 to we are to receive 1100 separate copies of this memoir. 



The memoir on the fossil corals was not far advanced at the 

 time of Prof. HalPs death. The determinations of generic struc* 

 ture and the preparation of the illustrations had been largely 

 left in the charge of Mr George B. Simpson, draftsman. The 

 original scope of this work was far reaching and it was designed 

 by Prof. Hall to be an analysis of all the paleozoic fossil corals 

 occurring in the state of New York and the allied faunas out- 

 side the limits of the state. The group of organisms with which 

 this important work has to deal is widespread throughout our 

 older rocks and, on account of their abundance and somewhat 

 complicated structure, they have never been exhaustively studied 

 and are not well known. To carry out the original plan of 

 this work would, in my judgment, require continued and close 

 application for many years, and the illustration necessary to 

 give the w T ork its true value should be profuse. It will require 

 the services of a student who has familiarized himself fully with 

 all the literature in various languages on this subject if it is 

 to take its place as a scientific work of genuine merit. As I have 

 felt that the present equipment of this department would not 

 permit the immediate execution of this scheme as originally 

 planned, I proposed to your board that the work be continued 

 along its present lines to the close of one of its natural divisions, 

 leaving the other divisions of the subject untouched for the 

 present. That is to say, that the work be continued to the com- 

 pletion of the division of the rugose corals. This proposition 

 has been approved, and I have to report that the work has 

 been carried forward in this way as rapidly as circum- 

 stances would permit. Some delay in its prosecution was caused 

 by the fact that the material on which the study of these fossils 

 was being made, largely belonged to the estate of the late Prof. 



