2 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
of the stratigraphy were published in the American Journal of Science for i86i, 
and in his Report of 1869. He gave to the Niagaran rocks the collective name 
]\feniscns, which he subdivided into two portions, a lower or variegated bed, and 
an upper, or sponge-bearing bed. He also made important collections, which 
are now in the Museum of Vanderbilt University at Nashville. 
In consequence of the publication of the works of these early geologists, the 
Silurian area became an attractive field for collectors, and was visited from time 
to time by many ardent fossil hunters, among them Col. Sidney S. Lyon, 
Prof. A. H. Worthen, of Illinois, Dr. Carl Rominger, of Michigan, Mrs. J. M. 
iMilligan, who resided in Decatur County for a considerable time, and my old 
associate, Charles Wachsmuth, who made two journeys along the Tennessee 
river during his sojourns in the South in the ’8o’s. He was greatly impressed 
with the richness of the fossil beds, and the opportunities which they offered for 
intensive collecting, which the state of his health did not permit him to utilize in 
that then rather wild country — although even with his limited facilities he made 
important acquisitions. 
In more recent times the geology of the western Tennessee region has been 
studied in detail by Dr. Aug. F. Foerste, whose valuable paper on “ Silurian and 
Devonian Limestones of Western Tennessee” was published in 1903.^ He recog- 
nized in Saft'ord’s variegated beds the Clinton, Osgood, Laurel and Waldron 
formations of the northern areas, and at the top of this division two new for- 
mations, the Lego and ] 3 ixon beds ; while to the upper or sponge-bearing bed of 
the Meniscus he applied the new name Brownsport. Still later investigations 
were made by Prof. W. F. Pate, of Lebanon, Kentucky, and Dr. R. S. Bassler, 
of the L^nited States National Museum. Their joint work published in 1908, 
entitled ” The Late Niagaran Strata of West Tennessee,” ^ contains the latest 
and fullest information on the subject. It was based upon several seasons of 
study and collecting by Mr. Pate, the last two of them in my service, supple- 
mented by a careful review of the stratigraphy by the two authors together in 
a field excursion made expressly for the purpose in 1907. Many sections of 
typical localities are given, and the paper should be consulted for a more detailed 
presentation of the facts than is attempted here. 
Pate and Bassler found that the Brownsport and succeeding beds, which 
have furnished by far the greater part of the fossils from the glade region, are 
separable into four principal divisions, well marked faunally and lithologically 
for which they proposed the formation names Beech River, Bob, Lobelville and 
Decatur. The tabulation opposite of the several classifications as made by them 
will be useful in tracing the horizons as mentioned in the works of different 
authors. 
1 Journal of Geology, n, pp. 554 - 715 - 
2 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 34, pp. 407-432. 
