1888 .] 
83 
[Marcou. 
publications which have changed the whole American classification 
and nomenclature were begun. Without the help of this Society, 
I have no doubt* that the Taconic question, which is now so prom- 
inent a topic and of such great value to geologists all the world 
over, would have been retarded for at least fifty years. 
I shall add, that we are only at the dawn of the study of that 
question, for we have entombed in the strata of the Taconic system 
all the secrets of the beginning of life on our planet. 
ON SOME DATES OF THE “REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY 
OF VERMONT.” 
BY JULES MARCOU. 
VERMONT REPRINT OF MR. BILLINGS’ PAPER DATED NOVEMBER 21, 1861. 
In a paper entitled, “Date of the publication of the report upon 
the geology of Vermont,” recently published by C. H. Hitchcock 
(Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. xxiv, p. 33, 1888), we read, 
p. 36, “in reference to the reprint of Mr. Billings’ paper” (in the 
report on the geology of Vermont with the suppression of a long 
footnote, extending over two pages, without any notice), “If Mr. 
Marcou will consult the volume entitled ‘Palaeozoic fossils,’ Vol. i, 
of the Canada survey, where the pamphlet which afforded the de- 
scriptions copied into the Vermont has been reprinted, he will 
discover that Mr. Billings has also suppressed this footnote. Per- 
haps it will appear in the next memoir upon the Taconic rocks, that 
Mr. C. H. Hitchcock suppressed this footnote in the Canadian 
volume !” 
Mr. Hitchcock also says : “ It will be a favor to me if Mr. Mar- 
cou will furnish the proof that I had any concern in the omission 
of this page in the Vermont reprint.” I will give with pleasure 
the proof asked for. All the numerous copies of Mr. Billings’ 
paper distributed or sold from 1861 to 1865 contain the long foot- 
note on pp. 11 and 12 ; while the text and figures contained in 
those twenty-four pages are without a single change or alteration 
of any sort, ne varietur. The same is true in the Vermont reprint 
except the omission of the general title of the pamphlet and the 
suppression without any notice of a footnote, containing a letter 
