240 T/ie American Geologist. April, 1891 
ing Newark mountains, the associated trap rock occurs in sheets 
of great thickness. This statement is sustained b}* Prof. Hitch- 
cock's own words, a little farther on in the paper cited, where he 
says ' ' the New Jersey terrane possesses the distinguishing feat- 
ures of the Trias, quite as well as the one in New England. " 
That Passaic would have been a better name as Prof. Hitchcock 
suggests, is perhaps true, but the one before us was definitely se- 
lected and has priority. 
Second. It is stated by Prof. Hitchcock that the name " Con- 
necticut or Connecticut River sandstone has priority over Newark," 
and was used by several geologists before Redfield's proposal in 
1856, "though none of them had proposed it as a geological 
term. " The admitted fact that no one had used the name referred 
to as a geological term, relieves me of the necessity of showing 
that Redfield's name has priority. 
In the writings of the older geologists, among whom Prof. Ed- 
ward Hitchcock will always take the first rank as an investigator 
■of the sandstones of the Connecticut valley, the terms ' < Connecti- 
cut sandstone " or "Connecticut River sandstone," were used in 
the same sense as the coordinate term I have just employed, i. e. , 
as a geographical designation; just as they might have referred 
to the granite of Masachusetts without any intention of proposing 
a group name. The fact that the older geologists, and among 
them Prof. Edward Hitchcock, spoke of the Newark rocks of New 
England under definite group names, implying con-elation, is suf- 
ficient evidence that they did not recognize the value of an inde- 
pendent name. 
Third. It is stated that Prof. J. D. Dana adopted the name 
proposed by Redfield, in his lectures, but did not use it in his sub- 
sequent writings. Prof. Dana's reasons for this course have never 
been published, and so far as it is a precedent — happily prece- 
dents have less weight in geology than in some other professions — 
it indicates that we should first use the name Newark and then 
abandon it for other names iruplyiug indefinite correlation with dis- 
tant terranes. 
Fourth and Fifth. While it is admitted that the terrane under 
discussion is quite as well represented in New Jersey as in the 
Connecticut valley, it is claimed that the latter having been studied 
first, should have furnished the group name. I fully agree with 
Prof. Hitchcock in this, and could add several other group names 
