Classification of the Mississippian Series. — Keyes. 109 
very best plea possible for a lame case. Were this feature 
not so conspicuous throughout his presentation one would be 
almost forced to the conclusion that our critic had not read 
very carefully the literature of the subject. For example, in 
the leading quotation that he makes he could have easily 
quoted one clause farther, giving to my sentence a mean- 
ing directly opposite to the one that, as it now stands, must be 
inferred. 
Now, as a matter of fact, Mr. Weller has avoided entirely 
the vital factors determining the choice of one of the two terms 
under consideration. When the "impartial judges" come to 
examine the literature (if they ever do) they will certainly have 
to search his last remarks long and vainly for a single point 
wherein he has touched upon the essential features of the 
paper he criticizes. One cannot help thinking that if the au- 
thor of "Osage vs. Augusta" had devoted but one tenth of 
the time in examining the other side of the question, that he 
has manifestly done in viewing it from his own standpoint he 
would have come to very different conclusions. 
When "Use of the Term Augusta in Geology" was con- 
sidered only a few of the stratigraphical and paleontological 
reasons for not using Osage were presented. The name Os- 
age, as it appears in geological literature, also has a nominal 
history. It has been applied repeatedly to geological forma- 
tions long before it was thought of in connection with the 
Burlington and Keokuk limestones. The name is widely 
known in both Missouri and Kansas, referring to certain coals 
and their accompanying shales, in fact to several distinct sets 
of beds in both the Des Moines and Missourian series. One 
of these will doubtless stand as a useful geological term. 
Moreover, the formations to which Saunders and also Hay 
have given the name in question have been, I believe, as well 
defined as most of the other geological formations now recog- 
nized in the region. King, Owen and Johnson have also used 
the name Osage in no uncertain sense in the same region; and 
it is not improbable that one of these meanings will have to be 
retained, if we consider at all the law of priority, and desire 
to do justice to workers no less conscientious and scientific in 
their day than we find in ours. 
Personally I care nothing whatever about the title Augus- 
