Methods of Stratigraphy. — Winchell. 343 
French at Paris in 1855.' This was thirteen years after the 
geological survey of Canada was begun, and one year later 
than the use of the term by Mr. Murray, although Mr. Mur- 
ray's reports in which the term was first used were not offered 
for publication by Mr. Logan till two years after the publica- 
tion of the French document.^ It is evident, however, by 
an examination of this French document and of some of Dr. 
Hunt's later references to the Huronian system ^ that the 
authors of the term intended only to apply an American des- 
ignation to what had been styled Lower Cambrian in Europe, 
— i. e., to designate a formation intervening between the Silu- 
rian (as claimed by Murchison) and the fundamental gneiss, 
or Laurentian. Such rocks had been examined on the north 
shore of lake Superior by Mr. Logan in 1846 and on lake 
Huron in 1848, and by Mr. Murray in 1849 on the north shore 
of lake Huron. So far as possible to understand the descrip- 
tions of Logan and Hunt, and of Logan and Murray, whether 
we examine their sections in the geological reports of Canada, 
or their general statements in the French document, or even 
the later descriptions and discussions of Dr. Hunt, the origi- 
nal idea of the Huronian covered that stratigraphic interval 
long known as "Lower Cambrian," which Dr. Emmons named 
Taconic, and which at a later date furnished primordial fos- 
sils in England to reward the acumen of Joachim Barrande. 
In all this series of strata there is nothing that can be cor- 
rectly called crystalline. This is verified by Murray's sec- 
tion of the Huronian printed in his report for LS^G," as well as 
by the general section of the Huronian system published in 
1863 by the Geological Survey of Canada.^ This idea of the 
Huronian on the part of its authors seems to have been 
adopted by the English geologists from the outset, and has 
continued to be held by them to this day, and they conse- 
quently do not recognize the term in their nomenclature, 
' Esquisse g6<>L.gique du Canada, 1855. Paris. Par W. E. Logan 
etT. Sterry Hunt. pp. 29-37. 
'The (irst use of the t'Tm Huronian series, so far as I have been 
able to l^arn from the Canadian reports, was by ]\Ir. Murray in his 
report for 1854, p. 125. iNIr. Logan employs the term ''Huron Cupri- 
ferous formation" in 1857. Brit. Asso. Rep. of Trans, of the sections, 
p. 60. 
'Am. Jour. Sci. vol. xlix. p. 184. (1870). 
* Geological survev of Canada. Keport of progress for the years 
1853-54-55-56. Toronto. (1S57.) p. 172. 
* Geologv of Canada, 1863. 
