Editorial Comment. 407 
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips testify 
against thee. Job xv, 6. 
This statement was accompanied by a plate representing 
photographed reproductions of maps of (1) the Taconic moun- 
tains in Vermont according to Fitch, Emmons, Hitclicoclc and 
Dana, (2) Tiie central state belt, or "Hudson River" slates, 
according to Wing and Dana in 1877, in Rutland county, and 
(3) The Georgia formation, according to C. D. Walcott in 1888 
in southern Vermont. These maps and their designations are 
applied by their authors to the same identical area in Ver- 
mont. Therefore, according to Mr. Walcott, there are over 100 
localities in the Taconic mountains where primordial fossils 
have been discovered by him. 
But the mistake (?) had produced its designed effect. It 
prevented the favorable action of the London Congress on the 
report of the American committee recommending the term 
Taconic for the Lower Cambrian, and it still has its effect in 
preventing M. Ronevier from considering favorably the opin- 
ion of Prof. Lapworth — an opinion which is gaining constant- 
ly the hearty concurrence of geologists, and which will ulti- 
mately be universally approved. 
The fact is, Mr. Walcott was favorably disposed, as he says 
himself, until the fall of 1887, toward the adoption of the 
term Taconic, and he gave an argument for its use, recom- 
mending it to the American committee in his first communi- 
cation. This state of mind continued as long as he was a 
candidate for election to thatcommittee at the instance of the 
director of the United States geological survey. When the 
committee failed to elect him, he withdrew hastily liis report 
and refused to substitute another, and after a few weeks in 
the region of Mts. Eolusand Antliony (which are southeastern 
spurs of the Taconic region, but not correctl}' included in the 
Taconic range, composed of Lower Silurian strata), he hur- 
riedly drafted his papers and map published in the March. 
April and May numbers of the American Journal of Science, 
1888, contradicting his former views and strongly denouncing 
the Taconic S3^stem and its author, without having discovered 
a single new fact that bore even remotely on the Taconic 
mountains or the Taconic S3rstem. The world has been hood- 
winked by such tactics as this, ever since the Ta<Mjnic system 
was annonnced. How long, oh, how long! x. h. w. 
