3i6 The American Geologist. Xovember, i9(ii» 
series of '"Kinderhook Faunal Studies." Judging from the 
two installments already issued it is expected that there will 
soon be available much of the long desired information con- 
cerning the exact stratigraphic range of the fossils, and the 
biotic relationships of the various groups. 
Except in a few instances, it cannot be gathered from the 
literature alone from just what horizons the fossils described 
from the Kinderhook were obtained. Nevertheless, some fa- 
miliarity with the localities in which collectors have worked, 
and personal acquaintance with certain of the most active of 
the earlier investigators in this field, enable most of the hori- 
zons of previous w'orkers to be accurately located. For ex- 
ample. Meek and Worthen's paper* on the reference of the 
so-called Chemung of the region, including the Chouteau. 
\"ermicular and Lithographic beds of Missouri (their Kinder- 
hook), to the Carboniferous instead of tlie Devonian, has it.s 
foundation chiefly in the fossils obtained at the town of Kin- 
derhook. in beds near the top of Kinderhook formation, the 
beds which are now regarded as belonging to the Chouteau 
division, including also a few feet immediately beneath. With 
the exception of a few feet of the upper sandy portion, all that 
part of the section now called the Hannibal shales and the 
Louisiana limestone were not considered at all. They were 
simply included because the Chemung (Kinderhookl was re- 
garded as a geological unit. At Burlmgton, also, the data 
used by these authors were derived from the yellow (Chono- 
pectus) sandstone and the beds above. 
Numerous other cases might be cited from this region in 
which broad generalizations were built up from very small 
foundations. Most of the discussions regarding the age and 
correlation of the beds of the region under consideration have 
been manifestly based upon data far too meager to be of much 
real service, or upon evidence that was not at all critical in its 
nature. 
Moreover, modern stratigraphy rests upon grounds wholly 
different from what it did even a few years back. The exact 
position of a terrane in the general geological column is now 
not so important as the relative local position with reference 
to known associated formations. Faunal age also has ceased to- 
be any longer a vital consideratio n to the geologist. 
*Am. Jour. Sci.jIII) Vol. XX.XII, p. 228, 1861. 
