Use of the Terms Laurentiaa and Neivarl: — Hitchcock 197 
(from above), lb. Transverse section of same. Lower 
Burlington limestone. 
Fig. 2. Straparollus obtusiis (Hall) . 2a. A large specimen. 2b. Trans- 
verse section of same. Kinderhook oolite. 
Fig. 3. Straparollus roherti (White). Sa. An example of medium 
size. ob. Transverse section of same. Upper Burlington 
limestone. 
Fig. 4. Straparollus macromphalus Winchell. 4(1. A large specimen. 
4b. Apertural aspect of same. 4c. Umbilical view of 
another example. Kinderhook beds. 
Fig. 5. Straparollus barrisi (f) "Winchell. 5a. Mew from above. 
ob. Same from below. 5c. Aperture of same. Kinder- 
hook beds. 
THE USE OF THE TERMS LAURENTIAN AND NEWARK 
IN GEOLOGICAL TREATISES. 
By C. H. Hitchcock, Hanover, N. H. 
In the January number of the American Geologist Mr. 
Joseph F. James endeavors to persuade geologists to use the 
term Laurentian for the marine Quaternary terrane for which 
the name Champlain is commonly employed. His reason is 
that the word Laurentian (in distinction from Lawrencia^i) 
was applied to this terrane by E. Desor "about the beginning 
of the year 1851," and before the same name had been sug- 
gested for the great fundamental crystalline system of rocks 
by W. E. Logan. This is in obedience to the right which a 
man has to claim the adhesion of others to his own original 
suggestions. This reason is a good one, but circumstances 
may render the canon nugatory, as is exemplified in the name 
of our continent. By right of discovery it should be called 
Columbia; yet everyone says America. 
It is to be regretted that Mr. James did not examine my 
reference to the publication where Mr. Desor proposed the use 
of the name Lawrentian.' I quote the essential parts of the 
communication. "Mr. Desor called the attention of the 
society to the deposits of marine shells in Maine, on lake 
Champlain, and the St. Lawrence, and to the question of 
their probable origin." After correctly describing certain 
localities near lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence river it 
is added, "Mr. Desor had thus been led to the opinion that 
the sea had once filled the St. Lawrence, lake Ontario, and 
lake Champlain. As the deposits in these localities do not 
^ Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. iii, p. 357, 1850. 
