362 ' The American Geologist. J""e. issc 
Professor Schmidt in his excellent and very carefully made 
description of the Esthonian trilobite has called attention to 
its close affiliation with Faradoxides, Olenellus {Ellipto- 
cephaUos)., Olenoides and Mesonacis^ all genera of true Prim- 
ordial types, revolving round the great Paradoxidean type, so 
Avell characterized by Barrande. Elliptoce'phalxLS ( Olenellus), 
Olenoides and Mesonacis are all sub-genera created at the 
expense and as off-shoots of the great genus Paradoxides ; 
for it is worthy of remark, that at first, when found in frag- 
ments — as is invariably the case — all the trilobites, which are 
referred noAV to Olenelhis {Elliptoce/phalus), Olenoides and 
Mesonacis were regarded as fragments of Paradoxides. 
The name Olenellus, so extensively used lately, is as im- 
proper, as it is incorrectly applied. Barrande and Matthew 
have shown that the trilobites referred to Olenus and 
afterward to Olenellus by James Hall, have more 
affinities with and are closely allied to Paradoxides, 
instead of being truly of Olenus forms. When right of prior- 
ity, regarded as an immutable law in every department of 
natural history, shall be applied also to Dr. Emmons' primor- 
dial fossils, described as far back as 1844, then the name 
Olenellus, created only in 1862, will be suppressed and 
replaced by Ellixytocejyhalus ; for Emmons not only saw that 
the first trilobite he found in his Taconic system was a new 
form, but he had the acumen to see its relation to Paradox- 
ides. ("Manual of Geology," p. 88, 1859, and second edition, 
p. 280, 1860), before Barrande pointed it out in his celebrated 
memoir of 1861 ("Documents ancients etnouveaux sur lafaune 
primordiale et le systeme Taconique en Amerique," pp. 273- 
277). On the contrary Mr. James Hall referred the trilobites 
of Bald mountain and Georgia in 1847 and 1859 first to Olenus, 
from which they differ greatly, and afterward in 1861 to Bar- 
randia, a succession of errors rare in palaeontology, not to 
speak of the stratigraphic error of placing the primordial 
fauna above the second fauna, which is even more glaring. 
That the priority of Emmons' name will be recognized, is only 
a question of time. Without knowing the existence of the 
genus Ellipsocephalus, he, with his great palseontological 
acumen, recognized in the Bald mountain trilobite a general 
form, which has been shown since to be characteristic of the 
Primordial fauna, and he called it ElUptocephalus ; as he 
