James Hall, LL. D. — Hovcy. 139 
ber that when, at the Buffalo celebration, in 1896, congratula- 
tions and compliments rained on the veteran man of science, 
he modestly said that he owed most of his success to Stephen 
Van Rensselaer. 
On the organization of the state survey, in 1836, Hall 
was appointed assistant of Dr. Ebenezer Emmons, in the 
Adirondack region, of what was then the Second District. Sin- 
gularlv both Hall and Emmons, in their publications, ignore 
that first season of official life, and we can only conjecture that 
it must have been a period of activity. In 1837 he was ap- 
pointed by governor William L. Marcy as state geologist of 
the Fourth District, which had been in charge of Vanuxem, 
who was transferred to the Third. For certain reasons the 
original apportionment of the four districts had not pleased 
the geologists. The choice of a young man, twenty-five years 
of age, for such an important field, was in itself remarkable; 
but still more so was the report made by him on the Fourth 
Geological District, so exhaustive, conscientious, discriminat- 
ing, and withal so influential on all similar works from that day 
to this. 
Without the formality of quoting we avail ourselves of the 
observations made by his associates concerning this volume, 
that set the name of James Hall at once in the front rank of 
geologists. The district happened to of¥er no very complicated 
problems, nor intricate topography. The formations are ex- 
tremely regular, and the water-course, lake basins and high- 
lands obey the laws that made them with marked uniformity. 
Such simplicity made certain results more easy of attainment, 
leaving the investigator free to gather details of valuable 
knowledge that might otherwise have been impracticable. 
Then again, the easily accessible lowlands, where the prin- 
cipal settlements had been made, had also the majority of the 
distinct formations, such as the Medina, Clinton, Corniferous, 
Waterlime, Marcellus and Hamilton. Half tlic district was, 
in 1837, a wilderness of uplands divided between the Portage 
and Chemung. 
Eaton and other American geologists had been using 
European classifications, and Hall tried to correlate the New 
York formations with those described by Alurchison and Sedg- 
wick, but found it necessary to classify them inde])endently. 
