The Huronian OQuestion.—Coleman. 327 
studied, I wish to reinforce professor Willmott’s position, 
which I believe to be sound. In regard to the editorial note 
mentioned, if it had read ‘radical changes from the suc- 
cession as held by those who have for many years studied 
the region south of lake Superior,’ we could all have agreea 
with it; but the author of the admirable summary of the 
literature of this vexed subject in the U. S. Bulletin 86 must 
know that the conclusions reached by the northern geologists 
differ from those held by geologists south of lake Superior, 
and that some of them were expressed before the work on 
the south shore had begun. 
There are two points which should be kept in mind—that 
the subdivisions were first made and named on the north 
shore, and that the exposures on the north shore are on the 
whole far better than on the south, where the drift is so much 
thicker as to hide much of the surface. The natural conditions 
are therefore in favor of the northern geologists. 
Since professor Van Hise now admits that some of the 
northern iron ranges are Archean, the main point left in 
dispute is the question of the relation of the Animikie to the 
Huronian. 
It is well known to all students of the Pre-Cambrian that 
Sir William Logan and his assistants and practically all 
other Canadian field geologists who have examined the north 
shore are agreed in putting the Animikie above the Huronian 
with a great unconformity between. This has been the opinion 
of Dr. George Dawson, of Dr. Bell, of professor Lawson, of 
Mr. McInnes, who has mapped the region for the Canadian 
survey, and of others including professor Willmott and my- 
self in Canada, as well as of the geologists of Minnesota; and 
most of these geologists have given reasons to support their 
opinions. 
The view that the Animikie and Huronian are identical 
was apparently originated by Irving and has been supported 
by professor Van Hise, but, so far as my knowledge of the 
literature extends, by no one else who has visited the region. 
Irving apparently visited the north shore with a preconceived 
idea, made only a flying trip, and certainly misunderstood a 
number of points of vital importance. He appears to have set 
out with the idea that the Penokee iron range of Wisconsin cor- 
