74 '^h^ Taconic — Marcou. 
ments of Mr. Beecher's j^aper; a neglect which invahdates and 
annuls his whole conclusion given with such emphasis. Mr. 
Beecher says: "The beds carrying those fossils (twenty-three 
Utica species and three Swanton and Citadelle Hill of Quebec 
species) are nearly vertical.'''' (Thirty-sixth Ann. Rep. N. Y. 
State Mus. Nat. Hist. p. 7S, Albany, 1884.) In other words, 
the locality of the Dudley observatory is a case of abnormal 
stratigraphy, and cannot be used against the regular positions of 
the Utica slates and the Swanton slates (Taconic slates). We 
have here another example of the celebrated case of Petit-Coeur 
in Tarentaise (Savoy Alps), only less complicated; for at Petit- 
Coeur we have two horizons of a Carboniferous flora inclosed 
twice in roofing slates containing Liasic Belemnites, which Elie 
<le Beaumont regarded, as a very strong point towards proving 
that a Carboniferous flora inclosed was contemporary and of 
the age of the Jurassic epoch. 
At Dudley observatory a palaeontologist [ Mr. Walcott] " ham- 
mer in hand" and who is accustomed to "collect fossils at all 
places where they could be found," refers, without hesitation 
and in accord with the application of the principles "intelligently 
understood" of the adversaries of the Taconic system, the grap- 
tolitic fauna of the Swanton slates and Citadel Hill of Quebec, 
of the third graptolitic zone of the Upper Taconic, to the age of 
the Utica slate, and indeed as contemporary with it, containing 
a beautiful and characteristic upper Champlain fauna, such as 
Avicula trentoneiisis^ Cleldop/ioriis planulatus, A7nbonychia 
znidafa, l^clliiiomva dubia and T. levata., Zygospira modesta^ 
Lyrodesma foststriainm., Triarthriis beck'ii^ Endoceras pro- 
teifor?>2c^ etc. Only at Dudley observatory no repetition of the 
Taconic graptolites have been recorded, and we have a great 
deal more simple stratigraphical accidents. A small piece or 
parcel of Swanton slates — recognized close by at Kenwood 
— has slid into the Utica slates, during the very strong pres- 
sure of the Utica slates against the wall of the Taconic system 
formed by the Swanton slates. The break and upheaval of the 
Champlain system came long after the break of the Taconic 
strata, which formed an elevated dry land (terra firma) all over 
the original Taconic area, during the deposition of all the strata 
composing the Champlain system. That sort of stratigraphic 
