7S 'I he Taconic — Marcou. 
claims of Dr. Emmons, and of the right of American geology 
to be represented in the general classification and nomenclature 
of the world. 
" At its origin, that is to say from 1838 to 1S43, his [Emmons] 
Taconic system was presented as founded on petrographic and 
stratigraphic observations, and constituted simply the sedimen- 
tary base, according to the American expression. It was still 
without any characteristic fauna. But in 1844, Dr. Emmons 
having discovered in this forination fossils before unknown, his 
Taconic system for him represented the palceozoic base^ 
"This expression, used on the other side of the Atlantic, is 
evidently equivalent to that of 'primordial fauna,' which I have 
4ipplied to the trilobitic group, the oldest of Bohemia, defined 
for the first time in my Notice freliminaire, in 1846. It is 
known that the Lingula (only, no trilobites were found then,) 
which characterize the corresponding horizon of Lingula flags 
in Wales, that is, in the Cambrian region of England, were only 
■discovered by Mr. Davis in 1845 \^Siluria 2d ed., p. 43, 1859]." 
"In comparing these dates it is clear that Dr. Emmons had 
Jirst announced the existence of a fauna anterior to that which 
had been established in the "Silurian system" as characterizing 
the "Lower Silurian' division, and which I have named seco?id 
fauna. It is then just to r-ecognize this ■priority, and I think 
it all the more Jilting to state it at this time, that it has not 
been claimed to this day^^ 
At the end of his paper Mr. Walcott has recourse to the au- 
thoritative "principles," so often and always so unfortunately 
used by his associates Messrs. Hall, Dana, Logan, etc.; he says: 
— Use OP' THE NAME Cambrian. — "There is no necessity 
for reviewing the Silurian-Cambrian controversy. All the facts, 
as understood by many writers, are accessible to the student of 
English geologic literature. It is my opinion that the name 
Cambrian should be used for the system of strata characterized 
by the first fauna." Certamly a very easy way of answering 
my paper, "c;/ the use of the name Taconic,'''' Salem, Septem- 
ber, 1887. 
1 " Documens anciens et nouveaux sur la faune primordiale et le sys- 
temeTaconique en Amerique." {Bulletin Soc. Geol. France, tome xviii.p. 
225, 1861.; 
