LOWER PALEOZOIC. 221 
on the work of Dr. Emmons, and concludes that the mistakes 
the latter made in the minor stratigraphy are so grave and so 
numerous that it is only a "fortunate happening" that any part 
of the Tacouic strata prove to be what Dr. Emmons claimed. 
The paper, therefore, does not affect in the least the merits of 
the Taconic system as they stood in August, 1887. It leaves the 
essential elements, and all the facts, as they were, and does not 
disturb the conclusions of the foregoing report. It embodies 
numerous arguments, and Mr. Walcott's personal judgment at 
the time of writing. These have all been considered by some 
other geologists, and by Mr. Walcott himself prior to November, 
1887, as insufficient against the main claim of Dr. Emmons. 
To the arguments urged by Mr. Walcott against the use of 
the term Taconic, and summarized by him (see ante), it may be 
said : 
First Proposition. This was known to Mr. Walcott prior to 
November, 1887, as fully as since, on the statements of Prof. 
Dana and others. 
Neither is the Taconic range known not to contain a fossil of 
the first fauna. The Taconic range is not a single ridge, but a 
series of ridges and hills, some of the spurs and isolated peaks 
being so far separated east and west that they embrace different 
strata. Bird Mountain, in the central part of Ira, Vermont, 
consists of " quartz conglomerate," partaking of the characters 
of the " Red Sand-rock Mountains," a name that was applied to 
the northern extension of the Taconic mountains in 1861 by the 
geologists of the Vermont Survey [Report on the Geology of Ver- 
mont, vol. ii., p. 895). The range extends from Canada to Dutch- 
ess County, N. Y. It is too broad an inference from a few facts 
to exclude the first fauna rocks from the whole Taconic range. 
But a small part of those mountains has yet been examined; and, 
if the "Red Sand-rock" extension be still regarded as a part of 
the Taconic range, the fossils of the Geo^-gia formation are found 
in it. That it is right to include these northern hills in the 
Taconic range is shown by the fact that it is consistent with all 
Dr. Emmons's topographic, as well as his geologic, work. The 
*' granular quartz" hills also are spurs of the Taconic, and are 
embraced in the Taconic range in Williamstown, Mass. Such 
are "the mountains northeast of Williams College," Oak Hill, 
Stone Hill, and others that occur further north — isolated quartz 
F 
