280 
EEPORT OF THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE. 
materially increase the proportion of the living fauna — probably 
up to 30 or 35 per cent.* 
With reference to the older formations, and to the classifica- 
tion of American Tertiary deposits as outlined by me in my 
" Contributions to the Tertiary Geology and Paleontology of the 
United States" (1884), and " Explorations on the West Coast of 
Florida, etc." (1887), the scheme here proposed would stand as 
follows : 
Classification and Relations of the Tertiary Group. 
Neogene. 
f Recent. 
Plistocene {Post-Pliocene, Quater- 
nary, Glacial, etc.). 
Pliocene 
Metagene. f Miocene 
Paleogene 
or Eogene. 
Deposits of tlie Eastern and South- 
em United States. 
Floridian {Astian, in part). 
Carolinian {Messirhian t in part; 
Sarinatian, in part). 
Virginian (2d Mediterranean, in 
part). 
Marylandian {1st Mediterranean, in 
part). 
Oligocene | Orbitoitic {Aquitanian). 
r Jacksonian {Bartonian). 
I Claibornian(Pacisia?i-CaZcaiVc gros- 
Eocen^. 
sier). 
Buhrstone {Londonian f) 
Eo-Lignitic ( Thanetian f) 
Yery respectfully, 
Angelo Heilprin. 
Dr. Eugene W. Hilgard writes as follows : 
" As to Tertiary vs. Quaternary,! am inclined to side with Heil- 
prin, unless, indeed, we define Quaternary as being deposits hold- 
ing only living species; and then we are confronted with the 
mammoth, dodo and manatee, not to speak of the dinoruis and all 
the cave animals. It would be an artificial distinction, so far as 
* As regards the Lyellian classification, your Keporter very fully concurs in 
the following remarks of Prof. Dall (Am. Journ. Sci., 3d Series, vol. xxxiv., p. 
162) : " In referring to the age of the deposits, while the old terms Miocene, 
Pliocene, etc., may be used for the sake of convenience, it must be clearly under- 
stood that, as at present defined, they are only of relative value and indicative 
at most of stratigraphical succession in a very limited sense. As determined 
by their invertebrate fauna, the Pliocene, for instance, of south Europe, is 
probably older than the strata called Pliocene in America, at all events, it is 
highly improbable that they represent synchronous geological epochs. The 
method of determining which name should be used for a particular division of 
the Tertiary, by taking percentages of supposed extinct species, is, on the face 
of it impracticable, illogical, and misleading." 
