Life and Work of Ancustns Wing. — Sccly. 5 
The task for one of Mr. Wing's surroundings was immense. 
The problem was intricate and one that took years to solve. 
In the solution appeal must be made to the rocks themselves. 
It is asserted that the feet of this explorer have stood upon every 
square rod of exposed rock within the region of his survey. 
The lithological character of the rocks, their dip, their order, 
their fossil contents, all must be known. He carefully noted 
the superposition of the rocks, measured the dip with a clinom- 
eter of his own construction, and sought, with wonderfully ob- 
servant eyes for traces of fossils. 
The rocks of this region had been so folded, broken and 
worn that at first their true position was uncertain. The 
fossils, too, in the partly metamorphosed rocks were mostly 
faded and obscure ; their identification difficult. But as the 
secret of the age of the formation must be unlocked by these 
fossils, this key was most carefully and in time successfully 
sought. JVIany of these fossils Mr. Wing himself determined, 
but for verification and in cases of doubt he turned to Mr. Bill- 
ings, of the Canadian geological survey, from whom he received 
courteous attention and generous help. 
So the search went on for years, summer and winter, holi- 
days and vacations. Holidays gave Mr. Wing opportunity for 
investigating the near-by rocks, vacations afi^orded him time 
to visit far-away places in the state or in adjoining states, 
w^herever he hoped he might get light upon his problem. It 
was as though he were working at a broken and tangled skein. 
By study of the composition of the rocks, by the use of the 
clinometer, but above all, by the careful comparison of fossils 
he disentangled the knotted, 1)roken skein and by placing the 
separate threads beside each other, he arrived at a knowledg'e 
of the true relation of thread with thread ; he determined the 
right order, the real sequence of the rocks. His j^roblem was 
solved ! 
The problem : the age of the limestones of the Otter valley, 
with the associated sandstones and slates. The rocks were 
those designated Lower Silurian ; the sandstones were the Lower 
and Upper Potsdam, the semi-crystalline limestone, the "Eo- 
lian" was not a single formation, but was made up of rocks of 
the age of the fossiliferous formations along the lake shore, 
now known as Beckmantown, Chazy, P)lack River and Trenton ; 
