Barrande and the Taconic System — Marcou. 119 
once more the great services he has rendered to geology in gen¬ 
eral and to American geology in particular. 
Besides in one of his published letters to me, Barrande says: 
“You possess all the necessary qualities for those explorations 
(speaking of researches in the Taconic region), which require a 
clear intellect, an independent spirit and a true devotion to 
science.” (“The Taconic system and its position in stratigraphic 
geology,” by Jules Marcou, in Proceed. American Acad. Sci., 
vol. xii, p. 194, Cambridge, 1885). The constant approbation 
of Barrande in all my work on the Taconic question, and our 
frequent interchange of views and observations by letters and 
in long conversations on the subject, impose on me the obliga¬ 
tion to show who has made “confusions,” and who has disen¬ 
tangled the Gordian knot. 
Primordial faun-a in Texas. —Barrande as far back as 1853 
recognized the existence of the Primordial fauna in Texas, 
which Mr. Ferdinand Bonier had described in his “Die Kreide- 
bildungen von Texas,” as belonging only to the Silurian system, 
without any reference whatever to the Primordial fauna of 
Bohemia and Scandinavia, well established eight years previ¬ 
ously by Barrande with the complete approbation of Angelin 
for Scandinavia. 
Primordial fauna on the Upper Mississippi and in Mis¬ 
souri. —In 1859, Barrande showed that eleven species of trilo- 
bites of the Upper Mississippi region, described bv D. D. Owen,, 
belonged to the Primordial fauna of Europe; saying that they 
have in their forms, “appearances which assimilate them to the 
ParadoxidesP The same year, Barrande referred Swallow and 
Meek’s discovery of two trilobites in Missouri to the Primordial 
fauna. 
Primordial fauna in the Taconic area.— Finally in 1860 
and 1861, in his masterly written and extremely important 
memoire: “Documents anciens etnouveaux sur la Faune Pri- 
mordiale et le systeme Taconique en Amerique,” Barrande hav¬ 
ing at last received communication of Emmons’ Memoirs, which 
until then he had never seen, did not hesitate; 1st, to recognize 
the priority of Dr. Emmons’ discovery of the Primordial fauna 
in the original Taconic area; 2nd, to point out the great and very 
grave errors of the adversaries of the Taconic system, pointing 
out in a special chapter YI, p. 301, the extraordinarily incorrect 
