142 
PALEOZOICS IN NEW MEXICO 
mony to the contrary, and its own official documents repeatedly 
and deliberately, albeit unwittingly, make record of their falsity. 
It seems needless publically to call attention to the fact that such 
abuses of bureaucratic post have no place in scientific circles. 
First report of rocks of Cambric age within the limits of the 
present state of New Mexico appears to have been in 1874. W. 
P. Jenney then noted important sandstones of this age in the 
Franklin Mountains, north of El Paso. Endlich recognized the 
same rocks at Lake Valley in 1883. Since the date mentioned the 
Cambric section was greatly extended until over 1000 feet of 
strata were made known. On a large colored wall-section, which 
was constructed in 1903, which was a part of the World’s Fair 
exhibit at St. Louis, and which hung in the main hall of the School 
of Mines for many years afterwards, these recognized Cambric 
beds were correlated with the Tonto sandstones of Arizona. 
Strata of Ordovicic age were the first Paleozoic rocks reported 
within New Mexican boundaries. So early as 1848 Wislizenius 
especially noted the finding of Lower Silurian (Ordovicic) fossils 
in the limestones west of El Paso. Five years afterwards both 
Shumard and Antisell discovered similar organic remains in the 
mountains north of the same place. Until the full section could 
be properly subdivided upon the basis of the contained faunas the 
tentative field title for these beds was for many years the Pinos 
Altos limestones. At Silver City, in 1873, Howell made extensive 
collections of typical Ordovicic fossils. Gilbert, in 1874, also 
recognized Ordovicic rocks at Santa Rita. Endlich in 1885 and 
Clark in 1895 both determined fossils found near Lake Valley to 
be Lower Silurian species. In the early accounts of the region 
the Ordovicic and Siluric sections were not distinguished, but 
were both styled Silurian in accordance with the common practise 
of that day. 
The Siluric, or Upper Silurian, rocks displayed themselves in 
a thin broken line across the southwestern corner of the state. 
They appeared to have been first clearly differentiated by Dr. R. 
M. Bagg, who, in 1903, collected large suites of typical forms near 
Santa Rita, Silver City, and elsewhere, for the School of Mines. 
It was from these collections that Gordon first got inkling of the 
presence of Siluric rocks in the southwest; and it was concerning 
