412 
GRAND CANYON SECTION 
expanse, one to two miles in thickness, with still the top and 
bottom not in sight. Similar sections may also represent Arche¬ 
ozoic deposition before the Azoic basement is reached. 
So it is not the Grand Canyon rocks that are going to yield us 
a type-section for Southwestern stratigraphy. They should be 
studied and correlated only after all else is done. What is most 
needed at the present time is the plentiful collection of fossils, 
not in the Canyon where they apparently 'do not exist but else¬ 
where in Arizona. But in Arizona fossil collecting is a lost art. 
And identification of fossils is an art still longer lost. Grand Can¬ 
yon is one of the least productive fields for organic remains. 
Unless large collections of ancient life forms from nearby localities 
are made and critically studied it is useless to place very much 
taxonomic reliance on the identifications of much of the indififerent 
materials as has been done in the past. 
