Part 15

In the paper above referred to, Vanuxem points out in a very concise manner that:

“The alluvial of Mr. Maclure ... contains not only well characterized alluvion, but products of the tertiary and secondary classes. Littoral shells, similar to those of the English and Paris basins, and pelagic shells, similar to those of the chalk deposition or latest secondary, abound in it. These two kinds of shells are not mixed with each other; they occur in different earthy matter, and, in the southern states particularly, are at different levels. The incoherency or earthiness of the mass, and our former ignorance of the true position of the shells, have been the sources of our erroneous views.”

The second error of the older geologists, according to Vanuxem, was the extension of the secondary rocks over “the western country, and the back and upper parts of New York.” They are now called Paleozoic. Some had even tried to show the presence of Jurassic here because of the existence of oölite strata. “It was taken for granted, that all horizontal rocks are secondary, and as the rocks of these parts of the United States are horizontal in their position, so they were supposed to be secondary.” He then shows on the basis of similar Ordovician fossils that the rocks of Trenton Falls, New York, recur at Frankfort in Kentucky, and at Nashville in Tennessee.

“It is also certain that an uplifting or downfalling force, or both, have existed, but it is not certain that either or both these forces have acted in a uniform manner.... Innumerable are the facts, which have fallen under my observation, which show the fallacy of adopting inclination for the character of a class,” such as the Transition class of strata. He then goes on to say that in the interior of our country the so-called secondary rocks are horizontal and in the mountains to the east the same strata are highly inclined. “The analogy, or identity of rocks, I determine by their fossils in the first instance, and their position and mineralogical characters in the second or last instance.”

It appears that Isaac Lea (1792–1886) in his Contributions to Geology, 1833, was the first to transplant to America Lyell’s terms, Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene, proposed the previous year. The celebrated Claiborne locality was made known to Lea in 1829, and in the work here cited he describes from it 250 species, of which 200 are new. The horizon is correlated with the London Clay and with the Calcaire Grossier of France, both of Eocene time (=25=, 413, 1834).

Timothy A. Conrad began to write about the American Tertiary in 1830, and his more important publications were issued at Philadelphia. His papers in the Journal begin with 1833 and the last one on the Tertiary is in 1846.

The Tertiary faunas and stratigraphy have been modernized by William H. Dall in his monumental work of 1650 pages and 60 plates entitled “Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna of Florida” (1885–1903). Here more than 3160 forms of the Atlantic and Gulf deposits are described, but in order to understand their relations to the fossil faunas elsewhere and to the living world, the author studied over 10,000 species. Since then, many other workers have interested themselves in the Tertiary problems. Much good work is also being done in the Pacific States where the sequence is being rapidly developed.

The Discerning of the Eastern Cretaceous.—The Cretaceous sequence was first determined by that “active and acute geologist,” Samuel G. Morton (1799–1851), but that these rocks might be present along the Atlantic border had been surmised as early as 1824 by Edward Hitchcock (=7=, 216). Vanuxem, as above pointed out, indicated the presence of the Cretaceous in 1829. In this same year Morton proved its presence before the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

Between 1830 and 1835 Morton published a series of papers in the Journal under the title “Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Ferruginous Sand Formation of the United States, with Geological Remarks” (=17=, 274, et seq.). In these he describes the Cretaceous fossils and demonstrates that the “Diluvial” and Tertiary strata of the Atlantic border also have a long sequence of Cretaceous formations. In the opening paper he writes: “I consider the marl of New Jersey as referable to the great ferruginous sand series, which in Prof. Buckland’s arrangement is designated by the name of green sand.... On the continent this series is called the ancient chalk ... lower chalk,” etc. Again, the marls of New Jersey are “geologically equivalent to those beds which in Europe are interposed between the white chalk and the Oölites.” This correlation is with the European Lower Cretaceous, but we now know the marls to be of Upper Cretaceous age. Although Eaton objected strenuously to Morton’s correlation, we find M. Dufresnoy of France saying, “Your limestone above green sand reminds me very much of the Mæstricht beds,” a correlation which stands to this day (=22=, 94, 1832). In 1833 Morton announces that the Cretaceous is known all along the Atlantic and Gulf border, and in the Mississippi valley. “The same species of fossils are found throughout,” and none of them are known in the Tertiary. He now arranges the strata of the former “Alluvial” as follows:

Modern │Alluvial. „ │Diluvial. ─────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tertiary │Upper Tertiary (Upper Marine). „ │Middle Tertiary (London Clay). „ │Lower Tertiary (Plastic Clay). ─────────┼─────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────── Secondary│Calcareous Strata│Cretaceous group, or Ferruginous Sand │ │ series (=24=, 128). „ │Ferruginous Sand │ „

Western Cretaceous.—In 1841 and 1843 J. N. Nicollet announced the discovery of Cretaceous in the Rocky Mountain area. Of 20 species of fossils collected by him, 4 were said to occur on the Atlantic border, and of the 200 forms of the Atlantic slope only 1 was found in Europe. Here we see pointed out a specific dissimilarity between the continents, and a similarity between the American areas of Cretaceous deposits (=41=, 181; =45=, 153).

The Cretaceous of the Rocky Mountains was clearly developed by F. V. Hayden in 1855–1888 and by F. B. Meek (1857–1876). Other workers in this field were Charles A. White (1869–1891), and R. P. Whitfield (1877–1889). Since 1891 T. W. Stanton has been actively interpreting its stratigraphy and faunas.

Cretaceous and Comanche of Texas.—The broader outlines of the Cretaceous of Texas had been described by Ferdinand Roemer in 1852 in his good work, Kreidebildungen von Texas, but it was not until 1887 that Robert T. Hill showed in the Journal (=33=, 291) that it included two great series, the Gulf series, or what we now call Upper Cretaceous, and a new one, the Comanche series. This was a very important step in the right direction. Since then the Comanche series has been regarded by some stratigraphers as of period value, while others call it Lower Cretaceous; the rest of the Texas Cretaceous is divided by Hill into Middle and Upper Cretaceous. On the other hand, Lower Cretaceous strata had been proved even earlier in the state of California, for here in 1869 W. M. Gabb (1839–1878) and J. D. Whitney (1819–1896) had defined their Shasta group, which was wholly distinct faunally from the Comanche of Texas and the southern part of the Great Plains country.

Jurassic and Triassic of the West.—In 1864, the Geological Survey of California proved the presence of marine Upper Triassic in that State, and since then it has been shown that not only is all of the Triassic present in Idaho (where it has been known since 1877), Oregon, Nevada, and California, but that the Upper Triassic is of very wide distribution throughout western North America. Jurassic strata, on the other hand, were not shown to be present in California until 1885, while in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States there was long known an unresolved series of “Red Beds” situated between the Carboniferous and Cretaceous. This gave rise to the “Red Bed problem,” the history of which is given by C. A. White in the Journal (=17=, 214, 1879). In 1869, F. V. Hayden announced the discovery of marine Jurassic fossils in this series, and since then they have come to be known as the Sundance fauna, extending from southern Utah and Colorado into Alaska. Above lie the dinosaur-bearing fresh-water deposits, since 1894 known as the Morrison beds. In 1896, O. C. Marsh (1831–1899) announced the presence of Jurassic fresh-water strata along the Atlantic coast (=2=, 433), but to-day only a small part of them are regarded as of the age of the Morrison, while the far greater part are referred to the Comanche or Lower Cretaceous. The red beds below the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountain area have during the past twenty years been shown to be in part of Upper Triassic age and of fresh-water origin, while the greater lower part is connected with the Carboniferous series and is made up of brackish— and fresh-water deposits of probable Permian time.

Triassic of Atlantic States.—The fresh-water Triassic of the Atlantic border states was first mentioned by Maclure (1817), who regarded it as the equivalent of the Old Red Sandstone of Europe. In this he was followed by Hitchcock in 1823 (=6=, 39), the latter saying that above it lies “the coal formation,” which is true for Europe, but in America the coal strata are older than these red beds, now known to be of Triassic age.

The first one to question this correlation was Alexandre Brongniart, who had received from Hitchcock rock specimens and a fossil fish which he erroneously identified with a Permian species, and accordingly referred the strata to the Permian (=3=, 220, 1821; =6=, 76, pl. 9, figs. 1, 2, 1823). The discerning Professor Finch in 1826 remarked that the red beds of Connecticut appear to belong “to the new or variegated sandstone,” because of eight different criteria that he mentions. Of these, but two are of value in correlation, their “geological position” and the presence of bones other than fishes. In the Connecticut area, however, the geological position cannot be determined even to-day, and in Finch’s time the bones of dinosaurs were unknown. Finch then goes on to point out the occurrences of Old Red Sandstone in Pennsylvania, but all of the places he refers to are either younger or older in time. Here we again see the fatality of trying to make positive correlations on the basis of lithology and color (=10=, 209, 1826). In 1835, however, Hitchcock showed that the bones that had been found in 1820 were those of a saurian, and accordingly referred the strata of the Connecticut valley to the New Red Sandstone, a term that then covered both the Permian and the Triassic. In 1842, W. B. Rogers referred the beds to the Jurassic, on the basis of plants from Virginia. In 1856, W. C. Redfield (1789–1857), because of the fishes, advocated a Lias, or Jurassic age, and proposed the name Newark group for all the Triassic deposits of the Atlantic border. More recently, on the basis of the plants studied by Newberry, Fontaine, Sturr, and Ward, and the vertebrates described by Marsh and Lull, the age has been definitely fixed as Upper Triassic (see Dana’s Manual of Geology, 740, 1895).

Unearthing of the Paleozoic in North America.

Permian of the United States.—In Europe, previous to 1841, the formations now classed as Permian were included in the New Red Sandstone, and with the Carboniferous were referred to the Secondary. In that year Murchison proposed the period term Permian. In 1845 came the classic Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, by Murchison, Keyserling, and De Verneuil. In this great work the authors separated out of the New Red the Magnesian Limestone of Great Britain and the Rothliegende marls, Kupferschiefer, and Zechstein of Germany, and with other formations of the Urals in Russia, referred them to the Permian system. This step, one of the most discerning in historical geology, was all the more important because they closed the Paleozoic era with the Permian, beginning the Secondary, or Mesozoic, with the New Red Sandstone or the Triassic period. There is a good review of this work by D. D. Owen (1807–1860) in the Journal for 1847 (=3=, 153).

Owen, though accepting the Permian system, is not satisfied with its reference to the Paleozoic, and he sets the matter forth in the Journal (=3=, 365, 1847). He doubts “the propriety of a classification which throws the Permian and Carboniferous systems into the Paleozoic period.” This is mainly because there is no “evidence of disturbance or unconformability” between the Permian and Triassic systems. Rather “there is so complete a blending of adjacent strata” that it is only in Russia that the Permian has been distinguished from the Triassic. This view of Owen’s was not only correct for Russia but even more so for the Alps and for India, and it has taken a great deal of work and discussion to fix upon the disconformable contact that distinguishes the Paleozoic from the Mesozoic in these areas. In other words, there was here at this time no mountain making. Then Owen goes on to state that because the Permian of Europe has reptiles, he sees in them decisive Mesozoic evidence. “These are certainly strong arguments in favor of placing, not only the Permian, but also the Carboniferous group in the Mesozoic period, and terminating the Paleozoic division with the commencement of the coal measures.” To this harking backward the geologists of the world have not agreed, but have followed the better views of Murchison and his associates.

In 1855 G. G. Shumard discovered, and in 1860 his brother B. F. Shumard (1820–1869) announced, the presence of Permian strata in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and in 1902 George H. Girty (=14=, 363) confirmed this. Girty regards the faunas as younger than any other late Paleozoic ones of America, and says: “For this reason I propose to give them a regional name, which shall be employed in a force similar to Mississippian and Pennsylvanian.... The term Guadalupian is suggested.”

G. C. Swallow (1817–1899) in 1858 was the first to announce the presence of Permian fossils in Kansas, and this led to a controversy between himself and F. B. Meek, both claiming the discovery. It is only in more recent years that it has been generally admitted that there is Permian in that state, in Oklahoma, and in Texas. This admission came the more readily through the discovery of many reptiles in the red beds of Texas, and through the work of C. A. White, published in 1891, The Texan Permian and its Mesozoic Types of Fossils (Bull. U. S. Geological Survey, No. =77=).

Carboniferous Formations.—The coal formations are noted in a general way throughout the earliest volumes of the Journal. The first accounts of the presence of coal, in Ohio, are by Caleb Atwater (=1=, 227, 239, 1819), and S. P. Hildreth (=13=, 38, 40, 1828). The first coal plants to be described and illustrated were also from Ohio, in an article by Ebenezer Granger in 1821 (=3=, 5–7). The anthracite field was first described in 1822 by Zachariah Cist (=4=, 1) and then by Benjamin Silliman (=10=, 331–351, 1826); that of western Pennsylvania was described by William Meade in 1828 (=13=, 32).

The Lower Carboniferous was first recognized by W. W. Mather in 1838 (=34=, 356). Later, through the work of Alexander Winchell (1824–1891), beginning in 1862 (=33=, 352) and continuing until 1871, and through the surveys of Iowa (1855–1858), Illinois (essentially the work of A. H. Worthen, 1858–1888), Ohio (1838, Mather, etc.), and Indiana (Owen, etc., 1838), there was eventually worked out the following succession:

Permian period. Upper Barren series. Dunkard group. Washington group. Pennsylvanian period. Upper Productive Coal series. Monongahela series. Lower Barren Coal Measures. Conemaugh series. Lower Productive Coal Measures. Allegheny series. Pottsville series.

The New York System.—We now come to the epochal survey of the State of New York, one that established the principles of, and put order into, American stratigraphy from the Upper Cambrian to the top of the Devonian. No better area could have been selected for the establishing of this sequence. This survey also developed a stratigraphic nomenclature based on New York localities and rock exposures, and made full use of the entombed fossils in correlation. Incidentally it developed and brought into prominence James Hall, who continued the stratigraphic work so well begun and who also laid the foundation for paleontology in America, becoming its leading invertebrate worker.

This work is reviewed at great length in the Journal in the volumes for 1844–1847 by D. D. Owen. Evidently it followed too new a plan to receive fulsome praise from conservative Owen, as it should have. He remarks that the volumes “are not a little prolix, are voluminous and expensive, and do not give as clear and connected a view of the geological features of the state as could be wished.... We are of the opinion that before this work can become generally useful and extensively circulated, it must be condensed and arranged into one compendious volume” (=46=, 144, 1844). This was never done and yet the work was everywhere accepted at once, and to this end undoubtedly Owen’s detailed review helped much.

The Natural History Survey of New York was organized in 1836 and completed in 1843. The state was divided into four districts, and to these were finally assigned the following experienced geologists. The southeastern part was named the First District, with W. W. Mather (1804–1859) as geologist; the northeastern quarter was the Second District, with Ebenezer Emmons (1799–1863) in charge; the central portion was the Third District, under Lardner Vanuxem (1792–1848); while the western part was James Hall’s (1811–1898) Fourth District. Paleontology for a time was in charge of T. A. Conrad (1830–1877); the mineralogical and chemical work was in the hands of Lewis C. Beck; the botanist was John Torrey; and the zoologist James DeKay.

The New York State Survey published six annual reports of 1675 pages octavo, and four final geological reports with 2079 pages quarto. Finally in 1846 Emmons added another volume on the soils and rocks of the state, in which he also discussed the Taconic and New York systems; it has 371 pages. With the completion of the first survey, Hall took up his life work under the auspices of the state—his monumental work, Paleontology of New York, in fifteen quarto volumes of 4539 pages and 1081 plates of fossils. In addition to all this, there are his annual and other reports to the Regents of the State, so that it is safe to say that he published not less than 10,000 pages of printed matter on the geology and paleontology of North America.