Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Ellis Yochelson his biographer has pointed out, that the rocks of the
American west were generally better exposed and easier to measure
than those in Britain. He was also responsible for the word 'geochrone'
from which the term 'geochronology' evolved. Walcott's paper
appeared in the first volume of the recently established periodical
Journal of Geology, and it achieved a great and wide circulation thanks
to being republished shortly afterwards in the American Geologist,
the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, and the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution
for 1893.
Walcott had a brilliant career, rising from the lowly position of
farm labourer to become the Director of the United States Geological
Survey in 1894 and then from 1907 Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, which was probably the greatest scientific
research facility of the time. He is now best remembered for his
startling discovery in September 1909 near Mount Wapta in British
Columbia, Canada, of the celebrated Middle Cambrian lagerst¨ tten,
the Burgess Shale. Enthralled by the fossils that he found, Walcott
returned for many field seasons and brought his wife and children
along to assist in their excavation. All told he recovered 65,000 speci-
mens that now are in storage inWashingtonwhere they continue to be
studied. This remarkable fauna contains 170 species, including many,
many examples of soft-bodied organisms the likes of which had never
been seen before Walcott's work. This fauna and others discovered in
Greenland and China more recently have given palaeontologists great
insights into some of the earliest inhabitants of the world's Cambrian
oceans.
Also writing in 1893, Warren Upham (1850-1934), a United
States Geological Survey Quaternary geologist who specialised in
studies on Glacial Lake Agassiz, suggested that given the great diver-
sity of life a great deal of time was needed for their development, and
so the stratified rocks represented a time-span of approximately 100
million years. A year earlier another American William John McGee
(1853-1912), later noted for his anthropological and conservation
