The application of what Say pointed out came first in John Finch’s Geological Essay on the Tertiary Formations in America (=7=, 31, 1824). Even though the paper is still laboring under the mineral system and does not discern the presence of Cretaceous strata among his Tertiary formations, yet Finch also sees that “fossils constitute the medals of the ancient world, by which to ascertain the various periods.” Finch now objects to the wide misuse in America of the term alluvial and holds that it is applied to what is elsewhere known as Tertiary. He says: “Geology will achieve a triumph in America, when the term alluvial shall be banished from her Geological Essays, or confined to its legitimate domain, and then her tertiary formations will be seen to coincide with those of Europe, and the formations of London, Paris, and the Isle of Wight, will find kindred associations in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgias, the Floridas, and Louisiana.” The formations as he has them from the bottom upwards are: (1) Ferruginous sand, (2) Plastic clay, (3) Calcaire Silicieuse of the Paris Basin, (4) London Clay, (5) Calcaire Ostrée, (6) Upper marine formation, (7) Diluvial. The grandest of these early stratigraphic papers, however, is that by Lardner Vanuxem (1792–1848), of only three pages, entitled “Remarks on the Characters and Classification of Certain American Rock Formations” (=16=, 254, 1829). Vanuxem, a cautious man and a profound thinker, had been educated at the Paris School of Mines. James Hall told the writer in a conversation that while the first New York State Survey was in operation, all of its members looked to Vanuxem for advice. 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.”