Charles D. Walcott in England and Wales (1888): A crucial visit in the resolution of Taconic-Cambrian-Ordovician questions

In the autumn of 1888, the well-known American palaeontologist C. D. Walcott spent seven weeks in Great Britain, attending the Fourth Session of the International Congress of Geologists in London, discussing Lower Palaeozoic strati-graphical classification and palaeontology with British and international colleagues, examining faunas in various British collections, and studying sections and collecting mostly Cambrian-Ordovician fossils for three weeks in the field in Wales. The visit cemented his belief in the recognition of Cambrian and Ordovician as stratigraphical System units, in preference to the Taconic of North American usage. Walcott's contacts were invaluable in providing him with collections and information for incorporation in his subsequent voluminous palaeontological studies.