really great; indeed they represent some thousands of specimens and it is quite within reason to say that no series of the Eurypterida of equal size and variety has ever before been assembled. It is quite as true that no equal area in the world has proved as fruitful in the quantity and diversity of these organisms as the State of New York. And through the courtesy of many correspondents and museums much material from outside of New York has been placed at the demands of this work: the species of the Kokomo waterlimes of Indiana; of the Cambric Strabops of Missouri; the Siluric Megalograptus of Ohio and the Carbonic Hastimima of Brazil and New Brunswick; in all, I believe, an unexampled array of these extinct arachnids.
The work of elaborating these earlier studies and expanding them into this fuller form has very largely depended on the aid of Dr Rudolf Ruedemann who has brought to the work keen analytical powers, a broad grasp of its problems and an enthusiastic assiduity. I fully realize and gladly express my obligation to this assistance and desire that the interested reader accord to my coworker adequate acknowledgment of his efficient part in this work.
The treatise itself seems to carry its own justification; aside from the close analysis of structural details, there are chapters on ontogeny, phylogeny, on life habits and conditions as well as on organization which, though probably not beyond criticism, are at least informing and constitute an advance of knowledge.
To the following individuals and institutions the authors have been indebted for aid:
- The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, through its board of trustees and its superintendent, Mr Henry R. Howland
- The American Museum of Natural History, through Dr E. O. Hovey and the late Prof. R. P. Whitfield
- The United States National Museum, through Drs R. S. Bassler, E. O. Ulrich and David White
- The Smithsonian Institution, through Secretary Charles D. Walcott
