After studying medicine in Albany and practising as a physician, Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863) returned to his first love: geology.  In 1833, he became professor of natural history of Williams College and in 1836 was appointed Geologist-in-Chief of the Northern District of the Geological Survey of New York State.  It was Emmons who named the "Adirondacks" (1838) and "Taconic Mountains" (1844).  In the course of his career, Emmons argued that oldest stratified fossil-bearing rocks on the continent were not Silurian but Taconic, or Upper Cambrian.  This position was controversial and led to friction with eminent geologists such as James Hall.   Emmons' major work is entitled American Geology (1855-57) , a theoretical treatise with illustrations of  characteristic American fossils.  Emmons made contributions on agriculture and geology  in several volumes of the  Natural History of New York .  In later life, Emmons serves as state geologist of North Carolina (1851-60) and conducted a geological survey of that state.  According to Jules Marcou, Emmons was “the founder of American palaeozoic stratigraphy."