1 86 LOUIS AGASSI/.. [CHAP. xxn. 



from the Infra-primordial fauna of the Lower Taconic. 

 The persistence of several genera from the oldest quartz- 

 ite rocks in North Britanny, near Saint L6, 1 through 

 millions of years, notwithstanding the metamorphoses 

 cf all other animals around them, is a fact which cannot 

 be put aside by transformists and Darwinians. Immu- 

 tability of several genera, from the beginning of life on 

 our planet until now, is not in favour of natural selec- 

 tion or evolution. Permanence of forms has existed 

 since the first appearance of life on our planet, a 

 privilege only enjoyed now by Radial aria and perhaps 

 by Foraminifera, but which may be extended, as Agassiz 

 thought, to higher animals, such as Trilobites and Am- 

 monites. It seems only a question of time ; for we 

 know yet so little of life at great depths in our oceans 

 that some unexpected discovery may be made, and 

 prove a great bar to all the hypotheses constantly 

 resorted to by the theorists of the Darwin school. 



If the hopes formed by Agassiz were not fulfilled by 

 the Hasslcr expedition, it was due mainly, first, to 

 the defects in the dredging apparatus ; second, to the 

 inadequate estimate of the time required to explore the 

 deepest abysses of the sea. We shall not know for 

 centuries to come all the fauna of the deep sea. The 

 difficulties of finding animals and bringing them from 

 the sea-bottoms, at great depths, are such that centu- 

 ries will be required before a complete knowledge of 



1 " Les prcuves dc 1'existence cl'organismes clans le terrain precambrien. 

 Premiere note sur les Radiolaires precambriens," par L. Cayeux (" Bulle- 

 tin Soc. Geol. France," 3d Se'rie, Tome XXII., pp. 197-228; Paris, 

 1894). 



