424 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



mopolite. He has found the greatest number of species and 

 the greatest profusion near the sea-level, though they were 

 abundant even at an altitude of 10,000 feet in the Rocky 

 Mountains. The most prolific localities of the fresh-water 

 Rhizopods are sphagnous swamps. Moist sphagnum often 

 teems with multitudes of beautiful forms. A single drop 

 of water squeezed from sphagnum has at times been found 

 to contain hundreds of individuals of Ilyalosphceria, Kebela, 

 Eugtypha, etc., of different species. While ponds and springs 

 and ditches in sandstone, quartzite, argillaceous, and granitic 

 districts have proved rich in Rhizopod life, ponds and ditches 

 in limestone regions have been found to be exceedingly poor. 



Regarding the nature of Eozoon, Haeckel expresses his pos- 

 itive opinion that it is a foraminiferous animal. He says 

 that " the mosfexperienced and competent students of the 

 class of Rhizopods at their head Professor Carpenter, of 

 London, and the distinguished anatomist Max Schultze, of 

 Bonn, deceased are firmly convinced that the American 

 Eozobn is a genuine Rhizopod a Polythalamium, near akin 

 to JPolytrema. I have myself for several years made a spe- 

 cial study of Rhizopods. I have minutely examined several 

 fine preparations of Eozoon made by Carpenter and Schultze, 

 and I. have not the slightest doubt that it is a genuine Poly- 

 thalamiilm, and not a mineral." 



Believers in the animal nature of Eozoon have supported 

 their views by reference to the Lower Silurian fossil Stroma- 

 topora, which is by different authors regarded as a foramini- 

 fer of gigantic proportions, or as a coral; while more recent 

 observers, as Zittel, regard it as a sponge. In a recent dis- 

 cussion at a meeting of the Geological Society of London, 

 Dr. Dawson explained his views as to the foraminiferal nat- 

 ure of the Stromatoporidce, species of which occur from the 

 Lower Silurian to the Devonian periods. In the discus- 

 sion which ensued Professor Duncan remarked that different 

 forms were called Stromatopora, and he doubted their fo- 

 raminiferal nature. Dr. Murie thought that they represent- 

 ed sponges allied to the Hexactinellids. Mr. II. J. Carter, an 

 excellent authority, believes, with Dr. Steinmann, that Stro- 

 matopora is allied to the Ilydroids Hydractinia and Millir 

 poi'ci, while Carter ridicules the idea that Eozoon is of ani- 

 mal nature. 



