1898.] PECKIIAM — THE GENESIS OF BITUMENS. Ill 



remains of marine animals, in Bohemia and Sweden if not else- 

 where, there is a ''region of fucoids," of great thickness, carrying 

 back the dawn of vegetable life to a still more remote epoch. ^ 

 Throughout the last fifty years, successive discoveries of fossils in 

 strata hitherto supposed to be destitute of organic remains, have 

 carried the apparent dawn of life back through successive geological 

 formations, until the azoic (devoid of life) rocks have ceased to be 

 appropriately named, and Mr. Hicks, speaking of the Cambrian 

 fauna of Wales, says, "Though animal life was restricted to these 

 few types, yet at this early period the representatives of the different 

 orders do not show a very diminutive form, or a markedly imperfect 

 state ; nor is there an increased number of blind species. The 

 earliest known brachiopods are apparently as perfect as those 

 which succeed them ; and the trilobites are of the largest and best 

 developed types. The fact also that trilobites had attained a 

 maximum size at this period, and that forms were present represen- 

 tative of almost every stage of development, .... blind genera 

 along with those having the largest eyes, leads to the conclusion 

 that for these several stages to have taken place numerous previous 

 faunas must have had an existence, and, moreover, that even at this 

 time in the history of our globe an enormous period had elapsed 

 since life first dawned upon it.'"^ 



6. The formations that contain these earliest palseozoi'c forms of 

 life are now found for the most part in a crystalline condition ; yet, 

 Dr. Hunt affirms, "that the oldest known rocks are stratified 

 deposits of limestone, clay and sands, generally, in a highly 

 altered condition ; .... it is, however, quite certain that the 

 advent of life in these oldest fossiliferous strata was subsequent to 

 the period of chemical reactions on a cosmic scale. "^ The manner 

 in which these geological formations and parts of formations may 

 have been rendered crystalline has been very exhaustively discussed 

 by Dr. Hunt in his chemical and geological essays. He has shown 



^ James Hall, Paleontology of Netv York, Vol. iii, Introduction. Billings, 

 A?n. your. Set, (2), xxxii, 232. Reports Geological Survey of Canada, v. d. 

 Dawson, Canadian N^aturalist,v. d. Reports Geological Suivey of Canada, 

 V. d. Salter and Hicks, Proc. Geol. Assoc, Quar. your. Geolog. Soc, v. d. 

 Angelin, Palccontologica Scandinavica. Barrande, Bui. Soc. Geol. de France 

 (2), xvi, 529-545. 



^ Hicks, Quar. your. Geol. Soc, May, 1872. 



^ C/ie?nical and Geological Essays, ed. 1875, P* ^' 



