86 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



infiltration of aqueous solutions, while the Eozoon was yet 

 growing, or shortly after its death. * * * 



Hunt, in a very ingenious manner, compares this formation and 

 deposition of serpentine, pyroxene, and loganite, with that of 

 glauconite, whose formation has gone on uninterruptedly from the 

 Silurian to the Tertiary period, and is even now taking place in 

 the depths of the sea ; it being well known that Ehrenberg and 

 others have already shown that many of the grains of glauconite 

 are casts of the interior of foraminiferal shells. In the light of 

 this comparison, the notion that the serpentine, and such like 

 minerals of the primitive limestones have been formed in a similar 

 manner, in the chambers of Eozoic foraminifera, loses any traces 

 of improbability which it might at first seem to possess. * * 



My discovery of similar organic remains in the serpentine- 

 limestone from near Passau was made in 1865, when I had 

 returned from my geological labors of the summer, and received 

 the recently published descriptions of Messrs. Logan, Dawson, etc. 

 Small portions of this rock, gathered in the progress of the 

 geological survey in 1854, and ever since preserved in my 

 collection, having been submitted to microscopic examination, 

 confirmed in the most brilliant manner the acute judgment of the 

 Canadian geologists ; and furnished paleontological evidence that, 

 notwithstanding the great distance which separates Canada from 

 Bavaria, the equivalent primitive rocks of the two regions are 

 characterized by similar organic remains; showing at the same 

 time that the law governing the definite succession of organic life 

 on the earth is maintained even in these most ancient formations. 

 The fragments of serpentine-limestone or ophicalcite, in which I 

 first detected the existence of Eozoon, were like those described in 

 Canada in which the lamellar structure is wanting, and offer 

 only what Dr. Carpenter has called an acervuline structure. For 

 further confirmation of my observations, I deemed it advisable, 

 through the kindness of Sir Charles Lyell, to submit specimens of 

 the Bavarian rock to the examination of that eminent authority, 

 Dr. Carpenter ; who, without any hesitation, declared them to 

 contain Eozoon. 



This fact being established, I procured from the quarries near 

 Passau as many specimens of the limestone as the advanced season 

 of the year would permit ; and, aided by my diligent and skilful 

 assistants Messrs. Beber and Schwager, examined them by the 

 methods indicated by Messrs. Dawson and Carpenter. In this 



