94 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



Their forms are best understood by the figures 6, a, b, c and d. 

 The examination of the fine slimy residues from the solution of 

 various primary crystalline limestones, in which, from the absence 

 of well marked foreign minerals, it may be difficult to prove the 

 presence of distinct organic forms, will, I think, afford the quickest 

 and readiest mode of establishing the existence of organisms. 



The presence of the Eozoon in the primary limestone of 

 Steinhag being thus established, I proceeded to examine such 

 specimens as were at my disposal from other localities of similar 

 limestones in the vicinity of Passau. I must here remark that 

 these specimens, collected during my geolological examinations 

 twelve years since, were chosen as containing ' intermixtures of 

 serpentine and hornblende, and not with reference to the possibility 

 of their holding organic remains. I succeeded however in detecting 

 at least traces of Eozoon in specimens of the limestone from 

 Untersalzbach, (fig. 2,) from Hausbach, Babing, (fig. 3,) and 

 from Kading and StettiDg. Moreover a specimen of ophicalcite 

 from a quarry near Srin, in the region between Krumau and 

 Goldenkron, among the primitive hills of Bohemia, afforded 

 unequivocal evidences of Eozoon. Yon Hochstetter moreover 

 has received specimens of crystalline limestone from the same 

 strata at Krumau, in which Dr. Carpenter has shown the presence 

 of Eozoon. To the same formation belong the calcareous rocks 

 near Schwarzbach, in the vicinity of which, as near Passau, great 

 masses of graphite are intercalated in the gneiss hills. These 

 limestones of Schwarzbach connect those of Krumau with the 

 similar strata near Passau, from which they are only separated by 

 the great granite mass of the Plockenstein hills. We thus obtain 

 a still farther proof of the similarity of structure throughout the 

 whole range of primitive rocks of Bavaria and Bohemia ; and of 

 the parallelism of their lowest portion with the Lauren tian gneiss 

 system of Canada. I think therefore that we may, without 

 hesitation, place the Hercynian gneiss formation of the mountains 

 forming the Bavarian and Bohemian frontier, on the same 

 geolocjirnl horizon with the Laurentian system. 



Farther northward, in similar gneiss hills, occupying a limited 

 area, a crystalline limestone occurs near Burggrub, not far from 

 Erbendorf, from which a few specimens were at hand. They were 

 however a reddish, very ferruginous dolomite, penetrated by fibres 

 of hornblende and epidote, and gave me no trace of organic remains. 



Besides these limestones of the Hercynian gneiss, there is found 



