1864.] ADDRESS BY SIR CHARLES LYELL. 403 



mere negative evidence were altogether delusive. In the course of 

 a geological survey, carried on under the able direction of Sir 

 William E. Logan, it has been shown that northward of the river 

 St. Lawrence there is a vast series of stratified and crystalline 

 rocks of gneiss, mica-schist, quartzite, and limestone, about 

 40,000 feet in thickness, which have been called Laurentian. 



They are more ancient than the oldest fossiliferous strata of 

 Europe, or those to which the term primordial had been rashly 

 assigned. In the first place, the newest part of this great crys- 

 talline series is unconformable to the ancient fossiliferous or so- 

 called primordial rocks which overlie it ; so that it must have 

 undergone disturbing movements before the latter or primordial 

 set were formed. Then again, the older half of the Laurentian 

 series is unconformable to the newer portion of the same. It is 

 in this lowest and most ancient system of crystahine strata that a 

 limestone, about a thousand feet thick, has been observed, contain- 

 ing organic remains. These fossils have been examined by Dr. 

 Dawson, of Montreal, and he has detected in them, by aid of the 

 microscope, the distinct structure of a large species of Ehizopod. 

 Fine specimens of this fossil, called Eozoon Canadense, have been 

 brought to Bath by Sir William E. Logan, to be exhibited to the 

 members of the Association. We have every reason to suppose 

 that the rocks in which these animal remains are included are of 

 as old a date as any of the formations named azoic in Europe, if 

 not older, so that they preceded in date rocks once supposed to 

 have been formed before any organic beings had been created. 



But I will not venture on speculations respecting " the signs of 

 a beginning," or " the prospects of an end," of our terrestrial 

 system — that wide ocean of scientific conjecture on which so 

 many theorists before my time have suffered shipwreck. Without 

 trespassing longer on your time, I will conclude by expressing to 

 you my thanks for the honor you have done me in asking me to 

 preside over this meeting. I have every reason to hope, from the 

 many members and distinguished strangers whom 1 already see 

 assembled here, that it will not be inferior in interest to any of 

 the gatherings which have preceded it. 



