18 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



by Bigsby, who, in 18G2, stated tliat the nuronian was beneath and 

 distinct from the Cambrian. The name Huroninn was first officially em- 

 ployed by Murray in the Geological Survey report for 1857. 



It will thus be seen that the lowest members of the crystalline rocks 

 received a distinctive appellation in Canadian nomenclature at a com- 

 paratively early stage of the discussion on the geological structure of tiiis 

 country; and these terms have been retained for the rocks which re- 

 present our oldest formations to the present day. They have also been 

 generally adopted by the workers in this old field of investigation, who 

 include many of the geologists of the British Islands and of the United 

 States. 



Other names have, however, gradually come into use to designate 

 these old formations on a broader scale, or to explain some peculiarity 

 of origin or structure. Among these, relating to the crystalline rocks, 

 may be mentioned Azoic and Archœan, which have been generally held 

 to apply to all the formations beneath the lowest fossiliferous strata. 

 The term Archaean was proposed by Dana, 1874, and adopted by both 

 the Canadian and United States geologists. In this connection Dana 

 says, "' the Archœan rocks are the only universal formation. They 

 extend over the whole globe, and form the floor of the ocean and the 

 material of all emerged land when life first appeared. The thickness 

 which they acquired during the long era from the time of the first 

 formed crust can never be known." The term Azoic was proposed by 

 Foster and Whitney in 1851. 



Sir William Dawson also employed the term Eozoic to distinguish 

 certain members of the Laurentian series, in portions of which the 

 Eozoon Canadense, regarded by some as the earliest representative of life 

 among our rock formations, was found. This term Eozoic was chiefly 

 confined to the series of limestones, quartzites and associated gneisses 

 which Logan had previously designated the Grenville series, and which 

 afterwards Yennor, from their examination in Hastings County styled 

 the Hastings series, the names in both cases being derived from the 

 localities where these rocks were first studied in detail. The rocks of 

 these two series were regarded as of more recent age than those of the 

 great mass of gneiss and granite which underlay them, and which were 

 held to represent the lowest member of the Laurentian system. The 

 latter therefore received the appellation of the lower or Fundamental 

 gneiss, or from the fact that it was largely developed along the Ottawa 

 River, the Ottawa gneiss. 



In tlie geology of Canada, 18(;3, Sir W. E. J-iogan gives a systematic 

 scheme of nomenclature, employed in the publications of the Geological 



