242 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 



simple, others compound, and the latter consist of from two to seven 

 spherical or ovoid chambers of different sizes aggregated together. 

 The walls are very finely perforate, and some of the chambers are 

 provided with one or more short blunted spines. 



Much discussion will doubtless arise in reference to these new 

 problematical bodies, and, so far as we can judge, there is some hope 

 that they will stand the test of criticism better than the ill-fated 

 Eozoon. Much confirmation, however, is yet required, and we look 

 forward with interest to the discovery of similar forms in the pre- 

 Cambrian rocks of our own island. 



PRiMiEVAL Life. 



Theories as to what the nature of the earliest life must have 

 been are still flourishing, and in the August number of the 

 Journal of Geology Professor W. K. Brooks has a fascinating, in- 

 teresting, and exceedingly suggestive, if not absolutely convincing, 

 article on the subject. The paper bears so directly on the discussions 

 at the recent meeting of the British Association as to the distribution 

 of marine animals, that we give here an outline of its main points, 

 which we hope will send our readers to the original. In many 

 respects it reminds us of the views of the late Professor Moseley. 



The variety, distinctness, and advanced structure of the animals 

 found in the very lowest fossiliferous rocks have long puzzled geologists, 

 and have seemed, on the theory of evolution, to necessitate an 

 enormous backward extension of life before the beginning of the 

 Cambrian period, although no tangible proof of the existence of such 

 life is forthcoming in rocks where it ought to be found. It is this 

 difficulty that Professor Brooks attempts to explain. 



In a few vivid pages we are shown how the ocean is almost 

 destitute of plant-life, how its flower gardens are stocked only with 

 animals, and how its very herbs and lichens are corallines and 

 sponges ; we learn how the vast animal armies of the sea attack and 

 devour other animal armies, but have never a plant for their forage ; 

 and thus, by descending steps, we are brought to the conclusion that 

 " the basis of all the life in the modern ocean is found in the micro- 

 organisms of the surface," lowly animals and plants so abundant and 

 prolific that they meet all demands. These minute pelagic creatures 

 must have been the first to exist, and where they first appeared there 

 they have ever since remained, undisturbed by varying environment 

 or the stress of competition, and therefore retaining their primaeval 

 simplicity. 



The early pelagic fauna gave rise to a few simple types, such as 

 we now know only in the larval forms of higher animals. But further 

 development never took place here. 



On the contrary, we recognise that all highly organised marine 

 animals are products of the bottom or of the shore, or, as in the case 



