CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM IN EASTERN CANADA.—AMI. 163 
any prejudice or desire to accept one view or another, unless the 
facts adduced proved to be wholly reliable evidence. 
Abram Gesner, Sir William Dawson, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. 
Jackson, Prof. Alger, Prof. J. P. Lesley, M. de Koninck, M. de 
Verneuil, Mr. Hugh Fletcher, Dr. R. W. Ells, Mr. Henry 8%. 
Poole, Richard Brown, Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F. R.S., J. W. 
Kirkby, Mr. J. W. Salter, Dr. Henry Woodward, Dr. G. F, 
Matthew, Prof. Bailey, Mr. A. Smith Woodward, Mr. Robert 
Kidston, and Prot. David White, have all contributed by their 
writings. published or in manuscript, to the literature of this 
interesting controversy. 
I shall not attempt to review the difference of opinion which 
may exist between what may be turmed the two schools of 
geology as regards the constitution of the Devonian system, 
especially as regards the uppermost members of that system,— 
The Lonsdalean School, whose characteristics of the Devonian age 
are based more especially upon the life-zones or palzontological 
evidence which the formations hold, and the Murchisonian 
School, which emphasizes more especially the stratigraphical 
succession, with little reference to palzeontological evidence. 
From a considerable study of the origin or genesis of the 
various geological formations in question, or of the cycles of 
constructive forms affecting them, the periods of erosion noticed, 
together with the life-zones which these formations contain, and 
characterize them, one has been able to arrive at a conelusion 
which, it is hoped, will be in accord with the views of the rest 
of the world, so that whatever interpretation is given to the 
Carboniferous system in one continent, the same should likewise 
hold good for another. The same with the Devonian system. 
Just as Time was a constant factor during the evolution or 
history of the Carboniferous system of this world, and that the 
amount of time involved is a definite period, so also was Life a 
constant factor; and the several subdivisions of the Carbonifer- 
ous system—the Eo-, Meso-, and Neo-Carboniferous, must be 
marked by corresponding series of Life-zones of the same 
system. 
