40 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



The likelihood is that if there had been a collect- 

 ing expedition like that of the Challenger in Early 

 Cambrian times, it could have secured thousands 

 of specific forms representing all the above types, 

 more especially as we probably know very little of 

 the softer and shell-less animals of these old seas, 

 and there is some reason to believe that these 

 may have been in greater proportion than in the 

 present ocean. 



In illustration of the richness of some parts of 

 the lowest Cambrian sea, I may refer here to the 

 large and beautifully illustrated Memoir of Walcott 

 on the Lower Cambrian, containing fifty folio plates 

 of species collected in a few districts of North 

 America ; and, as a minor example, to the contents 

 of a loose boulder of limestone of that age, found 

 at Little Metis on the Lower St. Lawrence, under 

 the following circumstances (Fig. 9) : — 



Along what is now the valley of the Lower St. 

 Lawrence and the gulf of the same name, there 

 seem to have been deposited in the oldest 

 Cambrian or Olenellus period beds of limestone 

 rich in shells of marine animals and fragments 

 of these. These can be seen in place in some 

 parts of Newfoundland, and here and there on the 



