THE HISTORY OF A DISCOVERY I3I 



of fossils which he was preparing, that he proposed 

 to notice the mode of preservation of certain fossil 

 woods and other things with which I was familiar, 

 and that he would show me the paper in proof, in 

 order that he might have any suggestions that 

 occurred to me. On reading it, I observed, among 

 other things, that he alluded to the supposed Lau- 

 rentian fossils, under the impression that the organic 

 part was represented by the serpentine or loganite, 

 and that the calcareous matter was the filling of the 

 chambers. I took exception to this, stating that 

 though in the slices before examined no structure 

 was apparent, still my impression was that the cal- 

 careous matter was the fossil, and the serpentine or 

 loganite the filling. He said : " In that case, would 

 it not be well to re-examine the specimens, and to try 

 to discover which view is correct ? " He mentioned 

 at the same time that Sir William had recently 

 shown him some new and beautiful specimens col- 

 lected by Mr. Lowe, one of the explorers on the staff 

 of the Survey, from a third locality, at Grenville, on 

 the Ottawa. It was supposed that these might throw 

 further light on the subject ; and accordingly Dr. 

 Hunt suggested to Sir William to have additional 

 slices of these new specimens made by Mr. Weston, 



