44 



THE DAWN OF LIFE. 



Grenville specimens, and wliicli I did not see until 

 after it had been detected by Dr. Carpenter in Lon- 

 don. Dr. Carpenter tlius contributed in a very im- 

 portant manner to the perfecting of the investigations 

 begun in Canada,, and on him has fallen the greater 

 part of their illustration and defence,* in so far as Great 

 Britain is concerned. Fig. 11, taken from one of Dr. 

 Carpenter^s papers, shows the tubulated primitive wall 

 as described by him. 



The immediate result was a composite paper in the 

 Proceedings of the Geological Society , by Sir W. E. 

 Logan, Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Hunt, and myself, in which 

 the geology, palaeontology, and mineralogy of Eozoon 

 Ganadense and its containing rocks were first given to 

 the world. t It cannot be wondered at that when 

 geologists and paleontologists were thus required to 

 believe in the existence of organic remains in rocks 

 regarded as altogether Azoic and hopelessly barren of 

 fossils, and to carry back the dawn of life as far before 

 those Primordial rocks, which were supposed to con- 

 tain its first traces, as these are before the middle 

 period of the earth^s life history, some hesitation should 

 be felt. Further, the accurate appreciation of the 

 evidence for such a fossil as Eozoon required an 

 amount of knowledge of minerals, of the more humble 



* In Quarterly Journal of Geological Society, vol. xxii. ; Proc. 

 Hoyal Society, \o\. xv. ; Intellectual Observer, 1865. Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History, 1874 ; and other papers and 

 notices. 



f Journal Geological Society, February, 1865. 



