452 Mr. R. Kiikpatrick on ike Structure of 



certainly genuine Foraminifera and not mineral pseudomoiplis. 

 Professors King and Rowney remark sarcastically*: — 

 " Eozonal rocks, we are certain, will turn out to be much 

 more common than may be conveniently admitted." I would 

 say, in reply, tlie more the better, for then geologists will be 

 able to map out the Archseair seas with more precision. 



I shall be asked, and in a tone of irony, whether I have 

 found any evidence o£ organic structure in the bombs from 

 Monte Somma. I have found abundant evidence. I can 

 see plainly in places the coils of little Nummulites and the 

 regularly arranged pores on the surface of the broad edges of 

 coils. 



I propose to name this species, following the usual prece- 

 dent, Eozoon vesuvii, sp. n. 



These topographical names will help geological carto- 

 graphers to draw their maps. 



The Eozonal limestones lying over the fundamental gneiss 

 apparently have had an almost world-wide distribution. Evi- 

 dently the throat of Monte Somma was very deep. 1 see no 

 difficulty in imagining an eruption tearing off fragments of 

 Archaean limestone. Tliey would be hurled up with planetary 

 velocity and some of them deposited on ledges on the inner 

 face of the already formed crater. The interior of a white- 

 hot meteor may be intensely cold with the cold of interstellar 

 space. Curiously enough, the surface of Eozoon vesuvii is 

 incrusted with a Melohesia and also what looks like a Cheilo- 

 stomatous Polyzoon. The latter, of course, is certainly not 

 Archaean. Evidently the crater of Monte Somma was beneath 

 the sea at one time, so that the bomb became overgrown with 

 marine organisms of relatively recent date. 



Now we know for certain that the Lower Laurentian 

 limestones of Canada are marine deposits formed from the 

 skeletons of animals and plants, does not this fact give some 

 support to the view that the bands of gneiss between which 

 the limestone is sandwiched may be of sedimentary origin, 

 metamorphosed by both local and regional agencies? If it is 

 not altogether presumptuous for one who is devoid of expert 

 knowledge t to express an opinion concerning a problem 



* " On Eozoon canadense,^^ Proc. Eoy. Irish Academy, vol. x. 1869, 

 p. 512. 



t Though devoid of expert knowledge, I have viewed several hundred 

 square miles of Archaean country from the summit of Mount Marcy in 

 the Adirondacks. This region is very similar to that of the Original 

 Laurentian on the other side of the St. Lawrence. There are the same 

 gneisses and limestones, and Mount Marcy itself is an intrusive tooth of 

 gabbro. 



