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invertebrates. If such was the case it has left scant evidence of 

 its existence. The practical results of a search in the Archaean 

 and older Palaeozoic rocks for these pal aeon tological proofs are 

 extremely disappointing. Instead of finding the limestones of 

 these early periods crowded with the remains of what might be 

 deemed the primitive type of animal life, the Archaean limestones 

 are singularly destitute of organic remains ; and when we pass 

 the great interval marked by the unconformability between the 

 Archaeans and the Cambrians, we find in the latter a richly 

 differentiated invertebrate fauna with scarcely a trace of the 

 more primitive Rhizopod. It is only when we rise in the geo- 

 logical series as high as the Carboniferous limestone that the 

 Foraminifera become at all a characteristic feature of the de- 

 posits, and the maximum of the order was only attained with the 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary formations, or, possibly, in the foramini- 

 feral fauna of the present seas. 



It is not improbable that the unclothed amoeboid organism was 

 the earlier prevailing type of this class, and that on the gradual 

 increase of carnivorous and predatory forms of life, the Amoeba 

 obtained a distinct advantage in the struggle for life in the 

 formation of a testaceous covering for its sarcode, either by the 

 secretion of carbonate of lime or by the agglutination of sand 

 grains and other foreign bodies. Such an important modification 

 of habit prepared the way for an endless morphological variation 

 of the organism — gave birth to a new order of Protozoans, and 

 made the Foraminifera the most important member of its class. 

 If the naked condition was the primitive form of the Protozoan 

 type, and the testaceous covering a later and slowly developed 

 modification, this will sufficiently account for the comparative 

 absence of the Foraminifera from the older geological formations. 



The discussion on the organic or inorganic nature of Eozoon, 

 which has lasted over 30 years, still continues. A fascination 

 gathers around this so-called "Dawn Animal," " the lone occupant 

 of Laurentian seas," that has called forth laboured investigations 

 and an elaborate literature. Eozoon was first described by Dr. 

 Carpenter and Principal Dawson in 1864. Its organic origin was 

 hotly contested by Professors W. King and T. H. Rowney in 

 numerous publications distributed over a period of 16 years. 

 Their contention was that the so-called organic structure of 

 Eozoon was nothing more than an inorganic arrangement of 

 minerals in a laminar structure that was not uncommon in 

 serpentine rocks, and could be paralleled in the serpentine marble 

 or ophite of Skye, the serpentine of the Lizard, and other examples. 

 Mr. H. J. Carter took up a similar position of scepticism. In 

 1884 Prof. J. F. Blake examined the typical locality for Eozoon 

 at Cote St. Pierre, in Canada, with the result that he concluded 



