96 THE DAWN OF LIFE 



interest the first bright streaks of h'ght that break on the long 

 reign of primeval night and death, and presage the busy day 

 of teeming animal existence. 



No wonder, then, that geologists have long and earnestly 

 groped in the rocky archives of the earth in search of some 

 record of this patriarch of the animal kingdom. But after 

 long and patient research there still remained a large residuum 

 of the oldest rocks destitute of all traces of living beings, and 

 designated by the hopeless name " Azoic," — the formations 

 destitute of remains of life, the stony records of a lifeless 

 world. So the matter remained till the Laurentian rocks of 

 Canada, lying at the base of these old Azoic formations, 

 afforded forms believed to be of organic origin. The dis- 

 covery was hailed with enthusiasm by those who had been 

 prepared by previous study to receive it. It was regarded with 

 feeble and not very intelligent faith by many more, and was 

 met with half-concealed or open scepticism by others. It pro- 

 duced a copious crop of descriptive and controversial literature, 

 but for the most part technical, and confined to scientific trans- 

 actions and periodicals, read by very few except specialists. 

 Thus, few even of geological and biological students have clear 

 ideas of the real nature and mode of occurrence of these 

 ancient organisms, if organisms they are, and of their relations 

 to- better known forms of hfe; while the crudest and most in- 

 accurate ideas have been current in lectures and popular books, 

 and even in text-books. 



This state of things has long ceased to be desirable in the 

 interests of science, since the settlement of the questions raised 

 is in the highest degree important to the history of life. We 

 cannot, it is true, afiirm that Eozoon is in reality the long- 

 sought prototype of animal existence ; but it was for us, at 

 least until recently, the last organic foothold, on which we can 

 poise ourselves, that we may look back into the abyss of the infi- 

 nite past, and forward to the long and varied progress of life in 



