CHAPTER VI. 

 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON. 



THE microscope has long been a recognised and valued 

 aid of the geological observer, and is perhaps now in 

 danger of being somewhat overrated by enthusiastic specialists. 

 To the present writer its use is no novelty. When, as a very 

 young geologist, collecting fossil plants in the coal fields of 

 Novia Scotia, I obtained access to the then recently published 

 work of Witham on the " Internal Structure of Fossil Vege- 

 tables." 1 Fired by the desire to learn something of the structure 

 of the blocks of fossil wood in my collection, I at once procured 

 a microscope of what would now be considered a very im- 

 perfect kind, and proceeded to make attempts to slice and 

 examine my specimens, and was filled with joy when these 

 old blackened stems for the first time revealed to me their 

 wonderful structures. At the same time I extended my 

 studies to every minute form of life that could be obtained 

 from the sea or fresh waters. A few years later (in 1841), when 

 a student in Edinburgh, I made the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Sanderson of that city, who had worked for Nicol and Witham 

 in the preparation of specimens, and learnt the modes which he 

 had employed. Since that time I have been accustomed to 

 subject every rock, earth or fossil which came under my notice 

 to microscopic scrutiny, not as a mere specialist in that mode 

 of observation, or with the parade of methods and details now 

 customary, but with the view of obtaining valuable facts bear- 



1 Edinburgh, 1833. 

 135 



