EARTH'S DEEPEST GRAVES. 199 



lost chapters at the beginning of the story of life may be 

 plausibly restored ; and this course is infinitely wiser than to 

 sit by and hug our ignorance, or deny that any chapters have 

 been lost, and proceed to argue as if we had the whole history. 



But thanks to the Canadian geologists, the first chapters 

 are not completely lost. We have a fragment of a page ; and 

 we know about where in the book it belonged. In the lower 

 part of this vast series of rocks are in Canada three great beds 

 of marble or crystalline limestone. In the third, or upper 

 one, occur some forms which appear to be organic. These 

 were brought to the notice of the scientific world in 1856. 

 They have been studied by mineralogists, palaeontologists and 

 chemists. They have been subjected to most searching mi- 

 croscopic study. The general opinion is that they are organic 

 remains ; and they have by general consent been referred to 

 a group of organisms of low grade called Fo-ram-i-nif'-e-ra 

 the same as that to which Globigeri'na belongs (Talk X). 

 A few mineralogists regard them as inorganic. These forms 

 have been obtained at several localities in Canada, as also, in 

 New York, near Troy, in Ireland, in Bohemia and else- 

 where. They contain certain features which, in my opinion, 

 could not be regarded as of mineral origin. On the con- 

 trary, they closely resemble some structures found in certain 

 Foraminifera. 



In the mass, we notice a concentric or laminated structure, 

 as if the organism were formed of numerous layers wrapped, 

 one about another. These layers, in most cases, consist alter- 

 nately of serpentine and carbonate of lime. The serpentine, 

 as is believed, occupies the place of the fleshy part of the 

 animal, while the carbonate of lime is its skeleton ; and we 

 may speak of it as coral, for in many respects it was like 

 coral, though produced by an animal much lower in rank 

 than the polyps which secrete true coral. When we prepare 

 extremely thin slices of this skeleton, some minute structures 

 are seen under the microscope, which convince us of their 

 animal nature. The name of this creature is E-o-zo'-on can-a- 

 den'-se or the " Dawn Animal of Canada," 



