IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 53 



few other forms, possibly of Protozoa and worms. An im- 

 aginary phylogeny of animal life from Monads to Trilobites 

 would be something as long as the whole geological history. 

 Yet it would be almost wholly imaginary, for the record of the 

 rocks tells little or nothing. In face of such an imperfection 

 as this, geologists should surely be humble, and make confes- 

 sion of ignorance to any extent that may be desired. Yet we 

 may at least, with all humility and self-abasement, ask our 

 critics how they know that this great blank really exists, and 

 whether it may not be possible that the swarming life of the 

 early Cambrian may, after all, have appeared suddenly on the 

 stage in some way as yet unknown to us and to them. 



REFERENCES : " Fossil Sponges from the Quebec Group of Little Metis, 

 Lower St. Lawrence": Transactions Royal Society of Canada^ 1890. 

 "Resume of the Carboniferous Land Shells of North America": 

 American Journal of Science, 1880. " Burrows and Tracks of In- 

 vertebrate Animals" : Journal Geological Society of London, 1890. 

 "Notes on the Pleistocene of Canada" : Canatiian Naturalist, 1876. 

 "Air-breathers of the Coal Period " : Ibid., 1863. 



