NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF NEWFOUNDLAND WESTON. 151 



Laurentian of certain forms which resemble Stromatocerium 

 rugosum, one of the Protozoa of the Silurian. This peculiar 

 mineral aggregate (?), received from Sir W. E. Logan and J. W. 

 Dawson the name Eozoon Canadense. Literature enough to 

 fill a cart has been published for and against this supposed organ- 

 ism, among which Dawson's Dawn of Life is the most interesting. 

 With the exception of Sir J. W. Dawson, probably no one has 

 clone more work at this supposed fossil than the writer, who has 

 prepared hundreds of microscopic sections, micro-photographs, 

 micro-drawings, illustrative collections for the Paris, London, 

 Philadelphia and late Chicago Expositions, and for other public 

 and private collections ; still he could never make up his mind 

 that Eozoon Canadense is of organic origin. Mr. Billings, late 

 palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Canada, pronounced 

 strongly against the organic character of Eozoon. I have 

 frequently conversed with Dr. Selwyn, Mr. Whiteaves, Dr. Ami, 

 Dr. Ells, the late Mr. Yennor (who obtained the Tudor specimens), 

 and other members of the Canadian Survey, but none of these 

 gentlemen ever admitted that Eozoon , is a fossil. However 

 Eozoon will always remain an interesting subject for students 

 in palaeontology and mineralogy. 



The Huronian. In Canada the Huronian system represents 

 a thickness of about 20,000 feet of strata consisting of quartzites, 

 slates, limestones, sandstones, chert, jasper, conglomerates and 

 other rocks in which no fossils have been found. While import- 

 ant measures represented in Canada are missing in Newfound- 

 land, there is a great similiarity between the Huronian of the 

 two countries. Its exact thickness in Newfoundland does not 

 appear to be known. Murray gives a section of 11,370 feet of 

 strata consisting of diorites, quartzites, jaspers, slates, conglomer- 

 ates, sandstones, etc. Like our Canadian Huronian, these rocks 

 in Newfoundland have yielded no fossils unless we consider 

 Billings' Aspidella terranovica, and two other obscure forms 

 mentioned by the same writer as organic. 



In his report for 1868 Mr. Murray speaks of these forms 

 described by Billings Palaeozoic Fossils, Vol. II, Part I., and also 



