286 Professors King and Rowney's 



crystalline condition"*; but any attempt to accept the "pro- 

 bative fact" of nummuline tubules, in their original " empty " 

 state, occurring in such rocks, they will find to be labour in 

 vain ; though, science failing. Faith, which removes moun- 

 tains, will undoubtedly stand in its stead. 



Is it surprising that Professor Schultze, when he became 

 acquainted with the evidences adduced in our papers, requested 

 his friend, Mr. Arthur E. Barker, " to tell Messrs. King and 

 Rowney, that, with respect to the proper wall of Carpenter, I 

 am entirely of their opinion, that it is of inorganic origin " f; 

 or that Carter emphatically declared the identification of it 

 with the chamber-roof of a nummuUte "to be nonsense ! " 



''^ Canal-system^^ or Serjjentinous Arhorescences. 

 Our remarks on this part must be comparatively brief. Dr. 

 Carpenter having advanced nothing new respecting it. We 

 must, in the first place, express our approval of his figures 3 

 and 4, which show the " canals " under their characteristic 

 aspect ; also the non-acicular portion of fig. 1 , in which some 

 simpler forms are represented ; though we are as confident as 

 ever that they are nothing more than examples of arborescent 

 serpentine, related to, if not identical with, metaxite. As 

 regards those shown in fig. 5, their appearance is so untypical 

 that we cannot avoid expressing a fear about our being cor- 

 rect ; we are nevertheless willing, with some reservation, to 

 allow them to stand as examples of the " canal-system." The 

 bodies taken to represent this system in the figm^e last refen-ed 

 to, it is stated, " show by their semiopacity in one part the 

 extent to which the serpentinous infiltration has proceeded, 

 and, by their transparence in the rest, that their canalization 

 is not the result of any foreign infiltration whatever." It is 

 next stated that the "canals" (*? presumably the transparent 

 portions) " are filled with calcite, having the same crystalline 

 axis as that of the matrix." Again, " as I know them (the 

 "canals filled with calcite") to be contained in the section 

 which I long since forwarded to Prof. Rowney, the only con- 

 ceivable reason for the non-recognition of them by the two 

 Galway professors is that they have not used the reduced 

 light, which, through the extreme transparence of the minuter 

 canaliculi, is necessary to bring them into view." As Dr. 



* Dawson, This statement is quite con-ect in tlie sense that the struc- 

 tures forming the presumed organism are of mineral origin. 



t Dr. Cai-penter has credited us with many things : his last favour of 

 the kind, that Max Schultze " had changed his opinion respecting the 

 canal-system, as asserted by '" ks, we are under the necessity of returning — 

 it being without any endorsement. 



