PRE-CAMBRIAN LIFE 65 



the nicest and most delicate contrivance as the 

 animal life of any later time, and it presupposed 

 vegetable life and multitudes of minute organic 

 beings altogether unknown to us to nourish the 

 creatures we do know. As an example of this, a 

 little Brachiopod or sponge nourished by the cur- 

 rents produced by its cilia, or a Jelly-fish gathering 

 food by its thread-like tentacles, or a Globigerina 

 selecting its nourishment by its delicate gelatinous 

 pseudopods, required an ocean swarming with minute 

 forms of life, which probably can never be known 

 to us, but every one of which must have been an in- 

 scrutable miracle of organization and vital function. 



Lastly, with reference to our present subject, the 

 Etcheminian fossils carry life backward one whole 

 great period earlier than the Lower Cambrian, and 

 appear to indicate that we are approaching a begin- 

 ning of living things in the Palaeozoic world. Much 

 no doubt remains to be discovered, but it would 

 seem that any future discoveries must fail to 

 negative this conclusion. 



The Huronian. 



In whatever way the rocks immediately below 

 the Cambrian may be classified, it is certain that 



5 



