,! 



DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 



227 



the life of the Lower Laurentian and that of the 

 Cambrian period. It is scarcely too much to say 

 that these inquiries open up a new world of thought 

 and investigation, and hold out the hope of bring- 

 ing us into the presence of the actual origin of 

 organic life on our planet, though this may perhaps 

 be found to have been pre-Laurentian. I would here 

 take the opportunity of repeating that, in proposing 

 the name Eozoon for the first fossil of the Lauren- 

 tian, and in suggesting for the period the name 

 • Eozoic,' I have by no means desired to exclude 

 the possibility of forms of life which may have been 

 precursors of what is now to us the dawn of organic 

 existence. Should remains of still older organisms 

 be found in those rocks now known to us only by 

 pebbles in the Laurentian. these names will at 

 least serve to mark an important stage in geologi- 

 cal investigation." 



But what if the result of such investigations should 

 be to produce more sceptics, or to bring to light 

 mineral structures so resembling Eozoon as to throw 

 doubt upon the whole of the results detailed in 

 these chapters? I can fancy that this might be 

 the first consequence, more especially if the investi- ' 

 gations were those of persons more conversant with 



