bo DR. GRANT BEY, 



covered the face of tlie deep, and the climate must have been 

 very liot and very damp ; but there was nothing as yet to 

 make it malarious, for no vegetation could have existed at 

 this period. 



As the cooling process went on, the misty steam that filled 

 the atmosphere would, in time, take on more of the nature of 

 clouds suspended in the air, thus permitting the direct rays 

 of the sun to penetrate here and there, so as to light up the 

 Primitive AVaters tliat now enveloped the central mass of 

 this globe. 



During the formation of these Avaters the excessive heat 

 had caused to be dissolved in them many of the primitive 

 elements of our earth, which, as the water coolt-d, were 

 slowly deposited in crystalline form and made a solid bottom 

 for this primitive and still comparatively hot sea. In the 

 upper stratum of this deposit, Sir J. W. Dawson has discovered 

 the fossil remains of a species of foraminifera sho"\ving that 

 the climate had so far changed as to allow of the existence 

 of, at least, a low type of vegetable and animal life.* The 

 origin of such life does not come within the scope of this 

 paper, as we have only to deal with things as Ave find them, 

 and draAv our inferences as to the kind of climate that would 

 allow of their existence, modification, or extinction. 



As shrinkage went on OAving to the continuance of the 

 cooling process, the rocky bed of the sea Avould become 

 crumpled up eA^er^- here and there from the external pressure 

 causing the shell of the earth to fall in. Thus projections of 

 crystalline rocks Avould appear aboA^e the surface of the 

 Avater and form the first dry land as islands or cA^en conti- 

 nents in this A'-ast sea. 



No doubt, at different places on the inner side of the 

 crust of the earth, Ave should also find, at this early epoch, 

 that pressure from Avitliin caused by igneous action forcing 

 up the crystalline shell or even bursting through it, had 

 already produced elevations, geysers, burning mountains 

 and granite formations. 



These rocks, uoav exposed, Avere being contiininlly \\aslie(l 

 by a hot shallow sea, Avhile they were acted on at the same 

 time by drenching rains, thus causing their sIoav disintegra- 

 tion, the debris of Avliidi skilled at the bottom of the sea and 



* The author appears to refer to the Eozoon Canadense, the orjranic 



ature of which is not nniversally athnitted, and is, in fact, strongly 



contested by Profes.sor Mubiii.s, Professor Ferd. Iloemer, and others. — Ed. 



