128 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



International Geological Congress. — 1897. 



We have just received the propectus for the Seventh Session 

 of the International Geological Congress to be held in St. 

 Petersburg during the summer of 1897. His Imperial Highness, 

 Mgr. the Grand DuKe Constantin Constantinovitch, President 

 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, has accepted the position 

 of Hon. chairman of the reception committee and Mons. A. Kar- 

 pinsky. Director of the Geological Survey, that of President. 

 Amongst other well-known celebrities are : — MM. N. Audrous- 

 sow, V. Moeller, Nikitin, Romanovsky, Fr. Schmidt, Baron E. 

 Toll, Th. Tschernyschew and Von. C. Vogt of St. Petersburg, 

 V. Amalitsky of Varosvia, D. Anoutschin, E. Fedorow, A. P. Pav- 

 low, and V. Sokolow in Moscow, besides J. Sederholm and A. 

 Tigerstedt of Helsinfors. 



Supposed Pre-cambrian Organisms. — In a very brief 

 editorial comment,* quite a number of so-called species of organic 

 remains from rocks of " pre-Taconic " or pre-Cambrian age have 

 been wiped off the palaeontological slate as if with a sponge. We 

 prefer to await the result of more extended researches, more 

 careful and more critical study in the field and in microscopy, 

 biological and petrographical, before making such a clean 

 sweep. Certain it is that there must be somewhere in some 

 rock formation of the globe, some organisms older than what 

 are to-day the oldest known Cambrian fossils, all of which will 

 serve to throw light on what are now doubtful forms. 



*Am. Geol. Vol. XVIII, No. 3, September, 1896. 



