552 



THE AZOIC SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



In the latter we see no indication that anything possessed of life had 

 to do with their formation. The Arenicola is mentioned by Zittel, 

 together with many other equally problematic bodies, which that 

 eminent palaeontologist dismisses with the remark that "these names 



have no zoological significance." * 



Since palscontology affords no assistance in dividing the Azoic (Ar- 

 chscan or original Laurentian) into two or more snb-systems, it remains 

 to be seen what does jnstify such a division : and here a few remarks in 

 regard to systems in geology will be desirable. No fact is bettor or 

 more generally recognized than this : that geological time can only bo 

 kept by the aid of palaeontology, the entire systematic classification of 

 the formations, and their separation into *' ages " and " epochs " being 

 exclusively based on the order of succession of organic life. No one 

 would think of defining the period of a geological event by saying that 

 it took place in the ^' sandstone epoch," or in the " limestone epoch." 

 But this is, in point of fact, essentially what has been sought to bo done 

 in dividing np the Laurentian first into two groups, the Laurentian 

 and Huronian, and afterward into various other subdivisions, as shown 

 in the preceding pages. Such subdivisions, when the work has been 

 well done and the order of superposition of the rocks correctly deter- 

 mined, may be of value, but only of local value, and they must be recog- 

 nized as having no claims to be considered generally applicable to all 



regions. 



To what depths of confusion geologists have descended in their en- 

 deavors to make out a distinct order of succession in the various litho- 

 logical developments of the Azoic, and in their determination to uphold 

 the divisions introduced by the Canada Survey, must have been made 

 thoroughly apparent by what has been given in the preceding pages. 

 We have seen the rocks moved about, from year to year, like the pieces 

 in a Chinese puzzle, in a vain attempt to create the desired figure. And 

 when to a false theoretical basis has been added entire incompetence in 

 matters of geological observation and lithological determination, the 

 confusion which has resulted has — as has been shown-— become some- 

 thing ahnost incredible. 



"VVc may now proceed to consider, a little more in detail, how such 

 methods as have been shown in the preceding pages to be current in the 

 study of the crystalline rocks have come into vogue in this country, and 

 to some extent abroad. That this has taken place largely through the 

 influence of the Canada Surv(5y under its old organization, it is thought 



* Zittel, Traite do Paluontologie, Tom. I., 1883, p. 57G. 



