636 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



were being laid down, and his mind was doubtless in a mood to readily 

 accept any promising discoveries. He recognized the fact that the 

 mere apparent absence of fossils from the crystalline limestone did not 

 seem to otter any proof in negation, since such might have been oblit- 

 erated by metamorphic action, and he referred to the arguments of 

 T. Sterry Hunt in favor of the possible organic origin of the beds of 

 iron ore and metallic sulphurets in the older rocks. When, therefore, 

 these imitative forms were brought to his attention, he candidly 

 acknowledged himself as being disposed to look upon them as fossils. 



and, indeed, he exhibited 

 them as such at the meeting 

 of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence at Springfield in 1859. 



Subsequently" thin sec- 

 tions prepared from these 

 were referred to Dr. J. W. 

 Dawson, of Montreal, who 

 was regarded as the most 

 practiced observer with the 

 microscope. To Doctor Daw- 

 son, then, may be given a 

 large share of whatever credit 

 is due for the recognition of 

 the supposed animal nature 

 of this much disputed body. 

 The specimens first exam- 

 ined by Dawson were from 

 the base of the so-called Gren- 

 ville limestone, belonging to 

 the highest zones of the 

 Laurent ian, the mass of the 

 rock being composed of great 

 and small irregular aggre- 

 gates of white crystalline 

 pyroxene, interspersed with a multitude of small spaces, consisting 

 mainly of carbonate of lime, many of which showed minute structures 

 similar to that of the supposed fossil. The general character of the 

 rock he thought conveyed the impression that it was a great fora- 

 miniferal reef in which the pyroxenic masses represented a more 

 ancient portion, which, having died, had become much broken up 

 and worn into cavities and deep recesses, affording a seat for a new 

 growth of foraminifera, represented by the calcareous and serpentin- 



Fig. 125 (Nos. 1 to 4).— Small weathered specimens of 

 Eozoon canadense. From Petite Nation. 1, Natural 

 size, showing general form and acervuline portion 

 above and laminated portion below; 2, enlarged easts 

 of cells from upper part; 3, enlarged casts of cells 

 from the lower part of the acervuline portion; 4, en- 

 larged casts of sarcode layers from the laminated 

 part. (After J. W. Dawson.) 



« Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, XXI, 1865, pp. 45-69. 



