582 EEPOET— 1880. 



period of palaeolithic man, while, with the alluvial heds, neolithic man (whether or 

 not a descendant of palaeolithic tribes, who may have escaped to higher levels, 

 or whether introduced by migration) makes his appearance. 



The author gave some reasons to show that the effects of this submergence are 

 probably to be found over the greater part of Europe. 



3. Proofs of the Organic Nature of Eozoon Canadense. 

 By Charles Moore, F.G.8. 



. Referring to the earlier history of the Laureutian beds and to the Eozoon 

 Canadense, the author remarked on the pleasure he had experienced in having to 

 assist Sir William Logan, the Director of the Canadian Geological Survey, in un- 

 packing the large polished block of Laurentian limestone now in the Jermyn Street 

 Museum, at the Bath meeting of the British Association in 1864. 



After the paper then given by Sir William, the author ventured to express a 

 doubt as to Eozoon being organic, and that he rather believed the beds to represent 

 a mineralized or metamorphosed condition of rock-structure. That view he had 

 continued to entertain, reserving to himself a change of opinion when it could be 

 sho^vn that there was continuity of life and other organisms found in the enormous 

 thickness of 50,000 feet of rocks interposed between the Cambrian and the base of 

 the Laurentian series, where Eozoon was found. That desideratum had yet to be 

 attained. 



After noticing the views of authors on both sides of the controversy, which had 

 now extended to sixteen years, he remarked that his entering upon it was much 

 by accident and under considerable disadvantages. Whilst others had possessed 

 hundreds of cut and polished and other specimens for examination, he was possessed 

 of only two slices, and two small blocks weighing but twelve ounces, both in their 

 original conditions. From one of these he separated twenty grains, wliich on being 

 decalcified revealed to him the presence of clear siliceous-looking fibroid growth. 

 It was to be remembered that the material to be examined was scarcely more sub- 

 stantial than the motes or fibres seen floating in the sunbeam. Soon he obtained 

 others of various colours, black, green, and olive, but so like the fibre of to-day that 

 he suspected they must have got on the slide by some accident, and threw away 

 many such specimens. At last he was encouraged hj the presence of minute 

 curled specimens whose genuineness and organic origin could not be doubted, and 

 wliich coidd only be compared to the finest possible bits of polished golden -wire. 

 Their shapes first led to the supposition that they were the shells of a Laurentian 

 aimelid, but others followed of various forms, several of them tufted at their ends. 

 One of the above is a very remarkable specimen. Seen under the microscope — for 

 they are all invisible to the naked eye — it is formed of three round golden close-set 

 coils. That this body is not a parasitic shell is evidenced by the fact that although 

 when dry it is rigid, when moist both curved and curled specimens are flexible ; 

 they ai"e substantial-looking objects as compared with others on the slide, and from 

 their form and colour stand out conspicuously. What ofiice they occupy if con- 

 nected with the ancient animal has yet to be determined. They are possibly a 

 portion of its fibroid growth. They are not unlike the pedicle to wliich the capsule 

 of some Rhizopoda are attached, but in such a case they must have been devoured 

 by the Eozoon, which is not probable. 



In addition to the clear crystalline fibre previously mentioned, a close examina- 

 tion occasionally revealed another form not thicker than a spider's web, like myce- 

 lium growth of the present day. 



Mention was made of palmated or dendritic-like serpentinous casts, of probably 

 the canal system. Not unlike these, but diflfering in structiu-e and much more 

 delicate, were two fan-shaped bodies, with four long straight slender branches, 

 equal in width throughout, of a brown colour, and springing from the same base ; 

 they appear to have been longer originally. 



Although he might mention other points connected with Eozoon, he should 

 conclude by remarking that amidst the material examined there occasionally 



