TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 639 



many points remain admittedly subject to modification or change of statement. 

 But in conclusion, and from the point of view of Canadian p^eology, it is necessarv 

 to refer — even at the risk of appearing controversial — to the comparatively recent 

 attempt to introduce an ' Algonldan System,' under which it is proposed to include 

 all recognisable sedimentary formations below the Olevellus zone, assumed for this 

 purpose to be the base of the Cambrian. If in what has already been said I have 

 been able correctly to represent the main facts of the case — and it has been my 

 endeavour to do so — it must be obvious that the adoption of such a ' system ' is a 

 retrograde step, wholly opposed, not only to the historical basis of progress in 

 classification, but also to the natural conditions upon which any taxonomic scheme 

 should be based. It not only detaches from the Palseozoic great masses of con- 

 formable and fossiliferous strata beneath an arbitrary plane, but it unites these, 

 under a common systematic name, with other vast series of rocks, now generally 

 in a crystalline condition, and includes, as a mere interlude, what, in the region 

 of the Protaxis at least, is one of the greatest gaps known to geological history. 

 In this region it is made to contain the Keweenawan, the Animikie, the Huronian, 

 and the Grenville Series, and that without in the least degree removing the diffi- 

 culty found in defining the base of the last-mentioned series. It thus practically 

 expunges the result of much good work, conducted along legitimate lines of 

 advance during many previous years, with only the more than doubtful advantage 

 of enabling the grouping together of many widely separated terranes in other dis- 

 tricts where the relations have not been even proximately ascertained. It is in 

 eifect, to my mind, to constitute for geology what was known to the scholastic 

 theologians of a former age as a Ihnbo, appropriate as the abode of unjudged souls 

 and unbaptized infants, that might well in this case be characterised as ' a limbo 

 large and broad.' 



It is not intended to deny that there may be ample room for the introduction 

 of a new system, or perhaps, indeed, of an entire Geological Mou, between the 

 Huronian, as we know it in Canada, and the lowest beds which may reasonably be 

 considered as attaching to the Cambrian, or even to the Palaeozoic as a whole. 

 On the contrary, what has already been said will, I think, show that in the region 

 of the Protaxis we might very reasonably speak of an' Algonkian hiatus,' iif we 

 elect so to call it. Elsewhere it will undoubtedly be possible, sooner or later, to 

 designate series of rocks laid down during the time represented only by orogenic 

 movements and vast denudation in the province here more particularly referred 

 to, but before any general systematic name is applied to such terranes they 

 should be defined, and that in such a way as to exclude systems already established 

 as the result of honest work. 



It seems very likely, for instance, that the Grand Canon Series, as last delimited 

 by Walcott, separateii by unconformities from the Tonto fJambrian above and the 

 probably Archaean rocks below, may be referable to such an intermediate system ; 

 but here it may be noted, in passing, that the attempt to apply the new term 

 * Algonkian ' in this particular Western region, has led to the inclusion under that 

 name of a great unconformity below the Grand Canon Series, much resembling 

 the post-Huronian break in the Lake Superior district. 



For such unclassed rocks, wholly or in large part of sedimentary origin, the 

 Canadian Survey has simply employed the term pre-Cambrian, involving for'certain 

 regions a frank confession of ignorance beyond a certain point. Indefinite as such 

 a term is, it is believed to be more philosophical than to make an appearance of 

 knowledge not borne out in fact, by the application of any systematic name not 

 properly defined. 



Although it would be unsuitable, at the close of this address, to introduce the 

 old controversy respecting the Cambrian and Silurian, it may be noted that the 

 ethical conceptions and many of the principles involved in that discussion still 

 apply with undiminished value, and much of its literature may be re-read to-day 

 with advantage. More particularly I would allude to Sedgwick's inimitable and 

 now classic introduction to McCoy's 'Palaeozoic Fo.ssils,' one passage in which, 

 paraphrased only by the change of names involved in that and in the present dis- 

 cussion, may be read as follows :— ' " Est Jupiter quodcungue vides " was once said 



