528 THE AZOIC SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



meaning, is a justifiable proceeding. And it will be noticed that any 

 objection to the word Azoic, based on the ground that the formation in 

 question had been found to contain organic remains, and therefore not 

 to be properly called Azoic, was not in order at the time Mr. Logan 

 introduced the term Laurentian, as it was not then pretended that these 

 lower rocks were fossiliferous. 



We proceed now to a discussion of the desirability of adopting the 

 term Archaean, introduced by Dana; and, with this end in view, it will 

 be necessary to look a little more minutely into the way in which it is 

 used by this geologist. It will not have escaped the notice of the reader, 

 however, that much in this discussion turns upon the question whether 

 the so-called Azoic, Archaean, or Laurentian rocks are, or are not, destitute 

 of traces of organic life. Hence, in order to clear the way for what is 

 to follow, it will be well to take up this question at once. 



To those familiar with the geological literature of the past twenty 

 years, it will be evident that the only essential point before us is this : 

 Is the Eozoon a "thing of life'"? If it is not, then all the accessory 

 evidence that the Archaean rocks are fossiliferous falls away of itself, 

 as we shall endeavor to show, as being utterly intangible and unsatis- 

 factory. 



Without going into anything like a detailed account of the various 

 publications issued by the Canada Survey, or under its inspiration, 

 having it for their object to prove that there is a fossiliferous gi'oup of 

 rocks below the lowest Lower Silurian (the Potsdam or Primordial), 

 and of the discussion in regard to this point which has been going on 

 during the past twenty years, we may content ourselves with giving a 

 brief resume of the facts connected with this rather remarkable chapter 

 in the history of our geological progress. 



Another name having been given by the Canada Survey to the rocks 

 previously known as Azoic, it became desirable that the formation thus 

 newly designated should bo shown to be a fossiliferous one. For this 

 purpose that problematical body now so well known under the name of 

 the Eozoon was brought forward, and at the present time there exists 

 quite a voluminous eozoonal literature.* 



The first announcement in connection with the subject of the Eozoon 

 was made by Mr. Logan, in his Report for the year 1858. In 18.59 he 

 exhibited specimens at the meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, but went no farther at that time than to 



* For a chronological catalogue of this literature, see "An Old Chapter of the 

 Geological Record," etc., by W. King and T. H. Rowney, London, 1881, pp. ix-liv. 



