388 Baily —Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 
Wicklow, a distance of about seventeen miles, with a breadth of 
about seven miles at its widest part. It includes masses of quartz- 
rock, which contribute much to the beauty of the scenery, and form 
the most elevated peaks, such as those of the Great and Little Sugar- 
loaf Mountains, the former being 1,659 and the latter 1,120 feet in 
height. 
‘There are two small slightly detached districts in North Wicklow, 
that nearest Dublin, at Shankill, being about one mile and a half 
long, following the direction of the granite axis N. and SW., and 
about the third of a mile broad at its widest part. A hill of quartz- 
rock called Carrickgolligan rises from it to an elevation of 912 feet. 
No fossils have yet been detected within this area. 
The other, a larger and more important district, on account of its 
fossils, is situated to the south-east, near Rathdrum, and about five 
miles south-west of Wicklow ; it is six miles long and nearly one 
broad at its widest part, including masses of quartz-rock; and rising 
to a height of 1,260 feet, it forms Carrick Mountain, some of the 
shales upon which, easily separating into lamin, are seen to be 
covered with very distinct impressions of Oldhamia antigua: there 
are also tracks and burrows of Annelids in the sandy beds, amongst 
them some with double openings like Arenicolites didyma, Salter. 
Occupying a considerably larger area than either of these is the 
Wexford Cambrian District, which extends from the east point of 
Bannow Bay, about four miles east of Waterford Harbour, to Roney 
Point, six miles north of Wexford, having a total length of thirty-six 
miles and a breadth of about seven miles at its widest part, near 
Wexford. No fossils have yet been discovered in this district. 
It is, however, to the rocks at Bray Head and the neighbourhood, 
we would direct the attention of those who are desirous of studying 
this series of deposits in connection with the interesting fossils they 
contain, as they are here found in the greatest abundance, and ma 
be regarded as examples of the most ancient forms of life with 
which we are acquainted.* 
The rapidly improving sea-side town of Bray, twelve miles south 
* This conclusion does not appear to me to be affected by the reputed discovery 
by the Geological Survey of Canada, as announced by Sir William Logan, the 
Director, at the last meeting of the British Association, of a fossil named Hozoon 
Canadense, referred by Dr. Dawson to the group of Foraminifera, and said to be 
from rocks below the Cambrians, in strata of the Laurentian series (alluded to in 
former numbers of this Magazine, viz., No. 1, p. 47; No. 5, p. 205 &c.; and No. 7 
of vol. ii. p. 3 &c.). The specimens exhibited on that occasion I had the opportunity 
of examining before the meeting ; and from that inspection and subsequent observa- 
tion I feel considerable doubt as to its being an organic structure, and still more 
as to Hozoon belonging to so high a group as that of the Foraminifera ; for, sup- 
posing it could be satisfactorily proved to be a fossil, its alliance would rather seem 
to have been with the Protozoa, or Sponges. It struck me, however, as being 
nothing more than a peculiar mechanical condition of the rock; which was a 
variety of serpentine, a mineral known to be of aqueous origin, and to be for the 
most part composed of the débris of other rocks; and, from the mode of its deposit, 
often exhibiting, when polished, wavy or contorted lamine, and having occasionally 
a vesicular or irregularly cellular appearance, such as these specimens of Canadian 
Serpentine appeared to me to show. 
