400 Baily— Cambrian Rocks and Fossils. 
Animals, of which no record remains, either from the perishable 
nature of their structures, or from their obliteration during the process 
of change or consolidation of the deposit in which they were em- 
bedded, whether chemically or otherwise. This, however, is merely 
conjectural, and must not be allowed, in the absence of facts, to exer- 
cise any influence upon our opinion with regard to the value of the 
fossil evidence which has been obtained from the series of strata now 
under consideration. 
And here I may be excused pausing to reflect with admiration 
upon the remarkably perfect manner in which the fossils of these and 
other ancient rocks are preserved for our inspection and study by the 
covering up or superposition of one layer upon another; and although 
this assemblage occurs only as casts or impressions, the original or- 
ganic substance having disappeared, we have disclosed to our view, " 
with the greatest distinctness, tracks and markings of the delicate 
and fragile animals which then existed, accompanied by traces of 
phenomena of a similar character to those of our own times. 
The importance of such imperishable monuments of the past can- 
not be too highly estimated, as by their study we get an insight into 
the conditions which prevailed during these remote periods of the 
world’s history ; and although we do not presume to assert that fos- 
sils may not eventually be discovered in strata of Pre-Cambrian age 
—until that is satisfactorily established (which does not appear to be 
the case at present), we maintain that this assemblage of fossils 
from the Cambrians is still entitled to be looked upon as the most 
ancient evidence of organic life with which we are acquainted. 
Notr.— For detailed descriptions of Eozoén Canadense, and the 
evidence upon which it is asserted to be an organic structure, see the 
two very excellent papers by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., and Prof. 
T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S.; the former of which appeared in the 
‘Intellectual Observer,’ vol. vii. p. 278, and the latter in the ‘ Popu- 
lar Science Review’ for April 1865. Both these papers are beau- 
fully illustrated.—Eprr. 
An Extinct Gigantic ArMApILLO.—There has just been added 
to the National Collection in the British Museum, plaster casts of an 
entire carapace with the tail attached, and portions of the skeleton, 
of one of the extinct gigantic Armadillos from South America. The 
original is preserved in the Museum at Dijon, France, and was de- 
scribed by L. Nodor (Compt. Rend., 1855, xli. 335-338), and named 
Schistopleurum (Glyptodon, Owen) typus. ‘The carapace and tail 
united are 8 feet in length, the carapace 3 feet high. It was found 
in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres.—W. D. 
