2 Geological Progress. 



Dr. Holl's work in the Malvern District/ is a labour of value in 

 "wticli the discussion of the origin of certain rocks will not merely 

 alter their place and name in our classification, but will aid in the 

 reconstruction of our ideas of the extent and distribution of strata 

 which are the very basement of our entire Geological series. 



In like manner Messrs. Salter and Hicks/ in a remote district of 

 South Wales, have worked out the presence of rocks of at least an 

 approximately similar antiquity, revealing to us a fauna hitherto 

 almost unknown in Britain, and similar to, but not identical with, 

 the Primordial Zone of Barrande ; and for which the discoverers 

 have pro]30sed the new term "Menaevian Group." 



The interesting question of the earliest-known forms of life^ re- 

 mains much where it was left in 1864, the discussion at Birmingham 

 having elicited no new facts to alter the conclusions arrived at by 

 the generality of British and Canadian Geologists, neither has further 

 investigation afforded any new forms. 



Sir W. E. Logan,* Mr. T. Sterry Hunt,^ Dr. Dawson,^ Dr. Car- 

 penter,'' and Prof. Euj)ert Jones,® have each published the results of 

 their separate investigations of Eozoon Canadense. Dr. Carpenter 

 finds no difficulty in placing Eozoon in the Nummuline series of 

 Foraminifera, with certain resemblances to Calcarina. 



It is wonderful to find so very lowly an organism spreading out 

 in these ancient seas, and forming masses as large as coral-reefs ; 

 but our astonishment becomes even greater, when we are assured 

 by Messrs. Parker and Jones'* that the Foraminifera of the present 

 day, form no less than 95 per cent of the ooze covering the floor of 

 the wide Atlantic ocean. 



The Chalk is doubtless also largely indebted to these humble 

 foraminated shells ; whilst in some of the older Tertiaries they play 

 a more conspicuous part than any other organism — -the Nummulitic 

 formation often attaining a thickness of many thousand feet, and 

 extending from the Alps to the Himalayas, and from Algeria to 

 Caboul.io 



In addition to the great palseontological value of Dr. Duncan's 

 descriptions of West Indian and other Tertiary Corals, etc.,^^ his 

 papers possess a higher claim to notice, in the suggestions they offer 

 us concerning the physical history of particular localities, and also 

 as aids in explaining more general geological phenomena of the 

 movements and distribution of life in past times, and the share of 

 such past life in forming our present faunas. 



The power of Glaciers to excavate Lake-basins met with an ener- 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxi. p. 72. 



2 Ibid., vol. xxi. p. 476, and present No. of Geol. Mag. p. 27. 



3 Geological Magazine, vol. i. p. 225. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxi. p. 45. 



5 Ibid., p. 67. 6 Ibid., p. 51 (Plates VI. and VII.) 



7 Ibid., p. 59 (Plates VIII. and IX.), and Intellectual Observer, vol. vii. p. 278. 



8 Popular Science Eeview, April, 1865. 



» Phil. Trans., 1865, pp. 325-341. 8 plates. 

 10 Lyell's Elements, 1 865, 6th edition, p. 305. 

 " Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxi. pp. 1, and 349. 



