I'KOCKI.DINCS Ol'- THI', CANADIAN I NSTnirnC. c 



tlie physicist are in most Lhorougli disagreement. Are llierc no more [ossils below 

 the base of the Cambrian to illumine this dark, period ? In the Lower Cambrian 

 of North America, according to Mr. Wolcott, one of the leading authorities on tlie 

 Caml)rian time, there are a.s many as i6o species, and these cover all clas.ses of 

 marine invertebrates. Clearly, tiicn, ii? the Lower Cambrian we are not near the 

 beginning of life on this planet, and surely we are not near the earliest preserved 

 remnants of life. 



The rocks in North America which are older than the Cambrian are divided 

 by Or. Dawson'iJ in descending order, is fullous: 



1. Keweenawan. 



2. Animikie. 



Here tbroughouit a great part of North America, there occurs a profound 

 unconformity. 



3. Huronian. 



4. Upper l^aurentian or (irenville Scries. 



5. Lower l-aurentian or fundamental (ineiss. 



It is evident liiat if lossnis are found 111 ;iiiy ol liiesi-, tfroni)S llie I'aheo/oic 

 division must be e-xtended downward lo include such grou))s and the Archa-an 

 division be that much diminished. A problem, then, of enormous importance 

 awaits solution by the geologist. I low much further down than the recognized 

 Lower Cambrian will he be able to carry the record of fossil forms ? In the present 

 stale of our knowledge we lind vast areas of these older rocks which seem to be 

 sedimentary, but which appear to contain no fossils, vast areas regarding wliiih 

 we are not sure whether they were sedimentary or not, and again vast areas which 

 we believe we have proved never to have been sedimentary. About this confused 

 pcrif)d Hoods of argument have been written and many hypotheses advanced, but 

 what we want are fossiils. I'"orlunately we have a few, althougli they do not helj) 

 us very materially. Mr. G. K. iVlatthew, who constitutes our main authority in 

 Canada on the subject, considered palaontologicaily, has established as iireCaiii 

 brian, b'.it I'ala-ozoic, beds in New lirunswick and Newfoundland which he calls 

 'Ltclieniinian,'^' and which .Sir William iJawson thiidss to be er|uivalent to the Kewee- 

 niawan.'"> They contain " biU a meagre fauna, nujstly animals of a low type of 

 structure, as Protozoans, I'rachioijods, F^cliinodernis, and Molluscs," with worm 

 burrows and trails. .Mr, W'alcott, 111 ;i memoir on tiic Lcivver Caudirian.'" writ( ^ 

 as ff)llows: — 



"Tlie seclioii laid hare in the draiid (!anon of the Colorado, beneath the great 

 unctrnformity at the base of the known Cambrian, shows 12,000 feet of unaltere<l 

 sandstones, shales, and limestones, that, \ think, were deposited in pre-Cambrian 

 time and should be referred to the Algonkian (Keweenawan). The entire sectiftn 

 of pre-Cambrian strata is unbroken, and the sandstones, shales, and limestones 

 are much like those of the Ordovician scctif)n of New York. In a bed of dark 

 argillaceous shale, .3,500 feet from the summit of the section, T found a small 

 Patelloid or Discinoid shell, a fragment of what appears to be the pleural lobe of 

 a segment of a trilobite, ;md an obscure, small Hyolithes, in a layer of bituminous 

 limestone. In layers of limestone, still lower in the section, an obscure Stromato- 

 poroid form occurs in abundance. These fossils indicate a fauna, but do not tell 

 us what it is." In the same memoir, in a note at the foot of page 552, Mr. Walcott 

 mentions the discovery of Salterella and fragments of a trilobite, 500 feet Iielow n 

 scries of beds in Vermont which are 700 feet thick, of conformably bedded linf 



{!) O. M. Dawson, ['residential Address, Geological Section, li.A.A.S., iH<j7. 



(2) G. F. Matthew. The ITotolenus Fauna, Trans. N.Y. Acad. Science, vol. xlv., page 105, 1H95. 



(3) Sir W. Dawson. Note on Cryptozc.n and oilier Ancient Fossils, Can. Record Science, vol. vii., pane 

 203, Oct. i8(jC. 



(,) f. D. Walnntt. The l;iiinaof the Lower CaiTd)rian, etc , U.S. Gov't Siirv. Annual Keporl, page 55". "^^'-o- 



