14 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



found in liigli northern latitudes are same as those found in Eng- 

 land. Animal life — invertebrate in earlier periods. Earliest ver- 

 tebrates were fishes. Highest organisms in later Palaeozoic time 

 were amphibians corresponding to our frogs and toads. 



Divisions of Palaeozoic period : Cambrian, to which belong 

 the gold-bearing rocks of Nova Scotia. Found also in Rockies 

 along line of C. P. R. — Mount Stephen, near Field. Trilobites 

 are very numerous here at ii,ooo feet altitude. Found also in 

 Yale district of British Columbia. Quartzites and slate of Yukon 

 gold-bearing district, also of this date. Fossils of Cambrian period 

 include both plants and animals. The flora is exceedingly meagre, 

 consisting of seaweed impressions called algse. There are traces 

 of land vegetation among higher rocks ; spores and stems of cryp- 

 togams, also lycopods or club-mosses, and ferns. These continue 

 and become very highly developed in Carboniferous period. Fauna 

 is meagre in grits, sandstones and conglomerates, but plentiful in 

 shale and limestone. Simplest forms, foraminifera and sponges. 

 Graptolites and corals abound. Crinoid, or stone-lily, so numerous 

 that its remains made beds of limestone hundreds of feet thick. 



Star-fishes are found from the Cambrian period on. Tracks 

 and burrows of sea- worm are abundantly present. Trilobites are 

 amongst the most abundant and oldest crustaceans, sometimes 

 nearly two feet long. They flourished all through the Silurian 

 period, but died out before the close of the Palaeozoic period. Mol- 

 lusca, or shell-fish, are a most important division of the animal 

 kingdom. It is mainly these that have been preserved, and from 

 their abundance and wide diffusion form a basis of comparison. 

 Brachopods, a species of the genera lingulse, have persisted with 

 little change to the present day from ancient Palaeozoic times. 

 Gastropods similarly — upwards of 1,300 species found in Silurian 

 rocks, represented by snail and periwinkle at the present day. 

 Cephalopods flourished exuberantly in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic 

 periods. They are represented at present by nautilus and cuttle- 

 fish. Remains of fishes found in the Upper Silurian rocks showed 

 the earliest traces of vertebrate life. These became very abundant 

 in the uejct period. All fauua above mentioned belonged to the sea. 



