THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. gI 
objections regarding the animal nature of Hozoon was that no other 
well defined fossils have ever been found in Archean rocks, and Sir 
W. Dawson must be highly pleased at this recent discovery. Howcan 
his opponents, with any show of reason, explain away the additional 
evidence now forthcoming? They can hardly accept Salter’s sponge 
and reject Matthews’. Hitherto no unquestioned or well defined 
organic remains have been found so low down in the earth’s crust ; 
yet indications of such have been remarked by several. I forwarded 
to an English friend, some years ago, fragments of Drift Laurentian 
and Huronian boulders from Hamilton. He mentioned that pre- 
pared sections of some of the specimens under the microscope 
revealed, as he considered, organic matter. ‘The chief Palaeontolo- 
gist of the United States, C. D. Walcott, found in the Laurentians 
fragments of what he supposed to be a Zyi/obite and a phosphatic 
shell. We can hardly expect to find many organic remains in rocks 
which have been crystallized Quartzites or Granites, although 
research or accident may yet reveal such in ¢he Uimestones of the 
formation. 
“In truth,” remarks the Director of the Geological Survey of 
Great Britain and Ireland, ‘‘we are profoundly ignorant as to the 
conditions under which these Archzean rocks arose. Is their 
apparent bedding original or the result of after disturbance? The 
question cannot be answered.” One thing seems clear. If, as the 
late Sterry Hunt contends, the Archzan rocks are probably altered 
sedimentary deposits, they must have been derived from still older 
ones than any known to us, which disappeared completely in some 
far off revolutionary change the world has undergone. 
We are indebted already to Professor G. Matthews for the dis- 
covery of the Arcadian or St. John’s Group (2,000 feet Lower 
Cambrian). When the Potsdam sandstone was found resting on 
Archzean rocks, it was natural to suppose it was the base of the 
system, but it represented merely the rim of the depression or basin 
(the New Brunswick beds underlying). ) 
A certain unwillingness may be noticed, both on this continent 
and in Europe, among a few of the older Geologists to recognize 
the Cambrians of Sedgwick as separable from the Lower Silurians. 
Now, C. D. Walcott, chief Palaeontologist of the United States 
Survey, who has closely studied the Cambrians all over the conti- 
