58 J. W . Dawson on Eozoon Canadense. 



on being eaten in Africa it had not at all deteriorated. By means 

 of it he has kept cream perfectly sweet and good for eighteen 

 months. Pigeons treated with boroglyceride were sent from Ber- 

 muda to England, and kept there for several months without 

 change, while sardines, by means of the preparation, were brought 

 from Spain without any loss of flavor. Prof. Barff claims that his 

 antiferment is not in any way injurious to health. In proof of 

 this claim, he states he has for a year and a half given a member 

 of his family daily the greater part of a quart of cream treated 

 with one ounce of the boroglyceride, and no injurious effects were 

 noticed. During a whole summer the pupils of a college, to the 

 number of two hundred, used milk treated with boroglyceride ; its 

 presence was not detected by any of them, nor was there the 

 slightest sign of ill-health arising from its use. It would seem 

 that this 1 ast mentioned antiferment is the best yet introduced, 

 and it may be expected to prove a boon to the public. 



VII. Notes on Eozoon Canadense. 



By J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S. 



(Abstract of a paper read before the British Association at 

 Southport, 1883). 



The oldest known formation in Canada is the Ottawa gneiss, or 

 fundamental gneiss, a mass of great but unknown thickness, and 

 of vast area, consisting entirely of orthoclase gneiss, imperfectly 

 bedded and destitute of limestones, qnartzite or other rocks which 

 might be supposed to indicate the presence of land-surfaces and 

 ordinary aqueous deposition. It constitutes the lower part of the 

 Lower Laurentian of Logan, and may be regarded either as a por- 

 tion of the earth's original crust, or as a deposit thereon by aqueo- 

 igneous agency and without any evidence of derivative deposits. 



Succeeding this is a formation of very different character? 

 though still included in the Lower Laurentian of Logan. It has 

 been named the Grenville series, and includes beds of limestone, 

 quartz ite, iron ore, and graphitic and hornblendic schists, with evi- 

 dence locally of pebble-beds. It is in this, and espcially is one 

 of its great limestones, the Grenville limestone, that Eozoon Cana- 

 dense occurs. It has been shown that these limestones are regu- 



