﻿160 Canadian Record of Science. 



the Diurentian limestone of Xew Jersey, under the name 

 of Archacophi/ton Newherrianum} 



It is in one of the limestones, the highest of the series, 

 rich in nodules and grains of Serpentine, that the forms 

 described as Eozoon Gonadense occur. It is not the object 

 of this paper to enter into any details as to these, or any 

 discussion of their claims to be regarded as of animal 

 origin, but to allow the specimens exhibited to speak 

 for themselves, referring to previous publications for a 

 more particular account of their structure and modes 

 of occurrence.^ 



Below the Grenville series we find an immense 

 thickness of orthoclase gneiss, associated with igneous 

 dykes and masses, without limestones or other indications 

 of organic remains, but presenting alternations with thick 

 bands of Hornblendic schist. This is the " Ottawa 

 gneiss" of the Geological Survey of Canada, a fundamental 

 rock, perhaps a portion of the primitive crust of the earth, 

 or a product of aqueo-igneous, or crenitic action, before 

 the beginning of regular sedimentation. It is the Lower 

 Laurentian or ArchcTan complex of some authors, and 

 is quite distinct from the overlying Grenvillian, except in 

 the occurrence of orthoclase gneisses in both. 



The Eozoic group of systems will thus for the present 

 include the Huronian and Grenvillian or Upper Laurentian, 

 the fauna of which is characterized by the prevalence in 

 the former of Annelida, Sponges and Protozoa, and in the 

 latter, so far as known, of Protozoa alone, represented 

 by peculiar and gigantic forms, as Eozoon and Archtcozoon, 

 and some smaller types (Arch?eospherin£e). 



As at present known, these systems are of a character 

 unfavorable to the preservation of organic remains — the 

 Huronian because of its coarse and littoral character, the 

 Grenvillian Ijecause of its great metamorphism. It may, 



1 Aiiiials X.Y. Acadeiiij-, Vol. IV., No. 4. 



2 See iiai)ers in the Geological Magazine for 1S95, also Memoir in Publications 

 of Peter Redjiath Museum. 



