﻿204 Canadian Record of Science. 



collect Pre-caiiibrian fossils tedious and difficult, as well 

 as often unreniunerative. 



In the present paper I propose to notice some Pre- 

 cambrian — or possibly Pre-cambrian — fossils, as much with 

 the object of directing the attention of younger geologists 

 to the collection of organic remains in these rocks as for 

 any other purpose, since our knowledge of the Pre- 

 cambrian fauna is yet in its infancy, and may be regarded 

 rather as something to be hoped for in the future than as 

 a present possession. 



I am disposed to follow Matthew in placing as Pre- 

 cambrian, though still Palaeozoic, the beds in Southern 

 New Brunswick designated by him as Etcheminian, and. 

 holding a few fossils of PahiBOzoic types, and to correlate 

 with these the Signal Hill Series of Newfoundland and 

 the Kewenian or Kewenawan of Lake Superior.^ Below 

 these, so far as yet known, we have only the Huronian, 

 probably divisible into an upper and lower member, the 

 Grenvillian or Upper Laurentian — the two constituting the 

 Eozoic group, — and the Lower Laurentian, Ottawa gneiss 

 or Archc^an proper. 



I. Cryptozoox. 



In 1882 Prof. James Hall described certain remarkable 

 stromatoporoid forms found by him in a limestone of 

 the Calciferous formation at Greenfield, Saratoga County, 

 New York, and which he named Cryptozoon proliferum!^ 

 The specimens occurred abundantly on the surface of the 

 bed, and were of rounded form and closely grouped 

 together, as if by a process of lateral gemmation. Each 

 individual is described as consisting of " a number of 

 irregular concentric lamiutne of greater or less density and 

 of very irregular thickness. The substance between the 



1 Matthew, Trans. Acad. Science, N.Y., March, 1896; Trans. Royal Soc. of Canada, 

 1889, etc. See also " Canadian Record of Science," 1896. 



2 Thirty-sixth Regents' Report on New York State Cabinet. 



