﻿■214 Canadian Record of Science. 



of a species wliich is probably of Lower Cambrian age. 

 It occurs ill a laminated imperfectly oolitic limestone, in 

 oval, somewhat flattened masses, the largest of which is 

 18 mm. in its longest diameter. They show an obscure 

 concentric structure, and are mostly in the state of 

 granular calcite, but in places have the characteristic 

 tubes of Girvanella, though less curved and twisted than 

 those of the Chazy and Silurian specimens, and also of 

 smaller diameter. 



The formation holding the conglomerate is the Sillery 

 (Upper Cambrian), but the fossiliferous limestone boulders 

 which it contains are, so far as known, of Lower Cambrian 

 age, to which therefore the specimens in question may 

 with probability be referred. The difference in structure 

 as well as in age entitles this form to a specific name. 

 It may be named Girvanella antiqua, and may be defined 

 -as similar in size and general structure to G. ocellata of 

 the Chazy, but with less convoluted and narrower tubes. 



Y. Eeceptaculites, Arch.eocyathus, &c. 



In " The Daw^n of Life " (1875), reference was made to 

 the singular and complicated organism known as Recei^ta- 

 cidites, wdiich at that time was generally regarded as 

 Foraminiferal, and is still placed by Zittel, in his great 

 work on Palaeontology, among forms doubtfully refer- 

 able to that group. It has also been referred to 

 sponges, though on very uncertain grounds. It has 

 not, however, been traced, so far as I know, 

 any farther back than the L^pper Cambrian, and 

 no structural links are known to connect it with Crypto- 

 zoon or with Arclueozoon. It may, however, be regarded 

 as a possible survivor of an ancient type, probably a proto- 

 zoan, forming an unusually large and complicated skele- 

 ton, sometimes a foot in diameter, and which may not 

 improbably have existed mucli earlier than the time of the 



