214 Canadian Record of Science. 



lished in condensed form by the writer in his report on the 

 " Mineral Eesources of Quebec." 1 From these papers it is 

 evident that a very considerable diversity of opinion has 

 prevailed as to the origin, mode of occurrence and geological 

 relations of this mineral. Thus while some have main- 

 tained that it is the result of organic agencies and urge in 

 support of this view, the presence in the Laurentian of the 

 peculiar form Eozoon, regarded by Sir Wm. Dawson, Drs. 

 Hunt, Carpenter and others, as representing the earliest 

 known traces of life, as well as in the presence of great beds 

 of iron ore and graphite, others have supposed that the 

 mineral was the result of the action of a solution, bear- 

 ing fluorine and phosphorus in some unknown combina- 

 tion upon a bed of limestone, and that this solution was 

 distributed by means of side fissures through the main 

 mass of the rock in such a way that a portion of the lime- 

 stone of the bed was converted into a fluor-apatite. By 

 others again the opinion has been expressed that apatite 

 has been derived principally from the pyroxenite in which 

 it is generally found, presumably by a process of segrega- 

 tion ; that the pyroxenite is of igneous origin, and formed 

 either as submarine injections while the Laurentian rocks 

 were being laid down or as subsequent intrusions, even 

 though it now presents certain aspects of a bedded rock. 



The eruptive origin of the apatite found in Norway has 

 long been maintained by the Norwegian geologists 

 Brogger and Eeusch. The associated rocks in that country 

 apparently possess many of the same characters as those 

 in Canada, and occur under very similar conditions. 

 Among Canadian geologists the same view as regards the 

 Canadian mineral was strongly put forward by Mr. Eugene 

 Coste, formerly of the Geol. Survey, in his report for 

 1887-88, and subsequently by Dr. Selwyn in the report for 

 the ensuing year, who says : " There is absolutely no evi- 

 dence whatever of the organic origin of apatite, or that the 

 deposits have resulted from ordinary mechanical sedimenta- 

 tion processes. They are clearly connected, for the most 

 part, with the basic eruptions of Archaean date." 

 1 Rep. Geol. Sur., 1888-89, Vol, iv, p. 88-110 k. 



