'1866.] KING AND KOWNET " EOZOONAL ROCK." 197 



cies agreeing with serpentine in its mode of aggregation, is often 

 found in a finely granular condition imbedded in saccharoidal calcite. 

 In numerous instances we have found imbedded grains of this mineral 

 from New Jersey more or less incrusted with an asbestiform layer 

 which exhibits modifications, speaking advisedly, the exact parallel 

 of those common to the " proper wall of Eozoon Canadense." Three 

 cases have been selected to illustrate the layer in question. In one of 

 them, represented in Plate XIV. fig. 5, mag-nified 120 diameters, the 

 fibres form a finely asbestiform plate, perfectly compact in texture 

 except where it curves, lying between two grains of chondrodite, 

 which plate, when examined with a power of 210, presents exactly 

 the appearance of translucent compactly fibrous selenite ; in the 

 second case, PI, XIV. fig. 6, magnified 60 diameters, the fibres are 

 white, silky, somewhat coarse, rarely otherwise than parallel to one 

 another, oftenslightly apart, and lying obliquely between two grains ; 

 in the third, shown in PI. XIV. fig. 7, magnified 120 diameters, the 

 fibres are aggregated into very slender, pointed, separated rods, pro- 

 jecting from one end of a grain. In the last case the interspaces 

 appear to have been once filled with fibres that have becomo detached, 

 possibly by decalcification ; in the others they appear to be the re- 

 sult of some slight tensional or torsional movements. 



Is any naturalist prepared to assent to the notion that in these 

 examples the asbestiform layer represents the " proper wall " of a 

 foraminifer, and that the fibres are casts of pseudopodial tubules ? 

 If not, he must at once relinquish his belief in the " nummuline 

 tubulation " diagnosed, for the investment of the granules of serpen- 

 tine, as characteristic of " eozoonal" Ophite. 



Before concluding the present section, it is necessary to give a 

 general description of the coat belonging to the serpentine of Con- 

 nemara Ophite. Like that characterizing the granules of the Gren- 

 ville rock, the coat is both fibrous and flocculent, both modifications 

 being often intermixed, distinctly separated or changing imperceptibly 

 into each other ; but in the former state, instead of being generally 

 composed of parallel fibres, it consists of acicular crystals radiately 

 or divergently disposed, or variously intersecting one another, also 

 occasionally curving or twisting, forming aggregations or tufts irre- 

 gularly dispersed over the granules. Occasionally, however, as in 

 the cases already noticed, the granules are covered with a true 

 asbestiform layer, its fibres standing perpendicularly, parallel to one 

 another, and completely adhering by their sides or separated — off'er- 

 ing iu every respect the most perfect agreement with the corre- 

 sponding part in Grenville "eozoonal" Ophite*. The flocculent 

 coat olosely resembles that which has been described as character- 

 istic of the latter rock : it varies from a mere film to a covering of 

 considerable thickness, a granule often having half of its mass floc- 

 culeut and its other half composed of translucent serpentine, both 

 varieties being clearly modifications of each other. An example 

 from Lisoughter, magnified 210 diameters, is represented in fig. 9, 



* In addition to rthe specimens from Lisoughter, at whiok place we collected 

 by far the finest examples exhibiting the " proper wall," we have detected this 

 part in Ophite from Barna^oran and Glanochan, 



