1865.] Geology and Palaeontology. 305 



of several points in its organization. Mr. Sterry Hunt, who has long 

 argued, from mineralogical considerations, for the existence of organ- 

 isms during the Laurentian period, has also done much to assist in the 

 determination of the organic nature of Eozobn, and his paper on its 

 mineralogy supplies much information on the probable mode of its 

 preservation, and on the composition of the minerals (magnesian sili- 

 cates) which have replaced the organic sarcode of the animal. These 

 minerals, he thinks, were formed " by reactions going on at the earth's 

 surface," and "not by subsequent metamorphism in deeply-buried 

 sediments." 



When we remember the great antiquity of the fossil, and the highly 

 metamorphic character of the rocks in which it was found, this deter- 

 mination of the affinities of Eozobn cannot but excite our admiration, 

 both on account of the skill with which the microscope has been made 

 to reveal its structure, and the knowledge and patience applied to the 

 interpretation of it, by Dr. Dawson and Dr. Carpenter; and the 

 results more than atone for the small amount of romancing contained 

 in their respective perorations. Dr. Carpenter's romance is perfectly 

 harmless, and relates merely to powerful microscopes and little pins' 

 heads ; but Dr. Dawson's contains a lump of the old leaven of geo- 

 logical dogmatism, where it would least of all be expected. After 

 describing an organism, perhaps as much older than the oldest Palaeo- 

 zoic fossil, as the latter is than the newest Tertiary, he reminds us of 

 General Grant's " last ditch," by speculating on the probability of our 

 having at last " the records of the first appearance of animal life on our 

 planet." If the history of Geology did not furnish a sufficient number 

 of proofs of the futility of such speculations, surely the discovery of 

 the Eozobn ought to have supplied all that was wanting. 



The anticipation of the authors of these papers, that their re- 

 searches will form but the commencement of a long series of similar 

 investigations, has already begun to be fulfilled, Mr. W. A. Sanford 

 having discovered the Eozobn in Connemara Marble from the Binabola 

 Mountains (see ' Geological Magazine,' February, p. 87). In a note 

 to Mr. Sanford's communication, Professor T. B. Jones corroborates 

 that gentleman's determination, and states definitely, in regard to 

 the relationship of the Irish fossil to the Canadian, that " there is no 

 real difference between the two." 



Dr. Holl's paper " On the Malvern Hills " is an important contri- 

 bution to British Geology. Its chief object is to prove that the rocks 

 in that region hitherto termed " Syenite," &c, so far from being of 

 igneous origin, are really metamorphosed sedimentary deposits, and 

 that they belong to the great Pre-Cambrian or Laurentian formation. 

 But, in addition to this principal feature, the paper is an almost com- 

 plete treatise on the Geology of the Malvern Hills, and does infinite 

 credit to its author, who has had opportunities of studying the abori- 

 ginal Laurentian rocks in their colonial home, and is, therefore, well 

 qualified to judge of their similarity to the so-called eruptive rocks of 

 the Malvern Hills. The arguments used by Dr. Holl in support of 

 his chief conclusion are very strong; as an example, we quote the 



