506 



LYII. — On "Eozoon Canadense." By Professors William King, Sc.D.; 

 and Thomas H. Bowney, Ph. D. ; of the Queen's University in 

 Ireland, and the Queen's College, Gal way. 



[Read July 12, 1869.] 



CONTENTS. 



I. Introduction. 



II. Foraminiferal Considerations. 



a. "Numrnuline Layer." 



b. "Intermediate Skeleton/' 



c. " Chamber Casts." 



d. "Canal System.'' 



e. "Stolons." 



III. Mineralogical Considerations. 



IV. Chemical Considerations. 

 V. Geological Considerations. 



VI. Conclusion. 



1. Introduction. 



The first observation that gave rise to the idea of the subject of the 

 present Paper being a fossil organism was made, in 1858, by Sir William 

 E. Logan, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, who was struck 

 with the resemblance of specimens, consisting of alternating lamellae of 

 white pyroxene (malacolite) and calcite, to the fossil coral, Stromato- 

 pora, common in the Silurian rocks. The specimen was from one 

 of the calcareous beds of the Laurentian system, at the Grand Calumet, 

 in Canada. Some years previously other specimens from a different 

 part of the same region, similarly laminated, had been brought to Sir 

 William Logan : these, however, consisted of layers of loganite — (a 

 mineral related to serpentine) and dolomite. The Director remarks — " If 

 specimens from both these places were to be regarded as the result of 

 unaided mineral arrangement, it appeared to me strange that identical 

 forms should be derived from minerals of such different composition."* 

 Drs. Dawson and Sterry Hunt having had their attention called 

 to these specimens, and others found abundantly in the Laurentian 

 ophites of Canada, in which serpentine takes the place of the pre- 

 cited mineral silicates, the latter made a chemical and mineralogical 

 investigation of them, and the former undertook to examine their 

 structural characters. The result was, that both investigators pro- 

 nounced the specimens to belong to a "fossil." From occurring in 

 rocks the oldest of any known — older than any which geologists on 

 this side of the Atlantic were properly acquainted with, and seeming to 

 be in relation with the " first appearance of animal life on our planet," 



* "Quarterly Journal of Geological Society," vol. xxi., p. 48. 



