Hunt — On Eozoon Canadense. 
125 
I such pseudomorphs exist, it appears to be a fact hitherto unobserved, 
I and our authors should at least have given us some evidence of this 
remarkable case of pseudomorphism by which they seek to support 
their singular hypothesis. 
! I hasten to say, however, that I reject with Scheerer, Delesse, and 
Xaumann, a great part of the supposed cases of mineral pseudomor- 
phism, and do not even admit the pseudomorphous origin of serpentine 
itself, but believe that this, with many other related silicates, has been 
formed by direct chemical precipitation. This view, which our 
authors do me the honour to criticise, was set forth by me in 1860 
and 1861,'^' and will be found noticed more in detail in the Geological 
Eeport of Canada, for 1866," p. 229. I have there and elsewhere 
maintained that steatite, serpentine, pyroxene, hornblende, and in 
many cases garnet, epidote, and other silicated minerals, are formed 
by a crystallization and molecular re-arrangement of silicates, ge- 
nerated by chemical processes in waters at the earth's surface. "f 
This view, which at once explains the origin of all these bedded 
rocks, and the fact that their constituent mineral species, like silica 
and carbonate of lime, replace the perishable matter of organic forms, 
is designated by Messrs. King and EoAvney as so completely destitute 
of the characters of a scientific hypothesis as to be wholly unworthy 
of consideration," and they speak of my attempts to maintain this 
hypothesis as a total collapse." How far this statement is from the 
truth my readers shall judge. My views as to the origin of serpen- 
tine and other silicated minerals were set forth by me as above in 
1860-1864, before anything was known of the mineralogy of Eozoon, 
and were forced upon me by my studies of the older crystalline schists 
of i^Torth America. Naumann had already pointed out the necessity 
of some such hypothesis when he protested against the extravagances 
of the pseudomorphist school, and maintained that the beds of various 
silicates found in the crystalline schists are original deposits and not 
formed by an epigenic process. (''Geognosie" ii., 65. 154, and ''EulL 
Soc. Geol. clearance," 2, xviii., 678.) This conclusion of JN'aumann's 
I have attempted to explain and support by numerous facts and ob- 
servations, which have led me to the hypothesis in question. Giim- 
bel, who accepts E'aumann's view, sustains my hypothesis of the 
origin of these rocks in a most emphatic manner,;]: and Credner in 
discussing the genesis of the Eozoic rocks, has most ably defended it.§ 
So much for my theoretical views so contemptuously denounced by 
Messrs. King and Eowney, which are nevertheless unhesitatingly 
* " Amer. Jour. Sci." (2), xxix. 284, xxxii. 286. 
t Ibid., xxxvii. 266; xxxviii. 183. 
X " Proc. Royal Bavarian Acad, for 1866," translated in " Can. Naturalist," iii,, 
81. 
§ " Die Gliederung der Eozoischen Formations gruppe Nord.-Amerikas, — a 
Thesis defended before the University of Leipzig, March 15, 1869," by Dr. 
Hermann Credner. Halle, 1869, p. 53. 
