Palcontologica! Speculations. — Gratacap. 85 
ology and anatomy of pteropods, and the gasteropods and 
lamellibranchs. of Crustacea and Medusae, echinoderms, and 
brachiopods, that he now has at a marine laboratory" seems, if 
literally interpreted, misleading. Neither is the assumption of 
a sea bottom, in any abyssal sense, for the Cambrian fauna, at 
all warranted. The fossils are found for the most part in shore 
and oflf-shore deposits. In looking over the Cambrian speci- 
mens in the Hall collection Dr. Brooks' speculation, taken in 
connection with suggestions made by Simroth, (Entstehung der 
Landthiere), give however a peculiarly fascinating provoca- 
tion for a supplementary assumption. In a passage of Sim- 
roth's of much interest the following observation occurs : "A 
priori the contact of both (land and sea) must form the prob- 
able area of the original creation, where both essential factors 
engaged each other. Therefore the oceanic Bathybius, already 
discredited by observation, would be found, as source of life, 
theoretically impossible or at least improbable. And it re- 
mains to ask where, in that plane of contact between the atmos- 
phere and the hydrosphere, the most strenuous exchange unin- 
terruptedly occurred, whether on the open sea, or in the coast 
line. The answer to me appears unqualifiedly to indicate the 
latter. If we assign, as has been done, to the great waves of the 
ocean a breathing function, then the surface of the lung pass- 
ages through Avhose agency the respiration is effected, must be 
sought in the tireless movements along the shore, which would 
be assisted by the foam-masses of the free waves, even if only 
intermittently aided by stronger breezes. In the high seas, air 
and water come in contact with one another, but at the beach, 
water and land, and here the saturation with gas and mineral 
solutions is equal. But as it is from these opposite elements all 
interaction issues and depends, then at this position the centers 
are to be sought from which the organic impulse took its rise, 
radiating in two directions, seaward and landward." 
Such a provisional locus for the inception of life might have 
resulted, at that moment when the cooling elements had ac- 
quired a proper chemical intricacy, for its creation, in a series 
of protistic bodies such as Pfiuger has assumed, unreasonably 
it seems, existed in one great single concretion. He says, "ac- 
cordingly I would say that the first proteid to arise was living 
matter, endowed in all its radicals with the property of vigor- 
