86 The American Geologist. February, luoi. 
ously attracting similar constituents, adding them chemically 
to its molecule, and thus growing ad infinitum. According to 
this idea living protcid does not need to have a constant mole- 
cular weight ; it is a huge molecule undergoing constant never- 
ending formation and constant decomposition and probably be- 
haves toward the usual chemical molecules as the same behave 
towards small meteors." 
These protistic bodies,''- formed at the margins of the in- 
sular masses in the primeval ocean, and beginning the develop- 
ment of derivative fomis shoreward and seaward as Simroth 
suggests, originated two faunal expressions, an annelidean 
type along shore, a molluscan type in deeper water, and this 
deeper water fauna shows, at least in its totality, an increase in 
size and skeletal mass. Do not these Cambrian remains lend 
support to these curious propositions? 
In Europe practically the Cambrian rocks are shore de- 
posits. Their general character has been summarized by 
Geikie as follows, "the rocks of the Cambrian system present 
considerable uniformity of lithological character over the globe. 
They consist of gray and reddish grits or greywackes, quartz- 
ites and conglomerates, with shales, slates, phyllites or schists, 
and sometimes thick masses of limestone. Their false bedding, 
ripple marks, and suncracks indicate deposit in shallow water 
and occasional exposure of littoral surfaces to dessication." 
In America, as is well known, the limestone beds are well 
marked. At Troy, New York, Rutland, Vt.. and in Nevada, 
Cambrian limestone strata have been described by Ford, Wolff, 
Foerste, and Walcott. Limestone beds of this age also occur 
in the St. Lawrence valley, in Newfoundland, in Arizona and 
Utah. 
But these limestone beds though they may be regarded as 
distinctively belonging to offshore or deep sea sedimentation do 
not properly express the Cambrian geological facies. They are 
essentially exceptional, sporadic and ultra-limital. They pre- 
sent an invasion of a sea, and one in which we believe was being 
formed that more adequate and complete molluscan faunal ex- 
•In a bioloRical sense it is not unreasonable to bring in relation with- 
these the pre-Cambrian radiolarians and sponges found by L. Caveux (Bull. 
Boc. Geol. de France, 1894: Am. Soc. Gcol. du Nord, Vol. xxiii, 1895). The 
sponges found bj' M. Cayeux were enclosed in phtanytes, and gave evidence 
of strong marine currents in shallow water. 
