While this work was going through the press, I have received the Report of the U.S. Geological Survey for 1894-95, containing the elaborate Memoir of C. R. Van Hise on the pre-Cambrian Geology of North America. It is a very valuable contribution to the literature of this difficult subject, and will constitute a standard book of reference: though I think the use of the term "Algonkian" for groups of beds which are in part basal Palæozoic and in part Eozoic or Archæan is to be deprecated, and scarcely sufficient importance is attached to the labours of the early Canadian explorers in this field.

In the past summer I was enabled to spend a few days, with the assistance of my friend Mr. H. Tweeddale Atkin, of Egerton Park, Rock Ferry, in examining the supposed pre-Cambrian rocks of Holyhead Island and Anglesey. Fossils are very rare in these beds. As Sir A. Geikie has shown, the quartzite of Holyhead is in some places perforated with cylindrical worm-burrows, and in the micaceous shales there are long cylindrical cords, which may be algæ of the genus Palæochorda, and also bifurcating fronds resembling Chondrites; but I saw no animal fossils. I have so far been unable to discover organic structure in the layers of limestone associated with apparently bedded serpentine in the southern part of Holyhead Island. In central Anglesey there are lenticular beds of limestone and dolomite associated with pre-Cambrian rocks, which Dr. Callaway regards as probably equivalent to the Pebidian of Hicks. In these there are obscure traces of organic fragments; and in one bed near Bodwrog Church I found a rounded laminated body, which may be an imperfectly preserved specimen of Cryptozoon, or some allied organism. The specimens collected have not, however, been yet thoroughly examined. These and other pre-Cambrian deposits in Great Britain correspond in their testimony, with the Eozoic rocks of North America, as to the small number and rarity of fossil remains in the formations below the base of the Palæozoic, and the consequent probability that in these formations we are approaching to the beginning of life on our planet; though there is still reason to hope that additional oases of life may be found in these deserts of the pre-Palæozoic. Such rare intervals of fertility should be the more valued when the labours of so many skilled observers have proved so meagre in their results in comparison with the great extent and thickness of the beds which have been explored.

INDEX

Quick Links to Index Letters
[[A]] [[B]] [[C]] [[D]] [[E]] [[F]] [[G]] [[H]] [[J]] [[K]] [[L]] [[M]] [[N]] [[O]] [[P]] [[R]] [[S]] [[T]] [[V]] [[W]]

PAGE
Adams on composition of Laurentian schists[108]
—— his work on Laurentian stratigraphy[296]
Animals, Cambrian, classes of[7], [11]
—— pre-Cambrian[53]
—— Huronian[67]
—— Grenvillian[73], [303]
Antiquity, relative[6]
Aquatic animals, permanence of[13]
Aragonite in fossils[117]
Archæocyathus[35], [315]
Archæozoon[214], [309]
Barlow, his explorations[296]
Bavaria, Eozoon of[71]
Beecher on limbs of Trilobites[25]
Bicknell on Eozoon[141]
Billings on Eozoon[137]
—— on Receptaculites[315]
—— on Archæocyathus[316]
—— on Signal Hill fossils[54]
Bonney on Côte St. Pierre[142]
Burbank on Chelmsford Eozoon[141]
Calcarina[186]
Calumet, Grand, Eozoon of[130]
Canals of Eozoon[133]
Cambrian, life of Early[17]
—— geography of the[18]
Carbon in Laurentian limestone[93]
Carpenter, Dr., on Eozoon[137], [303], [324]
Cayeux on Huronian fossils[68]
Chambers, Mr. E. T.[313]
Chrysotile, veins of[161], [239]
Cœnostroma[174]
Colorado cañon[56]
Controversies respecting Eozoon[324]
Corals, history of[32]
Côte St. Pierre[88], [91]
Cryptozoon[36], [56], [310]
Dallinger, note on Eozoon[325]
Dawson, Dr. G. M.[66], [295]
Ells, Dr.[217], [296]
Eozoon, its discovery[73], [125]
—— its general form[149]
—— its mode of occurrence[90]
—— its state of preservation[111]
—— its laminæ and chambers[152], [157]
—— its canals and tubuli[133], [138], [158], [160]
—— its funnels[152]
—— its minute granular structure[133]
—— its characters and affinities[307]
—— objections to its animal nature[221]
—— acervuline specimens[203]
—— in various places[141], [233]
—— Bavarian species[71], [213]
—— Tudor specimens[68]
—— fragments of, in limestones[183]
Eozoon, restoration of[327]
Eozoic time as a geological age[76]
Etcheminian system[48]
—— fossils of[54]
Evolution, pre-geological[320]
Foraminifera, notice of modern[175]
—— Etcheminian[59]
—— Huronian[71]
—— Laurentian, etc.[303]
Fossils, how mineralized[111]
Glauconite, mineralizing fossils[217], [298]
Granular structure in Eozoon[165]
Graphite of the Laurentian[93]
Gregory on Eozoon[235], [325]
Grenvillian series[39]
Gresley on Huronian worms[68]
Gümbel on European Eozoon[71], [213]
Hall, Dr. James, on Cryptozoon[36], [310]
Hanford Brook, section at[51]
Hastings series (Huronian ?)[67]
Hinde on Archæocyathus[34], [317]
Hunt, Dr. Sterry, on indications of life[97]
—— on silicates in fossils[298]
Huronian system[65]
Hymenocaris[27]
Jones, T. Rupert, on Eozoon[75], [137]
Jullien on Eozoon[235]
Kewenian or Kewenawan series[48]
King, Prof, on Eozoon[221]
Laurentian system [71]
—— its limestones[92]
Lavis, Dr. Johnson, on Eozoon[235], [325]
Life in Early Cambrian[17]
—— in pre-Cambrian[50]
—— in Huronian[65]
—— in Laurentian[71]
Limestones of Laurentian[92]
Logan, Sir W., on Eozoon[129]
Loganite in Eozoon[128]
Long Lake, Specimens from[190], [208]
Lowe as explorer[131], [141]
Map of Laurentian America[85]
—— Grenville limestone[88]
Matthew, Dr., on Archæozoon[214], [309]
—— on Etcheminian[48], [51], [54]
McMullen as explorer[128]
Möbius on Eozoon[161], [162]
Murray on Signal Hill beds[53]
Nummulite[163], [186]
Objections[221]
Ocean of Cambrian[18], [21]
—— of Laurentian[85]
Olenellus zone[20]
Petite Nation[141]
Pole Hill, specimen from[118]
Pre-Cambrian life[47]
Pre-Cambrian rocks in Canada[76]
Pre-geological evolution[320]
Pre-Palæozoic life[216]
Pyroxene in Eozoon[167], [169]
Receptaculites [315]
Robb, Pole Hill specimens[301]
Serpentine, mineralizing fossils[147]
—— different origins of[167], [171]
Signal Hill series[53]
Silicates, mineralizing fossils[217], [298]
Spines, use of[30]
Stromatoporæ[173]
St. Pierre, Côte[88], [91]
Table of the history of life[2]
—— of pre-Cambrian formations[76]
Triarthrus[25]
Tubuli of Eozoon[60], [61], [159]
Van Hise on pre-Cambrian[66], [329]
Varieties of Eozoon[107], [202]
Vennor referred to[69]
Walcott on Lower Cambrian[40], [62]
—— on fossils, Colorado Cañon[57]
Weston, Mr., referred to[131]
White, Prof. C. A., on chronology of life[7]
Wilson, Dr., referred to[127]
Worm-burrows in Huronian[67]
Worm-trails in Lower Cambrian, etc.[40], [43]

Transcriber Note

In order to accommodate placement of illustrations and footnotes, many paragraphs were split where it seemed reasonable. Minor typos were corrected. A web search shows that the anchorless Footnote on page 139 appears to reference the quoted text on [page 140]. Therefore, the Footnote was placed after the quoted text.

On [page 174], [Footnote 36] referred twice to Figure 8 and to a "Microscopic slice" as Figure 61 which does not exist. It is assumed the intent was to refer to Figures 7, 7a, 8 and 59 and has been altered to point to those figures. The caption for [Fig. 7] also refers to "Fig. 61, p. 310" and has been updated to "Fig. 59, p. 237".