The first specimens of Eozoon ever procured, in so far as known, were collected at Burgess, in Ontario, by a veteran Canadian mineralogist, Dr. Wilson, of Perth, and were sent to Sir William Logan as mineral specimens. Their chief interest at that time lay in the fact that certain laminæ of a dark green mineral present in the specimens were found, on analysis by Dr. Hunt, to be composed of a new hydrous silicate, allied to serpentine, and which he named loganite. The form of this mineral was not suspected to be of organic origin. Some years after, in 1858, other specimens, differently mineralized with the minerals serpentine and pyroxene, were found by Mr. J. McMullen, an explorer in the service of the Geological Survey, in the limestone of the Grand Calumet on the River Ottawa. These seem to have at once struck Sir W. E. Logan as resembling the Silurian fossils known as Stromatopora, and he showed them to Mr. Billings, the palæontologist of the survey, and to the writer, with this suggestion, confirming it with the sagacious consideration that inasmuch as the Ottawa and Burgess specimens were mineralized by different substances, yet were alike in form, there was little probability that they were merely mineral or concretionary. Mr. Billings was naturally unwilling to risk his reputation in affirming the organic nature of such specimens; and my own suggestion was that they should be sliced, and examined microscopically, and that if fossils, as they presented merely concentric laminæ and no cells, they would probably prove to be protozoa rather than corals. A few slices were accordingly made, but no definite structure could be detected. Nevertheless, Sir William Logan took some of the specimens to the meeting of the American Association at Springfield, in 1859, and exhibited them as possibly Laurentian fossils; but the announcement was evidently received with some incredulity. In 1862 they were exhibited by Sir William to some geological friends in London, but he remarks that "few seemed disposed to believe in their organic character, with the exception of my friend, Professor Ramsay." In 1863 the general Report of the Geological Survey, summing up its work to that time, was published, under the name of the "Geology of Canada," and in this, at page 49, will be found two figures of one of the Calumet specimens, here reproduced, and which, though unaccompanied with any specific name or technical description, were referred to as probably Laurentian fossils. (Figs. [5] and [6].)
Fig. 1.—Small specimen of Eozoon, weathered out, natural size, from a photograph.
Fig. 2.—Canal System of Eozoon injected with serpentine (magnified).
Fig. 3.—Very fine Canals and Tubuli filled with Dolomite (magnified).
(From Micro-photographs.)
Fig. 5.—Weathered Specimen of Eozoon from the Calumet. (Collected by Mr. McMullen.)
