Chapter XI: Appendix

CHARACTERS OF LAURENTIAN AND HURONIAN PROTOZOA.

It may be useful to students to state the technical characters of Eozoon, in addition to the more popular and general descriptions in the preceding pages.

_Genus_ EOZOON.

Foraminiferal skeletons, with irregular and often confluent cells, arranged in concentric and horizontal laminæ, or sometimes piled in an acervuline manner. Septal orifices irregularly disposed. Proper wall finely tubulated. Intermediate skeleton with branching canals.

Eozoon Canadense, _Dawson_.

In rounded masses or thick encrusting sheets, frequently of large dimensions. Typical structure stromatoporoid, or with concentric calcareous walls, frequently uniting with each other, and separating flat chambers, more or less mammillated, and spreading into horizontal lobes and small chamberlets; chambers often confluent and crossed by irregular calcareous pillars connecting the opposite walls. Upper part often composed of acervuline chambers of rounded forms. Proper wall tubulated very finely. Intermediate skeleton largely developed, especially at the lower part, and traversed by large canals, often with smaller canals in their interstices. Lower laminæ and chambers often three millimetres in thickness. Upper laminæ and chambers one millimetre or less. Age Laurentian and perhaps Huronian.

_Var._ MINOR.--Supplemental skeleton wanting, except near the base, and with very fine canals. Laminæ of sarcode much mammillated, thin, and separated by very thin walls. Probably a depauperated variety.

_Var._ ACERVULINA.--In oval or rounded masses, wholly acervuline. Cells rounded; intermediate skeleton absent or much reduced; cell-walls tubulated. This may be a distinct species, but it closely resembles the acervuline parts of the ordinary form.

Eozoon Bavaricum, _Gümbel_.

Composed of small acervuline chambers, separated by contorted walls, and associated with broad plate-like chambers below. Large canals in the thicker parts of the intermediate skeleton. Differs from _E. Canadense_ in its smaller and more contorted chambers. Age probably Huronian.

_Genus_ ARCHÆOSPHERINA.

A provisional genus, to include rounded solitary chambers, or globigerine assemblages of such chambers, with the cell-wall surrounding them tubulated as in Eozoon. They may be distinct organisms, or gemmæ or detached fragments of Eozoon. Some of them much resemble the bodies figured by Dr. Carpenter, as gemmæ or ova and primitive chambers of Orbitolites. They are very abundant on some of the strata surfaces of the limestone at Côte St. Pierre. Age Lower Laurentian.

SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF EOZOON.

The unsettled condition of the classification of the Protozoa, and our absolute ignorance of the animal matter of Eozoon, render it difficult to make any statement on this subject more definite than the somewhat vague intimations given in the text. My own views at present, based on the study of recent and fossil forms, and of the writings of Carpenter, Max Schultze, Carter, Wallich, Haeckel, and Clarepede, may be stated, though with some diffidence, as follows:--

I. The class _Rhizopoda_ includes all the sarcodous animals whose only external organs are pseudopodia, and is the lowest class in the animal kingdom. Immediately above it are the classes of the Sponges and of the flagellate and ciliate Infusoria, which rise from it like two diverging branches.

II. The group of Rhizopods, as thus defined, includes three leading _orders_, which, in descending grade, are as follows:--

(_a_) _Lobosa_, or Amœboid Rhizopods, including those with
distinct nucleus and pulsating vesicle, and thick lobulate
pseudopodia--naked, or in membranous coverings.

(_b_) _Radiolaria_, or Polycistius and their allies, including
those with thread-like pseudopodia, with or without a
nucleus, and with the skeleton, when present, silicious.

(_c_) _Reticularia_, or Foraminifera and their allies, including
those with thread-like and reticulating pseudopodia, with
granular matter instead of a nucleus, and with calcareous,
membranous, or arenaceous skeletons.

The place of _Eozoon_ will be in the lowest order, _Reticularia_.

III. The order _Reticularia_ may be farther divided into two _sub-orders_, as follows:--

(_a_) _Perforata_--having calcareous skeletons penetrated with
pores.

(_b_) _Imperforata_--having calcareous, membranous, or arenaceous
skeletons, without pores.

The place of Eozoon will be in the higher sub-order, _Perforata_.

IV. The sub-order _Perforata_ includes three _families_--the _Nummulinidæ_, _Globigerinidæ_, and _Lagemdæ_. Of these Carpenter regards the Nummulinidæ as the highest in rank.

The place of Eozoon will be in the family _Nummulinidæ_, or between this and the next family. This oldest known Protozoon would thus belong to the highest family in the highest sub-order of the lowest class of animals.

THE LATE SIR WILLIAM E. LOGAN.

When writing the dedication of this work, I little thought that the eminent geologist and valued friend to whom it gave me so much pleasure to tender this tribute of respect, would have passed away before its publication. But so it is, and we have now to mourn, not only Lyell, who so frankly accepted the evidence in favour of Eozoon, but Logan, who so boldly from the first maintained its true nature as a fossil. This boldness on his part is the more remarkable and impressive, from the extreme caution by which he was characterized, and which induced him to take the most scrupulous pains to verify every new fact before committing himself to it. Though Sir William's early work in the Welsh coal-fields, his organization and management of the Survey of Canada, and his reducing to order for the first time all the widely extended Palæozoic formations of that great country, must always constitute leading elements in his reputation, I think that in nothing does he deserve greater credit than in the skill and genius with which he attacked the difficult problem of the Laurentian rocks, unravelled their intricacies, and ascertained their true nature as sediments, and the leading facts of their arrangement and distribution. The discovery of Eozoon was one of the results of this great work; and it was the firm conviction to which Sir William had attained of the sedimentary character of the rocks, which rendered his mind open to the evidence of these contained fossils, and induced him even to expect the discovery of them.

This would not be the proper place to dwell on the general character and work of Sir William Logan, but I cannot close without referring to his untiring industry, his enthusiasm in the investigation of nature, his cheerful and single-hearted disposition, his earnest public spirit and patriotism--qualities which won for him the regard even of those who could little appreciate the details of his work, and which did much to enable him to attain to the success which he achieved.

INDEX.

Acervuline explained, 66.

Acervuline Variety of Eozoon, 135.

Aggregative Growth of Animals, 213.

Aker Limestone, 197.

Amity Limestone, 197.

Amœba described, 59.

Annelid Burrows, 133, 139.

Archæospherinæ, 137, 148.

Archæocyathus, 151.

Arisaig, Supposed Eozoon of, 140.

Bathybius, 65.

Bavaria, Eozoon of, 148.

Beginning of Life, 215.

Billings, Mr.,--referred to, 41;
on Archæocyathus, 151;
on Receptaculites, 163.

Calumet, Eozoon of, 38.

Calcarina, 74.

Calcite filling Tubes of Eozoon, 98.

Canal System of Eozoon, 40, 66, 107, 176, 181.

Carpenter--referred to, 41;
on Eozoon, 82;
Reply to Carter, 204.

Caunopora, 158.

Chrysotile Veins, 107, 180.

Chemistry of Eozoon, 199.

Coccoliths, 70.

Cœnostroma, 158.

Contemporaries of Eozoon, 127.

Côte St. Pierre, 20.

Derivation applied to Eozoon, 225.

Discovery of Eozoon, 35.

Eozoic Time, 7.

Eozoon,--Discovery of, 35;
Structure of, 65;
Growth of, 70;
Fragments of, 74;
Description of, 65, 77 (also Appendix);
Note on by Dr. Carpenter, 82;
Thickened Walls of, 66;
Preservation of, 100;
Pores filled with Calcite, 97, 109;
with Pyroxene, 108;
with Serpentine, 101;
with Dolomite, 109;
in Limestone, 110;
Defective Specimens of, 113;
how Mineralized, 102, 116;
its Contemporaries, 127;
Acervuline Variety of, 135;
Variety _Minor_ of, 135;
Acadianum, 140;
Bavaricum, 148;
Localities of, 166;
Harmony of with other Fossils, 171;
Summary of evidence relating to, 176.

Faulted Eozoon, 182.

Foraminifera, Notice of, 61.

Fossils, how Mineralized, 93.

Fusulina, 74.

Glauconite, 100, 125, 220.

Graphite of Laurentian, 18, 27.

Green-sand, 99.

Grenville, Eozoon of, 38.

Gümbel on Laurentian Fossils, 124;
on Eozoon Bavaricum, 141.

Hastings, Rocks of, 57.

History of Discovery of Eozoon, 35.

Honeyman, Dr., referred to, 140.

Hunt, Dr. Sterry, referred to, 35;
on Mineralization of Eozoon, 115;
on Silurian Fossils infiltrated with Silicates, 121;
on Minerals of the Laurentian, 123;
on Laurentian Life, 27;
his Reply to Objections, 199.

Huronian Rocks, 9.

Intermediate Skeleton, 64.

Iron Ores of Laurentian, 19.

Jones, Prof. T. Rupert, on Eozoon, 42.

King, Prof., his Objections, 184.

Labrador Feldspar, 13.

Laurentian Rocks, 7;
Fossils of, 130;
Graphite of, 18, 27;
Iron Ores of, 19;
Limestones of, 17.

Limestones, Laurentian, 17;
Silurian, 98.

Localities of Eozoon, 166.

Loftusia, 164.

Logan, Sir Wm., referred to, 36;
on Laurentian, 24;
on Nature of Eozoon, 37;
Geological Relations of Eozoon, 48;
on Additional Specimens of Eozoon, 52.

Loganite in Eozoon, 36, 102.

Lowe, Mr., referred to, 38.

Long Lake, Specimens from, 91.

Lyell, Sir C., on Eozoon, 234.

Madoc, Specimens from, 132.

Maps of Laurentian, 7, 16.

MacMullen, Mr., referred to, 37.

Metamorphism of Rocks, 13, 34.

Mineralization of Eozoon, 101;
of Fossils, 93;
Hunt on, 115.

Nicholson on Stromatopora, 165.

Nummulites, 73.

Nummuline Wall, 43, 65, 106, 176, 181.

Objections answered, 169, 188.

Parkeria, 164.

Petite Nation, 20, 43.

Pole Hill, Specimens from, 121.

Proper Wall, 43, 65, 106, 176, 181.

Preservation of Eozoon, 93.

Protozoa, their Nature, 59, 207.

Pseudomorphism, 200.

Pyroxene filling Eozoon, 108.

Red Clay of Pacific, 222.

Red Chalk, 222.

Reply to Objections, 167, 188.

Receptaculites, 162.

Robb, Mr., referred to, 120.

Rowney, Prof., Objections of, 184.

Serpentine mineralizing Eozoon, 102.

Silicates mineralizing Fossils, 100, 103, 121, 220.

Silurian Fossils infiltrated with Silicates, 121.

Steinhag, Eozoon of, 146.

Stromatopora, 37, 156.

Stromatoporidæ, 165.

Supplemental Skeleton, 64.

Table of Formations, 6.

Trinity Cape, 10.

Tubuli Explained, 66, 106.

Varieties of Eozoon, 135, 236.

Vennor, Mr., referred to, 46, 57.

Wentworth Specimens, 91.

Weston, Mr., referred to, 20, 40, 162.

Wilson, Dr., referred to, 36.

Worm-burrows in the Laurentian, 133, 139.

Butler & Tanner. The Selwood Printing Works. Frome, and London.

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Transcriber Notes

The label Plate II was added to the illustration's page. The "NOTES" sections were standardized to say "NOTES TO CHAPTER ..." and the sections labeled as (A.), (B.), etc.

End of Project Gutenberg's Life's Dawn on Earth, by John William, Sir Dawson