_REFERENCES_ _A very valuable and interesting article by Dr. Charles A. White, entitled "The Relation of Biology to Geological Investigation," will be found in the Report of the United States National Museum for 1892. This comprises a series of essays on the nature and scientific uses of fossil remains, their origin, relative chronological value and other questions pertaining to them. The United States National Museum has published a pamphlet, part K, Bulletin 39, containing directions for collecting and preparing fossils, by Charles Schuchert; and another, part B, Bulletin 39, collecting recent and fossil plants, by F. H. Knowlton._ [Illustration: Fig. 3.--Skeleton of a Radiolarian Very Greatly Enlarged.] II THE EARLIEST KNOWN VERTEBRATES "_We are the ancients of the earth And in the morning of the times._" There is a universal, and perfectly natural, desire for information, which in ourselves we term thirst for knowledge and in others call curiosity, that makes mankind desire to know how everything began and causes much speculation as to how it all will end. This may take the form of a wish to know how a millionaire made his first ten cents, or it may lead to the questions--What is the oldest animal? or, What is the first known member of the great group of backboned animals at whose head man has placed himself? and, What did this, our primeval and many-times-removed ancestor, look like? The question is one that has ever been full of interest for naturalists, and Nature has been interrogated in various ways in the hope that she might be persuaded to yield a satisfactory answer. The most direct way has been that of tracing back the history of animal life by means of fossil remains, but beyond a certain point this method cannot go, since, for reasons stated in various places in these pages, the soft bodies of primitive animals are not preserved. To supplement this work, the embryologist has studied the early stages of animals, as their development throws a side-light on their past history. And, finally, there is the study of the varied forms of invertebrates, some of which have proved to be like vertebrates in part of their structure, while others have been revealed as vertebrates in disguise. So far these various methods have yielded various answers, or the replies, like those of the Delphic Oracle, have been variously interpreted so that vertebrates are considered by some to have descended from the worms, while others have found their beginnings in some animal allied to the King Crab.