For many years the rocks below the oldest fossiliferous deposits received comparatively little attention. They were vaguely described as the "crystalline schists" and were often referred to as parts of the primeval crust in which no chronology was to be looked for. W.E. Logan (1798-1875) led the way, in Canada, by establishing there several vast series of rocks, partly of crystalline schists and gneisses (Laurentian) and partly of slates and conglomerates (Huronian). Later observers, both in Canada and the United States, have greatly increased our knowledge of these rocks, and have shown their structure to be much more complex than was at first supposed (see ARCHEAN SYSTEM). During the latter half of the 19th century the most important development of stratigraphical geology was the detailed working out and application of the principle of zonal classification to the fossiliferous formations--that is, the determination of the sequence and distribution of organic remains in these formations, and the arrangement of the strata into zones, each of which is distinguished by a peculiar assemblage of fossil species (see under Part VI.). The zones are usually named after one especially characteristic species. This system of classification was begun in Germany with reference to the members of the Jurassic system (q.v.) by A. Oppel (1856-1858) and F.A. von Quenstedt (1858), and it has since been extended through the other Mesozoic formations. It has even been found to be applicable to the Palaeozoic rocks, which are now subdivided into palaeontological zones. In the Silurian system, for example, the graptolites have been shown by C. Lapworth to furnish a useful basis for zonal subdivisions. The lowest fossiliferous horizon in the Cambrian rocks of Europe and North America is known as the _Olenellus_ zone, from the prominence in it of that genus of trilobite.