---------------------------------------------------- PALÆOZOIC. { Etcheminian in New Brunswick, _Kewenian_ or _Upper { Copper-bearing Series_ of Lake Superior, _Signal Hill { Series_ of Newfoundland. _Chuar_, and _Grand Cañon_ { rocks of Colorado, etc. { { Red and greenish Sandstones and Shales, Conglomerates, { Igneous Outflows and Ash-rocks. Bivalve { Crustacea, Mollusks, Worms, Sponges, Cystideans, { Zoophytes, Protozoa, Cryptozoon. { ---------------------------------------------------- (_Unconformity._) ---------------------------------------------------- EOZOIC. { Huronian, including _Hastings_ of Ontario, _Coldbrook_ { and _Coastal_ of New Brunswick, _Algonkian_ (in part). { Conglomerates, Hard Sandstones, Shales and Schists, { Iron Ores, Coarse Limestones, Igneous Outflows, and { Ash-rocks. Worms, Sponges, Zoophytes, and Protozoa { (Cryptozoon or Eozoon). ---------------------------------------------------- (_Unconformity [?]_) ---------------------------------------------------- EOZOIC. { Grenvillian or Upper Laurentian. { Gneiss, Hornblendic and Micaceous Schists, Limestones, { Quartzite, Iron Ores, Graphite. Eozoon, Archæozoon, { Archæospherinæ, Archæophyton. ---------------------------------------------------- _Unconformity._ ---------------------------------------------------- AZOIC { Archæan or Lower Laurentian. { Gneiss, Hornblende Schists, with many igneous or { igneo-aqueous intrusions. _THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONTINENTS, AND THEIR GENERAL TESTIMONY AS TO LIFE_ IV _THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONTINENTS, AND THEIR GENERAL TESTIMONY AS TO LIFE_ That the reader may be enabled better to understand the relation of the old foundations or pillars of the earth to the beginning of life, and the preservation of the remains of the earliest animals, it may be well to reverse the method we have hitherto followed, and to present a theoretical or ideal historical sketch of the early history of the earth, beginning with that stage in which it may be supposed to have been a liquid mass, considerably larger than it is at present, and intensely heated, and surrounded by a vast vaporous envelope composed of all the substances capable of being resolved by its heat into a gaseous condition--a smooth and shining spheroid, invested with an enormous atmosphere.