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, but
which seems to be a mixture of different silicates. 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 _Stromatoporæ_,
or layer-corals, and at that time of quite uncertain nature, though
supposed to be allied to some kinds of modern corals. 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. 26 and 27).
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--_Weathered Specimen of Eozoon from the Grand
Calumet._ (Collected by Mr. McMullen.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--_Cross Section of the Specimen represented in
Fig. 26._
The dark parts are the laminæ of calcareous matter converging to the
outer surface.]
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